Silhouette Review - Jan 18 - 25, 2015

[Host Anne]

Silhouette Review – Jan. 18 – 25, 2015

Cabin 1122

 

We were a group of 11 ranging in age from 27 – 73. We were celebrating a 30th birthday with family and friends and overall had a great time. Silhouette remains a beautiful ship and is very well maintained and kept clean.

 

PRE-CRUISE HOTEL

We stayed at the Hyatt Place on 17th which is a great location close to the port. We arranged for Avanti Shuttle to pick us up at the hotel on Saturday morning. They were there promptly and we were at the port around 11:00 AM.

 

EMBARKATION

Check in was quick and easy (although the terminal was old and pretty much just a warehouse). We were onboard by 11:30 and enjoyed relaxing in Café al Bacio for a bit before heading to the Oceanview where we enjoyed lunch and sitting on the Oceanview veranda until cabins were ready around 1:00 PM.

 

THE SHIP

There’s no question that S-class ships are among the most beautiful ships sailing today. Silhouette is in great shape. Very, very clean. Furniture comfy and in good condition. Some general wear and tear on things like deck loungers but overall, the ship is in great shape.

 

FOOD

Always subjective, food for me was average to very good.

 

Oceanview

Breakfast in the Oceanview was generally very good to excellent. The made to order omelets and eggs were cooked perfectly. Standard accompaniments, like sausage, bacon and ham were all good. The hot-off-the-griddle waffles remain a heavy favorite (although I only enjoyed them twice) and the fresh fruit was great.

 

I was very surprised to see that the fresh squeezed orange juice machines are gone. The first day I asked for fresh squeezed orange juice (it came in the drink package) I was politely told they don’t have it any longer. They now have frozen 100% orange juice. While it was fine, it definitely is not the same, nor as good as, fresh squeezed orange juice (more on this later when I talk about “cuts”).

 

Main Dining Room

I’m continuing to see a slow decline in the menus and food quality in the main dining room. The food isn’t bad, it’s just not very good like it used to be. Green beans and carrots were the vegetables nearly every night of the cruise. One night it was broccoli and carrots. Sometime the carrots were cut in half, sometimes chopped in small chunks, sometimes they were julienned but they were still carrots. And I like carrots but it seemed overkill every night. Is there an overabundance of carrots right now?

 

With the exception of Chateaubriand, French Onion Soup and bread, for me, everything in the dining room was just OK.

 

Specialty Restaurants

We only did one specialty restaurant and that was the Lawn Club Grille to celebrate a 30th birthday. From beginning to end, it was terrific. Wonderful service from staff. Terrific food; fun time making flat breads. Overall a memorable evening. If there was one downside, it was that they actually brought too much food. We got to taste everything on the menu even though we didn’t order all of it. It was a nice gesture but a lot of food went to waste. Would have loved to had the leftovers for lunch the next day!

 

Mast Grill

I’ve been a vocal critic of the cheeseburgers recently at the Mast Grill. For some time now, the ones I’ve had have been burnt so bad that they weren’t worth the calories. I’m happy to say that the burgers at the Mast Grill on Silhouette were actually very good. Can’t tell you what’s different but they weren’t burnt and while beyond medium, they still had good flavor and were juicy!

 

SPA

Because I had some onboard credits remaining on our account, I decided to get a massage on the last sea day. Smart move. While I generally think the cost of services on ships is pretty overpriced, they had a special and my onboard credit just about covered it. Rjari was my therapist and I have to say it was one of the best massages I’ve ever had. There was no hard sell of products after the massage (I was appreciative of that) and I was very happy that I decided to visit the spa on the last day.

 

PORTS OF CALL

We’ve been to all of these ports before so I’ll keep this section short.

 

San Juan

We walked from the ship to El Morro (great walk after two days on the ship). Spent more time here than in the past. Got some great photos. Very interesting place.

 

St. Kitts

Booked a plantations tour directly with Clay Villa Plantation: http://clayvilla.com/ and they arranged for a driver and second stop at Ottley Plantation. Both were very interesting and our driver, Germaine, was terrific.

