We were on the May 8th sailing of the Celebrity Solstice. We flew into Vancouver from Kansas City on the 8th. The flights were on time, and we made it to Canada Place cruise port where this mess began. First you have to go through security, in a long snaking line, then into another line to go through US customs. You have to go through Canadian customs at the airport to get into Canada, and through US customs at the port to get on the ship. Having been up since 2:00 am this was a very tiresome experience, and we were ready to board the ship.

This was my first sailing on Celebrity (my wifes second) and we had purchased a Concierge Class room on the Solstice, which was supposed to avail us of some additional benefits like priority check in. So we go into the proper line and get to the desk to collect our sea passes, and they have misplaced them. They look for them for 30 minutes, and finally tell us we would need to have new ones made. Not too happy at this point, but finally they find the passes and we get on. Just an FYI, the Celebrity Cruises website deck plan for deck 9 is wrong; room 9366 (our room) is shown as a larger angled balcony. This is wrong; the angled balcony room is the next room (9370). Another benefit we supposedly purchased was priority baggage delivery. Now the cruise line had our bags since 10:00 am when we turned them over to them at the airport. Not sure why our bags were the last ones delivered on the floor at 5:45. Would have liked to have my bags so we could have cleaned up before our 6:00 dinner seating. This was the theme for the whole cruise with Celebrity. Just a note, there is no difference in rooms between the veranda rooms, just the level of services associated with them. We had to constantly remind them that we paid extra money for additional services otherwise they weren't willingly forthcoming! Another instance would be we were supposed to receive flowers daily in the room, but they decided to stop that for this cruise. Just like that, no notice! We called this to their attention and they didn't seem too concerned. We demanded some compensation for it and they finally relented. Likewise there was supposed to be a pillow menu where we were supposed to have our choice of pillows. Our steward just looked at us like we were idiots when we asked about it. The Solstice is a nice ship, clean and well cared for. Our room steward was good; he did a nice job of keeping our room clean. Likewise our waiters in the main dining room did an excellent job of serving during our main dining seating. But I would say that the waiters for the breakfast and lunch seating were lacking. One thing I had read about in a previous review of the Solstice was that the Oceanview cafe always served the same food. I didn't believe this initially, but for breakfast lunch and dinner, the food was essentially always the same stuff. Maybe one or two different items, but other than that always the same dishes! I will say the pizza in the cafe was pretty good. Internet service was terribly slow, and many minutes worth of time was wasted just pulling up websites.

Regarding the ports and excursions. With all of the annoying things we had to deal with on the ship we decided to not purchase any excursions through the cruise line. Why reward them? So we got our excursions through the port (which is much more reasonably priced). Going to Alaska is always crapshoot weather wise, but we had decent weather at all ports except Ketchikan (it rained all day). We had a beautiful day for the Tracy Arm viewing, and as an additional bonus the Endicott Arm. Juneau, we did a city and Mendenhall Glacier tour, which was interesting. We ate at the Twisted Fish restaurant, which was really good. And we rode the tram up to the top of Mt Roberts, which offered some great views, and was very enjoyable. Then on to Skagway, where we took a bus ride across the border to Caribou Crossing British Columbia! This was a wonderful excursion with beautiful scenery. Next stop was at Icy Strait Point (Hoonah, AK). This is a nice place to visit. One note is this is a tender port, and the lady handing out the tender passes was the rudest most condescending person I have even witnessed. I heard a number of people mention this. The stop is a lot like stopping at a cruise lines private island. We went into Hoonah and looked around. And the last stop was at Ketchikan, which as I mentioned was a rain out. All along the way there was beautiful scenery and lots of opportunities to see wildlife. In the ports you had the additional benefit of some excellent seafood. Read more