Silhouette | Norwegian Fjords | July/Aug. 2024 | Random thoughts

[Sebastien V]

[First of all: I'm a French speaker, so please excuse any linguistic errors.]

 

Just back from a seven-day cruise in the Norwegian fjords, aboard the Celebrity Silhouette. I would like to give a little review in the form of random thoughts. It's not my intention to point out a very particular element, nor to offer a complete review of the cruise. There's a bit too much material for the former, not enough for the latter. Perhaps I should also add that we are relatively new to cruising: this is our seventh since 2017, with a significant slowdown due to the events of 2020.

Overall, we are satisfied. No more, no less.

The Silhouette is still quite young: first sailed in 2011. She could suffer from comparison with the new generation. We crossed the Atlantic on the Beyond in 2022, and this is a completely different story. The Silhouette represents a fairly classic cruising experience, which is not to be disliked. But this puts her in direct competition with other cruise lines presenting themselves as premium. On this cruise in any case, the demographic was quite young, with quite a few families, sometimes with children. The atmosphere is quite relaxed.
 

The element that disappointed us most: the quality of the food, and even more so the quality of the wines. Only at the Murano and, to a lesser extent, the Tuscan Grille, could the experience be described as fully successful. Even Sushi on Five fell short of the quality found in similar establishments on other ships. The MDR proved to be of such poor quality that we abandoned it. In particular, the escargots were of very small size and tasted strangely. We fell back on the buffet. However, we found the quality of the ingredients there lacking, as well as the excessive use of fat.

The wines? Even worse. I had already read some unflattering comments about Celebrity on this site. Unfortunately, this was fully confirmed. We had a Premium Drink Package, so we expected a Premium experience. Finding a bar offering wines, and even more champagnes, to match the package was complicated enough. More than once, I've ordered a real French champagne and received a low-end substitute (horrible "Duc de Valmer"). Such processes are not a service problem when they happen frequently. It's because management tells them that cruisers can't tell the difference between real champagne and sparkling wine anyway, so there's no point in serving them something expensive. I sincerely hope I'm wrong. Is the Avivo Sangiovese, certainly to my taste, really priced at 15 euros a glass? Unless I'm mistaken, the bottle costs less than 7 euros to buy.

I've written about it elsewhere and I stand by it: when it comes to food and drink, Princess beats Celebrity. Flat out.

As for the shows and entertainment, they varied greatly. We enjoyed the two main shows: the dancers and singers were very committed, even if the installations weren't state-of-the-art anymore on this ship. The energy of the participants was very high. I'm less enthusiastic about the solo performances, but that may be a personal judgement. The great classics are still there, and as pleasing as ever: musical entertainment, silent disco party, martini bar, etc.
 

We thought the choice of ports was a good one. Molde and Olden offer absolutely incredible scenery, yet are very different in style. The arrival and departure at both ports were breathtaking. Alesund is quite pretty, although curiously enough, the town seemed lethargic the whole day (with very few restaurants open). Stavanger, on the other hand, seems inundated with mass tourism, and revels in it. We opted to visit the ports and not stay in a bus for two hours, even to see the most beautiful things. We have not regretted this choice.

One thing remains constant: the quality of service. Thanks to Paz, our room attendant, always efficient, always in a good mood. Thanks to the waiters, sometimes moody, but always kind. This won't be enough to make me choose Celebrity specifically for my next cruise, but at least thanks to the service I won’t exclude it either.

[Tom and Ingrid]

3 hours ago, Sebastien V said:

Just back from a seven-day cruise in the Norwegian fjords, aboard the Celebrity Silhouette.

Same here! Maybe we crossed paths 🙂

 

I have similar and differing thoughts on the cruise, but don't think you are wildly off base on the shared experiences, and can't comment on the other stuff (like Specialty dining or wine which we don't generally do).

 

Hands down, I think the ship was in great shape and the operation of the ship - from embarking/disembarking and port options - was top notch.  EVERY time we got on the ship or off the ship, it was a BREEZE.  So different from many years ago where embarkation day was "long", and there was lots of queueing for port days (although rarely bad even then).  We were literally only delayed to deal with the x-ray machines (emptying pockets, refilling pockets) but otherwise very quick.  Port locations for all four Norwegian stops was great - right in or just next to the downtown, and Rotterdam was exceptionally easy to start/end the cruise.

