Embarkation was a breeze! Rooms ready by 1 o'clock. Room smallish but well thought out. Pleased with shower door and room for essentials. The night of the Captain's dinner, we had only tepid water. On the whole, the staff was friendly and efficient. We ate at Murano's and the Tuscan grill-we were impressed with the wait staff and food quality. Most food in main restaurant and buffet was fine. The captain was funny and we really enjoyed his comments-he could do stand-up comedy in the future.

Our problem was the lack of communication on board the Solstice. Religious services were not publicized until the next to last day. Then it was a small item in the daily newsletter informing us that religious services would be posted at guest relations. Why not publish in newsletter? We would have liked a service on Ash Wednesday but I still don't know if they had one. The last day of our cruise, there was a small posting to the extreme right of the guest relations desk noting Mass that day. The most irritating thing was how a problem on our balcony was handled. One morning, on entering our balcony( rear of ship) we saw what looked like dirt -on further checking we found it was pepper from a broken shaker and glass on my chair and floor. We told the staff who brought our breakfast and was told wind could not have done this-someone had to have thrown it down deliberately. All aft cabins are exposed.What if we had been sitting on our balcony? Even though told about it nothing was done-not that day or the next. Finally, the night before our disembarking, our room steward said it would be fixed as he was concerned for the new people coming on. Didn't we deserve service? Though we enjoyed Bistro on five , on our second visit we got our first course and our waiter left us-no word to us. Finally, I asked another waitress and she served us as nobody knew where he went. People on our visit to Labadee didn't know food would be served there.No mention in newsletter but our cruise director had the time to tell us the casino was open.Why not put that info in the newsletter, not everyone watches tv. On questioning our cruise director about beaches, he seemed angry we were bothering him.Many people I talked with felt communication was poor. Not enough room to give more specifics. Would I sail again on Solstice no-on the Connie-yes. The grass on top deck is nice to see though nobody seemed to be there much. Yet many just gave up looking for deck chairs. The space should be used more wisely. I admit this was winter break but I was on the Connie last Easter break and things went very smoothly.

Disembarkation-once again very well done.