Celebrity Silhouette - Fetch your own drinks from the bar...

[prothed]

First time on Celebrity (after 30+ cruises with other lines) and we have just returned from a 9-night France/Spain cruise.

We wanted to try Celebrity after friends telling us of their high standards of service, but...

I've never been on any other ship where getting a drink involved vainly looking for a waiter and eventually queueing at the bar to get served!

On the first evening we thought that there may have been issues if a lot of new crew members were on board, but this lasted throughout the cruise.

To be fair, the situation usually improved by late evening - maybe wait staff were moved to the bars/lounges after the restaurants closed.

The cruise overall was fine (the theatre shows were excellent, boarding was very fast, MDR food was pretty bland) but I wonder if anyone could comment as to whether this 'get your own drinks' routine was normal for Celebrity.

[bdstickks0944]

8 minutes ago, prothed said:

First time on Celebrity (after 30+ cruises with other lines) and we have just returned from a 9-night France/Spain cruise.

We wanted to try Celebrity after friends telling us of their high standards of service, but...

I've never been on any other ship where getting a drink involved vainly looking for a waiter and eventually queueing at the bar to get served!

On the first evening we thought that there may have been issues if a lot of new crew members were on board, but this lasted throughout the cruise.

To be fair, the situation usually improved by late evening - maybe wait staff were moved to the bars/lounges after the restaurants closed.

The cruise overall was fine (the theatre shows were excellent, boarding was very fast, MDR food was pretty bland) but I wonder if anyone could comment as to whether this 'get your own drinks' routine was normal for Celebrity.

Completely disagree with your opinions on the food and bar drinks 

[Tierun]

What lines do you normally cruise with? Are you a princess medallion person? Ultra luxury line Viking person? Just trying to get an idea of what you’re comparing your experience to. I’ve had wait staff get drinks for me at various venues on celebrity ships. I usually go to the bar to get drinks myself though because I like interacting with the bartenders.

[Tudy]

I find drink service to be unpredictable. For this reason, I will often sit at the bar, if possible. It's easier to get a drink.

 

I agree that the food is mostly bland. They are trying to keep everyone happy. I would say that it's good bland food.

 

And of course, as much as Celebrity would love to have the same consistent service and quality across all it's ships, this is not always the case.

Edited September 23, 2022 by Tudy
spelling

[Nachosdelux]

To answer the question, it is not normal (nor acceptable) to have to go to the bar to get drink service. 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2022 by Nachosdelux

[C4HCG]

We don’t have a problem with queuing at a bar, often you get your drinks quicker that way.

[miched]

Years ago we were in the Solarium and there was a drink server and regularly got served drinks   The next day we wanted a drink and didn’t see any servers.   I seen a officer and asked about service.   He said he would send one over.   Nothing happened.  Finally I decided to go to the bar.

 

I seen the beverage manager later in the day and told  him about service there.  He  said that they stopped service there because passengers were complaining about constantly being asked if they wanted a drink.  I told him that they should have put a notice in the paper of at least a sign saying that there would be no beverage service in that area and go to the bar.   He said that they don’t need to let passengers know everything that they do.  I said that is why passengers give bad reviews about service because they don’t know why there isn’t any.  He said that they can’t control that and I shouldn’t condemn the whole department because of one incident.  I said that is all it takes because the survey is for the whole department.  

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[Georgia_Peaches]

It's always been a mixed bag for us on Celebrity.  We've had both waited service and self service on all cruises. 

 

Sometimes I get stage fright when approached by a drink waiter and blurt out the first thing that comes to my mind...

 

Me:  I'll have a tiramisu martini, please.

Them:  I'm sorry, a what madam?

Me:  (now very confidently) a tiramisu martini, please

Them:  (confused) and madam what would those ingredients be?

Me: (looking to DH for help)

DH:  My wife would like an espresso martini please

Me:  Yes!  That's it.  Thank you!

 

Never fails...every time we have a drinks package, I get hung up on what to order.  I want to step outside of my little box and get something exotic...but alas, exotic, I am not.  Having said all that, we don't have a problem getting our own drinks.  It gives me a chance to pic the bartender's brain on new drinks to try.  

[JDPCruisers]

We've seen both scenarios on Celebrity and Royal, but vast majority of the time we've had servers take care of us. And, if they are swamped, I don't mind going to the bar as I like the interaction with the bartenders and if one bar is way too crowded, we head to another one!

[wineoclock]

1 hour ago, C4HCG said:

We don’t have a problem with queuing at a bar, often you get your drinks quicker that way.

I would queue for a drink when younger. Now I like service. And pay highly for the privilege. Celebrity is not cheap.
 

We stay at some lovely hotels & I’ve never had to queue at a bar. If I did I wouldn’t go back. 
 

I actually wonder whether this is more to do with drinks packages being included so no incentives for the staff to be proactive in asking for drink orders. 

[Oceangoer2]

12 minutes ago, wineoclock said:

I would queue for a drink when younger. Now I like service. And pay highly for the privilege. Celebrity is not cheap.
 

We stay at some lovely hotels & I’ve never had to queue at a bar. If I did I wouldn’t go back. 
 

I actually wonder whether this is more to do with drinks packages being included so no incentives for the staff to be proactive in asking for drink orders. 

I'm inclined to think it's a staff shortage;  they're doing their best with what they have.  No business willingly chooses to upset their clients IMO. 

Edited September 23, 2022 by Oceangoer2

[BigAl94]

It's not acceptable given the cost of cruises. It's not a new thing - service we found reduced in recent years, frequently involved getting drinks yourself unless seated at a bar,

[FLHugh]

A couple of bucks tip seems to make the Q go away!

[Orator]

I wonder if service has slowed in part because so many have drink packages?

