Celebrity Silhouette Review
Great destinations and ship; terrible, terrible tendering process
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This was a very nice cruise with lovely destinations, a beautiful ship, and friendly crew and passengers.
My low rating is due to the terrible disembarkation process, especially when we needed to tender. There was a single gangway through a single access point to most tenders. There were too few tender boats. Initially, there was no queuing process used, so just a single very, very, very long line. Eventually, the clever idea of providing people with a number and then calling that number when a tender was available came into existence. This alleviated the standing in line portion of the pain, partially, but not the waiting. At one tender, our number was called, but the wait after being called was still over 30 minutes. Getting back on board was not any better. Often only a single gangway, with at most two security points. So when it was time to head back to the ship, another hour wasted in line.
The Edinburgh process was the worst. I believe to save money, the ship was anchored miles from shore, (perhaps international waters? I didn't check to see if the casino was open or not, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.) No additional tenders were sought from local providers. All passengers were funneled through a single portal on a total of 6 tenders, which had a 50+ minute cycle time. We waited over 3 hours to get off the ship in the morning, which became afternoon by then. This meant instead of enjoying the day in town in shorts and T-shirt and then coming back to the ship for dinner, change of clothes and then heading out again for the Tattoo, we had to carry two sets of wardrobe with us all day long, (it gets cold there at night, so we needed jackets and a blanket as well as a sweater and hat to hope to stay warm during the show.) The show was fantastic. Edinburgh is fantastic. Getting back on the ship was a nightmare. We were rather high up in the stands for the show, so we spent at least 30 minutes getting down from our seats to the ground of the castle. It was too late to catch bus #10 back to the port, so we grabbed a cab with another couple, (cost 12 pounds for the four of us, point of note the Celebrity shuttle cost was $20 per person per day.) Once at the tendering point, we were amazed to see the very, very long line waiting for tenders. We spent over an hour in line, in the cold, (they did have blankets to pass out, what kind hearts they had.) Others who arrived after us, needed even more time to get back aboard.
Cabin Review
AquaClass 2
Directly under the Persian Garden in the front of the ship. Somewhat of a walk getting to meals, but then easy access to the nightly shows, the Spa and Sky Lounge. We did hear the music from the Sky Lounge occasionally, but never later than midnight, faint and not disturbing or sleep. Definitely a good choice for us.
Port Reviews
Amsterdam
Lovely city.
Cobh (Cork)
We were on an eCoach tour. We were abandoned at the Blarney castle. They came back for us after we called them, but it was a bit scary. The Blarney grounds are beautiful, and the time wasted kissing the stone is better spent walking these grounds.
Dublin
We had chosen to do a simple hop on hop off day. The weather was miserable and the traffic meant the bus was stuck in traffic for most of the time we were on board with the windows rained over. We've been to Dublin before and like the city, but this was a disappointing day for us. We did get some shopping done, making my wife happy.
Belfast
Situated in a lovely portion of the coastline, the rope bridge is somewhat disappointing. It is only 20 meters long and you are off of it quite quickly. The views of the sea and cliffs are more interesting than the bridge itself. It is possible to walk all the way down to the bridge without a ticket, but you must have a ticket to cross, and those can only be purchased at the top of the hill, (you don't want to make that trip two extra times.) But you can see all you need to see without actually crossing the bridge.
The Dark Hedge was interesting to see. The trees are very pretty. A bit too much tourist traffic to make it ideal, but you get a good sense of why this location was chosen for the show.