Silhouette around Britain staycruisecations

[upwarduk]

41 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Regrettable he only seems to do the Pacific.

We did a few TA’s with John Grantham as CD. Also a Hawaiian cruise on Century.

We booked what was supposed to be the final Century cruise , Dubai to Rome, where she was then supposed to go to Cadiz for dry dock prior to transfer to Pullmantur.

However, she was redeployed early and I heard that John went with her to the Asian market.

Edited September 8, 2021 by upwarduk

[iandjm]

39 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Our favourite John Grantham. His style is unique. He used to be Stunt Man. On sea days he does a daily show talking to all the guest entertainers in which he encourages audience participation. Also informal discussions in Celebrity Central with various officers with nothing off limits. His Liars Club nights push the limits to breaking point. He also does a show featuring films of some of his stunts. He is at the gangway at every port to see as many people off as possible and back again to greet passengers as they return. Finally he hates his office and you will always find him a corner if the Al Bacio or one of the bars doing is paperwork. Regrettable he only seems to do the Pacific. Geoff

Remember him well. Did a great presentation on his stunt man days.  A good guy 

[Thaumas]

In advance of joining the Celebrity Silhouette this Saturday, we had our PCR tests this morning, courtesy of Celebrity's agent, Eurofins - no results yet.

What I was expecting:

A plush office, with receptionist who would direct us into the doctor's surgery, where we would be personally greeted by an elderly, possibly retired, GP in a white coat and stethoscope who would skilfully and reassuringly conduct the tests with a minimum of fuss.

What we got:

A rather bored looking bloke with tats (but no mask), sitting in a small portakabin in Asda's car park, who gave us the test kits and told us to read the instructions and do it ourselves. Welcome to the new normal!

On the upside, we did meet Chris and Chris in the car park.

[Mark_T]

5 minutes ago, Thaumas said:

A rather bored looking bloke with tats (but no mask), sitting in a small portakabin in Asda's car park, who gave us the test kits and told us to read the instructions and do it ourselves. Welcome to the new normal!

Clearly there is some variability in their facilities...

 

Our experience at the Luton Airport Marriott was very different.

 

They were working out of a meeting room, with a receptionist handling the check-in and data verification, then a young man handling the sample collection which he did himself.

 

Both wearing appropriate PPE, all done for two of us in about 5 mins from start to finish.

[lovetoholiday]

18 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

Clearly there is some variability in their facilities...

 

Our experience at the Luton Airport Marriott was very different.

 

They were working out of a meeting room, with a receptionist handling the check-in and data verification, then a young man handling the sample collection which he did himself.

 

Both wearing appropriate PPE, all done for two of us in about 5 mins from start to finish.

Very similar set up in the Radisson at East Midlands airport yesterday.  3 guys there. We had been there back in July and our tests were wrongly/un labelled so no results.  This time it all went smoothly and the results came through early this morning.  Looking forward to being back on the Silhouette, had a great time in July going nowhere.

[techwatcher]

3 hours ago, Mark_T said:

Clearly there is some variability in their facilities...

 

Our experience at the Luton Airport Marriott was very different.

 

They were working out of a meeting room, with a receptionist handling the check-in and data verification, then a young man handling the sample collection which he did himself.

 

Both wearing appropriate PPE, all done for two of us in about 5 mins from start to finish.

Pretty much our experience at the Doubletree at Manchester Airport yesterday, together with dedicated parking spaces. Arrived early and were out before our appointment time.

[the penguins]

3 hours ago, pward123 said:

Pretty much our experience at the Doubletree at Manchester Airport yesterday, together with dedicated parking spaces. Arrived early and were out before our appointment time.

Similar at Stansted ( Hampton by Hilton) except £6 parking charge. Testn10.40 yesterday, negative result 07.55 today.

[KaryEstelle]

Hello should we ask for gate 8 if getting a taxi to the Cruise Terminal from Southampton? Thank you

[Mark_T]

The precise location is City Cruise Terminal, berth 101 and you should be able to get their via Gate 8 or 10.

 

Usually Gate 8 would be closed as the Boat Show is on, but this year it is still open.

[hawkesbaynz]

I have requested our taxi to take us to Gate 8, City Cruise Terminal.

 

Eurofinns lost my wife’s results. Mine arrived 7.50 this am. Spent 30 minutes on the phone this afternoon during which it popped up on the website. All pleasant staff but got the impression minimally trained. 

[KaryEstelle]

Thank you so much for your reply.

[KaryEstelle]

Thank you so much for your reply.

