Celebrity: Suggestion for Solstice Alaska narrations

[gregjm]

We were on the May 17th sailing of the Solstice to Alaska. It was the first Solstice sailing to Alaska, so hopefully Celebrity will work out this issue in order to enhance the experience for their guests.

 

We were fortunate to have naturalist Brent Nixon on this sailing. As has been the case in past Alaskan sailings we've been on, the naturalist provides narration during the visit to the glaciers, or in our case, the Tracy Arm Fjord.

 

Unfortunately, on this cruise you had to be in a public area in order to hear the narration. For those with balcony staterooms or suites they were unable to hear the narration unless they were out on decks or other public spaces. When we were on the Infinity to Alaska a few years ago, you could have the narration available for listening in your stateroom. On Princess, the broadcast it on one of the TV channels.

 

While the majesty of the experience is best experienced on deck, there are periods during the 4-5 hours when you may want to go back to your stateroom, spend some time on the balcony and listen to the narration. Also, for elderly cruisers who may not be able to go on deck, they missed out totally on Brent's brilliant narration during our Tracy Arm visit.

 

I hope Celebrity finds a way to broadcast this through the television system on board and not relegate the experience to "public spaces" only.

 

As a side note, whenever Brent went off-line for a few minutes---suggesting that we just take in the beauty and enjoy the silence, Celebrity would immediately turn on loud music on the decks. So much for enjoying the silence that Brent was referring to. I mentioned this to him, and he was unaware of the fact that music was turned on when he wasn't speaking. He told me that he would see that it doesn't happen again, particularly in light of the fact that playing of loud music in the Fjord is a violation of Federal park regulations.

[lucinjo]

I hope you passed these suggestions on to Ship Management and to Corporate. They would really enhance the enjoyment of the experience, especially with Brent who is a wonderful naturalist. I especially hate the trend in our world today that every moment needs to be be filled with noise. Occasionally it is wonderful to have silence while appreciating a natural wonder.