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Celebrity Solstice from Seattle to Alaska 2 Sept 2022


ScottC4746
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  • 2 weeks later...

We did this same sailing in 2016, that same week. It was fantastic. The gays all congregate around 7 or 7:30 at the Martini Bar. You will meet lots of great people and the scenery is phenomenal. One of our most memorable trips. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 6/3/2022 at 11:28 PM, kevin1647 said:

We've been looking at this cruise as a real possibility.  Hoping to make a decision by the end of the month.

Don’t think twice about it. We did this exact selling on the same dates in 2016 on solstice. One of the best trips we’ve ever taken, and met the nicest people on the ship

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Just back and my feeling on the cruise was:

I just returned from my first Celebrity Cruise and it was amazing from the service to the crew and everything in between.

Boarding Process:

Super easy and fast.  While others hate this new system of boarding, it made it so easy.  I do hope it stays.

 

Dress Code:

I was saddened to see traditional formal night has gone away, but I was an officer in a fraternal organization where I had to wear a tux once a month and a suit three times a month.  It was nice to not to have to do either on a vacation.  It could have been enforced a little more in the main dining room.  Once or twice, we saw t-shirts on men and the first night shorts.  In the evening hours on board, we noticed guests had changed after dinner and were back in shorts again.

 

Elevators:

They appear to be out of sync.  Example, if I am on deck 9 in a four-elevator bank going down, I will see two sitting on deck 10 just sitting.  Part of the problem is the computers of the elevators trying to keep up with demand, and I think the elevators are getting lost, if you will.  Celebrity is no stranger on this.  Every line has this issue.  Celebrity has the reputation of being an innovator in the industry.  Perhaps Celebrity could look at being the first in the industry to install smart elevators.  What that is, is there is a panel that the guest presses what floor they desire.  The system announces which elevator car to use and sends it to the floor.  The creates the best use of the elevator and prevents leaners from accidently leaning on the buttons in the car, which I think is part of the problem.

 

Dining:

We only used the buffet for breakfast and lunch and main dining room for dinner.  We noticed a lot of “table hogs”.  People would camp out there and not eat.  They would have a cup of coffee with them and that was it.  I even saw a family take up a large table while they were playing cards.  I often had seen people circling looking for a seat as their food got cold.  Please enforce the dine and move on.  With only two of us at the buffet, we learned that we look for a table first and then one of us holds the table while the other gets their plate.  They return and start eating while the second person gets their plate.  By the time they return, the first person has finished meaning a couple cannot dine together.  Half way through the cruise we began taking our meals in the main dining room for all three and it was much better.

We appreciated the fact that you seat people with their traveling party only in the main dining room.  As we travel as a couple, it is always stressful if we are going to get a two top of not.  It was nice to always have a two top.  We hope post-Covid, this policy remains.  We did select dining and arrived around 7 PM.  It was nice to get the same wait staff each evening.  Other lines with select, you are all over the place.  The food was amazing with amazing service.  The buffet would be nice to see a variety, but it seemed to be the same offerings every day.

 

Stateroom:

What a beautiful stateroom with lots of storage, even in the bathroom.  The canapes that come with the concierge class was a subject of conversation.  We love receiving them, but please research what a canape is.  I shouldn’t need a fork to eat them as they are supposed to be finger foods.  Potato salad does not fit in this category.

 

Entertainment:

Top notch.  The comedian not so much.  Loved the 80’s night and the Abba Sing a Long.  Don’t lose the live music.  So many lines of ditched theirs, it is nice to hear real live music.  Some of the seats in the theater need to be inspected.  I felt like I was being tipped out of them.

 

Public Space:

Beautiful.  I love the themed seating but they are low and hard to get out of.  Public lavatories were very well maintained although few, if any had hot water in the sinks.  The only one that came out hot was by the Ensemble bar, of the lavatories I used.

 

Ports:

It was a very nice touch to return from Alaskan ports and find that chicken bouillon was being offered when we got back on board.  Very nice during the cold visits.

 

Photo Service:

We checked after getting several photo shots done and had 45 images, all were terrible.  The backgrounds were very busy and for “professional photographers”, the results were awful.  Professionals know how to angle things to draw attention from certain things.  Unfortunately, all of the photos we saw accentuated our stomachs.  They looked bigger than they were and looked like they droop over our belts, which they do not.

 

Gift Shop:

The variety of logoed merchandise was thin, but I understand it is the end of the season with one more week, but a nice quality polo shirt with the standard Celebrity X logo was non-existent.

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