Mike981

Thank you for your wonderful review. My wife and I will most likely be sailing on the Constellation this coming January. "....for the elevator to spit my Mother out." 🤣

My wife has a side gig that she has done for years where she proof reads for a Doctors blog. The doctor is well known and does many speaking engagements where she will bring up my wife and say that DW makes the Dr. look better than she really is. Point being, she realizes that when you have silly grammar mistakes it lowers peoples opinion of you. BUT, it is also an easy item to cut from the budget. I believe grammar issues are so common that companies just go with the flow and don't get too worked up about it and save the money. I am still amazed that major news outlets can't even get their headlines correct. I do realize that a lot of our news is now AI generated and there is very little oversight. What a change over the course of my life when it comes to news. My town doesn't have a local newspaper anymore, local radio is pretty much gone, radio shows are recorded in different markets days ahead, or they are satellite feeds.

We print all documents and keep them in a folder, as well as having the documents on our phone/computer. I also use a feature with my password generator where I can store private information. I have health info, all credit card (card numbers and code) info including 800 numbers to call if there is a problem. Anything that you can smooth out any speed bumps that pop up on your trip. If you never need to use any of them, lucky you. Read your contract that you get from the cruise line. Most people don't and it is a shame because you are spending $$$$ and they won't have any idea what the passenger or the cruise line are responsible for. A little tip, when push comes to shove the cruise line isn't responsible for much. So much so it can be a little unsettling. BUT, you should know what you are buying and it answers a lot of questions you might have. Don't be afraid to call your cruise line with questions. Cruise Critic is a wealth of information but, there can also be a lot of misinformation. Not on purpose, it is just the nature of the internet. Lastly, roll with the flow and have a fantastic trip!

Thank you for your review, we sailed Milly over twenty years ago when she was still a youngen.

@islandwoman I'm sorry you have had to deal with this issue. I hope you have a wonderful vacation and it makes up for all of your headaches before your trip.

$13, not a huge deal. But since I have seen others mention the same type of issue, my hope is it might help fix the problem.

I don't know if this is germane to the topic, my DW and I had an interesting thing happen a month ago on our Silhouette cruise. We had the premium drink package, so I was surprised that I got a charge for my order of Canadian Club and water in Blu. I noticed a couple of days before we disembarked and my wife called down to customer service and they laughed and said "of course there is no charge, you have the premium package I will remove it." Then the morning we were getting off I checked our folio and the charge was still there, I figured I would give them a call when I get home instead of standing in line for ever. So I give them a call when I get home and got a very kind customer service rep, she said of course you should not have been charged, but she needed to go through the actual ship to get it reversed. BUT, she will call me back and she did. Except when she called back, she explained that it was from my drink order at Blu. "Yes and I had the premium drink package." She said that she will look into it and get back to me. And she did! She said that they reversed the charges and all is fine. Then I got another call a few days later from her to let me know that she now had proof that the charge was reversed and there was nothing to worry about. Yes it was a bit of pain trying to get it sorted, but the customer service rep was excellent.

I knew if it was an Apple question, @Jim_Iain would have the answer.

Love it!

Nice post @Hlitner You are reminding me of when I worked in an office and many coworkers would constantly complain about their job. I would get sick of hearing about it and say, "well you have two options; figure out how to make it work or leave. No sense in staying at a job that you hate." I worked in radio, so most people could have easily gone and gotten a job at a convenience store and not missed a beat.

I was feeling the same way as you about Celebrity a month ago. Then my DW and I went on the Silhouette for a 10 day in the Caribbean and loved it. I booked our last room this past April at what I considered a good rate, who knows if I will be able to find that again. The only reason we wouldn't go with Celebrity would be the cost to benefit ratio isn't there or a better offer/itinerary on another line. We certainly are not married to Celebrity. Our next cruise is up in the air, because our daughter is getting married in August 2025 in Iceland. So $$$$. If we are able to go on our usual winter vacation, it will be a scaled down version.

