Celebrity Solstice • Alaska 5/11/18-5/18/18 Review

[kdegenaro]

Hello!

 

My DH and I just got back from our very first cruise to Alaska and first cruise on Celebrity. I did see a live review of my same sailing posted but different perspective can always be great. We are in our late 20s, and were told quite a few times that we were young for celebrity but I really enjoyed our laid back vacation. As a child I cruised quite a bit on different lines with my family but as an adult I have only sailed Royal and Carnival. I booked about a year and half ago to adequately plan our trip and have everything paid off in a comfortable amount of time. We originally booked a Veranda on Deck 7, but after a few price drops, I paid a small amount to upgrade us to Aqua Class.

 

Vancouver

We arrived in Vancouver on Thursday the day before our cruise. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency downtown which was just lovely. We only had half a day in the city so didn't get a ton of time to explore it. DH and I really enjoy tea, specifically pu'erh so we sought out the Treasure Green Tea Company, which had a fantastic selection of product that we can usually only order online. Tea Master Olivia prepared us some wonderful samples as well. If you have any interest in tea and ever find yourself in Vancouver I highly recommend going to her store. We had dinner at Chambar, a delicious Belgian restaurant with a wide array of Belgian beers and seafood.

 

Embarkation

DH and I had a rather smooth process for embarkation. We took a taxi from the Hyatt to Canada Place around 10:45AM. We went through the AQ line. We also invested into Global entry for the customs and TSA-Pre benefits. Canada Place does have a Global Entry line so we were able to bypass a rather large line for the separate Global Entry line which only had one other couple in front of us. In total it probably took us about 30-40min to get onto the ship.

 

The Ship

As I am sure many of you know the Solstice class ship was wonderful, no signs of wear and tear and great upkeep. We only really encountered one issue and this may sound rather silly but the Arcade was pretty sad. Half of the games were broken and the others that worked hardly did everything also was kind of sticky. I understand that there are not many children on Celebrity and it may not be a huge money maker for them, but DH and I enjoy video games and would have loved to see it in working condition.

 

We also really loved the Hot Glass Show, I am sad to hear that they are simply turning it into another paid experience. Hopefully they will do both shows along with the experiences.

 

Aqua Class

We loved our room, we stayed in cabin 1601 which was the third on the hump. The balcony was easily three times as large as a standard one. The welcome champagne was in the mini fridge, along with a free bottle of water. The shower was great, and we did use the robe and slippers a few times. We ate a Blu almost every night, with the exception of eating at Murano the first. We never experienced any long waits, but we also did not request a specific waiter/waitress or seat by the window. I believe there was a wait for some who were more specific were they wanted to sit. We had Breakfast in Blu twice which was also very good. We received our daily canapés only on the first day, and never saw them again, they were fine and we ate them. I'm surprised we didn't have any more delivered throughout the cruise. I also didn't go out of my way to request them one we noticed they stopped showing up. We also didn't receive any tea.

 

Ketchikan

We did not have an excursion planned for our day in Ketchikan. Instead I did some research previous to going on the cruise and found Deer Mountain Trail. It was one of the tougher hikes i've done and took us about 1 hour to reach the first lookout a mile away. It pretty much was climbing up rock steps and some stairs the entire way, but we had a really good time on the trail. The first lookout was beautiful and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys hiking. After our hike we headed down to Creek Street to look around and then headed back on the ship.

 

 

 

Tracy Arm Fjord

I woke up at about 6am to us traveling down Tracy Arm towards Sawyer Glacier. It was truly breathtaking to see everything up close from my balcony. The glacier was really amazing too, the captain rotated the ship 360 degrees so everyone could get a great view. My balcony neighbors even remarked that they enjoyed Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glacier more than Glacier Bay because we were able to get so close. I have never been to Glacier Bay so I cannot remark on that.

 

 

 

 

Juneau

Prior to the Cruise I had booked the Tracy Arm Fjord Explorer, to have it cancelled about 2 months before the cruise. I had a lot of back and forth between shorex@rccl.com initially telling me to rebook the excursion with a code that didn't exist. And they managed to "Look into the situation" up until the cruise date after many emails. I basically had to reach out to the excursion provider for them to confirm that excursion would not be taking place that day. It was very disappointing to basically have them ignore me about the excursion, when I could easily find out myself that it was cancelled.

 

After I finally had confirmation from the excursion provider that it was cancelled I decided to book at different excursion through a third party company. We chose Mendenhall Glacier, Canoe Paddle and Trek with Liquid Alaska. It was amazing the excursion started with a canoe paddle across Mendenhall Lake to the glacier where we put on provided crampons and hiked on the actual glacier itself. So beautiful and a very unique experience, we had a touch of rain during the canoe paddle, but Liquid Alaska provided us with rain gear so we managed to stay mostly dry. The Canoe paddle was no joke though and I worked mussels that I hadn't in a while, about 45min both ways. After our excursion ended it was still a bit rainy in Juneau so we just went right back to the ship for dinner and showers.

