Celebrity Silhouette

Hello and welcome to our guide and review of the beautiful Celebrity Silhouette cruise ship.

The Celebrity Silhouette is a Solstice Class ship operated by Celebrity Cruises that first entered into service in July 2011.

Built in Germany by the famous Meyer Werft shipbuilders, it became the 4th of its class to enter service and still remains one of the popular ships to operate under the Celebrity Cruises branding.

The Silhouette underwent a 42 day dry dock refurbished in 2020 that has seen the ship modernised throughout.

For this guide, we will take throughout the different aspects of the ship before giving you our thoughts at the end- so make sure you stick around.

Celebrity Silhouette Current Location

Our cruise set sail in May 2022 and took us from the Port of Southampton on England’s south coast to the stunning Norwegian Fjords, where our ports of call were Bergen, Alesund, Olden and Stavanger.

Our experience onboard the Celebrity Silhouette was nothing but positive throughout our 7 days onboard.

Every members of staff we met was friendly and everybody passenger was just glad to be back sailing and exploring after the past few years.

A lot of that in our view is down the line themselves as not only did they take the ongoing pandemic extremely seriously, including keeping us informed on an onboard outbreak, but they helped to keep a fun and relaxed atmosphere onboard.

Some cruise lines are making major cutbacks in what they offer onboard but none of that was to be found onboard our sailing, with live entertainment non-stop from mid-morning until the early hours, good guest acts in the theatre and a lively activities programme.

Our sailing was the busiest since the re-start for the ship, with around 85% capacity onboard but despite that we never felt that the ship was crowded or that we were forced into queuing or waiting to anything onboard.

With that said, it was always difficult to get a seat in Café al Bacio when entertainment was on and especially at the end of a theatre show as that quickly became the go to place for guests but that would be the case on any ship that offers a top quality coffee shop/tea house.

Celebrity Cruises are the premium line of the Royal Caribbean Group and whilst that means it is a more upscale style when compared the large mass market lines, such as Royal Caribbean, NCL and Carnival, it still retains a relaxed atmosphere on board.

For our cruise, the day times were relaxed with most evening smart casual. That meant men would wear either a shirt and trousers or a smart polo shirt and smart jeans with women wearing either a smart blouse and trousers/skirt or a smart dress.

Despite been a premium line, Celebrity no longer have formal nights but they do have ‘chic nights’ which basically requires you to dress a bit smarter than you normally would with maybe a fancy shirt or nicer dress.

Some passengers did dress ultra-formal, including black tie but for most it was just a case of dressing for a night out at a nice restaurant whilst still remaining comfortable and relaxed.

For our cruise, we took advantage of the all-inclusive option that Celebrity offers and that was included as standard in the UK until recently.

That meant our journey had tips (crew appreciation, gratuities), basic internet and basic drinks package all included.

Without those added extra, there is lots included on your Celebrity Silhouette cruise holiday including dining in the onboard main dining room called Grand Cuvee, with set dining times available on deck 3 and open dining available on deck 4.

If you have booked an AquaClass stateroom, you can eat in the smart Blu restaurant whilst those staying in the retreat, can enjoy the luxurious surrounds of Luminae.

If you prefer a quicker or more relaxed meal, you also have a number of options including the Oceanview Café (the ships buffet with many stations offering freshly cooked food), the Mast Grill (burgers and hot dogs available near to the outdoor pool) and the Spa Café (located in the Solarium and offering healthy snacks).

In the Oceanview Café, it is possible to get free drinks including tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and fruit juices.

Café al Bacio offers a range of snack, sandwiches, and cakes around the clock, with breakfast options in the morning.

Away from food and drink, you cruise holiday includes lots of entertainment including production shows and guest entertainers in the main onboard theatre as well as comedians, films, games and more in the Celebrity Central.

There is also numerous musical acts that perfrom around the ship including in the main foyer, the Craft Social, around the pool deck and the Sky Observation Lounge.

The ship had a vibrant activities team offering lots of fun and games with most taking place in the Entertainment Court of in the Observation Lounge.

There are 3 main swimming pools, a large gym area and lots of places to sit, relax and read around the ship.

As is the case on so many cruise ships nowadays, whilst there is plenty included in the cost of your holiday, there are plenty of ways to spend more money onboard Celebrity Silhouette.

One of the most popular upgrades is to enjoy a meal at a speciality restaurant, which is something that we did on our cruise as we visited the Tuscan Grille.

Unfortunately this was one of the weakest parts of our holiday as not only was our steak overcooked (as it was for most people sitting around us), but the service was also slow and inattentive and the food on a similar par to what could be found in the included offerings.