First cruise ever was on Mercury, followed the next year on Millennium. To this day even understanding it was our first cruise, Mercury is our favorite ship. Just loved the size and the look and feel.

Interesting we usually only travel in January to get away from our cold winters and never felt that it was a negative for us. We just got off of the Silhouette two/three weeks ago and felt the other passengers were great. It can really change from cruise to cruise, even on the same ship. We used to do all inclusives in Jamaica for 8-10 days and you could really feel a difference from one week to the next. It just depends on who shows up and what they are looking for during their trip. One year a large wedding party arrived and tried to take over the resort, but that was shut down quickly.

I just read my DW what you said and she got a BIG smile on her face. She loves hearing the waves plus the gentle rocking back and forth. Truth be told, I think she also likes the break from my snoring as well.

I saw that as well @Oceangoer2. It is a shame because as I said in my review, we used them at least once a day. As a matter of fact, my DW set up a comfy bed on the balcony and slept out there for three or four hours one night.

Our room rug was showing wear and had a few stains, one looked more like a burn than a stain. Our bathroom shower was showing it's age. The backs of the bar chairs at a couple of bars were worn as well as some of the carpet in public areas. We also noticed those big lounge pillows around the pool were looking rough, to the point that we would not lie on them. But it was not something I took notes on, because it just isn't that big of a deal for us.

I believe it was 9am, we heard a rumor that 9:15am was the absolute latest you could stay on. We had a 3pm flight so we ended up spending to much money at bar for a couple of drinks and splitting a personal pizza, with auto tip it was $110.

@Orator thank you for your insight. That makes a lot of sense about the CD, I'm glad you got to enjoy him.

Just your usual wear and tear. Some of the seats had some decent wear on them, carpets with some wear and stains. Just what you would expect for a ship that is in need of a facelift. There was nothing that I would say was a major issue, though we did run out of hand soup in the men's room and I took that as a positive. 😉

