What is Celebrity like and Silhouette

[harryspotter]

Hi, I am considering a 2 wk med cruise from UK.  I saw a review that this ship is unstable?  Don't like the sound of that.

 

What do you like and dislike about Celebrity?

 

What about this ship?

 

The other option is Sapphire Princess - thoughts too?

 

Cheers

[Jim_Iain]

I don't know where you read that Silhouette was unstable.   I find it to be a very stable ship.

 

My last cruise as a TA from Southampton in November.    There were two huge storms in the Atlantic and they had to go south of the Azores to miss the storms.   Silhouette handled the 25-30' waves quite well.

 

Generally the seas in the Med are protected but like any other location is variable according to weather conditions.   I would have no qualms sailing any of the Celebrity fleet.

 

As for likes -  I like a more sophisticated passenger mix, fewer children, Only one PA announcement per day and the friendliness of the staff.

[harryspotter]

Thanks Jim, appreciate the comments.

 

The review was one of the last reviews posted

 

 

[Pier290]

Took Silhouette from Venice on Greek Islands cruise..... absolutely perfect ship!!! Loved her. Incredible food and service.  Bon voyage!

[Jim_Iain]

3 minutes ago, harryspotter said:

Thanks Jim, appreciate the comments.

 

The review was one of the last reviews posted

 

 

 

I ready reviews with a grain of salt.    Even on the same cruise you will find as many opinions as passengers on the ship.    What I generally do on sites like Amazon is read  both good and bad reviews and then look at the percentage of reviews in each category.  

 

On our TA cruise the conditions were so bad at sea that they tied all the deck furniture  on the balconies.  Even with 25 foot seas (waves going over the top of the windows in Luminea)  I never felt the ship was unstable.   Sure she was rocking and rolling but definitely safe.

[boscobeans]

Been on her twice, both times from NY to the Caribbean in the Winter months and even in high seas the ship was moving but in no way felt unstable.

[Orator]

I've been on every ship, except Edge, multiple times and Silhouette is my favorite. They have all the venues found on Reflection and not the crowds. Be in her in June. Very stable ship.

[Luvcrusn]

I sailed Silhouette in December and she was quite stable. I'd have no problems sailing any of the X ships, but the S-class is my favorite (of which Silhouette is one). Great crew, sophisticated but not stuffy atmosphere, good food, , only 1 public announcement daily and decent entertainment and generally fewer children than other lines. 

[grandgeezer]

Our last three cruises, on Celebrity were all B2Bs on the Silhouette, spaced out over 1 1/2 years. We found the food in the buffet and MDR  was average and the service was as slow as we've ever seen it, probably due to cutbacks in staff. We found the production show unwatchable so we didn't go anymore after the first week of the first cruise. The last B2B was in Aqua as we figured it would be our swan song and might as well go out with a bang. Service and food in Blu was topnotch but the overall experience wasn't enough to get us back. If Celebrity's pricing would ever drop back to reasonable we would consider giving them another shot, but not on the Silhouette.

That ended 2 1/2 years ago. Since then we've done 14 days on the Allure, in a Grand Suite, and 14 days on MSC Seaside in a Yacht Club Deluxe Suite. We have another 14 day cruise on the Seaside in October. All three priced out at under $200 p.p. per day. Compared to the previous cruises, money well spent.

[cangelmd]

40 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I ready reviews with a grain of salt.    Even on the same cruise you will find as many opinions as passengers on the ship.    What I generally do on sites like Amazon is read  both good and bad reviews and then look at the percentage of reviews in each category.  

 

On our TA cruise the conditions were so bad at sea that they tied all the deck furniture  on the balconies.  Even with 25 foot seas (waves going over the top of the windows in Luminea)  I never felt the ship was unstable.   Sure she was rocking and rolling but definitely safe.

I was on the same cruise that Jim is describing and there was definitely rocking and rolling and motion, particularly while crossing the Bay of Biscay, but it never felt unsafe, and I think that was a rather extreme weather condition.

 

What do you mean by unstable?

 

Things to like about Celebrity - quiet, relaxing, tranquil "getaway" type vacation, good service, good food, ship rarely ever feels crowded.

 

Things to not like about Celebrity - quiet, tranquil vacation (I'm not kidding, if you are looking for flow riders or shipboard ziplines or pool slides, this isn't your cruise ship) not only are there not a lot of kids, the overall age skews older than other lines (but probably not so different than Princess), entertainment is only OK and slows down a lot after 10 pm, stateroom class system is a turn off for some.

[Texed]

2 hours ago, Orator said:

I've been on every ship, except Edge, multiple times and Silhouette is my favorite. They have all the venues found on Reflection and not the crowds.

 

Ditto!  😊

[DENIE]

Echo everything said so far.  Was on her in the Caribbean this last December....hardly felt it at all.  Great ship and crew!  We appreciate the quietness and "calm" demeanor.  The decor is very soothing, not gaudy.  Definitely fewer kids, but that might depend on the time we sailed.

[harryspotter]

Thanks for the comments, really useful. Anyone also been in princess? Any preference?

[villauk]

14 hours ago, Orator said:

I've been on every ship, except Edge, multiple times and Silhouette is my favorite. They have all the venues found on Reflection and not the crowds. Be in her in June. Very stable ship.

 

 

Have to agree: Silhouette is our favourite S class ship and a lot less crowded than Reflection. On her again in May 😉.

[drakes2]

17 hours ago, harryspotter said:

Hi, I am considering a 2 wk med cruise from UK.  I saw a review that this ship is unstable?  Don't like the sound of that.

 

What do you like and dislike about Celebrity?

 

What about this ship?

 

The other option is Sapphire Princess - thoughts too?

