South Pacific Cruise Reviews

Our cruise from Perth to Sydney 6-15 December 2016 was plagued with technical glitches.

To start we endured 3 hour standing queues to embark as the card printer was not working properly.

Tried to use the phone app and Ipads on board to book things.  Mostly they did not work. The earliest booking for Ifly was 7 days later (but I enjoyed it when I finally got there).

Had to stand in line for 2.5 hours for a standby ride on the North Star Pod as no bookings were available. Bookings on port days were given to travel agents and media in preference to paying passengers.

Was unable to get a restaurant reservation for 'My Time Dining' for the whole cruise, had to eat in the cafeteria or dine standby at 6:30 or 8:30.

All four included restaurants were serving the same menu, not different menus as shown on the internet site when booking.

Food standard was average.

Cruise compass document has little new information.

The virtual balcony tv screen only showed a rear view, not choice of views as shown on the website.

Finally the feedback survey did not work, as the bar code on the feedback form was for the earlier cruises in China and was in chinese! So I am giving my feedback here instead.

On the positive side we enjoyed the Wonderland restaurant.  (Beware that if you let them choose dishes for you then you will get several deep fried dishes.) Our waiter was very nice in bringing another dish to make up for the deep fried stuff that I did not want to eat.

The shows were good, although very loud.

Our stateroom attendant was very good.

The solarium spa pool section was very good and nice to have somewhere to go out of the wind.

Overall facilities were very good, nice walking track and gym, excellent indoor court used for sports, bumper cars and roller skating.

The drinks were very expensive, but on our cruise we were allowed to bring our own wine to the restaurants with no extra charge.

Loved this cruise, the food was great and a huge selection, enjoyed being able to eat at any time throughout the day.

New Zealand was amazing with the Fiordlands being the highlight for me. Also loved Akaroa and Tauranga.

Couldn't fault the service on Sea Princess the crew were all friendly and helpful.

The staff on the Gauguin are totally wonderful without being stuffy.  Their dive staff is the BEST!  Food is great, locales and tours are fascinating and they have really quality lecturers on board, including a resident anthropologist and (for his last trip) Jean-Michel Cousteau.  They haven't renewed his contract and I CANNOT imagine why!!!  He's a super speaker and an absolutely lovely gentleman. 

The ship is a perfect size.  It's showing its age a little, but nothing major - mostly cosmetic. 

The fact that it is all-inclusive really makes life SO much better and easier.  You can budget your expenses and know you won't overspend. 

Perfect in every way.New Zealand is Beautiful,best way to see NZ is cruising also,I will never travel any other way My next is January 2018 can't wait

We loved everything about the cruise, food, shows, activities, staff! Excellent

Just come back from a cruise on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas.

This was not my first cruise with Royal Caribbean but it was the worst holiday experience of my 56 years.

The company has definitely reduced the quality of its product to the point where this now resembles a floating stag party complete with nightly rugby songs, disgusting food served on plastic plates and de-salinated water served in plastic glasses.

Service was third rate and complaints got heated all around us in the restaurants, by the pools at customer service................

Everything was a rip off, drinks, excursions, water, service charges, TV, internet, next cruise purchases, shops........... It took some considerable skill to navigate all the Royal Caribbean scams.

On three of our stops we queued for hours to get on and off the ship because of Royal Caribbean incompetence and then instead of saying sorry Royal Caribbean blamed the Australian Authorities.

I have never been on a cruise where guests we so anti the operator. I honestly thought there was going to be a riot at one stage because the food was so bad and Royal Caribbean just kept apologising and giving out worthless cruise vouchers but did nothing about the problems.

On the first day, Royal Caribbean messed up the loading of cases and in some instances it took 12 hours to match guest with case. Customer Services just spouted lie after lie to try to appease the angry mob. Most guests had to go to Level 1 to retrieve their own cases. Many of the cases had been opened by Royal Caribbean and items taken out such as alcohol without the owner present.

I saw a couple of guys on Level 1 who were ready to kick off because of the lies and deceit shown by the crew. 

I wrote to Royal Caribbean and pointed out at least 10 instances of breach and I got a letter back telling me to refer my complaint to arbitration which I've now done.

