Firstly, apologies for not showing up at the "M&M" - if it happened. We assumed it was to be in addition to sail-away function that was discussed in the forum, but we never got the promised notice in our cabin of the time/place for the event and never saw mention of it on the 'community noticeboard' (after we eventually discovered the noticeboard mid-journey).

There are many pluses for the Solstice: great food variety and quality, generous sized comfortable balcony cabins, lots of welcoming crew, interesting venues, some top quality entertainers, good library, etc. My partner had a birthday during the cruise and, even though we didn't purchase a 'Celebration Package', the dining room manager had a scrumptious cake sent to our room and our sweet cabin steward gave us a large bottle of Champagne.... fantastic!

But there were several areas where we felt let down when comparing it with the Princess ships. Read more