My wife and I are in our early 60's and have cruised more times than we can count. Our history was mostly built with RCCL but, as we aged, we wanted to settle into a more refined, subdued cruise environment so we started a campaign a couple of years ago to compare Princess and Celebrity (on which we both have VIP repeater class) and see which one we prefer.

We've confirmed, after our second experience on Solstice class that this class of ship is a hands-down favorite. We like Princess a lot but the service, architecture, ambiance, attention to detail, interior decoration and fundamental layout of the ship win out for Celebrity Solstice class.

After thoroughly enjoying our sail on the Equinox in April, we decided to try out the "New York run" to see if we also liked it. It was our first experience sailing as many as 12 days but, since we live in NJ, our travel time was shortened. Going in, we were concerned about the weather during the sea days down and back. As it turned out, the only real cold days were when we were actually in Bayonne. On each of the adjoining sea days the weather was quite pleasant and we even got some sun. Note that I think we were blessed with some pretty nice high pressure systems. Read more