Review/Comments on Silhouette Cruise - July 6-18 - 12 Night Scandinavia and Russia

[Crusin Kelly]

Oslo

The Silhouette docked right across from the Akershus Fortress on a drizzly foggy morning – don’t forget your umbrella today! We get another good breakfast and get our tour stickers in the theater for the last time on this cruise. The rain is relentless as we work our way to the bus and through the town of Oslo as we head towards the sculpture garden in Vigeland park. We are only here once, so into the rain we go. Turns out that even under umbrellas one can get pretty good photos of the many interesting sculptures, large fountain and unusual monolith. The unique sculpture park is Gustav Vigeland's lifework with more than 200 sculptures in bronze, granite and wrought iron. The statues are all naked some alone, some interacting with other people, children playing, young adults exploring their relationships, parents and grandparents interacting with each other. The monolith has 121 intertwined figures that are characterized by sadness and despair, delight and hope, next to a feeling of togetherness. The sculptor left the interpretation up to the viewer, but mostly tells the story of man’s journey from cradle to grave.

 

Our next stop was atop the nearby mountain at the Holmenkollbakken ski jump originally opened in 1892, later the site of the 1952 winter Olympic ski jumping competition. The entire jump has been reconstructed several times, the current facility opened March 2006 and features a tower that is 138 feet tall providing a launch point for jumps of over 450 feet. When we arrived, however, the low clouds and fog prevented us from making out any details of the large gray structure and landing zone.

 

On the way back to the ship we make a short stop at the Viking ship museum where they have restored unearthed Viking ships and other artifacts. While we were eating lunch, the clouds parted, and the sun broke through providing us a glorious afternoon for our walking tour. We made our way from the harbor to the City Hall, saw the Royal Palace from a distance, walked past the Oslo Cathedral, finally walking through the Akershus Fortress before ending right at the ship. A tired couple of travelers, we were. Oslo turned out to be one of our favorite places.

[Crusin Kelly]

Amsterdam

The final port on our itinerary was Amsterdam. For disembarkation convenience, we had changed our local hotel to the Movenpick which was located right next to the cruise port. We were surprised to read that our luggage tags provided would facilitate the delivery of the luggage from the hall outside our cabin, directly to our room. An unpublished pleasure, not to have to deal with groups and locating our 2 bags in the warehouse of rows and rows of belongings delivered there. With that bit of convenience, we were free to disembark at our leisure and take our time to get to the hotel where we were to meet our tour. Arriving 2 hours earlier than the meeting time, we walked the area ending up at Dam Square. Back to the hotel in plenty of time, and after several calls from the bellman at the hotel our guide finally showed up 30 minutes late. Turns out this was a private tour, just the 2 of us, so that allowed us flexibility to take our time admiring the windmills at the beautiful Zaanse Sachans village. We saw a working windmill crushing rocks, a cheese making demonstration and a workman demonstrating how to make a wooden clog. Very interesting heritage society presentation of a traditional working village. Our guide turned us over to his father, the owner of the tour company for a ride back to the city, where we requested to be dropped off at the Rijkesmuseum.

A guided tour provided a wealth of information about the dutch masters and insight to the artists and paintings we saw. Iconic self portrait of Van Gogh, Vermeer’s “The Milkmaid”, Rembrandt's greatest masterpiece “The Night Watch” are certainly highlights of the tour. It is a very large facility, way too much to see in a couple of hours. We took a cab back downtown to catch a late afternoon canal ride through several canals,under many bridges. What a great view of a remarkable city.

Kelly was coming down with a cold as we got off the canal boat, so it took a few minutes longer to make our way back to the hotel having to stop every 200 yards or so to catch our breath. Check-in and off to the room where we discover that yes, the luggage had been delivered. A great view of the city from the room was enjoyed shortly before dinner. At the front desk, we arranged for a taxi to the airport for the next day and then crashed into bed.

A non-eventful drive to the airport followed by a long COLD flight home and we call this trip complete.

[dodger1964]

I wasn't going to go that far, my wife accuses me of being negative... but you definitively said it. there were bright spots at most meals, but not the way it was. as I mentioned in my first posting, the joke that was chocolate lava cake ! the Steak was good, not $45 good, in the lawn grill... the hollandaise sauce was always COLD. The food is probably what will drive me away from another Celebrity cruise. And don't get me started on the slobs that are allows to enter the MDR. . . :rolleyes:

 

Just to make sure others know, jeans are allowed any night in the MDR per the official dress code. We have never had to worry, since have never had a meal in the MDR, but we found the food delivered from the MDR on our last cruise (The one after yours) to be good. Nothing to write home about, but nothing we couldn't eat.

[Pushka]

We were on the same cruise so it has been interesting reading your review. We did mainly DIY excursions. The food - I wish they would serve more vegetables with their meat - that is probably my enduring memory. We enjoyed the buffet offerings esp the Indian curry. I did have an issue at breakfast one morning that was witnessed by an Officer - I didn't realize at the time - and received an apology from the Maitre D. Some crew were wonderful but a few let the team down. The MDR food was ok other than lack of vegetables but a couple of nights I did struggle to find something I really liked.

Our experience at disembarking in SPB was dreadful as clearly they let their excursions off first but Celebrity blamed Russian immigration for the delays in getting us off the ship. But obviously the excursion people were exiting while we were stuck in the main atrium. And once off the ship it was so cold as we were stuck outside immigration that Celebrity were handing out tiny cups of hot chocolate.

 

We used SPB in SPB and the 2 day excursion was jam packed. The Marathon on the Sunday did not help. We also visited the Faberge Museum which was excellent. Peterhoff Gardens. The only thing we didn't see was one of the Palaces where Rasputin was killed. But you just couldn't fit everything in.

 

We had anytime dining and most nights were given a pager. We liked the Martini Bar and were regulars but could not get near it on the last night to farewell the staff as everyone else decided that was their night to visit, so that was a shame.

 

Credit cards can be used everywhere. There are so many currencies on this cruise that getting them prior was too expensive.

 

As tip for those in Oslo. The souvenir shop on the dock has the best winter clothing and at a great price.

 

I'd rate the cruise a solid 8. Disembarking in Amsterdam was easy as we had purchased an Extend Your Stay. And it was hot in Amsterdam. We realized that having only done Med cruises that this trip was much cooler than expected. And we missed not having drinks on the open aft deck outside the buffet. Too cold most nights. The sailaway from Stockholm was fabulous.

[Crusin Kelly]

I see from your signature, you have QM2 in 2017 - already done or taken already? If already taken, can you compare the service/food/ship?

[Pushka]

I see from your signature, you have QM2 in 2017 - already done or taken already? If already taken, can you compare the service/food/ship?

 

 

 

Yes already completed. It was my third journey on QM2. I can state it's a completely different experience. The ship is traditional so wood paneling and brass. Celebrity S ships are modern light and airy and QM2 not so much. Fewer children on QM. Dress standards are upheld if that's important to you esp on Formal night. It isn't a ship that my husband would enjoy while he is still working as it's a relax time for him and he has to wear suits every day for work. The meals - as there is no ATD on QM2 the meals are a different experience and it's important to have compatible table mates or you are stuck with them. QM2 buffet is smaller but still quite good whereas Celebrity buffet is much better. I'd say service is comparable. Just 2 different cruising experiences indeed.