Celebrity Solstice – The Good, The Bad and …

… no, there wasn’t any Ugly, except for the weather on the morning we arrived in Hobart ;)

Over Christmas 2015 we enjoyed a 12 night cruise around NZ, departing from Auckland, and back to Sydney via Hobart. We chose this cruise as it enabled us to catch up with friends and family in NZ, and also because we wanted to try Celebrity. Previously we have cruised on Sun Princess (the previous Christmas), Dawn Princess, and Rhapsody of the Seas.

This was the first cooler weather cruise that we had done, and also had a higher percentage of port days at the beginning of the cruise.

We also found the demographic quite different. More Americans, Canadians, British, Europeans and Asians, including a couple of Asian tour groups. Consequently there seemed to be less Aussies and Kiwis than on our other cruises. There were quite a few children, as you would expect on a Christmas cruise. We rarely saw them but we heard some of them more often than we would have liked.

Embarkation, Auckland NZ

Since we had been staying close to the wharf, we dropped our luggage off around 10:30am, then returned our rental car to the depot near Auckland airport. We arrived back at the wharf around 11:30am and were allowed to commence boarding even though our recommended boarding time was not until quite late in the afternoon. Check-in was very quick, there was a longish queue for immigration but the queue moved very quickly. Despite the usual number of idiots who forgot to remove phones, keys, coins etc from their pockets before going through the arch, the security check was also quick and before we knew it we were dinged on-board.

We enjoyed the complimentary glass of champagne while we upgraded our drinks package. Our cabin was not ready yet and we didn’t fancy battling the crowds at the Oceanview buffet with our carry-ons, so we decided to spend the extra $10pp for lunch at Bistro on Five. A wise choice, in my opinion. Nice food in peaceful surroundings. During lunch we heard the announcement that cabins were ready so went straight to ours after lunch to drop off our carry-ons. We met our room stewards who were getting ready to deliver our luggage – they already knew we had four bags, very impressive. We went for a quick exploration of the ship and our bags were in our cabin when we got back.

The Cabin.

We liked the location of our cabin, 7187, midships on deck 7, halfway between both sets of elevators. The view directly downwards was blocked by the tenders below us but that wasn’t an issue for us. We were glad we had chosen low and midships when we crossed the Tasman through some moderately heavy seas. Heavy enough for me to wish the bed had seatbelts on one night to stop me feeling like I was rolling out of bed. According to DH I eventually solved that problem by sleeping diagonally across the bed. ;)

The cabin was spacious and comfortable. We had a bed-by-bathroom configuration which meant a bit of to-ing and fro-ing when getting dressed as storage was split between the wardrobe and some drawers next to the desk. There was extra storage over the bed too. The only negative was the bedside tables which were just shelves, not drawers. OK in calm seas but I didn’t fancy crawling under the bed to retrieve items that had fallen off if we hit rough seas. A quick trip to the Paihia bargain store for two small plastic baskets on our first port day solved that problem.

The air-conditioning was effective and I was able to get the cabin cool enough for me to sleep comfortably.

The bathroom was large, with a really good shower and shower doors that did not leak at all. A miracle! :) There was plenty of storage in drawers and narrow cupboards. The only negative here was that there was no pull-out clothes line over the shower, just two knobs on one wall which were too close together to hang both our swimwear items for effective drying.

The balcony was spacious, the balcony chairs were very comfortable, and there was a decent-sized table as well.

We did notice more external noise in our cabin than we had experienced on other cruises. We could hear the TV from the cabin back-to-back with ours, and twice our TV turned on when the folks in that cabin turned theirs on/off. On a couple of occasions the people in the other cabin adjacent to ours disturbed us with loud conversations. The worst noise came from people, presumably children, running in the corridor outside our cabin and also on the deck above. Bad enough during the day but it became really annoying late at night. :mad: We’d never noticed this on previous ships and, yes, we had cruised on Sun Princess the previous Christmas where there were lots of children on-board.

The Ship.

Overall we liked Solstice, particularly the Sky (Observation) Lounge, overlooking the bow of the ship. What a wonderful place to sit and watch sailaways, particularly in some of the NZ harbours that had very narrow channels. Fascinating!

