Great review! I highly recommend doing one of the short cruises on the Celebrity Silhouette. She has had major refurbishments and has a fantastic sunset bar area. The S-Class ships on Celebrity are my favorite, but I definitely won’t sail on Solstice or Eclipse until they are refurbished.
Thanks for watching! The Sunset Bar looked nice, but we weren’t able to enjoy it due to the Alaska cold temperatures. Good to know about the S class though. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for your honest review, this is good to know. But, what a great family vacation. From the pictures it looks like you had a great time. Ou family loves to play Five Crowns and Skip-o too!!
We all had a wonderful time despite the issues with the ship. You've got a great family if you all play those games, too! Sounds like we would be fighting for tables against each other if our families were to sail together. Haha. Thanks for watching!
1. Loved your video. It’s great to find youtubers that go straight to the point and are completely honest about the experience 2. I have been loyal to royal like for 12 cruises and I was considering booking a celebrity cruise to feel a more upscale experience. But your video has helped me reconsider this ship. 3. Loved your energy
@@aLaRmCaLL1983 thank you for finding us - and for your kind words!! We LOVE cruising and our hope is to share that same joy with others. That’s why we always lead with the positive - but are also always honest as we want to make sure folks pick the ship that’s going to be best for them! We loved our experience on Celebrity Apex and continue to hear amazing reviews on the other Edge-class of ships, so that could be a great option to consider for Celebrity! Look forward to sharing more adventures with you and the channel! -mark
Honestly, I don't know what you like in a ship but I think the Solstice class are Celebrity's best ships. The Silhouette is in good shape and maybe the Eclipse or Equinox. Once Celebrity gets around to drydocking them for extensive and deep cleaning and maintenance, they're good. I know folks love to talk about the Edge class but those ships have major design flaws and are missing areas that the Solstice has (library, Sky Lounge, Card room, quiet areas) and they seem to be pushing the suite life on that ship with a good amount of suite-only areas. So, I don't know. Not saying they're bad ships at all and they are more modern. But, not everyone loves them.
as someone about to take the first cruise (to Alaska on Solstice) I totally get the "love" topic of this. But, I have to wonder if the other 2 topics are as impactful as these guys make it out to be. I look forward to finding out myself - and reporting back.
@@patrickliddle7286 checking in! Hoping you had an absolute amazing time and that the things we saw outside the Loved section were not present for you, or at worst, minor inconveniences! Oh, and tell us everything about your first cruise to Alaska! Hope it was epic! -mark
I think we were probably more generous because we had such an amazing time with family on this sailing. ❤️ As always, thank you for watching and enjoy this cruise life with us!! :) We are hoping that some of the bigger issues (rust and upkeep) get taken care of before dry dock in 2026!! -Mark
I was just on the Reflection and Apex and loved those ships. Even the Reflection was maintained beautifully for not going through the Revolution process yet. When did you sail? I have a May bday and everyone says it is too early for Alaska.
We're so glad to hear that the Reflection was a great experience for you! This was the earliest Alaska cruise we've taken - sail away was on May 26th. It will likely still be fairly cold for your cruise (as it was for ours), but there's more chance that you'll see fresh snow on the ground and perhaps fewer ships/people. Our stop in Skagway was with three other ships, so it was quite busy in that town.
Hi! Great review. I have NEVER done cruise holiday before. I have sea-phobia/choppy wave fear. How was the sailing of this cruise please? I understand weather can be unpredictable always, but generally how are the big cruises sail-feel like? During the nights do they sail? Overall any advice/tips/suggestion/experience story would help. Thanks in advance.
We absolutely love being on the water. Sailing Alaska is generally a smoother experience versus the Caribbean as the ships sail into more narrow passages which will usually break up any waves. There are days where the ships don't dock (called sea days) and if there's rough weather, it's not unusual for the Captain of the vessel to slow the cruising speed down from a safety perspective. That just means that at night, when most passengers are asleep, they'll need to pick up the pace. We absolutely love sleeping on a cruise ship as the gentle movement of the ship rocks us to sleep. Something to consider when choosing a cruise for yourself; the larger the cruise ship is, the less it will be impacted by rough waters due to the surface area and general size. For your first cruise, you may want to stick to the larger ships out there. An Alaska itinerary may ruin you from an expectations perspective, though. Alaska scenery is vastly different from the Caribbean or Mexico. Either way, we believe there's a cruise experience out there for everyone and hope that you'll find on that speaks to you!
@@thiscruiselife thank you for your response! Your explanation is very clear and helpful. The family is planning Canada and Alaska cruise/celebrity solstice for 7 days, with our kids. We have never ever done a cruise trip, but our relatives have recommended so we are trying to plan this. I have sea-phobia so I was trying to avoid the Alaska cruise. Your review and reply are encouraging!
@@avantikasarkar7373 we're just doing what we love! And to that point, if you need help planning your vacation out, I would be happy to offer my services as your travel agent. It comes at no extra cost, and you get our expertise when securing your plans! Feel free to send me an email and I'll get started on pulling options for you: rocky@thiscruiselife.com
Thank YOU for watching and sharing your thoughts. And you are very welcome. We always lead with what we love (and there's a lot), but we commit to always being honest. Never want someone to book something because we share a glowing review and then they get on board and are like, "Why is my balcony covered in falling paint chips?!?" haha ;) -Mark
We were on the Solstice end of March 2024. I agree the upkeep of the ship was terribly disappointing. Our cabin was depressing. Our balcony was terrible. We were very disappointed.