 

Cheers

Don't believe everything you read. My upcoming March cruise on Silhouette will be the 4th time on her and it's perfectly stable. Best crew out of all the S class ships in my opinion. Just relax and enjoy.

[Tillylovesseabourn]

I have heard and read excellent things about Silly, but i really am not a Princess fan. Each to his own though.

[kenevenpar]

Of the 5 S-Class, Sillie and Reflie tend to rock and roll more than Sollie (one l or two?), Equie and Eclie.  I heard it explained as them being more top heavy, and I experienced it on Reflie in relatively calm seas.  They are definitely not unstable, just a bit more rolling.  Arno wrote a good review about it aboard the Reflie a number of years ago, but I cannot find it with the search function.

[SleepingUgly]

We loved the Silhouette when we were on her for the holidays this past December / January.  Yes, we did feel some movement at times - just one or two evenings; not everyday - and it would be when we're walking down the long corridor back to our rooms.  Just a funny, rolling motion, like you are a bit unstable on your feet because you've had one too many.  Definitely not the "get me to a bathroom - QUICK" type of movement, and I am very sensitive to motion-sickness.  And, again, this was only a couple of evenings and not consistently throughout the night.

 

It is a fantastic ship - not too big, not too small (for us, at least).  If we wanted to be active, there were plenty of options for us.  If we wanted to relax, we could do so.  We were a family, ranging in age from 8 to mid-40s and we all enjoyed the cruise.  Thought it catered very well to people of all ages.  Granted, this was a holiday cruise so there were tons of large groups / families and children and teens (they said the ship was pretty much full, so around 3000 guests, and there were around 400 kids under the age of 18 aboard), but I'm pretty sure if you travel outside of the holiday period, you would not have to deal with so many whipper snappers.  At least, I would hope not!

 

Linda

 

[Hlitner]

Unstable?   Have no idea why anyone would make that kind of comment.  We have cruised on more then 70 different cruise ships and the Celebrity Solstice-Class (which includes the Silhouette) are among our favorite vessels.  In fact, both DW and I consider the Silhouette our favorite of all the Celebrity ships.  We have spent over 50 days on that vessel including several transatlantics.

 

I will add that we have also cruised on the Sapphire Princess and like that vessel as well as the Grand Class ships or Princess.  

 

Hank

[cruzysuzy]

Been on Princess quite a bit.  As much as I like Princess I give the edge to Celebrity for the food and entertainment.  I would downgrade Celebrity (in comparison to Princess) for not having passenger operated laundries and not as good loyalty program.

[downsmead]

We cruise both Princess and Celebrity and up to last summer would have said that there wasn't really much between them. However we sailed the Sapphire Princess to the Canary Islands last October and felt that Princess wasn't as good as it had been in the past. Though I will say that all cruise lines have changed over time. We then sailed Celebrity this January and had an overall better experience. 

Was it any one thing in particular - not really! The MDR food was better on Celebrity, preferred the evening entertsinment on Celebrity plus you could always get a seat in the theatre in the evening without having to be there 20 minutes before the show.

This may just be the Sapphire Princess rather than Princess per se, but you asked about the Sapphire in particular. We came off the ship wondering if we had cruised ourselves out, but then sailing Celebrity decided that this wasn't the case! 

[HelenREMfan]

I am not a good bad sea traveller and in fact as a teen on a terrible English Channel crossing, I swore I would never set foot on a boat again! Fast forward to my older age and I can say that in my 10+ cruises I haven't felt as much asa twinge and I have mostly crossed the Bay of Biscay! One other was the North sea which really "behaved" for me and then the Irish sea as we went around the UK ! So I have pushed my luck! 

I had mostly travelled on the Eclipse (once on the Constellation) so I was a lil sad to have to transfer to the Silhouette - the Eclipse having deserted Southampton for Dublin. I need not have worried as the "Sily" proved equally as good if not better. Am booked again for September..... can't wait !! 

[Jase0581]

I just got off the Silhouette yesterday from my first Celebrity cruise, and while I haven't been on the Sapphire Princess I have been on the Diamond which is the sister ship.

The staterooms on the Silhouette are much better than on Princess, with the exception of storage space.  To get a sofa in a Princess cabin you need to go to a mini-suite on most ships.

I found the Silhouette to have little movement in the moderate seas we saw on a couple days of the sailing.  Nothing felt unstable at all, same for any of the Princess ships I have been on.

I would say that the MDR food was better on Celebrity than what I have had on Princess, the food on Princess is good I just think I was so used to the menus that the change may have made it better.  The food in the buffet is average and about the same on both lines.  Where I feel Celebrity shined on the Silhouette is the speciality restaurants.  I ate at Murano, Tuscan Grill, and Lawn Club Grill and all were way above what Princess offers.

The Sapphire was redesigned to appeal to the Japanese market and there are several features for that demographic.

I am a Princess fan and now a Celebrity one too.  I loved the Silhouette and still love all of the Princess ships I have been on.  I would say to look at price, itinerary and any perks you may get and decide based on that.

 

Whatever you chose I don't think it would be a bad one.

[Cruise a holic]

18 hours ago, DENIE said:

Echo everything said so far.  Was on her in the Caribbean this last December....hardly felt it at all.  Great ship and crew!  We appreciate the quietness and "calm" demeanor.  The decor is very soothing, not gaudy.  Definitely fewer kids, but that might depend on the time we sailed.

been on the silhouette a few times will be on her again in a couple of weeks.  We really love this ship.  Everything IMO great. we have sailed on princess three times and we weren’t impressed.

 

On celebrity, smoke free casino and in greneral limited smoking areas.  Only one loud speaker announcement daily.  

Edited February 23, 2019 by Cruise a holic

[GerScot]

I always feel some movement...... strangely its mostly late at night on my way back to the cabin after getting my moneys worth from drinks package!!  Once inside I sleep like a log!!