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

[Cruise a holic]

Did you get the stain all the way out? If not, try Fels-Naptha Soap. It gets EVERYTHING out! It was my grandma's go to stain remover and it has saved a lot of clothes. http://www.felsnaptha.com/

 

Great review! I've always wondered what Celebrity was like from younger person's perspective.

 

Hope you got club soda and salt and it removed the stain or that Grandma's formula worked!!

Edited April 8, 2013 by Cruise a holic

[Journey11]

Not to speak for Gambee...but you should look at all research and planning as a good investment. If you are spending that much on vacation, its a good idea to maximize your enjoyment. It amazes me how some people barely know the name of the cruise ship! I met a woman on Reflection who was in Aqua class and did t even know about the Persian Gardens.

 

LibraryLady, I agree. I made notes from your and Gambee's fantastic reviews.

Edited April 8, 2013 by Journey11

[Christine Frances]

More please! Waiting ............ :D:D

[gambee]

Update,

 

I fished selecting the pics, tomorrow I'll start editing and most likely posting later on in the day.

 

[LynMcGad]

I stumbled on your review yesterday when I was taking a break from doing my income taxes, and I couldn't pull myself away. My DH and I are doing this same trip on the Silhouette next January, and it will be his very first cruise, and my first cruise in more years than I care to say. Hubby already says I have a bad case of OCD--Obsessive Cruise Disorder--as I have been pouring over these boards trying to do the research so that our experience is the best. Thanks you for all the great pictures and commentary. I have enjoyed it so much and have picked up a number of pointers and ideas. Great job--keep it coming!

[mszmek]

Wow, another amazing review! Good job Gambee!

[loyalroyal17]

Hi Gambee! I have a suggestion. Why don't you use your facebook profile picture as your profile pic here. Please??? Besides, Allure was 2 cruises ago and you should keep it current and make your fans happy! :)

Trying to keep up with your review, Bugsy's and now that I know Radio is on the Explorer, I'm also interested in his review as well, as one of my facebook friends is on that sailing with her husband.

 

Have a great day! See you around!

[lovely_serenity]

Hi Gambee!

Just started following and I'm finally all caught up! I am thoroughly enjoying your review so far and I love that your photos are so pretty! I also love the style in which you write (:

I love food porn so I very much appreciate how you take a picture of everything you drink and eat. Keep it up!

I've also previously sailed Celebrity and loved it! It's nice to see it from someone else's perspective!

 

P.S. Happy Belated Birthday! :D

[midwestchick]

Hi Gambee! I have a suggestion. Why don't you use your facebook profile picture as your profile pic here. Please??? Besides, Allure was 2 cruises ago and you should keep it current and make your fans happy! :)

Trying to keep up with your review, Bugsy's and now that I know Radio is on the Explorer, I'm also interested in his review as well, as one of my facebook friends is on that sailing with her husband.

 

Have a great day! See you around!

 

gambee is on FB? I would love to friend him.

[4774Papa]

marker

[gambee]

Gambee - I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your reviews. Everything is always so detailed and explained well so that we understand it all.

 

Glad to see you here, thank you for following our adventure =)

 

Great review! Excellent photos...no wonder I am thirsty and hungry!

 

We did a 3 week car trip to Nova Scotia, New Foundland and Labrador. DH always gets a laugh because it took me 3 months to complete my album with all the photo edits, scanning, narratives..putting all the info in the right place...

 

It takes time to put everthing together and I really appreciate that you are posting this for all of us to enjoy! Thanks!!!

 

Definitely takes time and for some reason this one is taking a little more work than the Allure one. But I am really enjoying the results, I plan to get another big set out today.

 

Glad you like it.

 

Gambee when I started reading reviews on Cruise Critic, yours was the first one I read about a month ago and I loved it. Thanks again for such wonderful details. Your reviews actually helps me in planning for my upcoming cruise in March of 2014.

 

After reading the Allure you must have high expectation for all the other reviews you read. Glad to know that you found this review as well, thank you for following.

 

The Solarium is beautiful!

 

It is more than that! The place is incredible to relax, it is like a gift from Heaven! We loved it =)

 

 

Those of us watching the webcam that day wondered the same thing as that is not normal. We speculated that maybe since it was windy that day that they wanted to make sure she didn't drift into Allure?

 

It was either that or maybe they were having issues with their trusters :confused:

 

 

Caught up with all of your updates! Great job as always! :D That stinks about your pants - I hope you get the stain out. I love all of your pictures of the molecular drinks! So many I didn't try last time! The list for the next cruise is growing, lol.

 

I asked mom last night and she said that she thinks it is all out, ill look into it today :). I think I by the end of the trip I manage to try all of the ones from Molecular.

 

 

Still following. Celebrity need to pay you commission

 

Now that would be something really good =)

 

I think that is great shot. I love the sky, it adds some interest, instead of just having clear blue sky behind it.

 

I guess, however blue is my favorite color so that is probably why I would rather have it blue. This way the weather adds some drama to the picture also something nice to have. The problem is that when all your pictures from one trip have the same background... well that is also a shame... I wonder if I got one with blue skies, I will have to look around.

