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

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

The ice cream was very good and even better it was free!

 

Rum raisin (our favorite)

 

Chocolate

 

While we were eating we started discussing how much ship reminded me of the W hotel, it has a very similar feel with the decor.

 

We ate pretty quick as we were both eager to go and see the ship, I had a few areas to visit before we departed.

 

This pic is leaving the buffet.

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

Then we took the elevator down one floor, I know I know, so bad, but in my defense I forgot that there was no #13 floor :D, silly me. We got off the elevator and started walking towards the Spa, I wanted to do the spa tour before I forgot.

 

Very comfy lounges.

 

The Main pool area. S ships have a stunning pool area, so elegant and well designed. Or at least I think so.

 

 

[gambee]

I will stop here and mention a rather awkward situation. When we were walking towards the spa, we were approached by a server with the special drink of the day in the X tall souvenir glass. He offered us drinks and I said why not, they are free anyway, so he gave us each a drink and took our cards. He then quickly scanned the cards with his eyes and said something along this lines "I see you have the drink package, but the souvenir cup is not included in this package. I will have to charge you $12 for this drink, but you will never be charged again for any more glasses. I was like ummmmmm, no thank you, so I gave him the drinks back (we had not touched them yet) and I headed towards the pool bar.

 

Now let me explain the odd part with his statement, during our cruise I noticed that all the daiquiris and piano coladas were given in that souvenir glass. So that threw me off, were all these people getting ripped off in every drink, that was not possible. I eventually ordered a pina colada (on day 2 or 3 can't remember) and I said to the bartender "I have the premium drink package" I wanted to avoid the charge for the glass, then the bartender looked at me with sarcastic eyes and said "One premium package pina colada coming up" I felt like a fool… And you know what! he gave it to me in the souvenir glass! WTH??? I don't get it, was the initial server trying to rip me off? anyway, the funny thing is that by end of the trip we had a bunch of those glasses (we only took one home, lol) goshhhhhhh, tst, tst tst…

 

Anyway enough of that rant, it was nothing special, but I thought about mentioning it and helping future cruisers avoid this silly situation that I had to go through.

 

So back to the story, I went to the bar and ordered two drinks

 

Mango Rita and a strawberry cilantro margarita.

 

 

 

Strwberry, was just ok.

 

Mangorita was very tasty.

 

[gambee]

After that we laid on a couple of those wonderful beds and enjoyed the drinks. Mom was on full force with her iPad taking picture situation. For those who are not aware, mom has poor gambee hold her ipad every 2 minutes so she can get a picture to send to her family and friends. So um yeah, this situation gets old very fast. As you can imagine I have my own cam to worry about and now her iPad on top of that. None the less I try to be a good son and comply :D, I could only imagine if she had 3g on the entire cruise, oh my… I think that is why I like cruising so much, the lack of her iPad internet :D.

 

 

 

View out the window.

 

 

After finishing our drinks we keep on walking towards the front of the ship.

 

[gambee]

Then we entered the Solarium! OH MY MY MY, I had died and entered heaven. This place was magical, I had a lot of doubt about this area before boarding the ship. But once inside I knew that this was the place where I would spend most of my vacation. It is sooooo nice, the AC is kept at a perfect temperature and perfectly quiet with that light echo created by the high ceilings. It is hard to put into words, how magical this part of the ship is, add to that the beautiful water fall and and you have a perfect place to relax and enjoy your vacation.

 

I was also wondering how only two Jacuzzis could be enough for this area and throughout the cruise I found out that it was just perfect. Granted more would make it better, but by no means we missed any Jacuzzis time due to them being too crowded. The pool is fresh water and it is kept at a very nice temperature, I rarely make use of pools and in this trip I actually made use of pool a couple of times, it was that nice.

 

It was definitely a different solarium than the one I used to, but being different by no means it is bad. If anything it could be better in its own special way.

 

I will go more into detail about the solarium later on as my notes go by days :).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

They have a chair to assist people with mobility issues get into the pool. (I never saw it used)

 

 

 

And here is a short video of the solarium, by playing it you get a good feeling of how it feels to be in there. Give it a try you will be pleasantly surprised! :)

 

 

 

 

The Spa

 

After you cross the solarium you end up in the Spa, we did a quick tour and I tried to gather as much info as possible. Here is all I got.

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

And here is a walking tour of the facilities.

 

 

 

Seaweed mask

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

They offer the persian gardens for non Aqua people and I could be wrong here, but I think she said somewhere around $140 for the week. I thought it was a big much considering that did not have some kind of hydrotherapy pool. I might have considered if they had a pool, but good thing I didn't because the Solarium was all I needed :D.

 

That is about it for the spa and fitness center, they were promoting all these deal and such, but I was busy gathering material and taking pictures that I did not have time to make notes, sorry...

 

 

[gambee]

Yay! I have never commented on one of your reviews but I always looked every day when you were writing your review for Allure! You are an awesome reviewer and I just had to log in for this one!

 

Just started reading this tonight and my laptop battery was at 1% when I was getting towards the end and I just had to get out of my warm, cozy bed to plug it in just to read the end and write to you!

 

Keep up the great work, can't wait to see all the wonderful pictures you must have! I am also an avid (& amateur) guy who loves photography! Hope I can do a review as good as yours for my first Allure trip in June!

