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Booked on Silhouette, I'm a Little Nervous


catugirl

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DH and I are booked on our first Celebrity cruise (third cruise overall). It's in January on Silhouette. I was just reading member reviews of this ship from August and September, 2012, and most were really disappointed with the food and the entertainment. Some also mentioned disappointment with MDR service and the Customer Service area. Hope we haven't made a mistake. Any input?

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You must of got lucky with finding bad reviews. The Silhouette is incredible. The staff was exceptional and the Captain was one of the funniest men at sea. We thought the food was excellent, we were in Blu but heard many people say they enjoyed the MDR. I honestly can't say a bad thing about the ship. There was always something to do and we always went to bed exhausted. Don't let other peoples bad reviews sway your feelings. Sometimes you see bad reviews because people need to vent when things didn't seem to go exactly as planned. We cruised on her last April in the Caribbean and are booked again this April for the Mediterranean. I can't wait to get back on that ship!

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We had the time of our lives on the July 5th Adriatic Cruise. We found the food and the service on the Silhouette to be outstanding. It was our 5th Celebrity cruise. I guess everyone sees things differently, so you'll never know unless you experience it for yourself.

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First of all, read all reviews with a grain of salt. You will find that you can put 10 people, on the same ship, with the same category cabin and have than sit at the same table in the main dining room, and you'll come up with 10 different opinions about the cruise.

 

Second, remember that those who post here are maybe 1% of the total number who cruise. A couple of negatives are just a drop in the ocean.

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OP, as you know, dining experiences are probably the most subjective subjects you could come up with. We tell our friends about our favorite restaurant, and they tell us how terrible they think it is.....opinon.

 

As to 'most' of the reviewers were disappointed in the dining experience, it seems to be just human nature to focus on the negatives. I looked at the last 25 Reviews and they average 4.3 for the overall ship experience, and 4.2 for the dining experience. The dining grades range from a '1' to '5+'. In fact there was one '1' and five '5+'. Yes, the last 4 reviews graded two '3s', one '2' and one '1'. But if you look beyond those reviews, you'll is many more high grades.

 

Even one person who graded the overall cruise experience only a '3', graded the dining experience a '5'.

 

My personal recommendation is not to worry about it and look forward to enjoying your cruise. If you start by thinking that the dining will be substandard, there is a good chance your 'concern' will be what you experience.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Den

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I am booked on the Silhouette also as a first time Celebrity cruiser. I have read the reviews, but I don't worry too much about the negative ones. I have seen a lot worse reviews on cruises that I was on where I thought the cruise was superb.

 

It is all subjective and I do believe there is a very small portion of people that are never happy and always looking for outlets to complain. These people make noise all out of proportion to their perceived issue. I have researched this ship extensively and believe that the food will be very good and the service even better.

 

In the end, go in happy and positive and if things aren't 100% perfect, take it in stride and don't let it bother you. I haven't been on a perfect cruise yet, but they all have been pretty good. I am sure you will be happy you selected this ship.

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DH and I are booked on our first Celebrity cruise (third cruise overall). It's in January on Silhouette. I was just reading member reviews of this ship from August and September, 2012, and most were really disappointed with the food and the entertainment. Some also mentioned disappointment with MDR service and the Customer Service area. Hope we haven't made a mistake. Any input?

 

 

The best thing that happened to us is that we did not find this board until be came back from our first cruise! DH and I took our first cruise on Celebrity's Summit (at least 10 yrs ago). We had no idea what to expect but a good friend had recently become a Travel Agent and we trusted her completely. We had a GREAT time and thought everything was perfect! EVERYTHING was outstanding, food, service, the ship, our stateroom and on and on. After we got home I looked up this board (people aboard told me about it) and sure enough, there was a post from someone that had been on our cruise and he complained about everything! !:eek: We could not believe he was on the same ship that we had been on. He went on and on about how dirty the entire ship was! We never saw this! And we really looked at the condition of the ship, he said the food was not fit to eat - we thought it was great - AND good food is really important to us! Anyway we learned immediately that we would NEVER let what others post on this board effect what we book. We read what others say - but unless the GREAT majority of people say the same thing, we make our own decisions. Take all of this with a grain of salt. Each cruiseline is different and within the cruiseline the ships can offer a different experience. If you find a cruiseline that you love I suggest that you stick with it. If you have not found what you are looking for I fee very confident that it IS out there, you will find it. We are very lucky that we found what we love the first time out. We have also sailed, Carnival, RCCL, and HAL we 'may' sail any of those again but we love Celebrity!!!!

It is perfect for us - but it is not perfect for everyone! BonVoyage!

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We are just off the silhouette, you have nothing to worry about the ship is fantastic and even better than it was at this time last year when we sailed on the ship. The ship is 5 star plus in all aspects.

Enjoy your cruise

Peter

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We have been cruisin for years and have sailed many lines... However Celebrity is our favorite line and their "S" class of ship is wonderful. Plan to cruise in the spring and really the itineary is not important what matters to me is being on a Celebrity "S" class which is what you have booked... You will love the ship and the crew on Celebrity are wonderful; always friendly and helpful... You know everything will be Great when you are greeted with that glass of Bubbly as you board and the experience just keeps getting better.

 

Enjoy the Hot Glass show (artists from the Corning Museum of Glass showing off their skills and craft) and in the theatre the shows are great. Food WONDERFUL and you can always splurge and try out one of the speciality restaurants too but you do not need to as the MDR is great. We prefer to book "Select" or anytime dining so that we can go to dinner when we are ready as opposed to 6 or 8:30 pm (early or late seating) ...

And make sure you find our when they are doing the "Brunch" in the MDR and go early for that around 11:15am so that 1) you get a table and 2) you can take photos of hte wonderful food displays before they are all eaten!

