Trip Report: Celebrity Solstice – June 28 to July 5, 2019 – RT Seattle

[Ariyel]

Hi All!

 

I devoured the last 2 years of trip reports while planning our 2019 Alaska cruise, so I think it's only fair I try to pay it forward a bit! Please pardon me if there's a gap between installments. Having just returned from our trip recently there's an awful lot of catching up to do on several fronts. Also, I tend to be wordy, so you're forewarned!

 

Our cruise “planning” started about a year in advance with my Dad and Step-Mom and our old neighbors who are dear friends deciding they were finally going to go together on the Alaska cruise they kept talking about. I'd been wanting to do an Alaska cruise for awhile so my DH and I also decided to go. A little later two of our close friends also decided to join us, so we were a group of 8 (4 couples) ranging in age from about 40 to 65.  Unfortunately, we all booked at different times through different travel agents/big box travel agents, which made it really difficult to link our reservations together for things like dining and reservations despite our best efforts.

 

The neighbor friends going with us had taken a Celebrity Alaska cruise before but it had been part of a group event so they didn't feel like they'd had the full chance to explore the ports and see everything. They suggested Celebrity again and we were all willing to give it a go. The rest of the group, between us, have sailed Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, and Holland America (some of these on other group trips together), so there was a pretty decent basis for comparison. All of our prior cruises have been tropical destinations though, so this was a different experience.

 

For convenience we opted for a roundtrip Seattle cruise. In retrospect I wish I'd insisted on a different itinerary, but it certainly didn't prevent us from enjoying the cruise! In the future I'd look for a one way cruise to see a little more of Alaska and I'd definitely be looking for a cruise that included Glacier Bay (this one did not). We wound up selecting Celebrity Solstice for our RT Seattle cruise and opting for the cruise that was over July 4th to line up with vacation days for the group a little better.

 

A pic of our ship while in Endicott Arm (more about this later!):

 

My first big planning tip – the thing I referred to the MOST often and was glad I had saved early for myself was a very basic clip of our itinerary showing the dates and port times. I sent this to myself in an email and put it in a folder for our trip. Super easy to pull up almost anywhere and reference.

 

Here's where we were and when:

 

 

I'll also include pre-trip logistical info and post-trip stay west of Seattle with family. If anyone has specific questions please feel free to ask. I'll answer anything I can! I also saved the Dailies if anyone wants those posted or has particular questions those can address.

[Ariyel]

Pre-Trip Logistics: June 27, 2019

 

We booked our late June 2019 cruise on November 25, 2018, so about 8 months in advance. Not nearly as early as some of you, but definitely not a last minute booking. I really didn't start making plans past the initial booking until after I started researching (mostly on these boards) after the holidays.

 

My DH is a big proponent of always arriving to our departure port the day before our cruise and I have no objection to this. It's a smart approach and one I always suggest as well.

 

I started watching airfare probably in February and found a great deal on Delta from San Diego to Seattle RT in early March (about 14 weeks in advance of the cruise) for $130 (pre-tax/fees) per person. We're lucky to have plenty of non-stops for relatively cheap from where we live to Seattle. I booked through Chase's Ultimate Travel Rewards, so airfare was taken care of for no money out of pocket, always a win.

 

Delta does charge checked bag fees, so we managed to pack for 2 of us in one large checked bag, 2 carry-on roller bags, and one backpack. I think we did pretty well! As you'll read over and over – pack layers for Alaska! We followed the advice but we got really lucky and hit almost all warm/dry weather, so we didn't use any of the rain or cold weather gear we packed. Of course, if we hadn't packed it, I'm sure it would have rained on us the whole week!

 

My other packing note – I had read a great thread here about shopping for and bringing your own binoculars. I'm SO glad we did so. We ended up going to our local REI to try out different binoculars. While they didn't have a huge selection, what we picked out worked for each of us really well and would not have been what I'd have ordered online from the suggestions in that thread. I might have been happy with those too, but if you have a store nearby where you can go and try the binoculars out with your face and your eyes, I say you should do that. I thought I'd like smaller/lighter binoculars but I couldn't see out of them at all with my glasses! I far preferred a mid-size set that allowed me to use them with my glasses rather than having to take my glasses off each time I wanted to use the binoculars.

 

Anyway, on to actually leaving for the trip!  Our flight departed from San Diego - random food info, there's now a Phil's BBQ in the San Diego airport in Terminal 2.  We spotted it after locating our gate and homed in.  The food was legitimately good and not just "good for airport food" - highly recommend this if you have time and you're in the San Diego airport.  Also good to know, the portions are HUGE.  Two can easily split a meal and be full.  Wish we'd known that in advance!

 

We booked a flight that got us into Seattle at 4:30 PM, at least on paper. Our flight turned out to be running a little late with the plane not getting in to San Diego until about 15 minutes before it was supposed to depart! They did a good job trying to turn it around quickly, but we were definitely a little behind schedule. The gate agents were constantly begging for people to gate check their bags as it was a full flight, but we actually saw plenty of unused overhead bin space.

 

By the time we landed and got our luggage it was probably around 5 or 5:15. We headed to the rental car pick up area (you take a short shuttle ride from outside the baggage claim area to get to the rental car facilities in Seattle) and were able to check in with the car rental at the desk very quickly. Unfortunately, once you check in at the desk you go down into the parking garage to actually pick up the car and even though the agent had called down there were no cars of the type we'd reserved (mid-size SUV) available right away. They were apparently all getting washed. We finally did grab the one available car – a Hyundai SUV, which did the job we needed though the trunk was a bit of Tetris with luggage for 4 in it. We had booked a 1 day rental from National to pick up at SeaTac and drop off at the office closest to Pier 91 – 1601 3rd Avenue, Seattle. There was an upcharge for dropping off at a different location, but with 4 people it was worth it.

 

We have several family members that live in or around the Seattle area, so the plan was to pick up a rental car from the airport and meet my cousin and her kids for dinner at a halfway point. We ended up choosing Duke's Seafood and Chowder House in Tacoma which was a good choice for us (make a reservation if you're a large party - we did and it saved us a 45 minute wait on a random Thursday night). Traffic out of Seattle at 5:30ish was about as great as you'd expect (kind of terrible, but we did benefit from the carpool lanes), especially in intermittent rain. Just as with everything else on this first travel day, we got there, but a few minutes late!

