We chose Celebrity as our past experiences have been good with the entire Royal Caribbean group, including Celebrity and Azamara. Sad to report that Celebrity standards gave fallen, quality of onboard staff seems to have deteriorated and clearly they need to be retrained. 1. Check in at cruise terminal in Civataveccia Rome was smooth and quick 2. Suites had not been properly checked - light bulbs not working, remote controls not working, toilet seats not cleaned 3. Butler service has become pathetic with poorly trained staff with very little domain knowledge and even less initiative - 4. Housekeeping very poor - rooms not vaccuum cleaned properly, mosquitoes in room, supplies not replenished routinely, no more towel sculptures ? Constant finger pointing between housekeeper and butler was really annoying 5. Laundry - mixed up clothes wit those from others rooms, clothes smelled awful, looked crushed and were late being returned 6. Shore Excursions - the WORST ever - serpentine lines, poorly scheduled and managed tendering, unhelpful staff , time wasted in grouping and inefficient group mustering, disorganised and chaotic 7. Senior crew on board were personally very polite and helpful but there should not be a need to escalate matters to seniors each time 8. Celebrity has tried to put too many things on an interactive on screen tv menu but when it is too complex to navigate or needs to be reset too often it is a futile exercise Read Less

Second time on Celebrity and the last. First trip was some years ago on Millenium - hated every minute of that ship so it has taken me some years to dip my toe in again. We primarily booked the trip because it was the itinerary we were looking for and my cruise agent urged me to give them another go as the 'newer' ships were much better..... I think what I have learned with cruising over the last 22 years is that everybody probably ends up with a favorite cruise line, and that has never been more evident to me than after this cruise. I am pleased I have given celebrity another try as it has absolutely satisfied my mind that they are not the line for me and never will be - they are just not special enough in my opinion. For me the 'Celebrity brand' doesn't do what it says on the tin. A luxury cruise line it isn't. All in all we found it completely UNDERWHELMING! I don't say that lightly, but the mood of the ship is definitely aiming at sophistication, but it misses the mark! The whole mood of the ship is one of darkness, feeling almost claustrophobic with its small bars and spaces. lighting is very subdued, both day and night, giving it an almost 'club' like feel. Because of the design of the ship there are no quiet areas, even the library (which is lovely) is noisy, with the sound of ping pong and the lifts. Music pumps out from almost everywhere and sometimes you just want a pleasant place to relax. We found it so frustrating that when sailing out of beautiful places the music was blaring and almost everyone was commentating on it. Sometimes Celebrity, silence is golden and far more appropriate!! It was the little things we missed, which other lines offer, which matter - no nibbles at any of the bars and inconsistency of the drinks in almost every bar, literally no two drinks were the same. There were also no self service laundry facilities - really? and one of our favorites was missing - movies under the stars, very disappointing. We found the service overall just OK, certainly not outstanding. Where the ship massively disappoints however is the main dining experience. This is by far the worst dining room I have experienced. Tables are crammed together, sometimes almost impossible to pass,the design of the room is awful and has more of a feel of a 'kitsch' restaurant. More disappointing is the food which is little more than mediocre. We really disliked eating here and the only relief was we had booked 4 x night specialty restaurant package. To be fair there are however a couple of positives which we should mention. Firstly Murano restaurant is just fabulous, the ambiance, the staff, food and service is outstanding. I can without a doubt say that this is the best restaurant at sea I have eaten in so far. Bravo to the staff and chef's, you do yourself proud! Secondly the cabins are fine, great bathrooms and well laid out. We had a fabulous cabin steward who looked after us so well, and our room became our sanctuary. We had high expectations of the ship and whilst this didn't live up to the hype we are still glad we went, because we have satisfied ourselves that we never need look at celebrity again and wonder! Read Less

