Our second cruise (first was with Carnival ex Los Angeles) was on the beautiful Solstice. We travelled with 2 friends who had also not cruised with Celebrity before (but had with RCL).

Embarkation was seamless and we were onboard before lunch, greeted with champagne and set off up to Deck 15 to have a drink (lovely space with the fresh grass, great views), good bar service ....and eventually down to the Oceanview Cafe for lunch and then to our stateroom. Our suitcases appeared around 4pm.

Oceanview Cafe: was generally excellent, plenty of choice for every taste and we ate there happily quite a few times, plenty of salad and fruit as well as delicious dessert offerings, an ice cream bar and several culturally different meal offerings too. Good coffee (Lavazza). Food is available in abundance all day, tables a little tricky to find at times, but easy enough to take your food elsewhere if no space, or share a table. One small issue is the walking track on Deck 14 also doubles as the walkway to the cafe which is open all hours, so it was both tricky to walk at a pace without someone dawdling in front of you unawares, and on the other side, tricky to get to the cafe without fear of being yelled at by the walkers as they try to keep up pace - bit of a design fault methinks! A nice touch is afternoon tea of delicate sandwiches,tiny filled rolls, cheese and crudites or scone, jam and cream or small gourmet open sandwiches - great if you have missed lunch (as we chose to do a few times) but need something small to snack on before dinner :) Read more