Abandoned by Celebrity Solstice

My fifth cruise and first on the Royal Caribbean owned Celebrity Solstice was over the Christmas Holidays. Although I initially thought it was great and actually had booked three more cruises with Celebrity, my opinion soon changed. Eight people went on the Celebrity 4 X 4 Jeep excursion in ST Maarten. Initially the program was to be cancelled as one of their employees did not show up, but after a late start we drove across the island and were dumped off at a beach bar where the tour guide took the keys to the Jeeps we were driving and left saying someone would be back in one hour. Half an hour later someone called and said someone would be back in 2½ additional hours. Stores close in St Maarten around 6 pm and that would have left us no time for shopping. After being abandoned, four of us took a cab back to town. The other four waited, drinking rum punch for three hours prior to being handed the keys for their Celebrity condoned drunk drive back to the ship. They arrived around 6pm as the stores closed. Being abandoned, having no way to contact the ship, and not being concerned about passenger safety is unacceptable. Celebrity offered a refund of half the tour and received cancellations of my future bookings. This experience ruined my experience and made every flaw more prominent. They never missed an opportunity to "conveniently charge" something to our room pass, and try to direct purchases to the stores from whom they extort "advertising fees": They even went so far as to say that shopping outside the "approved list" was at "your own risk". Actually, I found the quality and deals better at those stores not on the list. I am extremely disappointed in Royal Caribbean Celebrity and even though they have a new ship, the Solstice , they just put lipstick on a pig.

Comment On This

Recently my family cruised with Celebrity Cruise line on the new ship Solstice. Our party of 9 very much looked forward to this vacation. Our anticipation was generated by the luxurious billing of this vessel as well as the excellent handicap facilities on board. To our tremendous disappointment this cruise was frustrating and exhausting.

Our staterooms were located directly below one of the lively dance bars on ship. Each evening from 10:30 PM � 2:30 AM, the noise from the drums, bass and overall activity in this lounge impeded our ability to sleep and rest peacefully. We booked our cruise early in order to accommodate the handicap individual traveling with us. The only handicap room available was located on the third deck.

Although the assistant desk relations person offered to move our rooms, we were hesitant to leave family members in the handicap room and move to another floor. No other handicap rooms were available. It was almost like the ship was designed to punish those that needed handicap rooms.

It seemed each night the noise increased and our sleep became more and more interrupted. This was totally unacceptable and made the entire cruise one of the worst experiences our family has encountered.

We have cruised numerous times with Royal Caribbean and have obtained platinum status. After this experience with Celebrity, it is obvious we will never consider this cruise line again. Our experience was so intolerable that it tainted even the desire to go on another cruise on any line.

Very little was offered to compensate this situation. Although the assistant guest relations officer tried to ease our frustration, it was obvious no solution was available. To think that this new ship would purposely place staterooms below a loud bar area is unthinkable. To add insult to this, it seems Celebrity intentionally placed the two handicap rooms below the bar with no concern regarding their ability to move to a quiet stateroom.

Celebrity should be ashamed for booking guests in such a loud and disruptive area. This was the most expensive cruise and proved to be the absolute worst cruise experience we�ve ever encountered. I regret booking with Celebrity cruise line. This was an intolerable experience. We returned from our vacation exhausted and incredibly frustrated and disappointed. Shame on your company for such a lack of insight on room placement.

Sincerely disappointed,