Bibblejw

Just come back from the Silhouette, and most of this is reasonable. The lounge became our default "quiet place" to hang out.

What I would say is not to book the Silhouette for the sun deck if you're off to Norway. We cruised the Baltic in the middle of summer, and it was closed or unpleasant due to weather around 1/2 to 2/3rds of the time. When we were there, it was great, but it's not something that I'd book the class for.

Ok, back from this cruise now, so will post a couple of my own thoughts about the room, the perks and the amenities:

Room:

- Noise. Ok, this is something that's going to vary by itinerary, and be dependant on person. There is a lot of noise during manuevering (basically docking and sail-off), to the point that it woke up my partner through ear plugs. For us, this wasn't a major issue, as the only time we were docking during the night was on the last day, and things were hectic enough as it was, but if you're getting into ports early for a lot of the cruise, then it's something to think about.

- View. I can honestly say that it would have been difficult to be more impressed by the view from the room. There's the usual side view from the balcony, but the forward view from the windows was incredible. We did the passages through the achipelego into Stockholm, and it was beautiful. Most of the sail-in events don't apply to you, as you get a better view, and better shielding from the elements in your room.

- Room. There's an almost insane amount of space in this. For a 2 (4 if you count the sofabed) suite, you've got a living area that's probably close to 8-10m long, the sofa and TV area were great for unwinding in the evening, the "reading area" was good for a doze on sea days, the vanity areahas more than enough room to store your belongings, and to get ready for the trials of the day. Even the entrance area, awkwardly shaped as it is is a usable space if you so wish it. The bedroom is probably not far off the size of some of the standard cabins, so has more than enough room and storage.

- Bathroom. The last cruise that we went on was an outside view, and the bathroom was smaller than the Horizon suite. Can't say how it lines up to other suite offerings, but it was more than roomy enough for us.

- Location. There's no getting around the fact that you're at the front of the ship, that means that you've got fairy easy access to the theatre, Sky Lounge, Solarium, etc, but the majority of the food and bar access is the other end of the ship. That's not a major issue, as it's not a collossal ship.

Perks - These are the things that we didn't get with the MoveUp programme, so I'm commenting on these without nessecarily having all of them:

- Wifi. We're tech-heads, so the premuim wifi was pretty much a requirement. We picked it up (as an upgrade from the basic package), and were reasonably impressed by it. Streaming was possible (sometimes), and viedo calls were easy enough. Transferring between devices was relatively easy, so no major gripes.

- Drinks. We stuck with the classic package with this, and can't say that we had any major issues or concerns. The big benefit to upgrading is more variety before we need to sign anything to charge back, and it's going to depend on your drinking preferences and requirements. For us, the wine selection was easy enough, and we were happy with the lagers available.

Amenities - These are the things that are included with the Suite regardless of how you get it:

- Butler. On this one, we were probably terrible Suite passengers, in that we didn't really ask much of our butler (Bart), but anything we did ask was done and accomodated easily (HDMI cable connection on the TV, for instance). He did suggest and offer some additions, like putting a bottle of wine in the fridge after noticing that we'd bring a glass back from the bar before settling in for the night.

- Lounge. Honestly, this was one of the amenities that we got most use out of, and it became our default hangout. If we didn't have access to it, that would probably be the Sky Lounge or Ensemble, but it was nice to have somewhere quiet that didn't get events or music scheduled in most of the time.

- Concierge. Again, we didn't ask much, but what we did was addressed helpfully and efficiently. We had some queries around the credit on the accounts, and some bookings that we wanted moving or shifting, and it was done easily and quickly. They were even able to provide us some interesting info (such as us being only 2 of around 400 people left on the ship on the first day of one of the overnight stops).

- Sun Deck. Was a nice venue, and the hot tub was appreciated, but, basically, we were sailing in the Baltic ocean, and that's not always conducive to relaxing in the open air. If you're booking a baltic cruise, and the sun deck is you major draw, then there's probably bigger issues.

