Silhouette 24 Oct TransAtlantic Live Posting

[Denny01]

 

Summary:

Great ship. Great Line. Great Itinerary. Strongly Recommended

 

With that said, I’ll give you my cruising background so you know my bias. Cruised 38 times; 25 on Celebrity. When choosing a Line, we look at itinerary and find a close one with Celebrity and then compare, but go with Celebrity unless there is a big reason to go with another. We love sea days: the ship is a major part of the experience, for us - it isn’t ‘transportation’ port to port so ship and Line are a major factor for us.

 

Ship: Reflection is a great ship. We love S-Class Celebrity ships and this is one of the best. Has the full Sky Lounge instead of part of it cut out for suites. Great commons areas. two issues: seating is starting to get a bit worn and you sit very low in many of the chairs at a table. Not enough places for readers and card players. Need more open places so we aren’t taking up places for snacking/coffee such as at El Bacio or taking tables in Oceanview/Dining room. We played during non-dining times, but still had issue sometimes. Recommend they open places such as Sushi for 5 when not in use. It was closed when not set for dining (and didn’t seem that popular even then). the decor is getting a bit dated with the red and orange motifs. Ship was clean and well cared for.

 

SR: We had Deck 10 1243 Concierge 2. It’s was a bump out veranda behind the suites. Great Room! Same size as most other SRs but larger veranda. Loved it. enough storage. Glass shower. Near the aft elevators but no noise whatsoever. Loved it.

 

Dining: we early 6pm dining. 2 person table. excellent location at a window and outstanding service. tables relatively close but not close enough where if you didn’t want to talk to your neighbor, it wasn’t an issue. I’m deaf in one ear so even if I wanted to ‘eavesdrop’ on our neighbors I couldn’t! Dining choices were varied and very good quality. Never an issue for us. We do love trying varying foods but aren’t ‘foodies’.

 

Specialty Dining: we did the 3-dinner package. Ate at Murano’s. Excellent but just too much for us. Tuscan Grill. Great steaks but I’m not a big steak person - would rather try other choices. I cook steaks at home just fine. Grill was fine but not worth it for us. QZine/Petit Chef. Loved it. great and different choices. The ravioli was to die for - not something to have at an average restaurant and this was outstanding.

 

Common Areas: Well maintained. Many areas to try out. Need a bit more for those who will sit for extended times as a group.

 

Service: as we find on Celebrity, outstanding. Met all our needs, not intrusive and didn’t run into the ‘upscale’ we get on other ships. Seemed to have more waitstaff in the common areas then we’d experienced before.

 

Itinerary: we love being on board so a transatlantic is perfect for us. Done 4 prior and will do more. won’t go though all the ports, but lots of At Sea days; NYC; Boston; Bermuda; Nassau is a fantastic mix. Crossing further north than many Celebrity TA’s mean you’ll probably get cooler weather, a bit of rain and a bit higher sea states. But well worth it.

 

Entertainment: Well mixed. Lots of good music. A Live Band! Excellent dancers and high wire workers. Guest entertainers were excellent except for magician who I didn’t like (I love magic). Runaround Kids were a homer run.

 

Podium Speakers: Outstanding. Prosecutor with great stores of big cases; Broadway musicals and he sang many of the songs; Beatles by a photographer who had direct contact with them early in their careers. Movies - history and actors. Fun! then speakers on the ports that were history of the ports, and what the cities were like.

 

Enough.

[Georgia_Peaches]

2 minutes ago, Denny01 said:

Summary:

Great ship. Great Line. Great Itinerary. Strongly Recommended

 

Ship: Reflection is a great ship.

Denny,  thank you for the great review.  I read every word with great anticipation.  Glad your overall experience lived up to expectations.  Looking forward to boarding her soon and reading your review helped the time tick away a little faster. 

[gold1953]

2 hours ago, Denny01 said:

Wed 06 Nov - At Sea (Cont)

Yup, big sales - most things $10 and buy 4 and get one free. Not a huge crowd! This cruise has many experienced and repeat cruisers, especially Celebrity cruisers so they’ve seen and bought most of this stuff prior. We did buy with all my ‘comments’ about sales. Celebrity has these neat zipper bags that are very handy for carrying stuff around the ship and so on so bought some for us and gifts.

 

Played cards with our UK friends then ready for dinner: lobster and Beef Wellington. It was cold water lobster so had it - enjoyed it. It wasn’t Fla ‘Langosta’ warm water lobster. Tipped our waitstaff and thanked them since we’d probably not make main dining last night.

 

then off to entertainment. It was a magician and I didn’t really enjoy him. good magic, but he was too swearing and putdown for me. Im not into cheap shot artists. You know us Navy guys aren’t use to bad language (he just didn’t use it properly with any fun to it). 

 

Will post tomorrow and then after the cruise, post a general review of the ship and answer any questions......I can answer!

 

We did make a another future cruise purchase. We were set for a 2021 Japan to Vancouver TransPacific (yes, we love at sea days!!) on the Millennium. But found that the Eclipse leaves a week prior and was cheaper so went for it.

 

07 Nov - Nassau

Been there done that. we stayed on board and enjoyed. I think I’m running out of stuff to report on so this is short. Did the grill and had a nice hamburger and sat in the smoking side because of the shade. It’s outside and not an issue for us since a bit of whiff doesn’t bother us, realizing it does for others. It is where smokers have a nice place to sit, smoke one and enjoy a drink and food.

