Barwick Cruiser

The following is just our experience but I wanted to reassure others who might be experiencing the same anxieties we did prior to our recent Silhouette sailing. We are a group of four, two couples, myself and DH as well as my sister and her DH who is also my husbands brother 🤣🤔. We booked this 10 night sailing in the early Fall as a mid winter getaway. This was our 13th X cruise, and second since the restart after our Eclipse sailing in Alaska Sept ‘22. We saved money by flying into Ft. Lauderdale even tho the cruise sailed out of Miami. We stayed at a local Dania beach hotel one night precruise and used SAS transport to get from the hotel to the port the morning of embarkation and again when we disembarked in Miami to return to FLL for our return to Canada. Both of our SAS drivers were good and we were happy with their service. We had 10:30 checkin times and the process was easy. We had a short wait until boarding began and were onboard just after 11. Our Seapass cards were at our cabins on 8. We both booked adjoining regular veranda cabins on the starboard hump so our lunch option that day was limited to Oceanview or Mast Grill. The buffet had a good selection of items and we enjoyed our first meal onboard seated at the outdoor tables off the back. We had prebooked Tuscan Grille for our first dinner onboard and all agreed the service and food was wonderful. Was a lovely way to begin our holiday. Throughout the ten days we ate in the MDR for two of our sea day lunches and the options and service were good. We also ate at the Spa Cafe for a few lunches and enjoyed our food there as well. Sometimes a turkey club sandwich just hits the right spot. Several afternoons upon returning from a port visit (around 3ish) we stopped by the buffet for some nibbles and although the lunch options were limited, we found plenty to choose from including scones, sandwiches, cheese and deli meats, salads, a carving station, pasta and pizza. Eight of our ten dinners were enjoyed at the MDR, and I say enjoyed because by night four we had found a table served by a team led by Christobal and his sense of humour and helpful tips made our dinners a pleasant experience and we looked forward to our meals in his section. Even tho we never saw Prime Rib on the menu we did enjoy many other great dishes. I personally enjoyed at least four different fish dishes, none tilapia btw, and the sides are interchangeable so if you don’t like what comes with yours you can ask for one of the other ones. On lobster night we each asked for our lobster along with another protein…I had the duck with my lobster. The lobster was tasty for what it was, prepared well and between the appetizer, main meal and a dessert I can’t imagine needing or wanting more. We also had a dinner at Murano that was very good despite the table side lobster there being slightly overcooked. Service in all venues was excellent. We had intentions prior to the cruise to check out the dinner buffet options but between predinner drinks at either passport bar or ensemble, dinner in the MDR and then catching the entertainment in the theatre there was no time to run up to the buffet to check…sorry! Speaking of entertainment we all enjoyed the various shows and musicians onboard as well as the comedian, magician (a personal meh from me) and especially the foursome of Vox Fortura who’s singing talents amazed the crowds during their regular shows as well as an additional set in the grand foyer. I’ve only touched on a selection of our experiences but wanted to reassure any others, not booked in Suites, that all the talk on these boards that everything is horrible and you won’t find anything to eat isn’t necessarily what you’ll find when you’re actually onboard. We enjoyed lots of very good meals and the service was excellent from the all the crew we encountered. There are definite cutbacks but they didn’t affect our enjoyment of our cruise at all. In fact, we, along with many many others booked future cruises while onboard…that place was definitely not seeing disgruntled passengers lol. Any questions I’m happy to try to answer.

Just disembarked from the Silhouette yesterday. Our group of four all had the basic package and we were very impressed with the speed and how much we could do. Much better than on Eclipse in September. We were able to send and receive emails, browse, use WhatsApp for calls etc. Unless you need to stream movies or participate in Zoom meetings the basic package works very well.

Wow, just off Silhouette yesterday, flew home last night and today I see this new GenX review that’s already at 5 pages and you haven’t even boarded yet lol. This will really help me with my cruise withdrawal. Hope you and Jeremy have a fantastic time aboard Apex, despite all the recent grumbling on the boards our group of four had a wonderful 10 nights and we were only in lowly balconies 🤣. I’m sure in your SS you’ll both be spoiled.

Hey there, we’re just off and it was David (Dave) Clarke…one of the best we’ve had. Very funny and did his job well. The entertainment he organized was very good and we enjoyed many of the shows and musical talents. Overall had a great cruise, even Captain George was humerous and seen often around the ship.

