Celebrity Silhouette Dining - Eat on-shore

We have just returned from a 12 day British Isles cruise - the experience to be described elsewhere - and were positively impressed with only one dining experience, Q-Sine. Murano, The Porch and the buffet rated an OK, Lawn Grill was over-priced and under performing (the story of this cruise), and the main dining room left a lot to be desired.

First, the good thing; Q-sine. It's a different approach to dining with a large number of "small plates" covering a wide range of foods. You can order as many as you want and each is served in serial fashion in its' own unique presentation for sharing. Service is attentive and excellent. Well worth the added cost.

It seems as if the menu in Murano has slipped (based upon our Murano experience on the Constellation), the food was well prepared and service was very good but not worth the up-charge. On Silhouette there is only a view of the bottom of the lifeboats, so - sadly - an inside table is just fine.

We ate breakfast at the buffet and aside from there rarely being enough seating - and what can you do exciting with breakfast? - this was just fine. Pizza was the best I've had a sea and the pasta service, while time consuming, offered a good product. After the Tattoo fiasco the buffet was open and a welcome place to get some hot food.

The Porch is an interesting concept with cold seafood served under cover on the top deck. The food was well prepared, there was more than enough shrimp, lobster, and scallops to satisfy our needs. Small venue with very good service. The view is excellent and all you need is decent weather.

Lawn Grill; let's start recognizing that I think having a lawn on a cruise ship is just plain stupid but that's not completely relevant to the dining experience. You are seated on Deck 15 under cover (like the Porch) on one side of The Lawn. You get a four course meal; "flatbread", salad, entrée, and dessert. "Flatbread" translated into English is "pizza"; yes, you can customize with items from the salad bar but the bottom line is you pay an up-charge for pizza. Then there is the salad bar - yep, a salad bar; if I wanted a salad bar I would go to Ruby Tuesday not an upscale restaurant. Yes, your waiter will prepare a salad for you should you wish. The entrée; you select your meat and side dishes. The meat we were served was top shelf - the waiter messed up the order - and well prepared. Side dishes were not memorable. Dessert was fine but again, not memorable.

Last, and definitely least, the main dining room. The menu selections were not interesting and when they approached interesting they were poorly prepared. Some standouts; my wife's "Hungarian Goulash" starter was more soup than substance, her country pate was primarily fat with little meat or flavor; I found no ham on my veal cordon bleu (and the veal had not been pounded), Chicken Kiev was a fried chicken breast with an herbed - very lightly herbed - butter sauce, and there was meatloaf .... meatloaf, really? Enough griping, service was fine and we had dinner with some interesting people.

It seems that if you want a decent dinner you have to go to a specialty restaurant - we checked the menus at Blu and the Luminae the last night (a small sample to be sure) and were not impressed so upgrading your cabin doesn't seem to upgrade dinner - and pay the price which seems to be the message Celebrity is sending.

I am sorry that the food on your cruise was not inspiring, I do hope the rest of the trip was much better!

We have not yet sailed with Celebrity but are booked on the 'Silly' next autumn, so I hope things improve during that time.

What was the Tattoo fiasco?

Sorry about the food. It is always hit or miss from a personal perspective. Another poster, I think on same cruise, posted a good response to the food.

I hope your next cruise is better.

We were on this cruise and had a wonderful time. Most of our meals were eaten in Luminae and were phenomenal - best of the 4-5 cruises we have done since Luminae opened.

It's hard to please everyone that's for sure. It's called mass market cruising for a reason. For those who have cruised for years (and I don't fall into that category),they all say that things aren't the way they used to be. But cruising was more expensive back then even taking into account inflation etc. The cruise biz is extremely competitive so the pricing is key. Perhaps "kicking it up a notch" to a cruise on Oceania or similar may be to your liking. You may find that in the end,the cruise food experience might be more your style. And in the end,Oceania might not cost all that much more. JMO

It's hard to please everyone that's for sure. It's called mass market cruising for a reason. For those who have cruised for years (and I don't fall into that category),they all say that things aren't the way they used to be. But cruising was more expensive back then even taking into account inflation etc. The cruise biz is extremely competitive so the pricing is key. Perhaps "kicking it up a notch" to a cruise on Oceania or similar may be to your liking. You may find that in the end,the cruise food experience might be more your style. And in the end,Oceania might not cost all that much more. JMO

I so agree with your posting here. None of the cruise lines have maintained the level of service and quality from years ago. I recall sailing Holland America (pre-Carnival purchase), Norwegian (pre free style and the nickle/ dime), and the 1 one trip on Carnival 19 years ago and things have changed. Holland was my cruise line of choice until Carnival purchased them. The high quality service was the best. However, what Holland they call specialty dinning is a joke and service is now gone. As with anything in our society, if you want service and quality open your checkbook and pay out.

