LIVE from Silhouette 1/14/18 12 night Ultimate Caribbean

[groryjm]

Hi Adam

 

Firstly I love your "live from...." so far and looking forward to sailing along vicariously. I hope you are having a great cruise.

 

We are sailing in 1116 in Sept this year and then again in Aug 2019 and had the strange idea to hide a secret note/visitors book somewhere in the cabin and see if it was still there a year later :D. I know some of those on this forum who sail in the M-Class penthouses have done something similar but as I suspect the PHs are one step too much for us.

 

From posts on CC I gather the bed is convertable to twin though many celebriy staff do not realise it. I have never seen a picture of the end of the bed without the valance covering it so would be really interested if you could take one for me.

 

There was a very nice CC poster staying in 1116 last year whos' butler Teguh showed her how the bed separated. He also told that the each side of the new mattresses can be adjusted to soft or medium or hard firmness---that there are parts inside the mattress that the room stewards/butler fix to adjust the mattress firmness at the passenger request. This can also be accomplished when the bed is together so that each side can have their choice of firmness :cool: .

[phabric]

Did you have to bring your life jacket to Muster Drill?

[WonderMan3]

Am I confused or are you treating your friends different because they are not sailing in the same “class” as you? I could be reading this wrong but are they sailing in a “class” lower than you?

 

 

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I’m not clear on what you mean by “are you treating your friends different”? Are you not familiar with the benefits of Suite class on Celebrity from reading these boards? Mike and I are in a Royal Suite and have benefits like dining in Luminae that only apply to Suite class. Cindy and John have a standard veranda cabin so their dining is in the Main Dining Room. That is why we we had lunch and dinner without them. They were welcome to dine with us for dinner at Luminae as our guests (with maitre’d permission) but would pay a fee of $30pp to do that. They wanted to eat in the MDR instead. For lunch, since we had just boarded we didn’t want to bring guests with us right away as we wanted to meet the maitre’d first and give a heads up that we had companions and make sure their joining us would not be a problem during the cruise. We have found that is usually never an issue but we never want to assume.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

Thanks for doing this trip report, and best wishes to the Bride.

 

 

 

Can you share from which terminal in Port Everglades that you sailed? I think PE is still constructing/remodeling the terminal for the Edge although I have no idea of how far along it is. Also, is your Suite concierge Erik Guzman? If so, we adore him.

 

 

 

Excited to hear about how the party turns out.

 

 

 

Scanditaly

 

 

 

Sorry. I didn’t catch what terminal it was that we boarded at. It was one that we had not boarded from before. It had one single gangway with a very steep incline. From where the ship was docked facing forward we could see the construction at the other terminal in front of us.

 

And yes, Erick Guzman is the Suites Manager. He is very pleasant.

 

 

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[Scotraveller]

Love this report! I disembarked 07th January (last week I suppose) so looking forward to your thoughts. Especially a comparison between NCL and Celebrity. I have always avoided NCL, I really don't know why but every friend who has tried them have said "it was good but..." - that always gives me a warning. Anyway, I think I've settled on Celebrity and RCI now after a poor Princess cruise in August. Enjoy the rest!

[doublin9]

Thank you so much for posting your review. It is excellent! We will board on February 18th with friends for a much needed vacation. This is their first time on a Celebrity Solstice ship and suite experience. Your review will be exciting for them to read.

[WonderMan3]

No need to say much. Enjoy this cruise. We have often wondered about it. Just give me a rating, say 0-10.

 

 

 

Hard to pin it down to just one number. I’d say...

 

Ship - 8 (layout a little confusing in places; didn’t like how casino winds through hallways)

 

Service - 8 (no superstars but everyone was friendly and efficient)

 

Food - 7 (great choices, buffet was terrible, La Cucina my husband had a bad experience and it had the worst service)

 

Cabin - 9 (we had aft Penthouse cabin 11908. Amazing cabin! Best balcony ever with most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept on. Living area and shower a little tight otherwise it would’ve been 10)

 

Haven - 8 (would’ve been higher but for the butler who was non-existent; cabin was not inside Haven and that made for a haul so we did not use the facilities as often, but it is very relaxing to hang out there; service not as personalized though as Suite class on Celebrity)

 

Entertainment - 8 (we only did Cirque Dreams which was cool but I give them props for all the choices)

 

Atmosphere - 1 (this really dragged down the whole cruise - the passengers were beyond abominable, it was like sailing in a drunk fraternity house; people intoxicated everywhere running around and screaming down hallways, the main public areas of the ship were so crowded all the time save for port days - I have never seen a more crowded pool area on a ship in my life - wall to wall bodies, people dressed in t-shirts and flip-flops and baseball caps at some of the nicer restaurants like Cagney’s, and I literally saw one man sitting near a bar area one day picking his toes! I am dead serious. Our cabin at the back of the ship and The Haven area were respites from this craziness. But even in The Haven evenings their bar would get full of drunks yelling loudly. It was basically what I always envisioned a Carnival cruise to be.

 

Overall we had a good time but because of the last item above we will never take another NCL cruise again unless it is 10 days or more, or possibly a 7 day cruise in Europe when kids are still in school. When we have done 10 and 14 day NCL cruises in the past we did not encounter passengers like this.

 

As far as NCL vs. Celebrity, there is no contest for us. Celebrity wins by a mile as being desirable for us. But NCL does have the edge with their wide choice of dining venues (even though Celebrity’s food is superior), having The Haven concept (which Celebrity will start to mirror with The Retreat on Edge) and their entertainment choices. But we prefer Celebrity’s much more calm (but not stuffy) atmosphere.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

Good morning!

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

Did you have to bring your life jacket to Muster Drill?