 

Duke's chowder is justifiably famous and award winning – really excellent. I had their four “dinghies” of soup and a salad. I particularly enjoyed their Clam Chowder, the Cajun Chicken Corn Chowder, and the Lobster Pernod Chowder (so rich)! Some pics of the view from the deck at Duke's (sadly closed because of the rain that day, but we got a nice break in the rain to walk around and look). A couple pics of the view and the deck:

 

 

 

 

One last pre-cruise day logistical note – we had waited a bit too long to look for hotel rooms. We started looking for a pre-cruise hotel in March for our late June stay.  By then anything decent was $200/night and up (and mostly $250 and up). Instead we booked an AirBnB (2 bedroom, 1 bath) in the Queen Anne area (north of downtown Seattle, conveniently on the side of the city where Pier 91 is!) for $250 a night and 4 of us (myself, DH, and my parents) stayed there. This worked out really well for us and was quite comfortable. Aside from a little bit of trouble locating the place (dark and rain and tiny streets conspired against us), it was a great rental and far better than a hotel for us.

 

Alright, the next post will actually have, you know, some cruising in it!

[quilty964]

Can't wait to hear more! 

[Anita Latte]

I'm on board! I appreciate being spoon fed detailed wordy reports. I like having something to look forward to reading each day or so...so no rush. Great start. I'm definitely looking forward to more.

[Cheryl H]

Excited to read more of your report.  We are on Solstice in September.  I'm especially interested in your day at Victoria and also your morning at Endicott Arm.   Last time our ship did Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm. 

 

 

[Ariyel]

On 7/18/2019 at 6:48 AM, ktbraun said:

Can't wait to hear more! 

 

Thanks!  I'm happy to oblige (but might be slow).

 

On 7/18/2019 at 10:33 AM, Anita Latte said:

I'm on board! I appreciate being spoon fed detailed wordy reports. I like having something to look forward to reading each day or so...so no rush. Great start. I'm definitely looking forward to more.

 

Awesome to have you along - your very detailed post was a big inspiration and help for me in getting my own planning started.

 

On 7/18/2019 at 12:06 PM, Cheryl H said:

Excited to read more of your report.  We are on Solstice in September.  I'm especially interested in your day at Victoria and also your morning at Endicott Arm.   Last time our ship did Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm. 

 

 

 

I have lots of pics and info to share, especially about our excursion at Endicott Arm!

[Ariyel]

Departure Day: June 28, 2019 – Part 1 (Breakfast, Discovery Park, Embarkation)

 

Waking up well-rested at our AirBnB, we got ready to go and packed up again. The AirBnB came with coffee/tea/hot chocolate and some waters but no food, so we knew we wanted to go grab some breakfast.

 

I checked Yelp and came up with a few likely suspects nearby and we chose The Egg & Us, just across the Ballard Bridge in the Ballard Blocks. Interesting parking structure next door – parking was tight but usable. The elevators had glass shafts facing out so you could see all the interior workings of the elevators, pretty cool!  I should have taken a pic!  Breakfast was good and reasonably priced – if you end up there I highly recommend their cinnamon rolls. We split one for the table and it was the best part of the meal! The rest was good, but that cinnamon roll was heavenly.

 

Anyway, breakfast completed, we had a couple hours still to kill prior to our assigned boarding time of 12 to 2:30. We stopped into a Trader Joe's that was in the same shopping center as our breakfast place and picked up a few things. We debated on picking up snacks for the trip (for excursion days) but didn't, and I came to regret it bitterly later! My stepmom (who was traveling with us) may have been the inspiration for the word “hangry”!

 

We've been to Seattle several times before so we didn't want to deal with the traffic/parking hassles of going back into Downtown to go to Pike's Place or Chihuly/MoPop near the Space Needle. Instead I checked out the map on my phone and noticed we were quite near a giant park called Discovery Park, so we decided to go see what there was to see there.

 

We drove into Discovery Park and followed the signs to the Visitor's Center – it's a cute Visitor's Center with some limited interactive exhibits for adults and kids and a nice kids play room. We asked the helpful folks at the desk what they suggested we do for an hour or a little more. We were told there was a popular walking/hiking loop but it was likely to take at least 2 hours (that wasn't going to work). Then they asked if we were traveling with any seniors or young children, which were were (yay Dad!). We found out they offer limited parking passes for seniors or families with small kids to drive further into the park and park near the beach, so off we went. We found a nice rocky beach at the point as well as the West Point Lighthouse. This was perfect since it let us walk a bit on the beach and spend a little time with the convenience of being able to drive out easily when we were done.

 

Some carved driftwood we saw walking along the path to the lighthouse:

 

 

West Point Lighthouse:

 

 

Having finished our explorations and returned our Visitor's Pass we gassed up the rental and headed for Pier 91 – finally time for embarkation. A little aside here, I thought it was bizarre but I never received anything from Celebrity about transportation or directions to the Pier (or even which Pier I was supposed to go to) along with our luggage tags/check-in time documentation. Luckily, I have Google and Cruise Critic, so I knew I needed to get our group to Pier 91.

 

We plugged Pier 91 into the GPS and off we went. Another note here, none of the GPS programs we tried did all that well at getting us actually into Pier 91, it's confusing. Waze and Google Maps both sort of got us to the general area and gave up with the “you have arrived at your destination” (we had not arrived). We did learn something useful – when approaching Pier 91 from the West side of Magnolia Bridge (traveling East), you can't get down to Pier 91! Instead we passed over where we needed to be. The entrance to Pier 91 from the Magnolia Bridge is only accessible if you're driving Westbound. This probably wouldn't have impacted most people as they're coming North/Northwest from Seattle, but it made our life more interesting that morning. Traffic was quite heavy with two ships worth of passengers disembarking and the next round of passengers trying to get there to board, but we managed with a few awkward turnarounds to finally get to the very busy Pier 91. We dropped off the parents and all the luggage and then DH and I went to turn in the rental car.

 

Another planning aside here – you may or may not know National, Alamo, and Enterprise are all the same company. Another bit of useful info – as far as I know, these three companies are the only ones that offer direct shuttles to/from Pier 91. This is why we had booked our start-of-cruise rental with National and did a one way rental from SeaTac with a return at the downtown location at 1601 3^rd Avenue, Seattle, WA. Helpful hint if you do the same – Google Map/Street View the return location. It's incredibly tricky to find, being located in a weird triangle of a parking garage (think the Flatiron Building). It apparently used to be the parking garage for a nearby department store.

