Teach2AZ

Hi Sleepless! We took the Solstice to Alaska last July - our first cruise ever! We LOVED it. We booked Aqua class cabin and enjoyed all the perks that came with it. Loved Blue dining. Food was fantastic, service even better and the maitre'd was extremely helpful guiding us through booking our restaurant package. EVERYONE on board ship was friendly, courteous, well mannered. I can't say anything about the trip that we didn't like. Unfortunately for us, my husband came down with liver failure while we were in Vancouver. We feel that it may have been caused by wearing the seasick patches too long. That said, the stewards grabbed a wheelchair, rushed him to medical and the Drs. were great. His condition had absolutely nothing to do with the ship. It is immaculate and there are stewards with sanitizer wherever you go onboard and as you renter the ship from port. We loved our time so much that we are booked for the Mediterrenean in October on the Silhouette.

We booked our cruise (7/11) through Choice Air and loved it. It gave us a selection of flights based on what our embarkation city was and we could select which one we wanted. We selected this all online and it was booked. We then went into the actual airline site and selected our seats. We use United and got our first bag free through them. We did not receive any OBC from Choice Air and I guess we were lucky that our airline of choice was included in the list of flights offered.

I was also told by my TA that AQ can select either dining room as stated by YVR Cruiser above by letting the Maitre'd at the MDR know. We did, however, prepay our tips because we don't want the charge later on.

We booked The Arctic Club (Doubletree) for early July. Have never stayed there but I have always had good luck with Doubletree hotels. Doesn't seem too far from restaurants, shops, sightseeing. I needed to book transportation from airport to hotel and from hotel to pier - the concierge was extremely helpful.