Live from Silhouette

[jordans mom]

HI:

We are on the 12/7 cruise. Are you really missing a port?

Thank you.

 

Hi Vettprincess - we are on the 12/7 run.

 

I was hearing some of the same info on SJ

 

However, If the OP is correct - we are not due to get into SJ until late Tuesday - which would be a bit over 48 hours of sailing at her top speed - so I would think unless they are delayed - I would expect that from FLL => SJ appears doable?

 

:)

[candhu18]

Vettprincess

I am a big Celebrity fan. As you can see from my signature. I have another cruise booked for next June. Just a little disappointed with missing San Juan. Even if we had arrived on time 3.30pm we would only have had around two hours before sunset.

 

I believe Celebrity will try their best to reach San Juan next week. They inspect and if possible adjust the azipod when in suitable ports. Provided the weather doesn't play up it is just possible to reach, but it is marginal. I hope you make it. We missed by about 5 hours.

Edited December 3, 2014 by candhu18

[DebbieMacG]

I was also on the 23 November Eastern Caribbean cruise. The first leg from Port Everglades to San Juan is a tad over 900 nautical miles. At an average of 18 knots it would take 2 days and 2 hours to reach San Juan. The Silhouette would not appear to be capable of this speed for any length of time. Any time I looked at the TV channel the speed was 17 knots. At 11 am in the morning the captain announced that we were 167 nautical miles away from our destination, and that we would be late. He said he would get back to us with a new ETA. By my calculations at 17 knots that is 10 hours travelling. (The average speed up till the captain's announcement was only 17 knots.) We would be arriving there just as we were due to leave (9pm). Several hours later the captain confirmed we would be missing San Juan. Not sure why it took him hours to do that simple calculation. The Silhouette is just not capable to travelling such a long distance in 2 days. Celebrity should be more honest with their customers. The broken azipod is so obvious to the eye. I have many photographs of the poor performance from the affected engine.

 

The two November reviews are for the other trip the Silhouette does to the Western Caribbean. It only needs to average around 14 knots for this trip.

 

Could I suggest to Celebrity that they look for an alternative port for next weeks journey, in my opinion the Silhouette is just not capable of of reaching San Juan quickly enough. To arrive by 3.30pm requires an average speed of 19 knots. Even that allows passengers only 2 hours before sunset. Remember the normal cruise speed for a Solstice class ship is over 22 knots.

 

I feel very sorry for the couple who were travelling to San Juan to get married. All of their friends had travelled by air to save costs. Several of the entertainers were also affected by the missed port. Finding themselves in the wrong place.

 

I will be watching Celebrity's actions for next week with interest.

 

I would be interested to learn how you can see a broken azipod? How did you photograph the affected engine? These are two different things btw! :confused:

 

It's a shame the port was missed and terrible for the couple, but one should never cruise to be at, or rely on getting to a particular port. I do agree if there is an issue getting to San Juan on time on an ongoing basis they should substitute the port.

[candhu18]

My apologies, I should have been more pedantic and stated that the broken azipod's performance was obvious to the eye. Even that is not correct since the azipod does work, just not at optimal performance; hence the dry dock in January. When I have sorted out my photographs I will post one to allow you to judge for yourself. Many other passengers made similar comments. Our maximum speed appeared to be around 17 knots. Part of that was due to weather but also part was due to the azipod. I am sure that in perfect weather conditions the 19-20 knots required to reach San Juan on schedule would have been possible. Anyway, I will look out a photograph that shows the imbalance and post it when I find the time to sift through them all. All I am suggesting is that if the weather for next week looks poor then Celebrity should consider an alternative port. I appreciate that some of the entertainers move from the Reflection to the Silhouette by disembarking at designated ports.

[vaguy22]

Does anybody know when in Jan. the drydock period will be? This is what happens when one tries to be fancy (azipods). Regular shafting to propellors has served well since the 1870s Yet some folks cant leave well enough alone.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Does anybody know when in Jan. the drydock period will be? This is what happens when one tries to be fancy (azipods). Regular shafting to propellors has served well since the 1870s Yet some folks cant leave well enough alone.

 

The Discovery CA program on Solstice has an interesting tutorial on the azipod system. It allows fantastic maneuverability when docking, which allows the huge S-class ships to use ports they otherwise couldn't. Also since it's electric they can use 2-4 diesel generators and get the power to anyplace it's needed (the 2 azipods and the AC system are the big users).

