Silly cruise to the Fjords - A Suite Summary and review

[groryjm]

We have just return from, far too short :( , 8 day cruise to the Norwegian Fjords on Celebrity Silhouette. I did a live from... during the cruise entitled LIVE from the Celebrity SILHOUETTE - 1st Sept to the Fjords which covered the itinerary and places we visited with photos. I won't repeat what was shown there as this is intended as more of a review with my thoughts, pros and cons of the suite life aboard one of Celebrity's S class ships.

 

"We" is myself a fifty something Brit with my DW and my DD who is 19 and studying at university. We have sailed on CSs in a number of other S class ships and in RSs on M class ships.

 

This cruise we had an RS (1116) on deck 10 and we were accompanied by my MiL who had one of the aft wrap around S1s. I booked in November 2016 with in the first few days of the sailings being announced as I have noticed that not only do the top suites seem to sell out first but also the prices seem to go up once the first few are booked.

 

As a mental exercise I kept an eye on the prices and availability of suites throughout 2016 and 17. Some may think it a bit obsessive so feel free to skip ahead to the review proper

 

.... When I booked in November there were 2 PSs, 8 RSs, 12 CSs, 14 S1s and 26 S2s. There are a further 4 Accessible S2s but these didn't show up in my research so I assume I would not show unless specifically requested. By the end of December the PSs, 5 of the RSs, 2 CSs and 12 Skys had sold. By The end of January 2016 only 8 CSs, 2 S1s and 17 S2s were left. By the end of March it was 8 S2s and by the 9th May 2016 all suites had sold out, 15 months prior to sail date. Briefly in September 2017 a couple of S2s and an S1 came back on sale and I will confess at that i stopped keeping written notes

 

I also kept a note of prices too ..... All these are based on the UK web site for single occupancy in an S2 and all but Nov included premium drinks grats and WiFi ..... (double occupancy was more although I only noted the price for one. I did note though the difference from Nov to Feb was the same as adding the offered perks once for single and twice for double)

 

Nov 2016-£6005 / Feb 2017-£6965 / Mar 2017-£6781 / Apr 2017-£7381 / May 2017-£7781 / Sep 2017-£10395

 

So in hindsight booking early paid off as not only did the suites all sell out quickly but the price seemed to rise considerably. In fact checking a few months before sailing a suite guarantee did open up on the UK web site but at a few pounds more than we had paid for an RS :o

 

Shore side concierge / Embarkation

 

First contact from the concierge has always seemed a little hit and miss so having not heard when we were 9 days out I took my usual positive and dialled Miami direct I shouldn't have been so paranoid as the delightful Carrie had sent the email, which had found its way into my spam filter a day or two earlier, and was about to chase it up with a call. Once unburied I found that Carrie had dug out our previous bar requests and was going to repeat them unless we had any alternate choices.

 

This was a nice little touch and if we had failed to communicate then at least the bar would be set with Campari and Calvados, and the fridge filled with Lots of club soda and Arizona iced tea. One additional new perk was also mentioned. The "Exclusive Luggage Drop Off program", which sounded wonderful on paper but I had just read about a slight fail with it form a lady on these boards who was on the current sailing. I addressed my concerns to Carrie and she assured me that the email she had received expressing those concerns had been taken on board and an additional set of instructions would be issued nearer to our sail date. We duly received those instructions and I am happy to report that the system worked very successfully.

 

On arrival at the pier, armed with the reissued instruction letter, our taxi was able to drop us and our luggage directly outside the entrance to the terminal. Our names were ticked off on the very short list and the luggage was whisked away from us by special delivery porters and we were escorted to the suite check-in. Once checked we were taken straight to Michaels and I would say that from waving goodbye to the taxi driver to ordering a drink from Cranston in Michael’s club was about 20 minutes.

 

Once we had lunched in Luminae and gone back to Michaels for another drink.... mean to collect our carry ons, the rooms were ready. we had hardly managed to walk round our palatial palace when our luggage arrived :cool: so a definite win for the Exclusive Luggage Drop Off program

 

Royal Suite 1116

 

At this point I could bore you all with descriptive narrative but I suspect watching this YouTube room tour might be easier - Royal suite room tour - Please ignore my terrible commentary!

 

 

........ This review will continue but please bear with me as it may take me a day or two to catch up ........

[groryjm]

..... YouTube room tour might be easier -

- Please ignore my terrible commentary!

 

My apologies but in using a spell checker I mucked up the room tour link :(. It should have been......

[plucasana]

Thank you for taking the time to write a review.

Very nice beginning!!!

 

 

Gesendet von iPad mit Tapatalk Pro

[chemmo]

Enjoying your review....

 

Your price observations totally match what we have experienced.

 

We board Eclipse in just over a week and have been told Special Delivery service is available there too. I will report back. We have heard from Concierge Edwin and arranged our room set up....Now we know our cruise is imminent!

 

Looking forward to your next instalment!

[Silkroad]

Following. Thanks for your review. DH and I dream of one day sailing in a Royal Suite. Cheers:)

[Oceansaway17]

not understanding title of the thread. Why silly??

[groryjm]

not understanding title of the thread. Why silly??

Silly = Silhouette

[Jade13]

I looked at the subject line and was wondering what was silly about the cruise.

 

We have cruised on Silhouette.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[NCHPcruiser]

We were on the Silhouette in July and Cranston was great! Margaret was the bartender most evenings though. She is the absolute best bartender in any Michaels Club's!