I took a cruise on Celebrity Silhouette. This wasn’t my first cruise on this ship, but this cruise was completely different from the first time I cruised on her.
Completely different. It’s hard to believe, honestly, that it was the same ship and same cruise line.
Celebrity invited me on board with a bunch of journalists, press, important people, and even some celebrities to celebrate the first sailing of the Celebrity Silhouette after the pandemic.
What that meant for me was that Celebrity let me do a lot of things that I wouldn’t even consider doing on cruises normally, and I got to go to places that I’ve never been to before.
I got to go through those ‘do not enter’ doors and had the weirdest dinner I’ve ever had on a cruise.
In this post, we will look at the food, entertainment, ship, and more…
Celebrity Spent $75 Millon on The Ship
Celebrity had spent $75 million on the ship since I was previously on board, so I was interested to see if I would notice the differences and if they would really make that much difference to my cruise.
I was bringing my mum on board and was really interested in seeing how she would like Celebrity. She’s heard me talk about them for years, but it’s very different to being on board.
I was looking forward to eating lots of lovely Celebrity cruise food again!
I First Cruised With Celebrity in 2018 – It Was a Party Weekend
I first cruised with Celebrity in 2018. I’d heard for years that Celebrity had amazing food, and to be honest, I really just booked that first cruise to try the food.
I booked a 3-night Celebrity cruise as that was all I could afford, and I looked forward to experiencing the ‘Celebrity difference’ that so many Celebrity fans talk about.
I did have a great time on the cruise, but the cruise wasn’t a true reflection of a Celebrity cruise at all. I knew that there was more to Celebrity than I’d experienced.
It was a 3-night cruise over a weekend which went to Amsterdam and back.
As you can imagine, the ship was full of people celebrating their birthdays or other occasions, every bar onboard was completely full, and it was really tricky to get a seat anywhere.
The food was as good as I’d heard, and that was the main thing. I had a great time and I knew that was what the cruise would be like when I booked it.
After the cruise though, I was still really curious about what a ‘proper’ Celebrity cruise would be like. It was more different than I could have imagined.
Embarking Celebrity Silhouette in Southampton, UK
Having done the check-in on my phone before the cruise made it so easy when we got to the cruise port.
It took 22 minutes from my leaving my car to stepping on the ship.
At check-in they just made sre we had checked in on the app, double-checked our passports, and vaccination records and we were good to go.
We Headed Straight to Our Cabins – I Had a Balcony!
The good thing about taking the first cruise was that we were able to go straight to our cabins.
We had a balcony cabin located in the middle of the ship, which was the first thing that was different for me about this cruise.
When I cruis,e I’m usually in an inside cabin and usually in the worst location on the ship. Having a cabin in the middle was great! It isn’t something that I’d pay extra for, but I definitely enjoyed it while I was on board.
To learn more about which Celebrity Silhouette cabin is right for you, check out the post below:
Celebrity Silhouette Cabins – Honest Reviews and Cabins to Avoid
Our Balcony Cabin Was Very Comfortable
Our balcony cabin was spacious and very comfortable, the bathroom was HUGE, and we had lots of storage.
Room service is free on Celebrity cruises, so we enjoyed our breakfast here in the cabin every morning before our excursions or other things on the schedule.
More about the excursions later – another thing I don’t usually do!
We had a kettle in the cabin too, which was great. Most cruise lines doing British Isles itineraries this summer are adding kettles, they know how much we love our tea.
We Completed Celebrity Cruises Virtual Muster Drill
The first thing we needed to do was the Muster Drill.
The muster drill is a safety drill that must be completed on the first day of your cruise. At the muster drill, they tell you about things like what to do in an emergency, how to put on your lifejacket, etc.
On the ship, we just had to watch the safety information on our stateroom TV or phone, then go to our Muster Station to get a little sticker to say we’d been. It was so much easier.
The last time I was on the Celebrity Silhouette, we had to do the muster drill in the theatre. It was okay, but this was much easier.
To learn everything you need to know about muster drills, check out this post:
Instantly Recognisable Celebrity Features
There are a few things on the Celebrity Silhouette which are instantly recognisable as being from one of these Celebrity ships.
