Celebrity Cruises
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Just returned from the celebrity silhouette trip to the Norwegian Fjords, (Sat 16th July - Sat 23rd July).
After many years of cruising, celebrity certainly did disappoint on this occasion, when arriving first impressions are everything and our dinner reservation was at 6pm (early sitting). After travelling all day we were looking forward to freshening up and dressing up for dinner only to find Celebrity had miss placed our luggage. We brought this to the attention of Guest relations and the main dining room and was informed not to worry, we would easily get a later sitting and they apologised. 4 hours later after getting onboard our luggage finally arrived, after a quick freshen up and changing into some more appropriate for dinner we headed back to the main dining only to be told they where oversubscribed and we could not get a table, we talked again to Guest relations who also tried but no options were possible for the first evening, of course we were very disappointed. Guest relations apologise but no alternative dining was given, we were simply told just go to the buffet. From a previous experience under slightly different circumstances Carnival cruises resolved the issue with complimentary speciality dining for that evening what made for a very special cruise, like I mentioned before first impressions are everything…… So feeling very overdressed we headed to the buffet, only to find seating was limited and extremely busy, we found a table and rotated so we could both get dinner without loosing our table, something I can honestly say we have never have to do before on a cruise. The buffet was substandard to say the least, Limited choices and the stations were all very similar, most of the deserts were soggy and frozen. But my biggest shock was the lack of waiters, normally on Cruise ships they take your orders at tables and cannot get drinks delivered quickly enough but not on Celebrity…. Long Cues at the bars was to become the normal routine for this cruise. This could also be due to the volume of drinks package pushed out currently (the always included deal) everyone had taken up these offers and staff were over run and drink standards were poor, they haven’t got a clue how to make cocktails, good luck if you like Pina colada’s, my wife loves them but give up in the end getting a good one. We had the classic package and if we required anything off the premium package we just paid the difference, I’m disappointed they don’t offer a soft drinks package. We sadly didn’t manage over the week to use the swimming pools and hot tubs, these areas were much too busy, same as getting a chair / table at the cafe. There wasn’t a main dining room option for breakfast and lunch, so the only option was the buffet, never come across this before and again as mentioned previously the standard here was shocking, just imagine the whole ship is using this area for breakfast and lunch, yes ridiculously busy and we walked a few times all the way around just to find a table. With visiting Norway a lot of people would want to sit on top deck, understandably this cannot accommodate everybody but most of the front is empty and reserved for the retreat guests and the lawned area has paid for areas (again empty). We only participated in two excursions:- The first one was setesdal line railway, this was ridiculously busy and very difficult to get photos and take in the scenery. It’s an hour each way on the bus and a 30 minute steam train. This was discussed with the excursions team and a 50% refund was given, personally it’s still not worth doing even with the discount. The second one was Lysefjord cruise, this was the total opposite, we absolutely loved the experience and highly recommend. Stop midway for waffles and coffee was charming. We were informed the ship sailed at max capacity but due to Covid many staff were off Sick, we had mixed figures but there average given is the staff were 25% less that normal. We totally understand covid is still an active problem but was this really managed efficiently? Personally I would never sail on the silhouette again, please do your homework on other ships offered by this group, the silhouette was perfectly located for a captured British audience and at max capacity the marketing directors will certainly be happy, sadly at £4000 this offers poor value for money and I will be going back to my other options.. after two cruises on Carnival I cannot recommend them highly enough. I feel relieved as we nearly booked The celebrity edge in Aug 23 at the same time of this booking, luckily the Mrs said we must try it first to ensure the kids would enjoy it, thank God we can look for something else. Sorry celebrity I really don’t see you as a premium brand 👎 The best part was leaving the gangway and coming home today, even if I do have work tomorrow.