rknee

On the Silhouette last week ... there we were, in the middle of the sea and my phone rang.  Surprised the heck out of me, but I answered.  Not the best connection in the world, but it worked.

We're just off the SIlhouette March 9th also.  Happy to report no COVID.  Seemed to us that there was less mask wearing AND less coughing on this cruise than one we had taken in September.  Numbers are down in the US (and world) but not zero.

On 6/14/2022 at 7:34 AM, Redtravel said:

  I asked for an Affogato.  It is no longer on menu.

No Affogato?  Crazy - they've been my secret highlight for my cruises for years.  <sad face>

Awesome - I'd also appreciate the map as well.  rob.knee.email @ gmail.com

Thanks

Finally - everything looks put back together!  Our cabins restored and you can actually find the cruise on celebritycruises.com again.

And, um, great sale!

On 6/6/2019 at 3:00 PM, sandjb said:

My wife and I just got back from sailing on the Celebrity Reflection out of Dublin May 26 - June 3. Since this was our first experience with Celebrity, I thought I'd share some of our observations and comparisons to other lines we've experienced (Princess and Royal Caribbean).

 

Embarkation - This was a major point of complaint for a lot of people on the ship during the week. None of the port contractors hired by Celebrity to handle embarkation seemed to know what was supposed to be happening in the big tent we were all herded into. We were told to take a seat "over there" with a vague wave, so we sat down in a group of chairs only to see the group next to us called up and led to a line to check in. Obviously we would have sat in that group, had we known what was going on. But we had plenty of time and I was just happy to be getting on a cruise ship. But that's just something Celebrity could iron out to ease some frustration for sure.

 

Once on board, we immediately made our way to Guest Relations. Our airline had lost our checked luggage so we wanted to pass all of the information we had so far to the crew, in case the luggage managed to catch up with us. Aroli in Guest Relations was very patient and helpful, and continued to update us each day of the cruise on the latest information she could get from the airline on the status of our luggage. It was a great relief not to have to worry about it so much. She also made sure we had plenty of laundry vouchers so we could clean what few clothes we did have.  Long story short, our luggage was reunited with us in our stateroom when we returned from our last shore excursion, about fifteen hours before we ended the cruise. 

 

One puzzling thing I did find about Guest Relations, though, is its placement right next to the Grand Foyer. While that makes it a convenient place to find it right near the middle of the ship, there was usually something going on in the foyer which often made it hard to carry on a conversation with a guest relations officer, or for them to make a telephone call at the counter. 

 

Dining - We ate breakfast in the main dining room once, and it lasted nearly two hours. That was far too slow for our preference, so we at the rest in the buffet, minus one via room service. We both ended up really liking the buffet choices for breakfast. Lunch in the buffet was a little more hit-or-miss. A lot of the dishes we really weren't impressed with, but we found enough to keep us well fed. We both enjoyed the panini station quite a bit.

 

For dinner, we had selected the 6:00 early seating when we booked our cruise. When we got to our stateroom, our information said we were in the 8:30 late dining. So we made our way to Opus to straighten it out. The maitre d' informed us that the 6:00 dining had been moved to 5:30, but he never explained why we had been moved to 8:30 instead of 5:30. In any event, he found a spot for us at 5:30. The food at dinner was good, but nothing really stood out to rave about.

 

My wife and I both have a sweet tooth, and we have really enjoyed the dessert offerings on our prior cruises. This may be the part of the cruise that ended up disappointing us the most. We were excited to try the cakes, pastries, and cookies at Cafe al Bacio, as well as the endless options at the buffet. But it seemed that unless a cake was soaked in something, it was almost certainly dry. Our reaction to almost everything else was something along the lines of "well that was ok."  

 

Stateroom - We had a standard verandah stateroom on deck 8 forward. It seemed larger than the other staterooms we've had in the past (as did the shower), and we both found the bed perfectly comfortable. There was plenty of storage area for our needs, but that may have been because we were missing two suitcases worth of our things. We were surprised we didn't see any towel animals, but we're not sure if Celebrity doesn't do that, or it just wasn't in our steward's skillset. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but something our kids loved about our last cruise (they weren't with us on this one).

 

Speaking of kids, that is another big difference between this cruise and our last one on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas. The demographic skewed much older on this one, and I'm sure our teenage boys would have had a much harder time finding things to do on this cruise, had we brought them along. It seemed that most of the kids that were present on board (and there weren't many) were pre-teens to infants. 

 

Shore Excursions - Four of our five shore excursions were done on our own or through a third party, so I don't have too much to say about Celebrity in this area. But I want to point out that the disembarkation/embarkation at each port was relatively painless and quick. We never encountered a line of more than a few people. 

 

Entertainment - We didn't spend much time at lounges or bars, but we saw a few of the shows. And they were ok. I don't expect Broadway-caliber production or talent on a cruise ship. But I wouldn't call any of the shows we saw "must-see." If you're near the theater and you have the time, why not? But looking back, I wouldn't have rearranged much from my schedule to make time for any of those shows. The last show of the cruise, Euphoria, had some great aerial and acrobatic acts, but also had some puzzling and somewhat embarrassing acts involving giant balloon animals and spinning hats. I guess it was a little something for everyone. That being said, I don't think these shows were any better or worse than shows I've seen on other cruise lines. And shows are far down on the list of reasons I book a cruise. 

 

Disembarkation - The easiest we've ever encountered. We did self-assist, left our room around 7:00am and were off the ship and at the taxi queue less than five minutes later. The entire cruise long, everyone on the ship (including crew) was repeating how difficult it was going to be to find a taxi on the morning of disembarkation, so be sure to have a transfer lined up. We did, but lots of people didn't, and it seemed like there were lines nearly constantly at Guest Relations of people trying to get information on reserving a taxi. Well, when we got of at 7:00am there were far more taxis than people outside. Our transfer to the airport ended up costing us twice as much as the taxi ride from the hotel to the port, but we thought we were playing it safe by having something lined up. And maybe this cruise was the outlier, I don't know.

 

In Conclusion - I wouldn't have a problem booking a Celebrity cruise again, or recommending the line to anyone. I think I would be interested in doing a Princess cruise again soon to see how my memories stand up to reality. As of right now, I'd put the two lines very close in comparison. If I were booking a cruise, I think price and itinerary would still be more important factors to me than cruise line. But I'd be happy to cruise Celebrity or Princess again before Royal Caribbean, just because of the more relaxed atmosphere we encountered on board (maybe that was also a result of the ship and itinerary, I don't know).

 

Happy cruising!

We're Celebrity fans about to undertake our 4th with Celebrity from Dulbin.  So sorry to hear about your luggage issues - I would have been pretty upset.  Your review seems in line with our expectations.  We always book Aquaclass to get into Blu.

Thanks for your even-handed review.

We've been lucky enough to enjoy Blu on three first nights.  Yes, service will take a tad longer but I've never found it to be much of an annoyance.  Looking forward to my next first night in Blu.

Can anyone tell me if the refrigerator has a freezer section. Last night when I got up to put a frozen gel pack on my neck I thought, ,"I should take one of these with me!" It won't do any good I'd there's no freezer certain though!

 

Thanx!

 

Teri

Sorry - no freezer section. Others have commented that the fridge doesn't get very cold and we noticed the same.