 

 

 

Skagway

In Skagway we had our only Celebrity purchased excursion. Helicopter ride with a Dog Sled. We were picked up at the port and taken to the Helicopter base, after a safety video and some equipment we were up in the air on the helicopter. Simply breathtaking and a view of the mountains and glaciers like I have never seen before. It was a bit short maybe 15 minutes but then we landed on Denver Glacier for the Dog Sled experience. All of the dogs seemed very well taken care of and very excited whenever it was time to hooked up to the sleds. We took a short dog sled ride around with a musher and then back on the helicopter we went. It was simply amazing but a bit on the expensive side for the time allotted. After our excursion we explored downtown a bit, stepping in a few local breweries.

 

 

 

Victoria

We weren't able to get off the ship in Victoria until about 5:30PM, I thought about booking the Butchart Gardens excursion but thought we wouldn't have enough time before sundown. Instead we just walked around downtown stopping into a few shops such as Rogers Chocolates, and Partea (which sold cheese tea sounds gross but it was delicious). We also visited miniature world a very cute miniature display.

 

Disembarkation

We were able to stay in our rooms until 8AM, and we called off the ship quickly after. Everything went rather smoothly with the exception of the massive taxi line, about a 40 minute wait.

 

Seattle

We spend the night at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Seattle. We had a nice lunch at Mamoon a delicious middle eastern restaurant, and dinner at Shiro's sushi. Best sushi I have had in my entire life, so fresh and delicious! We walked around pikes place for a bit and went to Chihuly Glass museum as well.

 

Overall

I had a really wonderful time on my first celebrity cruise. We really enjoyed the laid back nature of the ship and did not feel the need for any of the extras such as rock walls. We definitely found the food to be a step above carnival and royal. We loved the musicians especially the Jazz Band that a few times. Yes the drive to sell was high, but after telling people we already had the premium package, and a dinner reservation at Murano then left us alone for the most part.

 

I was a little disappointed with the towns themselves I could not believe just how touristy they were. Seeing Diamonds International and Del Sol's really reminded me of being in the Caribbean again. But I suppose these towns are driven mainly on tourism so it makes some sense. The surrounds however were astonishing. I cannot wait to plan my next Celebrity cruise :)

Edited May 21, 2018 by kdegenaro
Trying to fix my photos

[juantu]

Hello!

 

My DH and I just got back from our very first cruise to Alaska and first cruise on Celebrity. I did see a live review of my same sailing posted but different perspective can always be great. We are in our late 20s, and were told quite a few times that we were young for celebrity but I really enjoyed our laid back vacation. As a child I cruised quite a bit on different lines with my family but as an adult I have only sailed Royal and Carnival. I booked about a year and half ago to adequately plan our trip and have everything paid off in a comfortable amount of time. We originally booked a Veranda on Deck 7, but after a few price drops, I paid a small amount to upgrade us to Aqua Class.

 

Vancouver

We arrived in Vancouver on Thursday the day before our cruise. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency downtown which was just lovely. We only had half a day in the city so didn't get a ton of time to explore it. DH and I really enjoy tea, specifically pu'erh so we sought out the Treasure Green Tea Company, which had a fantastic selection of product that we can usually only order online. Tea Master Olivia prepared us some wonderful samples as well. If you have any interest in tea and ever find yourself in Vancouver I highly recommend going to her store. We had dinner at Chambar, a delicious Belgian restaurant with a wide array of Belgian beers and seafood.

 

Embarkation

DH and I had a rather smooth process for embarkation. We took a taxi from the Hyatt to Canada Place around 10:45AM. We went through the AQ line. We also invested into Global entry for the customs and TSA-Pre benefits. Canada Place does have a Global Entry line so we were able to bypass a rather large line for the separate Global Entry line which only had one other couple in front of us. In total it probably took us about 30-40min to get onto the ship.

 

The Ship

As I am sure many of you know the Solstice class ship was wonderful, no signs of wear and tear and great upkeep. We only really encountered one issue and this may sound rather silly but the Arcade was pretty sad. Half of the games were broken and the others that worked hardly did everything also was kind of sticky. I understand that there are not many children on Celebrity and it may not be a huge money maker for them, but DH and I enjoy video games and would have loved to see it in working condition.

 

We also really loved the Hot Glass Show, I am sad to hear that they are simply turning it into another paid experience. Hopefully they will do both shows along with the experiences.

 

Aqua Class

We loved our room, we stayed in cabin 1601 which was the third on the hump. The balcony was easily three times as large as a standard one. The welcome champagne was in the mini fridge, along with a free bottle of water. The shower was great, and we did use the robe and slippers a few times. We ate a Blu almost every night, with the exception of eating at Murano the first. We never experienced any long waits, but we also did not request a specific waiter/waitress or seat by the window. I believe there was a wait for some who were more specific were they wanted to sit. We had Breakfast in Blu twice which was also very good. We received our daily canapés only on the first day, and never saw them again, they were fine and we ate them. I'm surprised we didn't have any more delivered throughout the cruise. I also didn't go out of my way to request them one we noticed they stopped showing up. We also didn't receive any tea.

