Celebrity Silhouette Review
July 2019 Med cruise spoiled by too many unruly children.
Rating by category
Additional details
I'll apologise now if this is a long review but it has to be said. This was our 5th Celebrity cruise and the 2nd on The Silhouette. We love the Celebrity brand and have only ever cruised with them. I often read reviews and realise that SOME people exaggerate. I hope to give it a fair and balanced review.
First the good points ! Stateroom fine 1245 on Deck 10 Concierge. Near the lifts but not noisy in any way at all.Considered going Aqua for same price but was warned off by reviews which said that Aqua staterooms were under pool areas and were noisy early morning with chairs being dragged around. Our steward Jon was fabulous and deserves a mention. Everywhere was kept clean and he was very friendly. For reasons that will become apparent below we were really glad that we had our own balcony and we used it a lot.
We ate in the Main Dining Room at a table for 2 ( We had asked for a 2 when we booked but were initially put on a 6 and this was quickly rectified) Thank Goodness because we must have had the BEST waiting staff ever. Yanti, Santi,and Sommelier Aneesh really looked after us well and were so friendly and kind it made the cruise for us. Assistant Maitre D' Pero never stopped walking around making sure all guests were happy and always had a friendly word, lovely man !
Cabin Review
Concierge Class 2
Nice Cabin. Larger than normal balcony. Good size bathroom with plenty of storage space.
Comfy bed which is next to the balcony doors. Steward Jon really great. Near to the lifts but never bothered by noise.
Port Reviews
Lisbon
We made our own way by bus to Belem where we had the famous pastries. Great place tiny shop but huge inside will seat 400> pastries only 1Euro something each and they were delicious.
Rome (Civitavecchia)
Having been to Rome to stay for 5 days we didn't want to go again in the sweltering August heat. Its also at least an hours bus ride away. We decided to have a walk around Civitavecchia. Nice place....promenade. Had lunch in a restaurant that looked like it would be nice but food was awful !
Florence (Livorno)
Having done Florence before we decided to do a trip from the ship to Pisa. It was an afternoon one. Nice Guide (forgotten name) We drove to outside Pisa into a huge park area. Joined a boat, which had seen better days and sailed into Pisa along a river whilst eating an ice cream given to us by the captain. Then we joined a street train that was old and very bumpy and uncomfortable and driven into Pisa. Our guide told us to meet her at a certain time at a lovely courtyard restaurant where we could have a drink and they had lots of toilets. She then took us into the Pisa tower area and spent ages talking to us. We then had 45 minutes to look around and we weren't able to go into the buildings. Meeting at the restaurant the staff would not let us go into the courtyard saying it was closed. we had a coach full of people and we were directed to one toilet. when the guide appeared i asked her where were the many toilets were. She told me to go through to the courtyard and there were loads. The courtyard was HUGE and beautiful with empty tables all set up for the night time, obviously why we weren't allowed in there. Street train took us back to the bus then we came back to the ship. Not good value for money in my opinion.
Marseille
We were almost encouraged not to go into Marseilles by the cruise director Sue. She frightened a lot of people saying it wasn't very safe. The shuttle bus to take us into town was 20 dollars a 10/15min journey. We were told when we bought the tickets at the port authority that it was in dollars and we had to pay with our sea pass card. Celebrity set the price not them ! As we drove out of the port area we noticed a free shuttle bus that some people walked to which dropped them off very close to were we were dropped off. Shame on you Celebrity !!!!!
Marseille lovely place don't be scared just be wary as you would anywhere. Find the lift to the walkway that gives you fabulous views. We had a fabulous salad at a restaurant opposite the marina.
Barcelona
Having been before we decided to visit Parc Guelle. We walked up Las Ramblas to the square were all the bus tops are. Plenty of tourist advice booths. got the 24 bus to the parc couple of Euros. climb up to the highest spot and get wonderful views.
Gibraltar
As we had been before we missed out the Rock and went to Sandy Bay to the beach. Husband had a swim in the sea but we had to get back quickly as we set sail at 3pm