[Crazy Cruzer]

Does anybody know when in Jan. the drydock period will be? This is what happens when one tries to be fancy (azipods). Regular shafting to propellors has served well since the 1870s Yet some folks cant leave well enough alone.

 

Mechanical problems are ridiculous. I think they should go back to using only sails and oars. Sails and oars worked for thousands of years and never ran out of fuel or had any issues with bearings or motors. And they didn't generate any pollution or carbon emissions either. All this engine driven stuff is just trying to be fancy. Look were progress is taking us...just ridiculous.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Crazy Cruzer

[momofmeg]

I was also on the 23 November Eastern Caribbean cruise. The first leg from Port Everglades to San Juan is a tad over 900 nautical miles. At an average of 18 knots it would take 2 days and 2 hours to reach San Juan. The Silhouette would not appear to be capable of this speed for any length of time. Any time I looked at the TV channel the speed was 17 knots. At 11 am in the morning the captain announced that we were 167 nautical miles away from our destination, and that we would be late. He said he would get back to us with a new ETA. By my calculations at 17 knots that is 10 hours travelling. (The average speed up till the captain's announcement was only 17 knots.) We would be arriving there just as we were due to leave (9pm). Several hours later the captain confirmed we would be missing San Juan. Not sure why it took him hours to do that simple calculation. The Silhouette is just not capable to travelling such a long distance in 2 days. Celebrity should be more honest with their customers. The broken azipod is so obvious to the eye. I have many photographs of the poor performance from the affected engine.

 

The two November reviews are for the other trip the Silhouette does to the Western Caribbean. It only needs to average around 14 knots for this trip.

 

Could I suggest to Celebrity that they look for an alternative port for next weeks journey, in my opinion the Silhouette is just not capable of of reaching San Juan quickly enough. To arrive by 3.30pm requires an average speed of 19 knots. Even that allows passengers only 2 hours before sunset. Remember the normal cruise speed for a Solstice class ship is over 22 knots.

 

I feel very sorry for the couple who were travelling to San Juan to get married. All of their friends had travelled by air to save costs. Several of the entertainers were also affected by the missed port. Finding themselves in the wrong place.

 

I will be watching Celebrity's actions for next week with interest.

 

Yes! That is so true! Just make a stop for a few hours at Coco Cay the first day after embarkation day. If they left by 3 pm surely the ship would make St. Kitts by Wednesday. Yes, people would be disappointed, but it least that would show Celebrity attempted to make it up a bit.

 

When the silhouette cost of cruise is the same as the Refection Celebrity should do something I feel.

[momofmeg]

Does anybody know when in Jan. the drydock period will be? This is what happens when one tries to be fancy (azipods). Regular shafting to propellors has served well since the 1870s Yet some folks cant leave well enough alone.

 

No January 4th sailing for drydock.

[momofmeg]

My apologies, I should have been more pedantic and stated that the broken azipod's performance was obvious to the eye. Even that is not correct since the azipod does work, just not at optimal performance; hence the dry dock in January. When I have sorted out my photographs I will post one to allow you to judge for yourself. Many other passengers made similar comments. Our maximum speed appeared to be around 17 knots. Part of that was due to weather but also part was due to the azipod. I am sure that in perfect weather conditions the 19-20 knots required to reach San Juan on schedule would have been possible. Anyway, I will look out a photograph that shows the imbalance and post it when I find the time to sift through them all. All I am suggesting is that if the weather for next week looks poor then Celebrity should consider an alternative port. I appreciate that some of the entertainers move from the Reflection to the Silhouette by disembarking at designated ports.

 

I went to the talk on Saturday about how they work the ship. The question of ship's speed was asked. We were told the ship's max speed is 17 knots (nautical miles) and should be 22 knots (nautical miles)

[Janet524]

Didn't you see my smiley face?;)

 

I know that your comment was tongue in cheek. My comments weren't directed at you. Just a general thought.

[candhu18]

Eclipse on 13 November:

 

Silhouette on 26 November:

 

Silhouette starboard side doesn't look too well. Maximum speed on Silhouette was 17-18 knots. Remember it was all the weather's fault.

