Solstice Alaska Cruise 7/4-7/11

[SarahCuda]

Good Day,

 

I just got back from my cruise this previous weekend. Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. My review will be up shortly.

[want2seealaska]

I'm looking forward to your review and hope you enjoyed your trip!

Edited July 14, 2014 by want2seealaska
changed mind on comment

[Celebrity Cruises]

Good Day,

 

I just got back from my cruise this previous weekend. Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. My review will be up shortly.

 

We have a question: Did you enjoy your trip on the Solstice?

[SarahCuda]

I did! Thank you for asking :) I'm typing up my review now.

[flag fan]

Question: Did you tender in Juneau and, if so, did you encounter a long wait (as has been reported in the past). Any suggestions for how to handle the problem?

[SarahCuda]

We did not tender at any stops. We fully docked at every stop and I never had any waits either. The longest waits, were to get back onto the boat, since your bags have to go through the x-ray machine.

[KirkNC]

Welcome home, hope you had a good time.

[SarahCuda]

Thanks, Kirk! I had a blast, but it was nice to come home.

[s0479]

We are doing this trip next June - look forward to hearing about your excursions! I'm currently researching those!

[Jessejo]

Did they play loud music outside when you were in Tracy Arm?

[RBKL]

We did not tender at any stops. We fully docked at every stop and I never had any waits either. The longest waits, were to get back onto the boat, since your bags have to go through the x-ray machine.

 

Welcome back. Happy to hear you enjoyed your cruise and look forward to your review.

 

We're on the same sailing in three weeks. We were on the Solstice last year to Alaska on the same itinerary.

 

Glad you didn't have to tender. It's the only thing I am concerned about. When we booked the cruise it was scheduled to dock but it changed a couple of months ago to tendering.

 

Last year we were able to get early tender tickets however, we're taking the small boat into Tracy Arm so we won't be able to do that this time.

 

Celebrity - since it looks like you're reading this please fix the tendering challenges in Juneau. It's the best day to be off the ship on the whole cruise and it would be a shame to spend time waiting to tender. Please use more life boats to move more people to Juneau.

[ScarlettMLB]

We're taking this cruise in a month. (yay!!!)

 

How was cell service? I did some searches on previous cruise critic threads and have gotten differing advice that looks like it may differ by cruise line and timing of the post. So I'm not 100% sure.

 

If we're on the boat, do we need to be worried about slipping into the celebrity service and getting charged at sea rates instead of regular cell service? We have Verizon.

 

Looking forward to your review and other Q&A.

[Keith1010]

Welcome home.

Keith

[SarahCuda]

@Jessejo the music wasn't loud through the Fjords, but I don't feel like the music was appropriate. They had Tony Braxton type of music playing, which is fine any other time, but I would have preferred silence or maybe some native american music in the back round.

 

@ScarlettMLB we use Verizon so our plan didn't wok on the boat. The boat advertises Apple product, so if you have an Iphone, you'll probably be fine. I just turned my date off while out to see. otherwise, it was like $25/30 minutes. Something like that. It was very expensive. I did use the camera on my phone, and I noticed there was no cell reception. Once we docked on US soil, I would turn my data back on to check messages and then turn it off again, once we pulled away.

[Jessejo]

SarahCuda; Thank you for your reply. There is another thread about music being played during the Sawyer portion of the cruise and Celebrity asked which ships had the music playing. Would you please check out that thread, and reply to it? Or, may I quote you? Thanks. DH and I are on the 8/22 cruise on the Solstice and we're hoping for silence.

 

Here is the link to the question: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2068979

Edited July 15, 2014 by Jessejo

[SarahCuda]

@Jessejo i left a comment in that thread. They won't have complete silence when you go through. One of the captains, will come on every once in a while and give a brief history or reading from previous captains logs.

[Cruise Raider]

Since you offered, I have quite a few questions if you don't mind.

If too many, I will read your review and see what I can glean from that.

But -- for now, here goes:

 

What cabin category and deck were you on? I understand the reluctance of some people stating their particular cabin number but if you wouldn't mind letting us know how was your location? What did you and did you not like about it?

