misprint

Not entirely true, sailed on Silhouette in May and the regular dishes (steak etc) had been changed to ‘supposedly’ suit the British clientele, there was Irish stew and liver. Not impressed and I am a Brit!

I do always leave the auto grats on and have given extra at the end for exceptional service but have read recently about staff having to add these extras to the ‘pool’. I would feel frustrated if I was giving extra for this to then go into the pot to subsidise the people who do not tip at all.

As a Brit I don’t feel the need to tip up front to ensure good service, a tip is given as a reward for good service.

I have read on other threads that some cruisers tip at the beginning of their cruise to ensure good service. This may be as well as either auto gratuities or tipping at the end in an envelope.

If you do tip at the beginning, either to your favourite waiter, your cabin steward or indeed anyone else that you are hoping will look after you especially well does that person then have to put that money in the pot with the auto grats.

I always take more than I need. You might have a cool day that you need something a little warmer or it may be strappy tops all the way. I take enough clothes to cover all eventualities. Also for the evenings I take extra as depending on how I feel I might wear a cocktail dress or trousers and top. Each time I vow to cut down but never do.

Thanks for all your replies.

Many thanks I will investigate

Can any recent cruisers tell me if Celebrity do a shuttle bus from Zeebrugge to Blankenberg and if so how much did it cost.

Thanks for the replies, fingers crossed we can dock in August.

I was reading a post on Facebook which said Celebrity Silhouette had been unable to dock in St Petersburg due to high winds. I know this happens sometimes at various ports but I had never heard of it happening in St Petersburg, is this a regular occurence or unusual?

Thank you

Thank you, I will go prepared just in case.

Watching the World Cup there seems to be a lot of mosquitoes where England were playing. Is this something that we need to take into consideration in St Petersburg?

On the Silhouette soon, be interested to know about that one.

 

We were on Eclipse when they were trialling Sushi on 5, wish the crepes had stayed!

I wish the crepes had stayed too :(

Were the bookings joined together?

I was thinking that also, surely if bookings are linked the dining time should be the same.

Yes for at least the last 4 years cruises from Southampton we've spotted Chicken Tikka Masala, Irish Stew, and Liver and Onions mixed in with the other "classics" . IIRC one of these UK specials takes the place of one of the other classics each night. Steak, Salmon, Chicken still appear.

Steak did not appear as a classic on the Bravo cruise, it was salmon, chicken and stew, liver, sausage etc as the third option.

It recently happened to us on an upcoming cruise ( very soon) where I noticed the “sale price” after final payment significantly lower than what I had paid. So, I contacted my TA, by email, “just in case”.

 

I did not have high expectations because it was after final payment, just a hope. Who knows what would happen, right?

 

As expected, my TA informed me that a refund was not possible; however, to my great surprise and pleasure, we were provided a significant cabin upgrade.

 

I really feel like I won loto cruise update! Wow!

 

I am very thankful to Celebrity and my TA and really look forward to this new experience! So, asking nicely, sometimes, may be once in a million, can result in a positive outcome!

 

 

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I noticed that my upcoming cruise had a significant reduction and so I did a ‘just in case’ email to my TA. Very polite I thought but 3 weeks later not even had the courtesy of a reply. I will think twice before booking with them again.

I loved bistro on 5.

Slightly off topic but how popular is Sushi on five. Just off Silhouette and it was never busy, in fact it was mostly completely empty. This could be because it was the Bravo cruise or could be that it never gets busy.

I know fixed dining should have had everyone turning up between 6 and 6.30 for early sitting but it appeared that people were arriving all the time. A lot were coming down the stairs that led from upper balcony level to the main dining room. I wondered if due to show timings people were not happy to wait for a table upstairs so they were told to come downstairs.

Thank you, that's the menu I remember from my Eclipse cruise in December. If the current Silhouette menu is as I've seen with Irish stew and Liver I find that quite insulting as it's home cooking or pub grub hardly what you would expect from a modern luxury cruise line. If it's also a temporary change sailing out of the UK that is doubly insulting.

I was the OP for the thread you are talking about, I hope someone who is on the Silhouette now posts some up to date menus. I agree it is insulting if the menus are ‘dumbed down’ because we are cruising from UK. What can we do though, we can choose another cruise line but there are always new cruisers who will fill the cabins so Celebrity don’t really care.

Thank you for posting the menu. My husband is a picky eater and depends on the NY strip as a backup meal, just in case the nightly specials don't appeal to him. He would not be happy with Irish Stew, which is what I make when I want to stretch the food budget. And liver? No way. I hope that change was connected to Bravo, rather than Celebrity.

 

We have never had a problem with MDR food temperature, but we usually eat early in select with a table for two.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up. We will be checking menus before we decide where we will eat each evening.

We were on fixed dining early sitting but on a sharing table of either 6 or 8. Thinking if we had a table for 2 food might have been hotter as would not have to wait for others to be served before I started eating.

My husband had the liver twice, once good, once tough, hoping for some more positive reviews.

Having a problem with pic sorry

I do not believe it either. If the steak was replaced with Irish Stew on the everyday menu, we would have had a lot more people posting about that change.

 

Princess as removed steak from their everyday menu.

In case you thought I was mistaken please see menu below. Irish stew was the offering on this menu which is the only one I have a pic of. Liver was offered twice on the timeless entrees section, I know as my husband had it. Can’t remember the other days sorry.

I know we could have eaten in the specialty restaurants and had a better experience but as this cruise was mostly about the entertainment we decided to stick with MDR. I do think you should not HAVE to pay more to get a reasonable meal. I think if we had had a fixed table as is normal with the same waiters I would have mentioned that I do like my food hot lol. As we were always taken to a different table and it seemed so busy with people coming in continuously we just ate what we were served.

I purchased a camera on the bravo cruise just to use up OBC, I would not normally buy as I could have bought it cheaper in UK. I noticed a sign saying Lowest Authorised Price Guarantee, I wonder if I should of asked a for a price match