Solstice Alaska Cruise, Aug 15-22

ScarlettMLB · September 1, 2014

I was fortunate enough to take an Alaska cruise with my boyfriend aboard the wonderful Solstice. Below is a review of my experiences. Feel free to ask any questions you may have - I really enjoyed reading others experiences leading up to our cruise, so I'm happy to help anyone currently preparing for their own trip.

Overall: wonderful trip! After a sailing on the Reflection last year, Celebrity became our favorite cruise line and remained so. I wrote below the things I loved and things I didn't like - not to be negative, but hopefully to be helpful.

Pre-cruise

We flew in the night before and stayed at the Red Roof Inn at the airport. They have a free shuttle from the airport and a paid shuttle ($12) to the pier that you can reserve at check-in. The rooms were clean and fine for just the few hours we spent there sleeping. We decided to take Uber instead of the shuttle - it was about $10 more than if we'd both taken the shuttle, but it was more flexible with time and we didn't have to deal with the crowds of people waiting for the shuttle at the hotel.

Embarkation:

Embarkation was very smooth - it helped a lot that we were Concierge class. We got to go through the lines for Concierge, which were shorter than the regular lines. However, the regular lines weren't horrible. We arrived shortly after 11:00 (boarding started at 11:00). Altogether, I think the boarding process took about 15-20 minutes (I think we saved 15 minutes by being Concierge.)

On the ship (before departure):

We went immediately to sign up for some Top Chef activities (more on that at the bottom of my review). After that it was lunch - as others have suggested, we opted for Bistro on Five. It was well worth it: very few people were there and for the $7 cover charge we had a delicious, peaceful lunch. (I had butternut squash soup and a Nutella crepe for desert.) The rest of our time was spent checking out the cabin, setting up reservations for the spa and specialty dining, and then enjoying our balcony. Sail-away was spent sipping our complimentary champagne on our balcony. Unfortunately, the ship left about 30 minutes late, so we didn't have too much time to watch before we had to leave for our 6:00 dinner reservation.

Our cabin:

We were in #1409 and liked it a lot. It definitely didn't have room to spare, but we had room for anything we needed. The big draw was our balcony - we were center aft and had a lovely 180 view. The walk was longer to the elevators, but we never minded it. Our room steward was amazing - we loved him.

Specialty Restaurants/Bars:

Silk Harvest (Thai): the food was good, but I wouldn't go here again. It didn't seem worth the $35 surcharge - it was your basic Thai food that we eat all the time on land. There wasn't anything particularly innovative or "special" about it. The best thing that we ate was the tempura shrimp with Sriracha, which was surprising addictive. My boyfriend hates shrimp, but wanted to try a bite of mine...he ended up eating more of it than I did. This was replace by Qsine on the Reflection, which was a very smart move - I hope Celebrity considers doing the same on Solstice.

Tuscan Grille - we weren't planning on doing another specialty dinner, but were offered 20% off when boarding in Skagway, so decided to take it. I'm very glad we did - the food was delicious (Italian steakhouse). I was going to order the risotto for dinner, but then the waiter offered to make it a side if I wanted a different entree. I took him up on it and got the filet, which was delicious.

Molecular Bar - we LOVED this bar on our last Celebrity cruise (Reflection) and had been looking forward to it. I thought we'd be there a lot more than we were, but we ended up sleeping really early due to early morning starts and very active ports in Alaska, so we only made it there twice. They still had the drinks we remembered, plus a few new ones that we enjoyed. Best drinks on the ship, though their choice is limited to their menu. On my ship they offered a tasting in the 2nd sea day of 6 drinks that weren't on the menu yet. If you asked about it, you could reserve it in advance - be sure to do that, because they sell out before the actual tasting starts.

Martini Bar - lots of fun martinis and a cool frozen counter. The thing you must do is the martini flight: not only do you get to try 6 different drinks, but the presentation is spectacular. The bartender stands up on the counter and pours them all at once.

Non-specialty dining:

Food was good - service was iffy. This was my first time being in Select Dining (reserved dining times were all out when I booked 3 months in advanced.) I really wasn't a fan - I missed the connection that we got to make with our waiters and getting to know fellow cruisers over a week. (Though we did get to meet more people this way.) We didn't make reservations for dinner, so when we ate there we made a point of getting there early. (We tried on our first day and either got a busy signal or no answer when we called repeatedly, so we finally gave up. We didn't want to make reservations before the day of, because we didn't know what activities we'd want to schedule it around.)

