This was our first cruise with Celebrity. Embarkation was a bit of a mess as we had to go to White Bay to check in, not Circular Quay as all advice was until about a week before the cruise started. The ship, Celebrity Solstice was lovely, as was our stateroom on deck 9 aft portside. Budi our butler was extremely helpful & made our cruise very special. Meals in the Epernay dining room were mostly good, except for a couple of steak meals - tough NY strip steak & soggy pastry on beef wellington. Our wait staff were brilliant - Marlon & Andrea - nothing was too much trouble. Buffet food was very good, but always hard to find a seat no matter what time you went. From the podium lectures where informative, but port lectures were mainly about selling ship tours, not a lot of information if you were doing your own thing. We found the ship tours to be very expensive so did not do any of these. Entertainment in the evenings was good and we enjoyed the band, singers & dancers, & guest artistes. Music was a little loud for our taste, but we found if we sat in the balcony on deck 5 this wasn't so much of a problem. We did not do any shopping, but the shops on board seemed to do well. Bingo & art auctions don't interest us, and apart from a brief flutter at the Casino on the slot machines we did not take part much. The pool area was lovely & it's a shame it was too cold to use the outdoor pool. However the indoor pool was warm on the coldest day & the whirlpool was a good place to relax. We cruise mainly to relax and to see ports we have not been to before and this aim was achieved. Disembarkation was chaotic & even taking our own luggage did not help us get off more promptly. This was out first time on Celebrity and first time we have had a suite. We would travel with celebrity again, but we don't feel the suite cost gave us any extra benefits, apart from Budi our butler who was really great.