- Luminae. This is probably where I'm going to get some disagreement, but we generally weren't fans in particular. There was less choice in the menu, and while other alternatives may have been possible, we were met with a level of incredulity and puzzlement if we chose something slightly outside of the norm (the look I got when asking for a beer with dinner was almost insulting). When I contrast that to the main dining room, where I have to say the food was about on par, but was more accomodating, and even had the capability to be more sociable (not on every visit, and not a requirement, but nice to have). The other comparison that's easy to make was Murano, where the food was about level, but the service was worlds above. The issue seems to be that there's not enough difference in the quality of the food (which is understandable when the MDR baseline is so high), and Luminae seemed to be trying to ape the Murano service, but missing the mark on almost every front.

- Room Service. Only did this for breakfasts, and generally only where time was a factor, so we were hapopy to be able to pick an appropriate delivery slot. Honestly, I was about as lukewarm on this as the food was, and that's the impact of being at the front of the ship when all of the food prep areas are at the back. Not a major issue, but not anything that I'd rave about either.

Overall, it's entirely possible that there are better suites for better prices, but I don't think that there are any with that level of space in that price bracket.

Not sure which one you're going in, but we're in a Horizon Suite from next weekend, so I'll try and postt an update once the cruise is done.

My situation is a little different, as we got it through a MoveUp from Aqua Class (so suite-level access is a benefit, better space, amenities and balcony put up ahead of where we were), but the general stuff that I've read seem to echo what's on here, specifically: If I was booking a suite, this is not the one that I would aim for, but it's a step up from what we had.

8 minutes ago, WestLakeGirl said:

What is horizon?

Horizon Suite on Silhouette:

https://www.celebritycruises.com/gb/things-to-do-onboard/staterooms/suite-class/horizon-suite

Since learned that, essentially it was a new think in the revamp, that got cancelled in covid, so there's basically only about 4 of them in the fleet.

Basically this. We have an accepted move up bid from Aqua to Horizon. 

That means that we lose the spa access (can still be paid on a daily/whole cruise basis if needed), but we get the suite "amenities" (note: amenities, not perks. Amenities are things like Luminae, butler, etc. Not Premium wifi/drinks/etc.).

I'm going on a 12-day cruise of the baltics from 01/07, and happen to have upgraded my phone recently, so I've got my old one kicking around not doing much. Couple that with having just found out that we've upgraded to a suite at the front of the ship, and I was thinking that a time-lapse of the whole trip would be something to have, particularly with the scenery around there!

What I'm going to note is that, from a photography standpoint, I'm more or less a complete newbie. I've taken the standard amount of photos, and try to keep a couple of the principles that I've heard about (rule of thirds, etc.) in mind, but it's not something that I've practiced with any great gusto. What I do have is some tech that I don't massively care about not getting back, some play money that I can put into some accessories (cables, batteries, mounts, etc.), especially if they're going to be of any further use down the line, and a good opportunity with a ton of interesting scenery and things going on.

What I'm looking for is any guidance that anyone can give about what to think about, anything that's worth picking up, whether I'm asking in completely the wrong place, or whether it's a terrible idea to begin with!

My basic thought is to grab a tripod or window mount and stick it to the inside, throw on the large battery (20000mAH) and leave it to do it's thing. Might also look to get a more considerable thing together and attatch it to the balcony to give it a more unobstructed view, but that brings issues with waterproofing and the like.

Just adding to the above (as I can't seem to edit the post), the offers I had in were:

AquaClass Suite - £480

Celebrity Suite - £470

Sunset Sky Suite - £460

Horizon Suite - £495

Sky Suite - £120

Not sure if it's a coincidence that the highest offer was accepted, but worth keeping in mind. Also worth noting that, at the time of bidding, my previous cabin (aquaclass balcony) was completely sold out, indicating that they've got a lot of demand on that.