Overall service was iffy in ALL of the non-specialty dining experiences we had. I don't know if they have a lot of new people or if they've cut down on staff, but I really felt the lack of service. On the formal night I asked if I could do a surf and turf: the steak with just a side of lobster (not a full entree). I was told no - this was the first time that's happened in multiple cruises that I've asked that. In the buffet I had a hard time finding people to bring drinks out. There are other examples, but I don't want to dwell. The food was very good, but the dining service was the biggest disappointment of the trip. (Though it was still a fantastic trip.)

Entertainment:

We didn't do nearly as much entertainment as usual - I'm a night person, but most nights I was in bed by 10:00. However, the entertainment was fantastic. Our cruise director, Patty, said that the Solstice is recognized for the best entertainment in the Celebrity fleet and I believe her.

Dancers/Singers:

I've been on 7 cruises now and always make a point of seeing the main shows. This was the best singers/dancers of any cruise I've been on. We went to the first night show, which is usually just a bunch of chat from the cruise director and random performances. However, they did it much better - it was music through the decades and the cruise director dressed in costume and gave facts about each decade. Performances were fantastic. The standout was a performance of "Let it Go" from Frozen, which was as good as the original. I'm a HUGE Broadway fan (geek) and I LOVED their Broadway show. It was very well done with an excellent selection of songs: some were very popular, some were less well known. It was refreshing not to have just the same hits. The dancers and singers were all extremely talented. I felt that the 2 non-lead singers were actually better than the male/female leads. I think they have a great career in front of them and I wouldn't be surprised to see them on Broadway one day. I hated that I never made it to their comedy/burlesque show - I heard great things about it. I also heart great things about Solstice the show, but didn't make it to that one either.

Hot Glass Show

The best part of Solstice. The end. We saw 4 of their shows and sat mesmerized for the full 2 hours of the show. They did a great job of picking pieces that showed off different techniques and narrating through it. Seating filled up pretty quickly after the show started. However, a lot of people cleared out after the 1st piece was finished. (They each did a piece - so each took 30-45 mins.) So if you can't find a seat in the beginning, you will probably be able to when people leave. At some shows (but not all), they raffled off previous pieces they'd made (glass has to cool at least 12 hours). They also auctioned off 4-5 pieces for breast cancer and scholarships at the end of the cruise. The best show was the one where they make the breast cancer piece - it's combined with music by the DJ and they do 1 big (very complex) piece for the full 2 hours.

Spa

I decided to pamper myself on formal night with a manicure, pedicure and up-do. The hair style was fantastic - maybe my favorite up-do EVER. I feel that the manicure and pedicure was subpar - the manicure was chipping the next day already. There were fewer luxuries with the basic mani/pedi than I get on land at strip malls, though it cost 2-3 times more. They were also 30 minutes late starting my services, though a mixup meant that I was brought back almost immediately, but had to sit there with my feet in the water for 20-25 minutes. I wish I hadn't spent the money on the mani/pedi. The updo made me feel beautiful; however, I was surprised by how causal so many people were at formal night, so I felt a little overdressed and silly for having a fancy hairstyle.

Tracy Arm

The highlight of the trip by far was the ride down Tracy Arm. DO NOT MISS THIS. Do not oversleep. Do not be afraid of the cold. This was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. We started sailing down it at about 6:00 am - we arrived at the glacier at about 8:00 am. The trip down and back were similar, but you CANNOT miss the glacier. We did the entire thing on our balcony and loved being able to come in and out of the cold. (We got an aft balcony specifically to be able to have a 180 view and it was well worth it.) The only thing that I wished I'd gone to the top decks for was that they were doing professional photos in front of the glacier and that may have been cool (albeit expensive - they charge $30/pop for photos now!). The naturalist, Brent Nixon is fantastic. They play him in all of the public areas, plus he's on TV. So we turned up the volume and could hear him on the balcony. We never made it to any of his talks, but I caught one on the TV and it was very well done.

Ports

My favorite port was Juneau (we went to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Victoria.) You'll need to pay for the bus to shuttle you into Juneau if you don't want to walk (about a mile I think), but once you get there it feels much more like a small town and not a cruise port. We didn't do a shore excursion - instead we went to the Alaskan Brewery store in town and got a shuttle to their brewery. The shuttle was more than just a shuttle - they took you on a 15 minute tour of the city and showed the government buildings. Then when you got there you got to sample their beers for free. (The shuttle was $15/person.) We spent the rest of the day wandering Juneau and shopping. We ate at the Flight Deck restaurant, where I had a wonderful crab boil.

