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

[joeski27]

Wow - what detail, what mad Excel and photo skills! I am now absolved from all expectations and responsibility for writing my own review of Silhouette:) I look forward to future installments and will be happy to benefit from your research in planning our upcoming cruise.

 

I can finally convince DH that someone is a more obsessive planner than me!!!!

 

 

Yeah I've gotten into doing Excel planners for our cruises, though I don't think I've ever posted on on here. Anyways here's the one I did from our latest Allure sailing: :cool:

 

Edit - and I'll add (as gambee said) while I spend hours making this thing each time, I really only use on on the ship very very little :)

 

Edited April 1, 2013 by joeski27

[joeski27]

You no doubt made a lot of bucks for Royal Caribbean with your Allure review and you'll certainly do the same for X. Wouldn't it be cool if the cruise lines contacted you via your email and started PAYING YOU AND MOM to cruise?? Talk about a "secret weapon"!!!

 

Well this is of course only true if he has a truly exceptional experience aboard that particular ship, as I would venture to say that if something very negative was encountered he would post as many photos/add as many comments about those things as he would the positive aspects. So really, as is the case with any well recognized reviewer or critic, those being reviewed better do a good job, otherwise what would be a great opportunity for free publicity can turn out to be quite the opposite ;););)

[tmlove17]

Hello Megan and Tim!

 

We had a great time with you that night. It was really nice getting to meet you, I wish you safe travels and lots of future cruisers. Who knows we might meet again, this world is quite small you know. I finally tried all the drinks at molecular!

 

Glad to see you found my review =), I will see you around.

 

July 29th Eastern Mediterranean Cruise or June 21, 2014 Scandinavin cruise perhaps? :)

[Ajbike]

Great review so far Gambee. One problem, I can't see the PDF doucments ( Celebrity today). Can someone help me? Must be a setting in my computer?

[mayfieldlodge]

great to see the close up of the ship, I will be sailing in july just 6 rooms away from yours 8130!! hope you talk more about the rooms!:)

[star453]

Absolutely fantastic review. Can't wait for the rest:D

 

[charlie52]

Gambee, I am LOVING your reviews!! I read your Allure review taking notes all the while. We sail on Oasis in 25 days!!! We are also sailing X Eclipse to celebrate our 30th anniversary NYE 2013! I am definately a Gambee fan and subscriber and I am so excited to read your review of the Sillhouette!!!!

Charlie52's Better Half :D

[north49th]

 

I am really sorry about most of these pics, like I said the pier is not on the right side for photographs. The sun is directly across from you :/ <br />

 

 

Great review Gambee!

 

The Sony's Nex line of cameras are quite nice. I have played around with a friends Nex 5.

 

You're probably already aware of techniques for shooting into back lit scenes (ex. into the sun). If you already know this stuff, forgive me if I'm stating the obvious.

 

You have three options.

 

1) shoot in manual mode and expose for the main subject;

2) shoot in S, A or automatic modes and adjust your EV +1, 2 or 3 (depending upon background light intensity);

3) use your cameras built in HDR capabilities.

 

Options 1 and 2 will blow out (over expose) your background.

 

Option 3 is the easiest way to do it. I quickly scanned the Nex 3 manual online and your camera set to Superior Auto Mode should automatically recognize the situation and shoot in HDR (High Dynamic Range).

 

Basically, using HDR, when you press shutter release, your camera takes multiple shots under, properly and over exposed and blends them together for a balanced image.

 

FWIW :)

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review :p

[Freq Traveler]

Thank you for the wonderful review! It is so exciting to read and see others perspectives of their cruise. We just got off the Reflection a month ago. It is a wonderful ship as well! Subscribed!

[venicia]

Gambee,

 

I LOVED your Allure review and will be cruising with some other great cruise critic persons on May 19. You provided great information about Allure and I am so anxious to see the ship from your eyes to mine. I could never take the wonderful photographs that you do and your narrative is fantastic. I'm reviewing your Allure review and keeping notes on many of your adventures.

