LIVE! From Celebrity Solstice May 11th 2018 Alaska Cruise

Wow, what an adventure.

Thank you for sharing.

Your Skagway hike is in the midst of such stunning scenery!! I had read of others doing this hike and was interested, but we are sailing on the Millennium and she isn't in port long enough to offer this excursion. Sounds like quite a fortunate turn of events in getting you back to the ship on time...a stressful time to what looks to be an amazing day, hopefully you can let that go, focusing on the beauty of the day earlier and having a bit of drama in the midst of your future storytelling that ends well.

Your weather looks perfect...how was your temps?

Great review. I think my husband would have hyperventilated by the time we got to the gangway! Glad you made it.

Joe

Your Skagway hike is in the midst of such stunning scenery!! I had read of others doing this hike and was interested, but we are sailing on the Millennium and she isn't in port long enough to offer this excursion. Sounds like quite a fortunate turn of events in getting you back to the ship on time...a stressful time to what looks to be an amazing day, hopefully you can let that go, focusing on the beauty of the day earlier and having a bit of drama in the midst of your future storytelling that ends well.

 

 

 

Your weather looks perfect...how was your temps?

Yes def agree. I tried my best to include the fact that up until the delay, the day was absolutely gorgeous, but def important to let people know how close we came to missing the ship. We will def laugh about it when we tell the story in the future but right now still upset at how it all played out.

Weather we got very lucky with

Ketchikan - no rain, high temp was about 60. Very nice day and our favorite port of call.

Juneau - mild to moderate rain, high 50’s, very crowded port, 5 ships! The port will be loosing my business next time if there are that many ships, will likely stay on board.

Skagway - no rain, was predicted to be very cold but turned out to be a nice weather day with high temp is mid to high 50’s.

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Glad you made it back. Enjoyed having my "daily fix" of your adventures and will soon start our count down to 7 September.

Your photographs are awesome.

Thanks :)

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Dinner for Skagway Night was in Luminae and was pretty good. Didn’t do a whole lot after dinner and passed out at 10pm [emoji43] . My husband on the other hand stayed up till 11pm and saw this gorgeous sunset from the balcony.

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Crab Shack at the Mast Grill on this menu for the 15th. What is this? Never heard of it before on any S-Class Ship.

Juneau - mild to moderate rain, high 50’s, very crowded port, 5 ships! The port will be loosing my business next time if there are that many ships, will likely stay on board.

We'll also have 5 ships when in Juneau. We're the last Tuesday with ONLY 5...there'll be 6 every Tuesday there after. I was surprised you were there on a Monday and also had that many. Hmm.

Thank you for the weather report. And for posting here. I'm enjoying this as a work up to our own first Alaska cruise in June.

Crab Shack at the Mast Grill on this menu for the 15th. What is this? Never heard of it before on any S-Class Ship.

Ah, came across this in my research! I don't think you missed much: http://www.thepreismans.com/alaska_17_page1.htm, about 1/3 down or search for "feast".

Dinner for Skagway Night was in Luminae and was pretty good. Didn’t do a whole lot after dinner and passed out at 10pm [emoji43] . My husband on the other hand stayed up till 11pm and saw this gorgeous sunset from the balcony.

 

 

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Dinner is in Tuscan Grill again tonight, we initially had Murano repeat but changed our mind as a family for the better views, service and the type of food we were in the mood for. Will ask for Darko again who was awesome.

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Ah, came across this in my research! I don't think you missed much: http://www.thepreismans.com/alaska_17_page1.htm, about 1/3 down or search for "feast".

Thanks. It's probably going to flop just like it did when they started charging for burgers at the Mast Grill.

Enjoyed reading your review and the great pictures.

Thanks. It's probably going to flop just like it did when they started charging for burgers at the Mast Grill.

 

Enjoyed reading your review and the great pictures.

Can't take credit, not my site. I'm still a cruise virgin! :D

Happened to stumble across it from a link somewhere here on CC, you are right though, it's a fantastic review for the Solstice Alaska itinerary.

Thanks. It's probably going to flop just like it did when they started charging for burgers at the Mast Grill.

 

Enjoyed reading your review and the great pictures.

Do they really charge for burgers at the Mast Grill.? I new to this and this is good to know.

Do they really charge for burgers at the Mast Grill.? I new to this and this is good to know.

No. They had a program last year where they were going to convert the Mast Grill to do gourmet burgers and charge $10 for them, but it flopped and they went back to the free burgers & dogs.

Your Skagway excursion photos are gorgeous. So glad you had a great day at least up to the point that went downhill, literally!