 

So, we returned our rental car and then hopped on the shuttle back to Pier 91, thankfully with someone else driving this time! We got back to Pier 91 and were pretty much dropped off at the front door. We headed on in to check in. Check in lines for Concierge and above were reasonable. The general line snaked around quite a bit and looked really long (my parents complained about it but still were checked in and on board by the time we got back from the rental car drop off). We had Concierge so our line wasn't quite as painful.

[Ariyel]

Departure Day: June 28, 2019 – Part 2 (Exploring the Ship, Sail Away, Dinner, Show)

 

Ah, finally on board – along with 1000 of our closest friends! My DH immediately got aggravated with the crowds waiting for the elevators. Not being particularly hungry after breakfast we decided not to go to the Embarkation Lunch (even though invited several times) and instead went to sort out our dinner reservation for this first night.

 

This was a source of frustration prior to boarding. I had tried to make reservations for dinner for our party of 8 via email (they instruct you to do so on the website for parties of 8 or more) starting more than a month in advance. We had wanted our group to be able to eat together at Tuscan Grille the first night. The email reservation team wasn't able to help. We tried instead to book 2 parties of 4 via the Cruise Planner on the website. The times were available but only 2 of our 4 parties were able to link together for a dinner reservation (no idea why that was). We ended up making one reservation for 4 and one reservation for 2 30 minutes apart from each other ahead of time and hoping the staff on board could accommodate what we were trying to do (one reservation for 8 at one time).

 

Ok, so now we were on board and went in search of someone to help with our problem. We walked up to the reservation area for specialty dining restaurants on Deck 5 and a crew member there asked if he could help us. We explained the situation and he walked us down to Deck 4, where it seemed they were trying to help people with their dining time reservations for the main dining room. I explained to the crew member again that our problem was not our assigned dining time, but our specialty dining reservation for that night. He took down our information, but I was pretty dubious he was going to get it right/be able to do anything about it, so I decided we'd simply go down to the restaurant right at 6 to talk to them when the host staff was there.

 

Having made a good faith effort on the dinner reservation front, my DH was still aggravated about the elevator situation and walked up 9 flights of stairs to Deck 14 to find our friends at the Mast Bar (smoking friendly bar). I waited and took the elevator! I snagged my first cider of the cruise (we had the classic drink package as a perk – Strongbow is included with the classic drink package).

 

 

I left DH there to smoke and wait for our friends (who were now having lunch) and went in search of the rest of our party. I found them on Deck 15 on the Lawn Club, enjoying these nifty cabanas and admiring the view.

 

Lawn Club Cabanas:

 

 

Seattle Skyline:

 

 

Ovation of the Seas at the berth across from us at Pier 91 – this was not the last time we'd see her this trip!

 

 

I settled in and caught up with our neighbors for awhile. We realized it was getting close to muster drill time (we still hadn't even gone to our cabin!) and went to go find where we needed to go. I caught up with DH and off we went to find our muster station. Fortunately, the muster drill is pretty well organized and the first crew member I ran into was able to direct me to go to Deck 5 where we were then directed to our muster station – in Murano!

 

I was able to snag a seat in a booth which was comfortable, but had no view of any of the presentation/safety video. I listened at least! Side note, what a weird choice for the chairs in Murano to have the arms curve back in toward the front of the chair instead of to the edge of the seat, making it much narrower than the wide seat. Super uncomfortable when I tried out one of the chairs for those of us with bigger hips/thighs!

 

 

After muster drill we stopped by our cabin, a bit belatedly, and met our very wonderful cabin steward, Alvin. Alvin was great throughout the week, very courteous and did a great job for us including having wonderful anniversary decorations and presents for us! More about that later.

 

The very cool living tree suspended in the center of the atrium and going up about 5 floors:

 

 

We also finally checked out our cabin! This was Concierge C3 class cabin 1132 (Deck 10), before we unpacked all our stuff into it! There were some lovely little snacks waiting for us – chilled shrimp and some jelly candies.

 

The cabin was nicely laid out and furnished though on the smaller side.

 

 

The balcony felt very cramped, but the chairs and footstools were nice to have. I really enjoyed being out here watching for whales.

 

 

Bathroom was also pretty cramped but functional. The storage was good for such a small space. I could have really used like an extra foot in width, especially where the toilet and shower are all right next to each other.

 

 

Shower was surprisingly usable/functional for being absolutely tiny. This was by far the smallest shower I've had of the 3 cruises I've been on (Carnival Splendor and Holland America Westerdam were my prior experiences).

 

 

We then went back up to enjoy Sailaway from the Sunset bar (aft of Deck 14, behind the buffet basically). I got a nice view of the Space Needle as we headed out of Seattle.

 

 

Soon after we decided it was time to clean up and head to dinner. I wanted to be at Tuscan Grille at 6 to see if they could help us with our reservation shenanigans in time to make a 6:30 dining time. We headed down to Tuscan Grille and to my pleasure the Maitre d', once I introduced myself and started explaining our issue, said everything had been taken care of and he had a table for 8 waiting for us!! I was SO HAPPY to have this be solved so graciously after having spent a lot of time and frustration on the problem leading up to that moment. We sat down and waited for the rest of the party, since we had planned for 6:30.

 

I didn't take pictures of dinner (which I now regret) but overall it was good but not great. The service was nice but not super attentive. The food was also in the “ok but not great” category for the most part. With 8 of us, we tried a good portion of the menu.

 

For appetizers we all shared the Crab Cake, House Meatballs San Marzano, Crispy Calamari, and the Antipasti Board. There may have been one more app, but those are the ones I remember. The calamari was really nice and crispy and the crab cake was great. The meatball was good, but turned out to be exactly the same as what you got if you got the spaghetti and meatballs for your entree, as one of us discovered! Overall the appetizers were very nice.

 

We had a good variety of mostly steak and fish for the entrees. We also shared two orders of a Lobster Alfredo pasta. I'm glad noone got that as their main, because it was one of the weaker dishes. The pasta was undercooked which kind of killed the dish. I'd prefer undercooked pasta to overcooked – but still, not great for an Italian restaurant! I had the Branzino as an entree with a side of broccolini. I did appreciate the waiter skinning/de-boning the branzino for me when it was served, that was a nice touch. The fish was well cooked and I did enjoy my entree. Those who ordered the steaks (ribeye or filet mignon) found them on the tough side, so I think the fish ended up being the best of the choices.

