First time on Celebrity - Silhouette Mediterranean/Adriatic June 15 review

[lhall85917]

Wow! As very experienced cruisers but never on Celebrity, DH and I were quite excited to give the Silhouette a try. I won't drag out the final verdict, this was a spectacular cruise and we are now big fans of the Silhouette and Celebrity.

 

To give a little background, we have been on over 20 cruises with most of the larger lines. We prefer bigger, newer ships and shop by itinerary and price. In April we did a land tour to Belgium and Holland and were miserable (our first land tour was a great experience) so when we came home we cancelled another planned tour for China and began lusting over a Silhouette cruise we had booked and cancelled for July. In mid-May we saw a great price for a balcony guarantee for the June 15 11 night sailing and put it on hold. After contacting our TA she told us the concierge cabins would be on sale in a few days for only $100 more total and we could avoid the possibility of getting an obstructed balcony so we went for it. Airfare was a bit higher than we would have found if watching for a few months but the price of our cruise more than made up for it.

 

Before beginning the day by day, here is an overview of our thoughts of the ship, crew, and food. We were just in awe of the ship, it was clean and we love the attention to detail. Examples were things like cloth towels in public bathrooms, night light in the cabin bathroom, size of the cabin bathroom was excellent, and the buffet layout is very nice and helps to avoid overcrowding.

 

Our cabin steward and his assistant were excellent. We requested ice and he kept it full all day. Whenever they saw us in the hallway they made it a point to open our cabin door, checked to make sure all was well, and asked about our day.

 

We thought the food in the dining room was comparable to other ships we have been on - it was good, not outstanding. We had a voucher for dining in the Tuscan Grill one night and it was just ok - I'm glad we didn't spend the $70 out of our own money. We are Coke card people and loved that we got a can whenever we wanted a Diet Coke instead of a fountain drink, we were able to stock up on enough cans to have in the fridge in room for drinks whenever we wanted them. Also on other lines we have found that sometimes the bar staff has a bit of an attitude when you are using a Coke card and that never happened - everyone was extremely pleasant and helpful.

 

Entertainment was ok, we thought the production company was just alright. There was a comedian who was very good and we enjoyed the Cirque de Soleil type show one night that was very entertaining.

 

In all, we loved the ship and the Celebrity experience and plan to return soon! Now on to the day by day...

 

Our last stay in Venice a couple of years ago was at the Antiche Figure across from the train station but it was not available. After spending a day and a half researching hotels we decided to book through Hotwire - it turned out to be a bit of a mess and too long of a story to tell here. The end result is that our booking was for the Carlton Hotel on the Grand Canal but on arrival they didn't have a room for us. They were extremely nice and made arrangements for us at Boscolo Bellini across the canal. This room ended up being ok, it was quite large and clean and made a good home base for a couple of days.

 

We spent our first day walking around Venice and enjoying the sites. According to my husband's pedometer we walked over 12 miles that day! Here are a few pictures taken that day...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we had been to Venice before, we wanted to see more of the area so scheduled a tour to the Dolomites for the next day. Pictures coming up next...

[lhall85917]

Our Dolomites tour was very good, we booked through Aventure Bellissme. The tour met at the Tronchetta Vaporetto stop, our guide was there on time and we were ready to go. It was a small group of 8 in a van and we enjoyed all of our group that day. The driver was very nice; however, as we found out on several other tours - he was more of a driver than a guide. He would explain things at each stop, but most of the time along the way he didn't tell us what we were seeing. The sites we saw that day reminded us a lot of our time in Germany a couple of years ago.

 

This is a hospital for asthmatic children -

 

 

 

 

Former Olympic ski jump -

 

I love this picture, not sure why - lol

 

Here is a link to all of the pictures in my Picasa album for Venice and the Dolomites - https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=101569527514151835454&target=ALBUM&id=5894309839905172785&authkey=Gv1sRgCKSz0vj0uLmjuAE&feat=email Please let me know if this link doesn't work.

 

I still need to work on the next set of pics, will post when they are ready, probably tomorrow.

[Okika]

Great photos so far! Excited to watch this review progress, I'll be on the Silhouette in January.

[drarill]

Great start!! looking forward to the rest of your review!!:):)

[Keith1010]

I am enjoying your review and will continue to read the additional posts and the photos are quite nice.

 

Keith

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report, glad you enjoyed your cruise. Very nice pictures as well.

[cruiser87654321]

Loving the review, we only have 2 weeks before we board Silhouette, so it is great to read of a recent trip. Many thanks.

[cruise47]

I also really enjoyed your album photos.

[lhall85917]

We left our hotel around 11:00 for the short walk to the people mover to arrive at the ship. The people mover costs one euro and is very easy to use, we used it to go back and forth from the ship and also to go to Tronchetta to meet our Dolomites tour. One thing I forgot to mention was that we came into Venice from the airport via the airport express bus. It was 6 euro per person and easy to use - buy tickets from the machine in the baggage pickup area then follow signs to find the bus outside. There were a couple of others trying to buy tickets so we all helped each other figure out the right way to get them!

 

Check in was simple and quick. They had already begun calling groups to board so we went directly onboard. Our plan had been to go to Bistro on 5 for a quiet lunch, but the dining area wasn't crowded so we got lunch from there and found what was to be one of our favorite spots - outside behind the Ocean View Cafe on the back of the ship. Rooms were ready at around 1:15 and our bags were delivered around 3:00 or so.

 

There were 5 ships in port that day and Venice was very crowded. We were happy to be on the ship and not fighting crowds in town.

 

View from the ship before leaving port...

 

I won't post lots of pictures of the ship since there are already lots of them out there, but I did like the design of the public bathrooms - they were very modern looking

 

It was fun to watch as each ship began leaving port...

