Just returned from the 3/10/13 7 day voyage on the Celebrity Silhouette with my wife and 3 friends, all in our 40's and 50's. The handful of negative reviews here made me adjust my expectations downward quite a bit. Matter of fact, I was sure the ship, crew and whole experience would be a disaster.

I will tell you that the problem I ran into was with security at the port, before boarding. While this issue might pertain to 0.0001% of you, it may be worth noting as a matter of principle.

My carry-on went through the scanner and I was asked if they could look through it. "Fine" I said. There was nothing in there that I hadn't brought on a cruise before. They take me to a table and go through the bag. The guy pulls out my handheld police scanner and says "you can't take this on the ship". I told him that I have taken it on many cruises before with no problem (I use it to listen to ship-to-shore communication during docking, undocking, tendering, etc.). He said that since February they have been told not to allow them. Read more