 

St. Maarten

Arranged for a private driver through Joyce Prince. http://joyceprince.com/ Joyce was already booked for the day so she arranged for another driver. Had a great day touring around the entire island.

 

CREW

Let me begin by saying I love the crew on Celebrity ships. These folks are always among the hardest working individuals I know. There were many pleasant and helpful crew members on Silhouette (and I’ll name some below); but strangely there were also a few that were less than stellar (pretty unusual for Celebrity).

 

Guest Relations

My first encounter was at Guest Relations. Our group was to have received vouchers in our cabins for a night at a specialty restaurant and I didn’t receive any. When I went to Guest Relations to ask about it, the person helping me didn’t have any idea what I was talking about. So I went back to my cabin to review the information about the voucher. I returned to Guest Relations and got a different crew member. I asked to see the Guest Relations Manager about the Specialty Dining Vouchers we were supposed to receive. He went and got “John”, the Asst Guest Relations Manager who promptly told me, referring to the crew member who got him “you didn’t need to have him call me over for this…he could have helped you.” I explained that the previous crew member couldn’t help so that is why I asked to speak to him. He proceeded to tell me that I was mistaken; there would be no voucher and that it would simply appear on my account as an “onboard credit.” I said that’s not what I was told plus it didn’t make any sense since the specialty restaurants have different fees.

 

As it turned out, everyone in our group but me got a voucher in their cabin. So back to Guest Relations the second day when they ultimately called the Group Coordinator who printed one out for me. I think our cabin attendant actually had it and didn’t give it to us. That’s OK….but the attitude of the Assistant Guest Relations Manager really bothered me since he was actually wrong about the voucher.

 

I had a second issue with Guest Relations later in the cruise when I found a drink charge on our account for something we didn’t order. We had the classic drink package and always ordered the Chardonnay in the Classic Package. Apparently, one of the wines provided at lunch one day was something not in the Classic Package. I was never told nor asked and never signed anything. There is no way of knowing if the give you something not in the package as they never present you with a check. The Guest Relations crew member definitely did not believe that I didn’t order a more expensive glass of wine. He asked if I had a copy of the receipt and I told him I didn’t sign a receipt the entire cruise. He ultimately took the charge off the bill but I really didn’t like the way he kept insisting that I was trying to not pay for a higher priced glass of wine.

 

While there were plenty of nice crew members on Silhouette, there were more than normal who didn’t seem happy. Lots of them didn’t smile or greet you with a hello, even when I said hello first. Given the tough time much of the crew has had over the past six months with the pod problems this ship has faced, I’m giving the crew a pass. I’m sure that they have had to deal with many unhappy passengers in the past few months and that has to wear on the crew. I hope that things improve for all now that the pod problem has been repaired.

 

Food & Beverage Service

We typically enjoyed breakfast on the outdoor deck of the Oceanview Café. Asst. Waiter, Untoo, was there every morning with a friendly smile, asking if he could get us anything else, clean things up, etc. What a great way to start the day! THANKS, Untoo!

 

Roxanne, one of the servers in Cafe Al Bacio was one of the first crew members we met when we boarded. She was friendly throughout the cruise, even when they were swamped and took great care of us every time we visited Cafe Al Bacio!

 

Star, our Dining Room Sommelier, made each evening enjoyable. She was slammed with a few overly demanding tables nearby but that didn’t deter her from being friendly and provide great wine service to our table. Our second table of younger guests did suffer a bit from how busy she was as it was often difficult for them to get service.

 

Cutbacks

It is evident that there have been cutbacks in the number of crew onboard. I would say that more than half the time we wanted a drink we had to go to the bar to get it. There were far fewer bar servers overall in all the lounges and bar areas. This wasn’t like the previous cruises where the bar servers were just inundated. There simply weren’t many of them. Forget about getting someone to take a drink order in the theater. On any given night there were perhaps two servers working. You are much better off brining your own drink with you from another bar.

