This was only our second cruise, the first being ten years ago. Everybody who had cruised Alaska raved about it, so we wanted to see for ourselves. Seattle is not one of my favorite cities, but Solstice is now one of my favorite ships. The rumors are correct; you do not realize that 2799 of your best buds are on the same ship, except possibly in the buffet at lunch, or when one of the shows has just let out. But there were plenty of times when we'd be the only person in the corridor, or on the elevators. We were in cabin 7151, which is right next to the forward elevators. I worried we'd hear noise from them, but we never heard a peep.

Of course the weather was awful. It's Alaska, and it's always cold and wet. As a disclaimer, I live in Florida, so anything below 70 is cold. But I'm recovering from the sinus infection as I write this, so it really was dreary. The cabin had everything we needed space-wise, and was attractive. The balcony was useful for picture taking, but too cold and windy to spend any real time on. Loved the curved shower doors, and the amount of storage in the bathroom.

Since the weather was generally wet, spent a lot of time in the Sky Lounge. One problem is that we kept getting thrown out of there for "private parties", which I think were for frequent cruisers. We finally found that only the starboard side was used for the party, and the port side and forward areas were OK, or else they gave up and stopped throwing us out. Not sure which. Read more