Celebrity Solstice Post-Cruise Review

[dctravel]

Captain Theo and cruise director Rich pouring martinis! After they are done, they hand out the samples to folks around the bar.

 

 

 

[hcat]

6 hours ago, dctravel said:

On to Ketchikan! This was another port where we arrived in the early afternoon, around 2 pm. We did not have an excursion booked for Ketchikan, because nothing seemed to appeal to us before departure. As a result, we decided to take the map provided by Celebrity (in the Celebrity Today left in our cabin) combined with a map I found on the Explore Ketchikan website, and explore town.

 

We started out by heading to Creek Street, turning left and walking up the river toward the salmon ladder. Two observations here. Creek Street is really pretty cool and the boardwalk path that takes you up the river has a lot of stairs. Not a problem for us, but you if you have any issue with stairs, this could be a problem. The boardwalk path only takes you about half-way up the river. If you want to walk the rest, you do that on city streets and the sidewalk. Not dangerous, but good to know. The salmon were running in large numbers, and we were fascinated watching them pool together to conserve energy before trying to make the leap up the rapids. Didn't see many trying to use the salmon ladder, but that was definitely the easier path for them!

 

Salmon Pooling

 

IMG_4977.MOV 11.52 MB · 1 download  

 

 

Rapids and Salmon Ladder (concrete structure on the right)

 

We walked all the way to the top of the river to the Totem Heritage Center (we decided not to go in) and the salmon hatchery. Unfortunately, the hatchery (Deer Mount Hatchery, which is part of the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association) is not open to the public anymore (seems to have stopped during the pandemic and never reopened for tours). There is an interesting sign on the side of the building explaining the spawning/return process for salmon. It was a nice walk up, but disappointing that we couldn't see more.

 

On our walk down, we shopped on Creek Street, which has a lot of cute stores, bought some souvenirs, and made our way to the Alaska Fish House for a snack.
 

 

The restaurant is next to the lumberjack show. Food was amazing. You order at the counter and then they deliver it to your table. There is a bar too, but you have have any alcoholic drinks inside the building, not at the picnic tables out front. We ordered the fish and chips sampler (cod, halibut, and salmon) and ordered two dungeness crab legs. So good!

 

Fish and Chips

 

Crab Legs

 

Denali Brewing Company beer served at the Alaska Fish House

 

I will note that we considered eat king crab legs at Ketchikan Crab & Go, but we couldn't make up our mind, nor did we want to spend the prices for those crab. When we realized that the Alaska Fish House had dungeness crab for less AND we could have fish and chips, that was the winner for us!

 

With our stomachs full, we shopped some more, found one more brewery (Baleen Brewing Company), and the headed back to the ship for dinner.

 

 

In retrospect, we decided that we wish we had seen the lumberjack show and that we had booked an excursion that would have shown us bears in addition to the salmon running. We enjoyed our own walking tour at a leisurely pace, but could have easily seen more too. Oh well, this just means we need to come back again! Another note: others on the ship reported (and posted in the social media group for our sailing) that bears appeared at the stream later in the day to catch salmon. Unfortunately, we were already back on board!

 

Tonight was our last night eating in the MDR, as we had reservations to celebrate our anniversary in Murano the last night. All aboard was at 8 pm, and I don't recall the evening entertainment tonight (Tommy Proulx, a saxophone player). I think we missed him because we didn't leave dinner until a bit later and then just decided to hand out at the Martini Bar for the silent disco. If you have never done this, it was a lot of fun!

 

All amazing!  Esp the Salmon video...Thank you again!

[Jim_Iain]

23 hours ago, dctravel said:

You aren’t taking solstice back to Australia, are you? I lived following your cross-pacific trip to Vancouver at the beginning of the season!

Unfortunately not.    After the number of Asia cruises last year we are holding off on those LONG flights for awhile  

 

In just about a month we will be taking our first Oceania cruise.   It is kinda a B2B but Oceania sell them as a single cruise   Vancouver to Alaska and Vancouver California Coastal ending in LA.

Edited August 11 by Jim_Iain

[dctravel]

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Unfortunately not.    After the number of Asia cruises last year we are holding off on those LONG flights for awhile  

 

In just about a month we will be taking our first Oceania cruise.   It is kinda a B2B but Oceania sell them as a single cruise   Vancouver to Alaska and Vancouver California Coastal ending in LA.