Edited September 16, 2021 by KaryEstelle

[Eglesbrech]

Well the Last day of a lovely cruise. We have been lucky with the weather and the sea state.

 

The ship feels really safe with good distancing, mask adherence and cleaning regime. We had under 800 pax onboard.

 

We have had no production shows this week as a member of the show team has had covid so they are all in isolation (announcement from Captain 2 days ago). The entertainment has been good anyway with a nice mix of shows in a more than half empty theatre.

 

There are some things missing due to covid but nothing that would spoil the cruise IMO.

 

Luminae has been great, Murano as good as ever - Quisine good show really poor food! Didn’t like Sushi on 5 as we went in at 1.30 with a 3 pm closing time and felt a bit harassed as they were clearing all the tables around us by 2 pm.

 

It has been really lovely to be back onboard again with generally good food, service and entertainment. Hope the next cruise is as good as this one, Bon voyage.

[swjumbo]

I haven’t looked at this forum in a while but you’ve got to give Celebrity a bit of slack. They’re trying their best dealing with endless changes and bureaucracy whilst still trying to give us an amazing experience at sea.

There was a comment earlier about them not having great acts like John Bishop. Really? If you want to go to P&O then please feel free but for me, boarding Celebrity was like coming home. The entertainment was, for us, amazing and if you don’t like it then walk with your drink to another venue. There are plenty of them.
The Argentinian group (can’t remember their name but awesome, especially the pianist,) were just the best!
Eurofins wasn’t plush but it did the job and we had a fabulous time as should you Dear Reader so stop complaining.

[Chanbre]

Yesterday our nine night cruise on the Silhouette ended. From Southampton we went anti-clockwise around the UK with stops at Kirkwall, Invergorden, Liverpool, Belfast and Greenock, plus three sea days. There were 1500 passengers on board.

Checkin

 

Our cases were collected from us in the car park and we walked to the terminal. Outside the terminal we were asked a few basic questions including whether we had our passports and had done our tests. Then, even though we had arrived shortly before our allocated time slot, we were waved through.

 

Inside the terminal there were numerous lanes where documents were being checked. It appeared as if there were enought lanes open that no one needed to queue. We went directly to an empty lane where someone was waiting. All our documents had been printed, the checker read through them quickly and took photos of a couple of them. Then we were told we could board the ship. It took maybe fifteen minutes from the car park to boarding the ship. There is a long row of desks in the terminal they appeared to be busy with people who, presumably, needed additional checking.

 

On board we were asked to go directly to our muster station before going to our cabin or any other venue. At the muster station the two of us were given a quick safety briefing, our sea card was scanned and we were done. There was no queue and it only took a few minutes.

Masks and social distancing

 

Most of the passengers wore masks most of the time while moving around inside the ship. A few took their masks off while seated in the theatre. The crew were masked all of the time both inside and on the open decks.

 

Most of the time people stayed a short distance apart. Lifts generally held a maximum of four, frequently people let a partially occupied lift go and waited for another. Chairs in Al Bacio, also empty tables at lunchtime in the OVC, could be hard to find. Some people were happy to share a table but a small number were quite rude when saying they did not want to share or have anyone sitting close.

 

One expection to the social distancing was at a sale in the deck-5 jewellery shops. Some display cases were covered with cloths, the shop keepers gave an introduction to the sale before the grand unveil. The ladies forgot their social distancing. They all crowded togther, shoulders toughing shoulders and two or three deep, so they could get first views of the the items on offer. On the positive side, they were masked.

Wifi

 

We had the basic all-included wifi package. Emails and web browsing mostly worked fine, although somewhat slowly. Some websites were blocked, or partially blocked. Youtube would not load at all. Ebay-UK partily loaded but was unusable. BBC news loaded perfectly, although I did not try any of their videos. WhatsApp was fine with text messages but we could not send or receive pictures. WhatsApp rang a few times announcing voice calls, but they did not connect.

[Blighty770]

19 hours ago, swjumbo said:

There was a comment earlier about them not having great acts like John Bishop. Really? If you want to go to P&O then please feel free but for me, boarding Celebrity was like coming home. The entertainment was, for us, amazing and if you don’t like it then walk with your drink to another venue. There are plenty of them.
The Argentinian group (can’t remember their name but awesome, especially the pianist,) were just the best!
 

