Our most recent cruise on CELEBRITY SOLTICE from HI to Sydney was 17 days long – give or take a day for the crossing of the International Date Line.
The Ship is lovely but didn’t offer the same amenities at a reasonable price that we enjoy of the ROYAL PRINCESS just a few months ago. Celebrity did NOT honor certain “ON-BOARD Credit” programs like Princess does. They said we could use ‘one or the other ~ no combining of credits’. Nor does Celebrity provide Military on-board credits; or stock holder credit – all recognized and granted by Princess routinely. On a recent Princess cruise my husband and I enjoyed almost $1000. EACH in on-board credit, while on the recent Celebrity cruise of 17 days, we had $250. apiece in on board credit. I’ll take Princess over Celebrity any day!
I had to pay for all shore excursions via credit card BEFORE we set sail! Not so with Princess.
The Celebrity Balcony Stateroom (Concierge class) was small and narrow – hard to walk around the bed! The storage was better than Royal Princess with 6 drawers in the cabinet next to the refrigerator. The MINI BAR filled up the refrigerator - no room for anything we wanted to put inside. Two throw pillows made the plastic couch fairly comfortable. The bed was wonderful, as were the linens, but a small blanket for an afternoon nap would have been appreciated. We used the provided Beach Towels instead. The bathroom was very nice; not roomy but very adequate. Stateroom Service was pretty good – but nothing extraordinary.