Just got home from the Silhouette

Hello everyone, just finished my Caribbean cruise on Sunday. It was a great first cruise. Let me give you my good and bad points:

+ Ship is stunning, absolutely beautiful, well kept and generally fantastic

+ Service was great, caring and professional

+ MDR food was great, very tasty

+ Ship never seemed crowded, there was always somewhere to sit, even loungers on sea day.

+ Cabin (C3) was nicely laid out, large bathroom and kept spotlessly clean by an amazing attendant

+ Boarding and embarkation was smooth at all ports, even tendering was without any lines. Port Everglades was breeze on embarkation and even smoother on disembarkation - had to wait like 5 minutes to get our bags and go through immigration.

+ Live music was great

- Food in the buffet was slightly lacking. Only cheaper items and no shrimps or seafood

- Service in Sky Observation Lounge was slow. A shame of this beautiful lounge

- Bar and Sommelier service at MDR was a bit slow and spotty. Sometimes they forgot orders, sometimes waiters had to track them down to place an order

We were on the same cruise, and all I can say is it was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't speak to Sky Observation bar, but I agree with all the positives you posted too.

We are loyal to Celebrity after this one.

Sheila

We were on the same cruise, and all I can say is it was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't speak to Sky Observation bar, but I agree with all the positives you posted too.

 

We are loyal to Celebrity after this one.

 

Sheila

Well - we also thought it was amazing - we even booked a new cruise on the Silhouette in November. Want to go back now!

Hello everyone, just finished my Caribbean cruise on Sunday. It was a great first cruise. Let me give you my good and bad points:

 

+ Ship is stunning, absolutely beautiful, well kept and generally fantastic

+ Service was great, caring and professional

+ MDR food was great, very tasty

+ Ship never seemed crowded, there was always somewhere to sit, even loungers on sea day.

+ Cabin (C3) was nicely laid out, large bathroom and kept spotlessly clean by an amazing attendant

+ Boarding and embarkation was smooth at all ports, even tendering was without any lines. Port Everglades was breeze on embarkation and even smoother on disembarkation - had to wait like 5 minutes to get our bags and go through immigration.

+ Live music was great

- Food in the buffet was slightly lacking. Only cheaper items and no shrimps or seafood

- Service in Sky Observation Lounge was slow. A shame of this beautiful lounge

- Bar and Sommelier service at MDR was a bit slow and spotty. Sometimes they forgot orders, sometimes waiters had to track them down to place an order

Agree with everything especially the last 2. In general it seems like all the servers, except for specialty restaurants, seems to be very slow and don't really want to serve you drinks. MDR will have your drink ready the next day but if you finish it, they don't really come to refill unless you ask. The same with the buffet or just sitting at a table at any of the lounge. Oceanview cafe is the worst as the server will take your card, disappear for 10 to 15 min and then back with the drink. And then they flip the drink menu thing sideway. I am not sure what that means.. at first I thought it was a sign for any server to come back to check on you to see if you need another drink. But that was definitely not the case. Nobody ever come to ask unless you flag them down. The only person who ever ask.. is the coffee girl in the morning at the buffet...the one who sings "Coffee in Morning....." every morning.

maybe it has changed, but when we were on Silhouette a year ago Dec, our service in Sky Lounge was amazing! Our waiter was right there every night to take care of us.

Hubby also thought the buffet was amazing! He is a foody and would have eaten there all the time he thought is was so good.

Glad to read that most was very positive! Would be interesting to know what the menu position represents.

We get to sail her in January 2018. Booked her almost 14 months ago, Now have 7 1/2 months to go.

Did you like Sara as the CD? She was our favorite.

Turning the menu sideways means they have already been to your table. We were on the April 9-16 on Silly. Really no complaints outside of lack of bar staff in Martini Bar, Pool Bar and Casino Bar.. it was very noticable.. no excuse for it..the bartenders were over worked and did a great job but Celebrity needs to supply more bartenders at prime times like during Silents disco and before dinner..

Great time otherwise..

Well - we also thought it was amazing - we even booked a new cruise on the Silhouette in November. Want to go back now!

