Our trip started out of Bayonne NJ on December 12th 2011 on a 12 night cruise with Silhouette. We purchased a concierge class category 3 cabin (C3) and totally recommend the extra money it costs (I did find out that the only difference between a category C1 and C3 is location on the ship). One of the perks of purchasing C3 class is express embarkation, we were on the ship within 15 minutes as opposed to 50 minutes for everyone who didn't have express check in. In addition, you get fresh fruit in your room along with welcome bottle of sparkling wine, horderves every day and bath towels.

The ship itself was really nice although we were on Equinox (sister ship) in 2009 so we had a good idea of what the ship looked like. All in all the cruise was fine with one huge exception, the food. I noticed that there is now a considerable difference in quality between the speciality restaurants and the main seating Cuvee restaurant. The food in the main dining restaurant was at best average. The fish was dry, the meats were a little tough and the pastas left a lot to be desired. If you want a good meal, you will need to book a speciality restaurant at an additional $40 per person not including tip and drinks.

I can't tell you how disappointed my wife and I were with the food considering our last cruise with Celebrity, the food was outstanding. I definitely see a pattern starting to arise with Celebrity that I don't like. When we first started cruising with Celebrity, they didn't have speciality restaurants and the food was very good. In 2009, I noticed the food in the main dining hall was still excellent, but the speciality restaurants were slightly better at $20 per person. This year, the food in the main dining hall was not very good and the speciality restaurants were the only place to get a good meal. Read more