JayJennyFL

Thanks looking forward to hearing about your trip. Hope you have a wonderful sailing!

Thanks for the insight. Yes we did the penthouse for the Panama Canal sailing and hosted a huge party for our cruise critic group. It was even more awesome because we became good friends with the couple in the other penthouse often having dinner together so it was double the VIP service when they saw us enter a restaurant lol. as for the cabana thing I had not heard of that so please let me know if that’s still the case !

Great thanks!!

Do you know for sailing this direction if starboard will be facing land or water most of the time? I didn’t bother researching as there was only the one penthouse available. Curious as to how the weather will be as we head towards England hoping we can enjoy our balcony some 😉

You should join the roll call. I just commented in there that we booked 😉 and introduced ourselves thus far only 2 other me members besides us .

Sorry you said you are in a Royal suite this time. We are on the starboard penthouse so someone must have grabbed the port one early. If you see it open up lmk;)

Too funny that’s the same one we are booked on so you must be in the other penthouse !! past sailing we did we became great friends with the couple in the other penthouse and even hosted a Panama Canal crossing party together - it was a lot of fun ! Looking forward to meeting you;)

Thanks to everyone with their responses and experiences / opinions . It helped tremendously! We ended up booking the penthouse on eclipse (I thought it was solstice but still in same class ) . The appeal as one poster said of the larger cabin since we spend so much time there won out over the allure of a newer retreat style ship in a royal suite . Plus with us not attending shows in the evenings the expanded entertainment venues/options on E class wasn’t really a draw. Will let you all know once back with a full review ! Sailing is 3/2025.

Liao, just curious of your reasoning for preferring RS or PH on solstice vs say edge class ship ?

Peanut head Thanks for the insight, I realize everyone cruises for different reason and thus why I wanted to share a little background as to the “why” curious - have you sailed on both classes of ships and or Millenium class - do you have a favorite ? Of course nothing quite tops the penthouse in the millenium class with the super huge balcony;)

The intineraries are both similar both transatlantic one is 12 nights (Fort Lauderdale to London) which is solstice the other is 13 nights on apex transatlantic from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona. Same stops on each only the apex ends up in Spain and solstice ends up in London. Cost wise the penthouse on solstice is only about $2000 less overall vs royal on apex which is $2000 more but keep in mind you also have one additionally night on board albeit in a smaller cabin. Thank you for responding - thoughts ?

Ok I know real world problems here- but we haven’t cruised in about 8 years so want to get the make the best choice possible for the money we are spending on our cabin. For background we have only sailed on millennium class ships in the past so never sailed on any ship in the solstice or newer ship like Apex. We have done both the royal suite and penthouse on the millennium class ships so needless to say hubby is spoiled now for life lol. We currently are considering a transatlantic sailimg on the solstice in a penthouse or a different transatlantic sailing on the Apex in a royal suite . Can anyone chime in as to pros of going on newer ship like the apex with the private “ retreat” areas and expanded dining options vs one on the solstice which seems very similar to the millennium class in terms of Michael’s club / and no designated retreat area . Trying to decide if giving up the space of the penhouse on solstice for a smaller cabin on apex is worth it to be able to truly experience the new features celebrity has rolled out since we last cruised. For context - we do spend a good bit of time in our cabin and don’t attend nightly shows and often take advantage of specialty and in room dining. My husband and both have demanding jobs and schedules so by selecting a sea day heavy I timerary it forces us to unwind and relax and we do enjoy good food and wine ! 😎 Any insight /advice/tips or experiences would greatly be welcomed!