Detailed Review: Silhouette January 5th sailing

[alenushka]

We arrived at the luggage drop off point at 10:30 and were walking onboard at 11:25. We waited in the general boarding area which was fairly comfortable. We had to wait for a large group of TA's who were going onboard for a tour and lunch and then off we went.

 

Wonderful! good to know. We will try to arrive early too; personally, i hardly sleep a night before the cruise, so I am ready to go at 7 am :rolleyes:

[alenushka]

Can't answer for all of MDR but, our water and asst. covered 9 tables and were unbelieveably attentive. A slight nod was all that was required to get their attention. Water glasses were always filled, delivery of courses were timed to perfection and, conversation with them was delightful. Maybe we were just lucky.

 

do you remember their names?

[Andy]

The only thing I don't understand is why the cocktails at Qsine are not included in the Premium Alcohol package. They are $13, so why not just charge us $1 like they would be anywhere else on the ship? There is no way I was going to pay full price for a drink here when I could have wine for free or almost anything else on the ship. It just didn't seem to make sense.

 

 

 

Hi Susie,

 

When I read your comment, I was surprised to hear that you could not pay the difference for the cocktail. It didn't make sense to me either, and I asked Celebrity to clarify.

 

Celebrity asked me to pass along, that you should have been allowed to pay the difference. They appreciated the feedback, and will be reviewing with their onboard team, to ensure the program is implemented as designed.

[SusieV]

Hi Susie,

 

When I read your comment, I was surprised to hear that you could not pay the difference for the cocktail. It didn't make sense to me either, and I asked Celebrity to clarify.

 

Celebrity asked me to pass along, that you should have been allowed to pay the difference. They appreciated the feedback, and will be reviewing with their onboard team, to ensure the program is implemented as designed.

 

Andy- really?? The server was very clear- when we tried to order cocktails at Qsine, she asked us if we had the beverage packages. When we said yes, she told us that these drinks were NOT included and we'd have to pay the full price. She told us any drinks not on the cocktail menu were included in the package but these ones were not. Everywhere else on the ship, we were allowed to pay the difference.

 

That is a little annoying to hear since I would have liked to try those drinks and my next cruise will not include a Qsine, but hopefully this will help straighten things out for future cruisers.

[oldebekn]

Can I get some clarification on the coffee available in the Hideway. I don't have very high standards when it comes to coffee, but are we talking a vending machine or what?

[Bridge Maven]

Duffy: "Can't answer for all of MDR but, our water and asst. covered 9 tables and were unbelieveably attentive. A slight nod was all that was required to get their attention. Water glasses were always filled, delivery of courses were timed to perfection and, conversation with them was delightful. Maybe we were just lucky"

 

Bridge Maven: Wow - that is a lot of tables for a wait team to cover. I remember when they only covered two or three instead of nine. In fact, that was Celebrity's claim to fame. Maybe it is because they don't expect most people to show up for dinner in the main dining room every night because of all the alternative restaurants.

[SusieV]

Can I get some clarification on the coffee available in the Hideway. I don't have very high standards when it comes to coffee, but are we talking a vending machine or what?

 

I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but it just looked like it was sitting there in machines. No charge of course. I would assume it was the same stuff that is served at the buffet.

 

My husband preferred Cafe al Bacio.

[Gonzo70]

Andy- really?? The server was very clear- when we tried to order cocktails at Qsine, she asked us if we had the beverage packages. When we said yes, she told us that these drinks were NOT included and we'd have to pay the full price. She told us any drinks not on the cocktail menu were included in the package but these ones were not. Everywhere else on the ship, we were allowed to pay the difference.

 

 

We had the same experience on Silhouette. Our first night in Qsine (we dined there twice) the Ipad menu page for the cocktails had the price listed as $12. The server told us the price for the cocktails was wrong and it should read $13 and stated that they were not covered by beverage packages. As we did not have alcohol packages, we did not really give it much thought. The second time we dined there I noticed the price of the cocktails had been changed to $13.

