A Father-Daughter Voyage Through Alaska’s Wild Beauty on Celebrity Solstice

The first time I stepped aboard Celebrity Solstice with my dad, we were celebrating his 80th birthday. Three years later, we returned for another Alaskan adventure—this time to see how the ship had changed after a major refresh.

Celebrity Cruises recently poured $250 million into upgrading its five Solstice-class ships, and Solstice was the first to get the treatment. Sailing out of Vancouver on a picture-perfect spring day, we spotted orcas playing in the harbor before we even dropped our bags. We headed straight for Sunset Park on Deck 15, a revamped open-air space with cozy seating, ocean-facing cabanas, and a new café serving savory egg bites and a daily “warm cookie hour” that quickly became my guilty pleasure.

When the sun broke through the clouds—which it did, memorably, in Juneau—we’d race back to those deck chairs, grab a fleece blanket from the stacks, and just soak it in. On our last night, we watched the sunset with new friends, the sky turning pink over the water.

Off the ship, Icy Strait Point was the highlight. This Native-owned port on Chichagof Island is a gateway to wilderness. Our naturalist promised whales, and he delivered. Within minutes of boarding a high-speed boat, we spotted orcas cutting through the channel. Then came humpback after humpback—spouts, tails, even a bear and her cubs on the shore. The crew was as thrilled as we were; it was their first orca sighting of the season.

Back on land, windy weather scrapped our plans for the world’s largest zip line, so we took a gondola up to SkyPeak, spotted bald eagles, and wandered a meadow before heading down. We browsed a restored 1912 salmon cannery, tried halibut pizza at Duck Point Smokehouse, and watched humpbacks swim right off the beach. By the time we returned to Solstice, we were already planning tomorrow’s adventure.