Celebrity Solstice Cruise Reviews - Reviews

From the start everything was very good organized. As always, room was great, service - excellent, dining - very good, excursion - all "A+".

We are glad we sailed this cruise.

Enjoyed the smoke free casino!  Dining staff very accomadating to my gluten free diet.  Entertainment was excellent.  We would definitely cruise with Celebrity again.

The cable car and train in Cairns were truly magnificent.   The cable car not only takes you up the mountain but over miles of virgin forest on the mountainous terrain.  Pay a little extra for Gold Class on the train; the snacks and drinks are quite good.

The Australia Zoo is very attractive and has all the indigenous local animals.  The crocodile show is a little hokey but fun to watch.

It was an interesting itinerary, but 3 tender ports, which especially @ Bali, took forever.  Therefore very ltd time in Bali which was disappointing.  The two stops for the Great Barrier Reef were enjoyed by my husband snorkeling. Embarkation and disembarkation were smooth.  The cabin steward was good, the ship was in pretty good shape considering it went into drydock when we arrived in Singapore.  

The Main Dining Room suffers from either bland food or disjointed service, or on some nights, both.  The specialty restaurants were great, esp Murano.  Hefty upcharge, but on a long cruise it felt necessary.  The shows were blah, the cruise director seemed a bit odd and some of his jokes seemed tasteless.  

Had a wonderful massage therapist (Nun) who was fabulous.  Usually the Canyon Ranch Spa is very good and it was really great on this cruise.

This is 5th Celebrity cruise in 18 months, and the cutting corners seems apparent, especially in the MDR.  It was a nice cruise, but would have been much better if the tender ports were longer time to be off-ship and if the dining room would bring up the food and service qualities.

Loved the ship and the service.  Always clean.  Very comfortable ship and easy to get around. 

Constant sales pitch to purchase drink and fine dining packages was very annoying.  

Entertainment was good but not great.  

Price of photos was rediculously high. 

Enjoyed every port of call. 

Would definately repeat same cruise. 

The cruise was very good, food was very good, service was excellent and so was the entertainment. The cabin was clean and in good orde . However, the ship is starting to show signs of age and some wear and tear.  But on the whole it did not deter from enjoying the 10 days voyage. 

The food was terrific and the service was outstanding. The excursions were fair. I was impressed that Celebrity made a great effort to accommodate my gluten free requirements. We will definitely sail with Celebrity again. 

the places visited and the history was so interesting and some fantastic scenery.

The food on board could be improved. The price of drinks was way over and our package didn't cover drinks that could be purchased at home for much less.

The ship was was great, the rooms were great and all the staff were great.

The food and score excursions were the best. Diesmbarkation was simply a nightmare. No one especially these elderly travelers should have to wait 2 hours in the line to get a taxi when literally the waterfront in BC was already downtown close to the train which took you directly to the airport and where you could have gone to hail another type of cab.

As an experienced cruiser with RCCL and Norwegian Cruise Lines, but a newcomer to Celebrity, I had high hopes for the Celebrity Solstice based on other cruisers reviews.

COMMENDATIONS:

First off, let me begin by saying that the Ship and its crew are second to none.  Our veranda cabin was pleasantly spacious as compared to our prior veranda cabins on RCCL and NCL's similar accommodations.  Absolutely superb service, excellent food in the main dining room and the Oceanview Cafe, the only two venues we experienced.  My room attendant and her assistance were unobtrusive, efficient, and always greeted us by our names and with a smile. Out head waiter, assistant HW, and our sommelier were all first class both in their knowledge and service. I would have no hesitation booking another cruise on the Solstice.

NEED IMPROVEMENT:

Unfortunately, not everything went as well as one might have hoped for, even when eliminating those situations beyond the control of the Captain and the crew as follows:

1. Itinerary: The Alaskan itinerary of Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway were all excellent as were the tours, even during a 24 hours period of inclement weather. Upon leaving Skagway, we had almost two full days at sea before we reached our 4th stop in Victoria Canada at 5pm on 8 September. As our itinerary only allowed for 5 hours ashore, we chose one of Celebrity's tours "Butterflies and Butchart Gardens".  Due to the limited time before sundown, we only had 30 minutes of daylight at Butchart Gardens to view the impressive gardens before we lost sight of the massive gardens due to darkness. As we returned to the ship shortly after 10pm, we didn't have time to shop from local artisans. I believe that Celebrity could have done better in organizing an itinerary that allowed passengers more time to view the highlights of Victoria, BC, Canada. As the Solstice had only a short 50 mile cruise to its terminus in Vancouver, Celebrity had the requisite time to reorganize the onshore time such that there was more time during the daylight hours.