[dongordon]

Andy- really?? The server was very clear- when we tried to order cocktails at Qsine, she asked us if we had the beverage packages. When we said yes, she told us that these drinks were NOT included and we'd have to pay the full price. She told us any drinks not on the cocktail menu were included in the package but these ones were not. Everywhere else on the ship, we were allowed to pay the difference.

 

That is a little annoying to hear since I would have liked to try those drinks and my next cruise will not include a Qsine, but hopefully this will help straighten things out for future cruisers.

 

Susie....at Murano, they understood the rules and both my wife and daughter paid $3 extra for a glass of champagne and they were on the premium alcoholic beverage package.

I suppose it may be an issue that Celebrity will need to address throughout the ship in the future.

 

BTW, our service in the MDR was wonderful (the food was more an issue)....we received our various courses with little waiting time at all. Perhaps because we had "Select Dining" and had dinner around 8:45 PM each night and avoided the late dining rush.

 

Don

[euromaster]

We were on the same cruise and really enjoyed Aqua class and Blu restaurant. In fact, it was one of the best cruises we've ever taken. Silhouette is beautiful, the staff is extremely friendly and accomodating, the weather for the 12 days was fantastic and while Blu may not be dining in a 3 star NYC restaurant we thought the food and service was very good....not a 10....but definitely an 8. It's clear the food in the MDR has taken a dip to mass market quality on Celebrity...so if you want a decent "foodie" experience you have to do Aqua and Blu...or else opt for the specialty restaurants.

 

But what really made the trip for us was the friendships we formed by dining in Blu. The restaurant is beautiful....and we love the way the tables are set up. You're seated at your own table for two....but if you look left or right you can't help but start to converse with your neighbors at the next table. That's what made the trip for us....we're already talking about our next cruise on Celebrity in Aqua class with our newfound friends!

[Cruising Forever!]

We were on the same cruise and really enjoyed Aqua class and Blu restaurant. In fact, it was one of the best cruises we've ever taken. Silhouette is beautiful, the staff is extremely friendly and accomodating, the weather for the 12 days was fantastic and while Blu may not be dining in a 3 star NYC restaurant we thought the food and service was very good....not a 10....but definitely an 8. It's clear the food in the MDR has taken a dip to mass market quality on Celebrity...so if you want a decent "foodie" experience you have to do Aqua and Blu...or else opt for the specialty restaurants.

 

But what really made the trip for us was the friendships we formed by dining in Blu. The restaurant is beautiful....and we love the way the tables are set up. You're seated at your own table for two....but if you look left or right you can't help but start to converse with your neighbors at the next table. That's what made the trip for us....we're already talking about our next cruise on Celebrity in Aqua class with our newfound friends!

 

Thanks for posting this... the OP's review and the comments following had me beginning to wonder if we made a TERRIBLE mistake with AQ and Blu for our upcoming cruise on Silhouette. It seemed like nobody likes Blu on Silhouette at all here. Glad you did.

 

I hate when there's a smelly waiter or waitress; thank goodness this is an extremely rare occurrence. It's unacceptable because you immediately think of "what other personal hygiene practices are they ignoring" while they also handle your food. Unfortunately, this occurs on land, too. We were in an upscale Asian-fusion restaurant a few weeks back, and the waitress had an indescribably BAD body odor. Really made me look forward to the sushi I ordered. (Which, happily, was delicious!)

 

Hopefully, whatever bugs Blu has are cleared up by our sailing, and someone buys that person in Blu a Ban roll on... or a bar of deodorant soap. :D (We had an employee a decade or so back that had really terrible B.O. Our manager had to take him into the stock room and gently tell him that he had to do something about his personal "grooming". I didn't work around him and he was a temp, so I don't know if our manager's speech did any good. But I do remember the manager telling me later it was the worst moment he ever had having to actually sit someone down and explain to them that they stink. I'd probably just come out and say, "you smell" which is exactly why I'm NOT a manager! lol)

[FM]

We were on the same cruise and really enjoyed Aqua class and Blu restaurant. In fact, it was one of the best cruises we've ever taken. Silhouette is beautiful, the staff is extremely friendly and accomodating, the weather for the 12 days was fantastic and while Blu may not be dining in a 3 star NYC restaurant we thought the food and service was very good....not a 10....but definitely an 8. It's clear the food in the MDR has taken a dip to mass market quality on Celebrity...so if you want a decent "foodie" experience you have to do Aqua and Blu...or else opt for the specialty restaurants.

