Silhouette LIVE (1/12) w/ Side by Side: A Royal Week on Celebrity and MSC

[GenerationX]

Hello and Happy New Year CC!

 

Guess who’s on final countdown to her first cruise of 2023?

 

That’s right, in 2 more days I’ll fly to Miami to board my favorite Celebrity ship: the Silhouette!  

 

Thanks to booking during a great solo fare sale, I’ll also be doing something that I’ve never done before (and don’t think will be within my cruise budget again for a very long time the way prices are trending): sailing in a Royal Suite!

 

As they say in the infomercials…but wait, there’s more!  

 

This sailing is only a short 4 night trip to Cozumel sandwiched between sea days and there wasn’t another Celebrity sailing scheduled from MIA or FLL that would allow me to make a b2b.  So instead, when Silhouette returns to Miami, I’ll be heading to a different pier to try out a new cruise line and sail in a Deluxe Grand Yacht Club Suite on a 4 night sailing on MSC Divina.

 

I’m very much looking forward to being able to do a side by side, live comparison of Retreat vs. Yacht Club suite life.  

 

I plan to keep writing up my impressions of the comparison of the two lines in real time as I go along, since I think that gives me the most accurate picture.  Memory is a funny thing…after the fact, one negative experience on night 4 can suddenly have you changing your recollections of how good the previous 3 nights really were.

 

I’m not completely sure though what to do with this review once I swap ships.  My thought is that the options are either:

 

1: Wrap up the Silhouette review then swap over to the MSC board and start a new live review thread there.  Then maybe come back here post-cruise and write a final summary comparison post on the cruises and Retreat vs. Yacht Club; or

 

2: Just keep posting on this thread throughout the MSC cruise so all of the info is in one spot (and anyone not interested in the MSC half/comparison posts can of course unfollow as they wish and no offense taken).

 

I tried to search CC for helpful precedent on which approach is more customary but came up empty. I think I’m leaning more towards #1, but I’d very much appreciate opinions from folks planing to follow along on which way to go with it, so please don’t be afraid to comment and share your thoughts on how I should handle!

 

In the meantime, for those who haven’t followed other live reviews I’ve done, a quick about me: 

 

I’m Charla! Married lawyer, 40, from outside St. Louis, Missouri.  Well seasoned Celebrity cruiser (Elite).

 

I usually do 2-3 solo or semi solo (with my dear friend and fellow cruise/spa/casino enthusiast from Indiana (CC alias Red) in another cabin) cruises a year.  Other than that I either sail with my husband Jeremy or as a mommy-daughter trip with our 10 year old (CC alias Gen Z or Mini Me).

 

This cruise, Red will also be sailing in a Celebrity Suite.  However she’ll be heading back to Indy on the 16th to take care of some urgent family matters, so I’ll be fully solo on Divina.

 

In the next day or two I’ll do a couple of posts about my plans onboard and pre-cruise planning, including details on working with shoreside concierge (a new experience for me as this is my first time sailing in an upper suite).

 

As always please feel free to jump in with any questions or comments.  If you’ll be onboard too, please also don’t be shy about sharing your impressions as well and if you see me around the ship come say hi!

 

I can’t wait to start another cruising adventure!

 

 

 

[cbfb]

I’d love to read a comparison of the 2. Looking forward to your reviews! 

[Luvmypups]

Following along, I’ve never been on Celebrity or MSC and excited to hear about a comparison. Long time cruiser on NCL and RCL. Have a great time and thanks for taking us with you!

[Beachlover1989]

Wow! So excited you’re back and thrilled to follow along!  If you don’t continue the MSC review here, could you post a link perhaps? 

[countess5]

Following along, love Silhouette! Spent 14 days on her last winter.

 

This will help get us to January 29th when we fly down to Ft Lauderdale for our 3 ship B2B side by side 47 day winter cruise! 

 

I vote for option 2 as a way to report live on both ships. Never sailed MSC so interested in the comparison. 

 

Safe Sails

 

Cheers! 

[bunnyette]

Hooray, another Charla review!  Can hardly wait to read.  I’d do your MSC review on that board but post a link here to it.

[mchell810]

Looking forward to your review especially the MSC comparison as it's pretty much off my radar bc the ships are large; however, the Yacht Club experience is interesting.  Whether you continue here or move over to the MSC board I will be following along. 😀

[Jim_Iain]

Carla

 

I so look forward to your upbeat posts.    There has been so much negativity I've been dissuaded on logging on each morning.

 

I'll be interested on how you decide to do you two cruises.   I have a somewhat similar situation coming up in March/April where we will be on a B2B with a weeks break before the third cruise. 

 

I am leaning with suggesting that you either break them up keep the main one going and do a second on of the comparison of MSC on the MSC board.   I'm sure MSC guests would be as interested as Celebrity.   I know the two threads would be so much more work.   Either way it will be a really valuable comparison to many. 

 

Looking forward to enjoying your always upbeat live posts.