 

Oddly, for us, the worst part of the whole cruise was simply the amount of kids on board. A typical "hot topic" here, and also expected for a peak summer cruise. We generally are never cruising in the summer - latest is usually June and returning in September - so the amount of families with babies up to late teens was very obvious to us on the ship, and it certainly changed many of the on-board experiences that we encountered. One example was the first evening's performer (singer Toni Warne) STOPPING the show to ask a family with a wailing baby to perhaps leave the theater to deal with their child. We had a family behind us with a young child who talked the whole show, and even with the performer's request to the other family, the family behind us kept allowing their kid to loudly ramble throughout the show. Other examples were the little kids - really fun to watch - taking over the "dance floor" for some of the foyer shows, the families or groups of kids occupying all pools and hot tubs most of the day, and the late into the evening kids wandering all decks and the much more frequent cabin door slamming in the wee hours (past midnight) that is much rarer on most cruises.

 

MDR seemed "slammed" no matter which time we were there.  Our waitstaff lost the assistant waiter for a few days to sickness, and it only lowered overall service (ie slow to take orders, unfilled water glasses, etc.).  Our head waiter was really good, just very busy.  I also had the escargot one night, and thought it was "fair" - not great, but tasted okay.  Not something that would make me have it again if it was my first time trying it.  

 

We skipped many of the shows (rare for us), but often spent too much time at dinner - both talking and with slower service - to make it to many of the non-production shows. We missed the magician and the comedian's (Jim Short) main shows (caught Short's later extra show), but were happy with the production shows.  Did one or two other bigger pop-ups like Silent Disco, but skipped things like the Abba sing-a-long.  

 

In general, felt the music options were better than some recent cruises, and spent a fair bit of time listening to the main Kuta Beat band and the guitarist Tracy.  Good and modern music options also by the DJ.  We skipped - on purpose - the Mikey Votano show, which seemed likely to drive me nuts with "classic" covers.  We still think the On Broadway production show would benefit from a larger selection of "modern" musical song choices, but overall, still enjoy that show.

 

The biggest shock to us was that the ship did not seem to be anywhere near 100% capacity.  Sea days were their usual crazy at lunch, and like I wrote, the MDR seemed stretched, but overall, it did not feel crowded for most of the cruise, and if we avoided the places the kids were monopolizing, it was generally quite nice. Having the SV cabin was a great retreat from any business we did encounter.  Likewise, the "average" age seemed way younger than normal (even excluding kids in the number). MANY more 30s folks on board as well as the 40s/50s folks.  This could be summer travel related or the destination, but overall, one of the youngest groupings of folks we can recall.

 

Overall, a great cruise, with several places that could be improved, and a few misses that were likely mostly related to timing (height of summer). We'll be back, for sure, but also need to remember to avoid cruising during kid's school breaks.

[fabby50]

Thanks for your reviews, especially the comments on families.  I have been looking at cruising this region, and it looks like we'll go with Viking.  I would like to go this time of year.  I've never had children and my tolerance is beyond low (sorry parents and children, my bugaboo, not yours) 🙂

 

[cruises89]

Interesting. Just disembarked a fjord cruise on Apex and the food in MDR and buffet was amazing. 
Will be in Silhouette in a month from Greece. Hope the food gets better. Cant understand that food quality differs based on how new the ship is. 

[Tom and Ingrid]

12 minutes ago, cruises89 said:

Interesting. Just disembarked a fjord cruise on Apex and the food in MDR and buffet was amazing. 
Will be in Silhouette in a month from Greece. Hope the food gets better. Cant understand that food quality differs based on how new the ship is. 

I don't think the age of the ship plays much of a roll at all in the food quality, service quality, or any other metric that can be trained.

 

I thought the buffet was pretty darn good when we ate there (weakest on night 1), and the only big miss in MDR - for me - was the escargot.  Otherwise, I was generally pretty happy with all my meals with some being particularly good and none except the escargot being a disappointment.  My wife did get a panna cotta dessert that was "different" and not to her liking (or our tablemates).  I had opted for a different dessert and enjoyed mine. Since we all eat way too many sweets, no one opted to try a different dessert.