LIVE - Solstice - R/T Seattle to ALASKA

[TraderSam]

Your stateroom does indeed look very spacious, as the name suggest. I’m eager to hear what it’s like being located so far forward as I’ve always chickened out and booked midship in case I feel too much movement. 

 

Perhaps it’s just an illusion, but your martinis appear huge next to the Captains & coke!🍸🤪 Thank you for taking one( or many) for the team and tasting them all for research purposes.

 

I really appreciate you posting the menus ,dailies and food photos. Yes, more broccoli would have been nice and I would have been at the Silent Disco for sure. I absolutely love it!🎧💃🕺

 

Looking forward to reading more, when you have time.

[amcco]

A Blue martini livens up a grey day! Looking forward to following along. 

[aring75]

8 hours ago, trvllr said:

Just got back today from this cruise. The walking distance from the tender port to the train is about the same, if not lesser than the aft-railroad dock. There is a ramp that takes you (climb up) from the tender port to the train station. I didn't see any golf carts.

If you are on an excursion with Celebrity, they tell you where and when to assemble ( for us it was in the theater) and then you will be escorted to the tender. 

Thanks for this information!

 

 

8 hours ago, sbcs5390 said:

Tell Mark also that if he’s a salmon fan, the room service salmon meal is just about the same. I had it for lunch many times on Millennium this past winter!

 

Yum. I’ll let him know!

[aring75]

8 hours ago, TraderSam said:

I’m eager to hear what it’s like being located so far forward as I’ve always chickened out and booked midship in case I feel too much movement.

So far we haven’t felt a lot of movement. You can feel the bow of the ship gently bobbing up and down, but the waves haven’t been high enough to make that movement terribly noticeable. 
 

I’ll let you know if it gets worse. (I kind of like it though, so…)

[North2Alaska10]

We just returned from a wonderful Solstice cruise. This was our 4th Solstice and 8th Alaskan cruise. The service was just excellent. Embarkation was chaotic even though we arrived during our scheduled drop off. We began the day before at the gorgeous Cedar Brook lodge. A very relaxing week. Saw a few whales on the way to Victoria. Have a wonderful cruise!

[aring75]

Woke up to lots of fog and a little bit of rain. They have closed all of the outer decks for now. 
 

 

 

Grabbed a Café al Bacio coffe and headed to the buffet for breakfast. 
 

 

 

Please. 
 

Please have more patience than I did this morning and just wait at the cooked-to -order omelet station. The scrambled eggs in the pan on the hot station are from a mix. And that’s exactly what they taste like. 

[aring75]

Now we are back at the coffee nook and enjoying our second cup. 
 

 

 

The Café al Bacio menu 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TraderSam]

Thank you for taking the time to share the menu.👍🏻

I’m partial to an Aspen coffee from Cafe al Bacio.😋

[aring75]

6 minutes ago, TraderSam said:

Thank you for taking the time to share the menu.👍🏻

I’m partial to an Aspen coffee from Cafe al Bacio.😋

I haven’t had that one before, but I intend to try it!

[aring75]

The fog is slowly starting to let up, but it’s still very gray. Seas are quite calm and there is very little ship movement this morning. 
 

 

 

We are currently sitting in the Sky Observation Lounge watching the sea sail by. We have seen a small pod of dolphins, but those little guys are quick!! I didn’t get a good picture of them. 

[aring75]

Getting ready to see Brent Nixon’s welcome presentation. 

 

 

 

Bonus points if you know how to pronounce this word and what it means. 😊 How many Brent Nixon fans do we have in the audience?

 

[North2Alaska10]

Love attending Brent.s lectures. He did mention that he might consider speaking on the Mexican Riviera cruise coming up. 

[KellyCz]

13 hours ago, trvllr said:

😂

The premium package is totally worth it. We upgraded on board and, so glad we did it! Enjoy your cruise!

Is it less expensive to upgrade on board or pre-cruise?

[KellyCz]

2 hours ago, aring75 said:

Now we are back at the coffee nook and enjoying our second cup. 
 

 

 

The Café al Bacio menu 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the planning stages for our first Celebrity cruise, so I'm trying to understand the various charges. I noticed the note about a 20% service charge being automatically added to your bill. Is this waived if you have the drink package? (Same question for the martini bar.) And thanks for sharing all these details. SO helpful, as we're looking at the same ship and itinerary for next summer!

[Barwick Cruiser]

1 hour ago, KellyCz said:

Is it less expensive to upgrade on board or pre-cruise?

It’s the same price if you don’t have any loyalty with Celebrity, otherwise you need to call precruise to get the captains club discount on the upgrade. 
 

The service charge is only added to those who are paying out of package. Also, the goodies in the cabinet are free and you don’t need to order a beverage to enjoy them!

[Ferry_Watcher]

3 hours ago, aring75 said:

How many Brent Nixon fans do we have in the audience?

Count me in as a fan!

[aring75]

Stayed after Brent’s lecture and listened to Miss Mary Amanda’s introduction to Ketchikan. 
 

 

Then realized we were both pretty hungry. 
 

 

 

 

We love Sushi on 5 for lunch in a sea day. But apparently so do a lot of other people. It was really busy!

 

But so, so good. 😊

 

We started with a shared appetizer of Chicken Ginger Gyoza. 
 

Edited August 20, 2022 by aring75

[aring75]

Then we ordered two rolls and shared. 
 

The Alaskan California roll. I don’t usually enjoy a California roll, but Mark wanted to try this one. I have to say, all of the ingredients tasted very fresh. I liked it a lot. 
 

 

 

My pick was the spicy tuna and shrimp tempura roll. Mmmmmmm.

 

 

 

We agreed that the Spicy Tuna and Shrimp was more flavorful, but the Alaskan California roll was surprisingly good. 

[aring75]

Celebrity Today - Day 2 - At Sea

 

 

 

 

[Ferry_Watcher]

@aring75, Does Sushi on Five still have the Ginger bread pudding with the Wasabi gelato as a dessert?

[kgullick]

I love reading all these updates. I am sailing on Celebrity for the first time, this same ship and itinerary, in 2 weeks. It's great to see a preview so I know what to expect! Thank you for sharing.

[aring75]

41 minutes ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

@aring75, Does Sushi on Five still have the Ginger bread pudding with the Wasabi gelato as a dessert?

I didn’t see that on the dessert menu, but I didn’t really look. We’ll probably be back so I’ll check!

[aring75]

@Ferry_WatcherIt’s on the menu on the app! It looks promising. 😁

 

[Peasy24]

I'll be taking this trip in a couple of weeks, thank you so so much for posting. I'm super excited about 80s night, how fun!! That sushi looks incredible. I was kind of on the fence about it but now I'm all in.

 

[Northern Aurora]

I also want to thank @aring75 for this interesting and to the point thread.  Even though we live in Alaska we periodically do Alaska itineraries and actually spent two weeks on the Solstice in June on a B2B Alaska trip. 

 

We also enjoy Sushi on 5.  The caramelized gingerbread was on the menu (it is a Sushi on 5 standard) and is our favorite.  Also love the lobster ramen, the eel nigiri, the spicy tuna and shrimp and more off that menu.