[dgparent]

Looking forward to this, we are scheduled to be in a suite on Reflection in March and the YC next December. So this should be very helpful.

 

 

Also I a little jealous, have fun.

[Reel Love]

Echoing the sentiments above.... Very much looking forward to hearing the side by side comparison with X and the Yacht Club.  Like many others on these boards, MSC YC has recently been under consideration for future cruises for us.

In terms of input as to how to best provide the threads, I am no help as I have never done one myself (although have certainly benefitted greatly from yourself and others who do "live froms" and very much appreciate the effort!!).   However that being said I think my vote would be with Option 2 that you offered, but of course would want you to do whatever is the easiest/works best for you GenX and will certainly follow along no matter how/where it is presented.

Can't wait!!!!  As always, have a fabulous time!!  ☺️

 

[Barwick Cruiser]

Charla, I’ll def be following along as we board Silhouette next month for the 10 night sailing, however only in lowly verandas so expecting a much different experience than what you’re sure to enjoy. I imagine you won’t even see the effect of the recent cutbacks. Looking forward to your assessment of the MSC cruise as well and as others have suggested hope you include a link to it from here so we can follow along. Love your reviews and your upbeat musings and writings. I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time! Enjoy and cheers! 🥂

Cathy

[GenerationX]

2 hours ago, Luvmypups said:

Following along, I’ve never been on Celebrity or MSC and excited to hear about a comparison. Long time cruiser on NCL and RCL. Have a great time and thanks for taking us with you!

Thank you! I have never sailed NCL but it is on my list to try.  My cousin and her husband are loyal NCL cruisers and Jeremy and I have agreed to try an NCL Haven cruise with them if they’ll try a Celebrity Retreat cruise with us (I suspect we’re both expecting/hoping to convert the other couple 😂). The cards haven’t lined up for the four of us yet in terms of price and schedules, but we’re hoping to get both cruises in before end of this year.

Edited January 8, 2023 by GenerationX

[GenerationX]

26 minutes ago, Reel Love said:

Echoing the sentiments above.... Very much looking forward to hearing the side by side comparison with X and the Yacht Club.  Like many others on these boards, MSC YC has recently been under consideration for future cruises for us.

In terms of input as to how to best provide the threads, I am no help as I have never done one myself (although have certainly benefitted greatly from yourself and others who do "live froms" and very much appreciate the effort!!).   However that being said I think my vote would be with Option 2 that you offered, but of course would want you to do whatever is the easiest/works best for you GenX and will certainly follow along no matter how/where it is presented.

Can't wait!!!!  As always, have a fabulous time!!  ☺️

 

Thank you!  I’m very interested to see how the MSC leg goes.  I do love Celebrity, but the Retreat pricing is starting to get to a point where I feel like it’s fiscally responsible to start at least checking out other options.  
 

It’s hard to envision that we’d completely stop sailing Celebrity, but would be good to know if we’d also be happy with spending not that much more to go on a premium line like Silversea or saving the difference for more travel and going with MSC’s very attractive pricing for Yacht Club.

 

I’ve been following the MSC boards and reviews for the past few months and feedback has been very mixed.  But a lot of the negatives sound very familiar to what’s been going on with Celebrity (cutbacks, extra fees, understaffing, inexperienced crew, etc.).  
 

MSC also offers so many more sailings and itinerary options in Europe and that’s something we really want to start doing regularly in a year or two (once my last student loan is paid off and we can afford overseas business class airfare).  If Yacht Club turns out to be something I can be happy with it would open a whole new world of options for us!

[countess5]

26 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

Thank you! I have never sailed NCL but it is on my list to try.  My cousin and her husband are loyal NCL cruisers and Jeremy and I have agreed to try an NCL Haven cruise with them if they’ll try a Celebrity Retreat cruise with us (I suspect we’re both expecting/hoping to convert the other couple 😂). The cards haven’t lined up for the four of us yet in terms of price and schedules, but we’re hoping to get both cruises in before end of this year.

We have sailed in the Haven and by all means the Retreat out scores the Haven, just saying! 😜

[Lena11033]

I'm looking forward to this.

What ever you decide I'm happy with, I don't want to cause someone extra work on holiday I would love to read the MSC thread as well. I have 3 cruises booked with Celebrity (I can't afford more with cost of living these days and I'm not paid that much lol) so interesting to see what other options are out there

[GenerationX]

1 hour ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

Charla, I’ll def be following along as we board Silhouette next month for the 10 night sailing, however only in lowly verandas so expecting a much different experience than what you’re sure to enjoy. I imagine you won’t even see the effect of the recent cutbacks. Looking forward to your assessment of the MSC cruise as well and as others have suggested hope you include a link to it from here so we can follow along. Love your reviews and your upbeat musings and writings. I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time! Enjoy and cheers! 🥂

Cathy

Thank you Cathy!  I do plan to do a little bit of investing while I’m onboard about some of the cutbacks reported just for my own information for the times when budget doesn’t allow for sailing in Retreat.

