Celebrity Solstice Review

Yikes!

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Celebrity Solstice
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JeanieRich
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jan 2010

I met up the day before the cruise with my lady friend in Fort Lauderdale (fron California) at a Marriott Hotel during a downpour. The hotel had no heat in the lobby and the desk clerk had a parka and gloves on! We had a good time in spite of all that as our room had heat. We took a shuttle to the port, they were right on time and got us there just like clock-work. Boarding the Solstice was fairly good actually but we had priority boarding. We had a balcony cabin which was fairly typical of a balcony on the major cruise lines, except when you would open the balcony door a loud wind sound would occur which was odd and there was less storage area than on other lines. This was my 36th cruise and other than a trip down the Amazon on a 24 passenger riverboat it was my worst experience cruising. My card had been coded wrong; when I went to the (repeat passenger only) wine tasting the "guard lady" (who also worked in the cruise sales department) at the door started yelling at me threatening to charge me $10.00 if I wasn't a repeat passenger! According to her and the pursers office SHE was the only one who could fix this error however she was not in her office for the first 3 days of the cruise and seldom there after that, no help at the pursers office either so I missed 3 other events for past passengers which I had planned on going too. The staff seemed miserable except for the ones that got tips and you could hear the complaints as you walked around the ship, not many smiles on that crew! The entertainment was geared to those much older than me (58) however my roomie who is 70 didn't care for it either so I only stayed for one show in the theater, the circus show, it was good. Much of my dismay came from the fact I am a smoker, the smoking areas are few and far between; you can't even smoke in the casino or on your balcony. Some on-board were not told this and they were grumpy; we started a boycott of the Solstice swearing never to sail with her again lol. The ship was not very pretty, a lot of glass and steel and a cold (unhappy) feeling to it. Many passengers on this particular sailing were older folks, they seemed unhappy, full of special requests and generally in conflict with everything in life and thier surroundings, they expected perfection and when it didn't happen, complaints, complaints, complaints! The food was about the same as any cruise ship, at times it almost seemed like it was intended to drive you to the pay as you go eateries. There was one buffet in the dining room that was quite good, that was the only meal that made any kind of impression with me. The buffet upstairs was just ok, they shut down early at night and late nite snacks were dull and to be avoided unless you were starving. In trivia there were no prizes, they said it was for "enrichment." People didn't like that. The shop keepers were grumpy, have mercy if you get in their way! Fortunately I found some younger people to hang out with and we made our own fun up on deck just getting together, joking and having a drink or two; there was little fun provided by the ship that I could find. I was very disappointed in Celebrity and I never did find out what I paid the extra $300.00 or so over the other popular cruise lines. The ships tours (3, City-San Juan, The St. Kitts train and Everglades) were not very well organized and the Everglades tour should have been cancelled due to rain but was not; we didn't see a thing except torrential rains on that tour! I constently felt like I was steerage class, maybe it was my card coding, maybe I didn't fit the older profile of the average passenger, I'm not sure but I felt like I was odd (wo)man out on this tub! Good ship to avoid in my opinion.

Cabin Review

Only 1 closet many ships have 2. A little low on storage area comparatively. I was in 7141 in a balcony cabin. One little couch, most have a full couch, just wasn't up to par with Carnival, RCCL or Princess.

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