 

They were occasionally out of things, too. The first few days they said they hadn’t restocked Blanton’s (my husband’s preferred bourbon) from storage. I ordered a mudslide and when it came without the chocolate I asked about it and was told they were out of chocolate syrup. Same thing with Limoncello on the first few nights. Hadn’t been brought out of storage. The gluten free beer that our daughter’s fiancé upgraded to get was only available in Cellar Masters (not very convenient) and then there was only one person working in there most of the time. On the last night, that person took a break and the keys with him so his replacement couldn’t get refills for us because the gluten free beer was in locked storage.

 

Can’t figure out this drinks and bar server thing. Is this all related to the large volume of drink packages being given away? I don’t know but the level of service certainly isn’t what it was a few years ago.

 

Activities staff has been cut, too, but we knew that was going to happen.

 

Entertainment

Entertainment on Silhouette was a mixed bag. The production crew (folks operating sound/lighting, etc) struggled all cruise long. The cruise director even alluded to it several times from the stage (never seen this before). The welcome aboard show couldn’t get the microphones right for the singers. Much of it was so loud that folks were actually holding their ears (I am not making that up!). Performers that should have had a spotlight on them were in the dark. Little, but noticeable things.

 

But the biggest problem centered on a duo called Carly and the King. We first heard them in Café Al Bacio before docking in San Juan. They were really good. So we started watching for their performances in the Celebrity Today. We were excited to see that they were playing on the Lawn Club for Sailaway from St. Kitts the next day. The production crew was there early and had the sound set and ready to go but Carly & the King arrived 20 minutes late. They were confused about which lawn they were supposed to play on so they only performed for about 25 minutes.

 

The next night was to be another Lawn Club performance while leaving St. Maarten. Carly and the King showed up but the production crew that was supposed to set up the sound didn’t. I’d say about 100 people had gathered to listen to them. They stood around for awhile; then the sound guys came and chatted with them and by now it was 30 minutes past when they were supposed to start so they just canceled.

 

On the last day, they were supposed to perform from 1:00 – 1:45 on the Oceanview Veranda for lunch. Guess what! Production crew didn’t show again! By now it was actually shocking. They called and the sound guy arrived looking at the schedule (it clearly showed they were to perform at 1:00). By about 1:25, he had the sound set and they played about three songs.

 

Finally, they were scheduled to perform that night at 11:00 PM in Cellar Masters. I probably don’t need to tell you what happened. NO SOUND GUY AGAIN. Carly and the King walked in at 11:00, looked around and apologized that the sound wasn’t set again and they were calling it a night.

 

It was astounding. I can’t ever remember this type of things with production people not having sound set for performers. I asked Carly and she said there had been some crew turnover this cruise but that’s no excuse of all the issues throughout the week. Pretty disappointing overall.

 

Other entertainers were pretty good as well. The jazz quartet that regularly performed in Ensemble were very good and the other guitar player was pretty good as well. There were some really strange things, though, with entertainment. One night there was party in Sky with the dance band playing from 11:00 PM until Late (that’s what the Celebrity Today stated). They had a lot of people dancing and having a good time when they promptly quite at 11:30 and encourage people to head to the Solarium for the LIQUID Lounge. It was the most bizarre thing I’ve seen (OK, Wonderland was pretty strange on one of our last cruises, too). Why would you take people off a dance floor where the party was rocking and send them to this strange “thing” in the Solarium that people walked in and said “what the heck” and went to bed???

 

Concierge Class

Three of the five cabins in our group were in Concierge Class. There are even cutbacks in Concierge Class. I tried hard to figure out what you are getting for the extra cost of the Concierge cabins and the only thing left (really useful thing that is) is the footstool on your veranda. The flowers in the cabin are gone. Things like pillow types can be gotten in any class of cabin if you ask you attendant. The binoculars and umbrella aren’t really benefits (I can’t remember ever using an umbrella on a cruise in the 20+ years we’ve been cruising). I suppose the extra points are nice, too, but we are so far away from Zenith that I can’t imagine ever reaching that level.

 

The cabin itself was very nice. I love that the couch is now fabric instead of the fake off white leather in the original S-class cabins.

