Chrissit

I promise I'm not ignoring this. I wanted to wait a few more days in to answer you after we were to both Tuscan and Murano to give a fair shake to the comparisons between Princess and Celebrity.

This morning we woke up to Ketchikan. Breakfast was a quick bite at Blue (even more than it should have been due to a race back to the cain for our waterproof camera so I missed pics...) because we didn't want to miss our excursion. A year or so ago, we booked our excursion - snorkeling. Yes, seriously, we opted for snorkeling in Alaska with Snorkel Alaska. Fred (the owner) is a great guy and Kurt, our other guide was awesome. Also, it's cold snorkeling in Alaska, but the wetsuits, once they warm up? Great. They would go down and bring up some of the local starfish, sea cucumbers and sea urchins so we could see them up close. Then we headed to the Asylum for lunch and a few beers. Beers were only $3.50 each. I can't get a draft for that back home! We split a halibut sandwich from next door at Burger Queen (which was delivered to our seat at the bar) Local map Rain gague Ketchikan sign Solstice was parked at Birth 3. There were four ships in port today.

Okay, getting fully caught up here! The rest of the day we spent puttering around the ship. This is our first cold weather cruise - and it's showing. People are flocking to the interior of the ship. The Solarium was packed pretty full. There were a few intrepid souls that had set up shop near the Pool Bar and we're enjoying themselves. (A part of me suspects they are from the colder climates and we're perfectly happy.) But the interior of the the ship was very busy - shops were open, people were stopping by. We found Fast, Fun and Free Bingo in the app and headed to the Sky Lounge. Now, let me take a moment here. I'm not sure if it was the word "Free" or the word "Bingo", but based on that crowd, Celebrity my want to rethink Deal or No Deal and look at Bingo again. The room was packed! We scored two seats at the bar, and along with our trusty Bingo Seal (yes, we are aware he's on the wrong cruise line however, he comes every cruise and normally wins us a tidy sum of money) we played bingo. And lost. I'll be having words with the Seal later. We stayed on for Trivia. We lost spectacularly at both regular and music trivia. Decided that was enough of that, said bye to the nice couple we'd been chatting with and headed to change clothes for Chic night and then to Cellar Masters. We headed to Blu for dinner. For some reasons the Miso Maple Salmon had more of a mustard blend on top. Still good, but not what we expected. The lamb was very good. And honestly the creamy crab bisque was the star of the meal. Pleasantly surprised there!

Actually those were "just" filets - delicious and cooked to the temp requested. The other dish was a half portion of the lasagna. This is a more recent recipe, I miss the one from a few years back that was bechamel based. The Caesar was decent. We requested the anchovies which they were happy to add. And, honestly, it's light years ahead of what we had on Princess. For some reason their dressing was pretty much tasteless.

Here are some of the drink/wine/specials/attractions

After that we called it a night. We ate late and are still adjusting to time zones. This morning we were up and at Blu for breakfast. Both of us opted for the salmon plate + bagel. Once breakfast wrapped up, we were around the ship for the day. Here is today's Daily. I've got a few work check-ins that need to take place and the premium wifi on Starlink had been great. Basic wouldn't work for me with needing to check in and moving file around. We stopped by for the Tlingit introduction by Fred Fulmer and his wife Ivy (I do apologize if I have misspoken anything) and we really enjoyed this. This is a gentleman who is deeply ingrained in his ancestral background and his stories have been outstanding. He is a great story teller. He had a half an hour earlier in the Grand Foyer - he went for 75 minutes and kept the crowd engaged the whole time.

Dinner last night was at Tuscan. It was fantastic. The sun setting after 8:30 was a welcome partner. (You may be starting to notice the food pics) But the real star of dinner was the sky. When we sat down. Versus later in dinner

Current onboard booking promo.

Let me add this and then I'm going to hopefully catch up to today. Sail away day

If it's the Revolution upgrades, I believe those were put on hold. If it's different upgrades, I'm not sure. Last time we were on board her was 2018. Starlink is on board.

I actually held off answering this question so I could walk through a few decks this morning and give a balanced answer. I'm going to say yes, the Solstice is good shape. Are there things that show she's a 15 year old ship? Of course. There are places that we can see repairs were made. Some of the soft goods are showing wear. Nothing crazy bad. There is a glass panel in one of the elevators that is broken/covered. There are small dings, nicks, and I'm pretty sure the curtains in the cabin have a small hole in them. But they did a great job blocking out the sun this morning so I'm pretty happy with that. The ship overall is beautiful and she's looking good. The railings are in great shape (we did a cruise on Freedom of the Seas a few years ago and the varnish peeling from the railings was very noticeable and peppered around the ship). The color scheme is the older one, but we like it. Food so far has been very good. The crew has been nothing but amazing and like usual, they were out cleaning, scrubbing and doing their best to keep her clean. Everyone we have encountered so far have been kind and very engaging. Hopefully that helps?

I grabbed a few pics when we walked by the Hot Glass area. The colors they have and what the pieces are/currently cost.

