Celebrity Silhouette
4
Was really excited to be cruising with Celebrity. Highlight was the Retreat where all staff know your name from the moment you arrive on the ship-how do they do that, the Retreat is exactly that, a quiet space to relax in. Low points: all the food, without exception, in OceanView cafe was poor, at best; being charged for drinks from the minibar despite "Enjoy your favorite beverages throughout the ship"; poorly maintained lifejackets - inexcusable; hand-sized flakes of paint on balcony. Additional: stop at Olden, was actually at Loen - speaking with others it was generally agreed that no-one really minded, but it would have been better to have the itinerary state that the stop would be in Loen - it just felt a bit 'RyanAir'; on-ship video of port stops advertised the Hansa Museum in Bergen, only to be told that it is closed for the next 2 years; stop in Bergen, was round the corner at a rather industrial wharf, rather than the picturesque wharf that everyone is sold; excursions not staffed by Celebrity means that ship-hygiene-standard is not practised when away. This cruise was shadowed the whole tour by P&O's Iona - which did dock in both Olden and Bergen's historic wharf, making it feel like the premium Cruise Line, rather than Celebrity - despite Celebrity being so very much more expensive.
Will we cruise with Celebrity again, probably not - simply because we expected such a step up from P&O and yet they struggled to even match them.
