Detailed Review: Silhouette January 5th sailing

[CruisingChick]

Appears Celebrity is reducing food quality in MDR, and now Blu, to get more people into the specialty restaurants!

 

The only thing it will get me is off of their ships. If the MDR and buffet food quality is not up to par on my upcoming Silhouette cruise in March, we will have to think about changing cruise lines, but I'm not sure which ones we could go to that we could afford.

[lenquixote66]

The only thing it will get me is off of their ships. If the MDR and buffet food quality is not up to par on my upcoming Silhouette cruise in March, we will have to think about changing cruise lines, but I'm not sure which ones we could go to that we could afford.

 

We have friends who were on this cruise .They only travel with Celebrity and saud everything was great on the cruise .

[somerandomidiot]

I was on a different sailing, but also found the MDR lunch wait irritating. I think they have it set up so that the waiters put in the orders for their entire section at once. So in addition to waiting for the people you are with to decide on what they want, you're waiting for the others in your section as well. Plus you get the food according to your proximity to the aisle if your in the sections near the windows.

 

The solution I came up with was to eat by myself, decide on exactly what I wanted prior to sitting down and giving the waiter the order as soon as he handed me the menu. The two times I did that I was out of there in about 20 minutes as opposed to about an hour and a half for my first lunch. I thought the execution of the food in the mdr during lunch service was better than during dinner. It was good enough that I still remember the almost rare duck breasts, medium rare calves livers and boneless fried chicken more than five weeks later. The only thing that I had that immediately comes to mind from 12 days of eating dinner is the grilled chicken they served with the caesar salad. It was moist and not overcooked and they left the skin on.

[theduffys]

Hi Susie. It was really great meeting you and Dan. I'll offer a few add on's to your great review.

1) We were in the 1A (triple balcony) stateroom #7290. Since we are early morning coffee freaks, being able to walk just a few steps to the hideaway lounge for coffee first thing was a real perk for us.

2) Except for the night in Quisne with all of you (wonderful fun), we ate in the MDR every evening. We had select dining and, after the first night, always booked a table in Artero and Leeford's area. They were two of the best waitstaff we have ever encountered! We found the quality of food to be good to excellent.

3) We liked the casino but that probably has a lot to do with winning $500 on a 20 cent bet in the slots on the 2nd night. What a rush!

4) We were informed by our waitstaff about the Sunday Brunch. We found it to be a delightful experience. If any readers are from the Pittsburgh area, think Grand Concorse.

5) Here is an example of how great our room stewards were--When we came back from the beach day in Laberdee, DH's Keans were covered with sand so he put them out on the balcony. The next morning we came back from breakfast and they had been hosed off and hung to dry.

 

So, that's just a few more tips from me. Overall, we had a wonderful time and would not hesitate to sail this ship again.

[dongordon]

The only thing it will get me is off of their ships. If the MDR and buffet food quality is not up to par on my upcoming Silhouette cruise in March, we will have to think about changing cruise lines, but I'm not sure which ones we could go to that we could afford.

 

Cruising Chick,

 

I am going back to NCL next January. The Jewel has a 12 day cruise. The MDR on the Gem was equal to Celebrity's Silhouette (although you can't get escargot and french onion soup every night!). I love NCL's specialty restaurants that are as good or better than the three I experienced on my Silhouette cruise. I can't see paying $40 / person. The NCL specialty restaurants range from $10 - $25 / person and again the food was equal or better. IMHO, the crew staff's service was equal onboard, The Jewel is not as beautiful as the Silhouette, but it or anything close to it will not be sailing out of the NYC area next year (outside of the Disney ship which will be offering an 8 day Florida and Bahamas cruise out of NYC). Their ships are beautiful with plenty of cabin space, but expensive and no casino. Also, I prefer the Carribbean islands to Florida and the Bahamas.

 

Not too many choices if your main criteria for choosing a cruise is it must sail out of the NYC area....no more flying for me!

 

Don

[Andy]

Hi SusieV

 

Thanks for your excellent and informative review. I enjoyed reading it. Welcome home !

[juliawinston]

Thanks very much for your detailed review :)

[librarylady19]

Appreciate the in depth review. Sorry to hear that you had a less than perfect experience in Blu, hopefully it was an anomaly.

[alenushka]

Thank you for a great review!

I have a question about embarkation: We booked Concierge level with one of the perks being "early embarkation". Do they have a separate waiting area for Concierge level guests too? and about what time did you get on board? Thank you!

[SusieV]

Thank you for a great review!

I have a question about embarkation: We booked Concierge level with one of the perks being "early embarkation". Do they have a separate waiting area for Concierge level guests too? and about what time did you get on board? Thank you!

 

I did not see a waiting area for Concierge guests, and actually wondered about that. The priority area we were directed to was for suites and Aqua Class only.

 

I don't recall the exact time we boarded the bus and got onboard and I went right to Guest Relations to handle the cabana booking, but I know we were having lunch at Bistro on Five by 11:30am.