Solstice was the smoothest ship we have ever been on although we did notice some movement crossing the Tasman where we experienced the biggest seas we had encountered to date, around 5 metres I think. Interestingly we really noticed the vibration from the side thrusters on leaving port when we were sitting up in the Sky Lounge, but barely noticed it in our cabin.

This was the biggest cruise ship we have been on so far with close to 3,000 passengers on our cruise. The ship rarely felt crowded though, except when there was something interesting on in the centrum, then it was almost impossible to move around any of the decks in that area. Oddly, the centrum area seemed smaller than the atrium on the two Princess ships we’d been on, or perhaps it was just the design, with the two banks of elevators off one end of it. On Princess the atrium always felt like the “heart” of the ship but we didn’t get that feeling on Solstice.

The public areas were decorated for Christmas and looked very pretty. However I think Princess does Christmas decorations better. I missed the small decoration on the mailbox of every cabin that Sun Princess had, these made the corridors look very festive. The other negative was that Celebrity had placed poinsettas on either side of the stairways in the centrum – they looked great but narrowed the stairway so much it was hard to pass people going in the opposite direction.

There seemed to be plenty of sun-loungers on the upper decks, with some sections shaded on the Lido deck and also on the deck above. There is also an adults-only covered pool. We only spent one afternoon in the covered pool area, and managed to get sun-loungers without too much difficulty. We didn’t try the pool but soaked for a while in one of the hot tubs, which were nice and hot.

We joined other Cruise Critic members up at the Lawn Club for sailaway. It was quite cool that evening but there were lovely tartan rugs to keep us warm. We did try this area on our last sea day but found it unpleasant due to engine fumes swirling down from the funnels. Great concept though, and probably a nice place to sit late afternoon on a port day, as long as it’s upwind of the funnels.

The MDR was very elegant. We chose traditional dining and were assigned a great table in the lower part of the dining room, tucked behind the stairway. We think it was the best table in the MDR as it didn’t get any passing traffic and was relatively quiet. We were able to try other sections of that MDR during our breakfasts, and also the upper level for lunch. There was only one entrance to the lower level as Luminae had taken over the starboard side. This wasn’t a big issue but it did slow down the entry into the MDR at night.

We loved Café Bacio but, why oh why did they put such huge chairs in there. Not only did they take up a lot of space so that seating was more limited than it should have been, the ones by the window had such high backs that they blocked the view.

The Ensemble Lounge was very comfortable but had a lot of through traffic with people going to Blu or the speciality restaurants. However this was one of our favourite places for a quiet drink before or after dinner, although the list of interesting drinks was very limited, but the classics were always available.

We found the centrum area was always very noisy at night, there was always something going on there and any music was played at quite high volume. The Martini Bar (deck 4) had some great cocktails but some of the seating near it was very uncomfortable. The Passport Bar (deck 3) was also good when you could get a seat.

We tried the Molecular Bar a couple of times. Interesting drinks – I liked the Nutty Berry as an after dinner cocktail. The bar didn’t have much ambiance and wasn’t really a place you wanted to linger.

We never got around to trying Cellarmasters, although we do like good wine. Too busy trying out all the exotic cocktails, I guess.

One thing Solstice lacks is quiet indoor spaces. The library on deck 10 overlooks the centrum and so was subject to all the noise from that area. The card room was in a similar position on deck 9.

The casino, on deck 4, was completely open to one side, with the main walkway between it and the shops. It seemed mostly empty every time we walked past.

Food and Wine.

The meals in the MDR were of a high standard, although there were no dishes that really stood out. However I did notice that quite a few dishes, especially appetisers, appeared on the menu more than once with only minor variations, and there wasn’t the variety that we’d had on our Princess cruises. Lobster was served on the second formal night but it was slightly overcooked - a bit dry and tough. I also thought the desserts were very boring after the first few days, and it was hard to find something light other than gelato. They did do great Xmas pudding though.

We were very impressed with the sommelier service, and with the selection of wines available by the glass. We told our wonderful sommelier, Komang, what we had chosen for dinner and he always came up with an interesting wine to try with each course. In this aspect, Celebrity is far better than Princess, the selection of wines by the glass was impressive and all the wines we had were excellent.