Celebrity Silhouette 1/15-1/25, Aqua room. I would like to start by thanking all of the kind souls here at Cruise Critic. You kept my travel desire going over the past four years with no travel, and the amount of knowledge that you share is astounding and selfless. Pictures: We have tried in the past to take a lot of pictures and it just isn’t our thing, sorry I know how much pictures add to a review. Truth be told, we don’t even share or look at them when we get home. I wish one of us enjoyed taking pictures, but the only pictures we consistently take are of staff so we can get their name tags to give them positive reviews. About us: Mike 57 and my wife 59 have been cruising, doing all-inclusive’s or other travel since 2000. Both my wife and I have tried to be honest with our feelings about this trip and not be swayed by the fact that we have been home bound for four years. That said we tend to lean towards the glass is half full crowd. The start: We do an overnight stay the day before we fly out since we have to pay for parking anyway and I can usually find a park and fly hotel for the same rate as airport or off sight parking. Plus it takes away some anxiety about any weather or vehicle issues. Our flight to Fort Lauderdale was delayed because of a few things. It was so cold that the sewer system froze solid and they had to fix it. Then they had to deice the plane again because of the delay. And when everything was finally good to go, they couldn’t get the main door closed because it…was froze. It felt like we were in a sitcom. The temperature was -10º and honestly, that isn’t that cold for Minnesota in January, but what can you do? We left when it was -10º and came back to Minnesota it was 40º, quite the temperature swing but not the biggest we have experienced. Years ago we left home at -35º and landed in Jamaica where it was 85º. I booked us a room at the La Quinta FLL for the day before our cruise. I would say the best part about the hotel was the shuttle driver, very nice and had us laughing a few times on the way. The hotel itself, meh. I knew it wasn’t going to be great I have stayed in them before, this particular hotel just wasn’t very good. Our room was hot because the AC didn’t work. They did ‘try’ to fix it, so it got a little bit better. The free breakfast (reconstituted eggs and mystery sausages) was not good at all, we were both hungry and ate very little. And to add insult to injury if you wanted to toast anything you couldn’t because the two toasters didn’t work. We found out later that it was because the toasters kept tripping a circuit beaker and the kicker, it was not a new problem. Lastly the hotel is in kind of a weird area where it is hard to walk anywhere. No, we won’t stay there again. I share this much detail about the hotel because in my research, I found others have or are going to be staying there. Embarkation: Was smooth and we were able to drop our bags off in our room. Our room steward was, kind of…offish. He introduced himself on the first day, but then if we saw him around in other rooms he avoided us. This was a first for us. He did a good enough job, so no complaints. We thought possibly it could be a culture thing? Really not a big deal, it’s just that we enjoy talking with our room stewards. The other stewards more than made up and always had time to say hello or how was your day. And that is really all we are looking for, not a full discussion. Ship: We have cruised S class ships before, so it was nice to have a good idea of how to get around and we found that we really like the Silhouette and will have no problem booking her again. There are definitely some areas that need attention, but other than that she is great. I was told that there were roughly 2,800 passengers, but they were not positive. We booked our first Aqua room (1642 on deck 11) and it was a good basic balcony room. My wife and I liked the location because it made it easy to hit our favorite places. The room was quiet and everything worked fine, we both thought the bed and pillows were comfy. FWIW we did have two foot stools on the balcony and they were used extensively. People: Our CC meet and greet was nice, and we met a lovely couple from England we spent a good amount of time together. They got a dining package and ate at the Murano and said it was wonderful. We really enjoyed each others company, laughing to the point that my face hurt. Then we found out that we all like to play cards, so we had fun teaching each other new card games. I’ll admit it, I got a bit teary eyed when we said our good byes. I”ll share a story about playing cards where we were able to have a little fun after the fact. We taught our new friends how to play euchre and the other wife and I were partners and my wife and the other husband were paired together. My partner ended up doing fantastic! Especially for just learning how to play. Later my wife came up with a great idea, where we go to Murano and asked them if they would do us a favor. When our new friends are being seated, would you please say a bit loudly, “well Mrs ABC, we heard that YOU did very good at cards today.” We all laughed about it when we met up after dinner. The next day our new friends taught us how to play ‘chasing the lady’. I decided to change the name to, ‘chasing your neighbors wife’. Meals: Since we were in Aqua we ate in Blu every night and it was very good. The only complaint I have is that the lamb was tough. I tried lamb twice and both times I ate very little. But, EVERYTHING else was very good. The staff was fun, entertaining and exceptional. The Maître d chatted with us every night and was witty. Embarkation morning we decided to have breakfast in Blu and we were a little worried about the wait, it was no problem at all as we walked right in and got served right away. FWIW we ate breakfast just before 8am. We had a few burgers from the mast grill and they were good, after one or two we started splitting the burgers because of the size. We ate at the buffet for lunch and breakfast, the different offerings were nice and there were a few surprises of some very good food. One big miss was the breakfast that was delivered to our room, really the only thing I can say that was good was that it was warm. Definitely not worth the new room delivery charge, it reminded