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Celebrity Silhouette - Norway


rachelfran
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We are considering this cruise in June out of Southhampton.

We've never been on a Celebrity cruise before but are considering the Aquaclass cabin.

Does anyone have experience on this ship, this itinerary? Recommended? 

Also -- we recently did Iceland -- but on land.  We rented a car and did a lot of the island and wonder if a Norway cruise would be too similar?

I suspect not since views are different from the water but wondering if anyone has the experience to compare both?

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

 

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Norway is very different than Iceland (we've done both).  The Silhouette is an excellent ship and aqua class very nice due to the Blu dining room.....but.....If you are going to do the coast of Norway, consider either Princess or HAL, both of which offer cruises that visit the North Cape.  Celebrity itineraries are not IMHO the best to see Norway.  

Edited by ghstudio
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3 minutes ago, ghstudio said:

Norway is very different than Iceland (we've done both).  The Silhouette is an excellent ship and aqua class very nice due to the Blu dining room.....but.....If you are going to do the coast of Norway, consider either Princess or HAL, both of which offer cruises that visit the North Cape.  Celebrity itineraries are not IMHO the best to see Norway.  

Thank you for this info .. We are not at all familiar .. so you think this is a better itinerary? https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details?voyageCode=3020

 

I don't think we have the time to get to the north cape...seems those cruises are 2 weeks long. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

We are very limited in when we can travel .. Having to be in Italy from July 6-8 and hoping to do this trip directly before or after.

 

 

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We cruised Eclipse in May to Norway a few years ago. Someone on board had a licence to film with a drone...search on YouTube ‘Celebrity Eclipse Norway and Ireland’. It will give you a good taster of the scenery...

 

We loved our cruise, we were blessed with wonderful weather, lots of things to see and do. You need to be up early to enjoy entering the Fjords. We would order coffee and pastries, wrap blankets around ourselves and sit on the balcony enjoying the views pass us by.

 

Silhouette has a refurbishment in January so should be in excellent condition. 

 

Hope this is helpful...

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We've sailed to both Iceland and Norway and they are VERY different. Please consider them as two very distinct cruises. 

I don't know the Norway itinerary you are considering but July/August is probably the best time to experience the green Norwegian terrain. The waterfalls (7 Sisters) may not be quite as full but each stop on a Norway itinerary is delightful.

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We did a similar cruise on Royal two years ago. We LOVED the cruise.  We did Royal only because we needed to out of Southampton and Celebrity was not doing that itinerary then.  The only itinerary differnce was we did Mole rather than Bergen.  Big plus for you doing Bergen.  The best part of the cruise is just sailing through the fjords and watching the scenery.  In Flam, do the railway. You can book it on your own,.

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14 hours ago, rachelfran said:

We are considering this cruise in June out of Southhampton.

We've never been on a Celebrity cruise before but are considering the Aquaclass cabin.

Does anyone have experience on this ship, this itinerary? Recommended? 

Also -- we recently did Iceland -- but on land.  We rented a car and did a lot of the island and wonder if a Norway cruise would be too similar?

I suspect not since views are different from the water but wondering if anyone has the experience to compare both?

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

 

We've done Iceland and Norway cruises on Silhouette both times in aqua class. I'd always recommend aqua class primarily for Blu as long as it's not priced too much more over regular cabins. I've seen differences range between $50 and $1100 only this week on different itineraries! 

Norway is beautiful. The cruise is all about the scenery. You're correct about the views being different, obviously. As has been said being up early and enjoying the sail in is a must do. On land there are a few similarities. Both countries are beautiful though. Bergen is worth a visit. 

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If you could squeeze in 12 days, Cunard does a norway cruise with a great itinerary as well.   For a 7 day cruise, Celebrity would be an excellent choice and you will see a great deal of Norways' coast.  If you are uncomfortable with the incremental price of an Aqua Class cabin, consider booking a 1A cabin (on the slanted section on deck plans) which have a larger balcony than other balcony cabins.   Book the Flam railway on your own.  Norway's a wonderful country to visit. 

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 We are doing the 8 day Norway cruise end of August on Silhouette. Have sailed Aqua in Silhouette, Eclipse and Equinox. Blu will be fantastic as it will be light during dinner time with the large port window. 
 

We are not Aqua on this cruise as travelling with friends who cannot stretch to it. Hope to try the MDR and some speciality restaurants. Am told the Tuscan is outstanding sailing out of Flam with the aft window!

 

Have been on land based holidays to Iceland and anticipate Norway to be very different. As stated the Northern itineraries to Norway are often in the Autumn and longer to take in the northern lights too. 

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5 hours ago, hawkesbaynz said:

 Am told the Tuscan is outstanding sailing out of Flam with the aft window!

 

 

 

Not just Flam...We looked at Tuscan opening times, times leaving Fjords, sunset times and enjoyed three fantastic meals as we left port and headed out of Fjords...

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On 12/21/2019 at 7:12 AM, Moby Jones said:

We've done Iceland and Norway cruises on Silhouette both times in aqua class. I'd always recommend aqua class primarily for Blu as long as it's not priced too much more over regular cabins. I've seen differences range between $50 and $1100 only this week on different itineraries! 

Norway is beautiful. The cruise is all about the scenery. You're correct about the views being different, obviously. As has been said being up early and enjoying the sail in is a must do. On land there are a few similarities. Both countries are beautiful though. Bergen is worth a visit. 

this particular cruise seems to have $1000 price difference pp on aqua over standard ... i guess that's considered not worth it in  your opinion?

