April 8th Solstice - Spring Break Cruise Live

[KasioSails]

Food and Drinks

Overall I would rate the food and drink experience as excellent. I am a painfully picky eater with limited choices and always found something yummy or was provided a basic choice without hesitation or comment. I have talked a great deal already about how much we enjoyed Luminae and the pampered dining experience we had. There were a few good items that were a miss for us (ex the burger for me) but not because they were not prepared well but more just not our taste. An example was with the hard work provided to let my OS have a similar dish to the signature chicken entree to try or noticing he was wearing a brace on his arm and needed help with cutting his food. The care was from the moment we walked in. 

The other place we ate most often was at the OVC the food here was always hot and well prepared with minimal lines (except the carving stations - those lines looked huge). My only issue with the OVC was the variety didn’t seem to change much day to day and it was so hard to get a table. I remember back on Royal staff would help you find a place when it was busy and help reduce instances of 1 passenger sitting at like a table for 4 or even 6. I saw a lot of those set ups while looking. Maybe more 2 person tables that can be split and combined would help. 

Around the ship the bars provided excellent service and stiff drinks. My son had so much fun trying new mock drinks at every spot. Our absolute favorite place was Cafe al Bacio - we were here every day usually multiple times. The lattes were always delicious and our boys never left without cocoas. 

[KasioSails]

Odds and Ends

A few other topics

 

Retreat

The Retreat experience for us was really nice - I don’t think we got all the benefit as we missed some of the events and didn’t go to Michaels that often but the dining, events we attended, focused concierge, butler and it all was great. I think for those traveling - especially with a group or without the high level CC perks it is worth considering. I do wish the events had been better communicated to us but we didn’t always see our slips.  

 

Activities 

Overall the ship seemed to have plenty of fun things going on after about 930 in the morning and they didn’t seem too crowded that you had to arrive way early. I was impressed by the number of officer competition that was really cool to see and something new for us. Some of the activities did not seem well advertised which was a challenge. 

 

App

This connects well into the App - this was a game changer we loved. It was all new to us but we loved having menus on the ready or the schedule or even maps. We didn’t use the chat feature since we had the WiFi but that’s cool too. My only wish is if it had added in the Retreat activities so everything was in one place. 

 

WiFi 

This was not great - we had the premium package from our room and it was anything but steam speeds. In our room we had no signal basically most of the time. It was okish out on deck or in like the grand foyer. If I had paid extra for it I would have wanted a refund. 

[KasioSails]

Those are my final specific topic thoughts - I want to extend the fun once more for an overall thoughts - specifically comparison to Royal. I thank everyone still reading along as this has been great to put all my trip in one place. If there is anything I missed you are curious to let me know. 

[woostergirl]

Thank you @KasioSails for the great trip report! I also have kids around the same age and we are considering a CS on Solstice. We've only been on one Celebrity cruise and our whole family loved it. It is fun to read your trip report as it brings up fond memories of my own cruise. Some of our friends ask us about cruises for family travel, and honestly, it is so much more relaxing for me, as a mom to cruise. While I love land trips and the whole planes-trains-automobiles aspect to that immersive experience... sometimes I just want some time on my vacation to do nothing or read a book.

 

I would like to hear if you have additional thoughts on Royal vs Celebrity regarding your experiences traveling as a family. Thanks again for sharing!

[KasioSails]

48 minutes ago, woostergirl said:

Thank you @KasioSails for the great trip report! I also have kids around the same age and we are considering a CS on Solstice. We've only been on one Celebrity cruise and our whole family loved it. It is fun to read your trip report as it brings up fond memories of my own cruise. Some of our friends ask us about cruises for family travel, and honestly, it is so much more relaxing for me, as a mom to cruise. While I love land trips and the whole planes-trains-automobiles aspect to that immersive experience... sometimes I just want some time on my vacation to do nothing or read a book.

 

I would like to hear if you have additional thoughts on Royal vs Celebrity regarding your experiences traveling as a family. Thanks again for sharing!

Thank you so much for the compliment - agree there is a freeing aspect to cruising I love as a mom. I am finalizing my overall thoughts with focus to the differences right now - it should be up within a day - we have previously sailed all manner of royal ships with the kids from Radiance class to the Allure. 
 

I will say on Celebrity the CS was a great choice to give the family connection and separation we crave. 

[eyecantwait]

Thanks so much for your thorough review and taking vacation time to answer questions. Much appreciated. Happy to hear that you enjoyed your trip so much.

Our last trip on the Solstice was summer 2010 to celebrate our daughters college graduation in the eastern Caribbean. We are looking forward to going on Solstice again this summer to Alaska but had a little concern given the ships age but you have helped lay those fears to rest. Thanks!

[CTSandy]

Thanks for sharing your experiences!  We were on the same cruise - I was in a concierge cabin on deck 10, very close to port side aft elevators and my niece and her husband were on deck 9, close to port side forward elevators.  They are both teachers, so can only travel during school breaks.  I sail solo quite a bit because I usually try to avoid times when there are lots of kids on board.  I understand that there were 170 kids on board; I saw several, but it didn’t seem to be overly crowded with kids.

 

S class is one of my favorites; it was the first time Judy and Joe had sailed S class and they fell in love with the ship.  We all prefer the traditional style of S or M class to the new E class.  Concur on the wonderful service and friendliness of the staff - outstanding!  Food was very good and you are correct about the difficulty in finding seating at times in Oceanview.  The one odd thing we noted was how cold the solarium was the first couple of days.  I’ve sailed quite a bit on Celebrity with various itineraries and this is the first time I’ve experienced that.