 

But what really made the trip for us was the friendships we formed by dining in Blu. The restaurant is beautiful....and we love the way the tables are set up. You're seated at your own table for two....but if you look left or right you can't help but start to converse with your neighbors at the next table. That's what made the trip for us....we're already talking about our next cruise on Celebrity in Aqua class with our newfound friends!

 

My DW and I loved the seating arrangements in Blu also ... table for two but close enough to visit which we did. As I mentioned before in previous posts, our experience in Blu was so much more than what we had expected, especially the service we had ...

• Complimentary dry-cleaning of my shirt due to an accidentally dropped butter knife
• Accommodating my DW's requests for changes to some of the entrees and/or ordering items off the MDR menu due to her dietary restrictions ... + my desire for trying some entrees from there even though I already ordered a main entree off the Blu menu ...
  
• Genuine concern from our Main waiter, Assistant waiter, Maitre-D AND Assistant Maitre-D inquiring about my DW's health when she did not show up for dinner one evening.
  
• That genuine concern and going out of their way on another evening when we had to leave suddenly due to acute pain that my DW was experiencing resulting in the delivery of our entire meal to our stateroom that night
  
• Taking time to actually chat with us and others during the evening ... not the obligatory "Hi, how is everything" that we have encountered in our previous cruises
  

The experience in Blu was a tad different in the AM when I went down for breakfast - I could notice a difference in service on two occassions when I was seated in other areas of Blu with different wait staff. How you are treated by the DR staff has a big impact on one's experience, no matter how good (or bad) the food is ... I guess we were blessed with the right pairing of Dining room staff on our cruise :) (Dec 12th sailing aboard the Silhouette). Not that everything on the Blu menu was on the mark - there was definitely some "hit and miss" items for sure ... but dining in Blu overall will be one of the main reason that we will book AQ whenever we cruise Celebrity again!

[theduffys]

do you remember their names?

Sure do--they were Artero and Leeford.

 

@bridgemaven-The nine tables were mostly 2 tops and since this was select, the diners were all at different stages of their meals for the most part. We always ate between 7:15 and 7:30.

 

@oldebken-the coffee was made fresh each morning in large urns-reg, decaf and hot water with a large selection of tea bags. We always bring our insulated mugs.

[Bridge Maven]

Sure do--they were Artero and Leeford.

 

@bridgemaven-The nine tables were mostly 2 tops and since this was select, the diners were all at different stages of their meals for the most part. We always ate between 7:15 and 7:30.

 

@oldebken-the coffee was made fresh each morning in large urns-reg, decaf and hot water with a large selection of tea bags. We always bring our insulated mugs.

 

Duffy, thanks for clarifying that. Nine tables with only two per table is only 18 people, which isn't much different than two or three larger tables with 6 or 8 per table.

[booklady26]

I was on the same cruise and had a totally different experience from the OP in Blu.

 

We absolutely loved it. Even though my husband is a meat & potatoes guy (who won't even go near lamb), he always found something on the menu that he liked. I'm a fish eater and loved the choices of fish beyond the usual salmon and tilapia. The fish was well prepared without being overdone.

 

We both found the food to be fresher, cleaner and not heavily salted or sauced as what you expect in the MDR. Portions are also smaller than normal, but we never left hungry. In fact one night when lamb was the meat of choice on the menu, my meat & potatoes guy ordered veal cordon blu from the MDR menu and thought it was too heavy on all counts.

