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Celebrity Solstice - Alaska - June 24 Review

BigB0882

By BigB0882,
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BigB0882

BigB0882

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Hello everyone. This will not be a very in-depth review as there are plenty of reviews out there that cover the specifics of the ship and what-not but I will hit on the high-lights for us and, if we had any, the low-lights.

 

This was our 6th cruise but our previous 5 had all been on Carnival. We were bringing my in-laws and it was their first cruise ever. None of us really knew what to expect. I had a general idea about cruising and was the one who did all the planning and booking but I kept telling them that once we were on the ship we were all in the same boat (pun intended) as I had never been on a Celebrity cruise.

 

First of all, I have never experienced an easier embarkation. The wait in traffic was a bit long BUT I would much rather sit in the comfort of a vehicle than stand in long lines inside the terminal. So once we got dropped off we found someone to take our luggage and then we walked in the terminal. We were directed up some escalators and then through a very quick security screening WITH NO LINES. I couldn't believe it. We got there about or shortly after 11. Then we went to the check-in lines and passed the specially designated lines for suite guests and aqua class, etc. The lines for us normal folk didn't exist! Again, NO LINES. I couldn't believe it. We walked right up to the counter. Took a few minutes to check in and then I thought that surely we would have to wait to board the ship. Nope. Walked right onto the ship. I was just completely amazed. Embarkation beat Carnival by a mile, there really is no competition. I don't know if it is always like this or just in Seattle but they really know what they are doing.

 

The ship itself was amazing. Again, I will be comparing a lot to Carnival but it is my only comparison. The ship was very clean and must nicer inside. No over the top colors or decorations. Very elegant. I loved that there were sitting areas everywhere. The elevators were gorgeous and very big and had great views. I went into one of the public bathrooms since our room wasn't ready and I couldn't believe it. First of all, their public bathrooms are 5x as big as Carnival's and secondly it was the cleanest bathroom I have ever seen. They even had a person in there cleaning all the time. And actual cloth hand-towels. Just amazing. The solarium was so nice, we never used it on this cruise but how nice to have a covered pool area and one that is adult only most of the time. The lawn area on one of the upper decks was so neat to see as well, never thought I would see an actual lawn on a cruise ship.

 

The food was GREAT. Again putting Carnival to shame. The food in the dining room was always a notch above anything we ever had on Carnival. The only thing Carnival does better is dessert. Service was top notch with the exception of one night where we got a server we just did not care for and it seemed he didn't want to be there. Didn't ruin anything and we just made sure to request our favorite server, Sebastian, the rest of the trip. The buffet was also great, I love how there are a lot of different stations so you don't have to get in one long line when you only wanted to grab one thing. It did make it a bit confusing as to which way the line should move but most of the time each station only had one or two people at it so it wasn't a big deal. The one negative was that they don't have enough seating up at the buffet. We would go during peak lunch hours or even a little later and it was almost impossible to find a table. I am sure during other cruises more people take their food outside but it was a bit chilly for that.

 

One of the high-lights was the Hot Glass show. I never thought I would sit for 2 hours in the cold and wind to watch people blow glass but it was incredible. The seats were full when it started but by the end a lot of people had left and only about 15-20 of us remained. They decided to raffle off three of the pieces they had sitting out and my husband won a gorgeous bowl. We were so excited and somehow got it all the way home without breaking it. If you go on a ship with this show you must attend, they have it every day so you have plenty of chances and maybe you will get lucky and be there when they give away a piece or two. They also do an auction on the last day but we weren't rich enough for that!

 

Our stateroom was great, we were in 7245 which is on the hump. The balcony was humongous. I loved the shower having a sliding glass door as opposed to a curtain. The stateroom itself was very comparable in size to Carnival but the decor and the bathroom just blew Carnival away. So much nicer looking and updated. We had a room next to the in-laws and they opened the partition between our balconies which was really nice and convenient.

 

The ports were all amazing. Ketchikan did not have much to do on your own and this happened to be a port where we had no excursions planned. So in the future I will make sure to have an excursion booked for this stop. We did get off and walked around just a few minutes. It was a tender port because the Infinity had hit the pier a few weeks before. We just waited a few hours to get off so that didn't bother us at all. We saw tons of eagles, they were everywhere in Ketchikan.

 

Juneau was absolutely gorgeous. Had amazing weather with clear skies. We couldn't go into Tracy Arm so we went to Endicott instead. We did the catamaran excursion and it was amazing. The calving of the glacier and all the wildlife was so exciting to see and so beautiful. I got my very favorite pictures on this day. We met back up with the ship in Juneau and did an evening whale watching quest. Both of our excursions were with Allen Marine and I can't recommend them enough. They do an amazing job. However, in the future I might would recommend for people to skip the whale watching since we saw quite a few whales on our earlier excursion but that is no guarantee. I got much better photo opportunities on the whale watching excursion anyway since it was less packed and we did see more whales.

