This was our third trip to Alaska and our friends' first. I chose Celebrity Solstice because it sailed out of Seattle and was going to Skagway. This was the first time I have sailed Celebrity and I will definitely be a repeat traveler. My friend suggested that we check with Costco to see what they had to offer. Another friend who is a travel agent could not get me the deal that we got through Costco. Our package included the Classic Drink Package, $235 shipboard credit that could be used for tips, Two Rogue Beer pairings, a Rogue Beer Welcome Party, a behind the scene kitchen tour and wine tour and a Rogue Beer special lunch. We had the lunch in the Tuscany. It was the best meal we had on the ship! We also were given a free specialty dinner of our choice. We chose Silk Harvest. That was probably the biggest disappointment of our cruise. The soup they served was wonderful, but everything else not so much!

We drove to the ship from Eugene, OR. We used the economy park and ride (not the one directly adjacent to the ship) and took the shuttle. It was really easy. A five minute trip! We had planned on getting to the ship at 10:30 am when we could start to board. We received emails telling us to board according to our floor. That meant we couldn't board until 3:00 p.m. We decided to get there closer to noon. They never questioned us once we went through embarkation. I think they sent the letter out so everyone wouldn't try boarding at the same time. As it was, we were late sailing off because 150 people who had booked their flights through Celebrity were going to be late boarding because of weather problems. They had to hold the ship for them. It took us about 45 minutes from the time we were left off by the shuttle until we were on board.

When we first got on ship they handed you a glass of champagne! I hadn't seen that done before! That really showed class! We went straight to the Oceanview Buffet where we had no problem finding a place to eat. Read more