 

Our cabin attendant was efficient but we never saw him. I saw him the first day when he stopped to introduce himself and the last day to say goodbye. If there was an assistant, we had no idea who that might have been.

 

Officers

This wasn’t a big deal but it was noticeable because Celebrity has been promoting the fact that their officers and senior management are much more visible and interacting with guests. That wasn’t the case on this cruise as we seldom saw any of these folks. I think I only really noticed it because it was the exact opposite on our Constellation cruise three weeks ago.

 

Music Level

While not as bad as some of our recent Celebrity cruises (there was no RAP), many times, the music is just way too loud. One evening in the theater before the show began they had the DJ with his laptop above the stage playing music SO loud that I almost walked right back out. If the show hadn’t been starting shortly, there was no way I would have stayed (when did a DJ with a laptop become an instrument?). I am still struggling with Celebrity’s direction. They think loud, “hip” music is going to attract some young demographic that is going to spend exorbitant amounts of money with them. I’m just not seeing it. I look at the demographics of who has been on my past two Celebrity cruises and Celebrity isn’t attracting this young demographic. I think all they are really doing is starting to drive away long time loyal customers. Time will tell.

 

Smoking

I am sure this won’t be popular with some but that’s OK. The cigar smoking at the Sunset Bar was often overwhelming and came across to the non-smoking side as well as down to the Oceanview veranda below. You cannot prevent cigar smoke from affecting the entire Sunset bar and lawn club area. Celebrity really needs to stop the cigar smoking up here. It is ruining the best place on the ship.

 

Spam in Cabin Doors

I wish I had saved the enormous amount of “junk mail” in our cabin door several times per day. Would have loved to have taken a photo of all of it. Promotions for art auctions, watch sales, etc. What’s even more wasteful is that each piece was in an envelope printed with our name and cabin number. This doesn’t include all the advertising flyers inside the Celebrity Today in your room each evening. Come on, Celebrity, stop wasting so much paper and ink! Bring back the flowers in Concierge class cabins and get rid of the overwhelming waste of paper.

 

COMPARISON TO CONSTELLATION

Having recently sailed on Constellation I thought I’d share a few comparisons between the two cruises.

 

When it comes to the crew, Constellation wins hands down. They were happier, friendlier and more service oriented than the crew on Silhouette. Perhaps the rough couple of months the Silhouette crew had recently had an impact. But I think this starts at the top. The officers and cruise director on Constellation were out in full force. They were very visible throughout the entire cruise and engaged with the passengers. I think they set the tone for the rest of the crew who seemed happier and friendlier than those on Silhouette. We never saw the officers out and about on Silhouette (the Capt did do a Q&A in the theater one morning) and I never saw the Cruise Director anywhere but on stage introducing the shows at night.

 

When it comes to food, I’d give the slight nod to Silhouette. Burgers at the Mast Grill were much better; dining room food was a toss up; Oceanview Café food quality goes to Silhouette mostly because of the station layout on Silhouette versus the in-line layout on Constellation. Much easier to get fresher food on Silhouette. Both ships have great specialty restaurants.

 

As for entertainment, believe it or not, the entertainment on Constellation (for my tastes) was far superior to Silhouette. The singers and dancers were better; the shows were better; the guest entertainers were better. The only place entertainment was similar were the live musical acts in the lounges. Both ships had some great live musicians.

 

I’ve loved the M-class ships for a long time but I think the S-class ships are a bit nicer. Cabins are slightly better (S-class standard cabin bathrooms are the best around); the lounges are a bit more comfortable and you can’t beat the Sunset Bar area on the S-class ships. We wouldn’t hesitate to sail on any of the Celebrity ships. I just wish they’d stop the cutbacks….it’s getting very noticeable.

 

IN CLOSING

Just a quick reminder about how hard the crew on board ships work. I find if you treat them kindly, smile and tell them to have a good day that your onboard experience will be better. Getting upset when a crew member takes a lunch break after working for five hours (i.e. future cruise sales staff) is insensitive. Between our last two cruises I’ve witnessed far too many passengers treating crew rudely. I hope we can all treat crew with a little more kindness.