 

So, with all this said, I suppose our next cruise will have to be on Celebrity to see this ship though your eyes to ours.

 

You have an amazing talent and I do believe you have quite the following. I can tell you on our roll call it was mentioned that you began your review and I jumped over here immediately to read your postings.

 

love your work!!!

[LRene]

Gambee - great review! Keep it up, I'm really enjoying it.

 

By the way, your Sony camera is Amazons Deal of the Day today. It was a great price of about $389.

[stellarose]

Gamble

 

Trying x this summer on summitt. Your review and tips are helpful. Can't wait for more.

[dln929]

thank you all for the support, I can't believe how many comments I have already :).

 

I brought my computer to work and I am kicking it to full gear to try to get all the day 1 pictures edited by the end of the of the day. That should allow me to work on the actual review tomorrow and get as much done as possible.

 

I will also address all the comments tonight or tomorrow.

 

Once again thank you all :)

Gambee, there are many reviews that are wonderful and helpful. Yours is different because you're just so cheerful and enthusiastic. No one can read your posts without smiling from ear to ear. THAT's why you have so many comments! Cruises are about being happy and reading your cruise reviews brings that feeling to life. ;)

[drarill]

Great review!!! I'm really enjoying it!!:):)

[NordicBreezer]

Signing in Gambee so I don't miss a day of your review !! :D

[gambee]

Great pics as always. I sail on the Eclipse on Saturday and your enthusiasm is really rubbing off and getting me all pumped and excited

 

Loving your review.

 

I hope you have a great cruise on the Eclipse, I am not sure how much ill get done by then, but I will for sure have something up and running.

 

Enjoying this so much! Kids went back to school today, found this first thing this morning, now planning on following it all week, or until your done.

Thanks for taking the time to post all this!

Really enjoying it!

Chass

 

Thank you for joining =), I hope you enjoy reading our experience on Silhouette! With the kids in school, just means more time to read :-)

 

Wow! Your reviews/pictures are phenomenal. :cool::)

 

Thank you =)

 

I love your writing style. Your excitement and enthusiasm really transfers into your report. Thanks for sharing.

PS. Your mom sounds great!

 

Thank you :-) and Welcome aboard! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy sharing our experience.

 

Was that an April fools joke when you said you weren't a professional photographer? Your pictures are amazing. I did not find one thing wrong with them. The only dots I saw on those examples you posted, were the ones you drew on them. Either that or I better make an eye doctor appt. :p

 

Anyway, I am really enjoying your review. You certainly have the knack for explaining everything in great detail. I will be following along with the thousands of others. We don't cruise again until November, so this and your other upcoming reviews will fill the void.

 

Thanks for doing this and giving us your time and effort to do such wonderful reviews. I see another 5 star review in the making.

 

Hi, to Gambee's Mom too. You are an important part of your son's review and look forward to all the adventures you two experienced.

 

Gwen :)

 

Oops, sorry for the color change in text. I hate when that happens.......:rolleyes:

 

Um sorry to tell you this Gwen, but you might need glasses, lol. The dots are there and they look horrible. I hope you enjoy this review, I also think mom is a very important part of my review.

 

Btw, I though you were controlling the colors in your post. What application are you using for your posting?

 

 

Great pics as usual Gambee! :)

 

thank you =)

 

 

Gambee sets the bar high for all future cruise trip reports. Very entertaining and informative. For those of us who's cruise is 15 months away, this is a great way for us to live vicariously through others. Thanks!

 

Glad you enjoy my reviews that much, I definitely work very hard to keep bar that high. Not an easy task, but in the end it is all worth it =)

 

 

Great start to another fantastic review! Thanks for posting the link to the sensor cleaners from Amazon. I will have to buy some for my camera although it is ok for the moment!

 

You're very welcome. Their products are expensive, but they are well worth it. I actually ended up using the brush one more time during our trip, I am very glad I did not return it. When you change lens as often as I do, it is odd to happen sooner or later, in my case sooner rather than later, lol.

 

 

This is awesome! Thank you gambee for such a wonderful start. Can't wait to see more. Boarding the Silhouette in less than a week!

