I did the Transatlantic cruise on Celebrity Silhouette. A transatlantic cruise has been on my bucket list since I was 10, and overall I was not disappointed. I had read many reviews on Cruise Critic, so I was forewarned that Celebrity has made some very noticeable cuts and I had adjusted my expectations accordingly.

Starting with the best: embarkation was easy and fast - it took less than 15 minutes, from arrival at the pier to stepping onto the ship. My cabin (9374) was comfortable, with a slightly larger verandah; there was enough storage, and the steward (Andrew - who is wonderful) warned against putting anything heavy into the cupboards above the bed. The itinerary was very good, and one of the reasons I chose this particular cruise, but I wish Celebrity would offer an itinerary with ports both in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. The weather was incredible; we kept being told in different ports that the weather a day or week before had been awful, but for us it was perfect. We had rain on a few nights, but sunny days in every port and no storms as we crossed the Atlantic. The worst weather was on disembarkation day in Ft. Lauderdale, where it was very windy and heavy clouds, but it still hadn't rained by the time my flight home left at midday, so no complaints.

Food in the Oceanview Cafe and the MDR was consistently good. Our waiter's suggestions were always good ones - ignoring them lead to some disappointment. This said, Celebrity made its reputation on fine dining, and even as recently as 5 years ago formal nights meant an exquisite experience from amuse bouche to appetizer to soup and salad to a palate cleanser to entree to dessert, which was followed by bonbons. Now, formal night is the same dinner as any other; the diners are just more dressed up. The menus are also changed: you no longer have "appetizer," "soup & salad" and "entree" headings; now it's wines on the left side and "appetizer" and "entree" on the right. And the service was less than it used to be: in the past, the waiters were training the assistant waiters to meet very high standards - you had the feeling that they would be able to work in any Michellin-starred restaurant anywhere; now, they're good, but not any better than the waiters at a nice restaurant on land, and on the last formal night, both my entree and dessert came out of the kitchen broken (Beef Wellington & Baked Alaska). In the past, the waiter would never have brought plates from the kitchen with a torn and dangling pastry or separated ice cream and meringue. The food was good, but not great; so was the service. Read more