Solstice GBR review, worst cruise ever

[TFLG]

Worst cruise ever? gottcha! the only problem was it was too damn short!;p

 

Embarkation March 30th, Sydney. We arrived about 11am, were greeted, screened, processed, and photographed, and before we could say "damn that was fast" we had a glass of bubbly in our hands. We weren't hungry so we headed up to the Sunset bar to start abusing our beverage packages. The view from there is fantastic with the Sydney Harbour Bridge right behind the ship and the Opera House off to the right. We met some great folks, played some bocci and enjoyed our cocktails.

After that we headed to our room and found our luggage already there (it pays to arrive early!). We unpacked and headed to Sushi on 5 for a quiet lunch. The food was unedible...just kidding, it was pretty good. We had some appies, I had the lobster ramen, the wife had one of the rolls. A few of the delicious cocktails and we were happy campers.

 

The Cabin, we were in cabin 9138 just forward of the front elevators. This is the first time I've had a forward cabin but I prefer my usual location nearer the back elevators. It was great in the evening coming out of Sky Lounge or Quasor but a bit of a hike at meal time. The cabin was in good shape and we had no issues with anything. Our room attendant was fantastic and quickly took care of the few things we asked for. We had room service only one morning and had no problems with anything they delivered.

 

The food; much has been said about the food lately and we do like our food. We are not food snobs but do appreciate good food. We ate in the MDR 8 times, Tuscan once, Murano twice and the OVC once. Overall the food was very good. We had a couple of "misses" but nothing serious. I think the worst thing I got was the duck. I'm not sure what kind of duck it was but it was one that spent way too much time at the gym. Tough would be an understatement. The Tuscan grill also destroyed 3 dry aged porterhouse steaks. We ate them but they were way overcooked (no pink in a medium rare steak). They did remove the upcharge and offered to cook us another 3. But we just ate them and moved on. We don't like eating when everyone else is finished, those meals take long enough as it is. Besides those few hiccups the food was very good. (oh and I do sorta agree about the saltiness of the french onions soup, it was pretty salty but far from inedible).

Murano was great but good grief can we speed it up a little. Also the wait staff seemed to be completely perplexed when we ordered "surf and turf" the Chateaubriand and lobster. It's never been and issue on any other cruise but both times our waiter looked at us like we were ordering koala and crocodile. Normally they pre cut the meat and put it on the plate in the kitchen then the waiter just plops the lobster on the plate and we eat. This time they cooked the lobster and we ate, then they brought out and entire other entree (the Chateaubriand) and served that. It was almost funny. Still, great food even though it takes an eternity to serve it. And he strawberry crepes OMG!;p

 

The bars; The bar staff was great on this ship. I never saw an unhappy face or an upset bartender. The World Class guys were stuffy as always until they got to know me then they were fine, the Martini Bar crew were a blast as usual, the pool bar and Sunset bar crew were great as were the crew in the Sky Lounge and Quasor.

 

The Entertainment; We had a pretty large group of 50-60 year olds this trip but we like to think we are still 30 so we like lively entertainment. On this cruise we found the band (take five) to be a bit dull. The music was ok but the singers were flat and didn't really try to get the crowd excited. But regardless the main atrium was packed most nights they played (or the DJs played). The DJs were actually pretty good. The DJ Duo were great and the other solo DJ played really good music (but his actual DJ skills needed some help, personality like a stop sign too). The silent discos were fun and very crowded. The main theater shows that we attended were not that good. Why on earth would they have a female singer (and not a great singer) doing Queen songs? The first comedian was BORING, I actually fell asleep. Seriously, how many times can you hear the joke about going to the bathroom at night and coming back to find your bed made??? It was funny 20 cruises ago, please find some new material. The violinist and piano player were good but not my cuppa tea.

As far as nightlife this was one of the best Celebrity cruises I've been on. It might be because there was a fairly large group of young adults on this sailing and many of them were in the club at night. So we rocked the dance floor till all hours;)

Ports; Newcastle we did the winery excursion thru the ship. Honestly, I would skip it and do your own. The wineries were ok but the wines we tasted were pretty bad. I think if you do a private tour you will have a better chance of tasting some decent wine. The tour guide was great, but the tour...meh.

Airlie Beach; we missed due to a cyclone, our first time sailing past a cyclone. Very windy, a bit wet but other than that rather uneventful.

Cairns; we did the GBR snorkeling excursion thru the ship. Overall superb! Great snorkeling, tons of fish, decent food and a well run trip. Our only problem was getting back on the ship. There was some issue trying to tie the Catamaran to the Solstice. It took 40 minutes for them to get us secured after a nearly 2 hour ride back to the ship that was super irritating. Still it was a great trip. Day 2 in Cairns we did the Kurandada Cable Car excursion. I had booked the train but the heavy rains had caused a landslide and the train tracks were damaged. Kuranda was a nice little village with lots of touristy shopping. The cable car journey was very good. I'll give this one a thumbs up!

Next up Port Douglas. We booked the reef sprinter trip to Low Isles and that was a blast. 80kph, 1000hp speed boat gets you there in 15 minutes versus the hour it take on the ships excursion. And it's a freeeking blast too!:D The snorkeling here is no where near as good as the outer reef. So if you want the best snorkeling skip Low Isles and book and outer reef tour.

Brisbane; because of the size of the Solstice it docks in an industrial area quite far from town. So you have to get a shuttle bus or take and excursion. We did a private tour here also, which picked us up at the ship. It went to the Koala sanctuary, then to downtown Brisbane then on to a winery. Overall a great time although most of our group thought we were trying to cram too much in. I think just he Koala Sanctuary and the winery would have been plenty. The winery was great but unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time there. Brisbane looked like a beautiful city with the river running right thru the middle of town.

And that's about it:( Overall this was one of our best cruises. A lot of that had to do with the people we met on the ship. We found a great group of like minded party animals that made our trip very special. The crew were fantastic, the food was far from inedible in fact contrary to what you may have read most of it was really quite delicious;) And we can't wait to do the next one!

[gek]

Tricked me :D

[mahdnc]

Glad to hear you had a great time on your cruise and that the cyclone caused minimal disruption!

[DENIE]

Enjoyed your review! And yes, you tricked me!! ;p

[Shadow9612]

Worst cruise ever? gottcha! the only problem was it was too damn short!;p

Yes, you got me! And I often have the "too short" complaint at the end of my cruise [emoji12]

Glad you enjoyed!

[davekathy]

TFLG...thanks for taking us along on your cruise.

[TFLG]

If you wish to waste another 10 minutes of your life, here's a little video

 

[Rod&Deb]

Great we will be on the Soltice in Oct for South Pacific. We have the drinks package too :)

[Muffinz]

we headed up to the Sunset bar to start abusing our beverage packages.

 

LMAO! We did our best to abuse our drinks packages too... I think I drank more on the 12 night cruise than the whole of 2017!

half the time I just turned up at a bar and the bartender would just give me a bourbon and coke or a beer before I asked......

[BINDY31]

WOW!!!! You know how to get someone to read your review don’t you???:D:D

 

I just had to click and read to see if we were actually on the same cruise or not!!

 

Yes this cruise was a blast.....we had a ball..met lots of great people. Can’t wait to do it all again