 

Spent afternoon packing and reorganizing. All went well. Did do dinner at the Oceanview instead of main dining. I wasn’t that impressed with it. Nothing wrong with the choices, lots of them, but porkchop was med well and so on. what you expect of a nice buffet. I’ll stick with Main dining unless there’s a big reason to go for dinner there.  Tipped our steward. Outstanding. then into bed with an early wake up. Our number departure time is estimated at 7am. The walk offs are 6:30am.

 

08 Nov - Ft Lauderdale

Got up early and got ready. Had quick breakfast. Ship was released and walkoffs with their own luggage were called at 6:45am. the 1st tags were called at 7:15 and we were called at 7:25am. All very smooth. Lots of people standing around at the gangway which isn’t necessary. Lots of seating other places. For those that think they can go prior to their luggage # call: when the people got to the luggage area and if they had come down early, the were asked to wait off to the side so sneaking off early doesnt work too well. We had Global Entry but that wasn’t set for there, but lines were Very short. we picked our luggage up, through emigration and out to find a taxi to the airport car rental and in a taxi by 7:40!

 

By the way, there are good car rental choices near the port instead of the airport but my company had better rates front the airport. $15 taxi ride to airport. Taxi dropped us off inside the car rental parking building - have them drop you off at the departure of the terminal so you don’t walk all the way through the parking lot to the front to get your car info. Drive out was smooth and all went well.

 

Summary to follow.

 

We left the ship at 8am when the lines were quite long but we did find Global Entry and breezed though.  . I asked before luggage and was told no but asked again at the door only to be directed to an almost empty line

[Denny01]

29 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

We left the ship at 8am when the lines were quite long but we did find Global Entry and breezed though.  . I asked before luggage and was told no but asked again at the door only to be directed to an almost empty line

Glad you found it and it was handy. We didn’t see it and the lines were short so.......Great you straightened that out. 

 

Den

[gold1953]

1 hour ago, Denny01 said:

Glad you found it and it was handy. We didn’t see it and the lines were short so.......Great you straightened that out. 

 

Den

It was a great cruise even with the delays. I got a 1:15 pm customs for NYC.  My only reason for choosing this TA over the others was fabric shopping in the garment district.  I went to guest relations and explained .it was changed to 10 am.  I had no interest in anything onshore in the evening . 

[Clipper Chick]

50 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

It was a great cruise even with the delays. I got a 1:15 pm customs for NYC.  My only reason for choosing this TA over the others was fabric shopping in the garment district.  I went to guest relations and explained .it was changed to 10 am.  I had no interest in anything onshore in the evening . 

Hi

 

i never saw you to ask what you bought in the garment district.  It was so nice meeting you am now on train to New York. 
 

Mandy

[gold1953]

3 hours ago, Clipper Chick said:

Hi

 

i never saw you to ask what you bought in the garment district.  It was so nice meeting you am now on train to New York. 
 

Mandy

We are home and after going full out or 4 weeks I crashed!

I went to Mood and found it expensive so just got 2 funky zippers . Bought 8 cuts of fabric at other shops, Some extra nice zippers and amazing buttons. I needed to go to see what it was all about. Happy to know that what I buy online in Canada is great both in quality and pricing. The zippers , buttons and other accessories rule the garment district. 

[rlbeck]

24 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

We are home and after going full out or 4 weeks I crashed!

I went to Mood and found it expensive so just got 2 funky zippers . Bought 8 cuts of fabric at other shops, Some extra nice zippers and amazing buttons. I needed to go to see what it was all about. Happy to know that what I buy online in Canada is great both in quality and pricing. The zippers , buttons and other accessories rule the garment district. 

Hi Pat and Bill!!! We are home as well.....Could you send me your email address as I must have misplaced the one you gave me the other night, yeah, who could believe I would do that!!! 😞 rlbeck71@gmail.com      Thanks friends!!!!!

[MJSailors]

Denny01

    Thank you for taking the time tp post about your vacation. You had a fabulous itinerary !

The pre-cruise stay in England was quite interesting to read about as well as the TA.

I did not expect the TA to include port stops in NYC,Boston, Bermuda and Nassau.

You covered a lot of ground before finishing your trip in Florida !

      I am pleased that you noted that Bermuda is not a Caribbean- like island.It is a lovely country that is located in the Atlantic Ocean,east of the Carolinas in the US.

 Many people are surprised that Bermuda is  not in the Caribbean.  It is far  from a Caribbean- like Island both in geographic location and atmosphere. 

       We have been traveling to Bermuda regularly since 1983. It is our vacation destination of choice,both with cruises and land stays. The sail away takes a long time as the ships sail past the coast of Bermuda from the Dockyard area to St. George’s, then out to sea. I am always glad of this because it gives us time to say good bye to a place we have come to consider a second home.

      Wishing you many Bon voyages in your future.

 

 

 

 

[Carnevale]

Great blog....lots of great info!

 

 We will be on the Silhouette next September and are wondering about the dance floors. You mentioned dancing in a couple of places.  About how big are the floors?  What kind of surfaces do they have?

 

 I ask as we recently did our first cruise on X and the floor in Rendezvous was very small and almost always packed and the only other option was in Constellations where the floor looked to be metal with grooves that kept catching my heel.  We ended up doing very little dancing and hope that Silhouette will be different.

 

Any info on your dance experiences will be great to get!   Thx

[chemmo]

Sincere thanks for a great review...We have never really considered a TA, perhaps it is time we did! We did get the flavour of the ship being to some degree the destination...

[rugerdog]

 

Excellent review, Denny.  Almost made me feel like I was there!  😂  (I crack myself up)

 

Darlene