This is a dishonest, disreputable bunch of sharks who take your money and then give you nothing but broken promises in return and when you complain you get the "Royal" finger. There are some lovely cruise companies out there Royal Caribbean isn't one of them.

Fabulous cruise, once in a lifetime. Beautiful locations and great staff.

I was amazed by the attentiveness of the staff! They were at the airport to greet us and were there every step of the way! The ship is beautiful.....perfect sizeo, not huge, which is why we decided to go with this perticular cruise  line. Our cabin was beautiful, our fridge was always stocked with beer, soft drinks water and ice! Our beds were always made up, our room cleaned and vacuumed, and at night Sharonette came and turned down our bed! Sharonette was our stateroom steward.....so great in every way! I got a feeling that everyone of the employees on this ship really enjoyed their job and never acted like they had a bad day! We especially loved Alex, at the piano bar(spent a lot of nights singing and drinking there)! Florezal (Flo) was fantastic and Francisco ALWAYS knew your name and what you were drinking! I'm still amazed by that! All of the staff on board catered to your every need! The excursions were great, I also loved that they gave you snorkeling equipment to keep for the whole trip.....that was great as it would have added weight in our suitcases. They had little boats available to take, if you wanted  to go on your own. Let's not talk about the food, which was fantastic! I gained 4 pounds in 10 days! All worth it! Waiter staff was the greatest! Really, even though our ship had some technical problems, everyone was very professional, and it didn't impact much! All in all, I WILL CRUISE AGIN WITH THIS SHIP! Exceeded my expectations, I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF MY TRIP!

Cruise was 18 day trans pacific not listed as an option. I choose around Australia to continue.

Spent 18 days from Sydney to Hawaii by way of Tahiti, Bora Bora and Moorea French Polynesia . The ship was clean the rooms comfortable and bed and pillows dreamy. Food was good, soup a little salty, but other hab that WoW..We had an awesome room steward, Sanjay on deck 9. He worked, constantly, kept us with ice and tidy room. I would highly recommend! 

We initially sailed with Royal C. in the S. China Sea in 2012 and enjoyed the experience with some reservations. Then we sailed with Celeb. Silhouette in the Med in 2013 and saw and felt the difference. So we chose Celebrity this time and were not disappointed.

Silhouette and Solstice are almost identical ships except that Solstice retained the glass blowing show, much to their advantage - a great show and some people do enjoy seeing it more than once! We booked this cruise late and the room options were very limited so we decided on a concierge room on port side, right at the back of the ship on deck 10 and it provided double benefits - a larger veranda and the extra walking distance must have helped with our waist lines, at least a little.

The whole ship was impeccably clean as was our cabin. Concierge is a doubtful benefit but we were happy to be on the ship and lapped up the small extras (except the afternoon canapés). We dined mainly in the main DR for dinner and found plenty of variety - agree with some who say not outstanding for every dish but nothing I would complain about and certainly some memorable dishes. The service from our waiters (Augustika and Cristopher) and sommelier (Sandra) was outstanding - everyone around the table agreed, we all wanted to take at least one of these people home!  We dined in the MDR for breakfast and lunch at times; the food was just as good but the service was a bit missing sometimes - is this the difference between having the same waiter at a set time for dinner as opposed to just wandering in? don't know.  The Oceanview Café was nearly always busy but seats were not too hard to be found and we never had to wait for any length of time. Again the food quality was fine and most of us (we talked to everyone we sat next to wherever we were) thought the variety was excellent, certainly too much to say I tried it all. We were on our honeymoon and celebrating our first wedding anniversary (where did that year go to!) and we spoilt ourselves by going to the Wine Connoisseurs Dinner in the Tuscan Grill and had a magnificent evening - one of our evening waiters had secretly spread the word and all the waiting staff around our table in the TG presented a cake and sang Happy Anniversary - this just made the night. The food was delicious, the wine excellent and very much free flowing.  We had room service breakfast with full choices hot and cold and this was superb for port day starts. Our only disappointment food-wise was Café Al Bacio which was nearly always crowded, the take-away line too long and someone noted that the build up of dirty dishes in the serving area looked a little worrying. But when we did successfully consume here, it was as good as ever. Perhaps so many people getting the free Drinks Package (us included) has put extra pressure on this facility but they need to resolve this to maintain an acceptable standard.

