We have sailed Celebrity several times, and every cruise we believe that things could not possibly get better, and yet each next cruise, somehow, they do! The Silhouette, the 2nd newest Solstice Class ship, though clearly a Solstice ship, seems somehow to be a cut above it's predecessors, though it's hard for me to put my finger on exactly why. I personally love that the Corning Glass Show has been replaced with the Lawn Grill - the fee is minimal and though we personally did not eat there as, simply put, with so many ports of call, there was very little time to do all that Silhouette has to offer - we met many many guests on board who were raving about their experience and returned several times to the Lawn Grill, enjoying the fun, camaraderie, party atmosphere, and excellent food. I also love the addition of The Porch, on the same deck as the Lawn Grill - another low additional fee restaurant - the location frankly was always screaming for The Porch to be there - a stunning spot to sit, have a light meal, the ocean at your feet - quite beautiful. We are also thrilled that Q-Sine has replaced Silk Harvest - this is the case on the Millennium Class ships, but Silhouette and Reflection, to my knowledge, are the only Solstice Class ships that have Q-Sine. We LOVE Q-Sine, having first eaten there on Summit. Q-Sine serves delicious, inventive, exciting food in a highly stylized tapas-esque manner. I believe that Q-Sine is the brain child of chef Jacques Van Staden, created as a key addition to Celebrity's evolving culinary vision, and we are very excited about it. We ate in Q-Sine twice on this cruise - it is our favorite specialty restaurant, as we personally find Murano and Tuscan Grille, though the food is very good, to be a bit too traditional and frankly, almost passé. I think that Celebrity has an eye to the future and realizes that a new generation is coming up - lines like Cunard and Holland are geared to a clientele 'of a certain age', but Celebrity seems to be focused on the younger set, or at least, the younger at heart set, who are upwardly mobile, have refined sensibilities - those that are more of the "foodie" generation, who enjoy more than a slab o' meat and some boiled veg.

To that end, Celebrity has instituted a new certification, "SPE Certified", for certain of it's dishes in Aqua Class and in the Main Dining Room - on Silhouette, that's the Grand Cuvee. The SPE certification ensures that the dish is the ideal portion size, low in sodium, low in processed ingredients and saturated fats, and takes into account seasonality, sourcing - and makes sure it is delicious. On this cruise, we ate in Grand Cuvee on the Select Dining plan, and I chose primarily SPE dishes and found them to be fabulous - in fact, this cruise in particular, I found all of the food to be the best I've had on Celebrity - I am assuming this is due to the work of the Executive Chef Anthony Wilson on board, and his collaboration with the head of dining for the line, Chef Van Staden, John Suley, and other head chefs - from our experience on Silhouette, innovation is afoot - the food quality was exceptional - my husband and I were both very aware of that - we are already Celebrity fans, but the food was definitely kicked up a few notches on Silhouette - more modern, creative - we were very pleased.

All that said, and I could say more positive things about the food in the restaurants - we were not happy with the room service. Not sure why, but the breakfast menu is very limited, pared way back from the last time we sailed non-Aqua class - no pancakes, no waffles, not even oatmeal on the menu! For eggs, you can only choose scrambled or an omelet - again, on the printed menu. In order to go 'off the reservation', I called, and on the phone, I was able to order oatmeal and pretty much anything else that I wanted - but, you have to make a call. Clearly, the room service model is being streamlined for efficiency of the overall operation, but the guest definitely suffers - however, if you call, you can get what you want - those that ask, get. Read more