A Princess Devotee tries Celebrity (Solstice)

[jayoldschool]

Are the pool/jacuzzi hours different on the Solstice than other X ships? All the others we have been on (5 cruises), the pools/jacuzzis are closed/netted in the evening. I always thought a night time soak would be nice...

[ourlol]

Camelia-

I'd like to ask more about the food in the main dining room.

My main reaction to the Celebrity menus was that on Princess I often struggled to choose between the various options available and could quite happily have ordered two or three of the main courses on offer… my mouth watered on reading. On the Solstice it was sometimes an effort to find something that really appealed. Frequently there were elements of a dish I fancied, but I didn’t want what accompanied it. Although pleasing to the eye I felt the dishes were, at times, over complicated. The girls in particular often resorted to choosing the salmon from the anytime menu.

Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the menus themselves but having done a quick search to see if I could find the ‘new menus’ listed on other threads, my current thought is that the menus we had differed from those already posted. Mind you it could be because we were in the Mediterranean and the supply of certain foods limited.

For vegetarians, the appetizer section would have some choice but as a main dish I seem to remember there was only one offering. Breakfast in the buffet would have lots of options for vegetarians, as would be the case at lunchtime where you would find quite a lot of choice… vegetarian lasagne, rice and pasta salads, tofu etc. I can personally recommend their vegetable/chickpea curry and dahl.

Sandy and Gene

Would love to hear anything about your experience in Civitavecchia.

We stayed at the Hotel Traiano who also sent a shuttle to pick us up from the airport on arrival. We probably arrived at the hotel at about noon the day before our cruise. Given our early start we were quite hungry so wandered into the main town in search of something to eat… a downhill stroll of about 10 minutes duration. It was hot and our timing was off as most shops and restaurants were closed presumably for a siesta. What is it they say “mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun”! Having wandered aimlessly for about half hour we happened upon what initially looked like a patisserie but on closer inspection discovered there was a self-serve buffet lunch being served in a back room. The occupants were mainly local workers and having got to grips with collecting our bread basket, setting the table ourselves etc. we tucked into what was a really tasty spread of local produce… huge balls of mozzarella, tomato salads, pasta dishes etc. etc.

From there we walked a little further, stopped to buy some ice cream and then returned to our hotel for a nap… particularly given that we had been up since 3 am.

Our evening plan was to return to one of the restaurants we’d spotted earlier. In the event however we literally visited a local takeaway pizza outlet close to the hotel. You ordered by the piece with the pizza being priced by weight. The selections were varied; some of them being quite different from what would be offered over here in the UK eg sliced potato! Armed then with a carrier bag full of local beer, bottled water and soda (there were a number of small supermarkets in the area) we returned to our hotel where we had a top floor suite with its own terrace. Having moved the dining room table and chairs onto the veranda we then spent a pleasant couple of hours just sitting, eating and generally unwinding.

As you can gather we didn’t do very much in Civitavecchia, so I suspect this in not quite the information you were looking for.

If you think I can help further just say so and I'll drop you an email.

Jayoldschool

Are the pool/jacuzzi hours different on the Solstice than other X ships?

I can’t make a comparison with other X ships, with this being my first Celebrity Cruise but I believe that the pools were netted each evening. I can’t comment on the Jacuzzis as I didn’t notice whether they were or not… certainly it would appear that they weren’t as at about 9.30 pm!

Laura

[sheffer]

JayoldSchool -- Thank you so much for sharing your Civitavecchia experience. It does help.

[caribeanerbum]

Thanks for the great review of Solstice. I will be on her in Jan 2010 and this helped me a bunch. Keep cruisin and reporting, your good at it...beaner

[keela1eva2]

Thank you for your excellent review. It was only when you mentioned the price of beer in £ that I realised you are living in the UK like me.

I have cruised with Princess both on the Golden and the Island as well as Cunard RCI etc but now my 2 cruise lines of choice is Celebrity and Cunard.

I loved my cruises on Princess but for me there is just something I can't put my finger on that takes me to Celebrity. I cruise with a friend but she and I have our own rooms. Single supplements are more or less the same with both lines.

 

I loved your comparision and the positive review. Like you everything may not be perfect but what is>

I will be on the Solstice on the 9th October late in the year for us but this Ship was booking fast for the September date we might have preferred. Price made us make the October booking.

We are flying from Leeds/Bradford direct to Rome and like you a day ahead. 12.30pm arrival was just too neat in my opinion.

I have booked the San Giorgio Hotel and 2 double rooms for single occupancy. I booked directly with the hotel as they were discounting the rooms for cruise passengers.

The hotel price was less than any of the booking agents and it includes breakfast.