us of the free breakfast at the pre-cruise hotel. Other: We had so much fun. Talking to people, playing different games around the ship and going for our daily walks (truth be told sometimes my wife got two walks in, Miss Overachiever). After reading so much here on CC to the contrary, I was surprised to see so much bar service around the pool area every day. They had two bar carts going at all times and also people walking around taking orders, this was not the case at all on our last cruise on Celebrity four years ago. We didn’t do any of the big shows, but did follow some of the musicians around and felt that they were good to very good. We saw officers around the ship many times, but we never saw the CD, not a big deal just strange. That was a first for us, in the past it was usually the other way around we couldn’t get rid of the CD. I should add that the Captain (I don’t remember his name) was very good at the announcements and had a good sense of humor so you wanted to listen. The passenger demographic seemed to skew older than a normal 10 day cruise, I saw a handful of kids around and I believe two of the children were visiting one of the employees. We had a very nice trip, there were so many friendly smiling passengers and staff, it was literally a shock when we were forced to come back to reality at the airport. If only we could all play as nice after our cruise. Ports: At each port we just walked around and did some shopping and that worked well for us since we have been to all of the ports before. The only negative was Antigua, there were two other ships in port and it was packed. My wife went in a shop to look at t-shirts as I waited outside and after a few minutes came back and said that there were so many people in the store that she had a very hard time getting out of the store. So we headed back to the ship and enjoyed all the extra room and quiet, plus it gave us a chance to visit with more of the staff. WiFi: We had the basic package and it was almost okay. It was hard to switch devices and the Celebrity app was hit or miss. I have no idea why it takes so long for the app to load whether at home or on the ship. I gave up and just let my wife use her device. Weather: Was really good for the most part, we did have the normal Caribbean showers. On our way back to FLL it got a bit rough for a day, but my wife and I enjoyed it. I’m sure some folks did not have a great day. Disembarkation: Smooth, but that might have been because we were waiting as long as we could to get off the ship since we had a 2pm flight back home. When we got down to pick up our luggage, our two bags were the only ones at our designated number. The finish: So glad we had the chance to go on the Silhouette, it literally felt like home. It was just what the Dr. should have ordered. I can’t say enough about the staff, just wonderful. I have an example of how they go above and beyond for you. I suffer from muscle cramps, pickle juice helps tamp them down. At one point I asked a bar tender if they have any pickles so I could get a glass of the juice. At first he didn’t quite understand and then he said they didn’t have any pickles at this bar but then smiled and said, “don’t worry I’m on it.” And of course he came through with a big glass and then proceeded to make me a pickle juice frozen drink. He came back a few minutes later and asked if I was feeling better, just great service. Oh, and I have heard that pickle juice can help with a hangover FWIW. Flight home was just the way you like it, uneventful. Our flight left FLL on time and we got back to MSP a half hour early, great! But then you have a longer wait for your checked bags. Not bad at all and our hotel shuttle was waiting for us when we arrived. I must say that it is very strange to fly into Minneapolis at the end of January and there being no snow. As a matter of fact, as I write this it is 56º and our normal temperature for this time of year is 12º. Many winter events have been cancelled or are severely altered this year. We also have too many folks who decide the ice is safe to go fishing by the calendar and not by facts. Every week we hear stories about rescues of people who have fallen through the ice, some tragic. Lastly I don’t know if they stopped doing them or if they are now random, but I didn’t get anything to rate an X employee 1-10. I did do the customer survey that gets emailed, but that is not the same from what I remember. I feel bad, I should have gone to customer service and asked for something. Do you know if they still give out those cards? Speaking of the emailed survey, I totally understand how important this information is to Celebrity and that is why I do it. Why not offer a carrot to get more data? Once every _____ pull a winner for OBC or can you imagine a free cruise? I bet they would see an increase in participants and since the data is so important it would be a no brainer. Either way, I don’t need a carrot and will keep filling out the survey. I was thinking it would garner more feedback and improve the customer experience for all. An interesting side note about Cruise Critic, I asked several people if they visit CC and a couple said occasionally and many had never heard of it. I guess it is true in a way, that we are in our own little world here. That’s okay, I like it. I hope this helps you in someway, as I have said many times over the years, I have gained so much knowledge from the generous members of CC that I wanted to give something back that might help someone. As my friends from Tennessee say, y’all are great. I wish you safe travels and smooth seas.

Just off the Silhouette this past Sunday and only ate in Blu, it was interesting to see a more casual attire that seemed to get more casual as the cruise went. Quite a bit different than it was four years ago when we last cruised. But I don't mind at all, I don't think it's asking to much to wear a collard shirt with a decent pair of slacks. We saw a lot of people walking around in 'nicer' tennis shoes, I was glad to see that since I wore my new Sketchers because my plantar fasciitis has been acting up.

LOL, love it.

My wife and I just got of the Silhouette this past Thursday and we had two of them.

Politics, religion and parenting, NOPE.

Born in Milwaukee and raised a cheese head in Madtown.