 

I’m especially interested to see what the dinner buffet situation looks like as that’s something that on longer itineraries, even if I’m in the Retreat, I really enjoy doing for a night or two to take a break from having to fancy up and have a longer formal dinner.

 

I’ll be taking full advantage of my free specialty restaurant privileges this cruise, but will probably make a stop by the buffet each night on my way to specialty dine, just to see what the situation looks like (and if it all looks good, try to resist making myself a plate while I’m there).

[Barwick Cruiser]

4 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

Thank you Cathy!  I do plan to do a little bit of investing while I’m onboard about some of the cutbacks reported just for my own information for the times when budget doesn’t allow for sailing in Retreat.

 

I’m especially interested to see what the dinner buffet situation looks like as that’s something that on longer itineraries, even if I’m in the Retreat, I really enjoy doing for a night or two to take a break from having to fancy up and have a longer formal dinner.

 

I’ll be taking full advantage of my free specialty restaurant privileges this cruise, but will probably make a stop by the buffet each night on my way to specialty dine, just to see what the situation looks like (and if it all looks good, try to resist making myself a plate while I’m there).

Thanks Charla! Your generosity in sharing your precious holiday time is appreciated greatly! 😇 

[Mrs_Tiki]

Charla, I am so excited for another one of your awesome reviews! Especially because we are trying MSC for the first time in March. Can’t wait for your comparison.

[dgparent]

1 hour ago, GenerationX said:

Thank you!  I’m very interested to see how the MSC leg goes.  I do love Celebrity, but the Retreat pricing is starting to get to a point where I feel like it’s fiscally responsible to start at least checking out other options.  

 

MSC also offers so many more sailings and itinerary options in Europe and that’s something we really want to start doing regularly in a year or two (once my last student loan is paid off and we can afford overseas business class airfare).  If Yacht Club turns out to be something I can be happy with it would open a whole new world of options for us!

 

We are in the same boat (pun intended), we wanted to go on a cruise next X-Mas and when I checked any X Suite was about 4K more than the YC. So we figured we would try it.

 

Get a travelling job 🙂 You'll rack up the miles and you can fly to Europe for free. 

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Looking forward to your comparison.  I haven't sailed YC since the cruise shutdown.  Their pricing has risen quite a bit since last I sailed in YC.  So I hope you will include pricing in your comparison.  I agree, Celebrity's suite pricing is getting crazy.  I think you will love the RS experience.  My last two cruises were in a RS on Summit.

[Swordfish1949]

Thanks so much for taking the time to review both. Looking forward to it.

[hcat]

Hi Charla

It was great sailing with you on BEYOND..short cruise but we loved it.

We enjoyed our first ever suite (used all our fcc  from cancelled cruises) but we did not  care for Luminae compared to BLU.. We decided AQ is a better value for us and booked that for ASCENT.. We'll miss the priority on and off perks but will enjoy BLU and the Thermal Suites

 

Looking forward to your comparative review!

Hcat and Sal

[CTSandy]

Charla, I was so excited to see your name pop up with cruise comments to follow!  Love your reports and look forward to the comparisons.  Thank you for sharing your trip with us!

[GenerationX]

19 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Carla

 

I so look forward to your upbeat posts.    There has been so much negativity I've been dissuaded on logging on each morning.

 

I'll be interested on how you decide to do you two cruises.   I have a somewhat similar situation coming up in March/April where we will be on a B2B with a weeks break before the third cruise. 

 

I am leaning with suggesting that you either break them up keep the main one going and do a second on of the comparison of MSC on the MSC board.   I'm sure MSC guests would be as interested as Celebrity.   I know the two threads would be so much more work.   Either way it will be a really valuable comparison to many. 

 

Looking forward to enjoying your always upbeat live posts.

Thank you Jim! And thank you again for the wonderful live report from Solstice.  I will admit, the recent negativity started to get to me for a bit. Then I remembered a few years back Jeremy and I were coming up on a cruise on Reflection and there had been quite a few poor reviews of food, service, ship condition, etc. that had us considering canceling (back when cancel for any reason insurance was actually affordable).  We decided to go ahead and sail and ended up having one our best cruises.
 

Since it sounds like there’s folks also interested in the MSC leg, I think I’m leaning towards keeping the reviews in one thread after all.  
 

Mostly for selfish reasons. I think you’re right that once I switch ships, if I start a new thread on the MSC board, keeping up with two threads is likely to become a heavy lift and I don’t want to end up spending my whole second trip on CC (or the whole month after catching up)!

 

Perhaps I’ll post a link over on the MSC board though so folks there who are interested can come to “our house” and follow along.

 

I’m very jealous of your 3 in a row spring cruising plans, but also very much looking forward to all the review reading material!

[mac_tlc]

Also interested in the comparison of the two. Like many others. We are looking into the YC. Celebrity suite prices are just too much. I did a quick comparison for Fall 2024 and Apex was about $9K, Seashore was $5.5K.  
 

mac_tlc