After a busy port day in Cairns, we’re back at sea on Celebrity Solstice as she heads to Sydney to begin her ground breaking season as the first ship in the Celebrity fleet to be based for a season in Australia.

Australia is also the first market in the world outside of the Caribbean and Europe to have a ‘Solstice Class’ ship and Celebrity Solstice will be the biggest, newest and most luxurious cruise ship ever to be based in the region.

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We’ve finally put together a photo gallery of all the great facilities on the exterior of Celebrity Solstice on this romantic getaway aboard this ship which is taking in some of the great holiday destinations in Asia and Australia ahead of her arrival at he new home. (We’ll cover the interiors including bars, restaurants and public areas in the next day or two.)

With great weather on this cruise, the upper decks have been the place to be and even with around 2,850 guests there is enough deck space, and deck chairs, for it not to feel overly crowded, which can be a problem on some of the bigger cruise ships. The main outside pool deck has two pools, one for adults and one for kids, and four jacuzzis along with plenty of shaded cover so you don’t get fried on the hot weather cruises.

The deck above has plenty of deck chairs and the Mast Bar but the highlight is probably the Lawn Club which features one acre of real grass and is pretty unique in the cruising world, along with the Sunset Bar which occupies prime position at the back of the ship.

Our personal favourite space though is the Solarium, which is a covered pool which lets in filtered sunlight and is a serene space and the health-inspired AquaSpa Cafe which does light breakfasts and lunches.

Celebrity Solstice brings a number of “firsts” to local cruising, including the Lawn Club and 85 per cent of her cabins have their own private balcony which is the highest ratio of any superliner.

Solstice was the first in a new class of ship for Celebrity. She was the largest ship in the fleet at her launch, introducing a number of innovations not seen on the high seas. The fifth and final Solstice ship, Celebrity Reflection, launched in February 2011.

We’ll post some photos and a round up of the interiors in the next day or two.

Visit www.celebritycruises.com.au