I'm thrilled to embark on the Celebrity Silhouette! It's been years since my last Celebrity cruise in the Caribbean with my husband, and I remember being thoroughly impressed back then. Sadly, this time, it's just me, and I'm curious to see how the service measures up for solo travellers.
I've heard that Celebrity Cruises usually organise meet-ups and social events specifically for solos. I'm eager to find out more about the opportunities they arrange for us to connect, like organising dinners together or planning shore excursions as a group. It'd be great to meet fellow travellers and explore the ship and destinations together.
With my past positive experiences with Celebrity Cruises, I have high hopes that their service will extend to making solo travellers feel more included and well-catered for by having regular organised meetups. Let’s hope my memory serves me well and everything is as excellent as I remember.
The ship is docked at Southampton. This is wonderful for me as I live locally, about a fifteen minute taxi ride to the port. Check-in was very quick, and my cabin was ready quite soon after.
The ship only had availability for inside cabins. Ahhh! I usually like a cheap balcony, and I’ve booked an expensive, inside cabin. Also, the weather isn’t great as it’s autumn. I wanted to get away again, but I’m doubting my rash, extravagant decision. It’s going to the Mediterranean and onto the Canary Islands. It’s a bit risky crossing the Bay of Biscay at this time of year, as the weather can be rough. Fingers crossed, it’s not too bad.
The cabin is comfortable enough. All the usuals, including a kettle and tea and coffee supplies. There is a well-stocked, chargeable mini bar. The bathroom is well supplied with shampoo, conditioner, body moisturiser, and everything is very clean. I decided to charge my phone.
There are no plug sockets by the bed. Just three by the dressing table, US and EU. I'd brought my travel extension lead so I could lay on the bed and still check my emails and charge my phone. You can buy them on Amazon here. So possibly, the ship is due for a bit of an update.
Waking up half-asleep and heading to where the balcony should've been became a routine! It's funny how habits stick, right? But it had its perks - I found myself up and about earlier, curious about our location and the weather. Inside cabins might not have the view, but they do have their way of nudging you to seize the day.
My bag was delivered, so it was time to unpack. Checking the wardrobe there were only 8 hangars in the wardrobe, not bad, but I like to hang nearly everything up. So this time I’ve brought these, they are amazing, very light and hardly weigh anything.
You can buy them here on Amazon. There are other sorts with clips too, which will be suitable for trousers.
To connect to Wi-Fi powered by Starlink Internet Service, I downloaded the app as per the instructions:
Everything is on the app. Daily programmes, restaurant bookings, your account. Excursions. Ship maps. After a few days, you will notice that gratuities will be added to your account. I had $18 a day added to mine, which I think is excessive for a person on their own. You can go to Guest Services, they will remove them if you ask, and then you can do as you wish. You may have a fare which includes tips, so you won’t get this charge. How you tip is your personal decision. There are many debates about the right and wrongs of this online.
Also, if you have an Internet package or wish to purchase one, follow the steps in the first paragraph. I don’t usually buy a package, but since losing my husband, I feel more comfortable having one, so I can message my family anytime. Before that, we just used to wait until we went ashore and found a cafe. Watch the crew; they always know where to go and are often seen sitting on their phones in the cruise terminal.
Most ships now have Starlink internet for connectivity at sea. I find it quite reliable.
The food is the best! I cannot fault it. The main dining room food is amazing. Everything tasted so fresh, always hot. The steaks were tender, and the menu was varied. If you like your desserts, oh yum. Wonderful. Number one in my book of any cruise I’ve tried, and I’ve travelled on Cunard, P&O, Royal Caribbean, MSC, Princess and Celebrity several times, too. A few others to try yet.
The Oceanview Cafe for the buffet equally has excellent food, including the best desserts. If you like your sweet food, you are spoiled for choice here.
I met some neighbours on board, and they asked me if I'd like to join them at a couple of speciality restaurants. We booked Q sine and The Tuscan Grille.
Q sine is a one-off, currently hosting Le Petit Chef. A really wonderful dining experience. It’s a small restaurant, about 18 tables, at a guess. We arrived at 6 p.m., and we were shown to our table. It’s quite dark, and the plates are highlighted with a lit ring. There’s a varied menu, and everything is delicious. You must wait until everyone is seated for the dining experience to start. You get a projection of Le Petit Chef onto your table.
Le Petit Chef tells his story; you get a different projection every course. As each course arrived, Le Petit Chef shared his story. It was like a little magical journey with every dish. The menu was varied, and every bite was delicious. I couldn't help but be amazed by the creativity and innovation behind the whole experience.
It was great fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and the food. At the moment of writing, only Celebrity Cruises has a Le Petit Chef at sea.