[hrhdhd]

Having to queue at the bar on the pool deck was the deal last month on Reflection. And forget about getting served a drink in the buffet.

[atlgators]

To answer your question, no it is not normal to have to go to the bar to order a drink.  I have read that staffing has been an issue lately and has had an effect on service.  Possibly, that was the reason. That being said, we spent 14 days on the Silhouette this past June. We frequented the Ensemble Lounge and/or the Martini Bar every night and never once felt the need to go to the bar to order a beverage.  So sorry you experienced this lack of service on your sailing.  Be assured that this is not the norm on Celebrity ships.  

[JBare]

34 minutes ago, atlgators said:

To answer your question, no it is not normal to have to go to the bar to order a drink.  I have read that staffing has been an issue lately and has had an effect on service.  Possibly, that was the reason. That being said, we spent 14 days on the Silhouette this past June. We frequented the Ensemble Lounge and/or the Martini Bar every night and never once felt the need to go to the bar to order a beverage.  So sorry you experienced this lack of service on your sailing.  Be assured that this is not the norm on Celebrity ships.  

Totally agree, we have  just returned from an Iceland cruise on Silhouette and did not have to wait any significant time to be served in the Ensemble, Martini, Passport or Sunset bars. Occasionally in the Oceanview when it was extremely busy I was more than happy to go to the bar to get my wife a top up but there was no shortage of wait staff getting drinks for people.

[mandream]

I've found the difference over the years most notable in the Theater.

 

15 years ago, bar servers were competing trying to get your drink order.  It was annoying in the other direction that we would continually be asked multiple times by different people if we wanted a drink. Almost had to avoid any kind of eye contact.

 

Bar servers in the theater are now hit or miss.  On the Constellation in August, there was a bar set up at the back of the theater and not a single server the entire cruise.

 

Mike

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, atlgators said:

To answer your question, no it is not normal to have to go to the bar to order a drink.  I have read that staffing has been an issue lately and has had an effect on service.  Possibly, that was the reason. That being said, we spent 14 days on the Silhouette this past June. We frequented the Ensemble Lounge and/or the Martini Bar every night and never once felt the need to go to the bar to order a beverage.  So sorry you experienced this lack of service on your sailing.  Be assured that this is not the norm on Celebrity ships.  

Our cruises in the spring service was excellent but at that time the ships were sailing at 30-40% passenger capacity and the crew outnumbered  passengers by a large margin.  Now ships are sailing close to if not full but visa issues are slowing the adding of crew.  Reports I have read from those sailing in the past 2 months are that the ships are staffed at about 80% and the crew are working extremely hard but just need more people. 

 

 

 

[asnaleah]

That was not our experience on Silhouette in January, but as the OP said, the ship’s occupancy was less than 50%. We’re sailing in December, I will report back.

[CNSfromHI]

1 hour ago, JBare said:

Totally agree, we have  just returned from an Iceland cruise on Silhouette and did not have to wait any significant time to be served in the Ensemble, Martini, Passport or Sunset bars. Occasionally in the Oceanview when it was extremely busy I was more than happy to go to the bar to get my wife a top up but there was no shortage of wait staff getting drinks for people.

We just returned from the same cruise and never had any trouble finding someone to serve us. In the Oceanview, too, we were usually asked shortly after sitting down at a table if we wanted something from the bar.

 

cjr

[SusieAV8R]

11 hours ago, C4HCG said:

We don’t have a problem with queuing at a bar, often you get your drinks quicker that way.

Only in Oceanview have DH or I have occasionally gone to the bar to get our glasses of wine to go with our meal, because one of us was very impatient and it was quicker that way.  (We have cruise Celebrity since 2007) Generally though, we have no complaints about bar service (even post covid where staffing issues can be problematic). 

[pickypicky]

We are just off Summit and had the same experience as OP. This was only our fourth Celebrity cruise but our first cruise since 2/2020. We found ourselves reminiscing about the good old days when we were not only served drinks at our seats in Rendezvous Lounge but they came with a little carafe of mixed salty snacks! We felt they were short staffed on our recent cruise and hope things will improve soon. Celebrity isn’t our first cruise line of choice but certainly fills the gap on some itineraries so we hope for some improvement soon. Fortunately we had reasonable expectations on this our first post covid cruise. 

[Definitas]

I have to agree 100% with the OP. Getting served is at best a lottery and The availability of wait staff has plummeted compared to the halcyon days when the norm was to be approached almost immediately and the bar Menu would be turned over or napkins would be placed on the table to show you had been offered service. The issue isn’t just one of service staff though. Prior to the introduction of the drinks packages for almost all passengers, profits depended on the amount of drinks that were served. Now, due to the fact that almost all passengers have the drinks package, the business model is reversed and maximum profit depends on the minimum possible number of drinks being served. Necessitating passengers to stand at the bar and wait, particularly at peak times, severely curtails the number of drinks served. That is especially the case when there are only one or two bartenders. We used to enjoy sitting in the Passport Bar on S-Class ships. However, for a large part of the evening in addition to serving people in the bar area they make drinks for both the MDR and Luminae, including making coffees, which makes service painfully slow. Celebrity is still a favourite but it is absolutely fair to say that the provision of service has nosedived compared to what it once was. As a footnote, we had a suite for the first time last year and we both remarked that service in the retreat area was pretty much what it used to be throughout the ship, underlining the fact that this is about the bottom line

[prothed]

Thank you for all the feedback on this.  We had wondered if there was a staffing problem on this particular cruise - but it does sound more widespread...

 

Incidentally, on a Saga cruise earlier in the year, the ship was delayed overnight before sailing due to bad weather - the captain was immediately on the public address with explanations (waves upto 60ft!) and apologies - and announced that all passengers were given the premier drinks package 🙂