Like Celebrity with some reservations. The ship was clean and comfortable, the food in both main restaurant and self service was generally very good although sweets are not their strong point. Too many cake based. Entertainment was not great with exception of Jayne Curry. She not only has a great voice but always makes me laugh. Doing 3 shows in 4 days was amazing. Shore excursions were quite limited partly because of small towns but generally were not good value for money. In particular a 2 hour trip on the Flam railway with only 2 x5 min stops costing over £100 each was very disappointing. Service is very good although bar staff are variable. Celebrity must surely give thought to an all inclusive cruise. The drinks package is fairly expensive but is required as even bottled water is charged. In this day and age, WiFi is surely a necessity. Less emphasis should be placed on selling speciality restaurants. Finally we told Celebrity that we were celebrating our Golden Wedding Anniversary. After 4 days we had a card and fridge magnet delivered to our cabin. Read Less

Here's some quick thoughts and ideas if you're looking to book the Norwegian Fjord cruise on Celebrity (Silhouette). By the way, we learned all cruises to the Fjords STOP in 2025, so do it while you can. I traveled as a first time cruiser with my mom (65) and Aunt (60 something). I'm an active 37 yr old...and 18 months pregnant, for context. Cabin: review is below. Food: We dined in the main "Grand Cuvee" mostly in the evenings and sat with 2 delightful couples. Food was good, not great. Much better than the cafeteria though. Initially, the variety of the cafeteria dazzled, but the quality soon tinted our opinion of the place. Also, SUPER crowded at breakfast. Get yourself some room service in the morning. My fave place of all was probably the coffee shop. Definitely worth it to get the classic alcohol package, in my opinion. We also ate at the Tuscan Grill (specialty restaurant), which again, I would say was above average but didn't knock my socks off. Service was very nice at the main dining room and even the cafeteria, surprisingly. Pro tip: there is a grill that does burgers, dogs, fries, etc. (not the Lawn Grill restaurant, which is an extra cost) and I would actually take that over the cafeteria. The sushi restaurant looked pretty solid, but had to pass given the whole pregnancy thing. We had only 2 "evening chic" nights throughout the week, but I'd say folks erred on the dressier side, regardless. (Except for me.) I'm sure I could have asked, but you never knew what kind of night it was until the night before... Excursions: We did a LOT. Fjords is kind of the perfect cruise actually, because with a few exceptions, I personally don't think you'd want to be in these cities for longer than a day. Overall--really surprised at the descriptions, and not in a good way, so read with caution. Our ride on the funiculur/hike in Bergen and our trip to Pulpit Rock were both "strenuous" (note: Bergen hike was a ride up a street car, with a 1.5 hr walk up a paved hill and back. Pulpit Rock is a 4 hr (4.5 for my 65 yr old mom, who is in decent shape) round trip hike up and down "an uneven path". Read as: steep, jutting rocks that probably only mountain goats should climb). In Flam, we were supposed to have a coach ride home from our "walking tour", but ended up having to walk back about 2 miles. In Alesund's easy "highlights" tour we visited a museum...that was outdoors, and up and down hilly, graveled paths. Was fine for me, in all these cases, but my aunt and a few others on the excursions were taken by surprise and had great physical difficulty navigating. Of all the tours we did, I'd most recommend (please take into account my profile) the kayaking at Geiranger and the Pulpit Rock hike (Stavanger, which was hard, no doubt, but spectacular). If you're into the Flam train (I give it a 3/5 stars, tops), you can get tickets on your own, but that might be worth doing with the group too actually, because otherwise you spend your day in port waiting in line. Save money and figure out your own thing in Bergen, Flam, and Alesund. If you're a beer fan, don't miss Aegir in Flam and Molo in Alesund. Protip: if you don't want to buy your whole family matching Nordic sweaters, do your shopping in Bergen or Alesund, which were a bit more cosmo and had stores other than just souvineer shops. Also, buy as much in 1 store if/when you can--if you spend enough, you qualify for the tax refund and can get cash back. We got lucky with unseasonably warm weather and virtually no rain (Sept. 1-9). Ship