It was very surprising to see a Celebrity ship looking like this. Not something we expected from the brand. They pride themselves in catering to a more mature crowd, but even us younger folks didn't care for that presentation.
Interesting. Just got off solstice last week (just balcony room) and thought it was excellent. There were maybe a couple things I noticed that need replacing (small holes in the vinyl like curtains), but otherwise I thought it is in great shape. We were on the Silhouette when new, and would definitely consider another solstice class cruise again (older ships tend to be a bit cheaper as well). I think the design is holding up nicer than the older Royal Caribbean ships.
@@IntothewestOkotoks great to hear that you enjoyed your experience on board! We try to preface our videos by saying that each person’s experience may vary, so we’re glad to hear it was enjoyable!
You would think so! We were shocked as well to find out that Ocean View Cafe ice cream is included! The gelato downstairs at Cafe al Bacio has an extra cost, though.
GREAT review!!! Really love the format of your review, distinguishing exactly what you love/didn't love/hated even within the same setting (eg dining room - fantastic food but very slow service; delicious vs strange portion). I don't think anyone has gone into such detail and categorizing them separately. We are going on Solstice to Alaska in a matter of weeks, so getting this detailed review not only sets my expectation but also prepares me on how to react (eg, slow dining service, crowded buffet). You mentioned concierge class wasn't really worth it. Would you say if you didn't have it this whole experience would be even worse (no helipad, no embarkation lunch, no relaxed disembarkation, etc)? We'll be just on the regular Veranda, so now I'm a bit worried. Would appreciate if you can help me w/ a few tips, since this is our first Celebrity cruise: 1) For the great production shows, do we need to sign up ahead or just go early (and how early)? Any of these shows not teen or elderly (80s) friendly? 2) We're on Dining Anytime, since we didn't book way in advance. How was the crowd/line at the MDR? 3) Did you pay for the wifi, and if so, how was your experience? 4) Would love if you could share about your experience on the excursions you did. Thanks!
Hey there! Thank you so much for watching and for your kind words. Apologies on the delay responding as we've been away (and we really struggled with NCL wifi on our extended sailing... we'll be talking about that in our review soon). In terms of Concierge Class impact on our trip... The trip would have definitely had less "wow" moments without the Helipad experience, however, the rooms and service were nothing outside of what we've normally experienced on a cruise ship. As for your questions, I'm certain you've likely learned through experience... We didn't sign up for the shows, but tried to always get there about 15-20 minutes early. If we really wanted good seats, we might get there 30 minutes before doors open. We took Rocky's nephew (10) to all of the shows except for comedy, and we didn't have any issues/concerns. Dining: We never had a long wait with assigned dining - I'm curious how your experience was with Anytime. We heard that it's really busy right when the doors open, but then it gets less congested as the evening goes on. Curious if that was your experience? In terms of Wifi, we didn't pay for it on Solstice since all of our ports were US or Canada. I did on NCL Encore and it worked fine, however, I didn't have the package that included streaming, so I can't speak to RUclips/Netflix/etc. Finally, the excursions we did: Skagway - White Pass Train Ride Ketchikan - Rainforest Tour Juneau - Bus to Mendenhall Glacier Icy Strait Point - Walked into town and enjoyed the brewery Victoria - Just walked into the town Sorry, again, for the delay. I wish I could have just emailed you this as that worked from the ship, but didn't want to not respond. Hope you had an amazing voyage and everything worked out great for you!! If you'd like to share details, you can drop me a note to my personal email (mark@thiscruiselife.com). -Mark
Love your content. Did this ship the year it came out and it was awesome. Doing it September vancover to Honolulu. I’ve recently been told if you see something you don’t like say something now.
Thanks for the review. I took a back to back sailing on the Edge in March and April and will be on the Ascent in August. It made me wonder if they are putting all of their energy jnto the edge class ships. I’ve been debating a transpacific on the Solstice for October 2025, but it sounds like that need for dry dock will be overwhelming by that time…yikes. At least the thumbs down for concierge vs veranda is actionable. Thanks guys.
Thanks so much for watching and sharing your own experiences! Yes; it does appear that a lot of the line’s love is going toward the Edge-class ships. The frustrating thing is that several of the maintenance items on Solstice seem so obvious (how much does it really cost to replace a worn out sign? A couple bucks?) We think we might check out the Concierge experience on an Edge-class ship as a couple folks have suggested that it might be better overall. Would be kind of cool to get the definitive answer as to whether or not Concierge is worth it. Or, we just might save the money and put it toward the next one! We’ll see. Haha ;) Thanks, again, for watching and sharing your comments! -Mark
Great review guys! I want to try Celebrity but fear I’ll only like the Excel class ships. So did you “extra” tip your server for poor service or did you let them know they need to do better by not giving them that additional amount. I hope your family that were on their first cruise will book another 😊❤🎉
Honestly, the rest of our family had a great experience. Since they didn't have anything to compare the experience to, it was all new and exciting. We didn't make it a big deal while cruising and therefore didn't remove gratuities or mention the speed of service. We know that the crew on board work hard and there may be bumps along the way - we don't see that as a reason to remove gratuities.
