Just Back from Excellent Cruise on Solstice (5-23 Western Caribbean Mini Review)

[seacruise9]

Hi,

 

I had a wonderful time aboard the Celebrity Solstice from May 23 to May 30 (Western Caribbean). I have cruised on a wide variety of lines (Celebrity, Crystal, Cunard, Holland America, NCL, Princess and Royal Caribbean), but this was my first time on a Solstice-class ship. I absolutely loved this ship! This is the most beautiful and well-designed ship that I have ever cruised aboard. I am in my mid-40s and have been taking cruises since I was a small child. I try to take two or three cruises a year.

 

Pre-cruise / embarkation: I flew down a day early and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six. This is a wonderful hotel to spend a night before a cruise. I had a room in the tower (14th floor) that had an excellent view of the cruise ships. I watched the Carnival Freedom and Grandeur of the Seas depart, but the Oasis of the Seas sailed a few hours late (apparently, they were doing some work on the ship).

 

I took a taxi to the ship at noon on Sunday. Embarkation was a breeze. There were no lines. I was greeted on the ship by waiters with champagne. The staterooms were not yet ready and I had lunch at the Bistro on Five. As soon as I was finished eating, the staterooms were ready.

 

Dining: I had dinner in the Grand Epernay on six nights (second seating at 8:30). This room is stunning. On the first night, I was assigned to a table that did not have a good view of the room. I requested to change to a table in the center of room. My request was granted and I was assigned to a table (No. 238) with a perfect view of the restaurant. The food and service were excellent. I particularly enjoyed the brunch during the first sea day.

 

On Wednesday night, I had dinner in the Tuscan Grille. This room had very attentive service and the food was outstanding.

 

I usually had lunch in the Oceanview Café. This room is well-designed and features many different food islands. This prevents long lines. The food was great and there was a wide variety. In particular, I liked the salad bar, desserts and ice cream.

 

On two days, I had lunch in the Bistro on Five. This is a nice venue with some lighter food options and great service.

 

Entertainment: I attended the main show every evening. For late seating guests, the shows were held pre-dinner (7:00) on six of the nights and post dinner on Monday night (11:00 with a Welcome Aboard Toast at 10:45). I enjoyed the entertainment each evening. There were three production shows: Solstice – The Show, Ghost Light – The Spirit of Broadway, and Pulse. My favorite was Solstice – The Show (a Cirque du Soleil type show). I also enjoyed the Groove Interactive Theme Party that was held in the Grand Foyer on Tuesday night.

 

Stateroom: I was in a standard outside stateroom on Deck 3 (3122). I was very impressed with the design of this cabin. The bathroom was spacious and had excellent storage space. Also, this cabin had a great location: Near the Grand Foyer, Grand Epernay and Solstice Theatre. Of course, it was far from the pools and Oceanview Café. I tried to take the stairs (for the exercise), but the eight glass elevators were efficient (and offered great views).

 

Ports: In Grand Cayman, I did the Island Highlights Tour. My guide was not good and I would not recommend this tour. In Cozumel, I went ashore for an hour or two, but spent most of the day on the ship. I have been to this port many times and have done all of the major tours. In Costa Maya, I did the Costa Maya Town Highlights and Beach Break (nice tour). I was impressed with the facilities at the port (pools, shopping, etc.). In Roatan, I did the Roatan Island Tour and Highlights. This was my favorite tour during this cruise.

 

Captain’s Club events: There were many excellent events for repeat passengers throughout the cruise (I am an Elite member). For example, there was a nightly cocktail hour, Elite Elegant Tea in the Tuscan Grille (on Tuesday), Senior Officers’ Cocktail Party, and Backstage Tour. Also, there was a Captain’s Club Celebration for all Captain’s Club Members on the last sea day. This was held from 1:30 to 3:00 in the Sly Lounge and featured drinks, entertainment, and food stations (fresh fruit, crepes, carved meat, and sushi). This was a very nice party. In addition, I received many coupons (including 90 complimentary Internet minutes).

 

Debarkation: Smooth and well-organized.

 

Only one negative: There were a lot of problems with the ship’s Internet connection. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon.

 

Summary: This was an outstanding cruise! I highly recommend the Solstice-class ships. I will certainly be sailing on them in the future. Please let me know if you have questions. I have copies of the Celebrity Program for each day.

 

Chuck

[Lois R]

Hi Chuck, sounds like you had a great time:)....curious, did you sail solo?

[tripkat]

Hi and thanks for your review....we will be sailing the Western itinery in August and counting the days. :D I would love to see the Celebrity programs you mention.

This will be our first Celebrity cruise after six with Royal Caribbean. Have to admit I was a little hesitant right before I booked, but I keep hearing how beautiful and well designed Solstice is and I'm ready and excited to try a different brand.

