amcwaterfalls

I think a lot of it is down to itinerary, this being the only Mediterranean cruise that Celebrity did from Southampton during the school holidays - the other is in September when the schools are open again. There is more to interest families with older children on a hot sunny cruise like this than there is on the current one which is Iceland and Ireland. I believe there are around 400 children on this as opposed to 600 on the Med one. 

The outdoor areas suffered from overcrowding on sunny sea days on the July cruise but even with less children onboard, I imagine the indoor areas of the ship are packed on the current one.

We also experienced balcony smoking. Luckily  the suite butler was there the second time it happened. He said he could see who was doing it and would ensure it was stopped. It seemed to work for a while but as the cruise went on we noticed the smell more frequently. We didn’t think it was the same person as the smoke had a different smell. We couldn’t tell where it was coming from so didn’t report it as it seemed like the person smoking kept having a couple of puffs then putting it out.

Ok, so we were on the 28th of July Med cruise that the negative reviews are about. It would be easy to jump on the band wagon and write a critical review,  but having sailed with several different cruise lines, Celebrity still come out on top for us. 

We think the main problem was that the cruise was only one of two that Celebrity are doing to the Mediterranean from Southampton this summer and it was right in the middle of UK school holidays. We would have preferred to book the September one but our preferred class of cabin wasn’t available. We have never thought of Celebrity as being particularly family friendly, by that I mean no ice rinks, water slides etc so naively thought that there wouldn’t be many families onboard. What a mistake that was!As one reviewer said, there were 600 children onboard. 

We we were lucky enough to be in a RS so dined mainly in Luminae and the speciality restaurants, but even in Luminae the staff were struggling to cope. It wasn’t that there were many children there but there were a lot of large family groups of 4/6/8 which made life much harder for the wait staff as obviously a large table takes longer to serve than a few tables of 2. We complained once about not being served after being seated for 20 minutes and to be fair, things improved after that. We used the buffet at lunch a couple of times but always took the meal back to the cabin as it looked very crowded.

The difficulty we found was finding somewhere to sit in the bars in the evening. Maybe because the demographic was younger, people were staying up later, maybe drinking more etc plus parents thought everyone else would enjoy watching their young children take over the dance floor and play on the steps whenever there was live music in the foyer.

When the weather was good, the pool and open deck areas looked horrendous - someone described the lawn club grass as like a seal colony............ When the weather was bad, the decks were closed and pools drained on one day and the upper decks closed on another, the over crowding was very evident. We were glad we had a nice space to escape to.

We never saw any children misbehaving, but we were generally back in the cabin by 12, but did notice large groups of teenagers wandering around together, as teenagers do, and also noticed that they had taken over the Hideaway.

We were also informed that there were a lot of new crew members onboard, now we don’t know if that meant that they were new to Celebrity or new to Silhouette. In the ‘After cruise questionnaire’ from Celebrity we still gave all the staff that we came in contact with 10/10 because they really were working hard to try and provide great service. 

Perhaps our our view of the cruise was helped by having the RS to escape to, but even with that, we wouldn’t book another cruise during a school holiday period.

I have tried to give a balanced view but please remember that this is only our opinion, and other people’s views, either extremely positive or extremely negative, are all equally valid as everyone’s experience is different.

1 hour ago, groryjm said:

Lunch as always was wonderful and then straight up to the room at 1pm. I escorted my MiL to her suite at the back, as any dutiful son-in-law should, and low an behold one of her two bags had already arrived. On catching up with my DW and DD in our suite...... THERE WERE NO BAGS.

 

As I type this at 2pm we still have no bags and have yet to meet our butler. To be honest this is not a problem but I think we can say that while special delivery with relation to dropping off and being escorted works well the actual bag delivery component is not a whole hearted success. 

After using the special delivery last year and still not receiving our bags until late afternoon, we decided to give it a miss this cruise. When we drove past the stand at around 11.30 there was no one there to accept them anyway. We had them collected from the car park and received them in the RS at around 2pm. That was at the same time the butler Walter arrived also so your experience there isn’t unusual.

Hi groryjm

Silhouette is coming safely back to you across a rocky Bay of Biscay. She seems in great shape with lots of re varnishing and general upkeep going on even with the big refit looming.

We have had the best butler ever - very proactive. A lot of new crew aboard apparently but also a lot of old favourites, particularly in the Martini bar 🤪🍸🍸🍸

Have a great cruise

51 minutes ago, Cruise a holic said:

Never found Luminae busy- always extra tables.  Many suite guests, and other guests I assume, do dine in Specialty restaurants instead of luminae on any given evening.  