 

Happy Cruising!

[Texed]

Ms. Anne,

 

Thanks for posting. :)

[Host Anne]

You're welcome, Texed....Waffles are still good and make us think of you!

[Queen of Oakville]

Thanks for your review. We're sailing Silhouette in November, gives them better part of a year to work out the kinks.

 

I'm sure the staff took a beating during the propulsion(?) issues leading into drydock from passengers who were grumpy and felt ripped off.

 

We had a great experience on Reflection (service was excellent) so hopefully things improve on Silhouette.

[cruiserhal]

Anne,

 

Thank you for taking the time to post such a detailed review. I just hope the Celebrity person who monitors this board pays attention to your comments.

 

It is a shame to hear how things have gone down hill with cutbacks. We always book Aqua for Blu so I really hope they don't start serving carrots with each meal or we may have to look for another cruise line. :)

 

Anyway, the one thing I know is any reviews by you or Andy are always on the mark and can be trusted on to be accurate. Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks again,

Hal

[Host Anne]

Thanks for the kind words. I always try to be fair and unbiased when I write reviews. I like to point out what was great/good and what needs work. I love the overall Celebrity product (great ships and normally great crew - see my Constellation review). While I know nothing stays the same, some changes aren't always good.

 

Long term for us it is leading to less cruising and more land-based vacations at the moment. The up side is we used our veranda far more than normal this cruise. :)

[MR_T]

Hi Host Anne,

 

Thanks for the review... Do you have the crew page and a daily at all that you might be able to upload... We are joining the silhouette on the 1st of March and really looking forward to it 😁

[floridacruisers]

We were on the same cruise (although somehow our paths didn't cross) and I concur with your comments.

We were in Blu except for a fun night in the Lawn Club Grill and found the food to range from good to excellent. Granted, it is a subjective opinion so take that comment it for what it's worth. The cheeseburgers were GOOD as were the fries!

 

I still do not understand why a ship with 75-80% baby boomers is playing the type ( and sometimes excruciatingly LOUD!) of music that doesn't fit the demographics. I like a good mix, but make it a MIX! A miami dj hasn't a clue as to what the generation on that ship likes. It would be like me selecting appropriate crap err rap music to play for some teens.

 

We had excellent service from all crew members, even the Guest Relations people were fine for me. Then again, I didn't have much of a problem to report.

 

Would I go again???? Well, I booked a future cruise on the Equinox so yes, I will continue to go on Celebrity, for now..........

 

Phil...........floridacruisers

[davsarmom]

We were on the same cruise (although somehow our paths didn't cross) and I concur with your comments.

We were in Blu except for a fun night in the Lawn Club Grill and found the food to range from good to excellent. Granted, it is a subjective opinion so take that comment it for what it's worth. The cheeseburgers were GOOD as were the fries!

 

I still do not understand why a ship with 75-80% baby boomers is playing the type ( and sometimes excruciatingly LOUD!) of music that doesn't fit the demographics. I like a good mix, but make it a MIX! A miami dj hasn't a clue as to what the generation on that ship likes. It would be like me selecting appropriate crap err rap music to play for some teens.

 

We had excellent service from all crew members, even the Guest Relations people were fine for me. Then again, I didn't have much of a problem to report.

 

Would I go again???? Well, I booked a future cruise on the Equinox so yes, I will continue to go on Celebrity, for now..........

 

Phil...........floridacruisers

 

Could you get Fresh squeezed OJ in Blue?

[atlgants]

Subbing! We will have the same intiniery in 8 short weeks!