 

 

Gambee didn't seem offended, so don't worry about the unofficial moderators here. :rolleyes:

 

Bill I forgot to get those mayonnaise packets pics for you :D. The weather was so bad in Labadee that we ate in the ship instead.

 

Maybe next time ;)

[gambee]

I got something similar on the Liberty of the Seas to use as an ornament on my Christmas tree. If she doesn't use it any other way, that's an option.

 

I am sure I will end up using it myself, my current one is pretty old. But thank you for the advice, we might have to start buying one from every ship we sail on.

 

Hello Gambee

 

Thank you so very much for responding to my questions regarding piano music, deck chairs on the promenade deck and lighting in the dining room.

 

With all the writing/photography you are posting for our great benefit, I hope you are taking the time to enjoy the cruise!

 

As one who has sailed Cunard many I strongly encourage you to give one of their three ships a chance.

 

Cunard ships certainly have a much more formal tone especially at night, with mostly tuxedos and gowns in evidence on formal evenings.

During the day the ships are very casual and you will see passengers dressed as if they are off to the local WALMART.

 

What I love most about Cunard ships most especially Queen Mary 2 are all the wonderful musicians and orchestras on board. All their ships have ballrooms with orchestras for dancing. That is certainly seems to be missing with Celebrity...

 

I also love the 360 degree wraparound promenade decks with tons of deck chairs overlooking the sea. There is nothing like sitting on a deck chair under one of the lifeboats reading or just watching the sea go by (especially on the Queen Mary.) Great for people watching as well. Such promenade decks seems to be missing from most if not all Celebrity ships.

 

Food, of course, is very subjective, but my sense is that food on Cunard is probably equal to Celebrity. Service is great on Cunard and is most likely equal to Celebrity. One thing is for sure, the tables in the various dining rooms have more space between them than on the S Class ships.

 

There appear to be many more extra fee eating spots on Celebrity than on Cunard. The Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth carry far fewer passengers than the S Class ships.

 

Well, that is it for now....thanks again for your response....

 

Deck Chair

 

Hello Deck Chair,

 

Well to be honest I don't think Cunard will be a good line for me. Let me explain why. I have yet to mention on the review, but the reason why I ate in specialty restaurants during the formal nights was essentially to avoid dressing formal. If you dine in any of their specialty restaurant you can go in a smart casual attire. Granted I was one of the only ones without a full suit, but I was ok with it.

 

I am a extremely relaxed kind of person, I hate dressing up and everything that comes along with that. I believe that is a big part of Cunard, now by no means I am saying that I will never sail Cunard. But I will say that they are not a high priority in our list. I will most likely sail HAL prior sailing Cunard.

 

I do appreciate your comment as sometimes I forget some of the options that I fail consider when booking a cruise.

 

Glad to see you here following along, thank you =)

 

Did you get the stain all the way out? If not, try Fels-Naptha Soap. It gets EVERYTHING out! It was my grandma's go to stain remover and it has saved a lot of clothes. http://www.felsnaptha.com/

 

Great review! I've always wondered what Celebrity was like from younger person's perspective.

 

Yeah I think she got the entire thing out, you can be the judge during our Breakaway cruise :D

 

Super excited to see you here following this review.

 

Thank you :)

[gambee]

Hope you got club soda and salt and it removed the stain or that Grandma's formula worked!!

 

 

Thank you =)

 

More please! Waiting ............

 

More coming in today =)

 

I stumbled on your review yesterday when I was taking a break from doing my income taxes, and I couldn't pull myself away. My DH and I are doing this same trip on the Silhouette next January, and it will be his very first cruise, and my first cruise in more years than I care to say. Hubby already says I have a bad case of OCD--Obsessive Cruise Disorder--as I have been pouring over these boards trying to do the research so that our experience is the best. Thanks you for all the great pictures and commentary. I have enjoyed it so much and have picked up a number of pointers and ideas. Great job--keep it coming!

 

Thank you for your nice comment, glad you stumbled into my review.

 

I hope you continue to enjoy the rest of it :)

 

 

Wow, another amazing review! Good job Gambee!

 

Thank you =)

 

Hi Gambee! I have a suggestion. Why don't you use your facebook profile picture as your profile pic here. Please??? Besides, Allure was 2 cruises ago and you should keep it current and make your fans happy! :)

Trying to keep up with your review, Bugsy's and now that I know Radio is on the Explorer, I'm also interested in his review as well, as one of my facebook friends is on that sailing with her husband.

 

Have a great day! See you around!

 

You're very funny, I will admit that you got a big old laugh from me last night. Ill tell you what, I will consider it and I am saying that honestly :).

 

I know I am really struggling as well, I am trying to keep up with those two threads and a couple breakaway thread and my Allure review is also getting plenty of attention these days. I am really happy that I am off from work today and maybe I can manage to finish day 4.

 

Hi Gambee!

Just started following and I'm finally all caught up! I am thoroughly enjoying your review so far and I love that your photos are so pretty! I also love the style in which you write (:

I love food porn so I very much appreciate how you take a picture of everything you drink and eat. Keep it up!

I've also previously sailed Celebrity and loved it! It's nice to see it from someone else's perspective!