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On silhouette, there is no hot glass show. The OP should not be worried.

 

A great ship, the main compliant in the reviews I have seen were that the evenings were quieter than expected.

 

We were on the 4-sept cruise and it was quieter after 11 pm than other cruises. This was a 13 night cruise with only 2 sea days, so not a surprise.

 

I think the evening entertainment was similar to Solstice last year. There was a big band lawn wine n cheese show which was new.

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After a 23 day back to back on Silhouette in August I must endorse the positive comments above. Could not fault food, service or fun factor.

I always take the occasional negative reviews with a pinch of salt, some people are hard to please and, in fairness, some pay considerably more than we would, or travel further so expect perfection plus.

You will have a great time.

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I've cruised twice on the Sil and was delighted both times. I ate in Blu which was very good with a fantastic wait staff. Cabins were very well maintained with friendly crew members. There was always something to do. Great library if you like to read. Good live music almost always playing someplace. Production shows were good both trips.

I really can't say enough about her. If you are very, very lucky you will get a cabin steward named Oliver who sings while he is working. Beautiful voice!!! Don't miss the crew talent show. Some of them are amazingly talented.

Enjoy your cruise. The Sil is a winner.

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I agree with what others have stated. Food is very subjective so it is hard to know from reviews if the food will meet your expectations. Personally there have been things we have ordered that we did not like and some things we liked so much we ordered every chance we got. But overall (in my opionion) the food is good and most people will enjoy it.

 

There are also people that are unhappy no matter what and always look for issues. I believe it is also true that more people will write about their negative experience versus their positive experience. I have never written a review for any of my cruises. They have always been positive overall and if there ever was an issue (minor as it was), it was resolved quickly and completely while still onboard.

 

I personally have no issues sailing on the Silhouette and have booked a crusie for us and my parents for March 2013.

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Our only issue on Silhouette was the storage, or lack thereof, in our stateroom. Otherwise we found most everything quite good. For some reason negative reviews seem to get more attention and respect than positive ones and people seem to want to believe that whatever bad happened on someone else's cruise is destined to happen on theirs. I generally disregard comments on food since it is such an objective thing that what someone else likes or dislikes probably doesn't match up with my opinions. If I made my choices on the rave food reviews I read in a newspaper's restaurant reviewer's column, I'd probably never eat out since my tastes rarely match their refined palates and man of the things that draw their raves, sound totally unappealing to me. Just watched the "delicacy" that the contestants on The Amaziing Race had to eat on last night's program and know I would have been the first contestant to be eliminated, so I pay little or no attention to comments about food, good or bad. Besides cruises are preparing meals for thousands of passengers at each meal so to expect anything better than good quality banquet food is totally unrealistic.

Don't let your cruise experience be decided by others, Take your cruise and make your own judgements. Chances are that they will be much more positive than those negative ones you have read.

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Glad to hear the positive comments. We chose Silhouette over Summit for our next cruise as we really prefer the S class ships and haven't explored Silhouette yet.

 

I just wish the itineraries were more appealing. I really have no interest in Jamaica, Cozumel or Grand Cayman - mainly as I fear they will be overrun with passengers from other cruise ships. Guess we will stay onboard and enjoy the beautiful, and less crowded, ship:)

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Yes, we have seen a few of the negative reviews..but most folks see things quite differently. As to us, we were first on the Silhouette last December and absolutely loved the ship, service, food (we ate in Blu most nights), etc. In fact, having cruised on over 65 differrent ships over the years we thought the Silhouette was one of the best designed ships we have ever cruised. As a result we will soon be heading back to the Silhouette for a 25 day back to back cruise which we booked as much for the ship as for the great itinerary.

 

Hank

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We sailed the Silhouette in February 2012 and absolutely loved it! The food was great and there are so many options as far as that goes that I don't see how someone can complain. As far as entertainment, when we sailed on the Equinox last summer we did think the entertainment was a bit lacking and were told by the the cruise director that because of the large number of Europeans they have to keep the entertainment suitable to everyone. So there is no comedy, no karaoke, no trivia games, no game shows, etc. However, this is not the case on Caribbean sailings where the population is probably 90% English speaking. The entertainment was awesome and so many things to do that we were never bored during 6 sea days. It is probably the best ship in the market right now so do not have any fears.

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DH and I are booked on our first Celebrity cruise (third cruise overall). It's in January on Silhouette. I was just reading member reviews of this ship from August and September, 2012, and most were really disappointed with the food and the entertainment. Some also mentioned disappointment with MDR service and the Customer Service area. Hope we haven't made a mistake. Any input?

 

We sailed on the Silhouette on one of her first cruises last August 2011

We've just returned from our 2nd cruise this August 2012

We're already booked on her again for our next holiday August 2013

 

Same cabin too !!

 

We never go to the same place 3 yrs in a row -----

 

Enough said ! ;)

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We sailed on the Silhouette on one of her first cruises last August 2011

We've just returned from our 2nd cruise this August 2012

We're already booked on her again for our next holiday August 2013

 

Same cabin too !!

 

We never go to the same place 3 yrs in a row -----

 

Enough said ! ;)

 

A ringing endorsement. What cabin did you have?

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A key to interpreting reviews is to look for specificity. I never pay any attention to "the food was inedible," or even "the food was terrific" beause there's no factual information in either of those statements. Good reviews should state "why"... for example: the tomato sauce on the pasta was bland with no discernable herbs or garlic present and tasted just like Chef Boyardee sauce out of a can." Or... The Caesar salad was too heavy on the anchovy taste with no lemon or "acidic" taste there. Things like that.

 

You can almost always find specificity if you keep reading long enough.

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