As mentioned earlier, we had our embarkation lunch at Bistro on Five, and it was delicious. I had a spicy beef crepe which was so huge I only managed to eat half of it. Mind you, we did start with the French onion soup which was very filling.

We tried Murano one evening. Although it was a notch higher than the MDR, with some dishes cooked at the table, I didn’t think it was worth an extra $50pp. It did have dishes, like venison, that didn’t appear on the MDR menu. The service from our waiter was superb but the sommelier was arrogant and unhelpful. I asked for more information about the zinfandel that he recommended with my venison main, asking what other wines did it compare to as zinfandel is not common in Australia and I do have to be careful what reds I drink – cabernet sauvignon gives me bad headaches. He didn’t give me any useful information about the wine but luckily I remembered that it was similar to the Australian durif so knew I would enjoy it, and I did. The sommelier also got in a snit when DH questioned the matching of port to the cheeses we had chosen, saying he’d prefer a sauternes. In the end I chose the port and DH got his sauternes. DH was correct – the port went well with one of the cheeses but not at all well with the other two, whereas the sauternes went well with all three.

We also tried Silk Harvest for lunch one day. It was excellent and, at $20pp, well worth it. The duck was superb, probably the stand-out dish of the cruise for us. We’d definitely go back to this restaurant again although the evening price ($35pp I think) seemed excessive.

We’re not fond of buffet restaurants so only tried the Oceanview restaurant for breakfast on a couple of mornings when we’d slept later than intended. There was a good selection of food but the Asian dumplings were half cold and gluggy, and the noodles tasted weird – too vinegary and a tad too much chilli. Both times the restaurant was crowded and noisy, and it was hard to find a clean table.

Service

Our room stewards were friendly and efficient. They always greeted us by name when they saw us in passing. There was on one slight error when facecloths weren’t left in our bathroom on one occasion but, other than that, we had very good service. After the first couple of nights they realised that we didn’t like the sheets at the bottom of the bed tucked in and left them untucked from then on. It’s the little things like that that make the difference between ordinary service and great service.

Our regular MDR waiter was excellent. On one occasion I didn’t like the soup I’d chosen and he served a replacement appetiser to me much quicker than I expected. His assistant was good but made a few mistakes when serving the various selections to our table of eight. Overall we were very happy with the dinner service.

As mentioned earlier, our sommelier was outstanding.

We ate lunch in the MDR on the four sea days and the service was reasonable. However the breakfast service in the MDR was a joke. There seemed to be a large number of staff wandering around immediately after we were seated offering juice, pastries, water and coffee, but sometimes we had to wait quite a while to place our order. One morning we waited 45 minutes before we got any food – 20 minutes to order and 25 minutes for the fruit plates to arrive. Most mornings, before we had finished our breakfast, most of the staff disappeared to other sections of the dining room, leaving plates uncleared, and making it difficult to get extra tea or a speciality coffee. DH gave up with the coffee after a few days, it was easier to go straight to Café Bacio after breakfast to get coffee.

Service in Café Bacio was also a bit hit-and-miss, especially at the beginning of the cruise. It seemed to improve later on, or maybe they allocated more staff to this area.

We had good service at all of the bars that we tried, even when very busy.

Entertainment.

Great trivia with a wide variety of questions, not US-centric either. We didn’t win but we had lots of fun.

We only went to three of the theatre shows, all production shows. They were excellent and very high energy. We find the timing of the shows awkward, especially on a port-intensive itinerary. Because we chose the late dinner sitting at 8:30 we had to go to the early shows at 7pm, which often didn’t suit us. We prefer the timings on Princess where late dinner is at 7:45 with a 9:45-10pm show to follow.

Overall we were disappointed with the music around the ship. There were good musicians in the Ensemble Lounge but most of the music in the centrum was either disco or singers using recorded backing tracks, and most of the time the music wasn’t to our taste. We were disappointed that there wasn’t a really good band playing music from all eras, like the one on our Rhapsody of the Seas cruise.

