Celebrity Silhouette 3/27/16-4/3/2016

[rjg41]

We are long time Celebrity folks and have sailed enough to earn Elite and I am a retired travel agent.

 

It have been a few years since we have sailed but Celebrity has always been our preferred cruise line. While we have no current sailing with other cruise lines to compare it to, Celebrity lost a few points with us this past trip.

 

On the positive side, the ship was immaculate and the staff, with two minor exceptions, was outstanding. Certainly no diminishing on that regard. On the other hand the food (not meaning to include the specialty restaurants), a previous Celebrity high point for us has clearly slipped. Self-disembarkation was a mess and had the potential of causing real conflict among the passengers.

 

Just a few food examples-

-Belgian Waffles: The waffles are themselves are just as tasty as ever but things like the strawberries in some kind of gooey syrup appeared to be right out of the can. In the past they took fresh strawberries and made their own light syrup.

 

-Eggs: The "custom" omelets in the Oceanview were dry, lacking in taste and served browned on both sides. A stark contrast to the custom egg and omelet stations in the paste.

 

-Eggs Benedict: For breakfast in the dining room they are grossly overcooked, the Canadian bacon was dry and shriveled as was the English muffin. They were much better in the Oceanview.

 

-Hash Browns: They are now using the pre-pressed type you get at McDonald's. McDonald's are better.

 

 

-Dinner Menu: The "chic" nights had a good selection of good entrees but the other nights were lacking in good choices. One night the menu said "Redfish". There is no way it was Redfish. First Redfish is a firm flesh. This was pasty at best and tasteless. Second it is illegal, for conservation reasons to catch Redfish commercially and also illegal to serve it in restaurants. It could be red snapper but if so, was not good red snapper and that is not redfish. Another, non-chic night had pasta primavera. Somewhat tasteless with only zucchini and small tomatoes as vegetables. The sauce was very thin and somewhat bitter. While the deserts were good and they still have excellent creme brulee, disappointed that no evening offered chocolate mousse, a previous staple.

We understand that they are pushing and likely trying to get people into the specialty restaurants, the decline in the main dining room is a reality.

 

-Self Disembarkation: Can only be described as chaos. We appeared as direct in the main lobby at 7:15am. People were already being lined up by a single Celebrity person. When we saw the situation we decided that we would just sit on the stairs and wait until everyone disembarked. It was obvious at that point that it was going to be a mess and the lines would mean nothing once disembarkation began. The lobby area continued to fill until it reached the point shown in the attached photo. A large area behind what the photo shows is also full. Can you tell on the photo the entire progress of the "line"? By the way the beginning of the line is at the very top right of the picture. Are we the only ones that see that was not going to work once disembarkation started? Before disembarkation started only Celebrity person working in the area left. Becoming concerned that the line would become meaningless and tempers might flare when almost everyone was likely to abandon the lines and head for the stairs (people were expected to walk down the stairs from Deck 3 to Deck 2) I walked over to Guest Relations and expressed my concern, They seemed to care less. When disembarkation started, exactly what we expected happened and the line disintegrated and almost everyone started to move to the stairs at the upper right of the picture. Wow, what a shock---LOL. We are surprised that we saw no flare ups as people, even those just arriving in the lobby, cut the line ahead of people who had been waiting for 45 minutes or more. As we originally intended, we stood clear until almost everyone was down the stairs. As we disembarked, I expressed my concern to a Celebrity person at the stairs and she rationalized the situation. As we disembarked, I expressed the same concern to the activities director and got the excuse that they got far more people than usual for walk-off. Even if we believe that, they knew that at least the previous night when people declared they were walking off. They knew that at least an hour earlier when the lobby was almost full.

Celebrity dodged a potential passenger conflict. If they just rationalize this, and they don't adjust, they are exposing themselves to future liability issues

[need2cruisesoon]

Dick, this is last year Silhouette Amsterdam embark, 2 hour line. No explanation, no water and no communication from the bridge, Oh well...

 

[followyourheart]

We had a very good self disembark on the 3/27 Silhouette cruise. We got to the lobby at 6:45am and were directed to the MDR. Once in the MDR we were directed to put our luggage at the end of a an already long line of luggage and have a seat. We knew we were early so we were surprised to see that were about 100 people already ahead of us.

 

A little before 7:30 we were given the signal that we could proceed off the ship. Everyone went to their luggage and we walked off as an organized line with no one cutting in front of anyone else .