[DebbieMacG]

My apologies, I should have been more pedantic and stated that the broken azipod's performance was obvious to the eye. Even that is not correct since the azipod does work, just not at optimal performance; hence the dry dock in January. When I have sorted out my photographs I will post one to allow you to judge for yourself. Many other passengers made similar comments. Our maximum speed appeared to be around 17 knots. Part of that was due to weather but also part was due to the azipod. I am sure that in perfect weather conditions the 19-20 knots required to reach San Juan on schedule would have been possible. Anyway, I will look out a photograph that shows the imbalance and post it when I find the time to sift through them all. All I am suggesting is that if the weather for next week looks poor then Celebrity should consider an alternative port. I appreciate that some of the entertainers move from the Reflection to the Silhouette by disembarking at designated ports.

 

 

I'm not denying it doesn't work as I've seen photos of the wake before from my daughters cruise in July :)

 

You confused me because you said engine and it's not an engine :)

 

I agree they should change the port if they know they can't make it!

[candhu18]

In my world an engine is a machine designed to convert energy (of any type) into useful mechanical motion.

 

Sorry to have confused you.

[norcalman]

I, for one, was very happy about the missed port in PR. We really did not have enough time to explore properly, anyway. I was planning on meeting an old friend for the few hour we were there so that was a downside, but as stated previously I can always fly in and stay longer than 4-5 hours.

That said, this was my first Celebrity experience after only doing smaller, all-inclusive ships. I held out no expectations and honestly was pleasantly surprised.

The embarkation process was one of the easiest I have done in a very long time. The ship was well decorated and the public rooms spacious and never felt "big ship."

Although we were supposed to attend the CC meet and greet, we were having such fun exploring the ship we completely lost track of time.

I will echo the food in the MDR only as we did enjoy the salads in the OC. The first night, our table of eight waited THREE hours for our entrees. Completely unacceptable, but after a chat with our Maitre'D, the waiter was reassigned and all went well, service wise afterwards. We all agreed, that unless you were ordering beef, lamb, or escargot the meals were mediocre. Often food was sent back or just not finished.

The stateroom was spacious enough, and I loved the size of the balcony. It rivaled Silversea and made Seabourn's Juliette arrangements a joke.

We were forward and definitely felt the seas each night, but hey, we were on open seas.

I met many RCCL passengers who said they would never go back to RCCL due to the service and food on Celebrity.

That being said, we have already booked for next Christmas on Reflection and looking at Amsterdam roundtrip in '17. Overall it was a great first big ship experience.

[vulcan1971]

We are getting ready to sail soon from St. Maarten.

 

We missed Puerto Rico. Supposedly due to sea conditions but the NCL Gem made it an hour later yesterday so... it must be the problem that the ship has had since Europe. All we have gotten so far is port charges back from PR. We also are not happy with the CC meet and greet. Officers showed up briefly and it as boarding day right after sailing. Not handled well at all. Not sure we will be sailing Celebrity in the future. Buffet has not been good or good selection either. I did the Wine dinner last night and that was prob the best thing I've done so far.

 

I was just on the Constellation westbound transatlantic from Rome to Fort Lauderdale (NOV 2014). However, the embarkation for the 16 day cruise occurred in Naples (3 hours south of Rome) because the weather was too severe for the ship to make it into Civitavecchia. I would say that is a much worse scenario to deal with when trying to disembark 2000 guests from the ship and put them on motorcoaches for 3 hours to get them to FCO and then turn around do the same thing with 2000 more guests to get them onto the ship. Celebrity did an incredible job and all this was done within 24 hours time.

[Turtles06]

The Silhouette's wake on Nov. 13, during the transatlantic. We could definitely see the difference. (BTW, we were doing about 18-19 knots during the crossing.)

 

 

(turtles06)

[momofmeg]

I was just on the Constellation westbound transatlantic from Rome to Fort Lauderdale (NOV 2014). However, the embarkation for the 16 day cruise occurred in Naples (3 hours south of Rome) because the weather was too severe for the ship to make it into Civitavecchia. I would say that is a much worse scenario to deal with when trying to disembark 2000 guests from the ship and put them on motorcoaches for 3 hours to get them to FCO and then turn around do the same thing with 2000 more guests to get them onto the ship. Celebrity did an incredible job and all this was done within 24 hours time.

I feel your post is tongue in cheek. You did not mind, but you seemed to think your issue (which was resolved)was worse than what happened to us. Perhaps it was. I am sure I would have been more stressed with that happening to me in Italy than if such had happened when I boarded in the US.