Port Days

We had two tender ports, the Bay of Islands and Akaroa. We were in no hurry to get off the ship as we have been to both these places before and weren’t going on any excursions, so we waited until the early rush died down. The tendering was efficient. We also made sure we headed back onboard reasonably early. In the Bay of Islands a free shuttle service is provided between the tender wharf at Waitangi and Paihia. Akaroa is very small and the tender wharf is on one side of the town, close to cafes and shops.

Tauranga is a very easy port, with the Mt Maunganui shops, cafes, and beaches just a short stroll away.

The Wellington dock is a decent walk from the central part of the city, but shuttle buses are provided for a fee. These stop at two locations in the city.

Port Chalmers (Dunedin) is a 15-20 minute drive from Dunedin city. Shuttle buses are provided for a fee. There are shops and cafes at Port Chalmers but it is a very small settlement.

The wharf at Hobart is very central but it is a relatively long walk to get out of the wharf complex. There was a shuttle bus which cut the walk down a bit.

At all the ports there were friendly locals who provided maps and information, and in some cases passport stamps for those that wanted them (gold coin donation for the stamp).

Disembarkation.

The worst part of the cruise. :( At least we got to choose our disembarkation time, unlike on RCI. Again, since we were in no rush to get to airports or go on a post-cruise tour, we chose the latest at 9am. We went down for an early breakfast, leaving our carry-ons and stuff in our cabin. We were back at our cabin well before the requested departure time of 8am, but found our cabin door open and the stewards already stripping and remaking the bed. This seemed a bit odd. We packed up our last bits and pieces and were out of the cabin by 7:55am. We found a quiet spot to read until close to our disembarkation time. Our group wasn’t called until 9:20am but was very quick from then on, with the usual efficient luggage collection.

We had arranged for a friend to pick us up at the OPT and this proved to be very awkward as there is no place for private cars to stop and wait. She had to keep circulating until we got outside of the terminal building. Even then, it was pot luck if a spot opened up so we could load our luggage and ourselves into the car. In this respect White Bay is much easier as there is adequate short term parking near the terminal.

Conclusion.

We like Celebrity almost as much as we like Princess, and Solstice is a great ship for cooler climate cruising. We’ve booked another NZ cruise on Solstice in February 2017.

Because Celebrity only comes here for our summer season, a good time for NZ cruises but not so good for tropical cruises, we are less likely to book regularly with Celebrity.

Princess still remains our favourite cruise line, mostly because there are Princess ships based out of Australia all year round and most of those cruises are in AUD. With the current exchange rate that really makes a difference, plus Princess have been offering very good deals for OBC on non-AUD cruises.

Excellent review, one of the best I have seen, thank you.

We did the Solstice in Feb 2014, Syd-NZ- Syd. Overall good, but no walk around/wrap around promenade deck and I thought the Buffet was all over the place, difficult for service. In the MDR food was often lukewarm, due to the ceramic heating plates I was told by the Head Chef and Maitre 'D.' I did like the cabins. We up forward in Concierge Balcony class, same deck as bridge, in fact only half a dozen cabins behind entry to bridge, fairly stable, although seas were kind.

Our one and only Celebrity cruise, like you we prefer Princess.

Great review ... It makes me nostalgic for this ship. I'd love to cruise on her again (maybe a repo cruise in a couple of years time).

In the MDR food was often lukewarm, due to the ceramic heating plates I was told by the Head Chef and Maitre 'D.'

We never had a problem with lukewarm food, it was always hot. They must have solved that issue since your cruise.

I don't think we ever went out on the promenade deck, which is unusual for us. It was closed on a couple of the sea days, I think.

Thanks for your review. We disembarked yesterday from the NYE South Pacific cruise, and it was FANTASTIC!

We like to try various lines, and this year have cruised RCCL, Cunard, Princess and P&O - but our cruise on Celebrity Solstice was the best.

Cheers

Rosie

One thing I forgot to mention was that the taps in the public restrooms were not auto-operating. You had to touch them to start the water flowing and it didn't flow for long enough to properly wash hands.

Also some of the buttons to open the entrance door to the toilets were placed in obscure positions. They were quite large but oddly hard to see.

Thanks for your review. We disembarked yesterday from the NYE South Pacific cruise, and it was FANTASTIC!

