We basically added on the 2 day sampler to our South Pacific cruise to make the cruise longer. We have cruised with Celebrity before and have always enjoyed our cruises. The Solstice is a beautiful ship and the staff were constantly cleaning to make sure she looked perfect all the time.

The 2 day sampler and the following South Pacific cruise were very different experiences. I would have expected the 2 day sampler to be the absolute best Celebrity had to offer to entice people to travel with them again - it definitely wasn't. It was a really long wait to get a drink or a seat in any of the bars and we were told there was no mint or limes to make mojitos and no NZ sauvignon blanc to drink despite us all having Premium drinks packages. There seemed to be a lot of very drunk people about and we heard the cruise being referred to as the "Booze Cruise". The Solstice theatre shows were great and the food in the buffet and main dining room was good but service was slow. What was missing was cushions in your room, runners on your bed, toiletries in your bathroom, lime, mint and wine.

On the Sunday, as the two day sampler cruise ended, there was a complete turnaround - suddenly there was room to sit down in the bars, the wine, mint and limes were on board and the stateroom was back to what Celebrity has always offered in the past. I'm not quite sure why it all changed so dramatically and from the reviews I've read, Celebrity has done immense damage to its branding during the two day cruise. What a shame. Read more