South Pacific - Australia Cruise Reviews

The experience was nice and pleasant, except for the dining hostess.  American Airlines promised that they would help coordinate seating for our party of 18.  Instead, when we arrived, our group of 18 was broken up during dining.  Sometimes we were seated on different floors and sometimes on different sides of the room.  

Excellent experience. 

The only negative experience was the Photo Dept.  Misleading signs posted at the Kiosk.  Staff not trained to help and serve the customer.  Photo cost were prohibitive ( cost of a disk cost 10 cents) Your charge was $5.00.  Better to charge an affordable price, people would buy more and with each photo shared at home, would advertise Voyager of the Seas, which means more business.

We were quite disappointed in the overall experience aboard the Rhapsody. Unfortunately for Royal Caribbean we had just come off of a Holland American cruise that offered excellence across the board from service to food quality and selection to entertainment and activities available.

    On the Rhapsody the food quality was below average with a poor variety of selections. The circular layout of the buffet area was extremely poor with no directionality to the traffic flow resulting in chaos in trying to view and select food and proceed in any sort of orderly fashion through the area. The selections in the main dining room were very limited unless seafood was your objective, however this was the one area where the service was acceptable. The staff of the casino was almost non existent with hours passing without seeing someone serving drinks. The quality of the entertainment varied widely from very poor on two occasions to average on most evenings with only one or two evenings providing good entertainment. Late night food service was almost non existent with only one very small location open offering one selection only on the three evenings we visited.

    The one positive I will offer was the actions and adjustments made by the Captain in negotiating our path through hurricane Marsha. His decisions and actions kept the ship in the least vulnerable position and best sea conditions possible under difficult weather conditions.

    Having 15 cruises under our belt with Carnival, Norwegian and now Holland America, It would be unlikely that we would select another Royal Caribbean cruise if other options were available.

Service was excellent; food was good. Shore excursions were very good but excursion office and staff were very limited in access once on board. We were sorely disappointed when the trip was rerouted mid- cruiseand eliminated Fjord land National Park and Hobart, Tasmania. Talk amongst guests was that this happens often. We would have chosen a different cruise or time to go if we had known this. Loved our main deck room; service from cheap was outstanding.

The ports were wonderful...my complaints are:  windows should be cleaned prior to beginning of cruise, internet wifi should be included, specialty restaurants are average-main dining room just as good.  Wish i could have spent more time in NZ...add Auckland as a port...Australian ports were great.  It was chilly in NZ...would be warmer in January.  Loved this vacation...the people and ports were great.

I think that this cruise line may have made it difficult for us to use any other.  People who have cruised before have told us this is the best and it certainly was.  Everyone on the crew wear fanastic and the luxury of everything was outstanding.  Our cabin stewards were fantastic as were our waiting staff in the dining room.  The food was excellent.  When we next cruise it will be celebrity, no matter where in the world we do it.

This was the second half of our back-to-back cruise of New Zealand and Australia and comments might be different for single cruise passengers. Overall the ship is excellent with roomy staterooms, excellent service and elegant common spaces.  Many stops on this cruise are dictated by the size of the ship rather than interest or accessibility of the ports. Thus the stop in Port Hedland was basically a waste of time - it was very hot and there was nothing to do in a town which is basically an iron ore export site. The stop in Airlie Beach is also dictated by the fact that it is the only port in the area accessible to Solstice Class ships. The best stop was Bali, Indonesia and Celebrity's handling of visa formalities was excellent (although it would have been nice to know about in advance!) with Celebrity charging the visa to the onboard account and Indonesian officials issuing visas onboard.  Stops at Darwin, Airlie Beach, Brisbane and Freemantle were enjoyable although access to town varied by stop. At Brisbane the only option was a 19 dollar shuttle bus (or a Celebrity tour). There were 10 day sea days on this cruise so if you don't like entertaining yourself this is not the cruise for you. Celebrity is known for its onboard lecturers but on this leg there was only one and he repeated lectures already given on the previous cruise. Ships officers who gave talks about the ship were not all fluent in English. (on the other hand, videos on demand describing the ship were excellent) The gym on board was good although not all machines were working properly and it could be crowded. Food was excellent but repetitive for those onboard the full 35 days.  Speciality restaurants were good but pricey.  The sense of two classes onboard - Elite Class members and Aqua and Suite guests - vs. the rest was strong with tender tickets available to the 1st class at the expense of the rest not to mention special dining for Aqua Class guests. There is nothing wrong with 2 classes onboard but Celebrity should be more upfront about it.

This was our first Celebrity Cruise and we would definitely rate Celebrity among the best cruise lines we have experienced.

I enjoyed the cruise and the sea days.  I wish more aboriginal experiences would have been offered.  I could have learned as much about the indegenous people at home.  The only 2 offerings for this were failures.

While the Solstice is a wonderful ship, in many ways it is not as pleasant as some of Celebrity's smaller ships - notably the Millenium and the Summit. The ship was clean both in the public areas and in our cabin. Staff was excellent about getting entrants into the buffet to use the hand solution. We really appreciated that. However, the constant playing of music in the buffet area was not pleasant. Both my sife and I found this continuous noise to be irritating. Changing the selection of music to something a bit less POP might help. The Solstice doesn't have the thelassotherapy pool that some of Celebrity's other ships have. We missed this amenity and found the enclosed solarium pool and both hot tubs to be too cool. The solarium itself was very serene and the attendants in that area were excellent.

