Celebrity Solstice Review

Absolutely awful cruise

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Celebrity Solstice
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drj78
6-10 Cruises • Age 80s

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Sail Date: Nov 2010
Cabin: Concierge Class 1

This was our sixth cruise, the first on Celebrity. Based on Celebrity's reputation we thought it would be a notch above Princess, the line we had previously cruised on five times. How mistaken we were.The ship was gorgeous, the food was mostly good, and the bed was comfortable. That's the end of the positives.First off, though we did not arrive at the port extraordinarily early, we were put in a "holding pen" for quite some time. Then when we were allowed to board, we were not allowed to go to our cabins for another two to three hours. Princess has always had the cabins ready when boarding begins.The crew was surly. Not a single crew member looked happy. Someone told us later that Celebrity had instituted a strict no smoking policy for the crew and they were suffering from nicotine withdrawal--I have no idea whether that was the case.)Getting a drink out by the pool was next to impossible. A server might walk by once every hour or two--with eyes glued to the deck so as to not make eye contact with anyone. On the one occasion during the entire seven days that I was actually able to order a drink, the server brought it back and shoved it into my hand without even so much a "thank you" or any other word, all the while with a scowl on his face.At the fancy "ice sculpture brunch buffet" in the main dining room, where a waiter was supposed to serve coffee and any other drinks, our entire section of the dining room did without. Eventually someone found a waiter in another part of the dining room and asked if we could get some coffee. That waiter stormed over to our section with the comment "I don't where where the guy is who's supposed to be over here." However, a crew member paid very close attention to me when I went to the buffet to get my food. I picked up a plate from the first big stack of plates I saw and was reprimanded with "Don't get your plate here--get it over there" (pointing to another stack of plates). He glared at me, I glared at him and kept my plate.The lounge chairs on deck were packed so closely you could not sit in one except by climbing in from the foot. You could not help "playing elbows" with the persons next to you. If you wanted to eat or play cards on deck (or anything else where a table would be nice), you were out of luck. There were no tables on deck except for five small ones by the hamburger stand; and of course that number was totally inadequate for the people who would like to eat their hamburger at a table.The lack of entertainment on the ship was appalling. One night in the theatre they were doing a show made up of pieces of shows we had already seen. We finished dinner about 9:00 p.m. and thought we would just walk around the ship and find something going on. We went to every venue on the ship, and unless you wanted to make a donation in the casino or drink at a lonesome bar in silence pretty much by yourself, there was absolutely nothing going on.Disembarkation for shore excursions was hectic and disorganized. Everybody for various excursions was seated in the theatre in random fashion as they came in. Then when your excursion was called you had to squeeze past numerous people in your row who were waiting for some other excursion. On one excursion where we gathered on shore, there was a person holding up a sign for our tour and gathering peope there--yet another person far down the dock started shouting for our tour to go somewhere else. When I asked him how was I to know whether to follow his instructions or those of the person with the sign, he shouted back "Don't argue with me. If you want to go on this tour go where I tell you!"In summation, our first and last cruise on Celebrity.

Cabin Review

Concierge Class 1

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