 

By 7:40 we were through customs and we were at the airport via taxi before 8:00.

 

To the OP, sorry you had a different experience.

[dreadnot]

We are long time Celebrity folks and have sailed enough to earn Elite and I am a retired travel agent.

 

It have been a few years since we have sailed but Celebrity has always been our preferred cruise line. While we have no current sailing with other cruise lines to compare it to, Celebrity lost a few points with us this past trip.

 

On the positive side, the ship was immaculate and the staff, with two minor exceptions, was outstanding. Certainly no diminishing on that regard. On the other hand the food (not meaning to include the specialty restaurants), a previous Celebrity high point for us has clearly slipped. Self-disembarkation was a mess and had the potential of causing real conflict among the passengers.

 

Just a few food examples-

-Belgian Waffles: The waffles are themselves are just as tasty as ever but things like the strawberries in some kind of gooey syrup appeared to be right out of the can. In the past they took fresh strawberries and made their own light syrup.

 

-Eggs: The "custom" omelets in the Oceanview were dry, lacking in taste and served browned on both sides. A stark contrast to the custom egg and omelet stations in the paste.

 

-Eggs Benedict: For breakfast in the dining room they are grossly overcooked, the Canadian bacon was dry and shriveled as was the English muffin. They were much better in the Oceanview.

 

-Hash Browns: They are now using the pre-pressed type you get at McDonald's. McDonald's are better.

 

 

-Dinner Menu: The "chic" nights had a good selection of good entrees but the other nights were lacking in good choices. One night the menu said "Redfish". There is no way it was Redfish. First Redfish is a firm flesh. This was pasty at best and tasteless. Second it is illegal, for conservation reasons to catch Redfish commercially and also illegal to serve it in restaurants. It could be red snapper but if so, was not good red snapper and that is not redfish. Another, non-chic night had pasta primavera. Somewhat tasteless with only zucchini and small tomatoes as vegetables. The sauce was very thin and somewhat bitter. While the deserts were good and they still have excellent creme brulee, disappointed that no evening offered chocolate mousse, a previous staple.

We understand that they are pushing and likely trying to get people into the specialty restaurants, the decline in the main dining room is a reality.

 

-Self Disembarkation: Can only be described as chaos. We appeared as direct in the main lobby at 7:15am. People were already being lined up by a single Celebrity person. When we saw the situation we decided that we would just sit on the stairs and wait until everyone disembarked. It was obvious at that point that it was going to be a mess and the lines would mean nothing once disembarkation began. The lobby area continued to fill until it reached the point shown in the attached photo. A large area behind what the photo shows is also full. Can you tell on the photo the entire progress of the "line"? By the way the beginning of the line is at the very top right of the picture. Are we the only ones that see that was not going to work once disembarkation started? Before disembarkation started only Celebrity person working in the area left. Becoming concerned that the line would become meaningless and tempers might flare when almost everyone was likely to abandon the lines and head for the stairs (people were expected to walk down the stairs from Deck 3 to Deck 2) I walked over to Guest Relations and expressed my concern, They seemed to care less. When disembarkation started, exactly what we expected happened and the line disintegrated and almost everyone started to move to the stairs at the upper right of the picture. Wow, what a shock---LOL. We are surprised that we saw no flare ups as people, even those just arriving in the lobby, cut the line ahead of people who had been waiting for 45 minutes or more. As we originally intended, we stood clear until almost everyone was down the stairs. As we disembarked, I expressed my concern to a Celebrity person at the stairs and she rationalized the situation. As we disembarked, I expressed the same concern to the activities director and got the excuse that they got far more people than usual for walk-off. Even if we believe that, they knew that at least the previous night when people declared they were walking off. They knew that at least an hour earlier when the lobby was almost full.

Celebrity dodged a potential passenger conflict. If they just rationalize this, and they don't adjust, they are exposing themselves to future liability issues

Sounds like , you're out of here , make room for the next herd of cattle. Was thinking of Silhouette for my next cruise ,that may be a torpedo in the boiler room

[4cats4me]

Our self disembark was so orderly both times on X, but that was in 2013 and 2014. The self-disembarkation is only as good as those who are directing it though

 

 

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[Duanerice1]

Thanks for the review. Sorry you didn't have a good time or maybe you did, hard to tell.

 

Am I the only one that is not in a hurry to end my vacation? We are in no hurry to get off the ship.