I recently sailed in a suite on Celebrity and found the experience in Luminae to be what Celebrity was when I first sailed Celebrity in 2003. The food quality and service was total top notch and would sail in a suite class again and eat every meal their. I do like the experience and feel of the Lawn Club, but the food could use some improving. What I like about Celebrity is that they try and break from the traditional cruise concept. I like laying on the lawn napping or in a hammock with a book and a cocktail. You won't find that experience on the three other cruise lines mentioned here. To the originator of the thread, go try Cunard, Regent Seven Seas, Seaborn, or Oceania (as noted here).

It's hard to please everyone that's for sure. It's called mass market cruising for a reason. For those who have cruised for years (and I don't fall into that category),they all say that things aren't the way they used to be. But cruising was more expensive back then even taking into account inflation etc. The cruise biz is extremely competitive so the pricing is key. Perhaps "kicking it up a notch" to a cruise on Oceania or similar may be to your liking. You may find that in the end,the cruise food experience might be more your style. And in the end,Oceania might not cost all that much more. JMO

They call it modern luxury not mass market cruising....

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What was the Tattoo fiasco?

Non stop rain all day and some hours wait to tender back to the ship in the middle of the night, people got crazy.

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Non stop rain all day and some hours wait to tender back to the ship in the middle of the night, people got crazy.

 

 

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Non-stop rain all day is not true. Non-stop rain from 9:45 PM onward - that is true. I had heard the tendering back was a disaster - we were lucky and were back on-board before midnight

Non stop rain all day and some hours wait to tender back to the ship in the middle of the night, people got crazy.

 

 

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Not sure you can blame X for the weather!!

Speaking as a Scot I'm afraid you were just experience local weather, unfortunately you are sitting quite high there, quite lucky if it was only rain and not rain and wind.

If everyone waits until the very end of port time to get back to the ship, then of course lines back up. The number of tenders that can be in use is limited and weather is a factor for how long the tenders take to embark, travel and disembark. Also, probably the best Celebrity could do under the circumstances.

Your review is appreciated, however it seems heavily prone to hyperbole on your negative perceptions...

If everyone waits until the very end of port time to get back to the ship, then of course lines back up. The number of tenders that can be in use is limited and weather is a factor for how long the tenders take to embark, travel and disembark. Also, probably the best Celebrity could do under the circumstances.

The great majority of passengers who attend the Tattoo in Edinburgh are on excursions from the ship. They all leave the Tattoo when it ends and all the buses show up for the tender at about the same time.

It is not like everyone waited until the end of port time to return. It is just everyone returned when the ship's excursion was over.

We have just returned from a 12 day British Isles cruise - the experience to be described elsewhere - and were positively impressed with only one dining experience, Q-Sine. Murano, The Porch and the buffet rated an OK, Lawn Grill was over-priced and under performing (the story of this cruise), and the main dining room left a lot to be desired.

 

First, the good thing; Q-sine. It's a different approach to dining with a large number of "small plates" covering a wide range of foods. You can order as many as you want and each is served in serial fashion in its' own unique presentation for sharing. Service is attentive and excellent. Well worth the added cost.

 

It seems as if the menu in Murano has slipped (based upon our Murano experience on the Constellation), the food was well prepared and service was very good but not worth the up-charge. On Silhouette there is only a view of the bottom of the lifeboats, so - sadly - an inside table is just fine.

 

We ate breakfast at the buffet and aside from there rarely being enough seating - and what can you do exciting with breakfast? - this was just fine. Pizza was the best I've had a sea and the pasta service, while time consuming, offered a good product. After the Tattoo fiasco the buffet was open and a welcome place to get some hot food.

 

The Porch is an interesting concept with cold seafood served under cover on the top deck. The food was well prepared, there was more than enough shrimp, lobster, and scallops to satisfy our needs. Small venue with very good service. The view is excellent and all you need is decent weather.

 

Lawn Grill; let's start recognizing that I think having a lawn on a cruise ship is just plain stupid but that's not completely relevant to the dining experience. You are seated on Deck 15 under cover (like the Porch) on one side of The Lawn. You get a four course meal; "flatbread", salad, entrée, and dessert. "Flatbread" translated into English is "pizza"; yes, you can customize with items from the salad bar but the bottom line is you pay an up-charge for pizza. Then there is the salad bar - yep, a salad bar; if I wanted a salad bar I would go to Ruby Tuesday not an upscale restaurant. Yes, your waiter will prepare a salad for you should you wish. The entrée; you select your meat and side dishes. The meat we were served was top shelf - the waiter messed up the order - and well prepared. Side dishes were not memorable. Dessert was fine but again, not memorable.

