This was our fourth Celebrity cruise out of a total of 16 cruises in the past twelve years. We generally like to pick newer ships and at ages 63 and 70 consider ourselves still on the "youthful side", athletic and lovers of sun and water ... avid swimmers which is why we still like to cruise the Caribbean, even to ports that we have been to before.
This particular cruise ended up being a mega geriatric - norovirus adventure. While there were a number of things we did not care for on this ship, on balance we managed to enjoy this cruise. Silhouette is a beautifully decorated vessel. We especially appreciated the ease with which you could get around and the fact that there were no blockages and you didn't need to go up and down elevators to navigate on any one floor. The staff was indeed friendly and tried their best to please. On this particular cruise the staff ended up with a lot of elderly people who got ill (Norovirus) and did their best to contain the situation to avoid total quarantine. More about this later.
Embarkation:
8338
Starboard Aft ... with larger balcony than standard balcony room. Great view to the left, blocked view to the right since the direct aft cabin jets out a bit. Bed located near slider. One "adequate" closet, three small drawers and two overhead bins in "hard to reach" spot over bed. Poor storage overall. Would not suit three people in cabin. This cabin had a cramped feel as dressing table is close to entrance door. Balcony's where bed is forward in the room and couch, dressing table and drawer's near slider ... looked bigger ( but were same size). Nice, spacious bathroom with curved, hard shower door. Lots of drawers and shelves.
Bathroom towels were particularly chintzy, small and not luxurious at all.
Aft bedrooms require a lot of walking to nearest elevators in midsection. There are no stairs in the aftsection either. It is particularly annoying to have to walk to the midsection to get to stairs and elevators,only to have to walk aft to get to Main Dining Room on decks 3/4. The "design goof" of not having stairs or elevators in the aft made us wonder in the case of an emergency whether aft passengers safety was compromised?