Yvonne

On 4/27/2022 at 9:51 AM, Pinboy said:

Excellent--- 

I can't count the number of times we were asked , or, we asked ( in the Spa Cafe or the OVC  ) whether the empty chairs beside us were taken. Never encountered a problem. In fact, we met many very nice people, made the " usual " cruise chat , etc. etc. but, no politics, please. 

 

I never ask to sit at someone’s table and I don’t like it when someone asks to sit at ours.  They always want to make small talk and I just don’t care to get into all that.  As I’m older now, probably if someone asked I would smile and say they were welcome to share the table but please, no small talk.  We don’t go to the buffet at peak times though, so thankfully we rarely have it happen.

We took our first Celebrity cruise last month on the Silhouette.  We have cruised several times each on Disney, Carnival and Royal Caribbean.  We found the food on the Silhouette to be the best we’ve had on any cruise.  Our first night was at Murano, very enjoyable.  We had one dinner in the main dining room.  It was nice but we just preferred the buffet and not having to dress up.  The buffet has several stations, different things each night.  Loved it.  Could take as little or as much as we wanted.  Room service was great too.  One of my favorite things to do on a cruise is have room service breakfast on the balcony.  We had a sunset aft balcony so breakfast out there was beautiful.  I wrote a couple extra things on the room service card and my requests (smoked salmon, and tomato juice) were granted.  

On our recent Silhouette cruise we had dinner at the ocean view cafe 8 of the 10 nights. Our first night was in Murano and while we enjoyed it we just don’t see spending extra $$ to eat in specialty restaurants very often.  We had dinner in the dining room one night but we really don’t enjoy dressing up all that much anymore so just prefer the OVC.  We can wear casual clothes and take as much or as little time as we want to eat. 
 

Of all our cruises we felt the cafe on the Silhouette was the best we have seen.  So many choices, and many different items each night.  The cafe was very quiet and most of the time we could have a window seat.  If we really liked something we could go back for seconds, or go try something else.  
 

 We had no problem getting drinks.  Almost immediately when we sat down someone was coming over to take our drink order, and would come back again if our drinks got low.

9 minutes ago, sjayo said:

That is correct -- I've never started a thread in 14 years.

In fact, I never actually followed anyone in the same 14 years until GenX started her thread and did such a great job. I learned so much about the ship that it altered and enhanced our journey. In fact, I was hoping GenX and her husband could have stayed on our cruise so we could have extended a token of appreciation with a dinner in Eden.

If you find extending her good will as rude, then I feel sorry for your acidic view of the world.

 

 

I don’t view your piggy backing off of her review as her extending her good will.  Just because I feel it’s wrong to put your own review into hers doesn’t mean I have an “acidic view of the world.”  That’s quite a stretch.  But I hope we can agree to disagree on it being rude.  You don’t feel it is, I do.  But I won’t continue the conversation about it.  I’m glad you enjoyed her review, I did too.  She does a great job.

7 minutes ago, sjayo said:

I actually consider the continuation of a thread a compliment. She did such a wonderful job generating good will -- allowing the rest of us to follow to experience her cruise vicariously. She has a great writing style and focused on her unique experiences as a solo traveler. I think of this as passing the baton to the next person on the ship; and my focus was on health, with a splattering of experiences so people following could experience our week vicariously.

 

Now if GenX was monetizing this, that's a different story and I would never interfere with that.  When I started I tried to figure out how to start a new thread and could not find a simple link to do so. I'm sure it's there -- I just don't know how to do it.

 

No hard feelings to the questioner. Hijacking was perhaps the wrong word, but no worries either way.

You’ve been a member here for 14 years and you’ve never started your own thread?  There is a big blue box on the first page of threads that says “start new thread.”

 Maybe others think it was a harsh question to ask but I’ve been here over 20 years and have never seen anyone add their own trip report to someone else’s.  I would never think of doing that.  Sorry, but it just seems odd and a bit rude to me.

5 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

But would you do an aft on a lower deck?  I am seriously consider changing from a mid-ship S2 to an aft as I just got notified by my TA one is available on either deck 8 or 10, this is on EDGE.

We have had an aft balcony room twice.  Several years ago on a Carnival ship and most recently on the Silhouette.  Love aft balconies!  No soot, didn’t notice any vibrations.  No matter what stateroom we choose on any ship we always choose a deck that has staterooms above and below us.  Rarely hear any noise that way, and being in the back of the ship you don’t have foot traffic going by your door.  Here is a video of the view from our Silhouette sunset veranda.  I think the wake is so mesmerizing, and I love watching us leave the ports too.

4 minutes ago, sjayo said:

Disembarking is not like it used to be. After collecting our luggage we walked to a facial recognition device, so there was zero wait. We never filled out one of the declaration forms; we were never asked if we were carrying any prohibited articles or fruit from another country; and we were not asked to declare any purchases. We were well below the maximum anyway, but I'm curious how they enforce this as there is no way to know what someone purchased overseas and no opportunity to even make a declaration.