 

P.S. Happy Belated Birthday! :D

 

Thank you so much for everything you said, that confirms that I am doing something right.

 

I am happy to have you aboard and to continue to enjoy our trip with us.

 

Thank you for following :)

 

gambee is on FB? I would love to friend him.

 

I was thinking about opening a traveling page in facebook, but not sure yet. It just seems like a lot of work and that is not something that I should be getting into at this point.

[ch27088]

Ready for more of your review Gambee!!

[SliceOfLife]

 

Yeah I think she got the entire thing out, you can be the judge during our Breakaway cruise :D

 

Super excited to see you here following this review.

 

Thank you :)

 

Lol, stain removal judge! Perhaps you should pack some Shout wipes for our Breakaway cruise just in case!

 

I love your reviews, very informative and full of pictures! :)

 

How dressed up did you have to get each night? I read for formal nights you went to specialty dinning so you didn't have to wear a suit.

[gambee]

Ready for more of your review Gambee!!

 

Working on it :)

 

Lol, stain removal judge! Perhaps you should pack some Shout wipes for our Breakaway cruise just in case!

 

I love your reviews, very informative and full of pictures! :)

 

How dressed up did you have to get each night? I read for formal nights you went to specialty dinning so you didn't have to wear a suit.

 

there are two formal nights, but by avoiding the MDR you can dress smart casual. I usually went with some nice pants and a polo, maybe even a long sleeve shirt.

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Lets see day 4... day 4, Grand Cayman. This was the only port on this trip that was an entirely new adventure for us as we had never been there before. We were really excited to get to visit the Caymans, it was actually one of my mom's dreams since she was little. Never in her wildest dreams she thought she could get to visit Grand Cayman, EVER.

 

During my planing process I was all over the place with Grand Cayman, there were several things that I was specially interested in doing. Among them stingray city, dolphin encounter (prior deciding to do it in Cozumel), turtle farm, Hell and visit the city. I actually even gave thought of doing one ship sponsored excursion that included the main 3 the turtle adventure, stingray city and Hell.

 

In the end we decided to go to the turtle farm and then later on to cemetery beach to snorkel a little. Two days before sailing I decided to change all of our excursions and I was struggling in finding a good excursion. After some research I found out stingraysailing.com was one of the preferred companies. I contacted them and very promptly they replied, they had 2 spaces open, I could not believe it. With 7 ships calling port that and they still had two seats available, I was super excited and gave them the deposit immediately! It is by the way $10pp non refundable unless the ship misses port or the excursion is cancelled.

 

Well we woke up that morning around 7am and the first thing I did was check our position and run outside to check the weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So um yeah it was looking pretty bad, not only that but it just felt very cold with the wind and all. I was pretty bummed out, I knew that there was a high chance that we would miss port and I knew for fact that the stingray sailing would cancel. We sat there and discussed the options and decided that the turtle farm had to come back into play, but not so much the beach, I really did not think that those were ideal beach conditions.

 

Here is a short video of the weather that day

 

 

 

[gambee]

We stayed in bed a little longer that morning, if I recall correctly I was watching a movie. At some point I also recall deciding that this would be a great day to try out my fish eye lens, you will notice that a lot of the pictures from this day were taken with the fisheye (for the exception of the ones in Grand Cayman and food).

 

Here is the first pic of the day with the fisheye.

 

 

 

After the movie was over I realized that we had to get going to make sure we got some of the first tender tickets, now I do apologize as I don't really recall at what time they opened the ticket counter. But I do recall that we got there about 10 minutes before they opened and there ware about 20 people waiting already. The location was held at celebrity central so it was really really close to our cabin. If I remember correctly they give out the tickets about 1 hours prior the first tender leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

I did a quick stop at the theater.

 

 

 

 

And here you have it.

 

 

Looking towards the casino from my place in line.

 

the peps in front of me

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

While we were waiting in line the captain came on the speakers and something along the lines like this "I am sure you're aware about the weather, it is not ideal to tender into George Town." Right about then my heart sank, I said "crap". Then he kept on going and said that he was going to attempt to stop in spots bay, "Spots Bay" I have never heard of this place, what was I going to do, what is there to do around that area? A bunch of question came racing through my mind. The good thing is that the captain was at least going to attempt to call port for us.

 

By the way this captain hates missing ports, later on during the Q&A he said that two ships decided to skip spots bay before us because it was too much to have 3 ships there (two of then where already there) so the other two decided to move on. He made the decision to at least try for us and he was successful =).

 

Anyway we waited and as soon it was time for the tickets to be given, Lisa came in the speaker and explained that complimentary buses would take us to the George Town. I was really happy about that. We got our tender ticket, we were in group number 2, funny I thought that we would be in group number 1, but nope.

 

After that we decided to go upstairs to get some breakfast.

 

 

 

 

We never ate here.

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

We got one of our basic breakfasts and enjoyed it very much so.

 

 

 

[gambee]

Once up there we noticed that one RCCL ship had managed to stop in George Town, our ship kept on moving. By the way it would take an additional 30 minutes to get to spots bay.

 

 

Cargo ship in the distance.