Entertainment and Service: Jayne Curry performed several nights for us and she was fantastic--I think she appealed to multiple crowds. Singer/Comedian of sorts. Everything else was sort of hit or miss for me, but the entertainment catered to a slightly older crowd, so others might really enjoy. Who knew the ABBA sing along would be the hit of the week--not my thing but, WOW, everyone else had a good old time, ha! I enjoyed the gym and spa--great service and services (re: the spa, pretty pricey. Cheaper if you go on a port day). There were a few brave souls in the outdoor pool. Indoor pool was small and cold. Hot tubs were nice though. I paid for internet for the week because of my crazy work schedule. It was about 200 something? And I lost a day and a half of internet in Geiranger due to bad connections on the ship. A game room (for cards, etc.), a library, an "ilounge", and of course, shopping and a casino are all aboard. Protip: we didn't do many of the ship activities or raffles when we were in ports, but that first day at sea, it's worth it to participate. Lots going on and good way to get a feel for the ship. We won a facial! Wish I'd seen something like this when I first joined up on this cruise, so hopefully someone else finds it helpful! Read Less

I went with Celebrity to Alaska before with my mom, about a decade ago. It was great. I decided to go back with my mother-in-law, and it's not great. Some elements of the cruise are just wonderful. But there is SO MUCH wrong that I really can't give it a better review. The wonderful: Some of the staff. The problem is that it's only SOME of the staff. On multiple occasions, I had a problem, would take it to a staff member, would be told that it would be handled, and then it wouldn't be. In general, the people who are working for tips and little else (waiter, room service, like that) are good to very good. Everyone else is doing an absolute minimum. Their goal is to get you to go away believing (generally incorrectly) that your problem is solved. Alaska, of course, is beyond gorgeous. The bad: Most of the staff. The food is mediocre at best. In the dining room, it's pretty good. But in the cafe, which is where you will be eating most of your meals, not so much. I have a daughter going to Carleton and she says the food is totally on a par with the dorm food there. My son went to Wesleyan and said the cafeteria food at Wesleyan was better than the food on the ship. There is a jogging track, which is good. Unfortunately, they allow guests to smoke on it, which is not so good. They do have a smoking policy that precludes smoking cigars or pipes on the jogging track, but they do not enforce it even if you ask. The online checkin procedure was beyond awful. I eventually simply gave up and asked my travel agent to do it. (My travel agent is good, so he did. Thanks, David!) The extent to which Celebrity nickel and dimes you at every opportunity is amazing. There's a bottle of water in your room, but they'll charge you $5 to drink it. (They don't advertise the charge.) There is a laundry bag in your room. You can participate in the "laundry bag challenge" and put as much laundry in it as you can, and they'll wash it all for you. For $50!! Probably cheaper to just buy new clothes. We booked all of our expeditions directly with the expedition operators, saving hundreds. The cabin is in horrible need of a refit. There were a total of three outlets available, which makes simply no sense in today's connected society. Some of the overhead fixtures were cracked. They've clearly been trying hard to keep things in good shape, but it's simply been too long. The cabins all need to be redone. The "Celebrity XCelerate" internet is a joke. Pings in excess of 500ms. Bandwidth down varies between 1Mbs and 8MBs. Up is about 250Kbs. If this is the super fast version, I dread to think about what the slow version was like. And it's REALLY expensive. Do yourself a favor and don't order it for multiple devices; it's easy to share between multiple devices. We had a decent cell signal about half the time. The shows were good to very good for a cruise ship. Much better than community theater, much worse than you'd find in (say) Vegas or Portland. And obviously not even in the same class as you'd get in NYC, LA or London. Read Less

