Having cruised with the Celebrity fleet 9 times over the past 8 years, this was our first time on the Solstice.
Celebrity Solstice was the first arrival of the Solstice class but you would never have known it wasn’t a brand new ship.
Our cruise took us to Civitavecchia (Rome), Naples, Mykonos, Piraeus (Athens) and Malta, among a few other places.
We joined the ship in Barcelona and I thoroughly recommend this as an ideal departure port.
As we live in Essex we were able to fly from our local airport direct to Barcelona in 2 hours, with the airport 20 minutes from the port.
We had originally booked a Concierge class cabin at the rear of the ship but before departure we were informed that this cabin had been re-classed as Aquaclass at no extra cost to us.
This meant we dined in Blu restaurant, where the food is both excellent but also much better for the waistline! We also paid a small supplement to dine in the Murano restaurant one night and the food and service was also first class.
Our stateroom attendant was most helpful throughout our cruise and left animals made from hand towels on our bed each night as a surprise.
In one port we docked alongside Thomson Celebration and I have to say the difference in quality between the two ships was considerable.
The Thomson ship looked ancient in comparison.
If there are any weaknesses I would say that the entertainment was not perfect for us.
As an American cruise line it was probably understandably focused on Americans e.g.
American comedian, even in Europe, and some of the attempts at humour was US based and passed us by.
Also, like all cruise lines, the shore excursions can be expensive.
If you have the confidence, get off the ship and make your own arrangements.
It’ll be an interesting experience and certainly cheaper.
All in all, I would find the quality of Celebrity ships, food and staff hard to beat.
If you haven’t cruised with them, try it!
