Celebrity not anywhere like it was

Celebrity Solstice Cruise Review to South Pacific - Australia

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 104

Overall rating:

2 out of 5
Verified Review
Celebrity Solstice

12 Night New Zealand (Sydney To Auckland)

Sail date: December 04, 2015

Ship: Celebrity Solstice

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 2015

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

If we hadn't cruised on Celebrity before, then our last cruise might have been totally satisfactory.  But the fact is, we have cruised on Celebrity many times before, where we have reached elite status on its loyalty program, as well as on three other cruiselines, and we preferred Celebrity because of its service, dining, entertainment, and general passenger make-up.  That Celebrity we knew is gone. 

 

The food is bland, even in the specialty restaurants.  Other long-time Celebrity passengers on board had the same comment.  Service in the formal dining room is acceptable, but the flair that the experienced waiters had before is no longer there.  Even the formal nights had been eliminated.  The nightly entertainment in the theatre was for a much younger generation, the mature clientele that Celebrity is supposed to have.  My luggage was damaged on disembarkation, and that would not have been a big deal if only the Celebrity staff gave me the correct information in the first place.  But the fact is, a Celebrity official on shore during disembarkation told me to wait as a replacement would be given to me (which I found surprising as I did not think the ship would be carrying an inventory of luggage).  After over 30 minutes of waiting and wasting my time, another Celebrity staff came after I asked what was happening and told me to fill up a claim form, which did not take more than couple of minutes.  So what should have taken five minutes took 45 minutes.  Cruising on Celebrity is just no longer what it used to be.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ports of call

Sydney, Australia

5 out of 5

Melbourne, Australia

5 out of 5

Cruise Milford Sound

5 out of 5

Cruise Doubtful Sound

3 out of 5

Cruise Dusky Sound

5 out of 5

Port Chalmers (Dunedin), New Zealand

5 out of 5

Akaroa, New Zealand

5 out of 5

Wellington, New Zealand

5 out of 5

Tauranga, New Zealand

5 out of 5

Bay Of Islands, New Zealand

5 out of 5

Auckland, New Zealand

5 out of 5
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4 Comments

paulDM    8 years ago

We also have Elite status with Celebrity and, sorry to have to say this. I have to agree with what the others have posted. Although the service aboard is still excellent, the food and entertainment is far from what it used to be.

Novascotiacruiser    8 years ago

Agree totally, hope Celebrity read these blogs.

melbournite    8 years ago

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but who says they are supposed to have a mature clientele? My luggage was also damaged last time I traveled with Celebrity and it was hard to find out what to do. It is sad to hear their standards are lowering. 😔

peterwaller    8 years ago

Come on Celebrity another complaint, surely you must realise your cruise line is slipping into mediocrity because you are unable to provide the service that your clients previously expected. I can only see Celebrity falling from grace, and if you don't stop putting profit before the customers needs you are in for a shock.

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