Sounds amazing!!!

[Reel Love]

Great review!!  Thank you so much for sharing!

A group of us are planning to book an Alaskan cruise in the near future, and your information on what you did at the ports/where you ate/walking trails etc. was very helpful and much appreciated.

[dctravel]

4 hours ago, Reel Love said:

Great review!!  Thank you so much for sharing!

A group of us are planning to book an Alaskan cruise in the near future, and your information on what you did at the ports/where you ate/walking trails etc. was very helpful and much appreciated.

You are very welcome. I have found that other's reviews were helpful to my planning, so I'm glad to pay it forward 🙂 .

[dctravel]

Well, summer is winding down 😞. Got off the ship a week ago and now my kids are home from sleep away camp. Let the laundry and tired children commence!

 

I left off after our last sea day, which means this post is about disembarkation. My plan is to divide this into two posts. This one will cover getting off the ship and getting to our hotel (Delta Hotel Vancouver Downtown Suites) and the next will cover what we did on our last day in Vancouver.

 

Disembarkation

The last morning of a cruise is always sad. You rush to get things packed the night before and then you start the slow process of winding down and getting off the ship. We were staying in Vancouver an additional night, so we put our bags out the night before (had to be out between 6 and 10) and tried to be as leisurely as possible the last morning.

 

We did nothing to choose a departure time and were assigned group #32, which was estimated to depart the ship at 9:30. Since we had to be out of our stateroom by 7:30 am, we planned to get up at 7 and then head to the MDR for one last breakfast. Well, we didn't really get to sleep until 7, as they starting making announcements at 6:45. The first announcement was "TUG, TUG, TUG," which I have never heard before. I thought maybe there was an emergency. Turns out that was the announcement that the fuel barge was along side and that there was no smoking on the port side allowed! They starting calling for walk off guests (those who were taking their luggage with them) could get off the ship at about 7. Everything else ran on time. Here is the sheet they provided in our cabin (and PDF: 2024-08-11 16-01.pdf)

 

Breakfast in the MDR was served until 8, so we go there a little after 7:30 and were sat pretty quickly. From that point, until they called our number, we were not in any rush. And neither was the wait staff. Everything was slower this morning. We finally got coffee, ordered our regular MDR breakfast, and ate leisurely. Finally, most of the people around us had gotten up and left by 8:45, so we go up too. Since breakfast is on deck 3, we headed to the Passport Bar where there plenty of seats. Or number was called just before 9:30, we headed up to deck 5 (just the 3rd time we had taken the elevator all week!) and were off the ship pretty quickly.

 

To get off, you wind your way through Canada Place, pick up your bags, and then turn in your Canadian Customs forms. A sample is provided the night before in your cabin, and they STRONGLY encourage you to fill it out before you get off the ship. As you get off, each ship in port (there three our day)'s line begin to merge, so by the time you turn in your customs form, everyone is together. It moved a tad slow, but since we didn't have anything to declare, we handed over the form and were walking out the door.

 

As you leave the secure area, make sure you are paying attention to the overhead signs that direct you to various locations. Our original plan was to grab a Taxi to our hotel, since the place where Uber picks up is several blocks away. We got into a really, really long taxi line and decided this was silly once we looked at where the hotel was on the map. At the first opportunity, we jumped out of the taxi line and followed the signs for the street (past the Fairmont). When we got outside, we only had about 4 block walk to our hotel, so we just decided to walk! Ended up being fairly easy, with just one block of uphill. Saved ourselves some time and money with the length of the taxi queue.

 

The Delta Hotel has a 4 pm check in time. We got there about 10:30. We had the front desk hold our bags and learned that you can check in early if your room is ready for $25/hour (CAN). Since I am a Marriott Gold member, that fee was reduced to $15 CAN, and we were allowed to check in at 3 pm for free. We agreed with the front desk agent that we would pay the $15 if we could check in at 2. With that in mind, we left our bags with the hotel and went to explore the city. More on that in the next post!