On 6/8/2023 at 3:14 PM, Bibblejw said:

• Ship:  Silhouette
• Length of Cruise: 12 nights
• Cruise Sail Date: 01/07
• Date email offer received: None
• Captain’s Club Tier [“PREVIEW” = first Celebrity Cruise]: Preview 
• Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: Direct
• Current Cabin: Aqua Class
• Bid?  Yes/No: Yes

If YES -  Bidding Details:

Royal - £375

Aqua Suite - £345

• Cabin Category: Pending. Will update
• Bid Offer:
• Notification Date:
• Accepted / Rejected

General Comments (offer details, etc.)

Updating this. I updated the bids on Friday, and have just recieved an acceptance of the Horizon Suite for £990 total.

• Ship:  Silhouette
• Length of Cruise: 12 nights
• Cruise Sail Date: 01/07
• Date email offer received: None
• Captain’s Club Tier [“PREVIEW” = first Celebrity Cruise]: Preview 
• Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: Direct
• Current Cabin: Aqua Class
• Bid?  Yes/No: Yes

If YES -  Bidding Details:

Royal - £375

Aqua Suite - £345

• Cabin Category: Pending. Will update
• Bid Offer:
• Notification Date:
• Accepted / Rejected

General Comments (offer details, etc.)

46 minutes ago, taylortime05 said:

I’m not able to use the spreadsheet.  When I open it, it never gets to the point where I can search or scroll through it. I’m not sure if it’s my computer or the spreadsheet itself.  Is anyone else able to use it?

There's a link to directions on how to search. It's because of the Google docs requirement to create a temporary filter to search.

18 hours ago, rattla said:

 

• Ship:  Silhouette
• Length of Cruise:12
• Cruise Sail Date:July 1
• Date email offer received:May
• Captain’s Club Tier : First cruise
• Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: Costco Travel U.K.
• Current Cabin:Aqua Class
• Bid?  Yes/No:Yes

If YES -  Bidding Details:

• Cabin Category: place winning category, if accepted (all category offers, can be mentioned in comments)
• Bid Offer:Sky Suite £425 (strong) Sunset sky suite £515 (poor)  Aqua Sky Suite £515 (fair) CS £525 (poor) RS £565 (poor)
• Notification Date: put offer in 24th May was offering 50% reduced minimum payments
• Accepted / Rejected  : Accepted 6th June

General Comments (offer details, etc.)

5th June other offers all expired except the Sunset Sky suite which remained at Pending (unable to modify), so knew it was likely to be confirmed.

 

Only one sky suite was available, but there were multiple Aqua Suite and Sunset Suite.  Bid was strangely low for Sky Suite (highest bid available was £650 ish), while for the others I think it was max over £1k.

Sunset Sky suite still for sale and was nearly double what was paid for the Aqua Class (even after including the extra £1030!), so have a bargain I think.

When did you put your bid in? I recall having the option late last week, but we were away and I wanted to do some more research, when I got home at the weekend, they seem to have changed the requirements from within 30 days to within 21 days.

8 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

Fair point. I have to say though if I had been aware and looked at this site before our first Celebrity cruise in 2019 we would probably not have booked. So glad I wasn’t and we did. We’ve loved our cruises all on the Equinox and will continue to sail Celebrity until we have a cruise that we judge not to be value for money. That’s not me cheerleading for them, that’s our plan and is not intended to influence others at all.

Yeah, this is kind of a mindset thing that's needed when reading user comments and the like. You kind of need to read it more dispassionately and work out whether the thing that they've spent the last 3 paragraphs whining about is actually something that you care about, or something that you'd prefer. Kinda the same thing with the positive and marketing stuff "Fun, family friendly atmosphere" is great for some people, but probably something that me and my partner would avoid.

