Our family of 4 had been interested in cruising for some time and thought it could be a new standard vacation for us, but this was our first trip chosen because of a group that featured fantastic speakers. Since we have no prior cruise experience with which to compare the Solstice, we can only compare it to our international family travel and resort experiences.

The disappointment began a week before the trip when the ports changed causing us to rebook our excursion (on the painfully slow Celebrity web site). We just chalked that up to the uncertainties of cruising.

The second disappointment was when we reached the port and had to stand in the sun (without sun screen) for two hours due to the prior norovirus outbreak that other reviewers had mentioned. This disappointment was overcome quickly as my boys and I were excited to see our first cruise ship up close and watch it pull out of the harbor. Read more