I was wondering if you got to snorkel at any of the ports....it seems the snorkeling is quite good at most of these destinations and always looking for suggestions for prime spots.

Thanks again.

[nps001]

Great review Chuck. I'm glad you had such a great time. The S class ships are my favorite--I also love the design and layout.

[Texed]

cruise9,

Thanks for posting. :)

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thanks for the well balanced review Chuck.

Our next cruise will be on the Solstice doing the same itinerary in September so I am trying to take in as much as possible since this will be our first Celebrity.

[portofrome]

Glad you had a nice cruise. Thanks for the review.

[grnidlad8]

Chuck..thank you for the wonderful review! I have one question that perhaps you can answer...

In the sports lounge or cabins, is NBC one of the broadcasted stations? I need to watch the NHL Stanley Cup Finals should it go beyond 4 games. I got conflicting reports from Celebrity. HELP...I need to see my Blackhawks!!!!!

[seacruise9]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the nice comments. Here are answers to your questions:

 

Yes, I sailed on this cruise solo. I orginally was booked with a friend to sail on the Queen Victoria in April out of England, but we were unable to fly to England due to the volcanic ash. I booked the Solstice as a replacement cruise (my friend was unable to change his vacation on such short notice). I have no trouble sailing solo. I enjoyed meeting people throughout the cruise. However, I think it is a little more difficult to meet people on a large ship with nearly 3,000 passengers. I tended to meet people who I enjoyed talking to, but then I would not run into them again.

 

I will try to scan the daily programs. Until then, I would be happy to answer any questions concerning what activities were scheduled. I did not do snorkeling in any of the ports because I don't particularly enjoy snorkeling. However, my tablemates went snorkeling or scuba diving in some of the ports and had a great time.

 

I booked all of my tours through Celebrity before the cruise. I know that you can get better deals booking on your own, but I like the convenience of booking the ship's tours.

 

I did not watch television too much, but most of the channels seemed to be news channels. I don't recall seeing NBC. However, I know that my tablemates missed dinner one night to watch a basketball game in their stateroom. I don't know which channel broadcasted the game. Thus, I am not sure if you would be able to see the hockey games.

 

Chuck

[radtech]

Hi Chuck - glad you had a great cruise... Have a question about the Hyatt pier 66 hotel you stay in before the cruise. How much did you pay for the one night and were you able to request the tower room with the view of ships?

 

Thanks so much for helping

 

radtech :)

[Gracie115]

Chuck..thank you for the wonderful review! I have one question that perhaps you can answer...

In the sports lounge or cabins, is NBC one of the broadcasted stations? I need to watch the NHL Stanley Cup Finals should it go beyond 4 games. I got conflicting reports from Celebrity. HELP...I need to see my Blackhawks!!!!!

 

 

Solstice was great with boradcasting the NFL Conference Championship Games in January and the Super Bowl too the next week....

 

I would think that they would show the hockey championship series too..it IS really hard to get anyone to actually commit to that when calling Celebrity...but I bet you'll find it's on...they get ESPN and ESPN International, but they can "move the satellite" to get other entertainment too, at least some of the time..... good luck.....

[Eliz]

Hi Chuck, welcome home to Chicago. Thanks for the great review. I'm glad you enjoyed the beautiful Solstice. I also thought the Captain's Club events were very nice. We're booked for our third sailing in November. Guess we like the ship too!

 

Elizabeth

[Lois R]

Thanks for the review. I always sail solo too and as I was reading it,

I could see the use of "I" rather than "we";)...that is why I asked:)

How were your tablemates?

[cowabunga10]

My wife and I were on the same cruise, and also just loved it. I agree with Chuck about the ship - just fabulous.

 

We booked an accessible cabin in the Aqua Class, which was on deck 11. Great views from the veranda (two chars and a table out there), automatic door to the passageway, fully accessible bathroom, no complaints at all. Good-sized (32"?) flat-panel LCD TV, armoire, safe, minibar, several storage drawers, desk. The TV channels are a bit limited, but we weren't there to watch television anyway. I remember CNBC, a couple of ESPN channels, Faux News, MSNBC, -no- regular networks, BBC World News, and some others. Aqua class gets you special access to the Aqua Spa on deck 12, which does all sorts of stuff - none of it cheap, but they do seem to know what they're doing. My wife says she got the best haircut/style done that she's ever had. They also do massages, other salon-type treatments, and have a steam room, sauna, and relaxation room.

