!!! SILHOUETTE !!! Western Caribbean- The Ultimate Review & Complete Pictorial Guide!

[juniorsmom]

Happy Birthday Gambee1

[CruisingGatorGirl]

I'm dropping in on this thread... ;) I ran into Gambee on our cruise at the MB and his camera size is so perfect that I am probably going to pick one up myself for our Mediterranean Cruise. I am a professional photographer and made the mistake of bringing my DSLR plus multiple lenses & gear on our Mexican cruise last summer. While the pictures turned out to be stunning, I had to lug them around with me EVERYWHERE because I was too paranoid about losing them or them getting stolen. As much as I would love to have the camera on my upcoming cruise to Europe, I just can't see myself bringing it with me everywhere and instead want to invest in a solid point and shoot. I didn't bring ANY camera with me except my iPhone for our Caribbean cruise last week, but the iPhone 5 seriously has an amazing camera on it that worked perfectly! (Minus no zoom.)

 

Anyway, all this to say that DSLRs aren't necessarily the way to go when traveling. I will definitely be following your recommendations to get a solid point and shoot for traveling. I'm on vacation, after all!

 

Great advice, thanks :)

 

 

On a side note. Those little desserts actually look better than they taste. I tried so many on our last cruise....they all began tasting the same. I really should limit myself.

 

I agree 100%, I think I tried every single dessert :rolleyes: on our last cruise... like you said most of them look better than the taste. Some were good and some I had one bite and didn't have anymore. I felt bad wasting it but they were just bland. And all the buffet desserts tended to be the same each day with slight variations. I did like the little fruit tarts :D

 

However the MDR desserts were excellent every night!

[roe2ship]

Happy Birthday!:)

Edited April 7, 2013 by roe2ship

[Beth C]

thank you for the comment :)

 

Not yet, possibly in the future, maybe 2015. I am thinking Royal Princess and Quantum for 2014.

 

Thank you for following ;)

 

Happy B-Day!

 

I think you should go for the Quantum Inaugural! Having done Oasis and Allure's 1st sailings Quantum is on my must do list for 2014.... and for my own selfish reasons I won't have to worry about taking my own pictures ;)

 

 

Sent from my Speak & Spell using Tapatalk

[4774Papa]

gambee,

 

Happy Birthday.

Enjoyed your review and photos of Cozumel. We did the Dolphin Encounter in Curacao and loved it.

 

I will look forward to your next port review.

[KGSB11]

Great review! I like it more than the Allure review simply because this is the first I am seeing of the Silhouette and know absolutely nothing about it, so it is very interesting. Awesome!

 

No wine menu or camera questions.... For now;)

 

One question... No "miniature" style photos???? Loved those on the Allure review:)

[e01061]

Thanks for another tremendous review! We are definitely looking at Celebrity for our next cruise, and are anxiously reading yours as well as Chris' to compare AQ class vs. a regular balcony cabin. Hope you had a good birthday even though you had to work!:)

[Tenn4ever]

 

However the MDR desserts were excellent every night!

 

Agree.:D Love Gambee's pictures of the desserts.

[Ellen S]

Hi Gambee, Happy Birthday. You have so made my day. I just spent several hours (including making dinner for my DH) reading this thread. I was on the Silhouette Feb. 2012 and loved it. My favorite spot was the hideaway. We were with 5 other people and we had a wonderful time. We ate in the main dining room every night. We did have select dining, but stayed at the same table and time every night. Had the best waiter and assist. (Dingo and Rusty. They were husband and wife). They couldn't do enough for us. And of course we all tipped them extra at the end of the cruise. The Master Grill was sort of hidden. It was far away from the buffet and without a tray to carry your food, it was hard to get to the buffet. When the weather is bad they serve the hamburgers, hot dogs and french fries inside. Only got a hamburger once. I agree with Tenn4ever. The desserts looked better than they taste.

I do not drink (just do not like what liqueur does to me) and am amazed how much liqueur you can drink in a day, though I do like a glass of wine once in a while and just had a glass of wine while reading this review.

Your pictures and comments are fantastic. Brings back lots of good memories. Thank you for the memories! Looking forward to the rest of the review.

[Aunt Deb]

Happy Birthday! Love your review.

I'm a preplanner too. What all is in your folder that you take with you?

Looking forward to the next chapter of "Mom, bf and Gambee takes on the high seas"

Aunt Deb

[FRMPEI]

I have the Sony DSC hx20v :D If you are interested in the quality you can look at my review in my signature, I used that camera for my entire med. cruise. (with the exception of a few iPhone pics from my dad). For a point and shoot- it has great video/sound and panoramic capabilities. And the EDIT: I forgot to add, the #1 reason why I bought the Sony was because of the zoom, it has an incredible zoom!

