Honolulu to Sydney - While we do not usually give extra tips money on this cruise our service was so good we gave extra to a number of the staff. We did not expect the greatest entertainment as this was a transpacific voyage but what was presented was done well. The food was excellent, the wait staff was very gracious. All the staff seemed happy and more than willing to please. If they sensed there might be a problem they inquired and were attempting to correct the matter. The embarkation was a breeze. The disembarking was so easy and the taxi's well organized on our arrival in Sydney. The inside staterooms on the Solstice style ships are very spacious with plenty of storage. The entire experience was excellent. Even though the ship os due to be refurbished shortly it was still in good condition and the staff GREAT. We will continue to use the Celebrity line. Read Less

Hubby and I embarked on this cruise from sydney - we live here so it easy for us. The embarkation process was a little long with the ques - it took us roughly an hour and half to get through it all and then onboard the ship. We have done previous cruises and it was roughly similar times and processes, considering they have to get 4000 people onboard it wasnt too bad. They did provide some water and snacks whilst waiting to get on the ship which we thought was a nice touch! The ship is huge and we loved our time on the ship, there was plenty of things to do and see, we played mini golf on board - yes they have a mini golf course on the ship and we had fun. We even got to watch people on the flow rider having a go, we didnt attempt it as its not our thing but we had fun watching others on it. we saw a show or movie each night which we loved. The ship is very relaxing - we would get up around lunchtime, have some lunch go walk around the ship, read a book, go in the pool, listen to some music, or we attended the trivia they had at different times of the day in different venues. We got married onboard the ship so we were able to have a lovely event which our co ordinator help us make our ceremony and moment special and went above and beyond for us. We made many friends on board the ship and also through others on cruise critic so we found we had many friends whilst on the ship walking around it really helped us enjoy our cruise even more. The cruise went to New Caledonia, Mystery Island, Vanuatu, Fiji, Hawaii and then onto Seattle. we visited so many different places and we did book 1 tour through the cruise line in Honolulu to Pearl Harbour - we had a great tour. we ended up in a lot of ports doing our own thing or own private tour, so its up to you if you want to do a tour from the ship offerings or find your own tours privately. The cruise director Graham Seymour was amazing, he is hilarious and very entertaining. He would have to be the best cruise director we have come across , which we did on a previous cruise and by far made the cruise more memorable! The service overall was good, and you could see they really cared about their work and guests. Dining onboard was awesome and the food we really enjoyed. we only had 1 meal that wasnt that great but we asked to change our meal and they were more then happy to swap it and the replacement meal was soooo yummy! we heard complaints from some other guests who it seemed just whinged for the sake of it, this wasnt done or other cruiselines were better, you got more for free or this and that is included or the food isnt food enough... well we made the most of our cruise and enjoyed it all. We got a good deal on our cruise package and we had a great time! so much so we are planning our next cruise on the similar passage in bout 22 months time! We had a soft drink package included in our cruise package - we arent big drinkers so we found the soft drink package enough for us but you can purchase the full drinks package - i recommend waiting to purchase them when you embark on the ship first day cause often they have cheaper packages with discounts then if you had prepurchased them online before the cruise. Also handy hint - gratuities > these no longer are compulsory, so on the first day you get on the ship go to customer service desk and ask for them to be removed. you can tip who you think deserves it and you know who the tips are going to - otherwise the tips you prepay get given to those by the cruise line instead. The internet onboard was pretty expensive so we waited til we got into port and found wifi in places. We didnt travel with kids, as it was just my husband and I, but we found there was less then 60 kids on our cruise as it was a transpacific cruise that was going 1 way to the usa and it was non school holidays so we didnt really notice the kids onboard. If you want to travel off peak and lack of kids i suggest going in these sorts of cruises..... We definitely would go on the cruise again, and with the same cruise line! Read Less