 

I know some of us had desserts/coffee, but I honestly can't recall anything that stood out.

 

The best part of the meal was being able to have a table for our whole group to enjoy together and not being in the bustle of the dining room. Service was head and shoulders above our main dining room (Grand Epernay) experience later in the week. We had a little problem at the end of the meal with the bill (6 of us, through the reservations shenanigans had pre-paid, of the 8). They tried to charge us for 4 more people, but when I flagged down the server, the manager sorted it out pretty quickly and they corrected it to only be charged for the additional 2 people.

 

Content from dinner, most of us decided to check out the first night show at 9 PM – Rock and Roll History with Danny Smart and the Solstice Orchestra. The show was alright, a fun mix of sing-along worthy songs from rock history starting in the 1940s/1950s and forward. There was no stage dressing or anything really, just the singer out front with a guitar and the band way in the back of the stage. To be honest, that seemed awkward that the band was so far in the background. Fortunately shows the rest of the week were much stronger than that first night. After the show we went back to the cabin to go to bed – it had been a long but fun day!

 

Here's the daily for the first day (we didn't see it until quite late since we didn't go to our cabin until after muster drill):

 

[phabric]

Enjoyed your review, looking for more.

[Cheryl H]

Thanks for posting the daily planner.

 

[Kevin's girl]

You are off to a great start, can't wait to read more.

[Ariyel]

On 7/22/2019 at 7:45 AM, phabric said:

Enjoyed your review, looking for more.

 

Thanks, sorry for the big gaps in posting them.  They take awhile to write and free time has been in short supply!  Thank you for reading along!

 

On 7/22/2019 at 1:57 PM, Cheryl H said:

Thanks for posting the daily planner.

 

 

You're welcome, I'll try to post the planners with each day's post and menus where I happened to grab them.  I'll post up the bar menus I got pictures of at the end.

 

9 hours ago, Kevin's girl said:

You are off to a great start, can't wait to read more.

 

Thank you, I hope to post a little bit quicker, but we'll see!  Thank you for joining!

[Ariyel]

June 29, 2019 – At Sea

 

I love days at sea! Sadly there were only 2 of them on this cruise, but I made the most of them.

 

On this morning, I woke up relatively early (for me, I am not a natural morning person) on a sea day – bright and early at around 8 AM. My DH was also ready to get up and I said, “Now all I need is to open up the curtains and see whales!” and what do you know, I did! I opened up the curtains and sat on the bed for a minute and almost immediately spotted a whale spout followed by the back way out in the distance! I grabbed my binoculars and went out on the balcony to watch for a few minutes before getting ready for the day. Sadly, these whales were too far out to get good pictures, but I really enjoyed watching for them and finding them with my binoculars. What an amazing start to the day!

 

Here's the daily for the day, sadly a bit wrinkled up (sorry!):

 

 

I know I went to the Beyond the Podium with Mary Amanda: Ketchikan, Alaska's First History presentation. It was interesting and nicely scheduled as we were going to be in port in Ketchikan the following day. I also attended the Beyond the Podium with Brent Nixon: Humpback Whales of the North Pacific in the afternoon. That was a fabulous presentation. It's been said many times on these forums before, but it bears repeating – if you're lucky enough to have Brent Nixon on board your cruise as the Naturalist, you should make it a point to attend his presentations. He's so enthusiastic and knowledgeable out his subject matter – a little over the top in the presentation, but fun and very engaging. Early on in the presentation Brent had this handy slide up that he encouraged us to take pictures of. The dates will not be useful, but based on the itinerary/sailing areas it might be useful to others to know where it would be likely to spot wildlife:

 

 

I also watched the glass blowing for awhile. My friends signed up to do this with some OBC they had and did this on the next seaday, I'll post pics with of it then.

 

We also spent a bit of time enjoying the decks, our balcony, reading, and hanging out with our friends. Sea days go by too quickly!

 

Soon enough it was time for dinner. On this evening we ended up dining with my parents, at our friends' early dining reserved table, but without the friends! They decided to either go to the buffet or skip dinner – at any rate they weren't ready to eat at their early dining time.

 

For once I remember to get some pics of menus and food. This was our first “evening chic” night, menu and food from Grand Epernee (main dining room):

 

 

See that Riesling Kabinett from Germany listed under the White Wines? That was what I'd had the night before at Tuscan Grille and enjoyed it. I ordered it again from the wine steward, once they got to our table. I was politely told the wine would be an extra charge over my classic drink package. I politely responded that I didn't want to argue, but I didn't understand why – the menu lists it at $9 (right there, printed on the menu) and that's what my drink package covered, right? I was told no, the menu was incorrect, the wine was $1 more per glass. Not wanting to have an argument over a dollar, I said just bring it anyway. The wine steward then showed up with a Chateau St. Michelle riesling. I sent it back (have tried it before, don't really like it) and requested the German riesling again. I eventually got a glass poured from the bottle I wanted and it never showed up on my final bill that I'm aware of, but this kind of inconsistency was the sort of thing we encountered frequently. If you have it at a certain price listed on the menu why not honor it or fix the menu? Similarly, why treat it differently across restaurants? Very irritating on the customer side. Long rant over a relatively small thing, but honestly these weird hiccups in customer service were largely what ticked off my traveling companions.

 

 

 

 

 

This was the only appetizer I remembered to take a picture of since it was mine! This was the Baby Spinach salad.  I know several of us also ordered the shrimp cocktail. It was exactly what you'd expect and only a few shrimp, so don't hesitate to just add it on to your order. It will not ruin your appetite for dinner!

 

The break basket (very good) and appetizers came out pretty quickly. And then there was a HUGE WAIT. Like uncomfortably over an hour of sitting there chatting with just bread. I love my family, and sitting and chatting for an hour is fine, but that's a ridiculous gap in service. And that's when I knew I'd be lucky to get my DH to come back to the dining room even once more that cruise (I was right, one more time in 5 more days was all I managed). This is a huge pet peeve of his and not the first time it's been an issue in cruise ship MDRs for us. I was hoping with a smaller party of only 4 we wouldn't have this issue, but at least we gave it a shot.

 

 

Good, but like the shrimp cocktail, would have benefited from a few more shrimp!

 

 

These were delicious, cooked med-rare as requested. This was my meal and I think I chose the winner. Highly recommended.

