We recently had the pleasure of taking an Alaska cruise on the Celebrity Solstice and wanted to share our thoughts on the room and pricing.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: Cruising the Last Frontier
• Review: WestJet 737-800MAX Economy Class LAX-YVR
• Superb Service and Surprisingly Good Food: The Hyatt Regency Vancouver
• Vancouver with Kids: Fun in the Great Outdoors
• Family Dining in Vancouver: The Best of What We Ate
• Review: Celebrity Solstice Alaska Cruise – Part 1 – Booking and Room (this post)
• Review: Celebrity Solstice Alaska Cruise – Part 2 – Dining
• Review: Celebrity Solstice Alaska Cruise – Part 3 – Onboard Entertainment
• Review: Celebrity Solstice Alaska Cruise – Part 4 – Ship Features
• Disappointing Wi-Fi on Celebrity Solstice
• PSA: Do Not Waste Money on Celebrity Cruises Drink Packages
• Pro Tip: Celebrity Cruises Gives Free Parking at MGM Resorts
• Icy Strait Point: A Simple Alaskan Port Town
• Skagway: A Small But Enjoyable Port
• A Brief Encounter at Dawes Glacier
• Juneau: Full of Outdoors Experiences
• Ketchikan: Home to Salmon and Lumberjacks
• Review: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge YVR (Transborder / US Flights)
• Review: Air Canada 737-800MAX Business Class YVR-LAX

Booking

We booked this cruise all the way back in July 2023, roughly 13 months prior to our cruise date. At the time, we had thoughts of going on an Alaska cruise, and spent some time looking around every cruise line looking for the best price. As we were going to have six people total in our group, we looked both at separate rooms and large suites. The main criteria was the desire to have at least a balcony room.

Ultimately, I found Celebrity Cruises had advertised a sale for 40% off. Naturally, math is hard for some people and rather than taking 40% off, they appear to have just multiplied the guest rates by 0.4 (translating to 60% off), and their math error made the cruise considerably cheaper than any other cruise at the time of booking.

As you can see in the screenshots below, they messed up the promotion in our benefit. In room #1, the full fare would be $10,242.92 ($2,870 x 2 + $1,850 x 2 + $1,002.92 in taxes). Taking off 40% should have resulted in a rate of $6,145.75 (less $200 in instant cruise savings). However, the actual room rate is much lower at $4,230.92. If you do the math with assuming 60% off, you get much closer to what they were charging. No idea if they always mess up the math this way, but it certainly helps to shop around!

Celebrity operates a couple of cruise ships in Alaska (both the Solstice and the newer Edge). I had hesitations about booking the Celebrity Edge given their “infinite veranda” seemed more of a gimmick than a true balcony. I’ve heard of mechanical problems that could be difficult to resolve and the balcony just seems like more of a window you can open than truly being outdoors. So that meant we would be booking the Solstice.

There aren’t efficient ways of getting a free cruise on Celebrity Cruises (expect to gamble $20,000 at their on-board casino for a free cruise offer). However, there are ways you can help offset some of the cost.

• If you have an American Express credit card, you might be able to find Amex offers on your card that give you a credit for spending a certain amount.
• If you have travel credit cards that offer a travel credit, you could use it on your deposit or cruise payments.
• If you have points that can be used towards travel, such as the U.S. Bank Altitude Rewards card, you can use them to help offset your costs. Indeed, I did do this myself using their “Real-Time Rewards” feature.

I should note that Celebrity Cruises does have a credit card, but I honestly don’t see much value in it. You earn points that I thought would be worth a penny apiece, but instead it looks to be some sort of structured program according to their website. You’d have to earn a certain number of points to be able to redeem them at a penny each, generally for onboard credit. Any 2% cash back card is going to be far better than what they offer here, so unless I am missing something significant please don’t bother with this card.

Directions to the Cruise Terminal

While you certainly hitch a ride to Vancouver’s Canada Place (the local cruise terminal), we found it remarkably easy to use public transportation. In our case, we walked to the cruise terminal from our hotel, but we did walk from the cruise terminal to the subway that took us to the airport on the trip back.

If coming from the airport, take the Canada Line (the only option at Vancouver YVR Airport) to Waterfront Station. From there, you’ll exit the station and you should be facing Cordova Street. Head to your right (west) to Howe Street and you should immediately see Canada Place in front of you. And that’s literally it; the cruise terminal is around the corner from the train station. This is one port city where you don’t need to pay for transportation from the cruise line.

Boarding

As our cruise departed out of Vancouver, it was simple enough to find where we needed to go once inside Canada Place. Of course, it was indeed a rather busy day as three cruise ships were departing the city. Thankfully, there was enough signage to keep it all fairly organized. First, everyone dropped off their luggage with their respective cruise ships.