The first is the real tree that grows in the middle of the atrium. No idea how they get to that to water it and look after it, but I’m sure they have it all worked out.
The second is the real grass that is on the top deck.
I remember thinking the grass was cool the last time I was on board, but I never really thought about it before; I just thought it was grass.
I didn’t realise until this cruise how much effort Celebrity had to put into finding a type of grass that would be okay with the salty water and sea air.
They have two people on board who look after the grass.
Football was Shown On Board
When I was onboard the Euro football games were being played, and they were shown on the big screen up here. I the big screen is one of the additions that they made in the renovation.
The football was also shown in the theatre, in the multiple bars across the ship. I’m not into football so I usually decided to eat dinner at football time.
I could still hear the boo’s or cheers across the ship, so knew what was happening but I didn’t have to watch it.
The Sunset Bar on The Celebrity Silhouette Has Had a Dramatic Renovation
One of the areas that’s had the biggest change since the renovation is the area by the sunset bar.
Before these sides used to be just grass, which was nice but now they’ve added lots and lots more seating and this became one of my favourite places on the ship.
One of the problems I had with the first cruise I took on this ship was that, because it was such a party cruise, getting a seat in a bar or anywhere really was difficult.
I was happy to see that Celebrity have added lots more seating areas during their big refurb.
On the first cruise, we found a few quiet places to hang out, like the hideaway area or the library, but even those places weren’t free from the people on Stag or Hen Do’s.
The Ship’s Capacity Was Limited
During this cruise, just under 1000 passengers and almost as many crew members were on board.
When at full capacity, the Celebrity Silhouette holds just under 3000 passengers, so having so much space on the ship was a real treat.
The Celebrity Cruises Food Was Amazing
The food was one of the main things that I was looking forward to about cruising with Celebrity again.
Even though I was only onboard for three days the first time, I have very fond memories of the cookies and Yorkshire puddings in the buffet.
It was the best cruise ship buffet I’d ever been to, and I’m happy to report that I think it still is.
I took a cruise on one of Celebrity’s older ships, Infinity. The food was still amazing though! Find out about that interesting cruise here:
Our First Port Stop Was Close to Home (But Great)
Our first port stop was in Dover and we took an excursion on the Kent and Sussex railway.
It was a terribly foggy and rainy day when we set off on our excursion, thankfully I had already had the free room service so I was ready for whatever the weather and day would bring.
I’m from the south coast of England so it was strange to take an excursion so close to home, we did enjoy it though.
The cost of the excursion should have been around $100 per person, if you know me you’ll know I rarely pay for ship excursions so it was nice to experience some on this cruise.
In true British style, the sun came out as soon as we got back on board!
Celebrity Cruises Theatre Entertainment is all Backed by a Live Band
The singers and dancers were absolutely brilliant in all of the shows, you’re actually able to film and take photos during the shows, which is something you often can’t do.
I love the two levels of the theatre, we often sat at the top and had a great view down of the stage.
Sometimes, different bits, like poles and podiums, would come out of the stage. I enjoyed it a lot. The shows had a live band, too! It was unlike the recorded music I’m used to.
Le Petit Chef – A One of a Kind Dining Experience!
We went to dinner at Le Petit Chef, which is described as a one-of-a-kind dining experience. It definitely lived up to that description.
I’ve never seen anything like it before, or since and it was almost impossible to describe to my Mum before we went.
At Le Petit Chef, a little chef is projected onto your screen, and he creates your dinner for you. He would scoop things out of the sea, cut up vegetables – you name it, he did it.
This would happen before each course and then your food would arrive.
The default menu was lobster and the ‘alternative’ menu was some other type of meat.
I asked for a vegetarian option, and they had no problem with that. All of the food I had was great, though it didn’t match the animations, of course.
American Cruise Lines Tend to Have Limited Vegetarian Options
I did find the vegetarian options onboard to be a bit limited. It was fine in the buffet, but in the main dining room, often only one of the nine main courses was vegetarian.
This isn’t just something I’ve noticed with Celebrity but with many American cruise lines. Around 20% of the UK don’t eat meat, and I’ve always found that British or Italian cruise lines like MSC are just better at vegetarian and vegan food.
I never went hungry, never ever, not for a second, but I do think American cruise lines could do more.