This was only or second cruise and it has been many tears since the first. We found the ship to be incredible. It's amazing what can fit on a cruise ship! The common areas were awesome and we never felt crowded wherever we went. As for the staff, our room keeper, Rhonda, was a dream. She never intruded on us and somehow managed to keep our room spotless. We had several servers at Epernay that were beyond amazing. Froilan, Christina and Ranburne. They gave us amazing service. We experienced some snarkiness at the martini bar and the third floor bar. In my opinion, the martini bar servers were more interested in showing off than providing service. Other than that, the service was great. Excursions: Ketchikan-we did the nature hike. It was ok. Our guide was knowledgeable enough and we were stoked to see some bears in the water fishing for salmon. Skagway-Mendenhall canoe trip. All I can say is be prepared to work. And work hard. It's a lot of paddling (6 miles there and back). My shoulder still hurts! It was beautiful, yes and our guide Mitch was entertaining but it was not as I expected. Juneau-Eagle preserve raft float-the most enjoyable trip! Saw lots of bald eagles and it was so relaxing. Our guide was an expert on the eagles no doubt. Gorgeous. Victoria-Beautiful place! We enjoyed the lantern tour at Butchart Gardens. Absolutely stunning scenery! One thing we wished is that we had more time in each port. If you do an excursion, there is little to not time left to explore the city. That was a bummer. If you're planning on souvenirs, I thought Ketchikan was the best for that. I did feel like all of the ports were reasonably priced though. We would definitely go again! Read Less

Seattle to Seattle, cruised with family (2 fifty something couples, 70s grandma and 20s granddaughter, and single 50s), 4 cabins in a row, first cruise for all but two of us. We had 1066, 1068, 1070 and 1072. The only thing I would change is to be one deck lower. The 10th deck on Solstice had these large diagonal support posts for the large overhead awning above the top deck, so although they opened the veranda partitions for us, we didn't really have a seamless veranda between rooms. We did a lot of communicating on the veranda, so having to climb through these posts was not great. We will pay attention to that next time. Otherwise, we were mid-ship, the rooms were nice, had plenty of storage and the bathrooms were large enough for 2 of us. First a BIG thank you to everyone who posts on these boards, I read extensively and felt prepared for my first cruise. Here were the best tips we used: 40# magnet hooks to hang hats, lanyards, fleeces, laundry bags, etc... Next time we will bring 10 per room. Brought thin hangers and put the thick wood ones from the cruise above my side of the bed since I can't reach that cubby anyway. Purchased lanyards with plastic holder prior to cruise - indispensable. I don't care if I look like a tourist - I am one, and it was handy. Used reusable plastic baggage tag holders. Only needed one pair of waterproof tennis shoes as my outdoor shoes for Alaska. Glad I listened to seasoned cruisers on this one. Chose Chilkoot Charters for the Skagway train tour. Loved having an assigned seating time for dinner (6 pm), we enjoyed getting to know our servers and sommelier, it enhanced our experience. We purchased for only $100 each the classic beverage package when booking the cruise (it was part of a promotion) and even though my husband doesn't drink alcohol, he drank sodas, seltzer, bottled water and fancy coffees, all of which were included. I drink alcohol and liked that if I wanted a high end wine or fancy martini, I only had to pay the difference of $3 or so. Also loved the Cafe al Bacio for lattes, which were included in the package. I don't think it would have been worth paying the full price of $55/day (plus service charge). This was a great cruise, we felt pampered the entire time by every single person on staff. Hubby was worried about motion sickness, so he wore the patch and no issues. I used Bonine, and no issues. Excursions, all A+++: Ketchikan: Alaska Coastal Expedition: This was the Zodiac boat tour, purchased through Celebrity. We paid $129 each. Worth every penny, great guide, saw a whale, each of us got to pilot the boat. A little rainy, but they provided excellent rain gear. Juneau: Mendenhall Glacier by Helicopter, walk on glacier, 2 hours 15 minutes: Purchased through Celebrity, we paid $379 each. I waited too long to book, had I booked in January, I would have paid $349 each. It went up to $399 on the ship. We LOVED this excursion, and we were fine with only 20-25 minutes on the Glacier. Great guides, we felt safe. Skagway: White Pass Summit Rail, 3 hours 15 minutes: Purchased through Chilkoot Charters, $119 each. Outstanding decision - smaller buses (we did bus up, train back), out guide Jennie was awesome, knowledgeable