Celebrity Solstice Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Love the ship, beautiful locations for amazing photo's. The select group for this cruise was an elderly group. (walkers, wheelchairs everywhere)This particular cruise is not your typical party boat. If you want to get away and relax or spend some quality time with family and/or friend(s) this is the cruise for you. Perfect ship to take mom or grandma on. I enjoyed seeing the elderly enjoy life in their golden years. God Is Good!!!

The food was plentiful, however the same menu everyday was a bit boring towards the end of the cruise. I was expecting at least one night of CRAB ~ I mean we're traveling Alaska. The only good show was the dancers, one comedian left the boat early and the one who took his place was reading from his notes. I felt a little cheated.

Our room service was good. We tipped him very well. Although I was expecting more towel designs upon entering the room at night. One animal looking arrangement for the entire trip.

Pros:

This was our 12th cruise and we think the food was consistently the best of all our cruises.

The guest speakers (Brent Nixon and Amanda) were exceptional and added a great deal of knowledge of the animals we saw and cities we visited.

The Soltice is a beautiful ship and is well organized for a smaller ship.

The staff were all attentive and smiling, delightful people without exception.

Cons:

The tendering in Juneau was tedious and took much longer than it seemed it should have. We didn't get to the dock until 2:40 pm for a 2:00 pm excursion. 

It was difficult to find a seat in the buffet dining room at peak meal time. We usually ate breakfast in the main dining room.

First time to Alaska. Highlight were the views especially the views on the Inside passage. Solstice was an excellent ship. Plenty of room and an excellent attentive staff. Eddy (stateroom) and Geovanny (dining room) took excellent care of us. Alaskan cruise is a trip everyone should take at least once.

After many cruises, my wife and I enjoyed our Alaska adventure through our favorite travel agent Mr Eddie Malone with Cruises Only. We were impressed with every aspect of our trip, from our initial contact with our agent and the ease with the booking process, the arrangement of our shore excursions, our on board accommodations on our Celebrity Cruise ship Solstice, whose staff and crew members made us feel so welcomed, the people at all of our ports of call, who were so friendly, answering all of our questions and concerns and making our adventure  a truly memorable experience!!!       

Decent ship. Was not overwhelmed with food and ambiance. Was overwhelmed with the journey, the shows, the speakers, etc.  National geographic scientist, Brett Nixon was on board doing wildlife programs. We couldn’t wait to hear him each time. The most outstanding teacher I have ever had

Would recommend this cruise to anyone.  The rooms were like a hotel and cleaned every day.  The food was excellent - no matter if you went to the buffet or one of the fancy restaurants.  All the cruise staff were friendly and helpful.  The Celebrity Solstice was like cruising in a 4 star hotel.

First ever cruise and we were so very pleased.  What an awesome experience and Celebrity was wonderful!  Very friendly and attentive staff. Staff was constantly cleaning, welcoming, and smiling.  However, we were confused and undecided about the beverage packages and talking to lady from guest relations didn't help much since there was somewhat of a language barrier.  We just gave up and bought the classic package and was glad we did.  For those of us who don't like standing in lines and want to avoid crowds, getting in line early and returning a little earlier is well worth it!  Highly recommend Celebrity Solstice and would go again!

Everything about this cruise lived up to its billing: wonderful veranda stateroom, great food, good shore excursions, and endless entertainment. We especially appreciated the nature talks by onboard naturalist, Brent Nixon, and the very entertaining port talks by "Miss Amanda", Mary Amanda Fairchild. The highlight was traveling up Tracy Arm Fjord to see the Sawyer Glacier up close...all accompanied by narration from the naturalist. Throughout the cruise we saw Humpback and Orca whales, Dalls porpoise and many eagles - just what one would expect to see in Alaska.

