Ketchikan is beautiful! We were docked (not tendered), and it was a snap getting on and off the ship. We walked down the gangplank and made a bee-line for the first coffee shop we could find, so my wife could have a latte that was bigger than 12oz and didn't cost $7.00.My wife has a friend who lives in Ketchikan who met us at "the eagle" (you'll know it when you see it), and acted as our tour guide. At my request, she took us to Totem Bight State Park, a few miles north of town. It's a small park chock full of totem poles and a clan house (sometimes called a longhouse, I think). I'd lived in Ketchikan briefly when I was starting grade school, and had some old snapshots of me and my siblings in the park. It was great to revisit it and see that the same totem poles are still there 50+ years later. We wandered around the park admiring the native carvings, and briefly explored the (rocky and slippery) beach. When I showed the old snapshots to the park ranger, she insisted on copying them, and said she'd display them. So if you go to the park and see some black and white snapshots from 1957, those are mine.After that, we went to Settlers Cover, a state park at the end of the road north of town. There's a nice set of trails, and we took a short one following the creek, which was full of spawning salmon. Spent a really nice hour or two there.

Ketchikan

We were tendered, and I'd read several things in here about bad tender experiences (as opposed to "Love me tender") so we decided not to get off the ship. It was really nice having some quiet time on board. Juneau is another great, scenic location.Since there's no separate place to mention it, I want to talk about what we did the morning before getting to Juneau: Tracy Arm and the Sawyer glacier. The word "awesome" is frequently overused, but it was really appropriate for this part - our favorite part - of the cruise. The ship entered the fjord early on the day we got to Juneau. It's about 90 minutes up this spectacular fjord with its steep rock walls, waterfalls, rapids, mountains, glaciers, and mini-icebergs ("bergelets" according to the ship's naturalist). And it's culminated by the Sawyer Glacier. It's a tidewater glacier which flows right into the end of the inlet. Spectacular! We spent most of the time on our verandah, gaping with open mouths. You have to see it for yourself, and you should do it in the next few years before it retreats farther up the valley.

Juneau

Once again, we didn't get off the boat. We've been to Victoria several times. Instead, we enjoyed our last night on the ship. In fact, my wife told me after dinner that the next morning we should barricade ourselves into our cabin and refuse to leave. I *think* she was joking, but I'm not entirely sure.

Victoria

We docked at Skagway early in the morning. Another easy disembarkation - just walk sown the gangplank and into town. The location of Skagway is (as usual) spectacular. The town itself, not so much. I'd guess there are about 750 people living in Skagway year-round, but there were four cruise ships docked, with about 10,000 people, so the town was awash with tourists.And what is it with all the jewelry stores? It seemed like two-thirds of the stores in town sold jewelry, and most of it was Tanzanite. Why would anyone want to go to Alaska to buy a semi-precious stone from Tanzania? I just don't get it.We joined the tide of tourists into town and did all our tacky souvenir shopping that morning. We then staggered back to the ship under the weight of all that stuff and had lunch before our 12:30 excursion.The White Pass & Yukon narrow-gauge railway was blasted out of the Coast Range mountainsides in just 26 months to carry supplies to the sourdoughs of the 1898 Yukon gold rush. The route follows the Skagway River, from sea level about 20 miles up to about 2,800 feet at White Pass (hence the name). The narrow gauge tracks mean that the cars (and the seats) are also narrow, so be prepared to sit VERY close to someone. Or several someones. The trip to the pass takes about 90 minutes or so, and there's an on board guide who narrates what you're seeing, from historic places (like Soapy Smiths grave and the actual trail of the sourdoughs) to the scenery around you (spectacular!).The train met us at the pier. Boarding is first-come, first served - there are no reserved seats. The round trip is three hours plus. There's no food on board, but they *do* provide water for everyone, and there are restrooms in each car. The scenery is wonderful, and the narration is both educational and entertaining. I highly recommend this excursion. It's the only one we took on our cruise, and it was definitely worth it.

Stateroom 8146 ("Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom Veranda")The great:1. A great location. Not too far from the forward elevators. Starboard side.2. No public areas above or below. 3. Three decks above the lifeboats, so our view was unobstructed. 4. The stateroom itself was great. Larger than on our previous (Holland-America) cruise, or at least it sure FELT larger - especially the bathroom.5. Spotless. Everything worked. 6. Our room was ALWAYS made up while we were at breakfast. 7. The closet was really spacious.8. So was the veranda.9. The bed was amazingly comfortable! Picking nits:1. There was an unattractive carpet scrap being used just inside the door to the veranda. 2. Why are the pillows on the bed so small? They're smaller than standard pillows, and way out of scale with the large, great bed.3. The stateroom was almost directly across from a crew space, so every time we left our stateroom, we almost bumped into either crew members or a cart. 4. Why does the door to our stateroom open out into the passageway? We didn't figure out to push it when leaving the stateroom until day 4. And the auto-close mechanism on the door causes it to really slam shut unless you hold it back manually.5. The railing on the veranda was at EXACTLY eye level when you were seated.6. If we kept the door to the veranda open (and we did - the weather was great), we could hear conversations from adjacent verandas.Hey, they're teeny, tiny nits, but they're nits nevertheless.

The Solstice had just one daily general announcement - every day at ten AM the captain would give a brief report, and the cruise director (is that his title?I don't know if it's the case elsewhere, but every time we sat at a "table for two", we found that our "table for two" was about two inches away from several other "tables for two", which was a slight surprise but not a disappointment.

Celebrity Solstice Review

Very, very pleased

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Deluxe Veranda 1C

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