Well, I have been lucky enough to do many cruises all over the world, but I have to say that the mooring at Sydney for Celebrity Solstice for our 12-night South Pacific and Fiji cruise was the most spectacular ever. Bang in the centre at Circular Quay with views of the Harbour Bridge one way and the Opera House the other, with a continual backdrop of ferries moving back and forth in the harbour, all illuminated by bright sunshine.

We have been to Australia a number of times to visit family and usually do a trip of some kind while we are over there. We chose this cruise for the unusual destinations – options are limited from Sydney if you have less than two weeks and have already seen many parts of Australia and New Zealand by land. Even so we had quite a few sea days, although with the facilities on board this was not really a problem.

This was our fifth Celebrity cruise, with the others taken between 1999 and 2009, but this was our first on a Solstice class and we thought she was spectacular with fabulous accommodation, facilities, service and food, if perhaps just a bit too large for our taste. We also failed to think about the fact that we were going to a number of very small unspoiled islands, or at least they were until our ship disgorged 3,000 passengers plus crew!! Read more