We were celebrating our 25th anniversary & decided to take a cruise to Alaska.  We searched the internet for the "right cruise & deal"!  We received BOTH!  We can't say enough about the experience onboard the Celebrity Solstice!!  The staff of this vessel are amazing & exceeded our expectations!!  From our stateroom steward - Andre and his fellow staff, the Port Shopping Guide - Kimberly & her staff, the Beyond the Podium lectures from Brent Nixon and the Port highlights from Ms. Amanda, all the Food Service staff, the Captain & his crew, our Cruise Director - Ben!!  It is truly an experience of a lifetime!!

Recently retired and never had been on a cruise before.  We loved it.  From the helpfulness of the person who booked our cruise through the onboard experiences and the destinations and excursions in Alaska, it was fantastic.The only disappointment was that it had to end.  Celebrity Solstice was an excellent ship and cruise.  The ship was clean and well kept.  The balcony stateroom was more than I expected.  I know we overpacked, but there was room for everything.  Our room attendant was helpful and friendly and took care of us well.  When our luggage didn't arrive as soon as expected, he went searching for it and delivered it piece by piece as he found it.  He truly seemed to care about the people he was helping.  The entertainment aboard ship was constant and high quality.  The excursions, while pricey, were fun although sometimes too short.  The food was great.  We upgraded two evenings to specialty restaurants, the Tuscan and Murano, which were both great choices.  The food and service made both special evenings.  In the main dining room the food was also great and we got to meet people from all over the US and world and have a great time.  We may try a different cruise line to compare, but Celebrity will be hard to beat.

We have cruised several times on various cruise lines.  We might of had our expectations too high, but we were disappointed with so many service related items.  For example, some of our luggage was not delivered to our room until 9:00pm and one bag was lost completely.  We had to call multiple times and go to guest relations to retrieve it.  Our cabin steward was wonderful, but our "concierge" level cabin was very run down.  The closet was broken, the phone was broken, stains on the couch, the hair dryer was held together with tape.  Also the TV did not work most of the time.  They did re-start the entertainment system a couple of times and that seemed to fix it.  What was very frustrating was that for the entire cruise, the 'navigation function' (where we were cruising) did not work and the on board "account" system did not work.  Granted, we could of gone back to guest relations (again) to check the status of our account and we did not.  We unfortunately had money left in our account that went unused.  Another disappointment was the room service. Based on the "concierge" level, it was supposed to be enhanced.  We would of settled for reliable and somewhat prompt.  For example, each morning when we would call in for a pot of coffee, it would arrive 45 - 60 minutes later.  One morning it took 3 hours for us to get coffee.  We had to make multiple calls which was also frustrating because the phone would just disconnect.  They ended up telling us that the waiter bringing it to us dropped it in the elevator and never told anyone.  We did enjoy the scenery and we did enjoy the 'select dining' and the staff was very accommodating in allowing us to dine alone as we were celebrating our anniversary.  It just seemed that there was no extra effort extended.  When we would attempt to contact staff regarding an issue we were always told "we will get back to you" and only one time did that happen.

Nice ship (Solstice) and stateroom.

Room service could not get the order correct and kept calling us by the wrong name.

Room steward was excellent.

This was my 5th cruise. Maybe my expectations were too high because the other cruises had great food. The main dining was really poor. One night the salmon was good the next night it was awful. They call the steak "new york sirloin", trying to fool you into thinking it was a new york cut but really a cheap sirloin. The prime rib was poor and their other steak was thin like a shoe sole and was a poorer quality than a greasy spoon. The ice cream was amazing - amazingly bad - cheap junk - maybe from China. We paid extra for Gelato thinking it would be good, but it was cheap poor quality also. The pizza on our 2007 Carnival cruise was excellent - like a top restaurant, but the pizza on this Celebrity cruise was just barely edible. The buffet was closed early - no midnight fun as on Caribbean cruises and most of the food was cheap poor quality - home town buffet like. My first cruise in 1995 was a celebrity and the food was fantastic - I guess they cheapened up after the 2008 crash and never came back. Night after night the main dining food was disappointing. At least the waiter was very good and pleasant.

