A short cruise deserves a short cruise travelogue series and this post forms the start of a new one on this site. In August 2023, late in the month and taking advantage of the bank holiday to save a day’s annual leave, we hopped aboard Celebrity Silhouette for a short cruise to Belgium and the Netherlands. Two ports we’d been to before and a ship that we’d cruised on back in 2019 on a similar itinerary and been very underwhelmed by (see: Cruise: Amsterdam 2019) but we’re not averse to giving people and things a second chance, especially if there’s a deal to be had, and this was a good deal. You could tell it was a good deal because a fair number of other cruise bloggers were aboard and they’ve a keen eye on a deal.
Boarding was uneventful and after dropping off our carry-on luggage in our room we headed up to the top deck for a drink as it was still a little busy inside the ship. A few changes from our first cruise with Celebrity Cruises were that we packed light to make sure we could walk off the ship early and get to work upon our arrival back in Southampton, and we’d opted for a standard balcony rather than the Concierge Class which we’d not considered good value for money based on our previous experience. This will explain why my wife wore the same dress two nights in a row in this post (she doesn’t like to do that, for some reason; I’ll happily wear the same stuff for half the cruise so long as I don’t spill anything on it) and also why there aren’t any photos of the appalling afternoon treats delivered to the room. You can always check the previous cruise travelogue series aboard Celebrity Silhouette if you don’t know what I’m talking about there.
On the top deck we spotted a friend of ours from the blogging world who we’d cruised with before – Steph – and we stopped to have a nice long chat with her. She’d been talking to another couple we’d cruised with before – Cruise Buoys – but they didn’t remember they’d done so (on Valiant Lady) nor that we blamed them for catching Covid, and since we’d not really chatted before we kept it to occasional nods as we passed by during this cruise. Steph let us know who else from the blogging world was on the ship and she’d prove invaluable on the final day of this short getaway by keeping us well away from the others. We’re a bit particular about who we talk to, you see. You can’t just talk to anyone, you know. There are loonies out there and they cruise amongst us.
We eventually retreated to the Craft Social bar because in theory this was our sort of place: it had craft beer. In theory. It had been more of a wine venue before and as you can see from the photos below, we headed back to the wine after one beer or cider each. The options were not great. Service had also been spotty, especially given how quiet the bar was, but this was still embarkation day and we understood from experience that staff are often relocated to help out in other areas at this time.
We were back in our room for more of the sail away from Southampton and down the Solent, and the views of one of the Solent Forts and the Isle of Wight were familiar ones given we lived opposite them and the number of cruises we’ve been on now. It’s always nice to see them from the balcony of a cruise ship, though, and the late August warmth of the hazy evening sunshine was very pleasant.
Dining room menus and food are popular subjects online when people are looking for cruises so you’ll be pleased to see the menu and food from the first two nights on Celebrity Silhouette below.
When we’d first cruised with Celebrity in 2019 it was after a lot of people had mentioned how good the food was. Was it good enough to warrant the additional price of cruising with Celebrity, however? we wondered. No, it hadn’t even been good enough to warrant a reduction in the price of cruising against less premium cruising brands. It had been, frankly, quite poor. But every cruise is different so we approached this cruise with an open mind and an expectation that what we’d previously experienced had been an aberration.
Unfortunately – and we may just be supremely unlucky when it comes to cruising with Celebrity Cruises here, or targeted by them deliberately for some reason – there was no improvement. Some food was good, some was tasteless, temperatures fluctuated wildly from item to item and course to course, and this was true for the whole cruise, starting with day one. Our waiters were lovely and friendly, though, so that was a big improvement. See, I’m not just Mr Negative.
After a disappointing dinner we drowned our sorrows in the nightclub into the early hours. We’d had some onboard spend for this cruise and had put it towards upgrading the basic drinks package that had been part of the cruise deal. We like to try the drinks and we’re very much night owls on ships.
The next morning saw us in the port of Zeebrugge where two things conspired to keep us on the ship while in port. Usually, rain or shine, and whether we’ve never been to the port before or been a dozen times, we will get off and explore. However, there was no free or easily-arranged option to get to Blankenberge from the port. There was a paid option to Bruges but we didn’t fancy that, and the port shuttle would get us to the port entrance where we’d need to take the tram if we wanted to get to the nearest town of any size or interest. All a bit of a faff that we still would have done had we not both been absolutely hanging after the night before’s drinking.
We had breakfast, we took part in the morning trivia, we debated whether we should introduce ourselves to another cruise blogger we saw (we decided against it), we had some coffees and drinking chocolates, we waited for our room to be cleaned, and then we went for an afternoon snooze. Yeah, that’s how rough we were.
Dinner on the second night was no better than that on the first in terms of taste or temperature; there was simply no consistency to anything forasmuch as it looked nice.
A quieter night in terms of drinking was called for and we tried out the Martini Bar. Service was abysmal but the drinks, once you had them, were nice. There seemed to be too few bartenders making drinks and too few taking orders away from the bar – especially if you were sat more than a few tables away – forcing everyone to jostle around the bar to try to catch someone’s eye, and that crowding couldn’t have been particularly nice for those sat at the bar itself. A nice-looking venue but not a wonderful experience when you consider the typical base price of the cruise.
In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll arrive at the second port where we actually make it off Celebrity Silhouette and head ashore to find something new to see in Amsterdam.