 

Aqua class also gets you a separate dining room called Blu, on deck 5. It's open for breakfast and dinner, has maybe 25 tables, and is of very high quality. The staff is excellent - there are only 7 waiters, 7 assistant waiters, two sommeliers, and two maitre'ds. We were served by all but four of them at some point during the week, and they were bend-over-backward nice. The food is great. Absolutely nothing to complain about. We did do two dinners at Asian Silk ($25/person premium) and Tuscan ($30/person premium) - both were terrific. Tuscan is considered the "better" of the two, but I thought the service and the food at Asian Silk were at least as good if not better. (Of course, we're talking gradations of great with both of them...) We thought they were both worth the extra bucks.

 

We did try the Oceanview Cafe for lunch a couple of times. It was OK, but I think to some extent we were spoiled by having Blu to compare it to. I will give them credit for variety - whatever you want, they probably have it.

 

The Bistro on 5 makes several different types of crepes and salads, and although it is a $5/person premium I thought it was a well-worth-it lunch stop. (The Italian crepe with bananas and Nutella was fabulous, and the Mediterranean crepe filled with seasoned chicken was very tasty.) The Gelateria nearby has great gelato, and the Bacio cafe across from it has many different types of tea and coffee.

 

The shore excursions were fine - we did the Atlantis submarine in Grand Cayman (where you really need to get away from the pier area unless you just want to see other tourists shopping all day), the Jungle Buggy ride in Cozumel (fun, two person ATV tour along the coastline - but it is a ROUGH ride!), SNUBA in Costa Maya (excellent - about 35 minutes totally underwater swimming around), and the Shipwreck snorkeling excursion in Roatan (similarly excellent.) Both of the last two include some free time at a beach resort.

 

The evening entertainment shows were pretty good, although I thought the cruise director talked a bit too much during the first one. The musicians on the ship were excellent. In particular, there was a pianist/singer named Will Foraker who we thought ought to be a star someday. Really, really good - and a very nice young man to boot. We spent a fair amount of time talking to him between performances - he plays/sings a lot of standards, writes some of his own material, and cracked us up when he told us that his career aspiration was to be "half as good as Ray Charles on his worst night!"

 

I've only done one other cruise (RCCL Navigator of the Seas) so I don't have a huge basis for comparison, but I thought Solstice was a wonderful experience. I would absolutely do it again, and probably in Aqua Class again as well. It wasn't horrendously expensive, and the perks did help make it a special experience.

[librarylady19]

Thanks for your review Chuck. You mentioned that shows for late diners were at 7 p.m. Does this mean that there is only one show time each evening?

 

Welcome back to Chicago - Go Hawks!

[seacruise9]

Hi,

 

I booked my room at the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six directly on the Hyatt website. The price for a tower room was $219 (plus tax). However, I selected Hyatt's option of paying an additional $10 if an upgrade was available. When I made the reservation, I entered a note requesting a view of the cruise ships. Also, I asked for a room with a cruise ship view when I checked in. I was upgraded to a deluxe room with a perfect view of the ships sailing from port. My room number was 1470 and ended up costing $229 (plus tax). This was not a great rate, but the room was very spacious and nice.

 

My tablemates in the dining room were fine. Even though my table in the center of the restaurant was large, there were only four other people at my table. They were nice and I enjoyed talking to them. However, I did not do much with them outside of dinner.

 

I agree with Cowabunga10 about the Bistro on Five. The Italian crepe was great for dessert. Also, I enjoyed listening to Will Foraker. I liked the way that he was featured during the main show on the first night of the cruise. Because I was not Aqua Class, I was not able to dine in Blu. However, I looked at the room and took some pictures before the ship sailed. I think this room is incredibly beautiful. I will consider booking an Aqua Class stateroom next time.

 

Chuck

[seacruise9]

Hi,

 

Librarylady19, the main shows were performed twice each night. They usually were at 7:00 and 9:00.

 

Chuck

[Susie51]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience aboard Solstice.

[jackdiamond]

Chuck,

Thanks for posting,

Jack

[crugirl]

Thanks for the lovely review Chuck. We will be sailing the same route in October. I'm especially interested in the highlight tour you took in Roatan. Was this a ship tour or an independent? Did it include beach time in West Bay and how long?

[mringenoldus]

Hello!

 

Thanks for all of the good information. I have four 2C cabins near the atrium with extended balconies (and feel I have a very good rate) but this trip will be with my adult children/spouses (25-35 years old) and grandchildren (1 yr and 14 yrs old).

 

How "sedate" is the atmosphere? My son picked this ship for his leave time from the Air Force and I really want everyone to have fun. I'm wondering if it was the right choice - or perhaps I should be looking at the NCL Epic which will be sailing an eastern route that week. I would be Elite on X - never been on NCL because their product didn't really appeal to me, but the Epic is interesting.