and funny. The advantage to the small bus was we got to stop in different places and shorter time getting on and off the bus, easier for my Mom with mobility issues. Plus easy to hear our guide Jennie. Sit on the right side of the train on the way down. Naturalist: Brent Nixon - we went to his Humpback Whale talk, it was informative, but he is not really my style of speaker. I am more of a "give me the facts, no nonsense" person, but I will say that most of the crowd really enjoyed his style. He is extremely knowledgable. Entertainment: The production cast was talented, although the first show's "storyline" (Amade) was a little disjointed. The Rock City show was high energy and fun. Two in our group saw the last day comedian Rich Aronovitch and really enjoyed his show. The musicians around the ship were talented, but often the music wasn't really my cup of tea. No big deal though. Fitness: get to the gym early or late, by about 8 AM or after 12 pm, it was pretty crowded. It was cool to see a whale while on the Elliptical machine! We loved it so much, all 7 of us booked a "placeholder" before leaving for our next family cruise. The ship was lovely, there was a lot of different options for food, we enjoyed the main dining room, and did one lunch at Tuscan grill. I will say the food at the Tuscan Grill did seem to be higher quality than in the main dining room. The service from everyone was top notch. The food in the MDR was, in my opinion, better than the food in the buffet. We enjoyed dressing up for the Evening Chic nights. We did Concierge class, and felt it was worth it to us. We liked having lunch in the main dining room the first day. It was a relaxing way to start. I am not really a buffet person - I like having a table that I don't have to wander around to find. It seemed like the couple of times I went to the buffet, it was crowded and hard to find seating for a group of 4 or more. Our assigned concierge was great and had a reception on the heliport leaving Skagway, which was really special. He also arranged for a wheelchair for my Mom to get off the ship within 5 minutes after Guest Relations told her it would be an hour or so since she didn't have an assigned number. Embarkation: We arrived around 10:30 AM by Uber. Normally in Seattle Uber has to drop off a pretty good distance from the ship, but since my Mom has mobility issues, our driver made sure we got dropped off up close. Someone got our bags immediately, and my Mom was put in a wheelchair and the 3 of us were whisked into the ship in minutes. The rest of our crew went through the Concierge line in minutes and we all got on the ship before 11 AM. Disembarkation: We used the Port Valet service (AMAZING!! -boarding passes given to us on the ship and saw our bags again in San Diego) and had a 12:05 flight out of Seattle. Ship docked by 6 AM and I think people were getting of the ship by 7 am, maybe earlier. We had a latte and then got off the ship and into a cab by 7:30 AM. We were to the airport, through security and at our gate by 8:30 AM. We could have made the 10:15 AM flight. I am afraid to try other cruise lines now, this was such a great experience. I can't stress enough how accommodating and wonderful every single Celebrity staff person was to us the entire cruise. Read Less

We take a cruise to Alaska about every other year to celebrate our anniversary. We have cruised Celebrity almost exclusively. We love the crew and the Solstice is our favorite ship. Ever since we discovered Aqua Class we book it just for Blu. The food is excellent and the staff is remarkable. The pace is unhurried and you can eat whenever you want. And it's quiet. You can carry on a conversation with the people around you. We drove to the pier this time in our car. The lot was very close to the pier and the shuttle bus was there right away. The drivers were very friendly and helpful with those heavy suitcases we all seem to bring on a cruise. Disembarkation was so easy without worrying about transfers and planes. Celebrity has the best naturalist on board. We have cruised several times with Brent Nixon and look forward to his presentations each time. Read Less