We had a great evening, it was definitely an experience I will remember from this cruise.
The Craft Social Bar
One space that has been totally renovated onboard is the craft social bar which features a bit of technology that can only be described as “magic”. Instead of the traditional way to pull/pour a pint, pints fill from the bottom up!
This bar used to be a wine bar and they’ve transformed it.
We tried beer tasting in here, and I’ve got to be honest, I don’t drink much beer. Each beer just tasted like beer – but it was fun anyway. You can imagine how popular this area was during football.
Celebrity Cruises Cookie Review
I can’t believe I’ve not mentioned the cookies yet.
If you know me you’ll know that one of my favourite foods is a chocolate chip cookie and I make it my mission to find and have a cookie on every cruise I take.
Onboard the Celebrity Silhouette, cookies were available not only in the buffet but also sometimes in the cafe, where we would sit and have a cup of tea. The cookies were available almost all the time, and they were fabulous.
I think Princess still has the number one spot for cookie quality, but Celebrity are fast catching up.
The Titanic Museum in Belfast surprised me – with a Ride!
Our second port stop was in Belfast, where we visited the Titanic museum, which was awesome.
I’m a big fan of ship history, and I have lots of cruise history content on my website. An example of which would be the following post:
The Titanic and Electricity – How Did They Generate it and What Was it For?
Our tour guide was brilliant and she did a great job. It was really nice to hear how much Belfast had missed the cruise ships during the Covid pandemic and how happy she, and everybody else, was to see tourists visiting again.
I was amazed by the Titanic Museum. It had a ride in the middle! A ride? In a museum! A proper ride! We sat on it and were taken around a part of the museum that talked about building the Titanic.
The Titanic museum did a great job of talking about Belfast pre-Titanic and then exploring. the build, the launch the wreck.
There is, of course, potential with a Titanic museum for it all to be incredibly depressing, but it really wasn’t. I learned a lot.
We also spent some time after the tour touring Belfast which was amazing.
I’m a big fan of Game of Thrones so would love to come back to do some of the Game of Thrones tours. The rain held off which was the main thing!
Rocking Away in The Sky Lounge
Back on the ship, we spent quite a lot of time in an area called the Sky Lounge.
The sky lounge is a huge lounge with big glass windows on all sides. They’ve renovated this area since I was first on board and added lots of very comfortable rocking chairs.
Lots of people fell asleep in these chairs – and rightly so.
You can really see the differences in this area compared to the original ship tour I did.
I did struggle to film anything in this lounge on the first cruise because it was so busy, but it was no problem this time!
Have a look at my ship tour here:
We Learnt About The Beatles in Liverpool (Of Course)
Our next excursion was to Liverpool, and we did the thing that you have to do when you visit Liverpool, the Beatles excursion!
We did a walking tour of the city which was nice and then went into the Beatles experience museum.
I’d never been to Liverpool before and I really liked it, I don’t know what I expected, but it was much grander than I had expected. I want to come back one day.
I think that’s one of the best things about cruising. You get to have a little taster of a place, and you can decide where you’d like to go back to at a later date.
I’d never considered going to Liverpool, or Belfast before as I’d usually go abroad but we do have so many amazing places to visit close to home.
The Celebrity Silhouette Has Huge Pools
One of my favourite things about the Celebrity Silhouette is the amount (and size) of the swimming pools onboard.
There are two huge pools on the main pool deck and this incredible inside pool area. I was so busy on this cruise that I didn’t find time to have a swim, sadly!
I did get to do many things I wouldn’t usually do. I was even able to go in a suite, as a friend of mine was staying in one.
I asked my Mum to describe this cruise because it was her first with Celebrity. She described the cruise as fantastic and the food as delicious. So there we go – that’s my final answer.
Have a look at the cruise I took on the newer Celebrity ship, Edge, and find out whether I enjoyed it as much here:
Before You Go
Find out about the things you should know before sailing with Celebrity here:
9 Things You Should Know Before Your First Cruise With Celebrity
Find out about the luxury suite Will from Trek Trendy stayed in on Celebrity Apex here:
Inside Celebrity Apex: Will’s $30,000 Luxury Cruise Adventure
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