The Luxury Cruise Experience On Celebrity Cruises

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A luxury cruise experience on Celebrity Cruise Line is a luxury experience through and through. If you’re used to staying in luxury hotels with all the high-end perks and amenities, Celebrity’s ships will definitely live up to your expectations. 

Cruise ship experiences vary quite a bit, so you need to be a bit picky when it comes to the level of luxury you’re seeking. Celebrity prides itself on being a luxury cruise line with all the perks. They have been voted Best Premium Cruise Line 13 years in a row by Travel Weekly’s Readers’ Choice Awards.

luxury cruise experience on Celebrity cruise ship
Celebrity cruise ship

We embarked on a 12-day Northern Europe cruise aboard the Silhouette, one of Celebrity’s 14 world-class ships. The occupancy of the Silhouette is 2,886, making is one of their larger ships. You might think the experience aboard would be hampered by that number of people, but the space on board is designed so well that even when the ship is at max occupancy you won’t feel crowded.

Additional reading:
→ Make your cruise planning easier with these helpful apps.
→ Read our guide to booking your first cruise.
→ Read about Scandinavian cruises, Caribbean Cruises or Northern Europe cruises.

Luxury Cruise Experience on Celebrity Cruises

If you’re considering a cruise on Celebrity or just wanting to see what a large luxury cruise ship looks like on the inside, this post will take you on a photo journey through the Celebrity Silhouette ship to see what luxury cruising on Celebrity is like.

This isn’t a review, so much as a photo excursion intermingled with commentary. The Celebrity ships are undergoing a revolution between 2019 and 2022. Many of their ships will be upgraded with their latest cutting-edge design and experiences, making the cruise onboard Celebrity even more luxurious and high-class.

Exterior Photos

First, a few pictures of the exterior of this behemoth of a ship. Sail away with Expedia!

Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette

Staterooms

Celebrity ships have suites, veranda staterooms, oceanview staterooms, and inside staterooms. Within that, they also have Aqua Class and Concierge Class, which get you extra perks. We booked into the Aqua Class for the additional perks it offered, like access to a special dining room called Blu, special spa amenities like upgraded bath products, a special spa shower and access to the Persian Garden at the spa. These staterooms are located in more sought after locations on the ship. With Concierge Class gives you personalized concierge service and priority boarding.

Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette
Celebrity Silhouette

Bars/Lounges

Celebrity Silhouette has a good mix of bars and lounges to hang out in. There was no lack of places to grab a drink, which was a good thing because we were making sure we got maximum usage of our Premium Beverage Package. There was the classy and sometimes rowdy Martini Bar & Crush.

The Martini bar is covered in ice that you could etch things into with your fingernails. The bartenders here are supposed to be known for their flair bartending – tossing bottles and shakers in the air and around their backs. 

Vodka Bar
Vodka Bar

The dark and alluring Ensemble Lounge is located on the way to the Specialty Dining restaurants. The shades were always drawn and the chairs are set in intimate circles. We also really liked the musicians that played double sets in the lounge each night.

Ensemble Lounge
Ensemble Lounge

Silhouette now has a bar called Craft Social, which replaced Cellar Masters. It has a bright and fun pub atmosphere. Great place to hang out with a bar and socialize.

It seemed that every evening something was going on in the Sky Observation Lounge, so we didn’t get to spend a lot of time up there. But it was a really beautiful place to be when it was open. The lounge fills the entire upper deck area at the front of the ship and has panoramic views of the sea as you’re sailing. It’s a perfect place to watch a sunset or hang out as the ship sails out of port.

Sky Observation Lounge
Sky Observation Lounge (Photo by Bruce Bordner)

Specialty Restaurants

There is a main dining room aboard Silhouette, so you don’t need to purchase extra dining. However, if you want to treat yourself and try something different while on your cruise, we recommend visiting all the specialty restaurants at least once. Some (like Tuscan Grille) we returned to more than once because they were so good.

Blu is the Aqua Class dining room. If you book this level, you can dine in Blu as your main dining room, or visit it whenever you like a change of scenery. Blu serves lighter fare and the main menu items change every night. We liked having our own place to go away from the masses, and we loved the sommelier at Blu. He always kept our glasses filled (sometimes too filled).

Tuscan Grille was our favorite of the specialty dining. We went back three times. The lasagna was so delicious. We also got table-side caesar salads during each visit. The food was delicious, and the servers were all so friendly and fun. The view form the Tuscan Grille was also one of the best on the ship.

The most upscale restaurant on the ship is Murano. It’s a steakhouse with lobster, table-side show cooking and a huge cheese cart that rolls around after dinner so you can choose your own cheese. We went once and had a really great dinner – super filling and enjoyable.

