Celebrity Solstice Review
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Additional details
Just back from our trip to Alaska on the Solstice and I wanted to share our experience here because so many of the posts I read before our trip were helpful to me!
Our family of 5 (DH in his 50s, me in my 40s, 2 kids in their early 20s and 1 who is 16) sailed from Seattle on June 9. This trip renewed my hope for cruising. Our only previous cruise--several years ago on Royal Caribbean--was such an unpleasant experience I swore I'd never take another one. On that cruise, we were treated rudely at every turn,forced to sit with a family that didn't speak to us for days at meals, and pushed to buy, buy, buy from the minute we boarded to the moment we got off. On the Solstice, none of those issues came into play. We had a fantastic time and I'd go again tomorrow if I could! Here's a summary of the main points:
EMBARKATION: Traffic into and out of Seattle's port is slow going at any time during the day because of the narrow road in /out, but even with that we left our hotel at 10:45 and were on the ship by 12:15. It was all fairly painless and efficient. Be sure to book your transportation in advance and to get your carrier to commit to a pick-up time in advance. There were many guests at our hotel who were just realizing over breakfast that the shuttle was already full until 1:00.
Cabin Review
Concierge Class 2
These are two adjoining cabins on the hump near the rear elevators. The location of these cabins was outstanding. We were just a few steps from the elevators and both cabins had oversized balconies (9296 was the bigger of the two). 9296 is a little musty-smelling, but we are fresh air lovers and opened the balcony door as often as we could to air it out. I had not given any thought to whether the cabins were forward or aft, but after sailing to Alaska and back, I am very happy we ended up in the aft out of the wind. Our family coming from Florida was a little surprised to be reminded just how cold June can be! The bathroom space was adequate and the shower chair we had requested ahead of time for our son was brought asap once we got settled. Our cabin attendant Cesar was fantastic, somehow getting into both rooms twice on most days and keeping them spotless. He opened the divider between the balconies for us at our request. These rooms are adjoining, but there is no door between them. Instead, there are two outer doors that you can close (and use keycards from either cabin for) and then you can leave both inner cabin doors open. There doesn't seem to be any loss of space for this arrangement.
Even though the cabin was small, we were able to unpack and store our bags under the bed with no trouble. The bed was super comfortable. On this itinerary, there are usually warm flannel throw blankets on deck 15 by the sunset bar and the hot glass show. We brought a couple of these back to the cabin to use throughout the week, especially when sitting out on the balcony with a book and a cup of coffee.