I'd also reccomend pushing a little past "a cruise that we judge not to be value for money". No one bats a thousand, and there are going to be times when things go wrong. How that's handled, and whether it's a blip, or a trend are the things that would usually impact our thinking. 

While I'm definately noticing a negative tint, and I'm not going to touch on the arguing against the veracity of reviews based on their perspective, rather than their content, I will contribute something that I'm aware of when I'm reading these, and many other reviews:

Positive reviews are things that I tend to treat more like sales spiel. I'll read them, and use them to influence a decision, but I'm aware that a positive spin is heavily subjective, so I'm keeping an eye out for "you enjoyed that, but I wouldn't" items.

Negative reviews are things that I tend to get more value out of, both in the "one mans' trash is another man's treasure" sense, but also in that I'd prefer to be forewarned of the bad aspects than the good.

What I'm meaning is that, if I read nothing, and find that, for instance, a room is noisy, or a buffet is underwhelming, that's going to have a negative impact on my experience, which I could have mitigated or avoided by knowing it in advance. If I find out that a room is better equipped than expected, or that a venue is of much higher quality, then that's going to give me a much better experience than if I head about it beforehand, and then expected it.

It's better to plan for the bad things, and have the good ones as a surprise than the other way around.

We've got our next booked in for May, and went with the refund on the last one, as we're still not sure that that one will be going ahead.

My basic view at this point is that holidays and the like will be low priority for restoration. They're low criticality and high risk (basically being an easy way for outbreaks to spread large distances), so will almost certainly not be viable until a vaccine is developed, tested, and distributed, and 12 months is a low ball estimate for that.

I do wonder what their projected costs for mothballing ships is. There must be a cost to keep the current skeleton staff running them, and someone must (I hope) have a projected cost for mooring them up somewhere reasonable (even if it is off Coco Cay) and just leaving them for a while. Not sure when the tipping point is that makes the latter more feasible than the former, though. The calculation must exist somewhere, though.

We were in 4044 in May, and were (first time cruisers) impressed with the quietness of the cabins, particularly considering the Casino above and Centrum a door away.

We did the Greece/Croatia run in May, and really enjoyed it. It was our first cruise, so probably not the best ones to compare ships with, but we enjoyed it. There was enough to do on the sea days, and enough places to relax, that they felt like a welcome break, rather than a stifling containment.

As far as the stops go:

- Dubrovnik - Game of Thrones tour. Great tour, well presented to relate some of the interesting history of the city back to the more modern pop-culture of GoT. Made a great start to the cruise, as a well-polished and entertaining stop.

- Montenegro - Discover Montenegro tour. Slightly more off-the-wall with this one. Tour guide was enthusiastic and it worked well with the group. The country is an interesting one, with a fairly turbulent recent past, so it was interesting to see the effects of that as we went through it.

- Santorini - Ruins and Oia village. Here's where we misstepped a little. There were things to see, but the tour was somewhat lacking, and all of the stops were too heaving with tourists to be able to move and do anything particularly productive. Combine that with a choice of either the steep steps, or the 2-hour wait for the cable car, and tempers weren't exactly in great form. If we were to do it again, this would be the port day that we'd stay on the ship, and take advantage of the quiet facilities.

- Katakolon - Olympia and winery tour. This was a gem, and a great last stop. Olympia is great, and very interesting to see the ruins, and history. There were a few shopping stops before the wine tasting at a place full of history, and some very tasty bottles. The tour guide was experienced, and knew fully how to keep everyone together.

For the evenings, we went to the finale show, but otherwise, milled around enjoying the atmosphere and the various drop-in activities (trivia, the game shows, etc.). 

For food, we had a couple of MDR nights, and a 3-location dining package:

- Chops - Fairly reasonable. It was a more americanised (we're british) steak experience than we were used to, but tasty nonetheless.

- Giovanni's - Less impressed by this one. Italian isn't exactly a rarity on the ships, and it wasn't really much of a quality bump to warrant the extra dining package.