3. Skyview Cafe:  During day 6, as we continued sailing from Skagway to Victoria, the crew's priorities changed as they readied for our final ports of call at Victoria and Vancouver, B.C., Canada. We were warned that the all the ships duty free shops, the casino, and the portrait gallery would be closing at 4pm, one hour prior to our scheduled arrival at Victoria, B.C., Canada, and would not reopen again for the remainder of the cruise.  Although a half hearted attempt was made to accommodate those of us who were taking Celebrity cruise excursions, we were ultimately left with a 45 minute window to inhale our dinner prior to the tour departure, or to delay dinner until after returning to the Solstice at 10pm. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the Cafe at 10:20pm, we discovered that the Cafe's crew and local managers were in their typical close-out mode that they did every day beginning about 30-45 minutes before the scheduled closing time and was characterized by allowing food items to run out while not replacing them.  The net result for those of us who took advantage of the tours were lost when we left picking-up our dinner from the remaining limited choice food items.  Besides a lighter than normal diet, I was left feeling like we had booked a 6 night cruise rather than a 7 night cruise.

RECOMMENDATION:  Let me take this opportunity to emphasize that not withstanding the issues on day 6 of our cruise,  we thoroughly enjoyed myself aboard the Solstice and look forward to a future cruise onboard.

I didn't feel it was worth the price we paid for the cruise.  There was also a lot of trying to up sell the beverage packages, excursions, restaurants on the ship, etc.

Our room #8226 on the 4th day, our carpet was VERY wet from a leak from the room next door.  On the 5th day it was SMELLING horrible.  When I brought it to our cabin steward, he said they would sprinkle carpet freshener on the carpet and it would be ok.  I told him that I would be asking for a different room and he said that there were no more rooms, we would have to stay.  To say the least, I'm very UNHAPPY with Celebrity Cruise and WOULD NOT sail with them again.

This is one of the best cruise experiences we have had. The Solstice was a great ship, clean and rooms very comfortable. The staff was very attentive always trying to exceed expectations. The itinerary was awesome, we loved Alaska, we fished in Ketchikan, whale watched and went to the Mendenhall glacier in Juneau and took the train through the pass in Skagway. I took four friends with us who also had an excellent experience. The shopping is very good, especially in Ketchikan. Everyone we met were friendly. It is very clean in each town. We stayed at the Hotel Ballard in Seattle and enjoyed a great wine tasting excursion. We will be planning another Cruise to Alaska in the future.

i also want to thank Tina Lorusso from for making all of our arrangements. She is a pleasure to work with and has great follow through and follow up.  

( we were unable to go through Tracy Fjord due to,safety reasons but the captain took us to Dawes glacier which was beautiful.)

Yes, I would recommend this cruise to anyone.  It was an amazing experience, one I will never forget.  Our stateroom was well designed, and our "Unobstructed View" was truly that....nothing but sea and majestic vistas.  My favorite onboard entertainment were the lectures included in the "Behind the Podium" series.  They were so informative, timely as to what we could possibly view that day, entertaining and very well done.  I did purchase the DVD's so I could share what I had learned with my family and friends.  On the subject of "purchasing" items.  We made the decision to not purchase any beverage packages.  It was not a hasty decision, but one based on our consumption.  Please, in the future, do not continue to try to sell additional packages, etc.  It become very annoying.  Also, we were cruising with friends from Australia, so we chose not to book excursions until we could all confer together.  Again, this was something we could do, and we did not need any additional unsolicited prompting from staff. However, with that issued addressed, the staff were wonderful and our cabin stewards were very thoughtful and efficient.  I had pictured sitting on our private veranda sipping coffee or wine and just absorbing the majestic beauty, and  that is exactly what we did.  Thank you for a lovely experience!

Great service, great food, beautiful surroundings. We really enjoyed the presentations by the naturalist and Miss Amanda. The singer who did the Whitney Houston show was very enjoyable. We saw lots of humpback whales right from our stateroom window.We loved having all the best drinks, Internet, tips paid and money to spend onboard.  Love those Perks!

I thought this was a great cruise to get to experience Alaska.  We particularly enjoyed getting to see the glacier up so close.  Celebrity Cruise did a great job, all of the staff that we experienced were helpful and cheerful.  They would go out of their way to make sure you got what you requested. 

Loved the cruise, Buffet at breakfast and lunch, dinner at sit down, Fjords, train ride in Skagway.  Met many new friends and the customer service was top notch

An all around outstanding experience. Everything on the Solstice was top notch. The journey into Endicott Fjord was the highlight of the cruise. Great service throughout the ship. Food was fantastic

The staff and crew made this a great experience! The waiters in the dining room, Peter and Nelson, were amazing. They were funny, interesting, and dealt with some pretty demanding guests with class and style.

Our room attendants, Mari and Jesus, did an amazing job of taking care of all our needs, almost without ever being seen. Our friend and ship board neighbor that we sailed with, mentioned to Mari that the bed was too hard for my wife to sleep comfortably the first night and she added a memory foam topper pad so my wife slept great the rest of the cruise. 

We visited with the photography and videography staff and they were very friendly and interesting.

The Solstice was outstanding.  Great ship with great food and excellent entertainment.  We also enjoyed the ports of the call, especially Ketchikan and Skagway. 

Entertainment was very good

Food in main dining room was under par

Service was not exceptional

Everywhere you turned they were trying to sell something, became very annoying