 

The service from both the waitstaff and head waiters was outstanding. Orders from the MDR were brought with no problem. Some nights seemed to be more crowded than others and if that caused a delay, there were apologies all around.

 

We were adressed by name by both the waitstaff and head waiters/maitre d Mohammed & Swaboda (forgive me the spelling). Mohammed in particular was very attentive. He stopped by our table every night to chat. He always asked about our day and what we were planning for the next day. If we didn't finish our food, he would always ask if it was not to our liking. One night the wine service was very poor and he took the charge off our bill.

 

We had every intention of eating in Murano and Tuscan Grill but found the Blu experience to be so top-notch that we never got there.

[alenushka]

Sure do--they were Artero and Leeford

 

Thank you! will try to find them :)

[eigig]

We were also on the 1/5 silhoutte cruise in Aqua and dined in Blu 9 out of 12 nights. Let me say that my husband has MS and needs to use a scooter so that may explain some of our difficulties.

 

Night 1: Very chaotic. Arrived at the time we were asked to arrive and were told that we would have a 20-40 minute wait. Okay. My husband ordered the salmon and was asked how he wanted it. Is this usual for a salmon order?? We live in NYC and have never been asked how we wanted our salmon cooked. Wine service was hurried (there are two wine servers for the entire restaurant) to take the order and sloooow to bring it.

Night 2: They had saved a wonderful large table near the service station for us and we were delighted. It was so nice for my husband to just disembark the scooter and sit down without disturbing our fellow diners. However, when I asked if we could always have that table if we made reservations I was told no. Each eveing we never knew which table we would have--even when we showed up at the same time.

 

The food was okay. We have never eaten in the main dining room on Celebrity but were frequent main dining room fans of the Brittania on Cunard. Ordering from this menu was like a guessing game (or a box of chocolates) --you never knew what you were going to get. I think some of the hype about Blu is like the "Emperor's new clothes" story. I just did not see the added value despite what I had been told.

 

I guess it would have been nice to know where you were sitting (in our special situation) and that you actually had a table for two. We are not antisocial but not everyone enjoys socializing with the people at the next table. Especially if it is so much work for one to walk to the table and get ready in the first place. Several nights I felt badly cause we sort of ignored our tablemates who were so close and obviously would have struck up a conversation but we were just too worn out.

 

wine service throughout was terrible. I finally decided to enjoy the music in ensemble lounge with two glasses of wine and have nothing at dinner cause my wine glass was filled and then he disappeared. ugh.

 

In all honesty, we have no one to blame but ourselves--truthfully.

I think they would have gotten entrees from the MDR or re seated us if we asked for it. Despite being born and bred New yorkers we do not like to make special requests. I would just like the regular service (sans special requests) to be up to par. it was not.

 

If I was to cruise on Celebrity again (and I would in a heartbeat if they leave from Bayonne), I would book a regular balcony room and fixed dining to get the table for two that I would want and then go to the specialty restaurants if we did not like the menu. Honestly, we never complained about the MDR (aka steerage?) on Cunard.

 

Just mho -- I guess the Aqua experience is for some and not for others so I hope this helps some decide what their priorities are.

 

best--

[SusieV]

That is odd, because I feel like we had the opposite experience. Bonny, one of the sommeliers in Blu, took excellent care of us on the three nights we dined in Blu. We had no trouble getting wine service and after the first night, he remembered what I like to drink (and that I have about 3 glasses of wine at dinner), and he kept checking back on me so that my glass never got empty. I forgot to mention him in my review but he was pretty much the only staff member we interacted with in Blu that we were happy with.

 

Mohammed never spoke to us beyond asking our cabin number and seating us, so we weren't too impressed. When there are issues of the kind we experienced, we look to the management as the problem generally.

[Solstice23]

BLU has always been amazing simply great!

 

Perhaps the chef was off his game ? I know many staff changed end of December, and November as they were due for vacation. When we were on her in November BLU was amazing as usual

 

Sailing from The NYC market has always been hard on the staff week after week and many lines