 

Skagway was nice and quaint, neat little town to walk around in. We took the train ride up the White Pass and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the rest of my group was a little less into than I was but I was all about the photo opportunities. Unfortunately I only got a handful of great photos because I tried taking too many through the windows. They were very clean but the glare shows up anyway. I would go stand out on the little deck area (what do you call it?) and take pictures as often as I could but I did not want to be the person who hogged it the whole time, it is very small.

 

Our last stop was in Victoria and we almost did not bother getting off the ship. I had it in my head that they only stopped there because they had to stop at a foreign port. My in-laws didn't get off at all but finally my husband and I decided to. We got off and then realized there was really nothing there. You had to either take a shuttle into town or walk. The walk was about 40 minutes and we decided to go for it. It was a gorgeous day and it was so nice. The walk is very well marked and once we got into town we were in love. I have never seen a more beautiful city and SO CLEAN! Wow. I would love to go back some time. The people were all so friendly and willing to talk to us about their city. Don't miss it if you stop here.

 

The only issue we had on the cruise, and it was small, was getting our room-service trays picked up. That may seem trivial but depending on the food you ordered it can really start to stink up your room. I had to call 5 times once and finally our room steward agreed to take the trays. I also found room-service to be unreliable in general, often not answering the phone or having a message saying they were closed in the middle of the day.

 

We had the Classic Drink Package on the cruise and upgraded to the Premium. We are all wine drinkers and particularly like Pinot Noir. I will say that if I knew ahead of time that they would be out of La Crema from Day 1 and only have one other premium Pinot Noir then I may have just stuck with the classic package. By Day 5 they were running out of the Kendall Jackson and the only way we could get it was to go from bar to bar or have a kind enough bartender who would go find it for us at a different bar. Our favorite place to hang out was in Cellar Masters, by the way.

 

Leaving the ship was almost as easy as getting on but we checked our bags that night and got one of the very last zones so we had a long wait until they called us but once they did it was a quick process off and customs was very quick as well. Much better than Carnival where the line backs way up. There was a long wait for a taxi, though.

 

In the end this was the most amazing cruise I have ever taken with the most amazing ports. You simply must go to Alaska at least once if your life. The Solstice is an amazing ship to do it on. I wish I could cruise with Celebrity from now on but we often cruise out of New Orleans since we live nearby and unfortunately our only options are Carnival or Norwegian. I am afraid the next time I get on a Carnival ship it will be quite the let down but a cruise on a lesser cruiseline is better than no cruise at all. We are going back to Alaska next year on Infinity out of Vancouver and I can not wait, hope it is just as great.

 

I will post some of my favorite photos soon.

 

Please let me know if you have any specific questions.

Edited by BigB0882
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BigB0882

BigB0882

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Ok I am stopping here because I can't figure out how to make my photos appear. Anyone know what I am doing wrong? I am copying the link and pasting it when I click the picture icon. For some reason it is just showing the tags and the link is *ed out. I have them hosted on Imgur.

Edited by BigB0882
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Clarea

Clarea

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Ok I am stopping here because I can't figure out how to make my photos appear. Anyone know what I am doing wrong? I am copying the link and pasting it when I click the picture icon. For some reason it is just showing the tags and the link is *ed out. I have them hosted on Imgur.

The site you are using for photos must be prohibited by Cruise Critic. That's why the stars appear.

 

However, even without photos, I am still enjoying the review.:)

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BecciBoo Great Review Rare

BecciBoo

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Could you clarify how and when you were picked up by the catamaran?

 

We are booked at 8:00 for this excursion but still unclear how it will come together. Did you just go down to deck 1 to board it while Solstice was in the Fjord? Were you in Juneau when you boarded it? Etc.

 

Please elaborate and thanks for your review!:D

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ClaudiaB

ClaudiaB

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So glad you had a great cruise. See? I'm from BR too.

In what part of town do you live?

 

We do a lot of Caribbean cruises because it's an easy 90 minute flight from MSY to FLL, nonstop on Southwest. There are some great 10-14 day eastern and southern Caribbean cruises. Occasionally we sail out of Miami but that's just a quick shuttle from Ft. Lauderdale. We still always fly into FLL unless the prices are good to Miami.

 

I agree with you about Alaska being a "must see." We've been twice on Infinity, and the next time we go we're going to do a northbound and then rent a car for a couple weeks and see the interior. We know we don't need an excursion or cruise tour - it's easy to do on-your-own.

 

About Ketchikan, there is a great kayaking excursion. And you can go to that little building to the right when you get off, and pretty much any excursion, including flights to different places, are easily booked on the spot. We've never done totem poles or lumberjack shows there, just flights and kayaking.

 

We've actually only sailed Celebrity (13 times ??) and what you have said about Carnival really solidifies that we probably don't want to. Yes, there's availability in New Orleans, but we'd rather fly and take Celebrity. Make sense? One cruise you might like is a westbound TA. We have done two. So much fun, and all those 25 hour sea days at the end. Aaaah.