Your harrowing experience reminds me of a similar incident we endured aboard Constellation in 2006. We were in Le Havre and took the train into Paris for the day, on our own. We made sure we caught a return train back that provided “wiggle room” before the ship sailed. Shortly after leaving Paris the train came to a halt, where we sat...and sat...and sat. A few announcements were made, all in French, of course, and each one was met with collective sighs throughout the car from the passengers. Finally we learned we were stuck behind a broke down train ahead of us. The 2 hour trip stretched to 5 hours. After awhile, I got up and started making my way through the very long train, one car at a time. I was searching for anyone from the ship I might recognize. Thankfully, just a few cars away I spotted a group of people I recognized. Long story short, one of them had a cell phone who had already contacted Celebrity in Miami and told them if our plight. They had been assured the ship would wait for us. As it turned out, not only were there a lot of ships passengers aboard the train, independently, but also crew. Even though we were assured the ship would wait, until we walked up that gangway and onto the Connie were we able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Enjoy dinner with your family tonight in Tuscan with Darko! Between the late-setting sun and scenery in Alaska, Tuscan is the best spot to enjoy a relaxing dinner.

Thanks again for taking us along with you.

Following as we are on the Sostice end of June!

Dinner in Tuscan was absolutely amazing. From the amazing and personable service by Darko, the food and the gorgeous sunset we saw was just the perfect dinner we had on this lazy sea day. The entire family enjoyed the whole experience. So glad we decided on Tuscan over Murano.

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Last of the daily pics. Cruise is coming to an end sadly but overall this has been a great journey and thank you to all those that followed along.

Just a quick review of my overall experience.

Ship - very well kept and no complaints.

Stateroom - By far the best of all our cruises since we got lucky with the royal suite upgrade at the last minute.

Suite perks - We had done Celebrity Reflection in May 2016 and May 2017, overall the suite experience in Michaels Club, Our great concierge - Calli, Luminae Dining with our great waiter Bayu. Our Butler Stevo - this ship far exceeded our expectations and overall felt the service and suite experience goes was way better than our May 2017 Celebrity Reflection Cruise.

Dining - Our overall dining in Luminae from breakfast, Lunch and Dinner was great. Food was great and so was the service, really no complaints there.

Specialty dining - This is where I have couple small complaints. Still don’t know why the Solstice has Silk Harvest - ready for explosive comments from Silk Harvest fans...lol. But I just have loved Qsine so much and wish this restaurant was changed to that.

Murano - we did not have a great experience overall. Food was just ok and the service compared to most of our prior experience in Murano I would give a 2/5.

Tuscan - no real complaints. Food was great, along with great service from Darko. Views were amazing.

Ports of call - Tracy Arm Fjord not really port of call but was a great 4 hours of cruising experience. Ketchikan was our favorite port. Skagway would be very close second - minus the incident of almost being left behind.

Juneau was our least favorite and to hear a comment about from now on there will be 6 ships in the port is just crazy!!!! We thought 5 was an obnoxious amount. I guess there will always be people that do not care about the crazy crowds but it just ruins the great Alaskan experience. I hope enough people comment negatively across all cruise reviews regarding this and hopefully 5 years from now there is a restriction in number of ships that are allowed to be there at a time, but I’m sure that is just wishful thinking. My overall reason for the long rant on this port is to warn people about those that are wanting to do Mendenhall Glacier since that is a popular excursion, my in-laws did that one and said it was jam packed at the site almost felt like cattle call. Try and seek out a small group excursion that is unique if you are not a fan of huge crowds, doesn’t bother a lot of people I guess but this comment is for people like me and my husband that are super glad we did not go to Mendenhall this time.

Victoria - during our last cruise we had gotten off and walked 35 minute into town ourselves and it was def nice to explore the town on our own. Due to the weird timing of when the ship is there we have decided to stay on board and enjoy it as a sea day.

Entertainment on the ship - we only went to two events. The Liars Club which Captain Tasos participates in. We laughed so much it hurt to laugh more. Best show we have been in a while. The hot glass show was amazing as well.

Hope the review help, let me know if you have any other specific questions about the cruise :)

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Thank you Islandtime, appreciate all the info and time you put into your reviews. Makes me want to start packing today and I don’t leave for a week. :) Did you pre-purchase a specialty dining package? Do you know if there is a dinner menu preview for Luminae? I was on Infinity last summer and loved Q’sine. Bummer they don’t have it on Solstice.

Anyway, I’ve taken my notes! Thanks again!

Thank you Islandtime, appreciate all the info and time you put into your reviews. Makes me want to start packing today and I don’t leave for a week. :) Did you pre-purchase a specialty dining package? Do you know if there is a dinner menu preview for Luminae? I was on Infinity last summer and loved Q’sine. Bummer they don’t have it on Solstice.

Anyway, I’ve taken my notes! Thanks again!

We did not pre-purchase a specialty dining but had planned to once on board. Royal Suite has a perk of unlimited specialty dining so we got lucky that way. You can request a print out copy of Luminae dinner menus and your Butler will leave them in your room on Day 2

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Thank you for all the information and photos. We enjoyed following along on your cruise.

Sandra

Thanks so much for your “live” review. We are leaving for Seatlle today. Not excited about all the ships in Juneau (looks like only 4 for us!) I think we will stay onboard after our Tracy Arm excursion!

Safe travels home!