Review of Silhouette Nov 2016 Transatlantic

[ladykay54]

I have been reading reviews for a long time and I have to say that yours was one of the most enjoyable in a long time! I was really happy too because I am going on the Silhouette in February with good friends. I have recommended your review to them so they can get familiar with the ship and the day to day activities.

 

It takes a lot to do one of these reports. Thank you for taking the time!

 

Kathy

[tweetylori]

I have been reading reviews for a long time and I have to say that yours was one of the most enjoyable in a long time! I was really happy too because I am going on the Silhouette in February with good friends. I have recommended your review to them so they can get familiar with the ship and the day to day activities.

 

It takes a lot to do one of these reports. Thank you for taking the time!

 

Kathy

 

Thank you kindly, Kathy! I am so excited for you that you have a journey on this wonderful ship to look forward to! And not that far off either. :D

[tweetylori]

Surely it couldn't be Sunday November 20, 2016 already? :eek: Not after all the planning, all the anticipation, after all of the awesome experiences and great times...it couldn't be time for it to end! :(

 

If there was anything that helped us get off the ship it was a decision we had made a few days before. We hadn't bought the wi-fi package earlier in the cruise because we could access everything via our Google phones in the ports. The thought was that we would connect for a day or so over the 7 day Atlantic Crossing, but as the days went on, we questioned that decision. After all, our whole purpose was to DISCONNECT. To truly get away from it all. But what about our families? Our jobs? Was everything okay without us? :rolleyes:

 

As the sea days went on and it became time (according to our plan) to buy an internet package of short duration, it occurred to us...WHY? What would we do if something was wrong? Here we were in the middle of the ocean...the only thing we could do was WORRY. We couldn't fix anything, help anyone, make anything better. :o (not without helicopters or airplanes anyway ;))

 

But we COULD realize that it was okay to disconnect. Everybody could get along just fine without us. We could take the money we would have put into that internet service and apply it to, oh, something FUN, like the casino, or bingo, or specialty dining, or whatever our little hearts desired :D

 

So on this morning of waking up on the ship knowing we HAD to get off, we knew we were at least about to find out if we had made the right decision.

[tweetylori]

And you know what? We were blessed with yet another beautiful morning! Fort Lauderdale from the view of Sunset Veranda 8346 was just as spectacular as the other amazing ports we had experienced on this incredible voyage (albeit with the rear end of another ship included :p)

 

 

 

 

 

[tweetylori]

 

Sigh...the map I wasn't in a hurry to see:

 

 

Nor this:

 

[tweetylori]

That being said, we had a 4:35pm flight out of Fort Lauderdale to Raleigh, NC on Southwest Airlines to wait for. In other words we were happy for everyone else to get off before us! So we packed up the last of our stuff, said goodbye to our cabin for the last time, and headed upstairs for our last breakfast hurrah. :p

 

Hello Arnold...yes, I would love a last omelet, thank you very much!

 

 

And you know what? You're right, I haven't had a pancake this whole trip! :eek: By golly, that's just not okay!

 

[tweetylori]

It was a delicious last morning, despite the staff becoming scarce. We knew that was coming after talking to many the night before. They had been anticipating a grueling day in Fort Lauderdale, as they all had to line up early for immigration themselves. AND we were told they also had a huge inspection from the US to deal with as well. :eek: Despite everything being spotless the whole cruise, they were making everything even more so for the inspection. High stress factor going on...had to really feel for them!

 

So it did make it a whole lot easier to not feel sorry for ourselves for having to disembark after an amazing relaxing adventure! :o

 

We did one last deck walk around

 

 

 

[tweetylori]

[tweetylori]

Shortly before we left on our cruise it occurred to me that I had focused on everything international and hadn't thought about Fort Lauderdale! So I did a little research, starting with Celebrity's tours for this port. The tours sounded great in that you could put your bags on a bus, have a tour, take a ride on a paddle boat and get to the airport, all for $79 per person.