@@thiscruiselife I didn’t mean remove all the gratuities sorry about that. I meant how on the last night we usually tip our waiters staff extra cash in an envelope. Just wondering if you usually do or did not do that in this instance.
@@cindyt987 Ah, thank you for clarifying. We didn't provide any extra gratuities to the dining room wait staff. Not sure if the rest of the family did, but it wasn't our best service.
We caught those in-passing as we were either headed to or from the theater shows. We had dinner at 8:30 so there were a few things we weren’t able to do.
@@thiscruiselife Yh me and my family had our dinner at 20:30 too, the gameshow usually lasts half an hour so we went straight from there to the level 3/4 dining room
@@lek4367 Oh awesome! We'd usually leave the shows from the theater and have to run up to our room to get changed for the evening programs. We were so busy each and every evening on the ship, but had so much fun!
We sailed Solstice out of LA last year. The observation of the ship condition was less noticeable when we were onboard. However, the weird dinner portion size, including the entire half of a duck a l'orange, was noted. We had the assigned dining time and our dinner crew was amazing. They certainly knew our names and often spent time chatting with us. The shows and entertainment are amazing. Maybe some of the best in the industry. Concierge class is kinda... I don't know.... Meh. We had our bubbly and some chocolate. The canapés were not ever good and often tasted old. The solarium pool was an absolute sanctuary. No kids or loud music, just peace and the sound of the pool water. And it was always warm in there. The quasar lounge should be awesome, but it's not. When we were onboard they were trying to make it into and under 18 hangout, but there were so few young people onboard that no one was ever in there. The martini bar is excellent in every way!
It sounds like overall, we had a VERY similar experience on the ship! You even mentioned something that we thought but didn't call out - the canapés did taste a bit stale the couple times we had them! We didn't spend a ton of time in the Solarium this time around as we were with Rocky's family, but it did look quite lovely and any time we passed through I felt a little more at peace. :) Thanks so much for watching and sharing your similar experience with Solstice! We're hoping that 2026 dry dock can address some of the maintenance things we experienced (if not before) and look forward to giving more Celebrity ships a chance! I kind of want to try Concierge-class on one of the Edge-class ships for comparison. Curious if that experience is more elevated...? Decisions, decisions! -Mark
OK, guys I want to thank you for noticing the promenade deck (5) on the Solstice. And some other aspects of the design that makes the Solstice class so desirable IMO. Sky Lounge, places to get away from the crowd, Physically, I love the ship. The didn't love is all reasonable. Food, that's the way it is with Celebrity. And it's not a ship thing, it's a brand thing. Not everything is fabulous on the new ships either. Ship condition isn't good. I think I remember Celebrity servers calling people Sir and Madame and Miss for young women. So, that may be the style. Slow service shouldn't happen. And you're absolutely right about included food. Celebrity wants you to go to the specialty dining rooms and pay more. They're even being tacky and charging for food in Craft's Social and the Passport Bar. I don't know what has happened with Celebrity's standard of maintenance. At one time it was close to tops in the industry. But letting the great Solstice class ships get in the condition they're in in some areas is just inexcusable. The Silhouette is in better shape as it was refurbished. The circa 2000-2002 Millennium and Summit seem to be in reasonably good shape as they were highly refurbished and updated. I'll go to the Apex one but I don't like the Edge class ships. And since it is newish the upkeep may not apply as much. This was really well done. Glad I stumbled upon your channel.
Hey there! Thank you so much for watching and sharing your thoughts; we're glad you stumbled upon us too! :) There are definitely many things to love about the Solstice, and we're glad to hear you've enjoyed her as much as you have. One of the things we enjoy about older ships is the space-to-passenger ratio. Like you, we like to get away from the crowds at times and find ships like the Celebrity Solstice allow for that better than some of the newer ships. In terms of maintenance, that was our biggest disappointment. The brand does a fantastic job curating the Celebrity experience, and so we were so surprised to see some of the simple things they let go. Honestly, how much can a sign be to replace?! It was a bit embarrassing for the brand and we hope they take the time to address some of the low-hanging fruit. I really want to get onto a Millennium class ship as we've heard great things about those vessels - and the fact that they might actually be in better shape than the Solstice. Thanks, again, for watching and for joining this cruise life of ours!! :) -Mark
We cruised Solstice in April 2024, first one and probably last…..we are Holland America fans. Have to say the food, service pretty mediocre. Some of the venues that were hosting events were ridiculously unable to accommodate larger groups…. On a sea day. Poor planning. Our cabin was lovely, steward never introduced himself but conveniently knew us day before embarkation. We did enjoy the solarium adult only pool. Cheers!
@@andreas4268 wow! So sorry to hear about your experience on the Solstice. It really seems that they’re struggling to keep that ship properly updated. They just got a new cruise director while we were onboard, so it sounds like they’ve already addressed the programming issue. We keep saying we need to try Holland America Line because so many people have shared their positive experiences from there. Thanks for watching the video and commenting!