Boarding Silhouette on Monday…Hope it’s not as bad as everyone’s saying but we’ll make the best of it and decide whether Celebrity will be our future cruise line of choice afterwards. Unfortunately the cutbacks have taken place after we paid final payment so no choice to cancel. At least the weather looks a lot nicer than at home and I won’t have to cook or clean 😉

Hope you had a nice trip? Question, when you did the online checkin 24 hours before your flight from Canada, did you need to check a box saying you were vaxxed or was there some kind of attestation on there? When you say you had all paperwork was that including the five pages of the attestation form for each passenger? We have our vaccine proof on paper as well as in our phones but I don’t want to have to print out ten pages of paper for nothing…

We are boarding Silhouette on the same day so I’ll have to catch up when we return. Hope you have a wonderful trip and a very happy birthday..best place to celebrate for sure! I’m sure you’ll be quite spoiled by the amazing X staff, although they’re wonderful no matter what level cabin you have. Unless you go looking I doubt you’ll notice any cutbacks being in the Royal Suite lol, we’re in a regular veranda so it’ll be interesting to see the differences from our Sept cruise on Eclipse. Your tours all sound really interesting as well, thanks for reporting back! 🥂🚢

Thanks for all the great pictures, looks like you’re having a wonderful time. We’ve done the snorkel with Woodwind and it was fantastic, saw so much marine life and they had lots of tasty snacks onboard for between snorkels. Glad that you don’t seem to have caught whatever bug it was that Marley had! Hope he’s ok too!

Great, thanks for this quick reply. I’ll save some paper then! Did you do your checkin through the app or with an actual person on the phone?

Just further to all this, our group of four is all fully vaccinated and are traveling on Air Canada this Sunday to Ft. Lauderdale. Our online checkin for the flights will be Saturday morning. I’m reading that we need to complete the attestation form to show prior to boarding the plane. Do we need to print out the entire five pages or just the second and last one? Someone mentioned completing when they did the online checkin? Should we just wait to complete until Saturday? Thanks for any and all help!

Oh sorry, when you said you could take a bottle to any non-dining venue that’s how I took it. Yes, always knew you could pour a glass in your stateroom and take it with. Wouldn’t work for me as I’d either slosh it or it’d be empty by the time I arrived at the venue lol.

It’s showing the same on my app and we board on Monday. It’s also saying that Masks are required which would make it the only place on the ship that they’re required which makes me think the whole requirement is a typo and they actually mean that only the classes and personal trainers require reservations. We’ll see! 🤷‍♀️

So you can take your own bottle to say, the Sunset Bar and enjoy there with no corkage? Didn’t know this! Thx

Keep in mind you can each bring two bottles of wine on at embarkation. You’ll only pay a corkage fee if you want to drink it in other than your cabin. Have a great holiday!

We’re booked for Feb 13th, just over a week away. And yes, out of Miami.

This month!

Following! This itinerary is on my to do! Looking forward to lots of pics, thanks for posting!

The cabins connect outside the room, before you enter, there’s no connecting door actually inside your cabin.

As an example, on deck 9 cabins on the starboard side 9270 and 9266 have the deepest balconies and 9268 and 9264 have the second deepest balconies. Cabins are all the same size. This works the same on the port side and with the cabins facing aft. 9272 through 9290 are all standard balconies but are nice because they have no obstruction to the water below.

The hump balconies on the angle, both forward and aft are def deeper. The first and third from the outside are the deepest and the 2nd and fourth are deeper than regular balconies but not as much as the first and third. The ones on the bump but on the straight part are the same as regular verandas. Def make sure you have cabins above and below you for the least possible extra noise.

Yes, if you add up the costs of each of those inclusions separately it sounds like the all included fee would be a better deal.

We’re boarding on the 13th for 10 nights. We’re not in a suite so will be doing MDR. I will def come back upon our return and give a review as we only have the basic wifi and even when we were on Eclipse in September it wasn’t allowing me on CC. I’m also curious as to the differences/cutbacks from that sailing to this one, just a few months later.

Thanks for posting and wishing you calm seas and great food and drink! Are you connecting on your flight or is it one of the new nonstops to Florida? What type cabin are you in? Glad your Mom is feeling better!

Thanks for your update. We’re on the Silhouette on the 13th for ten nights. I’m a bit frustrated as we paid for an experience that doesn’t seem to be happening since the start of this year. We sailed Eclipse in Sept and had a wonderful time and enjoyed our dinners in the MDR but now I’m not expecting much beyond basic cafeteria fare this time around. It’s not just the drink service that’s been affected but the dining room offerings seem substandard too…did you notice any differences on your sailing?

That’s too bad but yes, def inevitable. What was the protocol? Did you stay in your cabin in isolation for the remainder of the second leg or disembark?