Celebrity Silhouette: A Floating Department Store

 To be perfectly honest, our cruise on Celebrity Silhouette was somewhat disappointing. We had gone on Princess the last 2 cruises before this one and loved them both. When we booked a terrific Celebrity cruise 5 years ago and considered this line a step up from Princess, we thought we were paying for and would be getting an upgrade from the cruises on Princess. Well, it turned out not to be the case, even though the online reviews were terrific. We were not impressed with the ship's decor, and the "grand" foyer was not grand at all, especially compared to Princess'. The room service breakfast left much to be desired with watery scrambled eggs and small cold pieces of hard bread that were supposed to be the rye bread we ordered. The buffet on the high deck had above average food, (B-) but the service was not good. In the 7 or 8 times we ate there, not one server came over to the table to ask if we wanted the complementary water, coffee or tea. The only ones that appeared were waiters wanting to sell us specialty drinks, beer or liquor. And they appeared twice during each meal. When we finished and sat talking with dirty and empty dishes in front of us, noone came to clear them away until we piled them up ourselves and pushed them to another table. All they cared about was clearing dishes where noone was seated and rarely greeted us. This was just the opposite on Princess where they could not do enough to get us any drink and cleaned off the tables immediately with a smile and a greeting.

Oh, and trying to pass through the gauntlet of people selling merchandise was really a pain.  Many of them had stuff sitting out in front of the shops and would approach you to buy their products. If you looked on the schedule of activities for the day, there were at least 30 listings for presentations which they hoped would lead to sales for those items.  I was so sick of being bombarded with Faberge jewelry, Michael Kors, spa treatments, acupuncture treatments, clothes, etc., etc.  We rarely went to any activity because it was mostly merchandise or kids’ activities. The BINGO games cost double of Princess' and the payoffs were less. In addition the odds of winning were small because hundreds of people were playing at the same time in the theatre venue. They made you balance your cards on your lap, and one false move would make the little slats over the numbers get covered up or go away. At least on Princess they held the BINGO game in a lounge with flat tables for your cards and only about 100 people or less would play. This Silhouette ship was like a floating department store. Sure, Princess did some of this as well, but we never felt bombarded and salespeople rarely pressured you by standing outside trying to reel you in. 

In all fairness, the stateroom was very nice and the attendant was great. This was also true for the dining room meals and the wonderful waiters. We loved most of the entertainment that featured many talented young people. The comedian, Sheridan, was excellent.

 They had no fanfare or party for the captain in the foyer on dress-up night compared to Princess where they pile the champagne glasses real high and pour the champagne on them to make a spectacular flowing fountain with music and confetti. Even the chefs and waiters on this cruise just marched around the dining room with no real excitement or flaming baked Alaska. A big disappointment was that people like us with the Classic Level were not invited to the High Tea. On Princess they had a high tea every afternoon for anyone who wanted to attend. These Princess ships had the best white glove high tea service with fancy tablecloths, great sandwiches and pastries and delicious teas and coffees. We felt like peons, as we always looked forward to those high teas and we were excluded.

We were happy to see MSNBC, CNN and FOX on the trip going, but that all disappeared on the way back. There were all these movies we had no interest in or had seen before, and they never announced the name of the program or when the program would repeat like on Princess so that you could plan. I would turn on the TV and nowhere was info about what you were watching.

And finally, they were alerted prior to the cruise that it was David's birthday cruise, and the only recognition of that was an envelope delivered to our room saying "Happy Birthday" and inviting us to a lecture on Faberge. Well, it was not a special invite, as anyone and his uncle could have attended, as we noted it was on the daily list of activities for everyone. We must say the presentation was excellent, but it evidently was a ploy to have us buy some jewelry in their shop. In contrast, on Princess, we found a wonderful "Happy Birthday" poster on the stateroom door for my 66th birthday which we celebrated on the ship. It was so nice and covered in real balloons. On the day of my birthday a wonderful chocolate cake was delivered to our stateroom and at dinner our waiters came out with our desserts with sparkles and sang "Happy Birthday." We were also serenaded by one of the waiters who played guitar and sang beautifully.

Regarding the ports-they were very interesting and we did have a good time touring the cities. In Saint Martin, our friends who live there picked us up at the port and took us out for a wonderful day.

Prior to this cruise I had read many reviews which were mostly glowing.  Well, we don’t know what Silhouette ship they were on, perhaps in an alternate universe. We are not saying the cruise was horrible, but we expected a lot more for the money we paid. In no way was it the fault of Phyllis Cronin, our agent, as she did get us this very good room at a very good price and she had no way of knowing about the experiences we described.

We hope you will take this criticism as a helpful tool to divert people who would feel uncomfortable on a cruise like this and steer them toward another kind of cruise.