The ship was full and at times it was crowded in places,  especially in the evening when the shows were starting, but there was always a quiet spot to be found if one wished.   The evening shows were entertaining but not outstanding; we believed Royal C. had better entertainment, but maybe all cruise lines did four years ago before budgets were tightened. Sure many of the activity options didn't suit us but there was always something to do around eating. walking and reading a good book; for the first time on a cruise we enjoyed a free in room movie or three and the choices were fine for us ( fitting in the time was the challenge). Wine and cheese on the top deck lawn a couple of afternoons was great especially when accompanied by easy listening jazz. We enjoyed a dance or two, relaxing in the lounges and on our veranda, shopped a little, enjoyed Captains Table events etc. but did not test the casino.

We thoroughly enjoyed this ship and this cruise and could not understand why some people - and very few in number - would complain about anything, and we generally finished such conversations quickly as we enjoy being positive about things. The bottom line - there were 2800 guests on board and the crew  did a great job ensuring we were looked after with a smile in the vast majority of occasions.

Already talking about our next cruise with Celebrity - some travelling companions booked two more cruises before they got off!

The last day was a sad day. But getting off was as easy as getting on, but still sad!

Third time for us on Solstice, she is a lovely ship and over the past three years we have enjoyed many wonderful days cruising on this ship...

This cruise was a short break of 8 days, it was not long enough, but we enjoyed each day and found complete relaxation...

Our Concierge Class C1 Stateroom on deck 12 was a fabulous location (2152) yes it is right under the deck for the Ocean View Café and Bar, but we seldom heard any distinct sounds from above and mainly when we were on the balcony. Sailing out of Sydney Harbour is something one should enjoy in ones lifetime, it was quite spectacular as we sipped our bubbles. The ship once again was spotless, the crew were fantastic, our Stateroom Attendants were superb, friendly and always chatty. There was a vast array of entertainment to suit all, this cruise we opted to do little except sleep, eat, read and oh yes we did exercise every morning.

As for the ports, we found Lifou a bit underwhelming, although it has a rustic laid back charm, Noumea was great, better that expected, we rented a car and found many lovely locations and very friendly people. Isle De Pines was beautiful, the beach is pristine and so many lovely coves and beaches to enjoy, besides the rain storm...2500 wet people clambering to get on Tenders was not a lot of fun, but Celebrity handled it well in the heavy swell...We always choose CI, we love it and have never been disappointed, our Canape's were made to order and delish, Guest Relations were always friendly and willing to assist...there are always little things that one could probably nit pick about, but it really is senseless as overall the experience was superb...We have booked another cruise for next year, different ship but again with Celebrity who we find always deliver just what we are looking for.

Love this ship. Food is always good. Cleanliness is above reproach.

Entertainment is not always 10/10 but I don't really come here to be entertained.

Loved the Isle of Pines, specifically the Natural Aquarium.

Our holiday didn't start off on a good note as Princess Cruises had 'upgraded' us to a room in a lousy position. We had chosen a mini suite right at the back so we wouldn't have much traffic past our door. We were given a mini suite in a high traffic area and there was nothing they could do about it as the ship was completely booked.

The cruise terminal was hot and airless with over 1000 people lined up waiting to check in.

We didn't enjoy the ship as everything was always so crowded and a lot of fellow passengers were downright rude. The piazza was crowded from sun up with the same people who sat in the same place all day until dinner time. Some of the shows were good, especially the staff "talent" show on the last night.

The menu in the dining room always had a fabulous selection and the Crown Grill restaurant was spectacular. Didn't really enjoy Sabatini's restaurant as much due to it being way too fancy and not really traditional Italian as expected.

The Gastro outbreak wasn't a pleasant experience. We were not informed of the outbreak until about 100 people were sick and they didn't really start any procedures to contain it until then. People handling food and putting their hands into bowls of chips etc, did nothing to stop the spread.