 

 

Nice and cheesy and toasted on top. This was my Dad's dinner as he wasn't very hungry. He said the soup itself was very salty.

 

 

This was my step-mom's entree choice. It was fine, but nothing to write home about. Frankly, exactly what I'd expect from the every day choices, but she chose it! She's not the world's most adventurous eater though.

 

 

We didn't order this, it came to our table as a surprise. Apparently it was for us! But we were not expecting it (and it wasn't our actual anniversary, though both couples had an anniversary earlier in the month). A very nice gesture and cute presentation. It tasted awful though, like all of us took 1 bite and that was it.

 

Ironically, the exact same dessert was also delivered to our stateroom as an anniversary gift the next day. That one didn't get touched at all. Oh well. Felt wasteful, but it wasn't something either of us liked, so what could you do?

 

I forgot to get pictures of the other desserts. I know we ordered the apple crumble with vanilla ice cream and the crème brulee. My apple crumble was barely warm, it was ok, just needed to be warmer. My DH's was actually warm and he really enjoyed his. The parents split the crème brulee and it was “ok” - not crispy enough on top/sugar hadn't been caramelized properly.

 

So overall review of dinner – some hits, some misses, mostly ok, but weird wine service and a huge gap between appetizer and entree. Then, when it was dessert time we were nearly hustled out the door and service couldn't get to us fast enough because it was time for the next seating! Not the best dining experience.

 

After dinner I went to the show, “Broken Strings”. For some reason I'd had the wrong impression of what the show was - I think maybe a ventriloquist show, but that was totally wrong.  I was happily surprised to find out it was an ensemble production show with a lot of very enthusiastic dancing and singing. The instrumentals were provided by one of the string duos, I think the acoustic string duo, Lighthouse? I could be totally wrong on that too.

 

There's a very sketchy love story plotline, but mostly it's just a string of singing and dancing numbers. Lots of pop music mashups – if you liked the music in Glee you'll really like this show. I thought this was lots of fun,  I did find that the sound person consistently had the sound a little too loud for my comfort no matter where I sat in the theater. I took a couple of non-flash pics to share:

 

 

 

 

After the show Captain Tasos came out on stage and spoke for a few minutes and introduced the rest of the Executive Officers. Almost all of them are Greek with the exception of the Cruise Director (England) and the HR Officer (US).

 

 

 

After taking in the late show it looks like I called it a night. Tomorrow, our first port, Ketchikan!

[Anita Latte]

I would be peeved by the wine situation too. I’m glad you shared...because others reading may experience the same thing and it’s beneficial to know this has happened to someone else. I’ve never heard of such a thing...saying the printed menu isn’t correct...while it may be true, it’s their responsibility to keep it current or mention up front that prices have changed. Nice that you weren’t charged anyway.

 

We experienced the same long dinner service in the MDR on Millennium. With big gaps between courses. I’d wondered if it was because we were my time dining. It’s one reason why I said that on a future sailing, I would likely just eat in the buffet. Find a window seat or if weather permits, sit at the Sunset Bar, and eat at my own pace while watching the scenery. When traveling in a group though, buffet meals can be rough...all the back and forth for food makes conversation disjointed and often, it doesn’t feel like quality family meal time. 

[eyecantwait]

Thanks for taking us with you! We have to wait until next summer for our Solstice cruise so I'm enjoying your trip for now.

Angela

[Cheryl H]

Hello?  Where did she go?  Waiting to read some more trip report.  Thanks! 

[Ariyel]

On 7/29/2019 at 4:36 AM, Anita Latte said:

I would be peeved by the wine situation too. I’m glad you shared...

 

We experienced the same long dinner service in the MDR on Millennium. With big gaps between courses. I’d wondered if it was because we were my time dining. 

 

I wasn't super upset about the wine situation, but this was just one of the sort of customer experience hiccups that turned our travel-mates off of Celebrity, so I thought it was important to share.  

 

FWIW, our long gaps in service were when seated at the early dining dinner service, so I don't think it can be chalked up to early/late or anytime dining.  I think it's just symptomatic of trying to serve that many people at one time.

 

On 7/29/2019 at 5:36 PM, eyecantwait said:

Thanks for taking us with you! We have to wait until next summer for our Solstice cruise so I'm enjoying your trip for now.

Angela

 

Glad you're coming along!

 

5 hours ago, Cheryl H said:

Hello?  Where did she go?  Waiting to read some more trip report.  Thanks! 

 

Sadly I went back to work!  I'm trying to get more posted here tonight.  I hope you enjoy!

[Ariyel]

June 30, 2019 – Ketchikan

 

Let's see if we can cover a little more ground! Our port times for Ketchikan were 7 AM to 4 PM so we had a decently full day in port.

 

When we were researching our ports this is the one that we thought we could DIY the most easily. We had debated about the Misty Fjords Boat trip (flightseeing trips were out due to cost and people in the party being very anti-small aircraft). We decided this was our Totem Pole day. My plan HAD been to catch the city bus early to go out to Totem Bight/Potlatch Totem Park and then come back to town to see Creek Street. With 6 adults to herd my plan didn't last very long unfortunately. Count my mistakes along with me!

 

Instead, by the time we all got off the ship we arranged to meet right outside the Visitor's Center (conveniently there was one RIGHT in front of the ship) – we were at Dock 3. I picked us up some walking maps in the Visitor's Center and asked about where to pick up the city bus. People wanted to walk around first, so we did that and then people got worn out so we never made it to the totem parks (Mistake #1). Listen to the advice and go to the totem parks first if you intend to make it there.

 

TLDR: Set a schedule just like an excursion if you want people to follow your plans!

 

Ok, so enough of what I planned to do and on to what we actually did:

 

First, the daily for June 30:

 

 

Our first views of Ketchikan from our balcony (we had a starboard cabin):

 

Super charming houses built up the hillside:

 

 

The dock just to the left and below our cabin basically – notice Arctic Bar (we didn't make it in, but I'd seen mention of it in other threads, thought it would be nice to see where it was relative to being tied up at Dock 3):

 

 

And here's Burger Queen (didn't make it there either), just across the street/behind Arctic Bar:

 

 

Off we went following the walking tour map (super helpful and free online and printed copies at the Visitor's Center) – we walked own Front Street to Mission and checked out some of the obligatory sights (Ketchikan sign, rain gauge, gold rush statue):

 

 

Surprisingly, Ketchikan was technically in a drought while we were there. We were lucky to have a rain-free day, but I guess they'd been having too many of those recently.