[dctravel]

There are only two nonstop flights back to Washington, DC each day, at 8:30 am and 10:30 pm (both on Air Canada). With those two choices (we didn't want to stop somewhere else), we knew we would never make the 8:30 am and we didn't want to take the 10:30 pm red-eye home. We figured if we were going to lose a day (so to speak), we would rather lose it to travel than to being exhausted from landing at 5:30 in the morning!

 

That left with a whole day to explore Vancouver again. Since we had gotten an overview of the city before we left for Alaska, we decided we should go to lunch on Granville Island, since the bike tour we took only gave us about an hour to explore that area. To get from the Delta Hotel to Granville Island, we took the fun way, rather than what might have been the cheapest (walking) or fastest (uber/taxi). We took the SkyTrain from the Waterfront Station toward the airport.

 

The SkyTrain was clean and efficient. I especially liked that you did not need to buy a physical card, rather you could use ApplePay and just tap at the gate. You have to tap both to get into the system, and get out. If you are not a Canadian, it might also be a good idea to have a credit card that doesn't have a foreign transaction fee link with your ApplePay. We used our AMEX cards with no problem. Contactless fares are a little more expensive at $3.20 CAN for staying within 1 zone (which we did).

We got off the SkyTrain at Yaletown-Roundhouse and walked about 15 or 20 minuets to David Lam Park to get on a ferry on False Creek to ride the one stop to Granville Island. We did not buy tickets in advance. There are two companies that run these routes: The Aquabus and False Creek Ferries. The Aquabus was the first to arrive with availability, so we paid on board for the ride to Granville.

 

 

I know this looks like a stock photo of the Aquabus, but I actually took this picture of another ferry as it was passing us. Also, I was enamored with the house boats. Our bike tour guide told us about that earlier in the trip, but it was very cool to see them from the water.

 

We explored Granville Island, had a pastry from the bakery in the public market and ended up eating lunch on the deck at Tap & Barrel-Bridges. The food was good and the server very nice, if not a little slow. We weren't really in a rush, so we enjoyed the beautiful weather. It also gave me an opportunity to have another local beer 🙂.

 

 

In the afternoon, we had booked a food tour of the Gastown neighborhood, which met at 3 pm, so we wanted to be back at the hotel at 2 pm for the early check in (for $15 CAN extra). Since Sunday, August 4 was also the Vancouver Pride Parade, and we had crossed where the parade would be walking from the Yaletown station to the Aquabus, we decided to ride the Aquabus one stop extra on the way back to Stamps Landing. From there, we walked about 10 minutes to the Olympic Village SkyTrain station and rode the SkyTrain back to the Waterfront.

 

Ok. I'll stop here on this post for length. Food tour coming up!

[dctravel]

Ok, so I lied! One more post about our time in Vancouver. On Saturday night from the ship, we had booked ourselves a food walking tour of the Gastown area through the Viator app. I'm a planner and like to have everything lined up in advance, but I didn't want to commit to what we would do post-cruise just in case we weren't feeling 100% or we figured out what we wanted to see on our pre-cruise time. The food tour was through Taste Vancouver and was 3 hours long. We had 7 stops and a wonderful tour guide--David--who had lived in the city for a long time, did improv comedy, and was involved in the entertainment planning for the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. Needless to say, he was a hoot!

 

Our stops were Steamworks Brewing Company for samples of beer, Guu for an interesting fried Japanese boneless chicken bite, Brioche for handmade tortellini, MeeT for vegan cauliflower bites, Six Acres for poutine, Waffleland Cafe for a Norwegian Waffle with strawberries, and soft peaks for soft serve ice cream. Besides the brewery, three other stops had wine or beer pairings that were part of the tour. There was soda or lemonade options for those who didn't drink or were too young to drink.

 

 

I forgot to get pictures of the Waffleland waffle and the MeeT cauliflower. Oops! Everything was very good, with our favorites being the tortellini and the poutine. The tour also gave us a good history of Gastown and Vancouver and we got to see the Gastown Steam Clock ring in the hour!

 

 

After the tour, we were pretty full, but knew we would need to eat something else before we went to sleep. We headed back to the hotel, shilled a bit (and used the time to reshuffle our luggage from cruise mode to airplane mode (big bottle of shampoo to the checked bags!) and then decided to go back to Steamworks for nachos and beer. The nachos were huge, and good (although with green olives, not black, which is unusual where we come from), and I got to taste 2 more beers.

