Celebrity Solstice Alaska with kids -- what did you think?

[kath00]

Hi there,

 

We are considering booking an Alaska cruise with 2 (seasoned cruiser) children, 9 and 13. We have sailed lots before with Princess and RCCL but not Celebrity.

 

For those of you who recently did this cruise, what did you think? Was it a good experience, especially with 2 older children?

 

Thanks! Katherine

[HappiTravels]

We just returned from the Aug 23rd sailing on the Solstice with our 10 year old daughter. She absolutely loved it. She couldn't wait to get to the Fun Factory every single day. We brought her on all of our excursions which she also enjoyed. There were lots of children on the ship.

 

On an aside note though I did have a problem with a policy on this Celebrity ship that I have never experienced on any of the other Celebrity ships that we traveled on in the past. Our daughter has a mild developmental delay and we made them aware of this at the Fun Factory. Because we let them know this they made it very clear that we could not leave the ship if she was at the Fun Factory due to her developmental delay. The reason this bothered me so much is that this never happened on any of our other vacations just on the Solstice. We are going to take this up with Celebrity.

[STPETE1]

We went on the Solstice on May 31st to Alaska. We had sailed Princess to Alaska before. I felt that Princess did it better. Just my opinion. The Solstice is new to Alaska and will probably get better with time but tendering to Juneau was a mess. We had a very short time in Victoria to start and they spent approximately 45 minutes calling people to report with their visas. Princess was spot on with the schedule. I thought the little touches on Princess were better.

[kath00]

Thanks for your comment, STPETE1. We had the opposite experience on the Golden Princess in May a couple years ago. Getting off the ship at each port was a disaster (as if they had never done it before)! I think it's less the company and more the time of year. It seems like each May, they reinvent the wheels and getting on and off the ship at ports (and in Vancouver) is a major hassle. But by mid-Summer, everyone is on their game.

 

After it took my parents 6h to get on the ship in YVR that time, we swore to NEVER do Alaska early in the season! :) Thankfully, we were doing a sort of B2B as we were on the Sapphire Coastal so they just walked us right over and we were on board in 30 min. But the poor passengers getting on from flights, etc waited most of the day to get on. We left the port 4h late that day!! :eek:

 

HappiTravels, that is too bad about your child and the way they treated you. I am sure it was just "extra precautions" about a child with special needs, no matter how small. We used to tell the cruise staff that my daughter has to carry an epi pen (allergic to grass) and they made SUCH a huge fuss out of it every time, that now we don't tell them. There is no grass on the ship and she knows how to use it anyway, so I have just kept it to myself and our check ins for the kids club are much smoother and easier. :)

[HappiTravels]

Kath00. I totally agree with you as they basically told us the exact same thing. They told us if we hadn't mentioned her delay then everything would have been ok. Live and learn. My issue with this didn't deter my daughters fun in any way. We have been home for 3 days and she still keeps asking to go to the Fun Factory.

Just an FYI though. There is grass on the Solstice as they have the lawn club which is on the 15th floor (same level as Fun Factory but opposite ends of ship)

[kath00]

Kath00. I totally agree with you as they basically told us the exact same thing. They told us if we hadn't mentioned her delay then everything would have been ok. Live and learn. My issue with this didn't deter my daughters fun in any way. We have been home for 3 days and she still keeps asking to go to the Fun Factory.

Just an FYI though. There is grass on the Solstice as they have the lawn club which is on the 15th floor (same level as Fun Factory but opposite ends of ship)

 

Uh oh. Thanks for letting me know. Is it real grass, or artificial turf. I guess I better google that. No problem for her as long as she doesn't touch it (strange, huh?). I think that's an adult only area, right?

 

Thanks for the info! Katherine

[kath00]

Answered my own question. The grass is real. Impressive feat. Thank goodness this is an Alaska cruise. No sitting out to tan.

 

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[Onessa]

AK can be a great cruise with the pre-tween and tween aged kids. There are a lot of really interesting and active excursions and things to do. We did some hiking in most ports and a dog sled excursion and a wildlife cruise. There is a good balance of time at sea and in port. There is generally a good number of other kids on board.

[scotchies]

Hi there,

 

We are considering booking an Alaska cruise with 2 (seasoned cruiser) children, 9 and 13. We have sailed lots before with Princess and RCCL but not Celebrity.

 

For those of you who recently did this cruise, what did you think? Was it a good experience, especially with 2 older children?

 

Thanks! Katherine

We were on the August 23rd sailing & our kids 9 & 13 loved it. There isn't as many kids on this cruise which may have worked in our favor. The arcade, sports court & lawn club were almost always wide open for them to enjoy.

[kath00]

Thanks! We just went ahead and booked the July sailing on Solstice! Cannot wait!

[dkjretired]

We just returned from the Aug 23rd sailing on the Solstice with our 10 year old daughter. She absolutely loved it. She couldn't wait to get to the Fun Factory every single day. We brought her on all of our excursions which she also enjoyed. There were lots of children on the ship.

 

On an aside note though I did have a problem with a policy on this Celebrity ship that I have never experienced on any of the other Celebrity ships that we traveled on in the past. Our daughter has a mild developmental delay and we made them aware of this at the Fun Factory. Because we let them know this they made it very clear that we could not leave the ship if she was at the Fun Factory due to her developmental delay. The reason this bothered me so much is that this never happened on any of our other vacations just on the Solstice. We are going to take this up with Celebrity.

 

Personally, I think this is a smart move by Celebrity and just because other cruise lines don't do it doesn't mean Celebrity is wrong. My kids grew up almost every summer on Celebrity and we would never leave them on board ship while we went ashore. The last thing I would want happen is some type of auto accident or anything else and leave the kids on the ship without their parents while it went to the next port. I can see Celebrity not wanting to be responsible for kids with developmental disability without a parent. And yes my son has developmental disabilities. Should also point out that they may do this because something happened in the past.