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1 hour ago, rachelfran said:

this particular cruise seems to have $1000 price difference pp on aqua over standard ... i guess that's considered not worth it in  your opinion?

 

I think first of all I should say that I like aqua class a lot, largely for Blu as I find the food enjoyable and the service very good with a noticeable step up from the MDR. 

However our Norwegian cruise was eight days long so in this instance we're talking $125 per person per day more. That's more than enough to buy both a beverage package (assuming you don't have one) and a specialty dining package with money left over. If you're sailingfrom Southampton you'll be sailing on Silhouette an S class ship which has a good number of nice specialty restaurants such as Murano, Tuscan Grille, Le Petit Chef an Sushi on five plus a couple of others. 

If you're a foody in my opinion I'd spend the additional $1000 on a beverage pack and specialty dining. If you already have a beverage package then I'd spend the money on shore excursions etc. 

All IMHO of course. But if aqua class was just $200 or less then I would book it.  
 

Edited by Moby Jones
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  • 1 month later...

We have done both Ireland and Iceland and Norwegian Fjords cruises with Celebrity (generally in May), both on the Eclipse (sister ship to Silly).   We have also done Norwegian Fjords on NCL (August).  We loved both, but Norway is different to Iceland.   We love the Fjords so much we are doing them again, on Silhouette in May this year.

 

We've not done Aqua as we havent been wowed by Blu's menus (I know others love them) and we like the specialty dining restaurants.   We'll be in Concierge Class (as it cost the same as the 1A veranda stateroom we originally looked at - otherwise, not convinced concierge is worth the extra cash) up on Deck 12.

 

Not sure what the itinerary is.  Ours includes Bergen, Gerainger, Olden and Stavanger.  We have not been to Olden before but we have been to Flaam and Alesund.  So here are some thoughts.

 

Whether you do excursions or not is up to you, but it may be helpful to know that in all ports you can get off and wander.  Indeed, this is what we do.  

 

Alesund:  On our first visit we were not wowed, but it was ascension day and everything was shut.  There is a view point, which you can amble to by first walking the streets up to a park (this is a reasonably steep walk) and then walk up about 440 steps (that is very steep).  On our second visit, my OH suggested we do this.  Blimey it is steep!   He got vertigo half way up and chickened out, but I made it to the top and got amazing photos (I have added a couple of panoramics).  There is a road train that can take you there.   I think there may be a HO HO bus.

 

Bergen:  Beautiful place.  A free shuttle bus takes you to the edge of the port and from there it is an easy 20 min walk to the Fish Market (you can get whale burgers!  We haven't but we hear they are whaley good) and UNESCO world heritage site.  Very picturesque and worth it.  We havent done the funicular as the queues are always LONG.   

 

Flaam:  Tiny place, wonderful sail in.  Worth doing the Flaam railway.  We did it as a ship tour, but may be cheaper to book directly with the railway (you can find it online).  It gets crowded and sells out -  so if you want to do it, book early.

 

Geiranger:   The sail in/out is majestic.  Worth getting up early to watch - or of course watch on the way out (go to the Sunset bar and sit out with a hot chocolate).   The sail out can be worth having dinner in Tuscan Grill.   That is what we do.   Geiranger is a small village (but slightly larger than Flaam).  You can easily walk from ship to shops and around the head of the fjord.  The walk up to the Fjord Centre is a bit steep, and from there you can walk down a stepped walkway by the waterfall back in to the centre.   We havent done any excursions here, but might consider one to the top of the mountains.

 

Olden:  Not been yet - looking forward to it.  

 

Stavanger:  You can walk straight from the dock into the town, very easy.  To the right are the cobbled streets with old white wooden houses, worth a browse around.  We liked strolling round the town admiring the street art.   Had a good day.

 

Weather, whenever you go, can be very changeable - and Bergen gets a lot of rain.  We had downpours the first time we went and glorious sunshine the second.    The secret is pack layers and pack waterproofs.    The tops of the hills surrounding the fjords were bleak/snow-covered in May and verdant in September.  Wonderful either way.

 

Money:  Norwegian Kroner.  Stuff in Norway is expensive.   They are very geared to a cashless society, and so last time we just took credit cards rather than changing money.  That worked well for us and we will do that this year as well.  Fair to note though that we don't really go in for souvenir shopping.

 

 

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We did the 8 night Norway Fjords cruise on Reflection out of Dublin this past May.  It was awesome. Even though the weather was off the week we went.. We just put on our cold weather rain/snow gear and did not slow us down. We had a blast with the eMobility in Geiranger.  In Bergen we has fun with a segway tour.  Alesund we hike to the top of Sugar Mountain.  If you go to Olden they have two cars to rent in the whole town.. We rented both (had a group of 8 ) and beat out the bus tours.  It was awesome we went to two glaciers and the skylift and at the glaciers we were the only people there for over an hour.  So worth it to rent the cars and avoid the crowds.   Happy Planning you will love it.  

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I highly recommend Azamara for their 15+ nights in Norway.  We took the cruise in 2018 and loved every second.  Went up to the North Cape and some of the cruises now go even further north.   If it's in the budget I recommend this cruise line because it's small (under 700 pax) and can get way into the fjords and right into town.  

 

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We sailed Silhouette to Norway last August (2019) and of our 25+ cruises it was probably our favourite. The ship was lovely, the scenery was fantastic and the weather was perfect (a rarity). We normally sail in Aqua Class but had a concierge class cabin for this cruise. 

 

We walked into town in Stavanger and Flam ... very walkable and easy to get around.

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