Crossing the Pacific 2 – Cruising to Australia

We boarded the 2850 passenger Solstice, our 19th cruise and 3rd on Celebrity. Built in 2008 it is the first of its class, still very elegant but showing its age. It has a traditional look and feel which many guests prefer versus the newer ultramodern Edge class ships Celebrity has now deployed. It holds 2850 passengers, has a crew of 1250 and is thus a mid sized ship by today’s standards.

Celebrity Solstice our temporary home for 13 nights

We had an aft balcony which is at at the end of the ship overlooking the wake. This is a premium cabin however, we did not use the balcony as much as we thought we would for reasons I will explain. Typical in Asia, boarding was very slow and took about 90 minutes. There were 3 or 4 holding areas each with their separate line up. The difficulty is immigration controls. In order to board the ship, it was mandatory to have an electronic visa for Bali and a travel authorization for Australia. Some people didn’t have these in advance and this caused delays.

We were very happy with our cabin steward whom we met immediately – I Gede (pronounced I g’day). He was very attentive to our needs and constantly greeting us. I took to saying g’day g’day to him. He laughed. I regret we did not take his photo. People from Bali, Indoneisa we found to be the happiest. smiliest people we have ever met. Bali was to be our first stop.

After 2 sea days of enjoying the food and drink (we had a drink package) we were ready for some exploring on shore.

Bali is one of many Indonesian (pop. 150 million) islands but is unique because its religious heritage is Hindu while the rest of the country is Muslim. We took an excursion into town (Kuta), walked to a beach and then did some shopping. We marveled at the hundreds of offerings on the street to please the Hindu gods, the beauty of their temples and the low prices in the stores! The other thing we noticed was the heat. Very hot, impossible to be out in during early afternoon. We were happy to return to the ship and cool down! Would love to go back.

The next day was Easter Sunday. While there was no religious service on board, Celebrity provided live large screen viewing of the Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square celebrated by Pope Francis. After that we retired to the Oceanview Cafe and enjoyed seeing all the colourful cakes the chefs had baked.

Two more sea days and we would be in Australia. One of the best meals we had on the whole trip was in the Tuscan Grille. This is a specialty restaurant for which an upcharge applies. We celebrated our 40th anniversary in style there. I think I had lobster tail and filet mignon, yum. Marie enjoyed the calmari and a delicious white fish. Later, G’day even made us two towel swans! We felt caudled by the excellent service. Did we mention the wine?

Out and about on the ship, we found it a little crowded at times. The walking track weaved its way thru lounge chairs and the main dining room food and menu got boring after a couple of nights there. What we really did like was the range and high quality of food in the Oceanview Grill (buffet). We liked the complimentary continental breakfast room service, the specialty coffees, tea and cookies in the El Baccio cafe and the peaceful atmosphere and simple food at the spa cafe. Wherever we went, the service was impeccable. Staff really try hard on Solstice to please you and they succeed immensely! We did not use the casino at all but enjoyed the shops and some of the nightly shows. We were never bored.

We stopped in 3 ports in Australia: Darwin in the North, Cairns and Airlie Beach in Queensland before docking in Sydney. Each place was beautiful and unique in its own way. Darwin is a relatively new city having been rebuilt after Cyclone Tracy completely destroyed it in 1974. A nice little lagoon for swimming followed by some great shopping was in order. The small town of Palm Cove near Cairns had a great little beach, was very quiet and relaxing. Finally Airlie Beach in the Whitsunday Islands was fabulous for shopping, swimming in the lagoon and people watching. The Whitsunday Islands are truly an amazing place to go sailing in their calm waters. In Queensland during the season we were there, there is a high risk of being stung by highly poisonous jelly fish. Hence, each of these beach towns had an ocean lagoon for safe swimming which was protected by a mesh screen to prevent the “stingers” from getting in. No problems.

So why did we not use the aft balcony as often as we thought we would? The first reason was it was too darn hot! We were sailing in a south easterly direction most of the cruise so the sun was on our west facing balcony from 10 am onwards. At a few degrees from the equator it was scorching out there with no shade! The second reason was soot that landed on our balcony each day after being blown out the ship’s exhaust stacks. It was a black particulate matter that fouled our balcony each day and night. I think because of the SE trade winds we were constantly deluged with the problem. G’day took to washing it off twice a day. Many others around us experienced the same issue. Towards the end of the cruise, the problem went away and it got cooler. Celebrity gave us a small future cruise credit (discount) for the inconvenience.

After 13 nights on the Solstice we were now ready to get off in Sydney for a 5 day stay before our next cruise.