 

You're going to love the ship, she is one incredible piece of machinery!

 

Great report so far!

 

FYI - We Disney fans prefer the term "Classic Disney Ships" (not 'old'). LOL

 

Sound much better than "old", thanks for the info =)

 

Gambee, thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into your amazing reviews!!! Not to mention, the additional time and thoughtfulness in responding to all your followers!

 

I too have been planning to bring an emergency kit on our next cruise, and will steal some of your ideas but I HAVE to know: WHAT are those parrot-shaped clamp thingies??

 

 

Also, my son and I both suffer from motion sickness and nausea and have previously used ginger gum, but have never heard of Ginger Pills: how do you like those compared to Pepto Bismol?

 

 

Thank you so much in advance!!

 

P.S. You and my 18yo son have nearly identical taste in clothing, right down to your hat!!! And yes, I do virtually all of his shopping for him.

 

As stated above by another member those clamps are to hold down the towel to the chair. They are called "Boca beach towel clip" and you can get them at amazon, ebay or bean, bath and beyond. I believe I have pictures of them later on in the review.

 

Looking forward to the remainder of your cruise review We sail on the Allure in May I'm reading your review again as a reference guide.

 

There is definitely a lot of useful information on that review, hope you have a great cruise =).

 

I am really looking forward to your review. We were just on the Silhouette this past January and it will be interesting to see a different take on the experience.

 

You know it is funny that you mentioned that, because I was talking to a few people and it was interesting how every bodies experience was different than ours.

 

 

 

I’ve been fantastic. Hubby and I went on the Allure just after your review was posted. We had the most amazing time. We caught ourselves many times saying Gambee said to do “this” and Gambee said to do “that”. Your postings on menus really helped us to plan for our cruise. Thank you so much! I remember telling you that you have such an artistic flair..both writing and photography. Have you found your new job in this field yet? I really hope so!

 

I am glad the menus helped you and that you had a great time, that is all what cruising is about :-). Not yet, I am still on the look, but I have a big feeling that 2013 is my year! =)

[gambee]

Gambee's BACK!!!!! Boy, I'm only one day behind and we're already on page 5 - hope you both had an incredible time, I'll be right here anxiously reading and lingering on all of your amazing photography, as usual.

 

You no doubt made a lot of bucks for Royal Caribbean with your Allure review and you'll certainly do the same for X. Wouldn't it be cool if the cruise lines contacted you via your email and started PAYING YOU AND MOM to cruise?? Talk about a "secret weapon"!!!

 

Thanks so much for all of your efforts, in advance, for giving all of us on CC and beyond hours and hours of entertainment and that "YOU ARE THERE" kind of experience.

 

welcome aboard, glad you enjoyed the other review, I am still impressed at how many views it gets on a daily basis. That would be a dream come true, I am still trying to figure out how to make this something that I could make a living out of. But for not I enjoy just being to share our story with everyone. How you like this one as much as the other one =)

 

Loving your pictures Gambee! Can't WAIT to board this Sunday! :-)

 

OMG you will love your cruise, just pray for better weather than us, lol.

 

 

Looking forward to the next installment. Thank you Gambee. :-) The CC forums are a better place thanks to folks like yourself.

 

Hello Highboy, nice to see you made it here =)

 

 

Loving the review so far!

 

Welcome aboard, glad you like it!

 

The little parrots are Boca clips for your beach towels so they don't blow off the chairs. You can get them at Bed, Bath and Beyond...they have several styles. I always take them on vacation.

Gambee...I'm not familiar with you or your trip reports but I'm enjoying this so much. We sail on the Silhouette in Sept. and I can hardly wait. I'll have to look for your other trip reports.

 

It is nice to see that I have new readers joining in, love to see fresh faces =).

 

 

Hi Gambee

Thank You for your very informative review. We are X fans and have taken 3 X cruises

Tom:)

 

Hi Tom, hope you like our experience. We are definitely X fans as well, but we are also not loyal to any line. We are ventures, lol.

