the penguins

Silhouette is one of our favorite ships and we have done this route on it. But if you really want to see the Fjords sorry but the only way is to cruise on one of the smaller ships. Take a look at the Hurtigruten's 12 day Classic Round-trip from Bergen and you will see the difference. No need to book Hurtigruten's more expensive specialist cruises the Classic works just fine. Cruise at the right time and you will get the Northern Lights as a bonus and if the Lights don't appear you get a free 7 day cruise. We did the trip over Christmas/New Year.

After The Costa Concordia disaster we attended a number of onboard presentations where the Captains explained how X’s way of operating was different to Costa’s including the point about all the Officers having to sign off on the route every day. On our Solstice Transpacifics we had a number of “coffee break” discussions with the Environmental Officer which covered a whole range of topics including how each days route had to include/allow for dumping of waste water/ only using lighter fuels in some areas/avoiding certain areas etc. Glad you liked the photos - the trip was our retirement gift to ourselves 90 days total including 60 on Solstice.

I have been following this thread and have the following observations on several of the issues raised: 1) The detailed route to be followed during the next 24 hours is agreed every day and that route has to be signed off by every Bridge Officer from the most junior to the Captain and the Environmental Officer. The "signed off route" is then submitted to Corporate. If there has been any unauthorised deviation that will be investigated and action taken - in the meantime everything else is speculation. 2) There are 2 totally separate engine rooms on the ship each with it's own control system - the ship only needs one of the engine rooms to function. 3) Changes of itinerary/ports of call happen regularly and we all accept this when booking any cruise. 4) Celebrity has done this sort of scenic cruising for years. In 2013 on Solstice our sailing was delayed until after dark so we could sail along the coastline for a couple of hours to see the magical affects of the lava meeting the sea. How close did we get? I don't know but it looked close and as you will see below the affect was spectacular. Earlier in the day we had a private flight to the volcano and the waterfall plus a birds-eye view of the ship.

for us the regular balcony every time. Aqua has no appeal for 2 main reasons: 1) the cabin locations. We like central locations ideally on Deck 7 and no higher than 8. 2) the dining. One of the highlights of every cruise is sharing tables in the MDR every night - we eat at a table for 2 every night at home. We always book Anytime Dining pre booked for 6.30 and share a table of 6.

yes or the buffet/speciality restaurants

We don’t sit in the sun just out on the balcony. We also have lunch on the balcony every sea day.

Silhouette out of Southampton. To give you the full story. The Assistant Waiter originally allocated to our table had had to be moved from day 1 because his ability to speak a particular language was required at another table for a passenger who didn't speak any English. As a result we were allocated an Assistant who was still relatively new which meant they were working their way up i.e. working as a "floater" and not allocated to a particular table/team. From day 1 it was obvious that our new Assistant was more than ready to be assigned to their own table/team and that is what we told to Maitre D. We were delighted that our actions helped the person concerned get a quicker move up. On the other hand we also reported a waiter who assured us 3 times that the "special drink" they were offering free to all diners was alcohol free when in reality it wasn't. On taking a sip it was clearly not alcohol free at which the waiter said it contained only a little alcohol and laughed - unfortunately for me "only a little" is medically too much. The Maitre D said that the Waiters actions were totally unacceptable, he was forced to apologies, was removed from our table and was sent for retraining.

Be honest. The survey differentiates between “service” and “quality”. If you mark the staff are good marking the qyss as quality poor has no affect on the staff. If the quality is poor or excellent we tell the Maitre D on the day. Good staff reports help with promotions (we had an outstanding Assistant Waiter who we spoke to the Manager about. A few days later the Manager came back and told us he had checked the person’s assessments, watched their performance for 2 days and they had now been offered a place on a training course to be a Waiter - The Assistant Waiter was on tears when she found out.

we have sat out on our traditional balcony for 3 to 4 hours every day on every TA East or West bound.

perfect for those who like the idea of a balcony but don't actually use it. useless for: anyone who uses a balcony a lot ( in our case 3 to 4 hours on every sea day) and needs comfortable chairs ( high backs/recline) in which to relax. uses the balcony for meals as the table is far too small Opening the window turns off the aircon.

I don't believe that's the reason. The parties were always subject to a minimum number. Parties were simply not restarted on any ship after Covid regardless of the size of the Roll Call. I believe they were restarted on Royal so presumably X decided the cost/effort wasn't worth it. Very disappointing.

The chairs aren't "conductive to sunbathing" either. OK for a few minutes but with the low backs, no recline and no footstools relaxing on them would, in my opinion, be impossible.

For us the balcony but we use it a lot - several hours a day on every sea day.

Hi Jim and Iain - glad you are enjoying your Transpacific - a route we did on Solstice's maiden crossing to celebrate our retirement. I have used the e mail link on your original post to send you some notes I did in response to an earlier enquiry. Please don't hesitate to email if you have any queries. Geoff

see Post 3 - last pic - this was one day before the Boss's 71st Birthday and 2 days before our Golden Wedding Anniversary.