The Argentinian group are The Starlighters, and they are really terrific. We met them on our Caribbean cruise in February last year before the world shut down. They were definitely amazing entertainers and very lovely people. We will miss them on our upcoming cruise as they fly home for a break on 18 October. The same very day we board Silhouette in Southampton.... Ah well, we hope to hear their music again before too long. 🙂  

[Cellen]

We are on the Silhouette in October and as I understand it we have to wait for an email from Celebrity giving a reference before booking our free PCR test with Eurofan.  Can anyone tell me how far in advance you received this reference to book your test? Thanks.

[Wichenford Wolf]

15 minutes ago, Cellen said:

We are on the Silhouette in October and as I understand it we have to wait for an email from Celebrity giving a reference before booking our free PCR test with Eurofan.  Can anyone tell me how far in advance you received this reference to book your test? Thanks.

We got our email on 25th July for our 14th August cruise, so about three weeks before.

[Chanbre]

We received our emails for the Eurofins testing on 24 August for a 18 September departure. We received separate emails and we had to create two Eurofins accounts and book one test on each account. We did get adjacent test times.

[downsmead]

We are on the 18th October sailing and have received our emails from Celebrity re PCR tests with Eurofin and have booked our slots.

[the penguins]

3 hours ago, Chanbre said:

Yesterday our nine night cruise on the Silhouette ended. From Southampton we went anti-clockwise around the UK with stops at Kirkwall, Invergorden, Liverpool, Belfast and Greenock, plus three sea days. There were 1500 passengers on board.

Checkin

 

Our cases were collected from us in the car park and we walked to the terminal. Outside the terminal we were asked a few basic questions including whether we had our passports and had done our tests. Then, even though we had arrived shortly before our allocated time slot, we were waved through.

 

Inside the terminal there were numerous lanes where documents were being checked. It appeared as if there were enought lanes open that no one needed to queue. We went directly to an empty lane where someone was waiting. All our documents had been printed, the checker read through them quickly and took photos of a couple of them. Then we were told we could board the ship. It took maybe fifteen minutes from the car park to boarding the ship. There is a long row of desks in the terminal they appeared to be busy with people who, presumably, needed additional checking.

 

On board we were asked to go directly to our muster station before going to our cabin or any other venue. At the muster station the two of us were given a quick safety briefing, our sea card was scanned and we were done. There was no queue and it only took a few minutes.

Masks and social distancing

 

Most of the passengers wore masks most of the time while moving around inside the ship. A few took their masks off while seated in the theatre. The crew were masked all of the time both inside and on the open decks.

 

Most of the time people stayed a short distance apart. Lifts generally held a maximum of four, frequently people let a partially occupied lift go and waited for another. Chairs in Al Bacio, also empty tables at lunchtime in the OVC, could be hard to find. Some people were happy to share a table but a small number were quite rude when saying they did not want to share or have anyone sitting close.

 

One expection to the social distancing was at a sale in the deck-5 jewellery shops. Some display cases were covered with cloths, the shop keepers gave an introduction to the sale before the grand unveil. The ladies forgot their social distancing. They all crowded togther, shoulders toughing shoulders and two or three deep, so they could get first views of the the items on offer. On the positive side, they were masked.

Wifi

 

We had the basic all-included wifi package. Emails and web browsing mostly worked fine, although somewhat slowly. Some websites were blocked, or partially blocked. Youtube would not load at all. Ebay-UK partily loaded but was unusable. BBC news loaded perfectly, although I did not try any of their videos. WhatsApp was fine with text messages but we could not send or receive pictures. WhatsApp rang a few times announcing voice calls, but they did not connect.

All good - two things to add:

Have your documents printed not on your phones. WIFI in terminal poor. 

No sharing of tables in the dining rooms with anyone outside of your group /cabin. If you want to share with friends  "link" the bookings before you board - it can't be done on the ship. Geoff

[tommy921]

13 hours ago, the penguins said:

All good - two things to add:

Have your documents printed not on your phones. WIFI in terminal poor. 

No sharing of tables in the dining rooms with anyone outside of your group /cabin. If you want to share with friends  "link" the bookings before you board - it can't be done on the ship. Geoff

Yes, we were on this cruise as well, in Aqua. It was great to be back on board. We were on board within 30 minutes at S'ton and before our allocated time. As mentioned before it is much easier to have things printed, as the staff take photos of the paperwork.

Lewis the CD informed us there were 1,447 people on board (5 didn't get on for some reason), although unfortunately some passengers had to be taken off at various ports for medical emergencies. We were only told of one Covid case, with a passenger.

In Blu restaurant, tables were mainly set for two and set about a metre apart, so you could talk to your neighbour. There were a few tables for 4/6.

