The Solstice cruise was booked at the end of a preceding cruise on the now relocated and renamed Century. In simple terms, the two experiences bore no resemblance at all other than the friendly and engaging nature of the restaurant/café staff. Beyond that the Solstice, when compared with the Century, was a substandard experience at best. Have no illusions here at all - the Solstice business model is to go big on the head count and reduce the operating cost per head per voyage. This latter objective includes offsetting operating cost via on board discretionary revenue secured from activities embedded into the daily schedule.

There were two obvious issues on the Solstice when using the Century as the reference point. Firstly, the capacity of key facilities do not support peak traffic periods. Lifts, seating in entertainment venues, poolside etc was simply a lottery and forget any sense of intimacy altogether. Then throw in an activities schedule that sees minimal entertainment resources being moved from venue to venue in 45 minute blocks. Even in the main centrepiece (level 3) of the ship, a promising night being set up by an enthusiastic crowd is literally shut down at the end of a 45 minute stint. The result is the ship's main entertaining area being largely vacated as the silence ensues. What is ridiculous is that one mainstream/middle of the road band allocated to the main area from 8-12 pm nightly would have transformed the boat. The devil is in the detail - if you are a Celebrity manager with some influence here, test what I am saying by looking at the Century daily activities sheets for the 8 day Numea cruise against the Solstice offering.

The second issue was simply the inconsistency of the in house staged shows. The Rock Show was at best average and would not have won a year 10 school musical competition. Sorry but again, do a side by side review of the stage quality of the Century v Solstice shows and acknowledge the delta. Read more