 

Breakfast in Luminae was great as usual.

 

I'll be doing a very nice write up on Anastasiia -- our cabin attendant.

 

When I told my grandson that he was going to have a butler on his cruise next year, his eyes lit up. "Does that mean I can order a thousand scoops of ice cream, and she has to bring it to me?" he asked.

"Of course", I said, "as long as you mom and dad will allow it." He's so looking forward to the Apex.

 

 

Why didn’t you just start your own trip report thread instead of hijacking GenX’s thread?

On 2/1/2022 at 7:17 PM, sbcs5390 said:

Yes it is very odd. You have to look at each sailing. I just booked an amazing deal in the Silhouette solo inside for February - about half what I'd have paid to be in a regular cabin alone. But, on later sailings such as the transatlantic, they are the same or very close. 

We were on the Silhouette last month and loved it!  I didn’t know there were single staterooms on that ship.  I will check into that, as I would love to be on that one again!

On 2/1/2022 at 6:39 PM, chefchick said:

Again, as mentioned above, if price is your determining factor, then look at all your options.  Since “solo cabins” are rare on most ships, they come with a premium price.  It is OFTEN that you can get a better deal on a standard cabin (inside,OV, or even balcony) with a “single supplement” for the same price or better as the solo cabins.

 

It’s simple supply and demand.  Don’t get too caught up with demanding “no supplements”.  Hope this helps.  Cruising solo is addicting! 😎

How can you tell if a price is for the “single supplement?”  I am thinking about a single infinity balcony room on the Edge for next January.  Right now it’s about $2700 for a 10-night cruise.

My Dover sole Veronique (prepared table side), my husband’s veal tenderloin, and our dessert Les VI Etoiles du Murano for 2.

Butter, Murano,, Silhouette

Husband’s appetizer, peeky toe crab parfait, Murano,, Silhouette - also the bread service

Amuse Boushe (spelling? Sorry), Murano, Silhouette

58 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Most, if not all, Caribbean cruises through at least 4/21 have a Single Rate available right now. 

Thanks, but I’m looking at a year from now.

2 minutes ago, Cruisernewbie44 said:

The Edge class ships do have Infinite Veranda rooms for singles.

Thank you, off to check it out🙂

My husband and I were on the January 4th sailing of the Silhouette.  It was our first Celebrity cruise and we absolutely loved it.  I’ve been thinking of doing a solo cruise, but I’m not willing to pay double the price to go alone.  I know some cruise lines offer a few solo staterooms, does Celebrity do this?  

2 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

IF you really want to see what's on the ship, just wait.  Things change every sailing. I prefer to upgrade on board myself.  Bartender gets as cut, and will remember it the entire cruise.  I always do it this way.  

 

Now I'm waiting for someone to call it a bribe.  

My husband did it this way after stopping at a couple bars and finding favorite bartenders. He also tipped them extra, and was extremely well taken care of for the entire cruise.  It was very much worth it to him to upgrade.

We got off the 10-night Silhouette sailing on the 14th.

We drove from Michigan so no tipping for a ride to the port.  The porter we gave $10 for our two large bags (both going on the ship and getting off).  Our room steward was wonderful so we tipped an additional $100.  My husband had the premium drink package abound had a couple favorite bar tenders that he tipped several times ($5, $10 and $20) and he was extremely well taken care of.  Other times we would tip $1 or $2 per drink.  I had many lattes from Cafe Al Bacio and tipped a couple dollars for each one.  
 

Tipping is really a personal decision.  Give what you feel is right.  Oh, someone said cash tips are supposed to be pooled.  Not true from what we heard from several crew members.  Tips given personally in cash they get to keep for themselves.

We had an aft balcony cabin on the January 4th sailing of the Silhouette and we had a tote bag and umbrella in our room.

Before they say “we will lose money” and cancel the cruise entirely?

Is that a possibility that could happen?

If the ship sails, and we have tested negative we will be on it.  But on our roll call I’ve been seeing several who have cancelled so I’m a little concerned.

Excited to read your review, as we are to get on the Silhouette when you get off🙂

I will be following along🙂. If all goes well we will be on the Silhouette January 4th, our first Celebrity cruise and I’m so excited😁

Can’t read the article, wants you to subscribe first.😖

We are sailing on the Silhouette January 4th, and I was just looking around for testing sites.  We are thinking about getting tested in Daytona on the Sunday before our Tuesday departure so I went to the CVS pharmacy website and started the process for a mock testing appointment.  One of the questions asked is if you’re getting tested for travel, then in another spot it said for cruise travel the testing would be done right at the port.  Has anyone had their testing done at the port?

On 10/14/2021 at 5:46 PM, George C said:

Love the view , great hotel , loads of restaurants in lobby area

I reserved 2 nights here in January ( suite with bay view balcony) at 40,000 Hilton Honors points per night.  The last time I checked it’s up to 160,000 points!  Yikes!  I like that there are several restaurants right there.