They would do the transfers but charge Euro 150 one way. I have decided to use the Airport Shuttle service which costs for 2 persons Euro 105 each way. I will order a return journey as we will be flying home on the 19th when the cruise ends.

 

Do you have any specific advice re transfers but I have read on the Roll Calls that C are charging $91 for a single transfer. We were told by our TA that it was £58pp each way. The transfers we arrange means we don't need to wait on a coach etc and we can plan our time to leave accordingly.

I was wondering about the man who took your transfer?? How did this happen and was sit a problem?

 

Again Laura a fantastic review with all the details I could ask for. Well done.

 

Sue

[ourlol]

Hi Sue,

 

I was wondering about the man who took your transfer?? How did this happen and was it a problem?

 

I'm not entirely sure what Celebrity were charging for their own transfers, but I have an inkling that it was more than $58 per person. For some reason $80 rings a bell.

 

We had booked our return transfer through Roma Shuttle (who we've used before without problem). The price was 160 Euros which for four of us was reasonable... even better when another family from our roll-call decided to join us. You can't argue at 20 Euros per head.

 

I think it was just unfortunate that someone else took our transfer and I doubt it is something which happens very often. We shared the same surname as the man who took our transfer, which is where I think the confusion arose.

 

I'd noticed someone standing holding up a card with our name on it, but had also clocked it was the wrong company. At that point I had just assumed our minibus had still to arrive, particularly as we were running ahead of schedule and were off the ship earlier than we had expected. It was only after standing around for a while that we rang Roma Shuttle to enquire where our driver was. They then made their own investigations which resulted in us discovering our driver was already headed to the airport with, of course, the wrong passengers in tow. At that point we were asked if we would take the transfer with the other driver who was, in theory, still waiting for his passengers to arrive. I assume the two companies had already spoken about it.

 

We were still at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so fortunately the 'hiccup' didn't cause us any real problem.

 

Enjoy your cruise in October... I'm green with envy.

 

Laura

[Camelia-]

That gives me a pretty good idea..I'm getting quite excited now that time is not crawling as it did when I first booked! And I'm quite looking forward to seeing my balcony cabin..in this I definitely believe that Celebrity has the edge!!

 

Camelia

[keela1eva2]

Thanks Laura. As there will be just the two of us and we will be arriving a day early Euro 105 each way is OK with us. Certainly Euro 20 would be fantastic.

I read on the Roll Call that it was $98 from X but we had been told by X here that is was £58 each way.

 

7 weeks to day we will be there all set to board on Friday 9th and really need this holiday now.

 

Sue

[cruisenshopper]

I've really enjoyed reading your thorough review, because we will be on the Solstice on 12/13 in a similarly situated cabin. What was your impression of the size and comfort of the balcony chair? I noticed from your photo that it reclines, but was there a footstool portion? Was the chair narrow or generously wide? I'm fine with just about any balcony chair (after all, it's a balcony on a cruise ship!), but DH is picky about too-small chairs.

 

Thanks!

[ourlol]

What was your impression of the size and comfort of the balcony chair?

 

We felt the chairs were comfortable and although we didn't recline ours, the girls did. There is, however, no footstool, so when alone on the balcony resorted to using both chairs at once e.g. one to sit on, the other for their feet.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Laura

[Infi]

Thank you for such a well-written, thoughtful review. So many folks on these boards ask for Celebrity & Princess comparisons, and this one was really great and well-balanced. My last two cruises have been on Princess (as a Celebrity devotee), so I found this particularly interesting. I agree with you on quite a few points, especially the pool towels issue and entertainment locations. Like you said, both lines have their real strengths and areas where they could improve. Thanks again for the review.

[Host Anne]

Another "Thank-You, Laura" for the well-written and well-balanced review. It's this type of information that makes the message boards so valuable. We, too, sail Princess quite often and enjoy both lines.

 

As DocJohnB suggested, please do make sure that you submit your review to the Cruise Critic Member REVIEWS section so many others who might not visit the Celebrity boards have a chance to read it as well. Plus it will be there for future reference. It was a great review! Thanks again and glad you had an enjoyable cruise!

[ourlol]

Once again, thank you for all your kind comments.

 

I have already taken DocJohnB's advice and am pleased to report that my account of my cruise aboard Solstice has already been published in the Cruise Critic Member Review section. See here.

 

To be honest if would never have occurred to me to do that had it not been suggested by him. I am grateful to him therefore for giving me the heads up.

 

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

Laura

[IPA region 30 member]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but for crusinshopper, please join us on the cruise connections for the 12/13 Solstice cruise... Meet up with some of your fellow cruise critic cruisers...

 

regards

 

Scott

[cruisenshopper]

We registered yesterday for the connections party---looking forward to it!

[IPA region 30 member]

Great to hear... I'll tell the folks on the other thread...

 

regards

 

Scott