Hate to hear this. We are booked on the last Sept cruise for a group beading cruise. We are usually Holland America cruisers but wanted to try something different.
We still made memories that will last forever, so I don’t regret it one bit! But, we did want folks to go in eyes open to some of the possible challenges they might encounter. Never want someone to be surprised when they get on a ship we’ve reviewed! We saw them actively working on replacing worn down carpeting at the end of the cruise, so maybe by the time you sail several things will be addressed! We’ve not done HAL yet - would love to hear what you like about their ships and any suggestions you have for our first ship with them? :) -mark
HAL skews much older in age. The food is uniformly good but I noticed that my last cruise had less premium variety and lots more pasta, etc. There is a loss of more expensive food on every cruise post Covid it seems. Where HAL is lacking is entertainment. You are hard a pressed to find anything fun on sea days in my opinion and the ship rolls into hughed tones around 11 except for perhaps one venue which is vacant at midnight. It is super in Alaska to be able to sit on your veranda though and go right up to the glacier. Service is always 5 stars. If you go you will be at least two decades younger than anyone else on the ship. Prepare to get your beauty sleep.
@@Chezsey Haha. Thanks for sharing those pointers. We would definitely appreciate the beauty rest. We've heard the food is top notch on HAL, and that things really quiet down after 8pm. We're ready for that experience, just need to figure out when it will fit in our schedule. We've found that Virgin Voyages does a great job of combining great food and fun entertainment, though the area that is a challenge for us is the storage and quietness of the staterooms. Just can't win!
Awww! You can always feel free to just listen to the audio if we distract you by talking with each other. :) Our style is to have a conversation and build off of what each other has to share. Thanks for watching! -Mark
Ooooh y'all got annoying with this one lmao. Appreciate your honesty but you can't be serious with some of these complaints, especially as they pertain to extraordinary allergy situations, and given the typically mid-line price range of that cruise line
@@yeet4505 Hey there; thanks for watching and leaving a comment. As you saw, there was quite a lot we enjoyed about this sailing, but there were some definite misses. While you and I may be fortunate and not experience food allergies, upwards of 50 million have a lactose intolerance in the US alone. The information we shared in this review may be critical for some cruisers to know, but may not apply to your situation. It was especially important for us to call this out as the cruise line advertises the fact they accommodate allergies. In terms of other things we didn’t love, there were multiple items we noticed that made it seem like the cruise line doesn’t care about keeping up brand standards with the Solstice. We didn’t have an ultra-luxurious expectation, but things like chipping paint, worn out signage, etc. are such simple fixes. In fact, you don’t see basic upkeep items like this even on cruise lines charging half the price of Celebrity. Our goal is to share our experiences and let others that may be traveling on a specific ship know about them so they can manage their own expectations. As we always say, just because we love something or hate something doesn’t mean it will apply or matter to every viewer. But we always promise honesty about our personal experiences and hope that cruisers can take something away from the video for their own experience! Thanks, again, for watching. -Rocky
It was definitely surprising to see. Depending on when you are cruising, you may benefit from her dry dock in 2026. We’re currently on board Norwegian Sky which is almost 10 years older - and the ship shines compared to the Solstice when it comes to feeling fresh and new. With that said, we enjoyed the food more on Celebrity. Pros and cons of every ship it seems!! :) -mark
@@kushando That's a great perspective! While there were some things that we didn't love about our experience on board, it is not our intention to tell people to cancel their bookings. Just setting the expectations of what it might be like on board. -R
Honestly, we had a great time on the Celebrity Apex and were excited to check out another ship of theirs. We're not ready to rule out Celebrity Cruises just yet...
@@MarcyAthanBucy it's coming, we promise! :) Should be up by mid-week. We had an oops on export with the audio, but didn't want to delay the full review. I'll make a note in the description that the room tour is coming! Thanks for the eagle eyes!! -mark
The Solstice class ships are excellent. However, 2 of the 5 are not maintained to the standard they should be. But when they deliver the product they can it's a solid line. I do think it was much better in the 1990s but a lot has slipped industry wide. The Edge ships are new and trendy. They have a higher energy to them. But they also have some odd limits that I think make them incomplete feeling. And they're class ships. Like NCL and MSC, they portion off areas of the ship for just suite passengers as well as portion off some of the theater just for suite passengers.
I LOVE your honesty. It is greatly appreciated.
Thank you! We always trying to showcase our experiences with positivity and honesty.
Great review! I highly recommend doing one of the short cruises on the Celebrity Silhouette. She has had major refurbishments and has a fantastic sunset bar area. The S-Class ships on Celebrity are my favorite, but I definitely won’t sail on Solstice or Eclipse until they are refurbished.
Thanks for watching! The Sunset Bar looked nice, but we weren’t able to enjoy it due to the Alaska cold temperatures. Good to know about the S class though. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for your honest review, this is good to know. But, what a great family vacation. From the pictures it looks like you had a great time. Ou family loves to play Five Crowns and Skip-o too!!
We all had a wonderful time despite the issues with the ship. You've got a great family if you all play those games, too! Sounds like we would be fighting for tables against each other if our families were to sail together. Haha. Thanks for watching!