 

Perhaps we'll meet sometime on an X ship. We NEVER have met anyone from Louisiana when we sail, much less from Baton Rouge. We tend to sail more in the cooler months with all the snow birds filling the ship!

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BigB0882

BigB0882

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It sucks that the site I am using to host photos is prohibited. Either that or it doesn't allow hotlinking which I doubt.

 

Can anyone tell me where they host photos so I can post them here? I have some great ones.

 

As for the catamaran excursion. Our tickets for the excursion were in our room when we got on the ship since we had pre-booked it. They had instructions on the time to meet and where. I can't remember exactly now but it was something like 7:30 in the Dining Room. Then we were all escorted down to the gangway where the catamaran was waiting for us. This happened in Endicott near the glacier. I think the cruise ship gets as far as it is going to go and then they let everyone off on the excursion. The ship stays around a little while longer and then goes back. You hardly get any time at the glacier if you stay on the ship.

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BigB0882

BigB0882

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ClaudiaB,

 

It would be amazing to meet someday! Right now my husband and I are both working in education so unfortunately for us we do all of our cruising during peak months. When we retire (not nearly soon enough) we will definitely switch to cruising during the off months so we can enjoy less kids and different itineraries.

 

We will look into flying to FLL but that is quite cost-prohibitive for us when we can drive to New Orleans. We do have to pay for parking but we often cruise with another couple so we split that cost. Certainly can't fly anywhere for that price.

 

Carnival isn't bad, don't get me wrong, it is just no Celebrity. If you really like Celebrity then I don't think Carnival would be a good fit. They are really quite different and appeal to different types of cruisers. It is fine for a cheap and quick get away but if I want a real vacation where I feel taken care of then Celebrity it will continue to be.

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BecciBoo Great Review Rare

BecciBoo

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Thx thats how I assumed it would go.

 

As for photos, I answer this at least 2 times a week on these boards, but here goes.

 

I use Tinypic dot com to post pics. All they do is upload any photo from your photo files on your PC or laptop and give you a url code for it. You click "Upload" then "Browse" and you tell it where you want it to upload a photo from...then resize, I use the Message Board size, they convert it to url...then "Upload Now" and the codes will appear, then you copy the second one down, "IMG Code for Forums & Message Boards" and paste it in here. It's a snap and they do not house your photos, so no one has access to any of your photos.

 

They come out nice and large on here so we can really see them....like this one of mine coming into Ketchikan:

1234m7d.jpg

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BigB0882

BigB0882

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Thanks for the tinypics recommendation! Got a few to upload, they lose some quality in the process but better than nothing.

 

Someone asked about the air on the ship, we were comfortable the whole time. We like to sleep with it cold so we kept the air all the way down and I did get a little chilly at night. The rest of the ship was always fine.

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need2cruisesoon

need2cruisesoon

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Thanks for the tinypics recommendation! Got a few to upload, they lose some quality in the process but better than nothing.

 

Someone asked about the air on the ship, we were comfortable the whole time. We like to sleep with it cold so we kept the air all the way down and I did get a little chilly at night. The rest of the ship was always fine.

 

We did the same cruise in June, had a blast.

 

Who was the Hotel Director and CD?

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davis0056

davis0056

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We are on the Aug 5 cruise . I understand the dress for dinner is more relaxed and no need for formal wear. Slacks on the dressy nights and jeans are ok for the other nights. Any suggestions

 

We're on the same cruise. If you haven't already, please join our roll-call!

 

We're bringing jeans, jeans, and more jeans and a nice dress for Elaine and one pair of dress pants for Dave. Dave probably won't bring a sports jacket (but maybe a vest).

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BigB0882

BigB0882

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We completely over-packed. Just bring plenty of jeans and long sleeve shirts that you can wear over an undershirt or t-shirt incase you need to remove it. There do have Chic nights but it is hardly formal. I brought a pair of slacks and wore that with a button up shirt. Next year when we go back I will pack MUCH lighter.

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roquejo

roquejo

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Late June and Tracy Arm is still inaccessible? We managed to get into Tracy Arm same time 2 years ago.

 

I am booked with Solstice for September and also booked the catamaran excursion. Last time it was not avail when we went into Tracy Arm via Norwegian Sun.

 

I also have the classic package and thinking to upgrade it to premium for better wine choices and the Martini Bar.

 

But one question I want to ask, can you still order Molecular Bar drinks at Galleria Tastings in Deck 5? Or it is now totally replaced by the World Class Bar?

 

The now gradually disappearing Molecular Bar is one reason why the premium package is worth it.

Edited by roquejo
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Little Nell

Little Nell

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We completely over-packed. Just bring plenty of jeans and long sleeve shirts that you can wear over an undershirt or t-shirt incase you need to remove it. There do have Chic nights but it is hardly formal. I brought a pair of slacks and wore that with a button up shirt. Next year when we go back I will pack MUCH lighter.

 

Thank you.

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