This was our fifth cruise with Celebrity, (two on Century, two on Summit) but our first with Solstice. It is a beautiful ship, no doubt about it. There were some things we missed from Summit but overall we were very pleased with this ship.

We arrived the day before and stayed at the Ramada Cruise Port. It's a rather inexpensive hotel that includes transfers from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the cruise-port the next day. I'm a believer in the theory that you can have a rather elegant vacation without spending a ton of money. Embarkation was very smooth and easy. The cruise-port itself is much nicer than Miami. Our room was ready about 1:30 pm. We had a veranda cabin 8247. Not Aqua Class or Concierge Class. The bathrooms are quite nice but I think there is less storage space in the room itself as compared to Summit. But it is a beautiful room with flat screen TV, and lovely color schemes.

Now, lest you think I loved this ship 100%, there were some negatives for myself and my husband. First, when we got to our room I discovered that there was no pitcher of water with the ice bucket. When I asked the room attendant I was informed that, "you only get a pitcher of water on Millennium Class ships. On Solstice Class ships you have to buy your water". I was NOT a happy camper and voiced my dissatisfaction. The room attendant immediately arranged for my water which I had for the rest of the cruise. The muster drill was also pretty dreadful. On all our previous cruises the drills started in the theaters where people could be seated. On Solstice we were herded into an area where the cruise photographs are displayed. Forced to stand for 15-20 minutes in tight, hot quarters some older people looked like there were ready to pass out. I'm short and was unable to see the movie they were showing on the television screens about the muster drill itself. I also thought that the buffet on the first day was so packed that you could not find any place to sit and eat. Later on in the week it became easier to find a place to sit but that first day it was very difficult. We also missed the therapy pool that the Millennium Class ships have. We spent very little time in the Solarium on Summit. The pool there didn't seem very warm. Read more