2800 people on our ship pulling into port. Seems like a lot of people for an Alaska town. But then there were also 3 other ships in port at the same time! Wow - wall to wall people. In Skagway I was choking on the diesel exhaust from the train, buses, ships, etc. until we got far away from the port.

It was a nice cruise up the Tracy Arm Fjord for the scenery. It was the best part of the cruise.

Entertainment on the ship was excellent.

If I had it all to do over again, I would look at the schedule for the first cruise date and then fly up to Juneau the week before that first cruise. Then you will have the place to yourself and see Alaska without all the crowds of people and pollution.

It was more than i expected....crews were friendly and professionals ....ship is immaculately neat and clean not to mention our stateroom.... the only disappointing on this cruise was the internet connection ....i did use their ILounge to get into my email ...created an account and chose rate per minute.... I was charge for 10 minutes or so for nothing....I wasn't able to get into my email ...it took me 2-3 minutes to get into a site or window....other than that...all is well ....

The cruise was absolutely fantastic.  The stateroom was beautiful.  We were greeted with a bottle of champagne on ice and some light snacks along with some fresh fruit.  I would highly recommend upgrading to a balcony cabin for this cruise.  We had the late dinner seating which wasn't what we wanted but it was okay - food was great and the head waiter Nico was fantastic.  He had our drinks ready for us every night.  The ports were fantastic - had beautiful weather and enjoyed each port of call more than the next.  I highly recommend going on the whale watching excursion - we saw more than a dozen humpback whales in Juneau and a few put on quite a show for us by jumping out of the water and one even came right up to the boat.  The glaciers were amazing - make sure you have plenty of memory in your camera - well worth taking every picture you can.  The staff on the ship was very nice and waited on your every need.  I really can't say anything bad about the entire experience.

Beautiful ship, incredible scenery, wonderful weather, attentive service, very good food (in main dining room/specialty restaurants).  Ship passengers predominantly rural, middle Americans with casual disregard for manners and social graces. Ports were strictly geared to 'kitch' souvenir shops and tourist trap restaurants.   Shore excursions were offensively over-priced and seemed designed to process as many tourists as possible in any given time frame.

From the time we left port to the time we got off we had nothing but first class service and the weather was picture postcard.  Food was great, our waiter was the best ever.  It made it even better with the wonderful Brent Nixon who had fabulous lectures about eagles, bears, whales and sea lions and walked us through the Tracy Arm, picked out bears, eagles and other wildlife and all what was going on.  I highly recommend this ship and the trip to anyone.  

Staff needs English lessons--also very surly.

Had to wait over 1/2 hour for dinner after ordering.  When waiter asked, was told they forgot about us.

Dining room food was good.  Specialty restaurants too expensive.  Other cruise lines charge $20 PER COUPLE, not $45 per person.

Excursion descriptions vague and uninformative.

Dining hours seemed to change randomly.

Overall it was a good experience. The food was good and the service also.  I just felt that the crew could have smiled a lot more. they all looked so serious even when I smiled at them and a greeting just doesn't feel like a greeting if not accompanied with a smile.  They all had very strong accents and it was difficult to understand what they were saying.   It is frustrating and embarrassing when you have to ask someone to repeat themselves three or four times.  I stopped listening to the Captain's speech because by the time I figure out what it sounded like he said I had missed the next sentence.  I was on the Celebrity Solstice and we got a towel animal two of the seven nights and then I couldn't figure out what it was.  The crew and ship were run very efficiently I just felt like I was on a business trip rather than a cruise.  Other cruise lines I have been on have had a much friendlier staff and wider selection in the buffet.  Solstice's looked like a cafeteria.

This was our second cruise to Alaska and we really enjoyed it.  Weather was great and the sights were fantastic.  As we expected, the crew of the Solstice were excellent.  If you are lucky enough to have "Miss Amanda" giving presentations on your ship don't miss her!!!! 

the service was great, along with great food.  we had wonderful weather which made it even greater.  the beds and pillows need to be upgraded (very poor quality) but other then that it was great.