My SO and I had never been to Alaska cruise. We decided to take a fall cruise to Alaska, flying into Seattle from New Jersey on United for a 7 night cruise on the Celebrity Soltice.

Arrival at the port in Seattle was uneventful and I was very glad I had concierge class service or would have stood in a very, very long line checking in. We were checked in very quickly, having used the on-line check-in on the Celebrity website. Once on the ship, we found it to be beautiful, in good taste, and had our first lunch in Oceanview Cafe which turned out to be our "go to" source of meals for the most part on throughout our cruise. While we dined in the Epernay main dining room a few times as we liked our table mates, there was really no reason to do so otherwise, as I thought the quality of the food at the buffet was better. Obviously there are always exceptions, such as the second formal night when lobster was on the menu. The required Baked Alaska dessert was probably the best dessert served in Epernay all week. Service was weak there, especially the assistant waiter, a young woman, who never got it that when she poured our water she should also ask if we wanted another beverage. We are ice tea drinkers, but she must have thought we were going to seek out alcoholic beverages which was a different waiter. When my SO asked for tea following dinner, she brought coffee.

While the buffet fare was similar over the entirety of the cruise, it was always fresh, the meats tasty, and the variety enough for every type of palate. The ice cream was so so...did not eat in any of the specialty restaurants or bistro, etc. Read more