[Orator]

Host Anne:

Sorry I didn't meet you on this cruise. We all have different impressions based largely on who we meet and what we enjoy. I found your review to be quite fair. You are correct about Roxanne. She is a delightful person and I really enjoyed seeing her in al Bacio. I did not have reason to talk to the Asst. guest Relations Manager, but did meet Julie the GRM many times. She is absolutely wonderful. She is full of energy and always greeting passengers as the leave and board the ship. She spent 23 years at Royal Carribean prior to joking Celebrity. Would suggest at one to directly to her. to resolve any major issue. I've known the Captain from other cruises and must agree that her was less available than usual. The just boarded on he 18th and didn't even know who was aboard.The last two days of the cruise I saw him , the Staff Captain and the HD at al Bacio. They were very open to conversations with passengers. The Captain often did a Q and A in the Theater. His appearance at the Senior Officers Party was brief. I have a gut feeling that there was a problem early in the cruise that required his attention. The HD appeared shy at first, but was a delight once you got to know him. He worked for Ivana Trump and Helmsley and was filled with great stories. In all fairness DW and I were the "top cruisers" and received special attention, so that our interactions were not typical. I also found that Celebrity is becoming a different experience for top Suite and typical cruisers. I suspect that this trend will continue.

Thank you for your review.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Orator

[richsea]

Thanks for the fair report Anne!

 

I share your feelings about where Celebrity is heading regarding food quality & selection (this is the 2nd reference I've read today regarding the vegetable choices) & service; mostly the attention to detail, a result of staffing cuts.

 

It seems to me that the entertainment scheduling snafus are a result of poor communications between the entertainers & the support staff, which I would think falls under the responsibility of the Cruise Director. Who was the CD on your sailing?

 

Our next Celebrity sailing will most likely go far in determining where we spend our travel dollars in the future.

[springfire]

Really enjoyed your review. I agree with a prior post and hope Celebrity monitors these boards and understands what we appreciate what they do and what they can do better to continue to keep us cruising. We also have started to do other types of land travel. We will be doing a transatlantic cruise on the Silhouette in October. I am hopeful of a great cruise!

[h20cruzer]

Loved your review and I am headed to the Silhouette for the TA in April. I have cruised many times and never had a good experience at guest relations. Many times I have seen passenger be as rude and nasty as they can, but please don't take it out on the next passenger. I do anything I can to avoid guest relations. But too many times while waiting my turm I have heard them say I don't, over and over. Is that supposed to make thr passenger go away. A better response would be I am not sure, let me check on that and get back to you. Never ever heard that happen.

Crew has always been great and even beyond great.

Norma

[A1A]

Thanks for the good, bad and ugly! Its nice to read a review that had been so well thought out and put together! We also agree about all the hard workers we always see on our cruises, hopefully the recent repairs to the Silhouette will give the staff the extra boost it sounds like some need! We sail in nine weeks and I will let you know!

[erinpdx]

Great review! We will be leaving in a week for the Silhouette so we really enjoyed your review. A couple of questions:

 

Did you arrive at your ports on time?

 

How was the temperature in the dining room, theater etc? I am trying to decide how many cardigans to bring.

[nyfeds]

Thanks for your fair and well-balanced review, Anne. We will be on Silhouette in April. This will be our first Celebrity cruise.

[foodgirl]

Really enjoyed your review. Will be sailing in April and look forward to good things. This will be our 2nd Celebrity trip and we are very excited. We fell in love with Reflection last year and have high hopes for Silhouette.

[Gran2five]

Thank you for your review Anne. We were on the Reflection over the same time period and on the first morning we asked for freshly squeezed orange juice. One sip and I knew it wasn't the same as before - my husband thought it was o.k. but now I know - no more freshly squeezed O.J. Not the end of the world but one of the things that I looked forward to.

 

My DH and Son in law were on the Silhouette the same week and mentioned that the crew seemed to be new and not all that happy. She was comparing the crew to two years ago when she last sailed on Silhouette.

 

Thanks again for a great review.

 

Pat

[Orator]

Thank you for your review Anne. We were on the Reflection over the same time period and on the first morning we asked for freshly squeezed orange juice. One sip and I knew it wasn't the same as before - my husband thought it was o.k. but now I know - no more freshly squeezed O.J. Not the end of the world but one of the things that I looked forward to.

