Thanks for everyone who has posted about Solstice this winter in the Caribbean! Some background...this is our second time on the Solstice -- first was March 2010, our first time on Celebrity. We are early to mid 50s and felt like we brought the average age significantly as compared to our other cruises on Celebrity. Maybe it is the time of year, as many others have reported the same experience on the boards recently. There was a very large group of French speaking passengers, so they did all the announcements in French as well, which I thought was a nice touch. The Executive Chef and Assistant Hotel Manager said that a couple of weeks out, they examine the age and nationality of the passengers and it informs what they may need to tweak for that sailing.

Flew to Fort Lauderdale a day before just to be safe. We stayed at the Springhill Suites in Dania Beach. Not sure if we would stay there again. Long, long lines for check in and check out and the front desk staff were very unhelpful. When we tried to get a cab instead of their shuttle, the transportation representative would not call a cab and gave us a horror story about the long time and huge expense of using a cab. Fortunately, we'd been to the port before and it was the same easy $20 trip for 4 of us in no time. He was quite a bully.

Embarkation was a breeze with no wait at all. We skipped the craziness at the Oceanview Cafe and had the free finger sandwiches at Cafe al Bacio. It's a great little place that's quiet and the sandwiches are nice. They do change with the time of day...pastries, then sandwiches, then mini desserts...but they didn't change during the cruise. Rooms were ready about 1:30pm. Our aft veranda was quite nice and with the extra bonus of three feet or so of additional balcony since we were next to a storage closet. We would book this cabin again in a heartbeat on any Solstice class ship. We did have a problem with soot, but our excellent cabin steward Ricardo washed it down every morning. Read more