The staff advised it was very popular with children, but there weren’t any there during our dining time. We all received graduation certificates at the end of the meal. The cost of the meal was $64.50, which I thought was good value. If you book this at the London restaurant, it’s £119 per person.
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The Tuscan Grille is an Italian restaurant serving delicious food, steaks, pasta, and fish. You could have whatever you wished for from the extensive menu. Again, it was good value and a similar price to Q Sine. When on board, they may have special offers and offer a reduced price if you book a minimum of three specialty restaurants. There are five onboard. However, remember the food in the main dining room is excellent. It’s nice to go to a specialty restaurant for a change of scenery, celebrations and ambience.
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So I have a status match with Royal Caribbean, giving me certain privileges on Celebrity. I have Elite status. I enjoyed going to the Tuscan Grille, where you could have a very relaxing breakfast away from the main dining room and the Oceanview cafe.
You can also get three free drinks during the Captain's cocktail hour between 5 and 7 pm. But only at the bars, not in the dining room. To be quite honest, I had a bit of an issue with this as I was usually in the Dining room between these hours. When they noticed me walking to the bar and bringing my wine back, a waiter offered to do it for me, which was so kind. If you can't do that, it’s a useless perk. On other evenings, I always took my drink with me. Sorry if it sounds a bit tight, but I’d earned that perk.
On the first evening, Celebrity organised a get together for Solos. It was at the Craft Social bar. In my opinion, not the best bar to host a get together, as this is a sports bar, quite noisy with the football on.
There was a member of the entertainment team with a sign.
It was a bit of a letdown as only a handful of us solo travellers turned up. There were more of us on board, but on the first night, possibly many were still getting settled in. Maybe they hadn’t even read their ‘Celebrity Today’ yet, the ship's paper, and didn’t know it was on. The staff mentioned we could set up our own meet-ups at guest services and have them posted on the community board. It was a good idea, but not everyone seemed to know about the board itself. I felt it would've been more effective if it was highlighted in the daily program, Celebrity Today, to reach more solo travellers.
Please note Cruise Companies; this is important, and I’m passionate about it. Onboard, there may be newly widowed persons onboard who are making a brave effort to do something with their lives, trying to eradicate some of the pain they are feeling. I met a gentleman who was a widower of six months. He was very tearful as he told his story.
It would be helpful to organise daily coffee mornings and early evening pre-dinner drinks by advertising in Celebrity Today. A newly widowed person probably wouldn’t go to guest services and ask for a meet-up to be organised and put on the community board. They barely know their way around the ship and are possibly suffering from depression and low self-esteem. If you go the extra mile and show care, these people will be your future guests, spreading the word and bringing their families. Telling everyone how wonderful you are as a company.
I never saw that gentleman again. I hope he didn’t spend all week in his cabin!
I'm not going to list the ports we went to as the weather was, unfortunately, very bad, other than the Canary Islands. I had a trip booked to go to Cascais and Sintra Palace from Lisbon. We were caught in a deluge, and the vote was to return to the ship. Of course, you can’t be refunded for bad weather.
The guide gave us a tour of Lisbon; his descriptions of the locations were great, but we couldn't see out of the coach windows. Celebrity supplied umbrellas to every cabin; it was a nice touch. The Captain announced that the weather was so bad that the port authorities had closed Lisbon port, and we weren’t allowed to sail onto our next port, Vigo.
Eventually, we sailed the next day, with the weather still raging and the captain informed us he was heading for Southampton.
Oh dear, was I ill! I stayed in my cabin. Everything was rocking and rolling. I had to remove the hangars from the wardrobe as they were clashing together. The wardrobe doors were sliding about, so I managed to prop them shut with my shoes. Evidently, the weather had improved, but I didn't feel it.
Five metres high waves, we were told, maybe that's not much, but enough for me. Despite taking a sea sickness tablet, I felt dreadful. We crossed the Bay of Biscay at speed. I was very pleased when we entered the English Channel and the weather calmed.
We were very late arriving in Southampton. The guests joining the ship would not sail until 10 p.m. Celebrity was very generous and advised everyone if you didn't want to proceed home, as it was late, you could spend up to £200 for a hotel, which Celebrity would refund.
The Celebrity Silhouette can take 3,324 passengers. It didn't feel overcrowded to me, even though most passengers were inside because of the weather. Whichever ship you are on, there’s always a quiet spot if that's what you like. You just need to hunt it down. Here are some of the places I liked to go to:
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The food was fantastic. The entertainment was ok. It was a beautiful ship, and the Celebrity staff were amazing. I was disappointed with the arrangements for solos. I was lucky and had company when I needed it by having my neighbours on board. I should’ve listened to my instincts and not cruised during the Autumn, as the sea sickness and bad weather did spoil it a bit. Have you been on the a Celebrity Cruise? I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.
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