After sailing Oasis twice this year, Celebrity has a lot to live up to. However, I do understand this is comparing apples and oranges. I'm expecting a much more tradition cruise experience, and I can enjoy that just as much.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

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Originally posted by hydrojim:
After sailing 26 times with Royal Caribbean I'm doing my first cruise with Celebrity at the end of November. I'm looking forward to being aboard Equinox for 10 days. My question to anyone who has sailed the Solstice class of ships is, what are the hidden gems onboard, those places and things most people would miss.

After sailing Oasis twice this year, Celebrity has a lot to live up to. However, I do understand this is comparing apples and oranges. I'm expecting a much more tradition cruise experience, and I can enjoy that just as much.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Jim

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Jim,
I've sailed on both OASIS and SOLSTICE and loved them equally, although they were quite different experiences. What is similar is an amazing ship design, wonderful attention to detail in the decor, and a great variety of public spaces and restaurants with stunning decor.

Overall of course the Solstice Class is going to be the more low-key and refined atmosphere. The service is less pushy, daytime activities less "active", food quality slightly elevated, and overall a quieter setting (no announcements for instance). The same pretty much applies for evening, just overall more low key although you can still have a wild time if you desire. The Martini Bar is the "hot spot" and it's so much fun. The best part is it's in the center of the action so people tend to gravitate towards it. The show the bartenders put on is quite entertaining. Finding a seat can be difficult.

One thing I really enjoyed on SOLSTICE and other Celebrity ships is sunset. All the Celebrity ships have a Sunset Bar all the way aft and outside, and around sunset they place a solo guitarist up there. Having a drink, listening to the guitarist, and watching the sunset along with the ocean have been some of my favorite moments onboard any ship.

Attached is a link to my SOLSTICE photos if you are interested. You are in for a treat!

Ernie

I did not get a chance to do lawn bowling. Be sure to see the glass blowing and the Dow Corning museum.It's kind of hidden away.

Thanks for the advice. Although I don't post very often, I do manage to read the board every day. Ernie, I did recall you saying how much you have liked Solstice in the past, and I was hoping you would reply to my post. I was wondering if the food was much better than the RC offerings. The two times on Oasis had drastically different main dining room food. The first sailing in June was not that great. All standard RC fare, but luke warm at best, and really under seasoned. This last time in October was fantastic… so much that I asked my waiter if the executive chef had changed since June. The waiter told me in fact there was a change. It was a change for the better! I have to say, the rack of lamb I had was one of the best I have ever had anywhere, land or sea.

Thanks also for the pictures Ernie. I do love the interiors… very cool. I'm trying not to see every picture, know absolutely everything about the ship, and have no surprises. This is what usually happens, and end up taking a little joy out of "getting lost" once onboard. I didn't want to miss anything special though.

It's nice not having to get reservations for the shows, and just playing each day by ear… and with 10 days, there is plenty of time for playing.

If anyone thinks of anything else "special", I'd love to hear about it soon.

Thanks,

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Originally posted by hydrojim:
I was wondering if the food was much better than the RC offerings.

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Hi Jim,
I had pretty decent food in the MDR on OASIS. The same holds true for SOLSTICE, although to be honest I think we only ate in the MDR twice on each ship. We actually tried all the specialty restaurants (on both OASIS and SOLSTICE) and loved them all. While I love these large ships, I really enjoy dining in a more intimate atmosphere, so the specialty restaurants really appeal to me. I just budget accordingly knowing that I will spend a little extra to enjoy them.

While the overall level of service is better on Celebrity, and there is more finesse and a better presentation of cuisine, I would not go with the expectation that the MDR is going to be vastly superior to RCI. Honestly, when you start preparing food for 2000+ people there is only so much you can do. It's pretty much banquet style food on all the large cruise lines. It's not bad and no one is going to go hungry, just don't expect gourmet.

Ernie's pctures are excellent and are a good introduction to the ship itself, so I won't comment further on general issues. I will just mention that we had an excellent time in the MDR on Solstice. We had an excellent table - big (which we prefer), on the lower level pretty much in the middle, underneath the chrome 'chandelier'. From there you could really get a feel as to how spectacular the space is. It can look very cold when it's empty but it looks very different when it's full. This is especially true on formal night, with the men in dinner jackets or dark suits and the ladies wearing beautiful brightly-coloured dresses.

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Originally posted by Tom Burke:
I haven't cruised with RCI but I have cruised on Solstice, in the Med just over a year ago.

Ernie's pctures are excellent and are a good introduction to the ship itself, so I won't comment further on general issues. I will just mention that we had an excellent time in the MDR on Solstice. We had an excellent table - big (which we prefer), on the lower level pretty much in the middle, underneath the chrome 'chandelier'. From there you could really get a feel as to how spectacular the space is. It can look very cold when it's empty but it looks very different when it's full. This is especially true on formal night, with the men in dinner jackets or dark suits and the ladies wearing beautiful brightly-coloured dresses.

We did have a meal in Muranos, one of the special choice restairants on Solstice. We didn't enjoy it: too fussy for us, and a cast of thousands in there. I blogged about here:
Meal in Muranos

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Thanks Tom, I enjoyed reading your blog on Murano. I'll probably try a couple of the speciality restaurants and Murano was to be one of them. I do know what you mean when the service become too much… you can't finish chewing something before you're being asked how everything is. That said, I'll still give it a try.

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Did you try the lido cafe for dinner any evening?

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