Other options include Sushi on 5 (pay as you go sushi and sashimi), Le Petit Chef (interactive meal perfect for families), Murano (French/fine dining style), The Porch seafood) and the Lawn Club Grill (pizza, grill, and salad on the top deck).

If you have not paid for a drinks package, you will have to pay for drinks in the numerous onboard bars as well as in the entertainment venues and Café al Bacio, whilst if you do have a package, some drinks incur an extra cost.

The onboard casino, known as Fortunes Casino, is on deck 4 with all of the games and machines incurring an extra cost whilst there is a large shopping area found on decks 4 and 5 where everything you buy it charged to your rooms account.

Free ice cream is available in both the buffet and next to the pool but there is the opportunity to purchase Italian style ice ream at the onboard Gelateria, but with he quality of the ice cream available for free, we never found the need to.

Something else we never tried but that is always popular onboard a cruise is the spa and from what we have heard, the one onboard Silhouette offers a good range of treatments and places to unwind.

The main entertainment areas onboard the ship are decks 4 and 5 where the main theatre, Celebrity Central, the Entertainment Court, the Grand Foyer, Café al Bacio and numerous bars can be found.

Away from those areas, there is also a range of entertainment fund towards the top of the ship in the observation lounge and around the pool.

For our cruise, there was lots of music acts perfroming around the ship from morning until late evening, with the fun continuing into the early hours in the observation lounge.

Whilst it does of course depend on what your preference is for music as to whether you would like an act or not, there could be no complaining about the quality of the musicians.

In the theatre, there was a few shows by the onboard perfromance with a ‘homemade’ show early on in the cruise and then a best of the West End/Broadway later on.

There was also a good choice of guest acts including a comedian, a couple of singers and a magician of which we saw most of them in what we must say is one of the best theatres we have experienced at sea.

Not only is the theatre large but it offers great views from every seat in a traditional semi-circular layout, with the seats been located over 3 levels.

For most of our meals we ate at the buffet and I can only say that all in my party were impressed.

The food was consistently of a high quality but it certainly was a case of quality over quantity as the range of food types and the variety throughout the day wasn’t as big as on some other lines we have sailed but when you are enjoying ever bite that bit more, it really doesn’t matter.

There were a number of stations where your food was freshly cooked to order, including an eggs station and noodle station whilst things like pizza etc, which are constantly been cooked in front of you.

A personal preference of mine is always the carvery section and that had a good variety throughout the week.

Pudding wise, there were plenty of cakes and cold deserts, there were a couple of hot puddings at every meal and there was an ice cream station with lots of options that changed throughout the week.

We also ate in the main dining room (MDR) and to be honest, there were some ups and downs with it.

Firstly our serving team were all friendly and attentive and we had no issues with them at all but unfortunately the food was up and down.

Amongst the food we weren’t impressed with was the escargot, which was chewy and overcooked and the ‘strawberry soup’ pudding, which was bland and too sweet.

We loved the rack of lamb and would certainly recommend going there for a meal on your cruise.

Our other main meal was eaten at the Tuscan Grille speciality restaurant and unfortunately this was a major let down as whilst our server was friendly, he seemed to get distracted and would disappear for large spells.

A big issue was the fact that most people chose steaks and everybody’s seemed to be over done and when you are paying for your meal, on top of what you have already paid for your holiday, that is just not on.

It also led to a lot of people complaining and that would take up a lot of the time of the serving staff, which led to a bad experience all around.

One thing we would say is that the restaurant itself is well laid out and the view out of the aft windows are incredible.

Our favourite place to have a drink was Café al Bacio, which is a tea room come coffee shop where you can get a range of hot and cold drinks and enjoy tasty snacks.

There is some entertainment offered there from time to time but you can also take in the singers and musicians from the Grand Foyer.

We never visited any of the onboard bars but they did seem to offer a wide range of drinks and lots of entertainment but perhaps most telling of all, they were always busy and people seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Our cabin was room 330 on deck 7, which was a standard balcony room just above the promenade deck.

There is little to say about the room aside from it is up there as one of the best on any cruise ship, from the basics of lots of storage space to the overall size of the room, and from the huge and comfortable bed to the large balcony- it has it all and much more.

The bathroom is well equipped and included a large shower finished with a glass door and as far as a cruise ship bathroom goes, it was very spacious.

The only minor issue we had was a lack of power outlets and especially a lack of USB ports for charging things but that really didn’t impact us at all.

Our cruise took us to the west coast of Norway for a week of exploring the fjords and as always, the Norwegian fjords didn’t disappoint.

Our first port of call was the city of Bergen, with stops in Alesund and Olden before heading to Stavanger for our final port of call.

Each of the ports have lots on offer and perhaps best of all, all of have something different that is what really makes a holiday special for us.