 

Last Morning - Flying Home

We had a good nights sleep and had pre-scheduled an Uber for 5:40 am (8:30 am flight). A Tesla picked us up, and both of checked bags barely fit in the car (it was really, really tight in that trunk). We made it to the airport right at 6, when straight to the Air Canada desk to check our bags and one was EXACTLY the max weight (50 lbs/26kg). Phew! I knew it was heavy, but that was close!

 

Getting through security was slow, as we had to go through the "regular" line, no TSA pre-check here (duh, we are in Canada!). One minor issue with our bags (I left an oversize bottle of bug spray in the carry on) and we breezed through US Customs and Immigration since we both have Global Entry.

 

Then we waited. There isn't a ton of food in the US Terminal. We got coffee at Tim Horton's, looked through the shops and the just waited for our flight to board. We boarded on time, pushed back on time, and took off on time. Couldn't ask for anything more. The pilots caught the jet stream, and we were back in Washington, DC 4:45 minutes later. That was when our only delay occurred, as the gate wasn't ready for us! Finally arrived at the gate at our original time and then waited nearly 60 minutes for our bags. This is a notorious problem at all three DC area airports. I just don't understand it!

 

[Kevin's girl]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write your review. I will be cruising on the Solstice in September and can't wait. It will be our third sailing on the Solstice and second in Alaska. Your review helps pass the last 34 days of waiting 🙂

[dctravel]

17 minutes ago, Kevin's girl said:

Thank you so much for taking the time to write your review. I will be cruising on the Solstice in September and can't wait. It will be our third sailing on the Solstice and second in Alaska. Your review helps pass the last 34 days of waiting 🙂

You are very welcome! I have one more post left in me, with a few wrap up thoughts, but I'm trying to power through some prep-work for the upcoming semester today, distracted by CruiseCritic and thinking about what we might do next summer (December is already planned)!

[Kninkovich]

What an *amazing* post! Thank you so much for all this incredible information and pictures/video!

 

My wife and I will be taking the Solstice on 9/1 out of Vancouver. We've cruised 70 total nights across most lines but this is our first Celebrity cruise. 

 

Most importantly, though, we have our 1 year old son with us (starting him early!) and grandma is coming along as well.

 

Thanks so much for the Murano review- we're eating at Tuscan Grille on sail away night and Murano on night 3 (REALLY can't wait now!)

 

We've done Alaska twice (both in May) so we're excited to try September.

 

Out of curiosity, was there any mention at all about Northern Lights while you were up in Alaska? We're hoping that they may be visible but haven't heard anything on any other reviews yet!

 

Thanks again for this amazing content!

 

Edit: another question, if you don't mind!?

 

Is the ships currency in USD or CAD? Asking because we did our honeymoon in Australia and having everything in AUD was amazing! 

Edited August 13 by Kninkovich
Question for OP

[sdnich]

I have enjoyed reading your review. I have 2 days in Vancouver and plan on doing the same food tour. I want to wait to book to see how the weather will be.

How many people were on the tour with you ?

[dctravel]

7 hours ago, Kninkovich said:

Out of curiosity, was there any mention at all about Northern Lights while you were up in Alaska? We're hoping that they may be visible but haven't heard anything on any other reviews yet!

 

Edit: another question, if you don't mind!?

 

Is the ships currency in USD or CAD? Asking because we did our honeymoon in Australia and having everything in AUD was amazing! 

Thanks for reading and you are very welcome!

 

There were two nights when the cruise director announced that it might be possible to see the Northern Lights. The first, it was cloudy all evening/night, so no go there. The second, it was cloudy around 10 pm, so we gave up, but we did hear some folks on the ship reporting that they saw them around 2 am. We were not awake then, so I can't verify it, but I do seem to recall someone posted pictures on our FB group for the cruise.

 

As for ships currency, it was all in USD.

[dctravel]

54 minutes ago, sdnich said:

I have enjoyed reading your review. I have 2 days in Vancouver and plan on doing the same food tour. I want to wait to book to see how the weather will be.

How many people were on the tour with you ?

