Four-time Celebrity cruiser Peter Williams was more than a little disappointed with experiences on his recent cruise to the Canaries from Southampton.
Here is his balanced appraisal of how the cruise failed to live up to expectations.
“We had been looking forward to our fourth cruise with Celebrity for months. To avoid possible Covid travel complications we selected the Silhouette departing from Southampton on 19 September, sailing to the Canary Islands, Spain, and Portugal. This was our first Celebrity cruise from the Southampton, having previously sailed from Barcelona, Venice and Fort Lauderdale.
We pre-booked parking at the port, completed check-in and safety requirements in advance on the Celebrity App and arrived at 10:00. Our luggage was taken from the car and we were on board and enjoying the facilities well before 11:00 – brilliant!!
We arrived for dinner on the first evening at the allocated time of 20:30 and were horrified to find a queue of grumpy travellers snaking up the stairs from the Grand Cuvee restaurant.
We eventually arrived at the ‘table allocation’ point and requested a table for two, only to be told by a very impolite assistant maître-d that our request was impossible and that we must share a table. This unpleasant experience was certainly not what we expected or had previously experienced.
Fortunately we were recognised from past cruises by a manager and were directed to one of several vacant tables. The experience did not go down well.
We dined mostly in the Grand Cuvee, but the excellent cuisine experienced on previous cruises was not provided. We found the choice and quality mediocre at best.
The self-service Sea View Café was chaotic most of the time with equally disappointing and unappetising offerings. Where have the cheery fresh omelette and pasta chefs gone? Unless you are forceful you are now encouraged to take ‘past their best’ pre-cooked offerings.
Our last port of call was Porto, or rather the port of Leixoes a 40-minute drive away. We pre-paid $20 each for a return coach trip to the city. The ship arrived at 07:00 for a brief visit as we had to be back on-board by 13:30.
Passengers for the Porto tour wait patiently as the queue snakes its way towards the exit
Queues started forming for the first coach at about 06:30. By 09:30 the queues were enormous; nobody had left the ship, there was a lot of confusion and a lack of credible information. I was told the captain hadn’t anticipated the height of the sea and the gangplank was too steep and dangerous. How ridiculous is that!
It transpired the problem was with the bridge that was supposed to connect to the ship. We eventually gave up on the trip but did get our coach fare refunded.
On a positive note, the cabin and ship’s facilities were excellent and the cabin staff exceptional. However, I don’t like being fobbed off with ridiculous excuses, don’t like low quality service and certainly will not accept food that is not up to the mark.
Finally, we travelled Concierge Class but fail to see the benefit. There were no extra services as far as we could determine apart from a couple of messages left on the cabin phone that were out of date when we picked them up.
My advice – think twice about a Celebrity Cruise.
Submitted by Peter Williams, Harpenden, Herts
Celebrity were invited by SeaView a week ago to respond but we have yet to hear back
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