Live Blog – Silhouette Nov 3 – Beaches to Broadway – Pull up a seat and Join

[upwarduk]

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We will have to look at their itineraries.    Iain has been wanting to do a River Cruise and I am a bit reluctant.   

I have never done a river cruise. I am reluctant, as far too many are cancelled due to lack of water in the European rivers.

[Turtles06]

5 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We will have to look at their itineraries.    Iain has been wanting to do a River Cruise and I am a bit reluctant.   

After the expedition trip we took to Antarctica, which of course is in a class by itself, the best cruise-related trip we’ve done is Viking’s land/river tour in China.  Viking goes all out for this, the hotels are top notch, and their handling of the complex logistics alone was quite impressive, with several domestic flights in China as well as, on our itinerary, a five-night cruise along the Yangtze, which was fascinating and beautiful. 

 

We are going to get our feet wet (no pun intended) in terms of European river cruises with a tulip-time cruise in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2020.  

 

Our beautiful morning on the Silhouette has sure turned into a squall . . .

 

 

[Turtles06]

5 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We will have to look at their itineraries.    Iain has been wanting to do a River Cruise and I am a bit reluctant.   

After the expedition trip we took to Antarctica, which of course is in a class by itself, the best cruise-related trip we’ve done is Viking’s land/river tour in China.  Viking goes all out for this, the hotels are top notch, and their handling of the complex logistics alone was quite impressive, with several domestic flights in China as well as, on our itinerary, a five-night cruise along the Yangtze, which was fascinating and beautiful. 

 

We are going to get our feet wet (no pun intended) in terms of European river cruises with a tulip-time cruise in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2020.  

 

Our beautiful morning on the Silhouette has sure turned into a squall . . .

 

 

[excitedofharpenden]

26 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

We book CS and RS.   I logged on and checked.  We have done 28 cruises.   I list my cruises in signature more for my own reference.  Iain of asks when was the last time we were on a specific ship.   Maybe it is growing old but st times they all merge together. 

 

I know that feeling Jim!  Haha  Congrats on becoming Zenith BTW. 🎉

 

Phil 

[excitedofharpenden]

27 minutes ago, verizon said:

If you do Solo you only need 14 cruises to be Zenith.

As I said it's 84 days so depending upon cruise length it could be a lot less. 

 

Phil 

[helen haywood]

I couldn't remember how many Celebrity cruises we've taken either so I logged in and checked.  Thirty-six to your 28.  But in lowly balcony cabins so we'll never get to Zenith at this rate!

[Jim_Iain]

47 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

After the expedition trip we took to Antarctica, which of course is in a class by itself, the best cruise-related trip we’ve done is Viking’s land/river tour in China.  Viking goes all out for this, the hotels are top notch, and their handling of the complex logistics alone was quite impressive, with several domestic flights in China as well as, on our itinerary, a five-night cruise along the Yangtze, which was fascinating and beautiful. 

 

We are going to get our feet wet (no pun intended) in terms of European river cruises with a tulip-time cruise in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2020.  

 

Our beautiful morning on the Silhouette has sure turned into a squall . . .

 

 

I guess I spoke to soon about the beautiful morning.   Currently rather foggy and seas are choppy again.    Captain George on the morning announcement indicated winds will be about 30-35 knots and seas increasing to 7 meters.    We are currently traveling at 19 knots. 

[Silkroad]

20 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

It is incredibly how quickly the points accumulate.  It really helps that after retirement we are finally able to do B2B's.   We American's get so little vacation.   

Sad, but true. And, even once we have more than two weeks vacation banked, we get the stink eye for taking more than two weeks at once! I've been following along, Jim. As always, I'm enjoying your interesting and informative live review🙂Congratulations to you and Iain on achieving Zenith! 

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

4 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I was saying to Iain after we hit Zenith.   Watch them come out with a level between Elite+ and Zenith now that we hit Zenith.  

 

From your lips to God's ears!  I'm only Zen and will probably never make it to Zenith in this lifetime.  It's a heck of a journey from Elite+.

[signman]

4 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

 We ate in Lawn Club the first night.   It was cold but the food good.   We brought winter coats, gloves, hats for Boston and NYC and used them in the Lawn Club.   We found the beef and lamb there to be much better than on the transatlantic from Rome on the Reflection last year.    We enjoyed the Murano and pre ordered Steak Dianne.   The sauce is to die for, the filet mignon was not of the same quality as the Lawn Club or TPC.    Lunch has been good in Sushi on 5.   It’s a great place for a lighter lunch and they have quick service.

 

Congratulations on becoming Zenith!

 

Karen and Jim

 

So are you saying the filet is better at Lawn Club than Murano?

[Bluebury]

23 hours ago, effinaround said:

Thanks for this, Jim. Can't imagine I will ever hit this level of cruising.  Currently at zero points, although that changes starting Saturday when I board the Eclipse!

I love your screen name!!!

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, Silkroad said:

Sad, but true. And, even once we have more than two weeks vacation banked, we get the stink eye for taking more than two weeks at once! I've been following along, Jim. As always, I'm enjoying your interesting and informative live review🙂Congratulations to you and Iain on achieving Zenith! 

Thanks Silkroad.    I'm happy to report that once you retire it is a whole new world.   We have been having a great time on the cruise regardless of the modification of itinerary and rough seas.   

