This is a wonderful itinerary offering stops in Australia, Bali, and Singapore. All the ports had something different to offer so it was a fabulous experience. The Solstice is a beautiful ship but is showing its age and could use some updates.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
There were some delays at the terminal due to customs clearance so the lines outside to get in were very long and not much was communicated to the passengers about the delays. Fortunately we were in a suite so we had expedited check-in and shorter lines, but it could have been more organized, particularly as everyone was waiting to proceed into the terminal for check-in.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
We were in a suite so we ate in the Luminae, a special restaurant for suite guests. Our food was outstanding. When we visited the buffets, there was a good selection and the food was tasty, but it was crowded and often difficult to find seating.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
There were a few talks that we enjoyed, and there were several dance/theme parties in the foyer. Overall, there seemed to be more activities and parties than on previous Celebrity cruises we had taken.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
This particular cruise had excellent live entertainment and the singers/dancers in the production show were very talented. The other live entertainment groups were good as well.
Children's Programs
No children
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Our butler was very good, but Celebrity has changed to the team butler concept so we didn't see him as often or use his services as much as before. (We prefer the old way where we had a dedicated butler, not a head butler who had to service 44 cabins.)
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
The Solstice is a nice ship with a good layout, but the decor hasn't changed since we sailed it in 2011 so it seemed a bit dated.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
This was a sunset sky suite at the back corner of the ship. We found the room spacious and comfortable with excellent natural light. We did hear a fair amount of engine noise at this lower level, but it didn't really bother us much.
We took a ship excursion to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which included a bit of city tour as well. We were pleased with the excursion.
The city was very spread out, so I don't think much of the city would have been easily accessible to passengers without taking an excursion.
We snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef. The excursion was well organized, but we were rather disappointed in the area of the reef that we had access to. There was a lot of coral bleaching and damage and not many colorful colors visible. It was also off of a pontoon, and there were many people there, making snorkeling difficult.
We had an excursion with a narrow-gauge train ride to Kuranda and the sky rail back to town. We enjoyed the train ride in particular, but there wasn't much to do in Kuranda in the short time frame we had there. There was nothing to do in Yorkey's Knob. You would have had to go to Cairns or take an excursion in the area.
We did the Litchfield Park Discovery excursion and saw some interesting sites, including waterfalls and termite mounds. The included lunch was not that exciting and was a bit disappointing. It was enjoyable but was very hot in Darwin. We spent a lot of travel time in the bus, however.
We visited many wonderful temples and sites and had an enjoyable lunch. One definitely needs some sort of excursion to navigate around the area. I wouldn't recommend trying to visit Bali on your own.
Beautiful city. We did a city excursion with hotel drop off. The only complaint was there was only one hotel drop off site and we had to wait to get a taxi from there as they weren't pre-arranged to handle the excursion passengers. Dropoffs at the hotel could have been handled better and more drop off locations offered. We spent extra time in Singapore after the cruise ended --it would have been difficult to see much of the city with only a day in port.
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