 

 

 

No

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

Hi Adam

 

 

 

Firstly I love your "live from...." so far and looking forward to sailing along vicariously. I hope you are having a great cruise.

 

 

 

We are sailing in 1116 in Sept this year and then again in Aug 2019 and had the strange idea to hide a secret note/visitors book somewhere in the cabin and see if it was still there a year later :D. I know some of those on this forum who sail in the M-Class penthouses have done something similar but as I suspect the PHs are one step too much for us.

 

 

 

From posts on CC I gather the bed is convertable to twin though many celebriy staff do not realise it. I have never seen a picture of the end of the bed without the valance covering it so would be really interested if you could take one for me.

 

 

 

There was a very nice CC poster staying in 1116 last year whos' butler Teguh showed her how the bed separated. He also told that the each side of the new mattresses can be adjusted to soft or medium or hard firmness---that there are parts inside the mattress that the room stewards/butler fix to adjust the mattress firmness at the passenger request. This can also be accomplished when the bed is together so that each side can have their choice of firmness :cool: .

 

 

 

I took a look and it is one mattress, not two put together. And this adjustable firmness mattress is like Bigfoot for me; I have heard about it many times but have yet to see one in person. We have been in Royal and Penthouse suites before and neither of them nor this one appear to have any adjustment capabilities. I have even asked the butlers in those past suites about it and they gave blank stares like they didn’t know what I was talking about.

 

The bed was not comfortable enough for either of us last night so we are going to ask them to add an extra topper today when they make up the room.

 

 

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[paulh84]

 

Atmosphere - 1 (this really dragged down the whole cruise - the passengers were beyond abominable, it was like sailing in a drunk fraternity house; people intoxicated everywhere running around and screaming down hallways, the main public areas of the ship were so crowded all the time save for port days - I have never seen a more crowded pool area on a ship in my life - wall to wall bodies, people dressed in t-shirts and flip-flops and baseball caps at some of the nicer restaurants like Cagney’s, and I literally saw one man sitting near a bar area one day picking his toes! I am dead serious. Our cabin at the back of the ship and The Haven area were respites from this craziness. But even in The Haven evenings their bar would get full of drunks yelling loudly. It was basically what I always envisioned a Carnival cruise to be.

 

 

Not the first I've heard this. We had the same impression on our Escape cruise. Our friends who were diehard Carnival fans then converted to NCL also say NCL is the 'new' Carnival. There are decent NCL deals but I can't commit to Haven prices for that kind of experience.

[WonderMan3]

Not the first I've heard this. We had the same impression on our Escape cruise. Our friends who were diehard Carnival fans then converted to NCL also say NCL is the 'new' Carnival. There are decent NCL deals but I can't commit to Haven prices for that kind of experience.

 

 

 

Agree. The only reason we booked that Haven cabin was because we got a substantial discount through a local casino.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

We were feeling lazy this morning on our first sea day so decided to do breakfast en suite. I had the Crab Cakes Benedict while Mike just had some scrambled eggs. Both were fine.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

Here is today’s Daily

 

 

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[tink218]

Loving your review! We have to agree about NCL. Gave them 3 tries, all Haven, and never again. Love Celebrity and the product they provide.

 

Enjoy your cruise. I am looking forward to reading more.

[WonderMan3]

Art in the atrium today

 

 

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[Alsmez]

Thanks for your ongoing live review, Wonderman! We're on board Silhouette's next voyage so I am following this thread with interest. One quick question for you - I have been reading some recent reviews that mentioned some issues with embarkation because it was moved to the Convention Center rather than the normal terminal at the cruise port. I didn't see this mentioned in your earlier posts, but did you have to go to the Convention Center, or did you embark at the usual terminal? Thanks and enjoy your vacation!

[WonderMan3]

Thanks for your ongoing live review, Wonderman! We're on board Silhouette's next voyage so I am following this thread with interest. One quick question for you - I have been reading some recent reviews that mentioned some issues with embarkation because it was moved to the Convention Center rather than the normal terminal at the cruise port. I didn't see this mentioned in your earlier posts, but did you have to go to the Convention Center, or did you embark at the usual terminal? Thanks and enjoy your vacation!

 

 

 

We embarked at a terminal. The convention center boarding is for select departures only which Celebrity will notify you about in advance.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

The restaurants on board were doing a showcase of some of their foods on Deck 4 today.

 

 

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[Zigster]

Hi Adam - I'm enjoying your live review of Silhouette as she is our favorite ship. We sailed December 2016 in the PH and November 2017 in RS 1612 with Dharma as our butler. We thought he was wonderful. We found him to be attentive, but not intrusive and very professional.

We absolutely love Niko as we've sailed with her as the Michael's Club Concierge on both sailings. Looking forward to our November sailing this year back on Silhouette.

Love the photos that you post here and elsewhere. Have a wonderful cruise and I'll be looking forward to your updates!

Patty

[Alsmez]

We embarked at a terminal. The convention center boarding is for select departures only which Celebrity will notify you about in advance.

 

Excellent - thank you!

[tink218]

Just saw the picture you posted on Facebook with the rainbow! What a beautiful picture!

[micheleata]

Loving your review! Your suite looked beautiful, and I love seeing the daily papers. Looking forward to hearing more!

[WonderMan3]

The heart of our day today was centered around John and Cindy’s wedding ceremony. We got to meet the captain as he officiated the ceremony which took place in Blu. It was a simple ceremony with just the four of us but it was set up quite nicely. Then we had a ship’s photographer follow us around the ship for 45 minutes or so to take photos. After that we went back to our suite and enjoyed a little celebration courtesy of our butler and Suites Manager featuring a variety of appetizers and champagne.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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