 

If you were in a regular cabin (non-CC, AQ or suite), how was the bedding, in particular, how were the pillows? Our last few cruises included the pillow menu on AQ or CC, so not sure if I have to bring my own for a regular cabin. If you were in AQ, can you comment on Blu? Is it still worth?

 

Did you notice any noise in the hallways near mid-ship on deck 6? I was looking to book a midship cabin 2D or 2C and had read a review about an abundance of noise in this area from the ship's fans / exhaust system. If you weren't on this deck, I totally understand it would be hard to answer this question.

 

Any lucky machines / great raffles in the casino that you found?

 

Any not to miss shows or activities?

 

Any offerings for elite that you know of? How about the captains club cocktail hour? Do you know if this was handled with vouchers or in the observation lounge?

 

Do all the rooms still come equipped with an umbrella?

 

If you went to the martini bar, any can't miss martini's offered under the premium package?

 

thanks....even if none of these are something you can answer.

[SarahCuda]

@Cruise Rider - Not a problem! Let's see (I don't know how to do the copy & paste thing)

 

#1. I was in room 6293 on deck 6. I think it was considered class C. I had a room with a balcony. I had the room to myself (parents were in room 6289) and I had no complaints. There are 4 pillows to the bed and I didn't mind them. I didn't see a pillow menu..... The mattress was a little soft but not bad. I had no problem sleeping. I did see people bring pillows with them. So feel free to bring yours, if you have a favorite. Bedding was typical "hotel" bedding. Duvet cover with a sheet. The rooms do have their own thermostat, so you can keep the room as cold or warm as you like. The sun beat on my room all afternoon, so I kept my room pretty cool and even opened up the balcony door at night to get fresh air.

 

#2. My dad, who was in the navy for 30 years said "all boats make noise. It doesn't matter what room you're in" LOL He's right.... I didn't notice anything too loud, but during the "out to sea days" I noticed, my room creaked more than the other days..... You will also hear your neighbors coming in and out of their rooms, but that's typical when you have hundred's of people staying on one floor/deck. I never heard my neighbors at night either or anyone above me.

 

#3. Someone won $40k while we were on the boat, but that was playing poker. I don't think the slots paid out all that much. My dad won $200 one night. They did have a free slot pull 2 times, where you could go up to the machine have a free spin and whoever had the most posts, won a free dinner at the specialty restaurants...... As far as raffles, they had too many raffles in my opinion. You couldn't walk by a crew member with out them handing you a raffle ticked of some sort. The raffles I paid attention to, were the free art work ones and the free cruise ones.

 

#4. I think the activities change per sailing, so you'll just have to see what your itinerary says every night. Same with the shows.... They had special activities for the teenagers and food demos everyday. There's so much to do, that you will miss something. Most of the activities were at the same time so you'll have to select which ones you want to do..... They also had movies at the theater. The showed Frozen, Gravity, Dallas Buyers Club while I was there. They also had lectures about the various wildlife everyday.

 

#5. I don't know anything about the Captains Club or Elite. Sorry.

 

#6. If the rooms have an umbrella, I didn't see one in my room. My dad packed one. It only rained once while we were there and being from Seattle, we didn't use an umbrella :)

 

#7. I hardly drink. I think I had 4 glasses of wine the entire cruise. So I didn't get any drink packages. I mostly drink water. Although I did notice, they would list daily drink specials on the daily itinerary. I highly recommend bringing a highlighter to mark everything you want to see or do :)

 

Hopefully these helped you out a bit. Feel free to ask me anything else.

[c-legs]

@Jessejo i left a comment in that thread. They won't have complete silence when you go through. One of the captains, will come on every once in a while and give a brief history or reading from previous captains logs.

THAT is excellent, as well as the Naturalist's occasionnal comments relevent to something happening....but music ?? .that's a NO-NO !!! any type, any volume...( specially at 7;00am-ish !!! )

Thanks for your reports

[stitch4me]

Good Day,

 

I just got back from my cruise this previous weekend. Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. My review will be up shortly.

Did you encounter rough seas? I'm on the cruise next to Alaska next week!