Food was fairly basic. Red meat wasn't the best I have eaten. Service was great, ship is great. Great wine list. I had tried to obtain wine list before trip to no avail so I purchased 16 bottles of wine in Sydney and paid Princess $15 corkage per bottle. After arriving on ship and seeing the wine list I realized i would have been very happy with the selections and price.

The experience started with the overnight stay on beautiful Sydney harbour with its exceptional views of the Opera house and harbour bridge.

Great weather as we sailed to Melbourne and then across the Tasman sea to New Zealand. Crusing the three sounds in Fiojdland  was a stunning experience on a cloudless sunny day...the inlets, small islands,  mountains and native forests.  This landscape has been virtually untouched by human habitatation... All the ports on this cruise were every "ship friendly" with many local volunteers on hand to welcome and advise visitors on what to do. A welcoming experience.

 As this was our second crusie on the Solstice we already knew that the onboard expeience was going to be most enjoyable. It delivered on cleanliness, great service from caring staff and quality food. The shows were of a good standard as well.

Our fellow passengers also provide pleasent onboard companionship and from their comments it was clear that this particular cruise will feature high up on their list of great crusies.

Had a great time aboard, especially going through the national park of New Zealand, Fiord Land.  breathtaking scenery,   Crew aboard were very attentive to the needs of the passengers,  Very fun to be around.

We booked an inner cabin (5023).  The first night we hit rough seas and it sounded like a wrecking ball was hitting our cabin.  At 3 in the morning I called the front desk to report it and they said it was just rough seas, however we were unable to sleep all night with the vibration of the room and the banging.  In the morning I reported it to the front desk at which time the person I spoke to said that they had not heard of any other complaints, but she would look into it and get back to us.  By the end of that day, she had not gotten back to us, so I spoke to the customer relations Supervisor who said that if it happend again, call immediately and someone would be sent to the cabin.  Well, that night, again we hit rough seas and the same thing happened.  I called the desk and they sent an engineer who immediately heard the noise.  He told us that in the middle of the ship are two plates that are there to stabilize the ship in rough seas.  He also told us that other people had reported it (as opposed to what we were told at the desk). Obviously, this is a common problem, but when we first reported it, they spoke to us like they didn't know what we were talking about.  They moved us to a different cabin that night to sleep, and the next morning the Supervisor moved us permanently to a different cabin that did nt have that problem.  The Customer Relations Supervisor handled it in a professional manner (as opposed to the first two people we spoke to) and he comped us and our guests for a dinner at one of the restaurants.

Outside of the room problem the cruise was excellent.  The food was very good (no "WOW" factor, but very good) and our Stewart in the dining room was outstanding.  The entertainment was very good for the most part, with the highlight being when the ship's staff gave a presentation of their National Cultures (one night Phillipine and the other night Indonisian).

The only other negative feeling of the cruise is on one of the formal nights we had black and white pcitures taken as well as the ones they take of you when you enter the dining room.  We purchased the formal pictures (set of 5 for $99).  We went back to see the black and white photos and six of them were outstanding at which time we asked what the price would be.  $875 for the 6 photos which I found outrageous.  If we didn't want them developed and just receive a digital copy (CD) it would ONLY be $750.  That's more than $100 a photo just to take the photo and download it to CD.  While we loved the way the pictures came out, we passed on the offer as this asking price is rediculous.

Itinerary in N.Z and Australia was excellent. Food and presentation were excellent Stateroom upgrade was superior Entertainment was below expectations Shore excursions excellent but much over-priced Captain was very personable and excellent Crew members were friendly and helpful Attention to repeat cruisers was superior

The cruise was great and we enjoyed it. You have a wonderful crew, Inna gave us another cabin on deck 3 after my wife became sick from the rolling of the ship, also Terrence Ewards was really helpful in giving us information on our excursion and transfer to the airport since we had to meet someone there before our flight. He did not only give us information but kept us fully informed and made it happen. Myself and wife complemented the crew and do recommend these two individuals as special employees. My only concern is that the theater shows was not in the quality as i saw on Voyager of the seas, needs to be better.

Enjoyed the cruise - good service all round. Pleasant and helpful crew members Cabin service - Reynaldo - was excellent in getting our room cleaned and always very pleasant and knowledgeable. The waiters gave good service

This was our first trip to NZ. We were so impressed with the cruise itinerary, the ship,the magnificent scenery & the service, that we have decided to return in the near future. There was nothing that we could find fault with except perhaps for the large number of passengers, causing some delays. We admired all the oldies specially those in wheel chairs & with walking frames who ventured on this cruise.

This was our seventh Princess cruise, and the Dawn Princess turned out to be our least favorite ship. It was not the smallest ship we've been on, but their accommodation to being small just didn't work. For instance having the Sterling Steakhouse on the Balcony Grill at night was an awful experience. It was windy, noisy, chilly, the food was cold, the whole thing seemed rushed - which you didn't mind much because you weren't really relaxing and enjoying the experience. The movies under the stars playing near by loudly so you couldn't converse easily... just plain horrible. We took first time cruisers with us this trip who came away saying that they didn't know if they'd cruise again because they were bored. We've never been bored on a Princess ship before. Lectures were ok, but not of a huge variety and not very often. Fast food places not always available all day - would feel like a hamburger, but find the balcony grill closed for a buffet, or feel like a slice of pizza - oops, wrong time of day. Just not as comfortable and serving as other ships in the Princess fleet.

The ship is in major need of a face lift.

We travel to Alaska before with Radiance of the Seas, it is a great ship, the Captain have very good experience and good communication with the passengers. The food service is very good and the Entertainment excellent with very good performers The crew very efficient and cordial, all combined make a very good and pleasant 18 days vacation