 

Well, that sounded pretty good, but I knew we wouldn't want to get off too early due to our late flight, and if we booked the cruise tour we would have no say so in our departure time. Plus (like I confessed earlier) we are not fond of buses. :rolleyes:

 

So what's a couple to do in Fort Lauderdale for hours if we are on our own? Well, I chose to research what that paddle boat might be, and based on that research it sure sounded like it was the Carrie B. Checked their website, and sure enough they had an hour and a half long boat ride at 11 am that day that we could purchase for under $50 for the two of us. But what to do with our luggage? :confused:

 

Good question! And one phone call answered it. I called the Carrie B folks and talked to a very friendly guy who reassured me that we could bring our luggage aboard. So I purchased two tickets and all we had to do on this morning was get to the Carrie B by 11am.

 

So feeling like we had all the time in the world, and assuming all the other 2998 people were getting off the ship before us, we looked for a quiet place to hang out. :D Quickly ruling out Cafe al Bacio and anything in the vicinity, we ended up here:

 

[tweetylori]

 

[tweetylori]

Knowing we weren't too far from the Carrie B, we took our time to get off the ship, finally departing around 9:20 thinking we had plenty of time because everyone else had already gotten off, right? ;)

 

If we had disembarked when we were supposed to we would have been in group 4. As in, EARLY. So our luggage went off to group 4, which we had to find. No biggee, we assumed.

 

Well we were in for a rude awakening as we were obviously not the only ones with the late departure plan. :eek: Can you say LONG LINES? :eek:

 

[tweetylori]

If you have to wait in a long line, at least I could get one last shot of this beautiful ship. Bye Silhouette!

 

Edited December 13, 2016 by tweetylori

[Cruise_Dancer]

This has been a wonderful review. Thank you for taking us with you on your trip!

[kayehall]

I have been reading reviews for a long time and I have to say that yours was one of the most enjoyable in a long time! I was really happy too because I am going on the Silhouette in February with good friends. I have recommended your review to them so they can get familiar with the ship and the day to day activities.

 

It takes a lot to do one of these reports. Thank you for taking the time!

 

Kathy

 

What is your sail date? We are Feb 19th. I have 15 cabins going!!!

[Silhouette2017]

Tweetylori, thank you so much for your wonderful, detailed review. Makes me look even more forward to my cruise.

[tweetylori]

This has been a wonderful review. Thank you for taking us with you on your trip!

 

Thank you so much for your kind words!

[tweetylori]

Tweetylori, thank you so much for your wonderful, detailed review. Makes me look even more forward to my cruise.

 

Thank you Silhouette2017, that makes me so happy to know it is inspiring you to be excited for your cruise. Heck, I'm excited for yours! :D

[tweetylori]

So we get stuck in this really long line that winds around one part of the building, then into yet another room. (Think Disney World queues in the middle of spring break! :eek:) And they were oddly not moving for the longest time. When we finally get into that other room we were told we needed to find our luggage first before going through immigration. Well, the problem for us was they were on number 30 or something, and our departure had been number FOUR. So our luggage was way the heck somewhere else where we needed to find it!

 

Which meant, get out of line, move around to the other side of the building, find our pieces, and then what? Get back in the original line? Heck that was almost impossible to get to the end of! So we did the only thing we knew to do. Merge into the line. Yes, there was a merge sign right there. See it? ;) Seriously, we do not ever believe in cutting in line, but there was actually no way to get back to the end, which was wrapped around back to the ship. And the flow was not going in that direction. :o

 

We were also starting to panic a bit as we needed to get to the Carrie B before the 11 am sail time which we had already paid for. By now it was 10:00 or so. And we still had a good line to go to get to one of the immigration booths. When we finally got close, there was somebody directing traffic who pointed us to the middle booth. Which, of course, was where a couple was FILLING OUT THEIR FORMS. Uh, that's why they gave them to us ON the ship. Fill 'em out in advance, people! :(

 

We watched a whole bunch of folks go through the other lines while we waited and waited. Clock ticking. Finally our turn! Which went very quickly because, well, we (Husband) had filled out the friggin form as instructed. Amazing how that works! :rolleyes:

 

We are FREE...out the door we go, all we need is a cab and the Carrie B! :p

[Ordinary Chef]

Thanks Tweetylori for a great review. We are on the Silhouette the end of January 2017 for a Western Caribbean 7 day cruise. We've sailed on the Silhouette

a couple of times and know it is a wonderful ship. Your review brought back memories and fueled the excitement for our January cruise. I've followed your posts and review, but my DW has not. So, I'm going to make sure she does before we leave. Thanks again for an awesome review!!