Murano Show Cooking

There’s a new restaurant concept on Silhouette now called Le Petit Chef. They’ve paired with TableMation™ Studios and innovative Skullmapping tecnology to make fine dining more fun. It’s an experience you just have to have.

The Lawn Club Grill is located up on the lawn deck at the top of the ship. It’s fantastic to visit when the weather is very nice because you’re in the open air. It feels like summer. You’re allowed to cook your own food on the grill, if you want, which we did.

They also make really good flatbreads that are actually pizzas. They encouraged us to order with our eyes and we ended up with WAY too much food. But everything was delicious and the experience was worth the extra fee.

Lawn Club Grill
Lawn Club Grill

Pool/Solarium

There were two areas with pools and hot tubs. The outdoor pool didn’t get used much during our journey because it was a little too cold outside and the wind was often blowing strongly. We used the hot tub outside because we enjoyed the cool outdoor air.

Outdoor pool area
Outdoor pool area

There was also a solarium inside that had a small pool and two hot tubs. We didn’t spend much time in there. On the sea days, all the chairs were filled with people lounging, reading and sleeping.

Silhouette's Solarium
Silhouette’s Solarium (Photo by Carlo Mirante)

Lawn Club & The Alcoves

The Silhouette has a Lawn Club on the upper deck where you can hang out on the grass, play some lawn games and enjoy the fresh air. This area wasn’t used much on our cruise because of the high winds, but it was a really nice area and I can see it being highly used during the Caribbean sailings.

The Lawn
The Lawn

They also have these great cabanas that they call The Alcoves. It’s a private area with chairs and a couch and plenty of room to hang out on a sea day. The only problem with these is that they are premium areas, so you have to pay around $100 a day in order to use them. Again, on our sailing, none of them were ever in use.

The Alcoves
The Alcoves

Hang Out Areas

The library and the game room were always full on sea days. Everyone loved the open area where you could borrow a book or cuddle up on a couch and read. We didn’t spend much time in these areas, but we did stop by one of the space-age tree houses that were hanging between decks. Only problem is they were only made for one person.

Tree house
Tree house
Tree house

We didn’t spend much time in the Casino, either. It always smelled a little of smoke, even though there was no smoking allowed on board. There were always people in there though and it did resemble a regular casino. Nick tried to join in the Officers vs Guests Poker tournament, but didn’t get in. The regular poker games required a $200 buy-in.

Silhouette's Casino
Silhouette’s Casino (Photo by Bruce Bordner)

Overall Experience Aboard Celebrity

As one of the premier luxury cruise lines, Celebrity really delivers. From the moment you arrive for embarkation to when you leave the ship, you will be treated like royalty. The dining experiences, the bars and lounges, and the staterooms all live up to expectations for a luxury cruise. The concierge team is brilliant, the service is impeccable.

There isn’t anything overlooked that you might need or what. We had a really fantastic time luxury cruising on Celebrity Silhouette and look forward to the next time we’re able to take a Celebrity cruise. Have you been the Silhouette or one of the other Celebrity ships? Tell us about your experience in the comments. Did you love it?

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The Luxury Cruise Experience On Celebrity Cruises

31 thoughts on “The Luxury Cruise Experience On Celebrity Cruises

  1. Alyssa Ramos says:

    I have been dying to go on a cruise, and this one just makes me want to go even more! Hope you had an amazing time!

    • Laura Lynch says:

      We had a fantastic time, Alyssa. It might not be my preferred method of travel, but once in a while it’s nice to be pampered a little.

  2. Beverly Burmeier says:

    I love cruising. Haven’t been on the Sillouette, but I’ve been on Celebrity and five other cruise lines.

  3. EvaSturm of TravelResponsibly says:

    I am glad you enjoyed your cruise. The ecological implications of mine somewhat overshadowed the experience for me. Thank you for sharing.

  4. Carol Colborn says:

    We did a Baltics cruise last year but not through a luxurious ship like this! We went with an Enrichment voyage that had seminars while you are at sea about the places, architecture, people, economy of the place we were about to see next. I would like to try luxury once!

    • Laura Lynch says:

      I think an enrichment voyage would be very interesting. On the Celebrity cruise, they had seminars about the next destination too, which was very helpful.

  5. Anne Sutherland-Smith says:

    Laura, Celebrity Silhouette looks like a fantastic cruise ship – thank you for sharing your experience as it looks like a great cruising option.