 

My DH and Son in law were on the Silhouette the same week and mentioned that the crew seemed to be new and not all that happy. She was comparing the crew to two years ago when she last sailed on Silhouette.

 

Thanks again for a great review.

 

Pat

 

There were major crew changes the week before and the week of the Silhouette cruise.as the blackout period ended. When a crew member joins a ship they must go through a mandatory raining program that requires at least a week of classes and drills. This applies to even those who have been with Celebrity for 20plus years. The major influx of new crew was on January 11th and the new group was really dragging. As I mentioned earlier, there was a Captain change on the 18th. You might expect a drop off in spirt on a cruise that follows the end of a blackout. People just take a bit of time to adjust to the travel and training hours. Not an excuse, but it happens.

[Host Anne]

Hi all ~ sorry I haven't been back today. Company in town and little "on-line" time.

 

I did bring home all the dailies and the crew page. I will try to scan this week (have business meetings Mon/Tues) and get them posted.

 

Phil ~ we booked Equinox for next year as well. :) Pricing and perks are too good not to book. But sooner or later something has to give with the reasonable fares and all the perks. Maybe we'll get to see you then!

 

Orator ~ I meant to post and leave our cabin number to see if we could meet up. You are definitely correct that Celebrity is working very hard to cater to those in suites. No problem with that except when they are doing it at the expense of the rest of their passengers. That's not going to work for very long. I don't want special attention ... I just want the service we have received on most of the other 25 Celebrity cruises we've been on.

 

I was aware that there was a fair amount of crew change but that's not an unusual thing. May have been a bit higher percentage than normal but overall, passengers shouldn't even notice it. The entertainment production issues were way over the top. I don't believe that all the production staff never worked on a ship before. I actually really like the captain. We've sailed with him before. It just wasn't the typical crew attitude this time around. I noticed Julie seemed pleasant when she participated in some of the entertainment and I thought about asking to speak with her but never got around to it.

 

To all those sailing Silhouette in the near future, I hope you have a wonderful time. She is a beautiful ship and there are some wonderful crew on board. Hope the kinks we had last week are worked out and you'll have smooth sailing. :)

[Lineaway]

Hi Anne

Great review thanks. We just booked our 2nd Celebrity cruise on this ship for Feb of next year. Looking forward to it as our last Celebrity cruise was on the Summit a few years back and really loved it.

 

Questions.

You mentioned you take a shuttle to the Pier. I was wondering if there is a benefit to a Shuttle over a taxi at least in FLL? I have always taken a cab but you have been on far more cruises than I and may know something I don't. I would consider a shuttle next time.

 

Did you try room service for Bfast? Last time they had an expanded menu and the Bfast on our balcony was the most enjoyable. We are Conciere class again this time too. Did they end that perk?

 

Drink package question. We also have a drink package. If they slip a more expensive drink on us that isn't covered do you pay for the entire drink or just the difference in what your package covers and the extra?

 

I am sorry to hear about the food. That is the one thing that I remember Celebrity being better at over all the other lines I have been on. We were on the Carnival Dream in April and I thought the food was mediocre at best vs fair to good on our prior Carnival cruise. We also just got off the Emerald Princess last week and I thought the food was also mediocre vs. our last Princess cruise the food was good to very good. I think all lines are drastically slashing food costs and to me its a sneaky way to get you to pay for the Specialty Dinning.

 

Did they have any comedians onboard? Recently the entertainment has been rather bland and the Comics have been the best part.

[aloanldy]

Hi Texed -

 

How are you and Jacque doing? I'm surprised we haven't cruised together again.

 

Charlie

[TommyD3]

We have been on the Connie for 2 weeks now. I have noticed a difference in the "fresh squeezed OJ". It is still billed as "fresh squeezed"as far as I can tell. How can they charge extra for frozen OJ? That is the least expensive OJ available in US supermarkets. I will have to ask about this over the next few days. Thank you for the update.

[Texed]

Hi Texed -

How are you and Jacque doing? I'm surprised we haven't cruised together again.

Charlie

 

We are great!

I agree! Come join us on Reflection March 7th. ;)