 

thank you for stopping by and commenting on this one, it is well appreciated :). I am sorry I got you out of bed, but hopefully it was worth it. I love Allure reviews, up to this day I still read most of them. When you start yours let me know, I love to go look at it, now more so since you said you're into photography.

 

Hi Gambee! This is the first of your reviews I have seen, and I am so enjoying it. Oozes enthusiasm and a positive attitude. I shall be looking out for your hat now! Really interested as well, because we are cruising on Silhouette this summer over here in Europe.

 

Had to post a reply for two reasons - so I get notifications of your updates instead of trying to remember which page I was up to, and to say thank you for posting :) .

 

Hopefully you manage to get lots of useful information for your cruise, I hope you enjoy the ride. Nice to see you aboard.

 

 

found my way to your review! Super excited to read and view pictures! Not to mention, I use your reviews as a model of how I would like for mine to be one day. Cannot wait to read more!

 

Missy

 

Hello Missy, I hope you are all better and healed by now. Glad to see you in this side of the forum following my review. Thank you for stopping by. I will see you around :)

[gambee]

That is all I have for my friends, I think I am going back to bed and take a nap. I woke up very early to work on this, see you later ;)

 

 

Next up, "The fun factory"

 

 

Edited April 2, 2013 by gambee

[librarylady19]

Excellent photos. I too love the Solarium, it's especially relaxing around 5 pm when the early dinner crowd has left to get ready.

 

Hope you have more bar menus....my favorite thing to ponder in preparation for my next cruise. Don't know how I missed the Mangorita.

 

How was the bar service? We rarely found any servers in the Solarium or theatre on Reflection. As others have also noted, the pool bartenders could use some a refresher bartender course and some customer service training too.

Edited April 2, 2013 by librarylady19

[BugsyCruiser]

Great pics Gambee! Thanks so much.

[gambee]

Excellent photos. I too love the Solarium, it's especially relaxing around 5 pm when the early dinner crowd has left to get ready.

 

Hope you have more bar menus....my favorite thing to ponder in preparation for my next cruise. Don't know how I missed the Mangorita.

 

How was the bar service? We rarely found any servers in the Solarium or theatre on Reflection. As others have also noted, the pool bartenders could use some a refresher bartender course and some customer service training too.

 

I have all the menus, well I lie I don't have the wine lists. But drink menus all of them, how could I miss the wine lists, ughhhhhhhhhhh......... I just realize that.

 

Bar service, pretty bad. Very rarely I was approached in the Solarium, I think once actually. Never in the theatre (although I was rarely there). And there was one server going around in Celebrity central, he was overwhelmed.

 

Getting a drink in the pool bar took on average 15-20 minutes, but that was only at that bar. Other bars it was pretty fast.

[gambee]

Great pics Gambee! Thanks so much.

 

No problem, they should only get better as I start venturing with the new lens. That is coming up, for the fun factory I started using the ultra wide one :D

[BugsyCruiser]

No problem, they should only get better as I start venturing with the new lens. That is coming up, for the fun factory I started using the ultra wide one :D

 

I purchased a zoom lens for my Nex-5. Hopefully it'll get good use next week :)

[Just The 3 Of Us]

Another awesome review, gambee!!!! I am enjoying this so much :)!!!

 

Barb

[Just The 3 Of Us]

I purchased a zoom lens for my Nex-5. Hopefully it'll get good use next week :)

 

 

Totally can't wait for that, Chris!!!! :p;):D

 

Barb

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Wow awesome start! We also love the W hotels and agree X reminds us of them :)

 

I have a serious question for you... how the heck do you have the time to write such an amazing review? :D;)

 

It took me months to complete my review :eek: I work full time, grad school full time, and planning a wedding. I need to know your secret! :rolleyes:

 

I struggled between uploading pics, videos, typing in word, transcribing from my paper journal etc. You have it mastered!

 

You rock! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

-Ashley

[BugsyCruiser]

Wow awesome start! We also love the W hotels and agree X reminds us of them :)

 

I have a serious question for you... how the heck do you have the time to write such an amazing review? :D;)

 

It took me months to complete my review :eek: I work full time, grad school full time, and planning a wedding. I need to know your secret! :rolleyes:

 

I struggled between uploading pics, videos, typing in word, transcribing from my paper journal etc. You have it mastered!

 

You rock! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

-Ashley

 

I can't speak for Gambee but I can tell you my secret.... LOTS AND LOTS OF COFFEE!!! :D

[loyalroyal17]

Yeah I've gotten into doing Excel planners for our cruises, though I don't think I've ever posted on on here. Anyways here's the one I did from our latest Allure sailing: :cool:

 

Edit - and I'll add (as gambee said) while I spend hours making this thing each time, I really only use on on the ship very very little :)

 

Hi there! I just noticed you were on the 1/13 Allure sailing with us! Hope you loved it as much as we did. I always go on the ship's webcam to see how the weather is and where they are, lol. Wish I were there now!

[CruisingGatorGirl]

I can't speak for Gambee but I can tell you my secret.... LOTS AND LOTS OF COFFEE!!! :D

 

ahh so that is what I am missing in my life... must go get coffee now :D

[DebbieMacG]

Thanks for the review so far it's great :)

 

I agree with you on the burgers in the buffet, we just go to the Mast Grill instead :)