 

With regards to the brunch- we weren't informed about it but if you read the back page of your Celebrity today to see the dining hours for each restaurant every day, you'll see the brunch listed on the appropriate day. So we knew it was going to occur. We chose to do lunch at LCG instead that day and skipped the brunch since it was our last day of nice weather.

[alenushka]

I did not see a waiting area for Concierge guests, and actually wondered about that. The priority area we were directed to was for suites and Aqua Class only.

 

I don't recall the exact time we boarded the bus and got onboard and I went right to Guest Relations to handle the cabana booking, but I know we were having lunch at Bistro on Five by 11:30am.

.

 

Great: arrived by 10 ... lunch by 11:30. Sounds fantastic! Thank you for your reply.:)

[OceanCruise]

I did not see a waiting area for Concierge guests, and actually wondered about that. The priority area we were directed to was for suites and Aqua Class only.

 

I don't recall the exact time we boarded the bus and got onboard and I went right to Guest Relations to handle the cabana booking, but I know we were having lunch at Bistro on Five by 11:30am.

 

With regards to the brunch- we weren't informed about it but if you read the back page of your Celebrity today to see the dining hours for each restaurant every day, you'll see the brunch listed on the appropriate day. So we knew it was going to occur. We chose to do lunch at LCG instead that day and skipped the brunch since it was our last day of nice weather.

 

 

 

The brunch was not listed as a gala brunch and was not hyped as it has been in the past in the program. It was merely listed with the regular pizza hours, sushi hours etc and just seemed as if the breakfast hours were changed to generic "brunch" hours. A new cruiser would not have known it was a "special"brunch with ice carvings and such. We mentioned to the maitre d' in Blu that it would be helpful for the wait staff to let AQ passengers know about the special culinary events and his response was that they don't want a lot of people to know about it and go all at once because it gets crowded. HUH? This was our first time in AQ so we have been used to the MDR staff always pointing out special things that were going on such as formal night, food events, etc. Not the case in Blu.

[grammy2]

The brunch was not listed as a gala brunch and was not hyped as it has been in the past in the program. It was merely listed with the regular pizza hours, sushi hours etc and just seemed as if the breakfast hours were changed to generic "brunch" hours. A new cruiser would not have known it was a "special"brunch with ice carvings and such. We mentioned to the maitre d' in Blu that it would be helpful for the wait staff to let AQ passengers know about the special culinary events and his response was that they don't want a lot of people to know about it and go all at once because it gets crowded. HUH? This was our first time in AQ so we have been used to the MDR staff always pointing out special things that were going on such as formal night, food events, etc. Not the case in Blu.

 

Our waiter in MDR told us about the brunch and so did the Assistant Matre D.

[Lois R]

Hi Susie:) welcome back and thanks for sharing your experience

with us. Sounds like service is slipping. I was on Millennieum for 5

nights last week and albeit much shorter, seems the dining room is

slipping on her as well. I went with a friend to Olympic one night and

we ate in the dining room the other 4 evenings.....actually, service

lacked in both venues.....they can't seem to get back to you to refill

water glasses...too many tables to take care of? Or not trained

anymore? Or are they related? And your experience in Blu? And

having eyes rolled at you? That is really UNacceptable.:eek:

[CruisingChick]

Cruising Chick,

 

I am going back to NCL next January. The Jewel has a 12 day cruise. The MDR on the Gem was equal to Celebrity's Silhouette (although you can't get escargot and french onion soup every night!). I love NCL's specialty restaurants that are as good or better than the three I experienced on my Silhouette cruise. I can't see paying $40 / person. The NCL specialty restaurants range from $10 - $25 / person and again the food was equal or better. IMHO, the crew staff's service was equal onboard, The Jewel is not as beautiful as the Silhouette, but it or anything close to it will not be sailing out of the NYC area next year (outside of the Disney ship which will be offering an 8 day Florida and Bahamas cruise out of NYC). Their ships are beautiful with plenty of cabin space, but expensive and no casino. Also, I prefer the Carribbean islands to Florida and the Bahamas.

 

Not too many choices if your main criteria for choosing a cruise is it must sail out of the NYC area....no more flying for me!

 

Don

 

Hi Don,

 

Thanks for the info on NCL. I know in May they have a wonderful 17 night cruise from NYC to LA. Our son lives in LA so I would love to take that out there instead of fly. Celebrity does not do any cruises in or out of LA. If service and food keep slipping on Celebrity I might finally be pushed to try another line.

 

Anne Maria

[Bridge Maven]

Hi Don,

 

Thanks for the info on NCL. I know in May they have a wonderful 17 night cruise from NYC to LA. Our son lives in LA so I would love to take that out there instead of fly. Celebrity does not do any cruises in or out of LA. If service and food keep slipping on Celebrity I might finally be pushed to try another line.

 

Anne Maria

 

Anne Maria, NCL is building a new ship that will enter service in April 2013, that will have cruises year round from New York City. Here is a link for that ship.

 

http://norwegiancruiselinebreakaway.com/

[CruisingChick]

Anne Maria, NCL is building a new ship that will enter service in April 2013, that will have cruises year round from New York City. Here is a link for that ship.

 

http://norwegiancruiselinebreakaway.com/

 

Thanks. Looks wonderful.