 

Last, and definitely least, the main dining room. The menu selections were not interesting and when they approached interesting they were poorly prepared. Some standouts; my wife's "Hungarian Goulash" starter was more soup than substance, her country pate was primarily fat with little meat or flavor; I found no ham on my veal cordon bleu (and the veal had not been pounded), Chicken Kiev was a fried chicken breast with an herbed - very lightly herbed - butter sauce, and there was meatloaf .... meatloaf, really? Enough griping, service was fine and we had dinner with some interesting people.

 

It seems that if you want a decent dinner you have to go to a specialty restaurant - we checked the menus at Blu and the Luminae the last night (a small sample to be sure) and were not impressed so upgrading your cabin doesn't seem to upgrade dinner - and pay the price which seems to be the message Celebrity is sending.

Our experience was very similar. I actually lost weight on this cruise. We all know food is subjective but I am not particularly picky and I had trouble picking entree's each night. One night there was scallop rockefeller on the appetizer menu. I ordered it as did a tablemate. We started laughing as soon as they brought out the plates. Mine was one small scallop cut in half and he also had one scallop. They tasted fine but the portion was ridiculous. We did love the ship and our service was impeccable. But I felt the food in the cafe was horrendous for lunch or dinner and the choices for dinner in the MDR to be disappointing.

Our experience was very similar. I actually lost weight on this cruise. We all know food is subjective but I am not particularly picky and I had trouble picking entree's each night. One night there was scallop rockefeller on the appetizer menu. I ordered it as did a tablemate. We started laughing as soon as they brought out the plates. Mine was one small scallop cut in half and he also had one scallop. They tasted fine but the portion was ridiculous. We did love the ship and our service was impeccable. But I felt the food in the cafe was horrendous for lunch or dinner and the choices for dinner in the MDR to be disappointing.

LOL. I thought much the same! I must say our 'preferred' wait staff (we were in select dining) were very good. On seeing my reaction they spontaneously advised us that we could order a second plate which I did without feeling guilty or difficult!

As you say, food is highly subjective but I did think there were cutbacks in the MDR and a couple of the appetizers were very meagre (six tiny cubes of beetroot anyone?)

Also, despite several alternative or second helpings over the course of the cruise, I also lost weight (not a complaint -- just an observation :D )

:o 6 cubes and 1 scallop :o

LOL. I thought much the same! I must say our 'preferred' wait staff (we were in select dining) were very good. On seeing my reaction they spontaneously advised us that we could order a second plate which I did without feeling guilty or difficult!

As you say, food is highly subjective but I did think there were cutbacks in the MDR and a couple of the appetizers were very meagre (six tiny cubes of beetroot anyone?)

Also, despite several alternative or second helpings over the course of the cruise, I also lost weight (not a complaint -- just an observation :D )

Looks like Silhouette for me next time then ;p!

It's hard to please everyone that's for sure. It's called mass market cruising for a reason. For those who have cruised for years (and I don't fall into that category),they all say that things aren't the way they used to be. But cruising was more expensive back then even taking into account inflation etc. The cruise biz is extremely competitive so the pricing is key. Perhaps "kicking it up a notch" to a cruise on Oceania or similar may be to your liking. You may find that in the end,the cruise food experience might be more your style. And in the end,Oceania might not cost all that much more. JMO

Our next cruise already booked is Oceania, and the last time we sailed with them the food was fantastic. My response might not have been as strong if we hadn't just returned from a 4th of July cruise on RCL where the main dining room food was, IMHO, better than on the Silhouette. I see two aspects; menu and execution and Celebrity failed on both in the main dining room.

Our next cruise already booked is Oceania, and the last time we sailed with them the food was fantastic. My response might not have been as strong if we hadn't just returned from a 4th of July cruise on RCL where the main dining room food was, IMHO, better than on the Silhouette. I see two aspects; menu and execution and Celebrity failed on both in the main dining room.

