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Celebrity Solstice
What goes into the development of a modern cruise ship? Well, as you might guess the simple answer to that question is quite a lot! That’s why I decided to travel down to Miami earlier this month to attend an event that Celebrity Cruises hosted for roughly 100 travel agents – an open house really where the line provided more details about its new Celebrity Solstice, the premium ship that will make its debut this November (earlier than originally planned).
Celebrity had already announced several new features of the new ship at a series of press events last year and earlier this year. It detailed a new glass-blowing demonstration it will have onboard Solstice, as well as a number of new restaurant concepts.
At an event on Tavern on the Green, the line also announced that Solstice would have the first real live grass lawn at sea on one of its top decks, as part of a “Lawn Club.” (That announcement, of course, was soon trumped by Celebrity sister line Royal Caribbean International, which unveiled plans for an entire “Central Park” on Oasis of the Seas, the mega-ship that will debut in December 2009).
But Celebrity’s event in Miami was a bit different, because it was an effort to put all the public features of the ship on display in one place — similar to a demonstration that would be prepared for the line’s top executives. As Celebrity President Dan Hanrahan told those attending, the idea was “to bring the ship to life…to get a good feel for what it is going to be like.”
In three large conference rooms, Celebrity laid out all the retail, dining, bar, gaming, entertainment, spa and stateroom features of Solstice. And I now know perhaps more than I ever thought possible about the shopping, dining, drinking and gaming possibilities onboard a major cruise ship.
First off, we all got a chance to munch on samples from all of Solstice’s 10 planned eateries. These include Bistro Five (featuring all-day and all-night menus), Blu (another eatery featuring grilled salmon and other fish), Aqua Class (a restaurant dedicated just to the ship’s Aqua Class concierge level guests), Café al Bacio (offering espresso and Italian pastries), Tuscan Grille (featuring an Italian-influence grill menu), Silk Harvest (a bistro featuring Asian specialties), and Murano (a French-influenced restaurant featuring meat, fish and salads prepared tableside). We sampled food from all of these dining choices, not to mention selections from Grand Epernay, the main dining room.
Having had our fill of the dining experience, what better than to turn next to shopping? Solstice will feature one of the largest retail areas afloat with many unique stores and products, located mostly on Decks 4 and 5. The ship’s 18 shops will have such names as Glitz, Serendipity, Sun Dialer, Galleria Boutiques, The Solstice Ship and more. The Lawn Club Shop, celebrating Solstice’s top deck lawn, will feature a selection of logo apparel and flip-flops. A Glass Market will offer customized glassware from Riedel and Steuben, with many objects designed especially for Solstice.
H. Stern, the upscale jewelry story, will offer an outlet on the ship. Guests also will be able to purchase from the Blue Collection, including designer home accessories, resort wear and jewelry. The Artisan’s Studio & Boutique will feature one-of-a-kind items from undiscovered artists and designers, including handbags and women’s wear custom-made for sale on the ship. There will even be featured demonstrations by artists and designers onboard. Celebrity is even working with a diamond vendor to create a special Solstice diamond, cut with 86 facets as opposed to the normal 58.
Celebrity Solstice also will have an extensive series of “beverage” programs, featuring specialty wines, champagne, and Irish and Scottish whiskies. For example, the ship will have its own wine label — Celebrate Life Merlot — with a portion of each sale going to a U.N. program that seeks to relieve child hunger. Guests also can take part in a program to learn how to make wine, in addition to the usual wine tastings onboard.
Solstice will even offer its own private label of champagne, called Mandois. Celebrity executives also boast the ship will be the first to showcase top boutique champagne houses, featuring wines from a set of four Grand Crus vineyards. A wine bar on the ship will offer specialized dispensers for tasting wine by the glass, as well as classes in “sabering” (taking the cork off champagne bottles with a sword). You can learn more about the history of Jameson Irish whisky (and taste a bit too!) in yet another program offered onboard the ship.
While I’m not a gambler, I think I learned more than I ever want to know about the intricacies of a modern onboard casino. Solstice’s Fortunes Casino will feature the latest slot machines (275 of them of which 70 percent are new to Celebrity) and 14 table games, all decorated with rather spectacular LCD and glass displays.
The casino itself will be 50 percent larger than others on ships in the Celebrity fleet. There will be new table games, such as Face-Up Blackjack, and new video games, such as a dual electronic poker table. Guests will even have a chance to win a car if they play one special slot machine.
Solstice will offer three stage show productions during a typical seven-day cruise — all with elaborate costumes and intricate sets. Performances will include a show called “Ghostlight,” a musical themed around an old roadhouse with reminiscences about old Broadway shows; “Pulse,” described as a journey through the many different rhythms of music; and a show called “Solstice” featuring acrobatics and flights by performers over the audience.
Celebrity Solstice’s staterooms are being designed to be much larger than others in the premium class. While we couldn’t quite experience that in the company’s conference rooms, we could sample the sheets, pillows and other bedding accoutrements, oversized towels and Elemis amenities, as well as the 36-inch flat-screen interactive TVs.
Guests will be able to make reservations, check their accounts, contact guest services, find out about activities and the daily ship’s calendar, and order movies through their televisions. And yes, there will also be Wi-Fi throughout the ship (my hope is it will be much better than what I’ve experienced onboard most cruise vessels).
According to Hanrahan, staterooms will offer a very different design to make them more spacious. Trundle beds will be put under couches in many cabins to accommodate family guests. Cabins will be accessed from small alcoves, eliminating the crowding that can occur in ship corridors, with two per alcove.
The ship also will offer 128 Aqua Class Spa cabins (on Deck 12), all integrated with spa treatments and featuring a spiral staircase directly to the Aqua Spa on Deck 14. The spa will even have an attending physician to oversee medi-spa cosmetic treatments.
Having recently returned from the inaugural cruise of Holland America’s Eurodam, which also features a slew of new amenities and features, I can safely say some of the most interesting advancements in cruising are taking place aboard the new class of premium ships
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