It has been busy every night we have dined there, 6 nights out of 12 so far this cruise, with lots of groups of 4/6/8. As I was only repeating what I was told then it must be something that Celebrity may be having to consider for the future. Unless it was just the crew members personal opinion of course 😊

Onboard now and have been told that even though they are adding extra suites during refurb, Luminae is staying the same size, so there may be times when reservations are required for dinner unless guests are prepared to accept regular waits for tables.

Currently on Silhouette.

We were chatting to our butler on the balcony and we all became aware of the smell of cigarette smoke. The butler leaned over the balcony and said he could see a man smoking on the balcony above. We said that we had noticed it before but not done anything about it - our word against his etc. He said he would have it dealt with.

It will be interesting to see if it happens again.

Happy to report that everything has calmed again 😊 They had the blinds down in Luminae this evening as the sea was still hitting the windows but other than that, and the outer decks remaining closed over dinner, everything is back on track for a great ‘summer holiday in the Med’ cruise.

The ship was quieter than expected tonight but still hard to get a seat for any live music, and even harder to get bar service unless you are actually sat at the bar, buts that’s another tale.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes! Luckily (and touch wood) neither of us gets seasick so it won’t spoil anything. 

Currently on Silhouette western med cruise 28/7 to 11/8.

3 hours after we left Soton yesterday the announcement was made that due to low pressure over Bay of Biscay with 50mph+ winds and 30 foot seas we would be missing 1st port of call, Vigo, and changing course to avoid the worst of the weather,  arriving a couple of hours earlier than planned into Lisbon on Wednesday.

Even with the change  of course we are rocking and rolling a bit, pools have been drained and outside decks closed. Supposed to ease around midnight. All adds to the fun but with 600 children ( according to butler) onboard everywhere is pretty packed. Tucked up in our suite with room service lunch and a nice bottle of wine - it’s good to be on holiday 😊

Not sure if this will apply to Summit but we were on deck 11 on Silhouette last year with public restrooms directly above and didn’t notice them at all.

Thank you for your help CocoCronut. I will just have to wait and see 😊

Hello again Groryjm.

Our experience in 2018 with the exclusive drop off wasn’t great. The boat show was on so we couldn’t enter from the usual dockgate - I can’t remember the number but we would’ve come in with the parking on the right and the ship on the left, instead we had to come in from the other side. As we were approaching the ABP area, we were directed straight into the car park and told we couldn’t drive further on to where we could see the stand for the luggage. Luckily we were parked at the end of the car park nearest the pedestrian exit with just a short walk across to the ship.

We only had one piece of hand luggage each and one wheeled case each, otherwise we would’ve just left it to go with everyone else’s. As we were so close we decided to take them across to the drop off. Wasn’t over impressed with the service though -  it still took several hours for the two bags to arrive.

This time there’s no boat show when we sail so hoping to be able to just park by the drop off area and then go on to the car park. I will try and post when on board to let you know if it was straightforward this time.

Thanks groryjm but we are on the next sailing July 28th. It’s not important - just idle curiosity. We’ve had good butlers and one that was not so good but they don’t make or break the cruise for us. We’re on holiday so we will have a great time anyway. Hope you have a wonderful cruise next month.

Bumping up

Can anyone currently or very recently on Silhouette say who the butlers are - specifically deck 10, midship, portside? Thanks in advance for any help.

This is great news but what is a mini season? I hope it doesn’t mean just a handful of cruises up to the fjords/Baltic then off she will go to be based somewhere warm. There is enough demand from the UK to have both Silhouette and Apex based here for a full season.

Love the idea of a food blog. Following.

Thanks for the info about the luggage. Did it arrive in your suite quickly? Have a great cruise, Amc

Thanks groryjm. Hope it is very straightforward for you - sounds like it will be easier in a taxi anyway. Have a great cruise, amc

If anyone is still interested in this thread, Carrie says that the luggage delivery service has been sorted out and it looks like a new drop off point is being organised. She says she has contacted those on the September 1st sailing and will be in touch after that to let me know where the drop point will be. Gastrognome, I hope it works out ok for you as I believe you are on this next sailing.

It sounds like the special delivery is only working well where there is joined up thinking between the shore and the ship. I guess it will either get sorted out or quietly abandoned which would be a shame as it’s a good perk where it works.

Travelling light then YP ;):D

Hi everyone

I’ve just received a response from Carrie. This is the main part of it:

‘I was informed that the error happened with the terminal staff and have been assured this will not happen again. I believe this was a new terminal employee who was not familiar with the system we have in place as a list with all the guests’ names is sent to the pier before each sailing.

Our team has also ordered a review of the luggage delivery onboard to make sure that the luggage is delivered on time for our suite guests. I will also have additional information to send to you about a different location for this drop off as they are changing it in order to make the process a bit easier. Once I receive that information I will be sure to reach out to you again.’

Sounds like they are getting things sorted. Amc