A Taste of Scandinavia
Celebrity Silhouette Cruise Review to Europe - Northern Europe
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 15
13 Night Best Of Scandinavia (Amsterdam To Rotterdam)
Sail date: May 24, 2024
Ship: Celebrity Silhouette
Cabin number: 9305
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 months ago
Review summary
The ports gave passengers a view of the Scandinavian countries, as well as Estonia and Germany. The ship was comfortable and provided passengers many options to fill their time onboard. There are a few ports that I would most certainly want to revisit!Embarkation
We took a taxi to the terminal from a hotel in Amsterdam. Luggage transfer was easy, and our boarding was seemless
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We ate most of our meals in the main dining room. On the Silhouette we like the upper level, deck 4, or deck 3 on the side. The food was very good and the servers excellent. The few times we ate at the buffet were enjoyable and the food was diverse, tasty, and well presented. We chose not to eat in the specialty restaurants. The main dining room and the buffet were prepared to handle those with food allergies. My husband has Celiac Disease so food mut be gluten free.
Onboard Activities
The fitness center is well equipped and after the first few days was much less crowded. We did not participate in the games and other activities.
Entertainment
We found the shows with contracted musical entertainers we were very enjoyable. The shows highlighted their talents. We did not go to the comedian or magician shows. While the ship's singers and dancers had talent, as demonstrated in the last show focused on NYC and West End musical numbers, the first two shows seemed disjointed, and the selected musical pieces did not allow their talents to be appreciated. We did really enjoy one of the duos that entertained in the bars, Love & Soul.
Service and Staff
Our experiences with crew have been very favorable. Our dining room waiters and our cabin steward had very pleasant demeanors and carried out their responsibilities with care and efficiency. Those we encountered in the cafes and bars were also pleasant, friendly, and efficient.
Ship Quality
We enjoy the Silhouette's layout and design. We always enjoy the Sky Lounge and frequently sit in the rocking chairs to read and visit with friends.
Cabin / Stateroom
This was the first time we have stayed in a Sunset Cabin. We did like that we could see what was on both sides of the ship. The cabin layout is the same as the other cabins we have stayed in both veranda and ocean view. We like that the Celebrity design provides the couch as a seating option. Our veranda did show signs of age and could have used an extra cleaning. We did notice that the back veranda did get some soot from the ship's funnel. WE never saw soot fall; it happened one or two times during the night.
Ship tip
This ship is really not set up for kids to have lots to do. It does have some children's areas, but not to the extent of the Celebrity Edge ships. We are a seniro adult couple and travel with other couples and friends our age.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We flew into Amsterdam a few days early and stayed at the Doubletree Centraal Station, which is also close to the port. We arranged walking and boat tours for one of the days and a tour of the area on another.
We did not go on an organized tour in Stavanger. We did get off the ship and walk around the town. The Tour de Norway was happening the day we were in port. We watched it from the ship's deck! It was an unexpected treat.
There were some great things to see: where the Baltic and North seas meet and the large dune that is gradually moving due to the winds. However, our ship excursion was not well organized.
We did not take a tour to Berlin. We walked around the town. We climbed up to the viewing area of an old lighthouse, which was fun.
Again, we enjoyed seeing Visby, but the ship's excursion was not well organized. Our guide was disappointing. Some of those on the excursion shared that they saw more when they walked into Visby from the ship prior to the excursion.
We had a ship excursion that included a visit to a planned "rural village" outside of Tallinn and a tour of Tallinn's old town. Our ship excursion was described as a small group. However, it had 31 people, which was very disappointing. Tallinn is very interesting so a walking tour of old town is a "must do."
Our ship excursion was as described, and our tour guide was very good. We were fortunate because we visited Gamla stan (old town) and the Vasa Museum in the morning and then went to the oldest town in Sweden, Sigtuna, in the afternoon. There was a marathon in Stockholm the day we were in port. The town was setting up for it when we were walking around old town, but our tour was not impacted by closed roads and marathon traffic as the marathon was in the afternoon. Old town and the Vasa Museum were great. Sigtuna was okay. Our guide did share a lot of interesting information about Stockholm and the area as were riding to and from Sigtuna.
We bought "All Routes" Hop-on, Hop-off bus tickets ahead of the cruise. When we were in Copenhagen, we also went on a boat tour. The boat tour guide was really very informative, and we were able to see a lot of Copenhagen from the boat. We found we did not use the bus the second day, as we had seen all we wanted to see on the first day in port.
We reserved a ship excursion that included an easy tour of Rotterdam and a drop off at the Amsterdam airport. The tour delivered as advertised.
Disembarkation
The disembarkation was a bit chaotic. The people on the tour met and were to go as a group to the bus, but then an announcement was made that all people were now to disembark so there was a mass of people headed off the ship at the same time. The result was confusion.