One great aspect of the cruise was the long hours we had in each port as it made for a more relaxing holiday, without all of the usual rushes and queuing to get off of the ship and with some early morning rain about on most days, we could simply have a leisurely breakfast and wait for it to finish before heading ashore and exploring.

It is always difficult to say who a cruise ship is for as there are so many different elements to the ship that it is easy to make your time onboard but there are a few things to take into consideration if you are wondering if a cruise onboard Celebrity Silhouette is the right choice for you or not.

Firstly, the Silhouette is certainty not an all action ship so if you or those you travel with prefer things like go-karts, dodgems, ice skating, simulators, flumes, and street parties- this ship isn’t for you.

If you prefer a more relaxed atmosphere where the focus is on quality over quantity, then the ship could be for you.

We would say that although there is a kids and teen club on board, there probably isn’t enough for younger members of the family to enjoy but older teens should be ok.

There is actually very little to watch out for when it comes to the Silhouette as aside from the issues at the Tuscan Grille we mentioned above, we had no issues onboard.

One minor gripe we had was the lack of seating at Café al Bacio at busier times, especially when entertainment was on and just after the theatre shows ended, but that is a minor gripe to have.

The ship was ordered by the Royal Caribbean Group back in 2007 as the 4th Solstice-class ship for the Celebrity line.

Although it had the same design as its sister ships (the Solstice, Equinox, and Eclipse) it is around 400 tonnes larger and about 6 feet longer.

The ship was first announced in May 2007 but its name of the Silhouette was not chosen until the 21st December 2009, with the ships float out from the Meyer Werft shipyard in the German city of Papenburg coming in May 2011.

She was taken on by Celebrity in July 2011 and set sail to Hamburg for here naming ceremony in July 2011 where Michelle organ (CEO of the Signature Travel Network) christened her.

Her maiden voyage came in July 2011 when she set sail for the Italian port of Civitavecchia to start life operating in the Med for the summer season before heading across the Atlantic to operate out of Cape Liberty for cruises of the Caribbean during the winter.

The ship underwent a major refurbishment during the pandemic shut down where ever almost aspect of the ship was modernised.

There can only be one word to some up our experience onboard the Celebrity Silhouette and that is incredible!

The whole experience, from a speedy check in and boarding, right through to the days at sea and our time in ports, and to the well organised disembarkation- everything went smoothly and was enjoyable.

As you can see from our photos, the ship offers a good range of venues all of which have been finished to a high standard following the Silhouettes refurbishment, so it really is difficult to pick faults with the ship itself.

In fact, it is difficult to find many faults at all with our experience, so let’s start with the things we loved about our time onboard the Silhouette.

I’ll start with something that I loved about the ship but something that also became one of the negatives as the cruise went along and that is Café el Baccio.

It is a great place to enjoy a quality cup of tea or coffee, whilst relaxing on a comfy seat and it is also somewhere where you can enjoy some of the great entertainment on offer from the foyer.

We loved stopping off their after a visit to the Theatre but seemingly so did everybody else as in the 2nd half of the cruise it became harder to get a seat there.

Thankfully. we enjoyed the majority of the entertainment perfromed in the Theatre and found in venues around the ship and it is to the credit of Celebrity that they constantly had musicians and entertainment taking place throughout the holiday, with some other lines cutting back.

All of the staff we had interactions with were friendly and helpful and we really loved the extra touch of handing out bottles of water (and umbrellas) when we set off to explore our ports of call.

That started from the speedy embarkation we had, it took around 30 minutes from arriving at the port to parking up, checking in and dropping our bags of at our stateroom.

Comedy is very subjective so we cannot comment on whether they were funny or not but what did stand out was the opening nights comedian’s joke were often very dated and included references to things like 15 year old technology.

Maybe they were expecting a much older crowd onboard for the week we went?

Although the food was excellent throughout, we did run into a few issues in the speciality Tuscan Grille restaurant, where everybody’s steak were well overcooked leading to a number of complaints and we were surprised at the lack of ‘them’ nights in the buffets and the constant lack of spoons- although they are nit-picks when the standard was so high.

Our final little quibble was over the lack of a wrap around promenade deck as we love to enjoy a stroll near the sea before bed.

So there you have it, aside from a few minor issues, the Silhouette is a fantastic ship and a great experience from start to finish.

Silhouette Review and Guide

The Celebrity Silhouette cruise ship is a fantastic ship that is well worth booking onto if you get the chance.

Celebrity have done a fantastic job in its refurbishment to not only make it a relaxing ship but one with lots to do and enjoy.

During the next few years, there are some fantastic itineraries lined up on the ship which just adds to the attraction.

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