After dropping off our luggage, we were immediately checked in to the cruise itself and handed over our passports. After check in, we were handed a colored piece of paper that we would eventually hand back to staff after clearing security. Each cruise ship had its own distinct color for the day and Celebrity was orange. Just an extra measure to make sure everyone ends up on the correct ship.

Security and passport control was lengthy. Port staff here seemed overwhelmed with the number of guests. After clearing the lengthy security lines, all US and Canadian passports were thrown into a single massive line to clear immigration, while there was a separate, far shorter line for all other passports. At the front of the line, you’re not actually speaking to customs agents. Rather, you’re taking a picture (including children) and if there are no problems, you are sent through. Only those individuals flagged by the picture would need to go chat with customs agents.

Once we made it through, things were once again nice and peaceful and it was an easy walk up a ramp where we boarded the ship. We then proceeded to our room where we dropped off our luggage.

One quick aside — I haven’t been on a cruise ship since 2018, but I remember the muster station drill being a rather important thing that ate away from time spent relaxing on the first day. Perhaps it’s more common to handle this, but the process on Celebrity was quite smooth. We could watch a video on the app explaining the procedures, and then we just needed to check in with staff at our designated station to listen to a very brief explanation of where to go in an emergency, and that’s it. I appreciate how streamlined the process was and how it allowed us to truly relax once onboard.

The Room

Our rooms for this stay were #8152 and #8154, both balcony rooms on the starboard side of the ship. The room layouts for both are nearly identical, with the only exception being that #8154 could accommodate more guests with the bunk bed setup. I’ll spend this review only discussing #8154.

One quick thing before I continue with the room itself is this set of rooms could be made connecting. Rather than having a true connecting door between the rooms, if you get staff to come by, they can close the exterior double doors for the rooms and the interior doors will always stay open. You actually gain some space in this setup (the carpeted area with the horizontal lines in the above picture) when doing this, giving you some extra room to leave your shoes. The main downside is that you now need to carry around a keycard in addition to your onboard ship ID card. Overall, it’s still worth it.

If you’re looking to connect the rooms and have a balcony, be sure to also ask staff to remove the barrier between the rooms on the balcony.

If you know cruises, you’ll know that space comes at a premium. The room itself felt spacious enough, with a comfortable bed as the centerpiece. If you’re looking for a place to store your luggage, you’ll find plenty of room underneath the bed itself.

Immediately next to the bed is a small couch. It’s fine and has some cushion, but I’ll admit I didn’t spend much time here when it was set up as a couch.

That’s because when you ask staff to come by and set up the bunk beds, you’ll pretty much only see the couch in the below setup. The drawer under the couch stores the extra padding to be used for the sofa bed. Meanwhile there is a short ladder brought in that would allow access to the top bunk. The kids had fun with these beds, though one night four-year-old Char wanted me to sleep with her on the sofa bed. It wasn’t the most comfortable for me given my height and the fact I’m sharing such a small bed, but I surprisingly didn’t wake up with back or neck problems.

There is a TV in the room, but we didn’t use it too much. Sometimes we would watch destination highlights or other informative shows, but it was more fun being out and about on the ship or out on the balcony. There is a minibar in the dresser cabinet with hefty charges if you want something from it, but that didn’t interest us either.

On the table is a small tray of water and chips, but note that there is a large charge for consuming the items. Given space is at a premium, it’s better to ask staff to take this away so it doesn’t have to clutter the narrow desk.

On the other side of the bed is a small closet. Inside are a couple of robes, a safe, and some hangers.

While I don’t think it was here from the start, by the end of the journey, we noticed a sort of parting gift in the closet. Two tote bags–one with a zipper pouch–with Celebrity Cruises branding on them.

The bathroom is similarly efficient space-wise. There is plenty of storage available and staff left in spare toilet paper rolls and tissues. Should you need it, there’s also a plunger in here.

The shower is in the opposite corner. Don’t expect anything romantic here. Thankfully, water pressure and temperature were good.

The toiletries are affixed to the wall. I’ve seen a number of people wanting to bring their own toiletries on cruises. I’d say it’s not necessary to do so; the Celebrity-branded soaps aren’t anything special but they are adequate and don’t need to be avoided.

Finally, the true benefit of the room versus an inside stateroom is the balcony. Whether or not a balcony is worth it is up to you. As I’ll describe in more detail in future posts, the balcony paid for itself with the awesome views we could get of glaciers and wildlife from the comfort of our room.

Staff came by twice each day to clean the room. Every night, there were some chocolates left out during turndown service. The kids enjoyed having some extra sweets after dinner.

A quick aside — if you’ve pre-purchased excursions through the cruise line, you’ll get your tickets delivered to your room on the first night. You’ll need these when you depart for your excursions, so don’t lose them.

Have you cruised with Celebrity Cruises before?

Stay tuned for the next post where we will take a dive into the dining options available.