Big price differential between Oceania and X or RCL. If I had my druthers I would also choose Oceania. One can't compare the two. As a long time HAL and X sailor, It is not hard to see that both are striving to do the best. Many food selections are hit or miss. Specialty Restaurants are overpriced for their value. If they were to raise their prices to comparable Oceania I am certain quality would follow. If food is a major consideration then higher prices would prevail. I have been extremely lucky to not have experienced major food flaws but there have been some less than favorable meals at times, not only on ships. To note, we dined at LeBernardin in NYC once. Fantastic. Next time with a $250 lunch (for 2) price it was a bust. Off days occur. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Being a foodie, I restrict my food comments to shore-side venues. Ship food is mostly fine with a plethora of choices. Comments good and bad are what makes these post great.

What was the Tattoo fiasco?

To answer the question and "correct" some of the responses.......

It was not raining all day as some have said, as others have noted the rain started toward the end of the Tattoo, about 9:45 and continued until we were back on the ship at 0100 and probably beyond. I heard from others that they were not back on board until 0300. It had been windy all day, making the tender ride bit of a roller coaster with the tender burying its nose in the white caps - I have some great photos from Day 2.

Many of us were sold "front" seats at a premium price and found we were in a corner maybe two meters from the "side" seats with the same view. Not a good start. These seats fit the Tattoo's definition for front and to Celebrity's credit when we complained they reduced the charge to that same as "side" seats.

Consider that there were "700" people from the ship attending the Tattoo on ship's tours (and more doing it privately) that means moving 700 people onto tenders, through the dock, onto buses and to the event. At 45 people per bus that means a lot of buses and it takes 30 minutes to get from Edinburgh to the dock and then 30 minutes back so the answer is a lot of buses. At 85 people per tender that means you need to run a lot of tenders. The trip from the dock to the ship was 20 minutes with loading and unloading from bouncing tenders onto bouncing docks each tender took an hour round trip. The solution is run a lot of tenders, Celebrity's definition of "a lot" was three.

The buses brought more people to the docks than could be transferred to the ship by the tenders, so the line on the quay kept getting longer. There was a tent that could hold about 2 tender loads which did offer some "comfort"; you were out of the wind and rain and the body heat from the other 150 people made it quite a bit warmer. If there were enough buses the buses could have sheltered people until there was room in a tender but that was not the case.

We had the "e ticket" transfer. Our tender was being driven by a bridge officer (if he was telling the truth) who might not have been the best choice for the assignment. The staff on the dock counted off 85 people an allowed them to begin boarding the tender. The deckhand assisted getting them onto the boat. While there were still people on the dock our officer told the deckhand to stop loading people because of safety - never a good thing to hear that the officer in charge is worried about the safety of his passengers. The deckhand was caught between the order and the people on the dock and let them continue to board for which he received a tongue lashing. Then it came time to leave the dock, through the breakwater and to the ship. Since the tender had to back up and visibility was terrible due to the rain, dark and fogged windows the deckhand leaned out the door and provided directions to the officer right up to the point where the tender accelerated backwards into the breakwater. A number of us were seriously looking for life jackets but no serious damage was done and we made it safely back to the ship.

If the ship had been docked this would have been easy. If there had been twice as many tenders this would have been much better, fewer people waiting quayside. This would have cost nothing extra. If people waiting could have waited on the buses and then off-loaded to the tenders, roughly two buses per tender, things would have been very much better. What we had was a fiasco and I found little comfort in my wife's assertion that this was so much better than last year.

turbobob and I agree as to the timing of the rain - we were very lucky to get back to the tender site as quickly as we did and so avoided the problem. Our cars were waiting for us and we zipped out of town - back on board before midnight.

LOL. I thought much the same! I must say our 'preferred' wait staff (we were in select dining) were very good. On seeing my reaction they spontaneously advised us that we could order a second plate which I did without feeling guilty or difficult!

As you say, food is highly subjective but I did think there were cutbacks in the MDR and a couple of the appetizers were very meagre (six tiny cubes of beetroot anyone?)

Also, despite several alternative or second helpings over the course of the cruise, I also lost weight (not a complaint -- just an observation :D )

Well, maybe they should market it as a new weight loss cruise. Lol. Still, the cruise was wonderful but next time I would opt for some of the upcharge restaurants

They are more than happy to serve more than 1 appetizer or entrée if you so desire. I have ordered 2 main entrees before. For example if I see ribs on the menu or something similar I know the portion will be small for me. I definitely order 2 jumbo shrimp cocktails which I like a lot because I think you might get 4 per serving and my wife always likes to snatch 1 or 2 from me. Many times Ill order shrimp cocktail and French onion soup because I love their soup. They always are happy to bring you whatever you want and I never leave the MDR hungry.

Did you find anything positive on your cruise?

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