Celebrity Silhouette Norwegian Fjords July 16 - 23, 2022

[CruisinNewb]

We just returned from a  7 night cruise to the Norwegian Fjords onboard Celebrity Silhouette. 

I originally planned to do a live review but the wifi on board was so horrible I would have spent hours every night and that wasn't the way I wanted to spend my trip.

 

I'll give a summary of the trip here and if you have any questions about the ship or cruise I will do my best to answer.

 

We arrived in London a few days before the cruise with friends we had made from a prior cruise. The flights went smoothly and we and our luggage arrived at Heathrow on time. We had prearranged a ride with Blackberry cabs and the driver was on time and we had a nice ride to Southampton. We stayed at the Moxy Hotel which is located a 5 -10 minute walk from the cruise terminal. It is possible to walk it but we decided to get a cab and it was a 5 minute ride. 

 

Southampton was fun for a few days. We went to the Titanic museum, walked around the area and visited West Quay Shopping Centre which is right across the street. It has several chain type restaurants.  The Platform Tavern Pub was about a 10 minute walk and was very good.  Rita's was about 15 minutes and also very good.

 

The boarding procedure was effortless for our friends. We had proof of a positive PCR test from 4 months prior and a Certificate of Recovery from our physician. The woman who we presented to didn't know what to do with it and said she'd be right back. 20 minutes later she directed us to another waiting area while her supervisor and a ship's officer debated on what to do. The original person told me a COR was only good for 90 days. Fortunately I was prepared and had printed out a copy of Celebrity's policy from their website showing that it was 180 days for European cruises. She brought them over to the supervisor who made copies of it and then they told me we could board. SMH.

 

We boarded the ship and went to our stateroom, a midship balcony cabin on the angle on deck 8. Our sea pass cards were outside the room and we dropped off our carry on there before heading to the Oceanview Cafe for lunch.

 

Overall we had a great time on this cruise. The crew was how I remembered it on our last ocean cruise. Friendly, helpful and working hard. There seemed to be plenty of staff in the Oceanview cafe and in the main dining room at dinner. The only possible staff shortage I noticed was in the coffee shop on deck 5 as one of the officers seemed to be helping as an additional waitress.The meals seemed to be on par or slightly better than what I had remembered from 2018 during our last cruise. Our waiter and assistant were probably the best ones we have ever had in seven cruises with Celebrity.

We visited several specialty restaurants: The Lawn Club Grill, Murano and The Porch and all were very good.

The activities staff was high energy and did a good job keeping us entertained.

The live music was much improved as was the the choice of music that the DJ played. Lots of people dancing even late at night. The stage performers were fair to good. The aerialists were very good as has been our past experience.

 

Service in all the bars was very good but their selection of bourbon, which is my drink of choice, left a lot to be desired. Woodford Reserve and Makers Mark seemed to be it.

 

For those who want to know, there was no mask requirement, neither during embarkation, in the theatre or at the casino. I'd say about 5% of the passengers were masked. The crew wore masks all the time with the exception of the singers and performers while they were performing.

 

We arranged our own excursions in Alesund, Olden and Stavanger. In Kristiansund we walked around town on our own.

The weather which had called for rain at pretty much every port pleasantly surprised us with usually dry skies if mostly cloudy. I was hoping to get better photos but the cloudy skies didn't lend themselves to the dramatic fjord photos I have seen from others. I will try and post a few in a day or two.

 

Disembarkation went smoothly, we met our rider from Blackberry cabs and went back to Heathrow. The ride took about 1 hr 20 minutes on a Saturday morning.

Our flights and our friends got cancelled and delayed through various airports and our friend got home about 7 hours late and we didn't get home till the following evening.

 

It was good to be back on a cruise ship after an almost 4 year absence. The Silhouette is in great shape. Her crew is among the best.

 

Any questions please feel free to ask.

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by CruisinNewb

[mahdnc]

Thanks for your review.  I look forward to seeing the photos--cloudy or not.  I would be interested in reading about details of your shore excursions.

[twincheryl]

50 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Thanks for your review.  I look forward to seeing the photos--cloudy or not.  I would be interested in reading about details of your shore excursions.

Agree... we are going next year and generally do private excursions over ship based ones.   Would love to hear about what you did.

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for the review.   Enjoyed reading your report.

 

[jwlane]

Excellent!  Your experience is virtually identical to our Norway sailing May 7-14.

[CruisinNewb]

On 7/26/2022 at 4:15 PM, mahdnc said:

Thanks for your review.  I look forward to seeing the photos--cloudy or not.  I would be interested in reading about details of your shore excursions.

 

Our excursion in Alesund was with Norway Excursions. We met our guide and bus right outside the port and we were fortunate that the bus was only 1/4 full. We took a ride to Sunnmore museum which is primarily an outdoor museum where there are many old historic houses that depict life in coastal Norway from medieval times to the present. There are also replicas of Viking ships. We were able to see inside the grass roofed house, see a church and walk around the grounds.

We then drove to the island of Giske through several underwater tunnels and then to Godoy and climbed the lighthouse for a nice view. We went to the top of Mount Aksla which give you a good view of the city and finally drove through the town before heading back to the ship. 

It was an enjoyable excursion and well worth the price. Our tour guide was a young man from the Netherlands whose name escapes me but he was very knowledgeable and informative.

 

I've tried to post photos here but they keep getting rejected. Is there a maximum size restriction?

 

I'll post more about the other ports and excursions soon.

[mahdnc]

There is no practical limitation on file size that I have run into.  There used to be a limit on the number of photos you could post per post, but that has been removed with the current version of this bulletin board.  Where are the photo files that you are trying to attach located?  On your computer?  Phone?  Cloud?

[nasus2]

At Alesund we too took tour with Norway excursions and agree very good company. However we did 7 hour ffiords and trolls tour and the scenery absolutely blew us away it was amazing. Tour i

offers optional meal for extra but we choose to take make our own picnic from ocean view.

altogether an amazing tour

[LEESRE]

Thanks for the review like you we have just disembarked, I could not fault the crew they we indeed excellent.

Like you we had two of the best waiters in the MDR we had a fab time.

[CruisinNewb]

[CruisinNewb]

On 7/27/2022 at 9:39 PM, mahdnc said:

There is no practical limitation on file size that I have run into.  There used to be a limit on the number of photos you could post per post, but that has been removed with the current version of this bulletin board.  Where are the photo files that you are trying to attach located?  On your computer?  Phone?  Cloud?

Thanks. I did exactly what I tried before and this time it worked. No rhyme or reason lol.

[CruisinNewb]

Reviews of Olden and Stavanger excursions with photos to follow.

[CruisinNewb]

Olden

 

We booked an excursion here again through Norway Excursions. This tour was to the Briksdal Glacier. We met the bus right outside the ship. Norway Excursion personnel usually wear these bright yellow jackets that are hard to miss. 

Unlike our last excursion, this one was very full and almost every seat in the bus was taken. The bus made several stops on the way for photo ops of Olden lake and the surrounding countryside. 

The hike itself was enjoyable. The bus dropped us off at the base where there is a small shop for food and shopping. The hike is steep in the beginning but then flattens out to a very easy climb. 

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by CruisinNewb

[CruisinNewb]

Briksdal Glacier

 

 

[CruisinNewb]

Red Church & White Church.

 

 

[CruisinNewb]

Some photos of dinner at the Lawn Club Grill.

[Lolou127]

Wonderful photos, we’re currently considering this cruise in May or June 2023, would you recommend the cabin you chose? did the angle give you a bigger balcony? how were the seas for you, calm or not?