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Live from Silhouette - Feb. 25, 2018


Host Anne
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I'll do my best to provide regular feedback this week during our Silhouette cruise to San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

 

Got to the ship and left luggage with the porters about 10:30 AM. Check in was very quick and easy. Imagine my surprise when we were then told we could board the ship. By 10:52, we were on-board and being offered welcome drinks.

In all our Celebrity cruises, we have never been on a ship prior to 11:00 AM. Its very nice to get on early, finalize our specialty dining dinner reservations and relax with a glass of prosecco!

 

I'd say this cruise is off to a great start! THANKS, Celebrity!

Edited by Host Anne
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I'll do my best to provide regular feedback this week during our Silhouette cruise to San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.!

 

Host Anne,

 

We board Silhouette on March 11th, so we are looking forward to your reports. :)

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We just got off the ship today. It was a wonderful cruise. Food was excellent and staff was friendly. Probably one of the best activities staff we have encountered. A highlight was bringing back one of the old style Broadway Musicals in the theater during a sea day afternoon. Don't miss it! Enjoy your cruise.

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Have a great cruise, Anne!

 

Not sure where you'll be having dinner, but if by any chance it's Select Dining in the MDR, I'd be curious as to how things are going, since there have been so many negative comments about that recently.

 

Enjoy the trip!

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We just got off the ship today. It was a wonderful cruise. Food was excellent and staff was friendly. Probably one of the best activities staff we have encountered. A highlight was bringing back one of the old style Broadway Musicals in the theater during a sea day afternoon. Don't miss it! Enjoy your cruise.

 

Hi

 

Any goodies you can share with our group? We set sail in 2 weeks on the Silhouette.

 

Thanks

 

Hugh

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Also eagerly following along...we were just driving by the port this afternoon on the way back from the beach and gazing at the ships, talking about our April departure. :) Hoping some of the bumps Dec & Jan passengers experienced are ironed out a bit.

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OCEANVIEW AND LUGGAGE DELIVERY

We sat at the Oceanview Cafe where we enjoyed our first drinks. A small satellite bar with wine, beer and soft drinks was set up under the steps at the rear of the ship (where the bars are on Solstice and Equinox). The area slow filled as passengers boarded.

 

I immediately noticed when walking through the Oceanview (this is the buffet area of the ship for those who haven’t sailed on an S-class ship before) that they now have a designated “Gluten Free” section. They had four entrees here along with a very nice selection of desserts. My son-in-law has a gluten allergy so this was nice to see. I also overheard someone say they were offering gluten-free pasta at the pasta station as well.

 

They had nice selections for lunch – roasted chicken, beef stew, a Mexican station with fajita meats, toppings, tortilla shells and chips and the pasta station. I made myself some nachos while my husband made a Mexican salad. Both were very good.

 

There were plenty of bar servers making their way around the aftOceanview seating area and several stopped by regularly.

 

They announced that rooms were ready at 1:00 PM. We are in a sunset veranda (my favorite rooms because we enjoy watching the aft wake go by). We made our way to the room which is located on the starboard side of the ship, immediately next to the Sky Suite on the end. The width of the balcony is a bit more narrow than those in the middle of the back of the ship but it’s fine for us. Note that there is a round pillar about four inches in diameter at the end of the bed. There is a matching pillar at the outside the cabin to the side of the door. Not a big deal but I’ll have to remind myself not to walk into it!

 

By 1:30, ALL of our luggage had been delivered to the room. WOW!!! I can’t recall another cruise where we received our luggage by1:30! We were completely unpacked andready to enjoy the rest of the cruise long before 2:00 PM.

 

Our cabin itself is in great shape. This cabin has the bed by the door (our preference); the veranda furniture is fine other than the wood on the round table which has seen better days. No issues with the cabin. Our cabin attendant stopped to introduce himself and I could already tell he’ll do a great job.

 

Muster drill is set for 3:15. Getting ready for the “Wash Your Hands” video

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We were on 2 weeks ago. We had the same experience with boarding. We were sitting at the Sunset Bar before 11am. All of the other cruise terminals had big long lines waiting to enter as we drove past. Luggage was waiting outside the cabin when we first visited shortly after 1pm. All around a great cruise. Enjoy!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Hi Anne,

Onboard also.

Will you be hosting the meet and greet tomorrow?

Hopefully we can meet.

I was onboard Eclipse about a month ago when Andy celebrated crossing Zenith.

Tom

 

Hi Tom ~ Yes, I will be there. I spoke with the onboard event coordinator today who told me Celebrity was planning on hosting it at 10:30 in Cellar Masters. I'll be there at 10:00 as I don't know if they will or won't deliver the invites. See you there!

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MUSTER DRILL

Before I go on, let me say that I like to write balanced, honest reviews. I’m going to give you the good, the bad, etc. As a long time cruiser, I probably look at things with more of a critical eye. But I’m always great for the chance to cruise and I appreciate the on board crew that work so hard to provide a great vacation for us.

 

Ut Oh….I knew the great things that happened thus far might come to an end…and I was right! Muster drill was set for 3:15. We headed down to our station in Tuscan Grille about 3:05. By the time they sounded the alarm at 3:15 nearly everyone had arrived. That was the good news. The not so good news is that the typically quick Celebrity muster drill drug on and on for some reason. First, they went through the emergency alarm (a good thing); then they showed the “Wash Your Hands” video (makes us laugh); then they show what I think is the worst emergency video ever, set to a spy theme. That’s my personal opinion and I won’t go into that now (although I think going over the important safety issues is FAR more important than trying to create some gimmicky spy video where most can tell you what the important safety facts were from this video); then there was a lull and the crew had to tell people they couldn’t leave.

 

After a few minutes, someone came on and gave the life jacket overview. All of a sudden, while this was happening (about 3:30ish), I noticed that the ship had pulled away from the dock. Then another lull and this one was long…7 – 10 minutes. Now people were getting antsy and got up to leave. The crew did the right thing and told “most” (not all) people that they had to wait for further instructions. Then they came on the loud speaker again and sounded the abandon ship signal. Then another lull (a few minutes). The crew kept saying….”just a few more minutes.”

 

I’ve been on 31 other Celebrity cruises. I’ve never experienced a muster drill like this. Finally, a minute or two later,they came on and said the drill had ended. The captain, who typically releases us from the drill, made no announcement. By the time we got up on deck, we were nearly out of the port and sailing by the Ft. Lauderdale beaches.

 

It wasn’t the end of the world by any means, but it didn’t give one a comfort level that this drill was organized and they knew what they were doing. Celebrity’s muster drills are typically organized and relatively quick without the long lulls we had today.

 

Leaving the dock early (we were scheduled to depart at 4:00 PM)? Can’t explain that one. Sailing away is one of our favorite things. It was definitely strange.

 

Let’s end this post on a positive note. I asked our cabin attendant for a feather pillow for our room. He delivered it promptly and with a smile! Can’t ask for better than that.

 

Time to take some sunset photos! It’s a beautiful one this evening.

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Apologies for any words that seem to be running together. I'm trying to type into a word document so I can save everything for a final review to Cruise Critic's reviews section and when I come back and paste into here, it's running words together. I'm trying to catch that but please forgive it if I miss some.

 

THANKS

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Silhouette has been departing before 4pm all season. We also left the dock during muster. We were able to take the stairs from the MDR to the top decks so we beat the crowd. Not sure what the logic is to save a few miles, but having people miss one of their favorite parts of the trip is a bummer.

 

 

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