 

I'd love any thoughts on this...thanks!!

[Woobstr112G]

Hi,

 

I had a wonderful time aboard the Celebrity Solstice from May 23 to May 30 (Western Caribbean). I have cruised on a wide variety of lines (Celebrity, Crystal, Cunard, Holland America, NCL, Princess and Royal Caribbean), but this was my first time on a Solstice-class ship. I absolutely loved this ship! This is the most beautiful and well-designed ship that I have ever cruised aboard. I am in my mid-40s and have been taking cruises since I was a small child. I try to take two or three cruises a year.

 

Pre-cruise / embarkation: I flew down a day early and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six. This is a wonderful hotel to spend a night before a cruise. I had a room in the tower (14th floor) that had an excellent view of the cruise ships. I watched the Carnival Freedom and Grandeur of the Seas depart, but the Oasis of the Seas sailed a few hours late (apparently, they were doing some work on the ship).

 

I took a taxi to the ship at noon on Sunday. Embarkation was a breeze. There were no lines. I was greeted on the ship by waiters with champagne. The staterooms were not yet ready and I had lunch at the Bistro on Five. As soon as I was finished eating, the staterooms were ready.

 

Dining: I had dinner in the Grand Epernay on six nights (second seating at 8:30). This room is stunning. On the first night, I was assigned to a table that did not have a good view of the room. I requested to change to a table in the center of room. My request was granted and I was assigned to a table (No. 238) with a perfect view of the restaurant. The food and service were excellent. I particularly enjoyed the brunch during the first sea day.

 

On Wednesday night, I had dinner in the Tuscan Grille. This room had very attentive service and the food was outstanding.

 

I usually had lunch in the Oceanview Café. This room is well-designed and features many different food islands. This prevents long lines. The food was great and there was a wide variety. In particular, I liked the salad bar, desserts and ice cream.

 

On two days, I had lunch in the Bistro on Five. This is a nice venue with some lighter food options and great service.

 

Entertainment: I attended the main show every evening. For late seating guests, the shows were held pre-dinner (7:00) on six of the nights and post dinner on Monday night (11:00 with a Welcome Aboard Toast at 10:45). I enjoyed the entertainment each evening. There were three production shows: Solstice – The Show, Ghost Light – The Spirit of Broadway, and Pulse. My favorite was Solstice – The Show (a Cirque du Soleil type show). I also enjoyed the Groove Interactive Theme Party that was held in the Grand Foyer on Tuesday night.

 

Stateroom: I was in a standard outside stateroom on Deck 3 (3122). I was very impressed with the design of this cabin. The bathroom was spacious and had excellent storage space. Also, this cabin had a great location: Near the Grand Foyer, Grand Epernay and Solstice Theatre. Of course, it was far from the pools and Oceanview Café. I tried to take the stairs (for the exercise), but the eight glass elevators were efficient (and offered great views).

 

Ports: In Grand Cayman, I did the Island Highlights Tour. My guide was not good and I would not recommend this tour. In Cozumel, I went ashore for an hour or two, but spent most of the day on the ship. I have been to this port many times and have done all of the major tours. In Costa Maya, I did the Costa Maya Town Highlights and Beach Break (nice tour). I was impressed with the facilities at the port (pools, shopping, etc.). In Roatan, I did the Roatan Island Tour and Highlights. This was my favorite tour during this cruise.

 

Captain’s Club events: There were many excellent events for repeat passengers throughout the cruise (I am an Elite member). For example, there was a nightly cocktail hour, Elite Elegant Tea in the Tuscan Grille (on Tuesday), Senior Officers’ Cocktail Party, and Backstage Tour. Also, there was a Captain’s Club Celebration for all Captain’s Club Members on the last sea day. This was held from 1:30 to 3:00 in the Sly Lounge and featured drinks, entertainment, and food stations (fresh fruit, crepes, carved meat, and sushi). This was a very nice party. In addition, I received many coupons (including 90 complimentary Internet minutes).

 

Debarkation: Smooth and well-organized.

 

Only one negative: There were a lot of problems with the ship’s Internet connection. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon.

 

Summary: This was an outstanding cruise! I highly recommend the Solstice-class ships. I will certainly be sailing on them in the future. Please let me know if you have questions. I have copies of the Celebrity Program for each day.

 

Chuck

 

Thanks for the review. Sounds like you had a great cruise.....:):):)

 

Bob

[sportsmum]

Could you tell me if Sushi was available and where, please?

[joeysmom220]

Was also on this trip. SUshi is available in the Ocean View cafe at 5:30 daily. Different ones daily and always fresh. Great ship

[sportsmum]

Thanks, the boys will be thrilled! Me too, I expected it to be an extra cost. :)