After spending a week onboard the Celebrity Solstice, we became pretty familiar with the entertainment onboard the ship. Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by what was waiting for us each night in the theater.

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
• Review: Celebrity Solstice Alaska Cruise – Part 2 – Dining
• Review: Celebrity Solstice Alaska Cruise – Part 3 – Onboard Entertainment (this post)
• 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

Solstice Theater

Located on Decks 4 and 5 Forward, the Solstice Theater provides a variety of entertainment, including magic and comedy shows, educational talks, and musical performances. Our nightly routine typically was to have early dining in the main dining room, having the kids take a bath, and then checking out the second performance of the show each night. Overall that strategy worked well most nights, but there were times when we caught the first show if our dinner plans were disrupted from being in town. I’d say that it seemed easier to get a seat during the first performance than at the second. Some nights the entire Deck 5 was reserved for Concierge Class guests and that made it difficult to find a seat if you’re showing up just before the performance.

There were several performances that we enjoyed more than others. Each were about 45 minutes in duration. The kids loved the kid-friendly magic and mind-reading tricks of Jeremy Tan. Eight-year-old Alex was so captivated by the performance that he wanted to learn the secrets of his tricks that he purchased a souvenir deck of cards and a CD that teaches magic.

Milos Radakovich hosted a series of informational talks during the day, usually before making it into port, where he would offer insights into Alaskan geography and wildlife. He made the talks enjoyable though not entertaining enough for four-year-old Char so it might be best to leave your preschoolers in the kids club.

Some of the more popular shows were the Broadway-esque performances. They have excellent vocals and a captivating performance for each of the three nights they performed on this seven-night cruise. If there’s one thing you must see while onboard the ship, this is it. They sang many familiar tunes and each performance had a different theme.

If I’m being honest, the quality of the programming was better than I expected. I hadn’t done much research on what to check out each night, but these shows were an immense hit. The cruise director mentioned that other cruise lines are skimming down on their nightly performances but Celebrity Cruises is bucking the trend and doubling down on it. I’m not sure I can verify the accuracy of the comparison to other cruise lines, but I will say that I can tell they spend a lot of effort on the quality of the shows produced onboard the ship.

Pools

Up on sunny Deck 12, you’ll find all the pools the Celebrity Solstice has to offer. You might immediately wonder why on earth would someone use the pool on an Alaskan cruise? I certainly had that thought. However, temperatures were quite high in Vancouver and the at-sea days. That resulted in perfect weather to go hit the pools. In the center of the ship, you’ll find two swimming pools. Note one is deeper than the other, so check the water depth before your kids find out the first step is a doozy (ask me how I know). The two swimming pools are accompanied by four popular hot tubs.

Right next to the pool is a now-defunct splash pad that they just as a dance floor. There is occasionally live music here, though it was a few decibels too high for my liking (am I old now?).

If your children need it, there is also a rack with life vests adjacent to the swimming pools.

There is also the Solarium pool, which is where many adults seemed to spend their time. Naturally, the pool is intended to be used only by adults given the tranquility. However, on this Alaskan cruise, there are some hours where families are permitted to use this pool (5:00PM to 7:00PM daily). Yes, it offers protection from the wind (helpful for those at-sea days when the ship is moving).

I wish the family hours were at a different time. Early dining starts at 6:00PM and I’d reckon most families would be dining at that time if they intend to eat at the main dining room. You can’t show up in your swimsuits, so factoring in time to change and the most we could do most nights would be 5:00PM to 5:30PM, far too short to make it worth the trip (good luck dragging the kids out of the pool so quickly). That being said, we did end up here one night when we hit up the buffet one evening and there were quite a few families here enjoying the space.

Contests

There are a number of contests that occur throughout the cruise. We only happened to be present for two of them: a giant shuffleboard pitting guests against crew, and a Friends trivia game. I think the most impressive part of these contests were the prizes you could win. For example, the winner of the giant shuffleboard could win a free excursion at the next stop (the lumberjack competition at Ketchikan) or the cost would be reimbursed to you if you already purchased it.

Casino

I spent some time at the casino, but it was mostly for research, I swear! There are both table games and slot machines (with a few video poker machines). If you walk up to the cashier, they have instructions on how to load the machines from your onboard account. One “secret” of all of this is simply that it draws money from your onboard account (which is paid with a credit card) and when you’re done gambling, the money is returned to you as cash. There isn’t a surcharge to do this at the slots but there is a 5% “convenience fee” for table games. If you’re looking to stock up on credit card points at no cost, this is one of the most efficient ways to do it.

There are speed limits in place ($500 per transaction, max $5,000/day, and you can’t make another withdrawal until you spend 50% of the prior withdrawal), but I wouldn’t recommend going too wild with this method. If you’re returning to another country before going home like we were, I’d hesitate crossing international borders with too much cash in hand. US Border Patrol has been known to seize large sums of cash from passengers without a warrant or being charged with a crime.

Anyways, in the middle of my investigation, I did some light gambling and happened to come ahead on a couple of games. I certainly didn’t gamble enough to work my way into a free cruise. Generally speaking, if you’re looking for that free cruise from gambling, think $12,500 in spend for a free interior room, $20,000 in spend for a free balcony. If you’re calculating theoretical losses, expect somewhere around 85% return on slots (though they claim to be the hottest slots on the seas, I’ll be a little conservative), which means a free cruise is expected to cost $1,875 for an interior or $3,000 for a balcony. If you’re looking to gamble anyways, getting a free room on top might be worth it to some.

Stay tuned for the next post where I’ll spend more time talking about other features on the ship.