 

 

 

Then we walked up Mission and checked out the little parks and the Chief Kyan Totem Pole:

 

 

And then a bit further up Mission to the Chief Johnson Totem Pole:

 

 

Just to the right of the Chief Johnson Pole there are two very cool shops to check out (I forgot to take pics!). There's a great book and gift store there (where Mission intersects with Dock Street/Stedman Street) called Parnassus Books. Also, just behind and to the left side of Parnassus Books there's a great little Yarn/Craft store called Fabulous Fiber Arts and More – gorgeous yarn and fibers, some cute quilting mini-kits and a very few cross-stitch items. I love craft stores though, so this was a nice stop.

 

At that point the group was not interested in the museum, so we checked out the scenic overlook of the creek and saw our only salmon of the trip (besides the ones on our plates)!

 

 

Unfortunately, our trip was a little early for the salmon run! If the salmon are a big thing for you, go very late in July or in early/mid-August from what we were told.

 

We then took the funnicular up to Cape Fox Lodge (it was running, yay!). Tickets are now $3/person round trip. I asked what the price was for one way and got the feeling the operator was NOT amused by me! I was very firmly told it was still $3 per person. We paid up and up we went!

 

 

We looked around the lodge and gift store (there was some delicious locally-made kelp salsa they were sampling there – we picked some up later at their sister gift shop in the non-profit shop attached to the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center).

 

Out behind the lodge are some nice Totems:

 

 

 

Now here's where I made my second mistake of the day!! At the top of the hill behind Cape Fox Lodge there are two trails marked – one going back down to Creek Street (Married Man's Trail) which I intended to take. And one that went down some metal stairs and was a lesser known quantity (it leads to Park Avenue). According to the map it led down to the other side of Ketchikan Creek (and it did). We ended up exploring the back side of town because one of our group wanted to see if there were salmon in that part of the creek (there were not) – Mistake #2. The bright side was we had a nice, quiet wooded walk along the creek!

 

After going down the several flights of open metalwork stairs (NOT a popular choice with our heights-adverse party member), we followed Park Avenue to a bridge that crossed the creek and had this pretty view:

 

 

We then followed the paved trail through the woods, basically bordering the creek on its north side. We passed below the Middle School and then rejoined Park Avenue where it meets Schoenbar Road. There's a Little League field here on one corner and a skate park on the other. I took this pic of a shack at the skate park. I thought the artwork was pretty cool:

 

 

Onward we walked past Deer Mountain Hatchery (not yet open for the season) and over to the City Park. We admired the fountain and met some nice folks playing with their dogs. From the park we then popped over to Totem Heritage Center. By this time people were getting hangry for lunch (it was only 11 and this took me totally by surprise). Mistake #3 – if you have people in your group who have breakfast stupidly early, make sure you bring some snacks or stop for some snacks early. Hangry people are not fun people. Unfortunately, there are no nearby restaurants when you're in that part of town.

 

We started walking with motivation now (and my picture taking took a way back seat!), trying to get back to the more shop-heavy part of town. We headed toward the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show because I remembered good reports about the restaurant right near it (The Alaska Fish House). By the time we got there the line was out the door and into the street. Hangry person was not going to wait, so that was not going to do - onward we quested!

 

Next stop, we looked at the menu at Dwyer's Fish House (WOW pricy). We asked some people who were coming out how it was and they said mediocre and extremely expensive. Ultimately, we ended up getting some chowder and fish n' chips from the green shack on the pier right in front of Dock 4 – Ocean View Fish & Chips. We got their combo – one piece each of halibut, salmon, and cod fish n' chips and one bowl of clam chowder. It was still a bit pricey ($35 or $40 or so for just the fish n chips combo, soup, and 2 sodas in the can), but it was relatively quick and by that time, that's what we needed to avoid complete disaster! The halibut was the best of the fish n' chips in our opinion. The chowder was extremely thick and just 'ok'. Not my best meal, but it worked in a pinch.

 

We did see these streetcars on the dock while we waited for our food.  I thought it was kind of funny to see them in Alaska, especially since we lived in San Francisco many years ago!  I kind of wonder what the story is with this streetcar ending up in Ketchikan.

 

 

After lunch we made a few shopping stops. We did walk over to the Southeast Discovery Center to check out the non-profit gift store there and my parents bought the kelp salsa and a few other things. Sadly we didn't go into the Discovery Center! People were being shy about committing to going into museums. After that we walked over to Ketchicandies and got some delicious treats (I highly recommend the little chocolate covered raspberry cordials).

 

By that time people were done with walking around so we headed back to our ship via Tongass Trading Company. My big regret here is that we never made it to Creek Street! We walked around it (thanks to heading the opposite way from Cape Fox Lodge), but never went down to it.

 

Once back on board the ship I caught Brent Nixon's Bear presentation at 4 PM (and missed sailaway as a result). Totally worth it though, I really enjoyed every Brent Nixon presentation I made it to. Afterward I checked out the dinner menu for Grand Epernee (sorry for the glare and the angle, this was the sign outside the restaurant in a glass holder):

 

 

As I mentioned in my prior post, DH was not thrilled about the idea of going back to the Dining Room after our VERY long dinner the night before. I did manage to talk him and 2 of our friends (the ones who didn't go on the walking tour with us!) to try out Sushi on 5 for dinner. I talked to the folks at the front there and they offered AYCE for $30/each. We ended up not quite hitting that mark so they rang us up a la carte (I think it ended up being about $28.50/each a la carte).

 

 

We tried a LOT of the menu and everything was good. The standouts were the Gyoza, Lobster & Shrimp Wontons, the Scallop & Shrimp Dynamite (we even re-ordered this it was so good), and the Alaskan California roll (I thought). We had a bunch of the rolls and they were all really tasty. We also had some nigiri and everyone liked what they ordered (I had the eel).  The one item I didn't love with the Lobster Ramen, and even that wasn't bad, just not a favorite.  Sushi on 5 was BY FAR my favorite meal we ate on Solstice. Good enough that DH and I also popped back in for a pre-dinner snack later in the cruise.  Was it the best sushi I've ever had?  Not a chance.  But it was good and honestly, if it was on land and near my house or work, I'd probably go back!  Head and shoulders above our other Solstice dining experiences.