 

Yeah I've gotten into doing Excel planners for our cruises, though I don't think I've ever posted on on here. Anyways here's the one I did from our latest Allure sailing: :cool:

 

Edit - and I'll add (as gambee said) while I spend hours making this thing each time, I really only use on on the ship very very little

 

 

yup, well said.

 

Well this is of course only true if he has a truly exceptional experience aboard that particular ship, as I would venture to say that if something very negative was encountered he would post as many photos/add as many comments about those things as he would the positive aspects. So really, as is the case with any well recognized reviewer or critic, those being reviewed better do a good job, otherwise what would be a great opportunity for free publicity can turn out to be quite the opposite

 

those are the good reviews, you need good and bad things. I find biased reviews to be boring and overly done. No cruise is perfect and bringing out those imperfections help future cruisers learn from them and maybe avoid them.

 

 

July 29th Eastern Mediterranean Cruise or June 21, 2014 Scandinavin cruise perhaps?

 

lol, too soon, we are looking at Royal Princess for next spring break! =)

 

 

Great review so far Gambee. One problem, I can't see the PDF doucments ( Celebrity today). Can someone help me? Must be a setting in my computer?

 

I am not really sure which ones you're talking about. I usually post the dailies as I go for each day. But if you follow the link that I posted, another user posted his from not too long ago. If that answer does not help, let me know and I will figure something out.

 

 

great to see the close up of the ship, I will be sailing in july just 6 rooms away from yours 8130!! hope you talk more about the rooms!:-)

 

I will into plenty of detail about the rooms, but I think I did that on the last day so it might be a little wait for it.

 

Absolutely fantastic review. Can't wait for the rest

 

 

Welcome aboard Star!

 

Gambee, I am LOVING your reviews!! I read your Allure review taking notes all the while. We sail on Oasis in 25 days!!! We are also sailing X Eclipse to celebrate our 30th anniversary NYE 2013! I am definately a Gambee fan and subscriber and I am so excited to read your review of the Sillhouette!!!!

Charlie52's Better Half

 

Welcome welcome Charlie52's Better Half, I hope you have a great time aboard Oasis, great class of ships. But I am sure you will find X S ships to be just as fascinating in a different way.

 

 

Great review Gambee!

 

The Sony's Nex line of cameras are quite nice. I have played around with a friends Nex 5.

 

You're probably already aware of techniques for shooting into back lit scenes (ex. into the sun). If you already know this stuff, forgive me if I'm stating the obvious.

 

You have three options.

 

1) shoot in manual mode and expose for the main subject;

2) shoot in S, A or automatic modes and adjust your EV +1, 2 or 3 (depending upon background light intensity);

3) use your cameras built in HDR capabilities.

 

Options 1 and 2 will blow out (over expose) your background.

 

Option 3 is the easiest way to do it. I quickly scanned the Nex 3 manual online and your camera set to Superior Auto Mode should automatically recognize the situation and shoot in HDR (High Dynamic Range).

 

Basically, using HDR, when you press shutter release, your camera takes multiple shots under, properly and over exposed and blends them together for a balanced image.

 

FWIW

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review :p

 

Thank you very much, this is new information to me, like I said I am not a pro and I am still in the learning process. Superior Auto mode is one I try to avoid since I shoot mostly P, A, S modes, but this definitely a situation that I would love to use that option, at least until I learn how to account for the EV.

 

Thank you so much for that info, I will test it out next time I go out to the pier =).

 

Thank you for the wonderful review! It is so exciting to read and see others perspectives of their cruise. We just got off the Reflection a month ago. It is a wonderful ship as well! Subscribed!

 

Thanks for joining! You know one of the things that I thought was bad about reflection was the elimination of Quasar, but now I have a different opinion about that. I think it actually has the possibility to be a positive and not a negative. More on that later.

 

 

Gambee,

 

I LOVED your Allure review and will be cruising with some other great cruise critic persons on May 19. You provided great information about Allure and I am so anxious to see the ship from your eyes to mine. I could never take the wonderful photographs that you do and your narrative is fantastic. I'm reviewing your Allure review and keeping notes on many of your adventures.