My favorite tour was in Skagway - we did the White Pass railroad and Sled Dogs. This one wasn't one where you ride the sled dogs (fine with me). It was really cool hearing about the Iditarod from someone who'd competed in it multiple times. Plus we got to pet his dogs and hold a bunch of puppies. My disappointment with the White Pass was that I sat on the wrong side of the train, so views weren't quite as good. Everyone had said to sit on the station side - but I didn't realize that most tours start directly in Skagway. We started on the Canadian side after doing the Iditarod thing - and there you DON'T want the station side. After the tours we went back to the place that had the Iditarod, because there was a brewery and gold panning. The brewery was very lackluster in the beer they served and the gold panning was overpriced - I don't recommend either. I do highly recommend the Skagway Brewing Company - they have some fun beers and a full restaurant. (I wish we'd gone there earlier and had lunch.)

Ketchikan was a beautiful town, but very touristy. Plus it rains there 300 days/year. We did a beautiful rainforest walk (bring rain gear) and enjoyed the wildlife sanctuary where we got to pet some reindeer and see a totem pole carver up close. We didn't see any wildlife outside of the sanctuary, except some salmon (which were amusing to watch attempt to jump into a drain pipe and swim up it.)

We were pleasantly surprised with Victoria. Our tour was a free one that we got through the travel agency we booked the cruise with. It was basically a 1 hour bus tour and a stop to taste olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The city is much bigger than we expected and very quaint. After the tour we wandered to try to find dinner - we ended up randomly in North 48, which we LOVED. It was just down one of the sidestreets about a block from the main road with all the shops and touristy stuff. Their food was fantastic - I'm a huge meatloaf fan and it was the best meatloaf I've ever eaten. My boyfriend got to try some local beers, so he was happy. I kind of wish we'd seen Buchart gardens or the castle, but after all our spending, a free tour was hard to pass up...plus it gave us more time to wander.

Concierge Class - worth it?

The main reason we booked was for the aft balcony, which made concierge worth every penny. Embarkation was a breeze (concierge line was actually shorter than the suite line - so we got on quicker than suite guests.) I used the foot rests on the balcony every time I was on there. We ordered breakfast room service almost ever day - my understanding is that regular room service is more continental, while we were able to have the full bacon/eggs/pancakes/etc, which I appreciated. I found the smoothies (which I think are part of concierge) to be not at all tasty, though. I loved the bottle of champagne during sail-away, even if it's not the best bubbly I've ever had. So all of that was a definite plus and is worth a small premium.

The canapés were ridiculous and not worth it - some basic chips and hummus in very small portions. With the mass quantities of food around the ship that are included in the basic fare, I don't understand why Celebrity can't figure out how to elevate the canapés a bit. The fresh fruit was just apples and we didn't have any flowers. I'm not sure what they mean by a pillow menu, but we basically had the same amount of pillows that you'd have in any hotel or other cruise we've been on. So if any of those are things that you're thinking of booking concierge class for, it's not worth it.

Top Chef Cruise

Our sailing was 1 of a handful of Top Chef cruises. Celebrity teams up with Bravo to offer these sailings. There are a host of activities on board - former contestants do demonstrations and there's a Quickfire cooking competition that members of the audience compete in with Top Chef coaches. A big highlight is Top Chef night in the main dining room, where each of the former contestants on the ship give a recipe for an appetizer, soup/salad and entree. Deserts were taken from recipes from the show. The chefs didn't prepare the food, but it was exceptionally innovative and delicious and often recipes that were on the show or inspired by what they cooked on the show. There was also a variety of fee-based cooking classes and dinners with the Top Chef contestants. In addition, the last season of Top Chef is available in your cabin on demand.

Overall the activities were a lot of fun and definitely worth it if you're a fan of the show (we are). A lot of people there didn't even realize it was a Top Chef sailing, so not everyone there were fans. (This was something that the contestants appreciated, because it meant they could freely roam about. One of them told my cooking class that she'd done another cruise that Bravo chartered that was 100% fans of the show and she had to have security escort her around, because she couldn't walk outside her cabin without being mobbed. On our sailings, though, the contestants were able to act like tourists and mingle with other cruisers.)

The only downside is that the activities aren't ones that the crew is used to, so they're not as well organized/planned as other activities. It's not a big deal, but something I wished I'd prepared myself for better - I got a little stressed at times, because I was expecting normal Celebrity organization.

I wrote a bunch more in my sailing's roll call, so rather than rehash it, you may want to check that out:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2003050&page=4

Ok, I think I got everything. I may add more - I'll make notes if I edit anything later (aside from spelling/grammar).