Celebrity Solstice Review

4.5 / 5.0
2,220 reviews

Bad staff and cuisine

Review for Australia & New Zealand Cruise on Celebrity Solstice
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Holiday1954
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Nov 2018
Cabin: Deluxe Veranda 2B

We went for a 12 day holiday to NZ but after travelling on many other cruise lines we found the food was shocking and staff rude on Solstice. We were advised that this ship was superior to most of the other cruise lines. NOT SO!! I thought the ship itself was great with heated pools which was handy as it was so cold and also entertainment was good at night. But this was overshadowed by bad service with next to no seafood and only fruit was watermelon, rockmelon and oranges!!!!!! Only seafood they had was deep fried fish which was mainly batter. No range of cereals which we found ALL OTHER cruise lines supply. When going to the bars we found on the pool deck and in the main dinning on the 14th floor we found it hard to get any service and even though we had a basic drinks package we were encouraged to pay an extra $150.00 for better wine and beer. We were under the impression that the basic would cover this but then had to pay $1.00 extra for every drink?? On board specialty dinning we did not go to as they were too expensive and when speaking to fellow passengers they told us they were not worth the money. Most meals started at $45.00 extra per head. We had 3 days at sea but found activities were very limited as only one band onboard that played from about 4pm to 9pm and then nothing!!! But the onboard shows were good and we went to most of them except the dance ones held by the crew. We didn’t do any port excursions from the boat as we are from NZ and knew the places to go on our own. We went downstairs to the formal dinning twice (which was free) and found one night the food was dreadful but the second time we enjoyed both the service and the food. They rang our cabin and wanted to know why we hadn’t gone back so told them we would give them another go.

Embarkation was shocking with arguments going on with other passengers and staff yelling because of time we all had to wait in lines. Over 2 hours for many. This was a cold and rainy day which didn’t help tempers. Disembarkation went smoothly as we got off on our own when we docked at Sydney. We were advised to arrange for a transfer from the ship which would cost us US$30.00 each as in a note to everyone they stated NO taxis would be there. Not true as many, many taxis were there waiting and we got away first and the cost was only A$30.00 for both of us instead of US$60.00. It seemed to me it was important for staff to get passengers to upgrade their drinks and dinner meals. We wont be travelling with them again.

Cabin Review

Deluxe Veranda 2B

Cabin 2B

The cabin was a wheelchair cabin which was bigger than usual stateroom cabins. This was great but when having showers because tiles were flat on the floor for wheelchairs water unfortunately went everywhere. The room attendant for our cabin was marvellous and nothing was too hard to do and always greeted us with a smile.

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