We like to try various lines, and this year have cruised RCCL, Cunard, Princess and P&O - but our cruise on Celebrity Solstice was the best.

 

Cheers

Rosie

I would have loved to have done that cruise B2B with the Christmas one.

We're slowly working our way through the various cruise lines. We'd love to do Cunard but may avoid P&O Australia although I'd like to try P&O UK.

We never had a problem with lukewarm food, it was always hot. They must have solved that issue since your cruise.

 

I don't think we ever went out on the promenade deck, which is unusual for us. It was closed on a couple of the sea days, I think.

From memory the prom deck on Solstice was the boat deck, which went nowhere.

From memory the prom deck on Solstice was the boat deck, which went nowhere.

Deck 5, whatever it's called. :D

Yes, it doesn't appear to go anywhere except along each side of the ship. We did notice some people sitting out there sometimes.

Thanks for the review, it is interesting as we got on as you got off. :D

Thanks for the review, it is interesting as we got on as you got off. :D

I'll be interested in hearing your views on the ship.

Deck 5, whatever it's called. :D

 

Yes, it doesn't appear to go anywhere except along each side of the ship. We did notice some people sitting out there sometimes.

Yes, the promenade deck goes from the front (about level with the forward lift bank) and goes all around the rear. The great thing about this deck is that it is fairly wide and allows people to turn around quite easily, so instead of doing revolutions of the ship you can walk from one side around to the other and then turn around and do it in reverse.:cool:

The bad thing is that there are smoking areas on one side.:(

I'll be interested in hearing your views on the ship.

Rosie has submitted a review, should be published soon.:D

I have very good memories of the Solstice. It is a great ships and I hope it sticks around here some more.

One thing I liked about it was the large size and the way the passengers are all absorbed. If you take a comparison with the larger Princess ships like Crown, Emerald, Ruby and Caribbean, Solstice is larger than them but carries less passengers.

Appreciate your detailed, balanced review! We board the Solstice in Auckland on the 19th and are hoping for sunny days and calm seas as well as hoping to catch early tenders in Bay of Islands & Akaroa, where my nephew at Otago U. will be spending the day with us since we opted for the Queenstown overnight excursion out of Dunedin.

Great tip re: the nightstands in rough weather- would hate to have to go crawling about searching for fallen items.

Great review. Nicely balanced and made me feel like we were on her again. I would agree with many of your observations regarding the bars, lack of quiet seating & quite noisy in a weird sort of centrum setup, and we also thought they were good production shows.

We had an issue with our adjoining neighbours in that we found both times (we moved cabins on our back to back trip) they slammed the doors quite a lot, and we felt that came from them having their balcony doors open and having visitors a fair bit. The set up with the doors being close to the internal cabin wall seemed to make the whole wall inside our cabin shake when the door was slammed. We have rarely seen on any other cruises people next door having regular visitors. On the first leg the people had relatives in an inside cabin up the hall, but they were better once we asked nicely to please not slam the door. On the second leg must have been something similar, but as the Asian family did not understand us when we asked simple polite request (by the blank looks when we asked) we could only demonstrate how annoying the slamming door is, but they didn't seem to care. Otherwise we liked the size of the cabin and bathroom, but would agree the wardrobe being on the other side of the bed from the drawers is a bit impractical when you are both getting ready.

The only big difference we found from your experience was that we loved the variety of food in the Oceanview buffet, and went there quite a lot for lunch and dinner on our 20 night B2B trip. The food was often a lot of the same offerings, but as there was so much variety to start with we found we really liked eating there. As the hours of the buffet were longer than we have seen on Royal Caribbean we found that it was easier to get a seat at lunch or dinner if you didn't go peak times, and in the evenings we found the food good as well, when we were there after 8 - 8.30 pm, and there were quite a few officers (lower ranking mainly) eating there, but plenty of seating available.

We did the Select/anytime dining for the main dining room, and found the service and food good, but we like to mix it up and sometimes get a quick snack in the evening, or we did the specialities a couple of times. Would agree that Muranos was nice, but it was a lot of money on top of the fact that you were already paying for a meal in your fare that was a pretty high standard. We did Tuscan Grille also, and it was great, but way to much food really for us in the evenings. I know we don't have to eat it all, but it was nice!