LOL! We booked a future cruise too, but in 2018. Now we're also thinking about booking EDGE!

Did you like Sara as the CD? She was our favorite.

Loved her and Capt. D!

Loved her and Capt. D!

I think you were the one who was going to tell her hello from Mark and Lisa. Did you remember by chance?

I did, I remembered and said Mark and his wife. I couldn't remember Lisa.

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Consider yourself very lucky. We have been twice on the Silhouette and leaving the ship has been very painful. Not a pleasant experience. An hour each time to get thru Immigration.

The ship was real nice and the staff was fantastic. Food was very good and there was no crowded feeling like on other ships. Chairs were hard to find on sea days.

We've been on the Silhouette four times and there won't be a fifth. We found the food average at best and the production shows a complete waste of time. Luckily Celebrity has many other ships to choose from.

I was also on the Silhouette last week and all I can say is WOW! The Silhouette is definitely the shining star of the fleet. I have been on many cruises and this was my fourth time on Celebrity. This ship surpassed the other 3 Celebrity cruises. My only comment is bar service in the Oceanview on the pool decks and in the MDR could be increased. I did not make it to the Sky Lounge. With so many having the beverage packages, additional Sommeliers & bar staff would help keep up with the demand. I thought the dinners in the MDR were excellent. Steaks were very good and could be cut with a butter knife. I've not been on the Luxury liners but think Celebrity is steps ahead of other lines. I too booked another cruise while on board and definitely want to sail on the Edge. I also enjoy Princess Regal and Royal. I liked Sara, CD and her energy. The Captain was awesome,

friendly, & funny. His positive tone is shared by the staff who can't seem to do enough for the passengers. My bed was so comfortable and I had a huge balcony near the hump. I enjoyed the Concierge level cabin and would book again. [emoji41]

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Perhaps the bar service is slow because so many passengers have drink packages. Celebrity saves money by serving fewer drinks. There is no financial incentive for Celebrity to hire more servers to provide more drinks to people with drink packages.

Thank you for the feedback.

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Perhaps the bar service is slow because so many passengers have drink packages. Celebrity saves money by serving fewer drinks. There is no financial incentive for Celebrity to hire more servers to provide more drinks to people with drink packages.

I do not agree. With a better product, people are willing to pay more. But I think the product as it is now is pretty good. Felt I was getting value for my money, but more drink servers at MDR dinner would be appreciated.

We've been on the Silhouette four times and there won't be a fifth. We found the food average at best and the production shows a complete waste of time. Luckily Celebrity has many other ships to choose from.

Why did you sail the ship 4 times if you were not happy with it? :)

I have found the Sky Lounge service slow on each of the 5 Solstice class cruises I have been on. I think they are perpetually understaffed at that location. The Silhouette is my favorite and we will be on it again in August

Perhaps the bar service is slow because so many passengers have drink packages. Celebrity saves money by serving fewer drinks. There is no financial incentive for Celebrity to hire more servers to provide more drinks to people with drink packages.

I agree with you. I've been on two X cruises now with drink packages and I notice a difference from before when there seemed to be more servers and they were always around asking if you wanted another drink.

I have found the Sky Lounge service slow on each of the 5 Solstice class cruises I have been on. I think they are perpetually understaffed at that location. The Silhouette is my favorite and we will be on it again in August

The Sky lounge is the one at the front on deck 14 right? On the first day, there was no bartender there. Everyone has to either wait in long line at the bar by the pool area or go all the way back to Oceanview Cafe bar to get a drink. :p

Glad you had a great time...thanks for reporting in! We had the same experience in Sky last November.

Why did you sail the ship 4 times if you were not happy with it? :)

They were two B2Bs. The first one was right after Celebrity decided to produce their own production shows. The first week we went to all three of them and were so disappointed, we didn't go back the second week. We never have heard of most of the songs they did and costume and set changes were nonexistent, sort of like watching a high school production. Same thing with the food, there were a couple things we liked so we had them again the second week, otherwise we tried something different and weren't impressed with those either.