 

So, with all this said, I suppose our next cruise will have to be on Celebrity to see this ship though your eyes to ours.

 

You have an amazing talent and I do believe you have quite the following. I can tell you on our roll call it was mentioned that you began your review and I jumped over here immediately to read your postings.

 

love your work!!!

 

I am glad that it was posted on your roll call =), thank you for your kind words and more so for joining our adventure. I hope you have a great cruise on the Allure, that is also by the way the same day that I leave on Breakaway.

 

 

 

Gambee - great review! Keep it up, I'm really enjoying it.

 

By the way, your Sony camera is Amazons Deal of the Day today. It was a great price of about $389.

 

Thank you =)

 

That is quite less than what I paid a few months ago, great deal on a great product.

 

 

Gamble

 

Trying x this summer on summitt. Your review and tips are helpful. Can't wait for more.

 

Gamble? No, I don't gamble. Lol, just messing with you, I am assuming it was auto correct. Hope you like the review, it might give you an insight of what X is about. Although I am not sure how it compares to the S class ships.

 

Gambee, there are many reviews that are wonderful and helpful. Yours is different because you're just so cheerful and enthusiastic. No one can read your posts without smiling from ear to ear. THAT's why you have so many comments! Cruises are about being happy and reading your cruise reviews brings that feeling to life. ;-)

 

Thank you for your nice words, they are heart felt. I hope this review will meassure up to the Allure one. We will see how it goes =)

 

Great review!!! I'm really enjoying it!!:-):-)

 

Thank you =)

 

Signing in Gambee so I don't miss a day of your review !! :D

 

Welcome aboard, glad to have you =)!

[gambee]

Ok the good news is that today at work I managed to get all of day one pictures edited and exported. Now I have upload them and start working on the text and synchronizing everything. What might take me a little while is the video editing, but expect a good set by tomorrow :)

[swim13]

Yay! I have never commented on one of your reviews but I always looked every day when you were writing your review for Allure! You are an awesome reviewer and I just had to log in for this one!

 

Just started reading this tonight and my laptop battery was at 1% when I was getting towards the end and I just had to get out of my warm, cozy bed to plug it in just to read the end and write to you!

 

Keep up the great work, can't wait to see all the wonderful pictures you must have! I am also an avid (& amateur) guy who loves photography! Hope I can do a review as good as yours for my first Allure trip in June! :D

Edited April 2, 2013 by swim13

[cafediem2]

Hi Gambee! This is the first of your reviews I have seen, and I am so enjoying it. Oozes enthusiasm and a positive attitude. I shall be looking out for your hat now! Really interested as well, because we are cruising on Silhouette this summer over here in Europe.

 

Had to post a reply for two reasons - so I get notifications of your updates instead of trying to remember which page I was up to, and to say thank you for posting :) .

[cruisin_cutie216]

found my way to your review! Super excited to read and view pictures! Not to mention, I use your reviews as a model of how I would like for mine to be one day. Cannot wait to read more!

 

Missy

[gambee]

And the weather you ask? well it was going to be interesting… You remember earlier saying that gambee wanted to experience some ship movement, well this was his chance. We originally had a predicted weather of sunny and low winds and when I woke up it looked like this,

 

 

I also remember updating the weather status on our roll call, not that anyone needed it, but I have been known for over posting on roll calls :D. On the Silhouette sailing even though I booked 45 days prior sailing, I still managed to be the #3 most active member, lol, go figure, I think I have to much time on my hands!

 

The morning went on pretty smoothly I finished packing and got ready, my bf woke up a little later and got ready as well. In the mean time I took the bags and loaded them into the car, while my mom finished getting ready herself.

 

 

We were in the car around 10:15am, the drive to the port was uneventful, except for the pretty bad car accident on the way there (I hope no one was injured). But my bf as usual gets pissed off when people slow down to see the accident scene and of course mom and I are the firsts ones to slow down to look at everything. So yeah you can imagine my bf yelling and pushing the horn at the guy in front of us, while my mom and I are rubbernecking to get a glimpse of the accident. It is not an inviting situation, lol :D. None the less it's part of life and I felt like sharing it.