1. Loved your video. It’s great to find youtubers that go straight to the point and are completely honest about the experience
2. I have been loyal to royal like for 12 cruises and I was considering booking a celebrity cruise to feel a more upscale experience. But your video has helped me reconsider this ship.
3. Loved your energy
@@aLaRmCaLL1983 thank you for finding us - and for your kind words!! We LOVE cruising and our hope is to share that same joy with others. That’s why we always lead with the positive - but are also always honest as we want to make sure folks pick the ship that’s going to be best for them! We loved our experience on Celebrity Apex and continue to hear amazing reviews on the other Edge-class of ships, so that could be a great option to consider for Celebrity! Look forward to sharing more adventures with you and the channel! -mark
Honestly, I don't know what you like in a ship but I think the Solstice class are Celebrity's best ships. The Silhouette is in good shape and maybe the Eclipse or Equinox. Once Celebrity gets around to drydocking them for extensive and deep cleaning and maintenance, they're good. I know folks love to talk about the Edge class but those ships have major design flaws and are missing areas that the Solstice has (library, Sky Lounge, Card room, quiet areas) and they seem to be pushing the suite life on that ship with a good amount of suite-only areas. So, I don't know. Not saying they're bad ships at all and they are more modern. But, not everyone loves them.
as someone about to take the first cruise (to Alaska on Solstice) I totally get the "love" topic of this. But, I have to wonder if the other 2 topics are as impactful as these guys make it out to be. I look forward to finding out myself - and reporting back.
We would love to hear about your experience on board! We’re always try to be positive but also honest. Each person’s experience may vary.
@@patrickliddle7286 checking in! Hoping you had an absolute amazing time and that the things we saw outside the Loved section were not present for you, or at worst, minor inconveniences! Oh, and tell us everything about your first cruise to Alaska! Hope it was epic! -mark
That was a very generous 3 stars Rocky. Watched the whole video and I was thinking 2 ships at best. Thanks for the heads up!
I think we were probably more generous because we had such an amazing time with family on this sailing. ❤️ As always, thank you for watching and enjoy this cruise life with us!! :) We are hoping that some of the bigger issues (rust and upkeep) get taken care of before dry dock in 2026!! -Mark
I was just on the Reflection and Apex and loved those ships. Even the Reflection was maintained beautifully for not going through the Revolution process yet. When did you sail? I have a May bday and everyone says it is too early for Alaska.
We're so glad to hear that the Reflection was a great experience for you! This was the earliest Alaska cruise we've taken - sail away was on May 26th. It will likely still be fairly cold for your cruise (as it was for ours), but there's more chance that you'll see fresh snow on the ground and perhaps fewer ships/people. Our stop in Skagway was with three other ships, so it was quite busy in that town.
Hi! Great review. I have NEVER done cruise holiday before. I have sea-phobia/choppy wave fear. How was the sailing of this cruise please? I understand weather can be unpredictable always, but generally how are the big cruises sail-feel like? During the nights do they sail? Overall any advice/tips/suggestion/experience story would help. Thanks in advance.
We absolutely love being on the water. Sailing Alaska is generally a smoother experience versus the Caribbean as the ships sail into more narrow passages which will usually break up any waves. There are days where the ships don't dock (called sea days) and if there's rough weather, it's not unusual for the Captain of the vessel to slow the cruising speed down from a safety perspective. That just means that at night, when most passengers are asleep, they'll need to pick up the pace.
We absolutely love sleeping on a cruise ship as the gentle movement of the ship rocks us to sleep. Something to consider when choosing a cruise for yourself; the larger the cruise ship is, the less it will be impacted by rough waters due to the surface area and general size. For your first cruise, you may want to stick to the larger ships out there. An Alaska itinerary may ruin you from an expectations perspective, though. Alaska scenery is vastly different from the Caribbean or Mexico. Either way, we believe there's a cruise experience out there for everyone and hope that you'll find on that speaks to you!
@@thiscruiselife thank you for your response! Your explanation is very clear and helpful. The family is planning Canada and Alaska cruise/celebrity solstice for 7 days, with our kids. We have never ever done a cruise trip, but our relatives have recommended so we are trying to plan this. I have sea-phobia so I was trying to avoid the Alaska cruise. Your review and reply are encouraging!
@@avantikasarkar7373 we're just doing what we love! And to that point, if you need help planning your vacation out, I would be happy to offer my services as your travel agent. It comes at no extra cost, and you get our expertise when securing your plans! Feel free to send me an email and I'll get started on pulling options for you: rocky@thiscruiselife.com
Thanks for the honest review. My next cruise is the Firenze in October, can't wait!
We hope you have an amazing time! So excited for you to check out the ship.
Thanks for the honest review unlike other you tubers where some make everything great no matter how bad thing were .
Thank YOU for watching and sharing your thoughts. And you are very welcome. We always lead with what we love (and there's a lot), but we commit to always being honest. Never want someone to book something because we share a glowing review and then they get on board and are like, "Why is my balcony covered in falling paint chips?!?" haha ;) -Mark
We were on the Solstice end of March 2024. I agree the upkeep of the ship was terribly disappointing. Our cabin was depressing. Our balcony was terrible. We were very disappointed.