We found the wi-fi to be best for access and a bit faster in the afternoons and some websites were not responsive for some reason. 

Access for Aqua passengers and the Persian Garden has to be booked in advance and is in 1 hour slots and restricted to about 6 guests.

The weather could have been a bit kinder and there was a mess up with the departure time at Liverpool. Initially it was 2pm, then changed to 4.25pm in the information booklet sent a month before and when we got on board it was back to 2pm. We only found out by accident the evening before. It caused a bit of frustration with us, as we were meeting friends. When I took it up with Guest Relations, they said to check the X app!




 

Edited September 29, 2021 by tommy921

[upwarduk]

1 hour ago, tommy921 said:

When I took it up with Guest Relations, they said to check the X app!

Well, that was never updated!!
We had an excursion time changed x2, but the app wasn’t updated. 
I mentioned it on the mid cruise survey.

[swjumbo]

Well if that’s your only gripe then you’ve got a lot to be thankful for.

[laslomas]

On 9/28/2021 at 4:57 PM, Chanbre said:

Yesterday our nine night cruise on the Silhouette ended. From Southampton we went anti-clockwise around the UK with stops at Kirkwall, Invergorden, Liverpool, Belfast and Greenock, plus three sea days. There were 1500 passengers on board.

Checkin

 

Our cases were collected from us in the car park and we walked to the terminal. Outside the terminal we were asked a few basic questions including whether we had our passports and had done our tests. Then, even though we had arrived shortly before our allocated time slot, we were waved through.

 

Inside the terminal there were numerous lanes where documents were being checked. It appeared as if there were enought lanes open that no one needed to queue. We went directly to an empty lane where someone was waiting. All our documents had been printed, the checker read through them quickly and took photos of a couple of them. Then we were told we could board the ship. It took maybe fifteen minutes from the car park to boarding the ship. There is a long row of desks in the terminal they appeared to be busy with people who, presumably, needed additional checking.

 

On board we were asked to go directly to our muster station before going to our cabin or any other venue. At the muster station the two of us were given a quick safety briefing, our sea card was scanned and we were done. There was no queue and it only took a few minutes.

Masks and social distancing

 

Most of the passengers wore masks most of the time while moving around inside the ship. A few took their masks off while seated in the theatre. The crew were masked all of the time both inside and on the open decks.

 

Most of the time people stayed a short distance apart. Lifts generally held a maximum of four, frequently people let a partially occupied lift go and waited for another. Chairs in Al Bacio, also empty tables at lunchtime in the OVC, could be hard to find. Some people were happy to share a table but a small number were quite rude when saying they did not want to share or have anyone sitting close.

 

One expection to the social distancing was at a sale in the deck-5 jewellery shops. Some display cases were covered with cloths, the shop keepers gave an introduction to the sale before the grand unveil. The ladies forgot their social distancing. They all crowded togther, shoulders toughing shoulders and two or three deep, so they could get first views of the the items on offer. On the positive side, they were masked.

Wifi

 

We had the basic all-included wifi package. Emails and web browsing mostly worked fine, although somewhat slowly. Some websites were blocked, or partially blocked. Youtube would not load at all. Ebay-UK partily loaded but was unusable. BBC news loaded perfectly, although I did not try any of their videos. WhatsApp was fine with text messages but we could not send or receive pictures. WhatsApp rang a few times announcing voice calls, but they did not connect.

 

I was also on this cruise and found that check-in was great, and the wi-fi rather difficult as you stated. I think the difficulty finding tables in the OVC at lunchtimes on a couple of days was due to the weather as although at only 50% capacity, almost everyone was indoors. Usually some would eat at the Mast grill, but with the bad weather there was not much choice. Many were taking laden plates to their cabins in much larger numbers that usual due to this. 

I may have been one of the "rude people" not wanting to share tables. Along with many people I tried to follow the guidelines, which included only sitting with my own party in venues on board. It was almost impossible to get a table in Al Bacio, but during the morning seating was also available in Sushi on 5. When I did get seated I did not want to be made to feel in the wrong for not wishing to share, and to be thought of as rude. I avoided the shops when crowded, so probably missed any bargains, if there were any.

The tables in the MDR were spread out, and some out of service for distancing, so frequently we were given a pager / buzzer. But the wait was never very long. It was not possible to book the MDR more than a day ahead on the App. Not sure why??!!

The crew were wonderful and went out of their way to keep everything running smoothly. So even though I knew it was only 50% capacity, it was not really obviously only half full (probably due to the weather) and there was a really vibrant atmosphere. A brilliant cruise.🙂 🍹