[jagoffee]

5 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

 We ate in Lawn Club the first night.   It was cold but the food good.   We brought winter coats, gloves, hats for Boston and NYC and used them in the Lawn Club.   We found the beef and lamb there to be much better than on the transatlantic from Rome on the Reflection last year.    We enjoyed the Murano and pre ordered Steak Dianne.   The sauce is to die for, the filet mignon was not of the same quality as the Lawn Club or TPC.    Lunch has been good in Sushi on 5.   It’s a great place for a lighter lunch and they have quick service.

 

Congratulations on becoming Zenith!

 

Karen and Jim

You are very brave and obviously were very anxious  for the Lawn Grill.

 

 Do you have a picture to share?

 

Service was probably outstanding!

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

From your lips to God's ears!  I'm only Zen and will probably never make it to Zenith in this lifetime.  It's a heck of a journey from Elite+.

I agree 100%.   They really should have an intermediate step up.   I would personally it would increase customer loyalty. 

[Jim_Iain]

I just had a chat with Sue Dennings.   She is so sweet.    

 

She will be on until February 21 (if I recall correctly).   I asked her  if she was going to Edge and she said that she didn't know.  Corporate doesn't let them know until close to the end of their contract.   She is hoping to return to Silhouette after vacation. 

[Jim_Iain]

Just a little more eye candy of Silhouette.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2018 by Jim_Iain

[UKPete71]

4 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

The mathematical minimum is 84 days on the ship, so 15 cruises and they were slacking. 

 

6 x 14 night cruises, solo, in a top suite would do it. 😯

[Jim_Iain]

New cruise deployment released this morning.  

 

 

[Ravbo]

Hi Jim,

I just found this thread.  Really appreciate the time you put into this Blog.

We will be boarding Silhouette on November 18 in Ft. Lauderdale for a 21 day B2B.
Since you are coming from Europe, we hope Silhouette will go thru all the inspections and clearances in before you get to Ft. Lauderdale.  In 2015 we boarded Reflection in Miami for the 1st Caribbean cruise after the TA.  Inspections and clearances delayed the start of boarding until after 1:00 PM and sailing was also delayed.  What a mess.

Take good care of everything til we board.

 

Bob (and Terry)

 

[Jim_Iain]

29 minutes ago, Ravbo said:

Hi Jim,

I just found this thread.  Really appreciate the time you put into this Blog.

We will be boarding Silhouette on November 18 in Ft. Lauderdale for a 21 day B2B.
Since you are coming from Europe, we hope Silhouette will go thru all the inspections and clearances in before you get to Ft. Lauderdale.  In 2015 we boarded Reflection in Miami for the 1st Caribbean cruise after the TA.  Inspections and clearances delayed the start of boarding until after 1:00 PM and sailing was also delayed.  What a mess.

Take good care of everything til we board.

 

Bob (and Terry)

 

Hi Bob and Terry -

I will make sure we keep Silhouette in pristine condition for you.   You are in for a delight.

 

We clear immigration in Boston as our first U.S. port of call.   They are already warning guests that it could take 2-3 hours to clear the ship.    They are planning that those on excursions will be cleared earliest to allow the tours to get on the way.   Suites will also be escorted to immigration to expedite going ashore.    We are doing Boston on our own so may sleep in and wait for things to calm down.  

 

I'm not quite sure how stopping in Bermuda before FLL will affect clearance but would think it would be just like a regular Caribbean arrival.   

[chrissie p]

7 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We have been talking about taking an Azamara cruise.   We know many that have cruised them and speak of them positively.   

 

We have enjoyed Azamara on the 2 we have done. They don't have the breadth of restaurants and bars that Celebrity do, but in a lot of cases you get to dock a lot closer to the city than you would in the big ships. St Petersburg, Bangkok and Hong Kong being very good examples.

[Jim_Iain]

4 minutes ago, chrissie p said:

We have enjoyed Azamara on the 2 we have done. They don't have the breadth of restaurants and bars that Celebrity do, but in a lot of cases you get to dock a lot closer to the city than you would in the big ships. St Petersburg, Bangkok and Hong Kong being very good examples.

We were just talking with Future Cruise and they were showing us a trip they have scheduled on Azamara to South Africa.   It sounds interesting and we are considering it. 

[UKPete71]

We had a nice Slot Pull this morning organised by Mark on our Roll Call. After putting $15 each in we walked way with $51 each. Wins of $1000 and $400 by a couple of people helped the prize pool somewhat. 🙂

[chrissie p]

4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

We were just talking with Future Cruise and they were showing us a trip they have scheduled on Azamara to South Africa.   It sounds interesting and we are considering it. 

If the itinerary suits I would definitely consider it. It is a smaller ship but we didn't find it too small. We travelled on the Millennium and Azamara Pursuit very close together and although the Millennium has 3x the number of passengers we found them very similar in the overall feel, you just find on Azamara it's a more personal service with all the crew remembering you, although I don't want to take anything away from the Millennium as the crew we met were great too.

[verizon]

27 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

We were just talking with Future Cruise and they were showing us a trip they have scheduled on Azamara to South Africa.   It sounds interesting and we are considering it. 

Their benefits wont be as good as Zenith unless you book a suite on Azamara.

Initially I was thinking cruising with Azamara but changed my mind when take into consideration of the perks that Celebrity offered.

Edited November 6, 2018 by verizon