 

 

Some pictures of Venice as we sailed away...

 

[lhall85917]

This itinerary is very port intensive - we had 2 sea days, the first was the day after boarding. It gave us time to explore the ship a bit, go to the Cruise Critic meeting, and relax before some very busy days!

 

Our first port was Dubrovnik. We had been there before so the plan was to take a taxi to the old town for the cable car then wander on our own. There is also a restaurant called Buza that we had seen when walking the walls that we wanted to find so with that in mind we took off. Another CC member asked to share a cab and we were fine with that. The driver offered the five of us a tour to some photographic spots overlooking town so we all decided to do that in favor of the cable car.

 

Our first stop was near a large bridge (not sure what it is called) for an overview of the port.

 

We also made a couple of other stops before driving up to where the cable car stops to get a good view of the old city.

 

A quick stroll through the old town and a hot climb up many stairs and we made our way to Buza for a cold beer and great views -

 

[lhall85917]

After leaving Dubrovnik we were surprised to see an active volcano off in the distance from the back deck. I'm not sure which one it is, but as you can see from the pictures there is a small town located at the base of the volcano.

 

 

[lhall85917]

Next was Civitavecchia for Rome. Having been to Rome before we decided to join some other roll call members for a hill town tour with Rome in Limo. The tour included stops at two hill towns - Civita de Bagnoregio and Orvieto. Our favorite by far was Civita de Bagnoregio, perhaps it was just so stunning that Orvieto didn't stand a chance in comparison! It was quite a long drive to the towns and our driver didn't offer much commentary along the way. It would have been nice to hear a little about the area and have more information about the hill towns, one day soon I will be visiting Google to find out much more about these towns!

 

We took a short picture stop along the way to see the poppy fields -

 

Arriving at Civita de Bagnoregio just took our breath away, it is hard to believe this place exists! We arrived early so virtually had the town to ourselves to explore as we wanted. Fantastic!!

 

 

 

 

 

[lhall85917]

More from Civita de Bagnoregio...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lhall85917]

After another long drive we arrived in Orvieto. One of the unique things of Orvieto is the underground caves. The caves served many purposes such as food storage, hiding from intruders, and even breeding pigeons!

 

church

 

 

grinding wheel in one of the caves

 

the holes in the cave are roosts for the pigeons - there is a window for them to fly in and out of the cave -

 

 

Next is Naples, one of the ports we were anticipating the most!

[Scarlet and grey]

Great review, thanks for sharing! Looking forward to more.

[Blazerboy]

Thanks for the walk down memory lane! We were in Cortina skiing 12 years ago, and our hotel was right near that ski jump. We also went to Orvieto, and loved it. Will happily explore more of Umbria based on your comparison of the two towns.

 

We are on Silhouette in October, so will also be in Dubrovnik- and you found one of my favorite spots on any Celebrity ship- the aft deck near the buffet!

 

Looking forward to more of your review.

 

Andrew

[Cruising89143]

:)Loving the review. We were docked across from you on June 15th in Venice. We were on the Splendour of the Seas. I plan to start my review this weekend over on the RCI board.

[lhall85917]

In Naples we did another Rome in Limo excursion with CC members. We did a tour of the Amalfi Coast including Positano, Sorrento, and Ravello. We had really looked forward to this and it doesn't disappoint, we were fortunate to have wonderful weather and beautiful scenery. I am very glad that I didn't have to drive however, the roads weren't too scary but the motorcyclists were!

 

View from the ship of Naples at sail in -

 

 

 

Lol - I had seen this picture taken by others, so had to do it for myself at one of our picture stops -

 

[lhall85917]

 

 

Two of our stops were at beautiful hotels for scenic viewing - they would be great vacation stops!

 

 

 

[lhall85917]

 

 

 

A poor motorcyclist dropped his crate of tomatoes, my first instinct was to take a picture - fortunately, my husband's instincts were to help!

 

 

[RickT]

We are on the Silhouette in a month and can't wait. It's our second S-Class cruise.

 

Do you recall how good/bad the "party" band was? I've heard the one that was on board earlier this year was only OK. The band last year was fantastic and we looked forward to their nightly performance in the Atrium area.

 

Looking forward to your future posts.

[lhall85917]

We are on the Silhouette in a month and can't wait. It's our second S-Class cruise.

 

Do you recall how good/bad the "party" band was? I've heard the one that was on board earlier this year was only OK. The band last year was fantastic and we looked forward to their nightly performance in the Atrium area.

 

Looking forward to your future posts.

 

I didn't hear them a lot but thought they were fair. There was an excellent a Capella group that performed around the ship a lot. Everyone really enjoyed them.

[dln929]

Such a wonderful review! I am really feeling nostalgic reading it. It was exactly a year ago today that we boarded our first Celebrity ship, the Solstice, out of Barcelona. Your photos bring smiles to my face!

[TroubleT]

Hi Sharon!

 

Wonderful review! Enjoying it so much! It's like being on a cruise again! We had a great time with you and Lance on all our tours! Hope we'll cruise with you again! Please say Hi to Lance! I will post my review (much shorter than yours! :D) later next week.

 

Tatiana (and Lyuba)

[lhall85917]

Thanks for the nice comments, I hope it is helpful to some of you making excursion and itinerary choices. We highly recommend this itinerary - it was wonderful.

 

Catania, Sicily - again we toured with some fellow CC members. Our guide was very good and we began with a walk through the fish market located near the port before heading to Mt. Etna. One note - it is a very long drive to and up Mt Etna. Although interesting, be sure that you want to do this as it takes a very good portion of your day to go.

 

view of Catania and Mt. Etna from the ship upon arrival

 

fish market

 

square downtown

 

top of Mt Etna

 

We also had some time in Taormina for shopping and lunch.