We booked this cruise last April 2010 and had been looking forward to what we hoped would be an amazing cruise experience having only cruised before on Louis Cruise line, Ocean Village 2 and P&O's Oceana last year. We expected Celebrity and her new ship to be a superior cruise line and have come away with mixed feelings.

On the whole we had a great holiday on Silhouette and have come home feeling very sad that we have had to leave her behind! She is a beautiful ship and never having sailed on a Solstice ship before we were blown away by the stylish, modern interior, amazing choice re bars and dining venues and sheer size. The Hideaway (which we believe is new) is a great new area. The cabin was fabulous and we were more than happy with our SV view and layout of the cabin (with the bed near the balcony). The cabin became our 'sanctuary' on sea days when the pool areas were really noisy and most sunbeds 'taken'. The benefit of a SV meant that we had the sun nearly all day, every day and most days there was also an area of shade (which suited hubby and I as he prefers the shade, while I am more of a greenhouse flower!)We found the cabin to be extremely quiet and never heard a thing from those around us! We also found that the balcony was very private and we could only be seen from above if we were right by the rails. Despite what we had read on previous reviews we were pleased to find that we had got more than enough cupboard & storage space. We chose to keep the mini bar and this was really useful. We didn't use it alot but we found that it very convenient and we had enough space to store our own wine bottles inside. We did not find the walk to the lifts too bad, and failed to see why other passengers have complained. Similarly, we did not experience an issue with soot on the balcony as some passengers had and found that the cabin staff hosed it down each day to remove any tiny particles of soot that may be there. Our cabin steward was delightful. The only criticism of the cabin was that we were unable to lower the temperature below 21 degrees and we found that it was really hot at night. All in all though we would give the cabin 10 / 10

We chose Select Dining and found that we had different experiences depending where we were placed. If you get a choice ask for table 409 - a nice table for 2 beside the balcony area where the service from the 'team' in that area is first class. Our wine steward, waiter and assistant waiter were fabulous and we could not fault them at all. Unfortunately, across the other side of the dining room things tended to be less efficient and not as friendly - some of the staff were ok, but the majority needed a course re people management! Read more