Celebrity Solstice Review

First-time cruisers...extremely impressed with Celebrity!

Review for Alaska Cruise on Celebrity Solstice
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pr8582
First Time Cruiser • Age 30s

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Sail Date: May 2016
Cabin: Deluxe Veranda 2C

My husband and I had never been on a cruise before, so we weren't sure what to expect. Overall, we had an AWESOME time. So many positives. I do want to list some of the negatives, though. Experienced cruisers might read some of my complaints and laugh, but here goes.

Negatives:

-Embarkation: We arrived around 11:30 am for a 5:00 pm sailing time. We attached our pre-printed luggage tags and our bags were promptly taken by an attendant...great! Then, we stood in line for over an hour...not great. The premium/concierge class guests had an expedited line, but the rest of us snaked through the security area. The x-ray and bag scanners weren't the bottleneck, it was the check-in desks. I have no idea what took some people so long, because once my husband and I got there, we were done in about 4 minutes. Since we've never cruised before, we weren't sure if the long wait times were normal. We overheard others saying they'd "never been in a line this long before", so maybe Celebrity was having a rough morning. At any rate, it wasn't horrible for us (we're in our late twenties), but I felt so bad for some of the older guests. One lady sat down on the floor in the middle of the line because she (literally) couldn't stand any longer.

Cabin Review

Deluxe Veranda 2C

Cabin 2C

Our cabin was on deck 6 (in line with the very tops of the lifeboats), starboard side, in the middle but towards the front of the ship, angled slightly (so we faced a little backwards). We were near the smaller set of elevators, but never heard any noise from the hallway. The doors seal really well. We didn't hear any noise from below us or above, and our one set of neighbors were either super quiet or were never in their room. Our other neighbors, however, decided to BLAST music every night while getting ready for dinner. We could hear the music pretty clearly through the walls. Not Celebrity's fault, but still annoying. The cabin was extremely clean and pretty well laid out.

The only complaints that I have are: 1.) the drawers and closet sliding doors are starting to show signs of age. Their motion is jerky and a couple of our drawers were so broken we didn't use them. 2.) The shower stall smelled strongly of mildew after sitting unused for several hours. As soon as we started the water running, the smell went away, but it was not a pleasant odor to encounter every time we opened the bathroom door. Our view was categorized as "partially obstructed". I think this was because you couldn't see the ocean too well if you are sitting in a chair on the balcony. It didn't really bother us though, and I got some of the most amazing pictures from our trip from our balcony. I am SO glad we had a private balcony for this cruise. It was wonderful to sit out in my bathrobe with some hot tea and take in the sights. The public decks got pretty crowded with people trying to take pictures, especially when we were sailing through Tracy Arm Fjord. Our stateroom attendant (Antonio) was the BEST. So helpful and attentive. A+ for him! Overall, I would give this cabin 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Port Reviews

Victoria

Victoria was just "eh". Most of the stores had closed at 5 or 5:30, and since we got to town at about 6 pm, there wasn't much to do except walk around. In retrospect, we should have booked the Butchart Gardens excursion.

Seattle

Seattle was fine. We literally fly in, drove to the ship. Then we got off the ship and drove to the airport. Not much to review.

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