After lunch we unpacked and got ready to be on deck for sailaway. This is our first Alaska cruise and we plan to enjoy as much of the scenery as we can. Saying good by to the Royal Princess and Canada Place. Headed under the bridge on our way out (having also done the golden Gate Bridge and the Verrazano Narrows, this one doesn't look nearly as close.) As we continued along, we headed down to our cabin to get a few more pictures. And the menu for Blu for the evening, which we didn't end up at because we had a reservation for Tuscan Grill. We did make the 7pm show with the comedian Buddy Fitzpatrick. He mentioned there would be an "adult" show later in the cruise - we'll try to attend!

Oh good! Glad to hear boarding was pain free behind us. We were in line by 9:30 due to the S2S and weren't sure what others behind us may experience. That's great to hear!

I've seen suggestions about Sushi on Five for lunch on boarding day and that is a great suggestion. Chicken Gyoza Temaki trio hand roll Eel dragon roll The best part? It's not crazy! No long lines, plenty of space and the food is good! (We love us some sushi) The menu We do have an Aqua Class cabin. However, we have one of the few that are parked on the aft. This is the view in Vancouver from 1670.

Yes, Nov of '21 on the Equinox. I love it. Big sturdy piece of glass! Thank you! I don't remember the color off the top of my head, but it is OPI.

We aren't currently planning to do the hot glass, however we have done it before and enjoy watching the show. Highly recommend doing it at least once! This is from the Equinox.

We really like Blu. You'll see a few meals from there! And if you have any specific questions - let me know.

The Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA) basically says you can't take a non US flagged ship between two different US ports without visiting a distant foreign port. Canada and Mexico don't count. So, we couldn't board the Solstice in LA and take her to Seattle because she doesn't stop anywhere other than Canada. It would have been considered one voyage because we were continuing on - breaking it up between the two different ships makes it allowable.

Okay, I'm going to add this and then go back and answer some questions. We're settled onboard the Solstice and I have to say, transitioning between ships went FAR better than we expected. We were off the Royal Princess and on Solstice within 2 hours. Which included at least a half an hour of standing around and chatting with others doing the same thing we were. This is P2 and it's where you drop your luggage off if you are in Vancouver terminal prior to 10a. This was the "ticket" we were given post check in for Celebrity. Because Celebrity and Princess are sharing space. This is the process we all got to go through and Celebrity and Princess are mingling through a good bit of it. I actually like how the US Customs was here. We are US citizens so it was nice to scan our passports, get the print out and keep moving. I didn't take a picture of this... Cause reasons. 🙂 We were then taken to a hiding area and we're on the ship by 10:45. One of the things we like to do is knock out dining reservations as soon as we board. We did secure seats for the Veuve Clicquot dinner which we are really excited about and scheduled dining for a few evenings. And, because we were on the ship so darned quick, the team doing muster stations weren't even set up. Stopped by guest relations to ask about possible upgrades. That was a hard no for this sailing - sounds like we are sailing full.

Thank you! The lives tend to give some great insight into the actual cruise and I appreciate reading them. This will be my first attempt at a live so I'm hoping the internet holds out for us. 🤞

Well, I wasn't expecting to see her until tomorrow, but here we are. Solstice just pulled up along side us in Victoria.

We’re going to try and take you along with us as we sail the first Solstice Alaska sailing of the year. I say try, because well that will depend on the ships internet. Unlike how a number of live reviews start, we’re actually already on a cruise. We took the Royal Princess out of San Francisco and we’re sailing her to Vancouver and switching to the Solstice as a S2S. While we’d have much rather done a B2B, my fantastic TA pretty quickly put a kibosh on that idea thanks to PVSA. But, if you’d like some humor, my husband was a bit feisty about it and called Celebrity and they told us no issues. We went with our TA’s advice since I refused to gamble with the single nine day cruise the Solstice is doing this year to Alaska. (Our TA is correct that that B2B would be a no go thanks to PVSA for anyone wondering.) I’m really hoping to cover the process of disembarking the Royal Princess and embarking the Solstice on the same day. Could be fun. Or a huge drag. I’m also open to answering some questions about the Princess cruise we’re coming off of. I may do some comparisons somewhere along the line. So early pictures will likely be of the scenery and then once we disembark the first ship, I’ll start flowing pictures of the Solstice once we are on board. A few notes on us - we’ve been cruising Celebrity for at least 10 years and we’re in our very early 40’s. Our first cruise with them was four days (Top Chef Charter) and our longest was a 19 day Transpacific. We’ve booked everything from a Sky Suite to an interior and for this cruise we’re in Aqua. For now, we’re sailing into Victoria (which we’ll also be visiting on the Solstice) and enjoying the scenery.

Adding an image test

Doesn’t hurt to ask. We asked on embarkation Nov ‘21 on the Equniox and could have from Aqua Class to a Sky Suite (opted not to due to price). In Nov ‘22 on the Reflection, we could have moved from a balcony to Concierge later on day 2, but opted not to since we had already unpacked. We did see someone else taking them up on the offer which was great. Ask early upon boarding and they will add you to a list.