It was very surprising to see a Celebrity ship looking like this. Not something we expected from the brand. They pride themselves in catering to a more mature crowd, but even us younger folks didn't care for that presentation.
Interesting. Just got off solstice last week (just balcony room) and thought it was excellent. There were maybe a couple things I noticed that need replacing (small holes in the vinyl like curtains), but otherwise I thought it is in great shape. We were on the Silhouette when new, and would definitely consider another solstice class cruise again (older ships tend to be a bit cheaper as well). I think the design is holding up nicer than the older Royal Caribbean ships.
@@IntothewestOkotoks great to hear that you enjoyed your experience on board! We try to preface our videos by saying that each person’s experience may vary, so we’re glad to hear it was enjoyable!
The ice cream in the ocean view, that was extra right?
You would think so! We were shocked as well to find out that Ocean View Cafe ice cream is included! The gelato downstairs at Cafe al Bacio has an extra cost, though.
GREAT review!!! Really love the format of your review, distinguishing exactly what you love/didn't love/hated even within the same setting (eg dining room - fantastic food but very slow service; delicious vs strange portion). I don't think anyone has gone into such detail and categorizing them separately.
We are going on Solstice to Alaska in a matter of weeks, so getting this detailed review not only sets my expectation but also prepares me on how to react (eg, slow dining service, crowded buffet).
You mentioned concierge class wasn't really worth it. Would you say if you didn't have it this whole experience would be even worse (no helipad, no embarkation lunch, no relaxed disembarkation, etc)? We'll be just on the regular Veranda, so now I'm a bit worried.
Would appreciate if you can help me w/ a few tips, since this is our first Celebrity cruise:
1) For the great production shows, do we need to sign up ahead or just go early (and how early)? Any of these shows not teen or elderly (80s) friendly?
2) We're on Dining Anytime, since we didn't book way in advance. How was the crowd/line at the MDR?
3) Did you pay for the wifi, and if so, how was your experience?
4) Would love if you could share about your experience on the excursions you did.
Thanks!
Hey there! Thank you so much for watching and for your kind words. Apologies on the delay responding as we've been away (and we really struggled with NCL wifi on our extended sailing... we'll be talking about that in our review soon).
In terms of Concierge Class impact on our trip... The trip would have definitely had less "wow" moments without the Helipad experience, however, the rooms and service were nothing outside of what we've normally experienced on a cruise ship.
As for your questions, I'm certain you've likely learned through experience... We didn't sign up for the shows, but tried to always get there about 15-20 minutes early. If we really wanted good seats, we might get there 30 minutes before doors open. We took Rocky's nephew (10) to all of the shows except for comedy, and we didn't have any issues/concerns.
Dining: We never had a long wait with assigned dining - I'm curious how your experience was with Anytime. We heard that it's really busy right when the doors open, but then it gets less congested as the evening goes on. Curious if that was your experience?
In terms of Wifi, we didn't pay for it on Solstice since all of our ports were US or Canada. I did on NCL Encore and it worked fine, however, I didn't have the package that included streaming, so I can't speak to RUclips/Netflix/etc.
Finally, the excursions we did:
Skagway - White Pass Train Ride
Ketchikan - Rainforest Tour
Juneau - Bus to Mendenhall Glacier
Icy Strait Point - Walked into town and enjoyed the brewery
Victoria - Just walked into the town
Sorry, again, for the delay. I wish I could have just emailed you this as that worked from the ship, but didn't want to not respond. Hope you had an amazing voyage and everything worked out great for you!! If you'd like to share details, you can drop me a note to my personal email (mark@thiscruiselife.com). -Mark
Love your content. Did this ship the year it came out and it was awesome. Doing it September vancover to Honolulu. I’ve recently been told if you see something you don’t like say something now.
That’s a valid point! We hope you have an amazing cruise to Hawaii. Such a great way to get to the islands!
Thanks for the review. I took a back to back sailing on the Edge in March and April and will be on the Ascent in August. It made me wonder if they are putting all of their energy jnto the edge class ships. I’ve been debating a transpacific on the Solstice for October 2025, but it sounds like that need for dry dock will be overwhelming by that time…yikes. At least the thumbs down for concierge vs veranda is actionable. Thanks guys.
Thanks so much for watching and sharing your own experiences! Yes; it does appear that a lot of the line’s love is going toward the Edge-class ships. The frustrating thing is that several of the maintenance items on Solstice seem so obvious (how much does it really cost to replace a worn out sign? A couple bucks?)
We think we might check out the Concierge experience on an Edge-class ship as a couple folks have suggested that it might be better overall. Would be kind of cool to get the definitive answer as to whether or not Concierge is worth it. Or, we just might save the money and put it toward the next one! We’ll see. Haha ;)
Thanks, again, for watching and sharing your comments! -Mark
I was there May 26th to June 2nd. Had a good time
We were cruise buddies! We also had a good time. Memories that will last a lifetime, for sure!