The ports were all nice but I would suggest researching the currency and exchange rates, and getting money changed before leaving Australia. Also make sure to have small denominations of $ as they don't always have the correct change to give back. Using Australian currency as suggested in the information provided isn't a good idea as the locals have trouble getting it exchanged and the currency converters don't take coins so they are stuck with Australian coins.

Every staff member we encountered was fabulous. Always friendly, helpful and happy. They would go out of their way to assist. These people were the highlight of our cruise. The cruise director, Tim Donovan was hilarious and a really genuine bloke.   

Enjoyed the great food, activities, excursions and friendly staff.

Please read the comments below to get my feedback on the detailed aspects of the cruise.  I hope by now I have reach the minimum of 150 characters to be able to submit this review without it being rejected.

We travel take Oceania cruises whenever we can,15 of our 40 times so far.  We believe thier food is the best at sea and that their service is near the top as well.  This is based on discussions with other experienced cruisers as well as our own experience.  The only problem is that an occasional excursion is below minimum expectations and that most are overpriced but this seems to be normal for cruise excursions in general.

Over all the cruise was OK. The food was very good and had a good variety. The bands, piano player and stringed group were very good. The staff was great. Service was great. The production shows, solo singers and magician were not up to par. Cooking classes were very good as well as the wine pairing seminars. The casino was just OK. 3 to 4 machines were out of service and 3 to 4 continually broke down, but the casino staff were very helpful in all areas. For the most part, docking was in the harbor and we had to be tendered to shore. When docked, the docks were working docks, filled with containers, etc. We were able to take 5 of the 6 shore tours booked. Norfolk Island was canceled due to rough seas. The tours were for the most part, way over valued (expensive). 3 of the 5 tours did not meet advertised expectations, one of which was so bad, they should give us all our money back.

- Moorea Island Highlights - Just OK. Hard to understand the tour guide

- Le Truck Island tour - Bad - should not be called a tour. didn't see much, very few views, couldn't understand the guide

- Pago Pago Eastside and Downtown - Terrible, terrible, terrible. No views, stopped at family craft spot, visited a beach that was nothing but a coral wading area where several people were cut and no entertainment as advertised. Should get our money back.

- Nadi Sightseeing - Good tour, nice views and good stops, good tour guide

- City Sights and harbor cruise - Good tour. Great views of all aspects of the harbor and a very informative bus tour of the city with good stops along the way. Good tour guide.

As first time cruisers we found it hard to start with as we didn't know how things run and where to go to find out info , people spoke to us as if we knew what happens.... maybe have a short info talk for first timers when you board the ship (optional) 

This was my first cruise and overall it was pretty good and fun.  The food in the main dinning room was very good.  The dinner wait staff we had was amazing and was on point the entire time.  The room was also nice and clean every day. The port of calls were nice except for Aukland.  There was just nothing in the dam city.  The rest were fun and were very entertaining.  The food was amazing. The lobster was VERY GOOD.  Overall the experience was very good and if i were to go on another cruise it would be with this ship/company likely.  Also casinos take all your money. 

We have traveled Celebrity for many years. I have watched this cruise line go from being high above the other mainstream cruise lines to being like all the rest.  As the onboard crew will always say "tell Miami" when you have a complaint. Some passengers were joking about this group of spoiled greedy young MBA's sitting in the Miami corporate office and trying to outdo each other with who can cut service in the least obvious way to save the most money.  Celebrity has always been a nickel and dime cruise line, but now it's not ashamed to show it....at every turn. 

All complaints aside, the itinerary was superb, the food and service in Blu was very good, and the ship is very pretty. Just dont look too close though, because Solstice is definitely showing its age. Rust, worn carpets with holes, dirty pool chair cushions, and so on are becoming noticeable if you look closely. "No one will notice" I'm sure "Miami" is thinking. After many years of loyalty to Celebrity, we have been sailing with other higher end lines and have been much happier. However, if Celebrity presents an itinerary that we love, we would sail them again with mediocre expectations. 

The ship was wonderful In all respects. The country of New Zealand captured my heart. Our shore excursions from sheep farms to Kiwi vineyards and Maori experiences were well worth the extra expense. I would highly recommend this trip.