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Review of Silhouette Nov 2016 Transatlantic


tweetylori
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Oh what a difference a week makes! Last week at this time we were enjoying the last day of our 15-night Transatlantic cruise aboard the beautiful Celebrity Silhouette. What a fabulous day it was, as were all the rest of them!

 

This trip was a lot of firsts for us. It was our first Celebrity cruise, first transatlantic, first cruise that was over 7 nights, and our first adventure together to Europe. Although our anniversary was earlier in the year, this was our celebration. A 15-night cruise for our 15th anniversary, aren't we clever? ;)

 

I will try to write this as fast as possible so it doesn't drag on. Am happy to answer questions and hear other perspectives.

 

Our ship was full, although we were sad for the Australian couple whose passports were stolen in Rome that had to forfeit this cruise. I am assuming they had booked a Royal Suite, as a few days into the cruise, you could put $20 toward a chance to move to a Royal Suite. (no, we didn't win it, but did win other things :D ) Hope it works out better for them next time! We were also sad for those that got the crud and didn't have the opportunity to enjoy this adventure as well as they would have otherwise. There was a lot of coughing going on! We were fortunate to manage to stay healthy, although Husband caught it on the way home.

 

We are in our mid-50's and work full time. We are not used to being able to take long vacations, so to say this was a dream come true is putting it mildly.

 

Note that we were not Elite, Suite nor Aqua class. We had a simple (nice as heck to us) balcony on Deck 8. Originally we were booked in an Aft Port. I called the day before we made final payment to see if any deals existed, and by moving to a Sunset Verandah (back of the boat), we saved $600. :p

 

Before we went, I had read of the long walk to the elevators, and that is true, but goodness knows we needed it with all the eating and drinking. Speaking of which, we also decided to bite the bullet and purchase the Premiere Drink package when it went on sale a couple months before we sailed for $45 per day. We were so happy we had purchased it, as we enjoyed nice sparkling water, espresso, wine and liquor without worries from day 1. We definitely got our money's worth and it was so nice to have it prepaid, to not have to sign and collect receipts.

 

Embarkation: It was rainy and windy on the drive from Rome to Civitavecchia. We arrived via private driver that our hotel arranged for us for 120 Euros. Our driver did not speak English, but we certainly understood "stupido" that he kept repeating about the man at the dock who gave him the wrong number for our ship. :o

 

We arrived around 1:30 to no wait whatsoever. Went right up to a friendly gal, who took the form I had printed out from checking in online, and before we knew it we had our seapass cards (our lifelines), and were on board before we knew it. Champagne in hand we headed right up to our cabin which was all ready for us. First glimpse of our home-away-from home...8346!

 

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We unpacked quickly. There was plenty of storage space and enough hangars, although I doubled up some things on the hangars. I'm sure we would have been brought more if I asked, but we did just fine. Before we knew it, we were off to the Oceanview Cafe for our first food and drinks! Very glad for our drink package, as we heard the sell to others around us. It was so nice to just present our cards and go!

 

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How was the Mdr food? We are not really into paying extra for the restaurants :)

 

Overall we very much enjoyed the Main Dining Room! Service was exceptional. Some things were better than others, but our Server always steered us in the right direction. We learned to listen to him. I took pics of all of our meals...so you can see for yourself! :D

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Then it was off to the Welcome Aboard show and our first glimpse of the nice Theater!

 

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Seats even have wine glass holders!

 

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Honestly, there wasn't a lot to the Welcome Aboard show. The house band played a few songs, Cruise Director John said a few words, and the best part was Dante who sang a couple songs:

 

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Soon it was time for our first Main Dining Room dinner. This was the only night we ate late (after the first show). From then on we preferred to eat earlier. Later was crowded, early never was. This first night, since it was so busy, we were happy to be seated with others.

 

Each night the right side of the menu has new items while the left stays the same. First night right side:

 

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Left side that stays the same throughout the cruise:

 

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Both of us loved the Crispy Thai Beef Spring Roll!

 

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The Chilled Shrimp Louis was good, but would have been better with bigger shrimp. I was slightly coveting my neighbor's regular shrimp cocktail. This is the Louis:

 

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And Husband's Caesar:

 

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First night, must do dessert also, right?

 

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This was the Dulce de Leche Crema Catalana:

 

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The New York Cheesecake:

 

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And because I had inquired about the difference between the Catalana and the regular Creme Brulee, our Server brought that as well :eek:

 

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