[tweetylori]

We followed the signs for a taxi (out the door to the right), and there was quite a line, but surely it would move quickly with all those cabs hanging around? Well, let me tell you, it was one disorganized MESS. :eek:

 

There were a couple folks directing the flow who seemed to have no sense of how to do so! And to complicate matters, there was another ship of folks coming up from the other direction that were walking right up to the taxi stand with no wait, yet being given cabs first. :mad:

 

There was a guy in a wheelchair at the front of the line whose wife had disappeared. So they stopped everything to call out and go around and look for his wife. Uh, why not just wait for her to reappear and let the rest of us GO?

 

There was one lady who just hauled her luggage right up to the front of that line from the very back and was given a taxi right away. :confused:

 

Even when it was our turn, it was unclear which cab they wanted us to go to. When we finally got IN a cab, the driver was rude as heck and didn't seem to understand where we wanted to go, yet started driving and we had no clue if he was taking us to the Carrie B.

 

Can you tell we wanted to be back on that ship ENJOYING ourselves? :p

[tweetylori]

Thanks Tweetylori for a great review. We are on the Silhouette the end of January 2017 for a Western Caribbean 7 day cruise. We've sailed on the Silhouette

a couple of times and know it is a wonderful ship. Your review brought back memories and fueled the excitement for our January cruise. I've followed your posts and review, but my DW has not. So, I'm going to make sure she does before we leave. Thanks again for an awesome review!!

 

Thank you Ordinary Chef! I can't begin to imagine how excited I would be if I were going to be boarding the Silhouette again that soon. I hope you have a terrific time!

[tweetylori]

The moral of this story is, if you have to be somewhere at a certain time, allow plenty of time to get there! It was our mistake to not get off earlier. We had seen such huge crowds going earlier that we just assumed later was easier. (You know what they say about people who assume :rolleyes:)

 

We had also checked with Guest Services the night before and knew we had until 9:45 to get off, so we thought by going at 9:20 we would beat the last second crowd.

 

So it was our fault that we were so stressed leaving. But by golly, I was bound and determined we would not waste those Paddle Boat tickets I had pre-paid! ;)

 

Did we make it in time? Yes, by about 10 minutes. :p

 

We dragged our luggage aboard, stowed it in front (surprised that others weren't doing so as well), and stayed on the bottom in front ourselves. We were okay with the shade. Most people went up.

 

This turned out to be a very pleasant way to kill an hour and a half in Fort Lauderdale.

 

This is looking up at the front of the boat:

 

[tweetylori]

The front on the bottom, you can see off to the side where we stowed our luggage:

 

 

On the tour we got to see Steven Spielberg's yacht, The Seven Seas! We were told it takes half a million dollars just to fill this up one time!

 

 

We also sailed pretty close to where we had just come from!

 

[tweetylori]

There is a snack and drink bar aboard (as well as restrooms). But suddenly our sea pass cards with the premium drink package were WORTHLESS...wah! :eek:

 

We had to pay $8 for a diet coke, lemonade and popcorn:

 

 

Later, a wine and a diet coke were another $8. Back to reality it was. :o

 

 

We did enjoy this leisurely entertaining boat ride on this waterway, drifting by wealthy-people's houses and boats. It's fun to see how the other half lives! :p

[tweetylori]

We docked back where we started and that's when we realized how many people had been on that boat! :eek: They kept coming by us (from the upper deck). At one point we heard some gasps,and apparently a gentleman in a wheel chair had tipped over on the short (but steep) gangway. We stayed put as there were many near to help and we just needed to stay out of the way. We assume (and hope) he is okay as it wasn't long before the line continued to move.

 

By now it was 12:30. Our flight wasn't until 4:35, but we had three bags to check, and two to carry on, so we couldn't exactly walk around sight-seeing. :(

 

But we are actually very fond of airports, so let's go ditch most of these bags and relax before our flight! :)

 

This time we were smart enough to beckon UBER. Our driver was there within five minutes, and sure enough we found out Uber would have worked at the cruise terminal. Note to self: UBER at the Fort Lauderdale terminal in the future! Screw that nasty cab mess. :p