We are looking forward to cruising on Solstice again. We are starting to do some research on Princess though. We hear so many good reports about Princess, both online and when we talk to other cruisers on board. Was interested to hear that you still found Princess a bit better than Solstice.

I agree that the door often closes louder when the balcony door is open.

As you mentioned, letting your neighbour know how they can close the door quieter is a good move that can save a lot of agro later in the cruise.:D

As for quiet areas to read, there are quite a few, but you may have to move around from one to the other during the day. I find the balcony or on the bed is really good without having to move too much.

Appreciate your detailed, balanced review! We board the Solstice in Auckland on the 19th and are hoping for sunny days and calm seas as well as hoping to catch early tenders in Bay of Islands & Akaroa, where my nephew at Otago U. will be spending the day with us since we opted for the Queenstown overnight excursion out of Dunedin.

 

Great tip re: the nightstands in rough weather- would hate to have to go crawling about searching for fallen items.

You should be able to find a discount store in downtown Auckland to get little baskets or even at a supermarket - there is a big Countdown supermarket just a few blocks from the Ferry Terminal, a very easy walk.

Hope you have a great cruise.

Thanks for adding your comments, Goodycruising.

We had a problem with something rattling in our balcony door. It was a weird sound, quite loud, and took us a while to figure out where it was coming from. We contacted guest services and they sent someone up to fix it. I think something was loose.

Shame about your noisy neighbours. They really need something on the doors to stop them slamming.

We just don't enjoy the whole buffet experience and, after our last cruise on Dawn Princess where we had lunch a few times from the Terrace Grill, I'm even more determined to avoid buffets where I can. We both came down with the respiratory illness that was doing the rounds on that cruise, despite being very careful with washing and sanitising our hands - I carry small bottles of foam sanitiser with me all the time.

As for quiet areas to read, there are quite a few, but you may have to move around from one to the other during the day. I find the balcony or on the bed is really good without having to move too much.

Those options depend on having quiet neighbours. :D

To me, there is nothing more irritating than to have someone else's TV burbling through the cabin wall.

Not that we had much time for quiet reading, we always seemed to be doing something. But I was surprised to find the library in such a noisy area.

Thanks for adding your comments, Goodycruising.

 

We had a problem with something rattling in our balcony door. It was a weird sound, quite loud, and took us a while to figure out where it was coming from. We contacted guest services and they sent someone up to fix it. I think something was loose.

 

Shame about your noisy neighbours. They really need something on the doors to stop them slamming.

 

We just don't enjoy the whole buffet experience and, after our last cruise on Dawn Princess where we had lunch a few times from the Terrace Grill, I'm even more determined to avoid buffets where I can. We both came down with the respiratory illness that was doing the rounds on that cruise, despite being very careful with washing and sanitising our hands - I carry small bottles of foam sanitiser with me all the time.

The solstice has a locking mechanism on the centre partition of the balcony door, this can sometimes rattle if not in the fully open or locked position.

We also avoid the buffet and found Bistro on Five more than adequate for the peace and civility of a leisurely lunch.:D

Those options depend on having quiet neighbours. :D

 

To me, there is nothing more irritating than to have someone else's TV burbling through the cabin wall.

 

Not that we had much time for quiet reading, we always seemed to be doing something. But I was surprised to find the library in such a noisy area.

Agreed, I put the TV on easy listening music so it drowns out the other distracting noises but only just.

Cellar Masters is quite nice as a bit of a hideaway during the day.

Thank you.

 

 

We've just added a cruise on her to our possible list for this Christmas.

 

We have done on X cruise and were very happy with it.

We are also looking to do this.:)

RCI are way overpriced ATM.:eek:

We are also looking to do this.:)

RCI are way overpriced ATM.:eek:

Depends on which cruise you are looking at, there are some great deals on some itineraries.

e.g

RCI $91 a night

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fremantle to Sydney via Bali

12 March 2016

16 Nights

Radiance Of The Seas

Up To $500 Onboard Credit*

Twin From $1449 pp