Thank you! We had 9 people on our tour, which was really nice. Us, another couple, and a family of 5. The tour guide suggested that the tour was normally 12-15 people, which I think would have been okay too. You don't go to far (distance wise), so it's pretty easy for folks to stick together.

[dctravel]

Thank you to everyone for reading my thoughts on our cruise. To briefly recap, this was my wife and I's first Celebrity Cruise (and we went without children, who were at sleep away camp!) and we sailed rt from Vancouver July 28-August 4 to Icy Strait Point, Juneau, Ketchikan, with Hubbard Glacier. We really had an amazing time and I would love to explore more of Alaska, either by land or sea, in the future. Some final thoughts:

 

- We thought the main dining room food was good, but not excellent. Made our meal at Murano that much more special. When we cruise Celebrity again, I would consider a second specialty dining meal.

 

- In the past, we have thought about booking a Celebrity Caribbean cruise with the our kids (and maybe extended family). Our experience with the chill atmosphere onboard the Solstice (which was prefect for us this week) and the fewer planned activities, would push me toward another line, IF we were taking a multigenerational family trip with kids who are looking for more activities. 

 

- Service was top notch. Our cabin steward was great, our MDR staff were so friendly and welcoming, the bar tenders everywhere aimed to please, and the staff all over the ship were quick to say hello to us. I am always impressed with staff and how quickly they learn your name. I can't remember some of my students names weeks into the semester! It's quite impressive what the shipboard staff can do.

 

- Alaska is amazing, and Hubbard Glacier was extra special. We had amazing weather, but Alaska would be awesome regardless. Our experience with Hubbard, getting with 1 km with clear skies, might be once in a lifetime.

 

We would like to cruise Alaska again, hopefully with Celebrity, and see different ports!

 

Happy to answer any questions anyone has!

 

Thanks again for following along!

 

dctravel

[az4ship]

thanks so much!I board on Aug 25 and this was a perfect review to read

[D. B.]

On 8/7/2024 at 7:06 AM, dctravel said:

Embarkation Day finally arrived. We had an arrival window of 10:30 to 11, so after talking with the hotel about the best way to get to Canada Place, we were in a taxi cab about 10 am to head for the pier. We chose a Taxi because the hotel told us they have special rights to get under the terminal for drop off. This is certainly true for the return, but I think that Ubers/Lyfts might be allowed underneath too. Either way, it was a short ride to Canada Place, we dropped our bags with the porters, and we were on our way!

 

There were three ships in on Sunday, us, a Holland America Ship (Nieuw Amsterdam, I think), and Brilliance of the Seas. Even with so many ships, Canada Place was pretty organized. There was a lot of walking to go through check-in, security, and then US Customs, but we moved quickly through that process and were on board the ship about 11 or 11:15. Pretty quick! We loved that we could drop off our bags in our cabin, pick up our key cards, and then explore the ship.

 

We started from the top deck and worked our way down, and then headed back up to the Ocean View Café to get lunch. I had some pizza (which I really liked and returned to several days) and made some nachos from the Mexican station. Pretty tasty way to start! We also found the Sunset Bar and I had my first beer. Not on the menu, but I asked if they had any Alaskan Beers, and they had an IPA. I had several of these over the week 🙂

 

 

Then it was sail away. We stayed on the top deck to watch the ship pass under the Lion's Gate Bridge. Of course, we fit underneath, but it looked like it was close!

 

 

 

We then watched the Hot Glass sail away show (my wife had a reservation for later in the week and picked her time before that show started) and we went back to our room to unpack and get ready for our first dinner. I did grab another beer before heading down, this time a Peroni. I only mention this because the beer was brewed in Australia for importation to New Zealand and was somehow still onboard months after the ship crossed the Pacific. Cruise ship supply chains are fascinating (and more on that later too)!

 

 

We ate all but one of our dinner's in the main dining room. I should mention here that I have food allergies (to beans/legumes), which we reported to the Maître D' when we got on the ship. Overall, they handled my allergies really, really well. Only one night was there a bit of a bobble on the food (no, they didn't try to serve me something I can't eat, rather the choice of what to give me was a bit odd, but still tasty).