[Texed]

V,

Thanks for posting. :)

[theduffys]

Great: arrived by 10 ... lunch by 11:30. Sounds fantastic! Thank you for your reply.:)

We arrived at the luggage drop off point at 10:30 and were walking onboard at 11:25. We waited in the general boarding area which was fairly comfortable. We had to wait for a large group of TA's who were going onboard for a tour and lunch and then off we went.

[SusieV]

Hi Susie:) welcome back and thanks for sharing your experience

with us. Sounds like service is slipping. I was on Millennieum for 5

nights last week and albeit much shorter, seems the dining room is

slipping on her as well. I went with a friend to Olympic one night and

we ate in the dining room the other 4 evenings.....actually, service

lacked in both venues.....they can't seem to get back to you to refill

water glasses...too many tables to take care of? Or not trained

anymore? Or are they related? And your experience in Blu? And

having eyes rolled at you? That is really UNacceptable.:eek:

 

Hi Lois- it seemed to be a little of both to us. The staff in the specialty restaurants admitted that they are having trouble handling the number of guests they are now expected to care for, and I can only assume it is worse in the MDR. It certainly was difficult to get the attention of our waiter in Blu.

 

And yes, I was a little taken aback that it seemed to be such a hassle to get Evian in Blu. I was also surprised that no senior management seemed to notice or have an issue with the body odour of that one assistant waiter. It was very uncomfortable being served by him. We did fill out an Attention to Detail card about the service in Blu about halfway through the cruise and received no response. When we finally elected to sit by the service station instead of going back to the smelly assistant and his waiter, the maitre d' came over to speak to us and offered us a bottle of wine, which we declined since the four of us had Premium drink packages. At that point, he pretty much just shrugged and didn't seem to know what to do with us.

 

It was not what we have grown to expect from Celebrity. Since we didn't want to spend our cruise being disappointed, we simply opted for specialty dining where we got the mostly excellent service and meals that we are accustomed to, and we had a lovely time. However, if our cruise budget has to increase, it will mean fewer cruises and no chance of upgrading to a suite. We've chosen a regular balcony for our next trip and will not spend the extra for AQ or CC.

 

Sorry to hear that you had a similar situation on Millennium. It doesn't take much to make pax feel special- so why cut back on the area that has the biggest effect?

[Giorgi-one]

Cruising Chick,

 

I am going back to NCL next January. The Jewel has a 12 day cruise. The MDR on the Gem was equal to Celebrity's Silhouette (although you can't get escargot and french onion soup every night!). I love NCL's specialty restaurants that are as good or better than the three I experienced on my Silhouette cruise. I can't see paying $40 / person. The NCL specialty restaurants range from $10 - $25 / person and again the food was equal or better. IMHO, the crew staff's service was equal onboard, The Jewel is not as beautiful as the Silhouette, but it or anything close to it will not be sailing out of the NYC area next year (outside of the Disney ship which will be offering an 8 day Florida and Bahamas cruise out of NYC). Their ships are beautiful with plenty of cabin space, but expensive and no casino. Also, I prefer the Carribbean islands to Florida and the Bahamas.

 

Not too many choices if your main criteria for choosing a cruise is it must sail out of the NYC area....no more flying for me!

 

Don

 

Celebrity is our favorite cruise line but we like NCL. We got some fantastic deals on Penthouse suites on NCL (just a very large one room suite). Love being able to eat breakfast and lunch in Cagney's. Also our concierge was fantastic. We had to leave ship early one day for a private excursion. He took us right to the front of the debarkation line. I totally agree with your comments on NCL specialty restaurants. Le Bistro is our favorite restaurant on any ship we have cruised.

[Bridge Maven]

Celebrity is our favorite cruise line but we like NCL. We got some fantastic deals on Penthouse suites on NCL (just a very large one room suite). Love being able to eat breakfast and lunch in Cagney's. Also our concierge was fantastic. We had to leave ship early one day for a private excursion. He took us right to the front of the debarkation line. I totally agree with your comments on NCL specialty restaurants. Le Bistro is our favorite restaurant on any ship we have cruised.

 

Giorgi-one, Le Bistro (Gem and Dawn) was, also, my favorite restaurant of any ship we have sailed until we tried Giovanni's Table on Radiance of the Seas this past summer. Now both of them are the best we have had at sea!

[Solstice23]

Wow had BLU many times and we wont even step foot in the MDR much anymore,

 

Perhaps it was the chef on your sailing?

[MisterPlus]

Hi Susie,

 

Thank you for your informative and insightful review. I will take your advice on our next cruise - Feb 22.

[theduffys]

Hi Lois- it seemed to be a little of both to us. The staff in the specialty restaurants admitted that they are having trouble handling the number of guests they are now expected to care for, and I can only assume it is worse in the MDR. It certainly was difficult to get the attention of our waiter in Blu.

 

Can't answer for all of MDR but, our water and asst. covered 9 tables and were unbelieveably attentive. A slight nod was all that was required to get their attention. Water glasses were always filled, delivery of courses were timed to perfection and, conversation with them was delightful. Maybe we were just lucky.