 

When we got to port it was a little confusing where we needed to get dropped off, that terminal is a big mess and probably the worst I've ever sailed out off. But after we sorted things out it was pretty fast to get to the waiting room, by 11:05 we had our sea pass on hand and waiting to board =)

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2013 by gambee

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

There was a short delay with the disembarkation of the prior cruisers, as I would find out one week from that day, that terminal is huge mess! Anyhow the wait was not that long about 30 minutes later they started boarding and it wasn't long before Gambee and his mom where aboard the ship.

 

 

 

This is the first thing your eyes will see once you board. I will admit that I was rather disappointed with what I saw, I was expecting something really nice like the Atrium, but that was not the case. Nothing horrible, but just pointing it out.

 

 

I made a quick dash to Murano to get our reservation for the specialty restaurants setup. I had been reading that as the week goes by it gets harder to get reservations and I had no intentions on dealing with that. It was a fairly smooth process and I was able to make all the reservations in Murano for all the restaurants. I was pretty happy with that.

 

On the way to murano. (ensemble lounge)

 

Murano

 

Murano's grand entrance.

 

 

After that we rushed to the buffet, it was later in the day and I we had empty tummies.

 

 

 

[gambee]

Oceanview Cafe

 

 

I think this is a good time to talk about the Buffet on the Silhouette. Overall I found the food to be excellent and above the other cruises that I have taken. They have a great selection of food and for the most part it is always kept nice and warm. I also love that they offer sushi, while they are not many selections and the rice was too sweet for my taste, I really found it to be fresh (please understand that this is frozen fresh fish, but they are using very good sushi grade fish).

 

I absolutely love the location of this venue as well, we usually like dinning outside and we get to enjoy some fresh air while we eat. And with the cooler weather that we had during this voyage we found ourselves eating outside quite often. The fact that it is in the aft of the ship is just an added bonus! Gambee loves his afts!

 

Service was just ok in this area, you're better off going and getting your sodas by yourself, if not you might find yourself finishing your food without anything to drink :/. That said tables are kept clean and ready for new people and there was also one very special situation with one particular server that saved my culinary vacation (ill explain more on this later).

 

The ice machine in the aft port side was broken during our entire trip this was little annoying since we found ourselves in the same table every day and you guessed it it was near that machine. So eventually I just skipped the ice and had ice tea without ice, not an ideal situation, but I was too lazy to walk around and get it :D.

 

One thing that did annoy me very much was that they had one particular section of the buffet that serves the pancakes, french toast, waffles, ect (the sweet stuff). Well this section of the buffet is #1 very small and #2 very poorly laid out. Let me see if I can explain, first of all they should have two of this sections, that way they could avoid those nasty lines in there. Second who in their right mind puts the sirups and jellies before the solid food??? So what happens is that people get in line to get their waffles, once they get them then they go back and brake the line so they can get their sirup on top. So now you have people breaking the line and some still trying to get their food and going back and doing that all over again… I am not sure if I make myself clear or not, but in any case a simple rearrangement would solve that problem, my guess is that maybe sometimes the line forms the other way around? But it never did during our cruise. Maybe add sirup on both sides? I don't know, but I am sure they can figure out a solution for that.

 

Another thing that did disappoint me was the lack of burgers, Gambee is a burger lover, I think I could live entirely out of burgers :D. And the days that they had burgers they put them in the same section of the waffles and the same line situation happened. I never got a burger in the buffet during our trip :/. What I gathered was that some days they have burgers and some days they have mexican food (I also love mexican food) so it was not all that bad. But I still wanted to mention it.

 

Other than those few things, I think X did a great job with this buffet. I NEVER and I repeat NEVER had to wait more than 1 second for a table. Actually I never had to look to far to get one, but in the end we almost always ended up in our favorite table :).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2013 by gambee