We flew into Barcelona on Nov. 14th after a 7 hr. layover in JFK. We started at 6:45 am from West Palm Beach, FL on JetBlue which was a great flight and then transferred to American for Barcelona. We used the train outside the JFK airport to go from terminal 5 to terminal 8 and had to go back through secruity but were at our gate within 1 1/2. We landed in Barcelona at 7:10 am went through Customs, got a cab at went to the W Barcelona immediately. We were immediately upgraded to an oceanview on floor 5 and allowed to check in. We were very happy with our stay at the W Barcelona and we got a great price on Priceline.com for $180.00 when I bid for it. I really did not expect to get it. It was raining in Barcelona so we decided to sleep for a few hrs. and see how the weather was. We awoke about 1:00PM and it was raining hard so decided to just stay at the hotel and eat in the bar. It was $62.00 for two hamburgers and 4 diet cokes. But it was good and convenient. We went back to sleep and then checked out the next morning, got a cab to the port for 30 euros and checked in and was on board by 11:00 am. We went to the buffet and ate and started exploring the Solstice. We had taken a cruise the previous year on the Solstice so looked around a bit and at 1:30 PM went to our cabin. About an hr. later we got all of our luggage and proceeded to hang up and put away all of our clothes and store the empty luggage under the bed. We had the lifeboat drill at 4:30 PM and then at 5:00 PM sailed out of Barcelona harbor.

We had Celebrity Select Dining so every night we were at the doors at 6:00 PM to request a table for two by the window when possible. They accomodated us almost every night. The food was very good and the service was excellent also.

I could not find anything to complain about on the cruise. We are very happy with Celebrity and they are now our #1 cruiseline. We arrived at every port on time but we did have to change the first port from Nice, France to Cannes, France because of damage to the docks from two weeks previous. We did three private tours in Florence, Rome and Naples with RomeinLimo and they were all excellent. We always got back on time. We just walked around Cannes, France and had sunny weather, private excursion in Florence, Rome and Naples, in Dubrovnik we took the ships tour of the family cablecar ride to the top and it is well worth it with a short walk through the walled city. This was the only port that it rained, other than Barcelona. In Venice we took the public water transportation (can't remember the name)to St. Mark's Square and walked around a little and then went back to the ship. The next morning we walked around for a couple of hours and then prepared for the sailaway in Venice which is spectacular. Took alot of pictures sailing in and out of the Grand Canal in Venice. We then went to Kotor Montenegro and the sail in through the fjords was spectacular. Get your cameras ready for that one. We had sunny weather in all ports except Dubrovnik. It was great. We took the ship's excursion of the Montenegro hightlights with cuisine and was not that happy with it. It was too much riding in the bus to get a few pictures of the ship in the fjord down below and then it was all back country and nothing to see. We did have a great lunch of veal prepared by a local restaurant and that proved to be the highlight of this excursion. By the time we got back it was already dark so we just went back to the ship. Read more