Spoiled by the Summit!!

[oh2cruise]

After many cruises on our favorite ship, the Summit, we are on our first cruise on the Silhouette.  Lucky to be in a lovely Suite for the Xmas/New Year cruise.  The ship is beautiful.  The Retreat staff and absolutely all of the staff we have had the pleasure to meet are wonderful.  But, day 5 is drawing to a close, and we have yet to be welcomed on board by the Captain or ANY of the Executive Officers!  When we pass one of them walking around, there is no attempt to be friendly, not even initiating a “hello “. Not even a nod, wave or any recognition of the passengers at any of the evening theater shows… because they are not in attendance.  Having been on the Summit a couple of weeks ago and back in October, it is not my imagination that the officers made us feel important.  There have been no “sail aways” from the helipad, roses for the ladies on chic night, no events in the retreat lounge. No communications from art auctions, Effy sales, or  Captains Club left in our cabin. Shame on the Silhouette upper management/Officers for being so removed from their passengers, leaving the thank you for being on board to their employees! 

[Turtles06]

17 minutes ago, oh2cruise said:

But, day 5 is drawing to a close, and we have yet to be welcomed on board by the Captain or ANY of the Executive Officers!

 

Oh my goodness, the tragedy!

 

Or perhaps you are joking.  Kinda hard to tell.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Turtles06

[LGW59]

21 minutes ago, oh2cruise said:

After many cruises on our favorite ship, the Summit, we are on our first cruise on the Silhouette.  Lucky to be in a lovely Suite for the Xmas/New Year cruise.  The ship is beautiful.  The Retreat staff and absolutely all of the staff we have had the pleasure to meet are wonderful.  But, day 5 is drawing to a close, and we have yet to be welcomed on board by the Captain or ANY of the Executive Officers!  When we pass one of them walking around, there is no attempt to be friendly, not even initiating a “hello “. Not even a nod, wave or any recognition of the passengers at any of the evening theater shows… because they are not in attendance.  Having been on the Summit a couple of weeks ago and back in October, it is not my imagination that the officers made us feel important.  There have been no “sail aways” from the helipad, roses for the ladies on chic night, no events in the retreat lounge. No communications from art auctions, Effy sales, or  Captains Club left in our cabin. Shame on the Silhouette upper management/Officers for being so removed from their passengers, leaving the thank you for being on board to their employees! 

Are you serious?

[DCPIV]

I understand that senior officers are keeping their distance at the moment and that sailaway gatherings also are on pause. It's happened rather recently. 

[canderson]

I will say that senior officers were omnipresent on the first two cruises of Constellation this year, and interacting heavily with pax, answering questions, but mostly observing and soliciting feedback.  We'd never experienced anything quite like it on an X cruise before.

 

Then again, this was November, before omicron became such an 'event' 

[George C]

I really don’t care if I see senior officers or not , have had nice conversations with the captain on other cruises on other lines , I think Covid protocol might have something to do with it. The one cruise where we had several conversations with the captain was MSc yacht club. 

[chemmo]

When we were on Silhouette in September all officers had been instructed to avoid contact with guests. This was a consequence on the strict UK protocols. I would assume they have decided, given present circumstances, to reinstate this. Wisely too I would have thought. I would think, OP, if you were on Summit at present you would see a similar restriction in contact with officers and a reduction in special events in restricted spaces like the suite lounge.

 

We have on previous cruises enjoyed cocktail events, helipad sail aways and dining events. Whilst we don’t need to mix and mingle with staff to enjoy cruising it is a nice suite perk to enjoy events like the above and bridge tours, small galley tours etc. 

 

We have future suite cruises booked on Silhouette. We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise and felt very safe because of the restrictions rather than feeling our cruise experience was marred by them.  I hope the availability of special events with senior officers continues to focus on safety of staff and guests first. 

[zaxanon6]

I'm also on Silhouette right now. I'm sorry your expectations are not being met, but cannot share your complaints. The officers we've passed on the stairs or in Oceanview say hello with a smile (or at least from their eyes and tone it seems like they're smiling behind the masks). They had carolling with about a dozen officers and the CD on Christmas night in the Grand Foyer. We got flowers in the cabins (concierge class) on day 3, I believe, and there's been multiple envelopes from Park West, plus a printed list of Captain's Club events. I'm thankful they are not leaving the daily (or sometimes multiple daily) voicemails that you can't erase without listening to the entire thing. Overall, been very pleased with the crew and ship.

[Bo1953]

Oh the horror to sail in The Retreat and NOT be acknowledged by The Captain or other Senior Officers...

 

Guess, the OP will have lots to write about on their survey, if they get one... LOL

 

bon voyage

[NCTribeFan]

Last thing I want is more paper waste with ads for art auctions and Effy sales!  I'm sure anyone in the gift shop or art gallery would be happy to twist your arm to buy something overpriced if you just pay them a visit.  And we all know there's no such thing as a "sale" on these items!

 

I am looking forward to my sailing on Summit in April.

[Turtles06]

32 minutes ago, NCTribeFan said:

Last thing I want is more paper waste with ads for art auctions and Effy sales!  I'm sure anyone in the gift shop or art gallery would be happy to twist your arm to buy something overpriced if you just pay them a visit.  And we all know there's no such thing as a "sale" on these items!

 

Agreed. We were on the Silhouette for ten days earlier this month. We were inundated with ads for and invites to art auctions and jewelry “sales.” They went into the trash immediately.  I wish we could have stopped this junk mail. 
 

It’s hard to believe someone is complaining about not getting this stuff, so perhaps the OP is yanking our chain. 

[davy jones]

If cruise lines would cut out the in cabin ads, they could reduce fares based on printing savings alone.

[jg51]

On 12/28/2021 at 10:19 PM, oh2cruise said:

After many cruises on our favorite ship, the Summit, we are on our first cruise on the Silhouette.  ... But, day 5 is drawing to a close, and we have yet to be welcomed on board by the Captain or ANY of the Executive Officers!  ... Having been on the Summit a couple of weeks ago and back in October, it is not my imagination that the officers made us feel important.  ...

.

The "oldsters" among us will recall the early 1960s, when, to compete with Hertz, the Avis Rent-a-Car folks started airing commercials in which they said, "When you're only Number 2, you try harder."  We think that it's the same way with Celebrity ships.  The Millennium-class ships are "Number 2" (if not Number 3, behind Edge-class and Solstice-class) -- so the crew members "try harder" to please the public. 

 

We call the M-class "Celebrity Lite" (because they are missing many features), but we were on the Summit recently anyway.  Its per diem fares were lower (with good reason).

.

[cruise47]

Thanks for your observations