ONBOARD THE CELEBRITY SOLSTICE -- The $750 million Celebrity Solstice has headline-making amenities, such as a real grass lawn and the first glassblowing show at sea, but what truly separates this ship from the rest of Celebrity's fleet is its breadth of dining options.
There are 10 places to eat on the 2,850-passenger Solstice, including five alternative venues. This is a great departure from Celebrity's other ships, which have one alternative restaurant each.
Given that I was onboard for about 36 hours, it was impossible to eat at all 10 places, but I tried my best to sample something from as many of the alternative venues as I could.
Familiar to Celebrity passengers will be Murano, the Millennium-class French restaurant that, at $30 per person, is the most expensive on the Solstice.
Everyone was raving about its wild forest mushroom cappuccino, a mushroom soup topped with a white froth. I also enjoyed the roasted diver scallops, served with oxtail ragout, shaved asparagus and white truffle.
Blu, meanwhile, is reserved exclusively for passengers in the new cabin class introduced on the ship, the AquaClass category, and for suite guests if there is availability.
I loved the samples of "clean cuisine" at Blu, such as chilled avocado soup and smoked trout and salmon with grapefruit, even though I wasn't exactly clear what clean cuisine was (the menu appears to contain fewer cream-based and fried items than the other venues).
Next door, behind a dramatic, arched entrance designed to be reminiscent of a modern wine cellar, is the Adam Tihany-created Tuscan Grille.
Tihany, who designed New York's famous Per Se and Jean Georges restaurants, had some of the ship's best views to work with, and he used floor-to-ceiling windows as the backdrop to the Italian steak house venue. I was unable to try anything from here except a tasty olive tapenade bruschetta, but other passengers were raving about the kobe meatballs baked in herb tomato ragout.
For $20 per person, the Silk Harvest restaurant offers typical Asian-fusion dishes such as pad thai, sushi and red and green curries, and a tranquil Asian setting with bonsai trees on the table.
A favorite spot was Bistro on Five (on Deck Five, naturally), a breakfast, lunch and dinner creperie with sweet and savory crepes. The bistro has a small selection of salads, soups and paninis, but crepes are the thing to get here. I tried the Spanish, full of dulce de leche; and the Italian, with bananas, Nutella and pistachio; as well as the less originally named Scrambled Egg, which has scrambled eggs, cheese and potatoes.
A particularly crowd-pleasing crepe was one you won't find on the streets of France: The Cowboy comes with grilled steak, onions, bacon and provolone.
Celebrity said it was charging a $5 cover to keep crowds under control. When it was free to the VIPs on this preinaugural two-day sailing, people were willing to wait 30 minutes to get a seat.
These restaurants are examples of the myriad ways Celebrity has created revenue opportunities onboard.
Besides the casino and bars, passengers on the Solstice can open their wallets at 18 retail shops: At Boutique C, you can buy a 10-sided diamond exclusive to the Solstice. There is an entire shop dedicated to the Lawn Club, the aforementioned half-acre of real grass, called the Lawn Club Shop, which features everything from flip-flops to golf balls, all embossed with the Lawn Club logo.
But for agents here, the choices of restaurants and activities are part of what makes the ship feel so intimate, despite its size.
"The ship has so many options onboard that it will disperse the crowds very easily," said Jeff Duncan of Cruise Holidays in Newtown, Pa.
"Celebrity has definitely raised the bar in the premium category."
Duncan was one of many agents onboard who enthused about the ship's high design and style. He said he hoped that the Solstice's 20% price premium over other Celebrity ships would continue.
"I hope that this holds true in today's environment, since it means more commission to the agency community," he said.