 

Ketchikan

We did not have an excursion planned for our day in Ketchikan. Instead I did some research previous to going on the cruise and found Deer Mountain Trail. It was one of the tougher hikes i've done and took us about 1 hour to reach the first lookout a mile away. It pretty much was climbing up rock steps and some stairs the entire way, but we had a really good time on the trail. The first lookout was beautiful and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys hiking. After our hike we headed down to Creek Street to look around and then headed back on the ship.

 

 

 

Tracy Arm Fjord

I woke up at about 6am to us traveling down Tracy Arm towards Sawyer Glacier. It was truly breathtaking to see everything up close from my balcony. The glacier was really amazing too, the captain rotated the ship 360 degrees so everyone could get a great view. My balcony neighbors even remarked that they enjoyed Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glacier more than Glacier Bay because we were able to get so close. I have never been to Glacier Bay so I cannot remark on that.

 

 

 

 

Juneau

Prior to the Cruise I had booked the Tracy Arm Fjord Explorer, to have it cancelled about 2 months before the cruise. I had a lot of back and forth between shorex@rccl.com initially telling me to rebook the excursion with a code that didn't exist. And they managed to "Look into the situation" up until the cruise date after many emails. I basically had to reach out to the excursion provider for them to confirm that excursion would not be taking place that day. It was very disappointing to basically have them ignore me about the excursion, when I could easily find out myself that it was cancelled.

 

After I finally had confirmation from the excursion provider that it was cancelled I decided to book at different excursion through a third party company. We chose Mendenhall Glacier, Canoe Paddle and Trek with Liquid Alaska. It was amazing the excursion started with a canoe paddle across Mendenhall Lake to the glacier where we put on provided crampons and hiked on the actual glacier itself. So beautiful and a very unique experience, we had a touch of rain during the canoe paddle, but Liquid Alaska provided us with rain gear so we managed to stay mostly dry. The Canoe paddle was no joke though and I worked mussels that I hadn't in a while, about 45min both ways. After our excursion ended it was still a bit rainy in Juneau so we just went right back to the ship for dinner and showers.

 

 

 

Skagway

In Skagway we had our only Celebrity purchased excursion. Helicopter ride with a Dog Sled. We were picked up at the port and taken to the Helicopter base, after a safety video and some equipment we were up in the air on the helicopter. Simply breathtaking and a view of the mountains and glaciers like I have never seen before. It was a bit short maybe 15 minutes but then we landed on Denver Glacier for the Dog Sled experience. All of the dogs seemed very well taken care of and very excited whenever it was time to hooked up to the sleds. We took a short dog sled ride around with a musher and then back on the helicopter we went. It was simply amazing but a bit on the expensive side for the time allotted. After our excursion we explored downtown a bit, stepping in a few local breweries.

 

 

 

Victoria

We weren't able to get off the ship in Victoria until about 5:30PM, I thought about booking the Butchart Gardens excursion but thought we wouldn't have enough time before sundown. Instead we just walked around downtown stopping into a few shops such as Rogers Chocolates, and Partea (which sold cheese tea sounds gross but it was delicious). We also visited miniature world a very cute miniature display.

 

Disembarkation

We were able to stay in our rooms until 8AM, and we called off the ship quickly after. Everything went rather smoothly with the exception of the massive taxi line, about a 40 minute wait.

 

Seattle

We spend the night at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Seattle. We had a nice lunch at Mamoon a delicious middle eastern restaurant, and dinner at Shiro's sushi. Best sushi I have had in my entire life, so fresh and delicious! We walked around pikes place for a bit and went to Chihuly Glass museum as well.

 

Overall

I had a really wonderful time on my first celebrity cruise. We really enjoyed the laid back nature of the ship and did not feel the need for any of the extras such as rock walls. We definitely found the food to be a step above carnival and royal. We loved the musicians especially the Jazz Band that a few times. Yes the drive to sell was high, but after telling people we already had the premium package, and a dinner reservation at Murano then left us alone for the most part.

 

I was a little disappointed with the towns themselves I could not believe just how touristy they were. Seeing Diamonds International and Del Sol's really reminded me of being in the Caribbean again. But I suppose these towns are driven mainly on tourism so it makes some sense. The surrounds however were astonishing. I cannot wait to plan my next Celebrity cruise :)

 

 

Thank you for sharing for trip with us.

[disneydancersmom]

Thank you for sharing for trip with us.

 

 

 

Would you book aqua class again if you didn’t have the opportunity to upgrade for a small price?

 

 

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[kdegenaro]

Depending on the price absolutely, I loved the little additions we got. And I thought Blu was lovely. I believe we paid just under $150 for the upgrade to a AQ on the hump.

 

Would you book aqua class again if you didn’t have the opportunity to upgrade for a small price?

 

 

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[davekathy]

kdegenaro...thank you taking us along on your cruise.

[disneydancersmom]

Wow that’s awesome

 

 

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[lovecruzin]

Thanks for your review!

We were on the cruise following yours and were told that the ship had not made it in to Tracy Arm yet this season. I wonder if perhaps it was Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier which is where we went...It was spectacular. It’s unfortunate that your excursion there was canceled, the ship got quite close but we were able to spend a lot more time on the catamaran trip.

[Carried_Away]

Thanks for posting.