 

Here's a shot of one roll before it was devoured! I'm pretty sure it's the rainbow roll:

 

 

I also enjoyed one of the signature cocktails – a Nagasaki Batida (really good, sweet without being cloying, loved this):

 

 

As we were finishing up dinner they were announcing whales were visible off the ship!

 

I caught a signature humpback dive sequence:

 

 

 

 

And, to cap off the night, I caught the Shades of Buble show. These guys were new on board – I think our trip was their first week on board. They were GREAT! They do riffs on Michael Buble songs – lots of harmonies. To be honest, I'm not a huge Buble fan, but these guys put on a fantastic show.  It was a bit mellow though due to the style of music, so I was definitely ready to turn in after the late show.

 

 

A last note about Ketchikan – the 2 friends we were traveling with that didn't do the self-guided walking tour with us booked a tour via “Tours with Locals” and I think they made a good call. They were taken out to a lake (maybe Ward Lake, but I can't swear to it) for a nice walk where it was pretty much only locals walking the trail around it, made it out to Totem Bight for a little while, and then hit up a local brewery and restaurant. Their tour guide was a character – native of Ketchikan, she lost a leg when a boulder broke loose of the hillside (I think where the big tunnel is blasted near the docks?) and rolled through the storefront of the salon where she was having her hair done! Crazy story, but true.

[auntem]

Enjoying your trip report. Keep 'em coming 🙂 

Fun to see pictures of things I have been reading about before our trip later in the month on HAL. 

Great pictures !

[Anita Latte]

Ahh the best laid plans. Sounds like you still had a good day in Ketchikan. It was overcast and rainy when we were there. Nice to see sunny photos!

[cruise kitty]

Thoroughly enjoying your report!   Hope you'll continue...  it's worth the wait, & thanks!

[Ariyel]

Endicott Arm Scenic Cruising – July 1, 2019 – 6 AM to 2 PM

 

Thanks everyone for coming along on our trip and still following along with my very slow posts! Real life sure has proven how little spare time I generally have when not on vacation!

 

Right up front, here's the daily for July 1:

 

 

To be honest, this was such a busy day I don't think we did a single shipboard activity.

 

I am going to divide July 1 into two posts, because it was sort of like 2 days worth of stuff! Our morning was “Scenic Cruising” in Endicott Arm. However, after looking at the schedule, between it being Scenic Cruising in the morning and then an afternoon/evening port stop in Juneau, we decided this was Glacier Day for our cruise. I had read here on the forums about booking the catamaran excursion that departed from the ship while in Tracy or Endicott Arm to get closer to the glacier and spend more time there so I started looking into this because I thought that was a great idea (spoilers, it was)!

 

A little of my pre-cruise research info here for you: In the Celebrity Cruise Planner there was an excursion listed for “Juneau” but it was called Endicott Arm Fjord and Glacier Explorer Excursion and if you read the description it indicated it left from the cruise ship. I thought for sure this was the excursion I wanted that left the cruise ship early in the morning and rejoined the cruise ship back in Juneau when it docked, but when I tried to sign up for it initially it listed the departure time as 1:30 PM (when we were scheduled to dock in Juneau). I called Celebrity and their reps were only able to tell me exactly what I could see on the website. They had no further info.

 

Being the person I am, I went back and noticed that there was a mention in the 2018 trip reports about this excursion being operated by Allen Marine. I went on Allen Marine's website and found their one way Tracy Arm Fjord Explorer which matched up with what I wanted, but the website said it had to be booked through the cruise company's website. I reached out to Allen Marine via email to find out if they were the operator for the Celebrity Solstice July 1, 2019 excursion listed as “Endicott Arm Fjord and Glacier Explorer Excursion” and what the time/details THEY had for it were.

 

Huge kudos here to Allen Marine – they replied promptly via email and with thorough information (and accurate information, unlike Celebrity!). They confirmed they were the operator for the Endicott Arm one way tour scheduled for Celebrity Solstice starting at 8 AM (from the cruise ship in Endicott Arm) and ending at 1:30 back at the ship when docked in Juneau! Armed with this information I went ahead and booked the excursion and figured even if Celebrity's 1:30 departure time was true, at least we'd still go out and see the glacier via catamaran.

 

About 2-3 weeks before our cruise I think the Cruise Planner finally updated this excursion to show as being in Endicott Arm and to having the right times. These tickets awaited us in our stateroom when we boarded, with the listed departure time further assuring me we got it right:

 

 

Alright, with all that background craziness out of the way, the rest of this post should be more picture than me babbling (but we'll see!).

 

So, with our excursion leaving at 7 AM we did room service breakfast to be delivered between 6 and 6:30 AM so we had time to eat and get to our excursion meetup (in Grand Epernay). This worked out super well for us – breakfast arrived just a few minutes after 6 and was nice and hot. My parents did the same thing and unluckily for them, their breakfast arrived much closer to 6:30 and barely more than room temp by the time it got to them. I guess we had the luck of the draw on delivery order.

 

Here are the room service breakfast door hangers (we were Concierge class):

 

 

 

Having scarfed down our breakfast off we trooped to meet up with our excursion. We got some nice seats in Grand Epernay near the port side windows to watch the scenery as we sailed into Endicott Arm.

 

Some first glimpses as the “bergy bits” got thicker:

 

 

And a beautiful waterfall pouring down into Endicott Arm:

 

 

A few shots as we approached the glacier, with the sun just peeking into the fjord:

 

 

And then our (new) ride arrives! Here's the Allen Marine catamaran, the St. Phillip, pulling up next to the Solstice (this is the view from the window on Deck 4, to give a sense of scale):

 

 

We were able to board pretty easily and quickly and cast off from the Solstice. I got a few lovely shots as we pulled around the Solstice's bow to approach the glacier more closely:

 

 

 

And then finally we were cruising up closer and closer to the glacier! It was absolutely gorgeous in the early morning sunlight. So many colors of blue and the sounds the glacier makes are amazing, constant crackling and murmuring echoing down the glacial walls as the ice shifts and melts as the sun starts to warm it up. Everyone says it, but it's really true – without anything to show the sheer scale of the glacier it's impossible for pictures to do it justice. I have a ridiculous number of glacier pics, so I'll try to restrain myself on how many I post.