  6. Betsy Wuebker | PassingThru says:

    I really appreciated your honest assessment of the amenities and quality. What popped out, though, for me most while reading your article were 1) the mentions you made of noise and crowding in the more popular areas., and, 2) the fact that you booked a premier class of service so as to avoid the main dining area (and presumably many more other passengers). Honestly, one of the reasons we’ve not considered a trip on a ship this size is concern that it’s not a good fit for us. I can’t completely relax if I’m vying for physical space or availability of things I’d like to do. Unfortunately, I think we’d be disappointed by this experience, but I’m open to being proven wrong. 😉

    • Laura Lynch says:

      I’m particularly weary of crowds and being around too many people and I had the same concerns you brought up, so I made sure I wouldn’t have to deal with those situations. There were a few times when there were a lot of people around (like a crowded bar at home), but most of the time we felt like we had the boat to ourselves. Sea days were when it was crowded in some spots, but on a 12-day cruise, we only had 2 sea days… so most of the time it was blissful and quiet. I had a wonderful time and would definitely do it again.

  7. Christy says:

    I would love to see Scandinavia from a luxury cruise. I’ve been on Celebrity, but it was many years ago and I don’t think the ship was this nice.

    • Laura Lynch says:

      They’ve renovated a lot of their ships. Some are nicer than others. This one was pretty incredible.

  8. RaW | Ramble and Wander says:

    Haven’t been on a luxury cruise like this. I don’t think I can last a few days on a cruise actually, heh heh, but I have been on a cruise across the Baltic Sea and one of the most memorable moments for me was seeing the midnight sun from the deck.

    • Laura Lynch says:

      I wasn’t sure what to expect from the cruise, being my first one, but it was really nice. I probably wouldn’t do a 12-day cruise again, though – it’s just a bit too long.

  9. Vicky and Buddy says:

    Wow, so many restaurants! I love how you have so many options on a cruise ship. I’ve only been on one cruise, but I really enjoyed it. I definitely wouldn’t mind going on another one, especially if it’s a luxury cruise!

    • Laura Lynch says:

      Yeah, it’s not my preferred method of travel, but it’s certainly a fun and gourmet experience! The restaurants were all very good on Celebrity.

  10. Lieurene Tran says:

    Wow, I am totally blown away by how nice the Celebrity cruise looks! I’ve only been on Carnival cruise ships for family vacation a few time but I would definitely love to try out Celebrity cruises next time now that I’ve seen your pictures! I do have to say since I am kind of a science geek, I totally geeked out when I saw that they have the Molecular Bar! That’s so cool!

    • Laura Lynch says:

      I think they’re actually about to get rid of the Molecular Bar, sadly. I don’t think it really worked out the way they imagined. I love that kind of stuff though.

  11. Bettyann says:

    Going on the same Baltic cruise in August on the Silhoutte. Wondering how your excursions were and which one you liked best

  12. Bob White says:

    Gosh Laura, you make this sound like a crowded, windy & cold test of your endurance. 12 Days of trying to escape crowds, weather and overpriced eating establishments.

  13. Veronique Vella Muskat says:

    We have just returned from an incredible experience on the celebrity silhouette, which took us to the Fjords. It was amazing! We loved it through and through. From the luxury service to decor to dining. The molecular bar wasn’t there so I guess they did remove it. Such an amazing experience

    • Laura Lynch says:

      Yeah, I heard the Molecular Bar was replaced by a more generic bar. Too bad, I liked it! Glad to hear your cruise was so great.

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  18. Gary says:

    Hi – we did a Baltic cruise in an Aqua cabin pre- COVID, be careful on the cabin position as ours was right in under a large overhang from the deck above which obscured the view & really spoilt the experience and to be honest didn’t think it was worth it, although Blu was OK we always had to wait for a table – gave up trying to use the Buffet as it was always rammed. Also service at the bars was fairly slow due to the amount of passengers – little tip pick up a drink before going to see a show, as the Q at the theatre pop-up bar can be rather long.

    • Laura Lynch says:

      Great feedback, Gary. You do definitely have to look at the positioning of your room to make sure you get a good spot. We mostly ate at specialty restaurants to avoid the buffet.

  19. Karen Brown says:

    Having been on a number of Celebrity cruises in the past and about to embark on a cruise on Silhouette I can say we always eat In the main dining room, not the buffet In the evening. It never feels crowded, the service is amazing, the food never disappoints. We occasionally treat ourselves to a meal in one of the speciality restaurants but we have noticed this year that the cover charges for these have gone through the roof so probably won’t bother this time and to be honest there is no need as the food in the main restaurant is just as good and with the app you can pre-book your table so there is no waiting. We love Celebrity and always manage to find somewhere quiet even on a sea day.

    • Laura Lynch says:

      It’s great to hear how much you’ve enjoyed the main dining room. Costs for extras are definitely going up, so it’s a good option.

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