Hello:
We returned from our first Celebrity cruise a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share some of my observations from this experience. Overall, we had a great cruise and considered that Celebrity delivers a solid product. We sailed on a Mexican Riviera itinerary from Los Angeles aboard Celebrity Solstice over Thanksgiving. This was our first time doing this itinerary as well.
What we liked:
Embarkation and Debarkation: Both were as easy as it gets. We selected a 1:00pm arrival time. We walked into an empty cruise terminal, the agent scanned our passports and took our photos using a handheld device, and within 10 minutes, we were boarding the ship! Upon debarkation, we opted for self assist, got off the ship at 7:30am (with no lines) right into an empty terminal, walked to face recognition machines, and we were outside in maybe 5 minutes. We were at the LAX airport by 8:30am for our 11:30am flight back to the east coast.
Cold towels and flavored water upon boarding and at all ports of call: It's a small detail, but one that differentiates Celebrity from other mass market cruise lines. It was much appreciated.
Quiet spaces: Maybe it's because I'm getting older (late 40's), but I enjoying having quiet spaces throughout the ship. This ship had plenty.
The lawn club: Before sailing, I thought that this area would be a big waste of space. On the contrary, it was a wonderful area to relax, or watch something on the big screen.
Buffet selection and layout: A step above other cruise lines in terms of selection and quality. Because of the layout, we never found ourselves standing in line. Also, there were plenty of tables available, even during busy periods.
No chair hogs! We didn't spend too much time at the pool, but even if we went there in the middle of the day during prime hours, there seemed to be chairs available, even at prime locations. Could've been because the air temperature was a tad on the cool side, although it was still very enjoyable.
What we didn't like:
Crew seemed to be understaffed: Our cabin steward was absolutely fantastic (probably one of the best we've ever had), but he was working alone. He never seemed to stop no matter what time of day it was, and he looked exhausted most of the time. At the main dining room, the service was disappointingly slow and all over the place. I'm guessing that they may have had new crew members recently join the ship and who were still learning their way around. More than once, we were escorted in circles to our table because they couldn't find our table number. Some times we would sit down and wait while tables that were sat after ours had their food and drink orders taken right away.
Connecting door layout: We had two connecting balconies. On Solstice, the connecting door is outside the actual staterooms, creating a small alcove that connects the rooms. Clever, but a bit impractical. In addition to the key cards to our respective staterooms, additional key cards had to be issued for the exterior door, as well as additional keys to operate the other room main door. So all of us had to carry 3 keys to ensure we always had access and were never locked out of the other room.
Main stage entertainment: Besides two shows, the performances the rest of the week were a bit of a letdown. Uninspiring and unimaginative. Several solo artists in front of a black curtain. Compared to performances on other cruise lines, it fell considerably short of expectations.
Solstice is a very nice, well kept ship, but it feels like she's ready to for an update. I had read that Solstice had been scheduled to be "revolutionized", but that it had been pushed back due to covid. Honestly, I was expecting for the ship to look run down so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it didn't. It looked well kept with no serious signs of wear and tear. However, her decor feels a bit outdated, somewhat like staying at an older Marriott or Westin. Not in bad shape, just ready to be modernized a bit. Somewhat killed the "modern luxury" advertising.
Overall, we had a GREAT time, and the more time I spent on the cruise, the more I appreciated what Celebrity has to offer. True, not everything was perfect, but the short list of negatives was far outweighed by the positives. The overall vibe was a step above other cruise lines we've sailed on without feeling overly stuffy. We would definitely love to sail on Celebrity again. Here are some photos from our cruise.
Hello World cruisers: I’m someone who starts researching ports of call and planning activities ashore well in advance. I like to have everything planned and booked. Not a “let’s go ashore and see what we can find” kind of guy. While that has worked fine on shorter cruises with a handful of ports of call, researching and having activities pre planned and booked for each port of call on a world cruise sounds overwhelming. So, what do seasoned world cruisers do? Do you research and plan each port of call? Do you only plan activities on some? Go with the flow? I’d love to read your feedback! Thanks for your time!