 

We tend to eat early, so even though we had made a reservation for 8 pm on the app, the Maître D' told us just to come when we ready, because "tables of 2 are easy"! Chritina was right, and she was a great host. We were seated after only a few minutes and ended up with the same wait staff each night. We really liked this, as they go to know us. Like the old days of only fixed dining, but with more flexibility! 

 

I won't report on each meal here, partially because I don't remember, but I will say that with the premium drink package, we had the sommelier pour us glasses of premium wine each night, and he just kept refilling us until we asked him to stop! The first night we got the coveted Decoy Cabernet, which was on the dinner menu as a choice. They have many other premium wine choices too, just ask the sommelier for the wine list!

 

After dinner, we started what became our regular evening activities. Stop at a bar, get a drink, go see the 9 pm show, then go back to a bar and have some more drinks and hang out. We started tonight at the World Class Bar. Very good Highlander! Went to see a magician (Jeremy Tan) who was very good, and then vistited the Martini Bar for the first time. This ended up being our favorite bar, not only for the drinks, but also how great the bartenders were, how nice most of the people were, and the entertainment that was around the bar. The first night they had the silent disco headphones, and that was a lot of fun. I will offer a word of caution here...watch out for the Manhattans. Man are they strong!!! I had 2 (or 3???), and it really got me. My wife enjoyed the martinis and was rotating around them.

 

It was a great embarkation/first day!

On my second time cruising from Vancouver and needing a  transfer to Canada Place I tried an Uber and NOT until we got there did the Driver say They are Not allowed to enter the underground  garage. So I was dropped off at the curb and had to navigate from there.

 You Bet I  take a taxi from then  on.

[hcat]

Thank You dctravel!

[dctravel]

14 hours ago, D. B. said:

On my second time cruising from Vancouver and needing a  transfer to Canada Place I tried an Uber and NOT until we got there did the Driver say They are Not allowed to enter the underground  garage. So I was dropped off at the curb and had to navigate from there.

 You Bet I  take a taxi from then  on.

The hotel concierge told us that Uber/Lyft is now allowed to drop off underneath, but not to pick up. I have no reason to doubt her, as she was spot on for the fireworks advice, but we didn't want to take any chances. Plus, the taxi was there at the hotel waiting!

As an aside, when we went from the Delta Hotel to the airport the next day, I pre-ordered an Uber for 5:40 am. A Tesla showed up and it barely had enough room for our two checked bags in the trunk. Seems to be with a cab, when the hotel called for us (or if one is sitting there), that they can see how many bags you have and ask for a different or bigger one, if necessary.

[mahdnc]

19 hours ago, dctravel said:

Thank you to everyone for reading my thoughts on our cruise. To briefly recap, this was my wife and I's first Celebrity Cruise (and we went without children, who were at sleep away camp!) and we sailed rt from Vancouver July 28-August 4 to Icy Strait Point, Juneau, Ketchikan, with Hubbard Glacier. We really had an amazing time and I would love to explore more of Alaska, either by land or sea, in the future. Some final thoughts:

 

- We thought the main dining room food was good, but not excellent. Made our meal at Murano that much more special. When we cruise Celebrity again, I would consider a second specialty dining meal.

 

- In the past, we have thought about booking a Celebrity Caribbean cruise with the our kids (and maybe extended family). Our experience with the chill atmosphere onboard the Solstice (which was prefect for us this week) and the fewer planned activities, would push me toward another line, IF we were taking a multigenerational family trip with kids who are looking for more activities. 

 

- Service was top notch. Our cabin steward was great, our MDR staff were so friendly and welcoming, the bar tenders everywhere aimed to please, and the staff all over the ship were quick to say hello to us. I am always impressed with staff and how quickly they learn your name. I can't remember some of my students names weeks into the semester! It's quite impressive what the shipboard staff can do.

 

- Alaska is amazing, and Hubbard Glacier was extra special. We had amazing weather, but Alaska would be awesome regardless. Our experience with Hubbard, getting with 1 km with clear skies, might be once in a lifetime.

 

We would like to cruise Alaska again, hopefully with Celebrity, and see different ports!

 

Happy to answer any questions anyone has!

 

Thanks again for following along!

 

dctravel

 

Thank you for your review.  I am glad you enjoyed your cruise.