naples1

Sounds pretty accurate to me. We live in Florida and like to cruise because of the convenience and value. They have tanken away alot of the value. We will keep on cruising but have also increased our traveling to other areas around Florida and beyond pluse we are starting to consider other cruiselines as well . I mentioned Virgin. From what I have heard from others that have cruised with them, they have it together and will continue to grow if they keep up their current business model. If Celebrity cant deliver on what they are selling or have short staff, maybe they should not fill the rooms to keep the service level up. I dont know what the solution is but i think there will be dire consequences for the company if they continue this path.

Im glad your experience was different than ours. Again we thought the crew that were there were excellent. Friendly and very helpful. We have no gripes with the current staff. We typically book aqua class but since it was last minute, we just had a standard cabin. That’s why we booked specialty restaurants. if you had good drink service around the ship, good for you. We just did not see it. Especially having really good experience with celebrity in the past and we know what to expect.

You should be able to get drinks at the bar without too much trouble but don’t expect them to be walking around at the pool or solarium or sunset lawn areas. If you didn’t upgrade to the premium drink package, I wouldn't bother unless you feel the need to onboard. As far as restaurant reservations it was the same with us. We just booked times once onboard as soon as we could.

This is the point of my review exactly!!

We didn’t do the main dining room, but the restaurants were fine and the staff that is there are great. There is no problem with the current staff, it’s definitely the lack of staff. Prior to this cruise we have never had an issue getting drinks or having excellent service shipwide. That’s why I think it’s due to the cuts the first of the year. Time will tell.

Yeah I have a feeling they made some cuts the first of the year. We have never experience that either

I don’t mean just the lounges but the pool areas and sunset area as well but even at the pool

Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time. We always do. You just have to have an open mind and you’ll be fine. Just keep expectations low.

We really like the bartenders and crew but they are very understaffed for sure

We did go to the martini bar. Again the staff and service were good but very limited. Didn’t see anybody bringing drinks. This has not been my experience even during Covid. We were on Apex twice during Covid and drink service was fine. the buffet was fine during lunch and breakfast. Just during dinner it was lacking. again I understand short staffing and limiting reservations but if they are going to increase prices in the venues then they need to have adequate decent service or just close the restaurant entirely.

We just got off the Celebrity Silhouette this morning. A little history about us. We are regular Celebrity Cruisers and have cruised several other lines and just wanted to give a quick review while its still fresh in my mind. Embarkation was easy. Parked the car walked to the ship from the Garage and walked right in. We arrived at about 12:15pm to very little lines. We dragged our bags up to the room to find it was already cleaned and ready. Room was in pretty good shape. New carpet from the most recent drydock. What did surprise me was on the balcony, it was covered in salt and the railing was rather worn and needed maintenance. I know its a little thing but it was one of the first things i noticed. As far as the ships public areas, it was pristine. New carpet, everything looked in good shape and the crew was friendly like we have come to expect. So all the stuff we have read recently about the buffet being limited and cutbacks happening is definitely true. We dont like to complain and will make the most out of any situation, however when you pay a premium and they raise prices on items like drink packages or specialty dining, I get it, the company has to make money but by raising prices you would expect at least a perceived value of said price increases. Not a degregation of said services. The crew we encountere were all excellent as usual. The problem we found is that the food and beverage staff are painfully understaffed. We were planning on upgrading from the classic to the premium beverage package once onboard once we saw a bartender walkikng around that we liked. Well unfortunatley we never saw any drink servers around the ship pretty much anywhere onboard. We started at the sunset bar and had to go to the bar to get served. Again, the crew were all friendly but they have made major cuts to the beverage staff particularly. If they want to sell premium drink packages at a premium price, we expect to be able to get a drink from a server at least every 45 minutes or so. this was not the case, nobody was walking around taking drink orders. For dinner, we opted to do specialty dining each night. We did the Lawn Club the first night and that was just fine. Food and service were good. To my surprise, the restaurant was at least 3/4 empty at 7pm. I figured it was just because it was the first night. It seemed odd though since on the app, there were no dinner times available. Second night Murano was great. We had a waiter that has been with Celebrity for 20 years and that restaurant was awesome. Again the restaurant was not even half full. Third night, Sushi on 5. This was as expected. Sushi was decent and service was fine. 4th night Tuscan Grill. This place I was looking forward to the whole trip. We have great memories going there on varius Solstice class Ships over the years. This time was different though. Again, the place was about empty at 6:30 pm which really surprised me.The other thing that we noticed is that they were way understaffed in there too. Our waiter no assistants, nobody doing drink service. The Somelier was in the restaurant but didn't even come to our table for 30 minutes. Food was decent but again service was friendly but completely lacking. Again if they want to charge a premium and advertise themselves as a premium line, they need to step it up. I understand making cuts but when it effects the guest experience, its not going to help. We will still sail celebrity in the future but by no means are we going to limit ourselves. We will definitely look at other lines including Virgin which I have been hearing alot of good things about. Hopefully Celebrity will get their act together and go back to what they are good at. This is not a rant, just our observation.