This was our third voyage to Alaska in the past 33 years. The first one was as a family on a 1000 passenger ship, the second one was as a couple on an 8 person boat, and this one was as one of four couples in a group on a nearly 3000 passenger ship. In my view the Solstice is a beautifully designed and manufactured ship where every element is done well. Our cabin, on a Concierge deck, was fully adequate and thoughtfully put together. We brought too much stuff with us but everything could be put away neatly. The stairs were comfortable and we used them multiple times a day and every day; we pointedly did not use the many and convenient elevators at all during the voyage.

Dining was a mixed experience. We had arranged for the four couples to sit together at dinner and that worked rather well. Our waiter, Rafael, and assistant waiter, Ruslan, were terrific as waiters and as people with whom we could relax and joke. Breakfast was either via room service, with Melvin, our absolutely wonderful cabin attendant, serving the tray to my wife, or at the OceanView Cafe on the 14th floor, some three floors above us. I found the choices for breakfast so wide as to be unattainable! in the sense that one could only eat so much and since I found what I really liked, there was no need or reason to try the rest. But, we both found that the fresh fruit was simply amazing and better than any restaurant choices we have had on land. For lunch, it was a little more difficult. While the choices were often bewildering in their number, the crowdedness was also often so much that we had to scour the entire dining area to find two seats. Fortunately, this was not always the case. One time, we did try one of the upscale lunch places and we thoroughly enjoyed that experience, at the Bistro on Five. For dinner, once we went to the specialty restaurant called Murano and that was an experience worth paying for and writing about. The service from each of the many staffers who attended us was marvelous, the cooking at the table great to watch, and the food was markedly better than at the normal, large scale dining room.

There are many, many wonderful facilities on this ship: the Library, the Corning Museum of Glass Hot Glass Show, the evening musical shows, the walking track on Deck 14, etc. But, the star of the ship is the staff! We met people on staff from many countries and, without exception, each was a pleasure to talk with and to be served by. This personal connection made this ship of steel and many more materials into a human place. Read more