 

I have the 30V 20x optical zoom. During this same Gambee Cruise on a rather rough evening I strapped it to the railing with my Gorilla pod focused on the moon at 20x and could not believe the results. The details from the surface of the moon and this from a moving ship with no blurring.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[beachlovergirl]

Just found this! Now I have to go back and start reading from the beginning! Was on the Silhouette so this should bring back some great memories!

 

Dee

[Iluvcruising2]

You should look at the Sony rx-100. It has a 1 in sensor and Zeiss lens. There is nothing to compete with it. I am tired of carrying camera equipment. The video is astonishing!

 

Bob

 

Hey Bob,

 

Thanks for this tip.

 

I am seriously thinking of getting the Sony RX-100. Currently I am using a Canon S-95.

 

Your recommendation has made me one step closer to getting a new tech toy. :)

[JacknShelby]

Thanks Gambee, CruisingGatorGirl & Bcook01 for the feedback on the cameras. Lots to look at.

 

Hope you are having a nice birthday Gambee! Looking forward to the next post.

 

Carla :)

[librarylady19]

I am imagine Sandy will one of her great reviews after her voyage. Thanks for following along, I hope to go through a lot tomorrow. Possibly even finish day 3 :)

 

Thanks for another tremendous review! We are definitely looking at Celebrity for our next cruise, and are anxiously reading yours as well as Chris' to compare AQ class vs. a regular balcony cabin. Hope you had a good birthday even though you had to work!:)

 

Just a quick note (sorry to butt in Gambee) but one big difference (or deciding factor) may be that the Aquaclass cabins only hold 2 people so the chance of families with loads of kids hijacking your deck (and yournsanity) are less likely. We have sailed Aquaclass all 3 different S class ships and never had noisy neighbors (noise from the gym and pool deck maybe but that's another story).

I believe you can also have a small child in an Aquaclass cabin but I have only seen this a couple of times myself.

Edited April 7, 2013 by librarylady19

[gambee]

Quick update, currently working on fishing day 3. That set should be up in few hours, I will address comments later on. I want to get this set out first.

 

Happy Sunday everyone :)

[gambee]

I forgot to post this short video from downtown Cozumel yesterday.

 

 

 

And this one from the Dolphinaris

 

 

It is really hard to keep track of the data that I have.

 

[gambee]

I will answer comments later, unfortunately I was called into work today so I want to finish day 3 before going into work.

 

Ok, lets see where did I left at since last time. Well yeah lunch was tasty, they always have freshly cooked beef and it is always served nice and hot. We decided to hit the jacuzzi for a few minutes before going back out into Cozumel one more time.

 

 

Since it was a cold and windy day, they pull out some blankets and set them next to the towels.

 

You can can see there one person using a blanket.

 

It was pretty quiet up there that day

 

 

 

[gambee]

We went into the solarium's jacusi and stayed there for sometime. The place was basically ours for this entire period of time. Another interesting thing that I am just realizing now is that we almost always went to the same jacuzzi in the starboard side of the ship. This was the only occasion that we used the port side one, for some reason it was always slightly busier than the other one.

 

 

You can all the foam from the chlorine.

 

 

 

Those Jacuzzis have a crazy amount of chorine in them, definitely the most that i've felt on a ship. But I much rather the chrorine than handeling the idea that I am basically sitting in a huge petri dish :D.

 

So sometime had passed and we decided it was time to go get changed and head into Cozumel one more time, I have time noted as 2pm and I think the ship departed port at 4:30?

 

I really just wanted to go and take pictures of the business that surrounded the port since I failed to do that in my Allure review. My mom also wanted to do some shopping, I really don't understand everyones obsession with shopping, but to each their own.

 

 

By the way still no internet….

 

 

[gambee]

The weather had improved slightly, at least I could take out my main camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

All these pictures are from business within less than 5 minutes walking around the international pier area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Please note that the main reason that I was tempted to get off the ship again was because I was this little hut. When I inquired her about the price, she said it was $40 and that I had to go into Park Royal hotel itself and buy the entrance there. We had considered this as one of the options, but finally decided not to do it due the time that the ship was on port. But honestly it looks like a great way to spend your time in Cozumel.

 

 

main hotel across the street

 

That is their beach/pool/jacuzzi area

 

 

The entrance and lobby I assume? That is were you have to go to purchase the day pass.

 

 

[gambee]

Some other business along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

And now walking back taking pictures of the ones I missed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

This restaurant has wifi and I believe its free if you eat there.

 

 

 

 

Scooter rental

 

 

 

 

They are also building a Hard Rock across the street, but it is still in the works.