 

We were very lucky and caught some small calving action off the glacier while we were there. I caught some on video which I'll try to post up in the post after this one (not sure how successful I will be in posting video, but we'll see)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Floating in front of the glacier was an absolutely enormous piece of the face that had calved off at some point relatively recently. I was fascinated by the super deep blue colors you could see in that sort of cave on the underside of this ice piece:

 

 

Having allowed us as much time as they could to oooh and aaah at the glacier, it was time to start back up Endicott Arm and Stephens Passage to rejoin the Solstice in Juneau. Near the end of our trip the staff came around and marked on our maps where we'd stopped to see various wildlife on our trip, which makes an awesome souvenir and visual aid for the rest of this post!

 

 

Checkout the dramatically clear blue piece of glacial ice floating along the fjord:

 

 

One of our first stops on the way back was Wedding Cake Falls, named for the tiered waterfalls as it comes down the rock walls – the fjord walls are so steep the Captain was able to practically bring the catamaran in bow first to the waterfall! So cool.

 

 

We also saw this absolutely enormous iceberg floating quite aways out in the fjord from the face of the glacier. The Captain was able to circle us around it completely, so I have a ridiculous number of pictures of this from all sides. I'm just posting the ones I thought were the best though!

 

 

Same iceberg from the other side! So dramatic!

 

 

As we sailed along the fjord the crew were doing a great job of sharing facts about the geology and the wildlife as well as sharing/sampling various native Alaskan food and other products. Of course, they had these items for purchase too, but honestly the prices were pretty fair and it was nice to get to sample things! In addition to free coffee, hot chocolate, and cake doughnut holes (chocolate or glazed!) they sampled out salmonberry jam, kelp pickles, kelp salsa, and smoked salmon. They also made glacieritas made with glacier ice they pulled onboard (or ice water with some glacier ice). There were also locally made chocolate bars available for purchase OR as prizes for trivia. My dad won one for our group, double bonus.

 

When they sampled out the salmonberry jam I appreciated that they put out a lovely book that showed what the salmonberries look like on the bush. I'm pretty sure I'd seen some along the trail in Ketchikan, but I was definitely not brave and/or stupid enough to sample wild berries before being SURE of what they were.

 

 

Our friend was the guinea pig for the Glacierita. Definitely worth it for the novelty if nothing else. With a glimpse of my glacier themed nails! Perfect for the day.

 

 

Around Midway Islands there was a nice size colony of sea lions (as well as a few harbor seals closer to the island and a bald eagle and nest!). The harbor seals and eagle were too far away for my camera, but the sea lions were nice and close and then a whole “raft” of them (found out the collective noun for sea lions is a raft) came up to check us out! Man, these guys are SO LOUD, but so fun to watch in the water. I could have stayed here all day.

 

 

 

We also stopped when we spotted humpbacks relatively close to the catamaran in two different areas. I took a ton of video and got some nice dives, but no breaches. Because of the size of all the video I'm not going to try to post.

 

I know other posters have said the trip back from the glacier to Juneau on this excursion is really long, so bring cards or take a nap, but I was not bored for a second. I stayed up on the second deck nearly the whole time (except when snagging samples of food downstairs!) and kept popping in and out of the heated seating area and out to the deck to look around and take pictures. There were frequent wildlife spottings and gorgeous scenery. This was one of my favorite things we did on our cruise and I'm so glad we went ahead and booked this excursion. Since this leaves directly from the ship out in the fjord, this is one of the few excursions you absolutely must book through the cruise line and I think it was well worth it.

 

I'll try to post video of the glacier calving in the next post. I'll also try to post the rest of our Juneau day this week (maybe Friday), time allowing. It does take a couple hours to write and resize the pics for each of these posts, so this project is going a lot slower than I intended! Thanks for following along everyone!

[Ariyel]

Alright, let's see if my video of the glacier calving will work!  If it does, and the sound comes through too, I am already embarrassed at my smugness at having the camera pointed in the right direction and shooting video at the right time!

 

Well, I guess I can't upload it directly to be playable, it just shows as a download for me.  It may be I need to host it on Youtube or something first?  I don't have it posted anywhere else to share at the moment, so if this doesn't work I'll either abandon the video idea or try to throw it up on Youtube and link that.

 

Edited August 15, 2019 by Ariyel
video hosting

[Anita Latte]

I can see the video!! What excellent timing!!

 

What a fabulous experience you had! The small boat excursion you booked is the reason why I want to book this cruise you have taken in the future. I've been reading about how they have started to do a similar small boat excursion at Hubbard...and that would be insane I think...I don't know the logistics of it though. This one seems so very similar to an all day excursion that people recommend from Juneau going back to Tracy Arm. But for that one, you lose your Juneau day to that excursion. It seems to me that being able to do this direct from the ship is the way to go.

 

Like you, I could just sit and watch and observe the scenery all day without getting bored. I suppose the weather may have a great influence on that...it would be more difficult if the views were limited because of weather? Looks like you had fabulous weather though! A bright sunny day!

 

Your photos are fabulous. I understand the dilemma of having SO MANY photos and trying to narrow down the selection...kudos to you on your effort because I think you did a great job reporting. Each photo is unique and I never hit that point of starting to skim over photos because they all start to look alike. This was one of the things that I tried to achieve on my own TR...and from what you wrote, it feels like you are doing the same and so I just want to offer the feedback about how enjoyable your report is to read and how all your work (I KNOW doing this is a lot of work) is so very appreciated.

 

That rainbow at Wedding Cake Falls!! WOW!

 

Glacier water is the most amazing water...I hope you tried some. When we had the opportunity to fill up a Nalgene bottle, we were seriously regretful that we didn't bring all three with us. We kind of hoarded that glacier water...it was so good.

 

Anyway...even if it takes a while to put together all the posts for this report...please just keep plugging after it. I'm enjoying it so much. And I can tell you from my own experience, you will be really happy that you took the time to do it...and in such detail. It's been over a year since I wrote mine, I just haven't had the time to dedicate to dealing with this trip to make the photo book that I want to...but now, finally, after we take DS off to college, it's going to be one of the first projects I tackle. I'm absolutely relying on the report that I wrote to help me remember everything as accurately as possible. Also...I think writing everything out really helps to solidify the memories. It is hard to take time away from the present to relive the past...So don't feel the pressure to post...but do keep after it. We will all be happy about that...and you will too when it's all said and done.

 

So...no pressure...but super excited for more!!!

[eyecantwait]

Great video! Thanks for posting it!

Can't wait for our cruise on the Solstice next August!