This was my 6th cruise and my husbands 7th and our 3rd with Celebrity and we weren't disappointed. We had already sailed aboard the Solstice 2 years ago so we basically knew what to expect. We arrived in Seattle a night before the ship sailed away and stayed at the Holiday Inn and Suites Downtown Seattle. We had prearranged a Shuttle Express shared shuttle to the pier and the pickup was easy and it was very cost effective, I think 20 US a person. The pier is really crowded and it took about 15 minutes from the time we entered the gates until we were in a position to be dropped off. There is where they pick up your luggage and it's a short walk to the check in desk. Having been on so many cruises and especially with Celebrity we were a little disappointed with how long the wait seemed to be. This was the first time Celebrity had given us a "time" to arrive at the pier so we adhered to it but no where was anyone checking this. I wish we would've arrive a little earlier.

We got on the ship at 1:45 and our rooms were ready so we were able to drop our bags off before lunch which was nice and then we sat on the back deck and ate lunch. The food in the buffet was good all week and there are nice fresh buns and bread for a sandwich which is what I ate everyday for lunch. After lunch we had a drink and went to our rooms and our luggage was already there. We started to unpack and then there was the muster drill which was over very quickly and before we knew it we were sailing away.

We had select dining. In the summer we were on a Mediterranean cruise and used the select dining and booked all of our reservations ahead of time and had no problems with waiting or having a good table. We had been told on that cruise that you could request a section and/or server and they would do their best to accommodate that and we ate at the same table every night. On this ship they were unable to accommodate this request but we had booked our reservations ahead of time and did not wait at all for the dining room except on the first night. Most of the time we were happy with the service but once or twice it was really really slow. The food was hot when we got it so it wasn't the servers, it was the kitchen. I think we were maybe eating at the same time as one of the seating's downstairs and they take priority in order to get the second seating in. There are pros and cons to the select dining. You are able to book a different time if you're in port late but you don't get to know your servers the same way when you do in timed seating's. I would still do select on any sailing in Europe or anywhere where the port times are later. Read more