Well you are right about one thing. We knew about the issue back in July so I guess we should have canceled our Silhouette cruise before final payment huh? I just thought Celebrity would have taken better care of us as they have always done that in the past.

 

Perhaps we should have switched to the Reflection which had almost the same ports (San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maarten-so St. Thomas instead of St. Kitts) but left a day early. Especially since she was the same in cost.

 

Does anyone know if the Reflection was able to make all of her ports?

[momofmeg]

The Silhouette's wake on Nov. 13, during the transatlantic. We could definitely see the difference. (BTW, we were doing about 18-19 knots during the crossing.)

 

 

(turtles06)

 

We were told in the 10:30 am meeting November 29 ( Saturday) in the show theater by a ship's officer that her max was 17 knots. I wonder if that means she is getting worse?

[c-legs]

We were told in the 10:30 am meeting November 29 ( Saturday) in the show theater by a ship's officer that her max was 17 knots. I wonder if that means she is getting worse?

Other pictures ,taken ''later'' , give a ''dead give away tell tale sign'' that the starboard azipod is working at 70% capacity....thus the overall maximum current speed of ~~ 17kt.

That ''70% limit on an ailing azipod'' is a familiar scene....over the past 12-13 years, all lines have experienced the now too annoyingly familiar situation where one of the azipods develops the problem, you reduce the output to 70% until it's time to visit the yard. etc.etc...a noticeable number of ships on all those lines, not only Celebrity.

The ripple effects are predictable , $$$-wise, for the operating sides....The PR damage because the officers do not handle it straight forward with the impacted guests, well..that's another story. Celebrity has unfortunately conditionned us to a rather unsatisfactory way of handling those issues over the years.:(

Cheers

[momofmeg]

Other pictures ,taken ''later'' , give a ''dead give away tell tale sign'' that the starboard azipod is working at 70% capacity....thus the overall maximum current speed of ~~ 17kt.

That ''70% limit on an ailing azipod'' is a familiar scene....over the past 12-13 years, all lines have experienced the now too annoyingly familiar situation where one of the azipods develops the problem, you reduce the output to 70% until it's time to visit the yard. etc.etc...a noticeable number of ships on all those lines, not only Celebrity.

The ripple effects are predictable , $$$-wise, for the operating sides....The PR damage because the officers do not handle it straight forward with the impacted guests, well..that's another story. Celebrity has unfortunately conditionned us to a rather unsatisfactory way of handling those issues over the years.:(

Cheers

 

Well, it would have been nice if they had been honest and just said at 11 am Tuesday that it would be time to leave SJ when we arrived so we were skipping; instead of saying we would be late. Instead we were told told 2 hours later since we would only have 3 hours there they made the decision to cancel. that made many think it was simply the propulsion problem as to why we was missing SJ.

 

As I said though, we should have switched to the Reflection back in August before final payment.

[JoePatNYCT]

This clearly isn't a new problem with the azipod. And I agree that if Celebrity was honest at the time I booked, it would have been easy to leave a day earlier and switch to the Reflection, instead of this nonsense.

 

At best, it doesn't appear that Celebrity is too concerned with pleasing its customers. They clearly are not winning any points with their target market-- the young upscales who share info on social media (like CC).

 

And if Celebrity KNEW that it was physically impossible for the ship to get to San Juan on time and KNEW it would have to miss the port (both BIG ifs), then, at worst, they are guilty of consumer fraud for continuing to advertise and sell an itinerary they couldn't deliver.

Edited December 4, 2014 by JoePatNYCT

[cruisecat1965]

We are booked on the 1/11/15 Western Caribbean cruise on the Silhouette. Based on an earlier post here it looks like that tour is not effected by the slower speed. We are pretty new to cruising but have 3 booked for next year. LOL This will be our first on Celebrity so hopefully it will be a good experience.

Edited December 4, 2014 by cruisecat1965

[momofmeg]

We are booked on the 1/11/15 Western Caribbean cruise on the Silhouette. Based on an earlier post here it looks like that tour is not effected by the slower speed. We are pretty new to cruising but have 3 booked for next year. LOL This will be our first on Celebrity so hopefully it will be a good experience.

 

That is the first cruise AFTER drydock so all should be good.

[karena1]

Going on Silhouette next Dec, cannot wait!