Firstly these are the things I liked about this cruise: -the cabins were large including the bathroom. They might not have won any interior design competitions but they were comfortable. -the ports visited were very good and we enjoyed all of the tours I arranged independently of the boat -the food overall was of good quality in the Opus restaurant and for afternoon tea and for some dinner choices in the 14th floor cafe -the serving staff in the restaurants and bars on board were smiling and helpful -the sunset bar at the back of the boat was one of our favourite areas on board and the martinis at the Martini bar were very good. -the gym was well equiped and large. -the iced towels and water that we were greeted with before we embarked back on the boat at each port of call. -Lunch at the Porch restaurant was well worth the additional fees. But, here are the things I really did not like and spoilt our cruise to some extent: -the check in desks in Rome were small and the whole atmosphere was chaotic and did not lend itself to a relaxed embarkation -we had free wifi and a drinks package which was not initially honoured by the ship and it took a few hours into the cruise before this could be sorted out, which was an unnecessary aggrevation. -the safety demonstration was awful. We had to watch a lame video which made a mockery of what should have been a serious safety briefing -we went for breakfast on the first day of the cruise at the Opus restaurant. The dinning room was only about 20 percent full but they insisted on shoving everyone into one corner of the dining room which did not make for a comfortable dining experience. The same thing happened on the second day so we stopped using the dinning room for breakfast for the remainder of the cruise, which was a shame as I normally enjoy sitting down for breakfast and having it served on holiday -one of the Food and Beverage managers for the Opus Restaurant was quite rude and acted in a belittling manner, but in fairness to the cruise line the maitre de called me back after recieving the feedback form and offered us not only his apologies but a free upgraded dining experience by way of apology which was much appreciated. -as fairly in experienced cruisers we did not realise that the water bottles in our cabins were not free of charge and were stunned to receive charges of over $100 on our final account. I think they should be clearly indicated as mini bar items on the bottles themselves and chargeable as such. -public areas that you would expect to be quiet such as the library, games area and reading area are located in the atrium so are not quiet at all. -music was played virtually everywhere on board and it was difficuly to escape from and it really wasn't our cup of tea, with the exception of some accustic music at the sunset bar and the violinist and cellist on board. -our bingo fiasco was one event which really spoilt one evening. We thought we would play bingo for a bit of fun with our daughters which at $49 a board did not seem that cheap to us. It included some raffle tickets. A big deal was made out of the draw, read out one number at a time until the $1,000 winner was announced. Turned out to be my husband, we were so excited not having won much before. At the end my husband went to claim his prize which was not the on board credit we were expecting but a certificate for $1,000 off our next cruise with Celebrity which as it can only be used directly with them is probably not worth anything when travel agents offer other incentives to get you to book. As my husband said afterwards he felt he had won a $1,000 and lost it all in the space of one evening. So would we travel with Celebrity Cruises again. In honesty if the prices was right and the ports of call were interesting, maybe, but the overall feeling that we felt about this cruise line is that it is a bit underhand in it's charging and constantly looking for ways to make you spend as much money as possible on board. I think we would look at a different cruise line next time. They certainly didn't do much to entice us to come back again. Read Less

Excellent Ship and Staff all who were so helpful and friendly. Our waiter in the evenings David and assistant waiter Fauzi went over and beyond their duties to make our stay that more enjoyable. Our cabin attendant Hafiluddin was also friendly. Lots of short excursions offered, which I suggest you book early as we missed out on the first lot of whale watching tours, but did manage to book one at the next stop. We were also very lucky to have been offered a galley tour which we found very interesting. All the restaurant that we eat out the food for excellent and so much to choose from. If you went away hungry you only had yourself to blame. The theatre shows were great but we only managed to get to three. We chose this cruise for its distinction to Alaska and also it was not the biggest cruise ship. I preferred the one a little smaller the most which were bigger. We were not disappointed and would sell with Celebrity again. Read Less