Great review guys! I want to try Celebrity but fear I’ll only like the Excel class ships. So did you “extra” tip your server for poor service or did you let them know they need to do better by not giving them that additional amount. I hope your family that were on their first cruise will book another 😊❤🎉
Honestly, the rest of our family had a great experience. Since they didn't have anything to compare the experience to, it was all new and exciting. We didn't make it a big deal while cruising and therefore didn't remove gratuities or mention the speed of service. We know that the crew on board work hard and there may be bumps along the way - we don't see that as a reason to remove gratuities.
@@thiscruiselife I didn’t mean remove all the gratuities sorry about that. I meant how on the last night we usually tip our waiters staff extra cash in an envelope. Just wondering if you usually do or did not do that in this instance.
@@cindyt987 Ah, thank you for clarifying. We didn't provide any extra gratuities to the dining room wait staff. Not sure if the rest of the family did, but it wasn't our best service.
Did you guys ever go to the 8pm game shows with Nelly & Jono?
We caught those in-passing as we were either headed to or from the theater shows. We had dinner at 8:30 so there were a few things we weren’t able to do.
@@thiscruiselife Yh me and my family had our dinner at 20:30 too, the gameshow usually lasts half an hour so we went straight from there to the level 3/4 dining room
@@lek4367 Oh awesome! We'd usually leave the shows from the theater and have to run up to our room to get changed for the evening programs. We were so busy each and every evening on the ship, but had so much fun!
I loved Nelly and Jonno
We sailed Solstice out of LA last year. The observation of the ship condition was less noticeable when we were onboard. However, the weird dinner portion size, including the entire half of a duck a l'orange, was noted. We had the assigned dining time and our dinner crew was amazing. They certainly knew our names and often spent time chatting with us.
The shows and entertainment are amazing. Maybe some of the best in the industry.
Concierge class is kinda... I don't know.... Meh. We had our bubbly and some chocolate. The canapés were not ever good and often tasted old.
The solarium pool was an absolute sanctuary. No kids or loud music, just peace and the sound of the pool water. And it was always warm in there.
The quasar lounge should be awesome, but it's not. When we were onboard they were trying to make it into and under 18 hangout, but there were so few young people onboard that no one was ever in there.
The martini bar is excellent in every way!
It sounds like overall, we had a VERY similar experience on the ship! You even mentioned something that we thought but didn't call out - the canapés did taste a bit stale the couple times we had them! We didn't spend a ton of time in the Solarium this time around as we were with Rocky's family, but it did look quite lovely and any time we passed through I felt a little more at peace. :)
Thanks so much for watching and sharing your similar experience with Solstice! We're hoping that 2026 dry dock can address some of the maintenance things we experienced (if not before) and look forward to giving more Celebrity ships a chance! I kind of want to try Concierge-class on one of the Edge-class ships for comparison. Curious if that experience is more elevated...? Decisions, decisions! -Mark
OK, guys I want to thank you for noticing the promenade deck (5) on the Solstice. And some other aspects of the design that makes the Solstice class so desirable IMO. Sky Lounge, places to get away from the crowd, Physically, I love the ship.
The didn't love is all reasonable. Food, that's the way it is with Celebrity. And it's not a ship thing, it's a brand thing. Not everything is fabulous on the new ships either. Ship condition isn't good. I think I remember Celebrity servers calling people Sir and Madame and Miss for young women. So, that may be the style. Slow service shouldn't happen. And you're absolutely right about included food. Celebrity wants you to go to the specialty dining rooms and pay more. They're even being tacky and charging for food in Craft's Social and the Passport Bar.
I don't know what has happened with Celebrity's standard of maintenance. At one time it was close to tops in the industry. But letting the great Solstice class ships get in the condition they're in in some areas is just inexcusable. The Silhouette is in better shape as it was refurbished. The circa 2000-2002 Millennium and Summit seem to be in reasonably good shape as they were highly refurbished and updated.
I'll go to the Apex one but I don't like the Edge class ships. And since it is newish the upkeep may not apply as much.
This was really well done. Glad I stumbled upon your channel.
Hey there! Thank you so much for watching and sharing your thoughts; we're glad you stumbled upon us too! :) There are definitely many things to love about the Solstice, and we're glad to hear you've enjoyed her as much as you have. One of the things we enjoy about older ships is the space-to-passenger ratio. Like you, we like to get away from the crowds at times and find ships like the Celebrity Solstice allow for that better than some of the newer ships.
In terms of maintenance, that was our biggest disappointment. The brand does a fantastic job curating the Celebrity experience, and so we were so surprised to see some of the simple things they let go. Honestly, how much can a sign be to replace?! It was a bit embarrassing for the brand and we hope they take the time to address some of the low-hanging fruit. I really want to get onto a Millennium class ship as we've heard great things about those vessels - and the fact that they might actually be in better shape than the Solstice.
Thanks, again, for watching and for joining this cruise life of ours!! :) -Mark
I do believe that the Solstice is going into dry dock for the month of February 2026, not sure.
2026 is still not soon enough given her appearance, though.
We cruised Solstice in April 2024, first one and probably last…..we are Holland America fans. Have to say the food, service pretty mediocre. Some of the venues that were hosting events were ridiculously unable to accommodate larger groups…. On a sea day. Poor planning. Our cabin was lovely, steward never introduced himself but conveniently knew us day before embarkation. We did enjoy the solarium adult only pool. Cheers!