The second B2B was about five months later. We got such a great deal in Aqua we couldn't pass it up. This gave us a chance to eat in Blu and since there were a lot of complaints about the production shows, we were hoping that Celebrity would change them, or at least tweak them to make them better. Dining in Blu was the best dining experience we've had in years. Went to the first production show and walked out after about 15 minutes, nothing changed. We never went back for them the rest of the cruises. The normal upcharge for Aqua is not worth it and normally the production shows are one of the highlights of the cruise but not on this ship, so we won't be back. Our next cruise will probably be on the Reflection, we've heard they have different production shows and hoping they have better food in the MDR, there is always the buffet.

I was going to do my own review, but figured I would just plop it here....

We were also on this sailing and agree that the Silhouette is a beautiful ship. Our cabin was spacious and we loved our cabin steward Ryan. The steward for my daughters' cabin, they could not pick him out of a line up, never saw him.

We only ate 3 of our meals in the MDR since we had made specialty dining reservations.

Night 1 we did The Porch, and it was the greatest experience! We were the only ones eating there so it was like having our own private restaurant and Basilio our waiter was fantastic!

Our second night was in the MDR, there the wait staff seemed harried and spread thin. The sommelier seemed stressed, no one (except the assistant waiter) smiled. A very different experience from the prior night. The next 3 nights we went to Murano (GREAT!), QSine (will prob not go back, the experience, venue and presentation was different but the food only so so), Lawn Club Grill (Wonderful! Daughter and Hubby made flatbread pizzas).

Night 6 we were back in the MDR, we arrived on time to find that our assigned table (we had Assigned 6pm dining) was occupied. Spoke with a waiter, who spoke to the Assistant Maitre'd, who spoke to the people sitting there, who REFUSED to move. We were seated on the other side of the MDR which fortunately was right by a window so no worries. Towards the end of our meal, the AMD came over to tell us we would go to Select Dining the next day at 6 pm. My husband was a little out of joint about that since he felt we should not have been made to move a second time. BUT, every cloud has a silver lining, it all worked out since of our 3 nights in the MDR our waitstaff the final night turned out to be the best. We also found that the upstairs dining was a lot quieter than the downstairs. We were seated at a table for 4 and there were times we could not hear each other, the sound just seemed amplified on the lower level.

• We also had rented an alcove. We decided to keep it even tho the morning started off very rainy. The weather actually turned nice and we spent the afternoon in the alcove..... baking! There is absolutely no air up there. We made a suggestion that they give fans to circulate the air. I am glad I tried it, but I will not do it again.
  
• Loved our balcony and being able to hear the ocean, did not like the gentleman a few doors down smoking a cigar on his
  

• made good use of our premium drink package at the Martini and World Class bars. One good thing is that the bartenders will ask if you have a premium package when you ask for a glass of wine. I did note one bartender at the Passport Bar who did not use the alcohol stated on the the menu. It called for Bombay Sapphire and he used Beefeater. I just wanted to try it so I did not make a deal about it. It was still good.
  
• room service is a waste unless you are ordering cold food. They did follow up with a survey and I did tell them that it arrived cold. they offered to make it right but by then it was too late.
  
• loved the Hideaway until it got overrun with loud kids on scavenger hunts.
  
• not a big fan of the folks at Guest Services (a smile goes a long way),
  
• buffet was good but if you go when they are busy, don't count on a hot meal. Yes, the bar service was a little slow. When they came around and took your order, they would turn the menu card on its side to show that your order was taken. Yes it was a little slow, but there were A LOT of people during prime feeding time! After the first time, we planned ahead and brought our own.
  
• We saw the Tenors of Rock (they were GREAT) and Life (Very Good). Bar service in the Theatre was very slow if they came at all, I would suggest bringing your own.
  
• My girls loved the Spa Cafe for breakfast and smoothies
  
• Embarkation and Disembarkation was a breeze. Got to the pier early, they let us in at 10, was sipping first fruity drink by 10:45. We were one of the last off the ship (we were in no hurry since we had a late flight). short wait for a taxi, were at FLL by 10:20 only to find out we had to wait since we can't check in more than 4 hours prior to our flight. FLL was a zoo with 4 ships in port.
  

That's it in a nutshell I think.

Lisa