- Izumi - Here was our favourite. Knowledgable staff, great food, and an overall great experience. We went here the evening after my partner was at the sushi-making class, so it gives some idea as to the taste of it.

Overall, we had a great time, met a bunch of interesting people, both passengers and crew. Enough so that we booked our second cruise for March.

The other thing that I would note, as it was something that gradually became more obvious to us is that 2,000 people in that kind of space isn't many at all. It seems like you're always seeing new faces, but once we started to get to know people, the same familiar faces kept popping up all over the place. It gave the experience a much more neighbourly kind of atmosphere.

Not massively loyal to a particular chain. We've had decent experiences with Hilton and Radisson, but that's in the European versions, and we aren't really tied to them. 

Budget-wise, probably somewhere between the two posted. Looking at some of the deal sites here, average seems to be running at around £400-£600 (Park Central, Watson, Novotel, etc.) for the 3 nights, and that seems fairly reasonable to me.

As far as sightseeing goes, it'll be the first time there, so we'd like to make sure that we do some of the big ones at least (Empire State, Statue of Liberty, WTC, etc.), but we're also not opposed to some more niche-type excursions if they fit in with us (technology, codes and puzzles, largely). As I said, we're pretty much planning in the dark at the moment, and it is still a fair way off, so we're not trying to lock anything in right at the moment.

19th-30th (cruise starting on Sunday). Flying into JFK, happy to take advice on the rest, as I'm operating somewhat in the dark. It's a birthday holiday, so pushing the boat out a little is fine, but not really wanting to spend a grand a night in some of the hotels.

On 9/6/2019 at 11:36 PM, navybankerteacher said:

As a native New Yorker advising someone from North Carolina who wants some “good ideas”, I have to suggest that you come in  a couple of days before sailing - and stay in Manhattan.  Yes, it is more expensive than a North Jersey motel, but as long as you are coming this way, why not double up?

As someone planning on doing exactly this, and has now sorted both the cruise and flights, do you have any particular reccomendations? Trip is happening in March, arriving on a Thursday afternoon, cruise setting off on the Sunday morning. Young (*cough*) couple currently planning on some sightseeing, and possibly catching a show, but not much more definite beyond that.

On 7/6/2019 at 12:22 AM, CatLadyFemme said:

Would you say any of those tours were somewhat accessible? I can't do a ton of walking or many stairs, so am guessing I'll be sending MrCatLady to adventure on his own, but thought I'd ask.

I'd say:

- Dubrovnik - No. Lots of old steps and much walking.

- Santorini - Could be, a few steps and stairs in Oia village, but the ruins wasn't too bad.

- Montenegro - Could have easily been accessible.

- Katakolon - Walking over uneven ground at Olympia, but otherwise should have been good.

I do recall that there were accessible tours for most of the days, my comments are only based on the ones that we did.

Piping in on this one, as we were on the Rhapsody for this route back in May. 

For the rooms, we never had any issues with noise, despite being right below the casino, and down the way from the Centrum. The noise dampening was really quite impressive for us. 

As far as the destinations are concerned:

- Dubrovnik was a relatively short stop, but we did the "Game of Thrones" tour, and were very impressed. Fitted a lot into a short time, and a bit to wander through the old town and do some shopping. Didn't see everything, but certainly got value for it.

- Kotor was quite surprising for us. We were on one of the ship-tours and found a lot out about a place that we otherwise probably wouldn't have heard much about.

- Santorini was the more disappointing one from our side, between a somewhat lackluster tour, and the fact that all of the destinations were absolutely heaving, it was the least enjoyable of the stops.

- Katakolon was our favourite by a country mile, and we would advise the ruins and winery tour if you can manage it.

Can't comment much about the balcony/suite discussions, as we were in ocean view, but were quite impressed by our first cruising experience.

For food, we were mainly in the MDR or specialty restaurants, and would massively recommend Izumi.