@@andreas4268 wow! So sorry to hear about your experience on the Solstice. It really seems that they’re struggling to keep that ship properly updated. They just got a new cruise director while we were onboard, so it sounds like they’ve already addressed the programming issue. We keep saying we need to try Holland America Line because so many people have shared their positive experiences from there. Thanks for watching the video and commenting!
I’m glad we share the same opinion. This ship is not worthy the celebrity brand. Just like the Eclipse. They both need a big refurb.
Let’s hope things get better during the 2026 refurb
Isn’t it bizarre that they wait for almost two years…
Hate to hear this. We are booked on the last Sept cruise for a group beading cruise. We are usually Holland America cruisers but wanted to try something different.
We still made memories that will last forever, so I don’t regret it one bit! But, we did want folks to go in eyes open to some of the possible challenges they might encounter. Never want someone to be surprised when they get on a ship we’ve reviewed! We saw them actively working on replacing worn down carpeting at the end of the cruise, so maybe by the time you sail several things will be addressed!
We’ve not done HAL yet - would love to hear what you like about their ships and any suggestions you have for our first ship with them? :) -mark
HAL skews much older in age. The food is uniformly good but I noticed that my last cruise had less premium variety and lots more pasta, etc. There is a loss of more expensive food on every cruise post Covid it seems. Where HAL is lacking is entertainment. You are hard a pressed to find anything fun on sea days in my opinion and the ship rolls into hughed tones around 11 except for perhaps one venue which is vacant at midnight. It is super in Alaska to be able to sit on your veranda though and go right up to the glacier. Service is always 5 stars. If you go you will be at least two decades younger than anyone else on the ship. Prepare to get your beauty sleep.
@@Chezsey Haha. Thanks for sharing those pointers. We would definitely appreciate the beauty rest. We've heard the food is top notch on HAL, and that things really quiet down after 8pm. We're ready for that experience, just need to figure out when it will fit in our schedule.
We've found that Virgin Voyages does a great job of combining great food and fun entertainment, though the area that is a challenge for us is the storage and quietness of the staterooms. Just can't win!
What I hated looking at this review was watching you two constantly staring at each other.
Awww! You can always feel free to just listen to the audio if we distract you by talking with each other. :) Our style is to have a conversation and build off of what each other has to share. Thanks for watching! -Mark
Ooooh y'all got annoying with this one lmao. Appreciate your honesty but you can't be serious with some of these complaints, especially as they pertain to extraordinary allergy situations, and given the typically mid-line price range of that cruise line
@@yeet4505 Hey there; thanks for watching and leaving a comment. As you saw, there was quite a lot we enjoyed about this sailing, but there were some definite misses. While you and I may be fortunate and not experience food allergies, upwards of 50 million have a lactose intolerance in the US alone. The information we shared in this review may be critical for some cruisers to know, but may not apply to your situation. It was especially important for us to call this out as the cruise line advertises the fact they accommodate allergies.
In terms of other things we didn’t love, there were multiple items we noticed that made it seem like the cruise line doesn’t care about keeping up brand standards with the Solstice. We didn’t have an ultra-luxurious expectation, but things like chipping paint, worn out signage, etc. are such simple fixes. In fact, you don’t see basic upkeep items like this even on cruise lines charging half the price of Celebrity.
Our goal is to share our experiences and let others that may be traveling on a specific ship know about them so they can manage their own expectations. As we always say, just because we love something or hate something doesn’t mean it will apply or matter to every viewer. But we always promise honesty about our personal experiences and hope that cruisers can take something away from the video for their own experience!
Thanks, again, for watching. -Rocky
The overall lack of upkeep of the ship makes me want to cancel
It was definitely surprising to see. Depending on when you are cruising, you may benefit from her dry dock in 2026. We’re currently on board Norwegian Sky which is almost 10 years older - and the ship shines compared to the Solstice when it comes to feeling fresh and new. With that said, we enjoyed the food more on Celebrity. Pros and cons of every ship it seems!! :) -mark
Its noticeable but not a show stopper
@@kushando That's a great perspective! While there were some things that we didn't love about our experience on board, it is not our intention to tell people to cancel their bookings. Just setting the expectations of what it might be like on board. -R
Why do people love celebrity so much it sounded disapointing
Honestly, we had a great time on the Celebrity Apex and were excited to check out another ship of theirs. We're not ready to rule out Celebrity Cruises just yet...
@@thiscruiselife I can’t find the room tour video 😌
@@MarcyAthanBucy it's coming, we promise! :) Should be up by mid-week. We had an oops on export with the audio, but didn't want to delay the full review. I'll make a note in the description that the room tour is coming! Thanks for the eagle eyes!! -mark
@@MarcyAthanBucy It's coming soon! Don't go far...
The Solstice class ships are excellent. However, 2 of the 5 are not maintained to the standard they should be. But when they deliver the product they can it's a solid line. I do think it was much better in the 1990s but a lot has slipped industry wide.
The Edge ships are new and trendy. They have a higher energy to them. But they also have some odd limits that I think make them incomplete feeling. And they're class ships. Like NCL and MSC, they portion off areas of the ship for just suite passengers as well as portion off some of the theater just for suite passengers.