'Twas the Week Before Christmas – A seasonal review of the Silhouette

[coldweathergirl]

Hi Coldweathergirl,

 

 

 

Thanks for checking out the review and glad it is helping to get you excited for your upcoming trip. Family time together is really what it is all about when the "kids" are no longer kids.

 

 

 

How far north in Ontario are you? I have a sister-in-law who is moving to Moose Factory in a couple of weeks....they will be very north!

 

 

 

Stay warm and safe travels!

 

Jerry

 

 

We're about the same parallel up north only closer to the Manitoba border. Small gold mining town of Red Lake.

 

Tell her to pack her woollies. It's chilly up here right now. Makes for a good excuse to get out and go south!

 

Good luck to your SIL on her move.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[cruisinskier]

We went up to the Lawn Club where they were having a wine & cheese for sail-away....

 

 

 

They had blankets out on the grass and small wooden "tables" for the wine

 

 

 

Carly & the King were performing here...

 

 

It was a different venue and enjoyable as we sailed away....

 

[cruisinskier]

The main pool area was busy with those wanting the last of the day's sun....

 

 

[cruisinskier]

Next we actually went to the gym for a workout before dinner. And then we watched the sunset from our balcony.....

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

And a few more....

 

 

 

And it was over for another day....

 

[cruisinskier]

We're about the same parallel up north only closer to the Manitoba border. Small gold mining town of Red Lake.

 

Tell her to pack her woollies. It's chilly up here right now. Makes for a good excuse to get out and go south!

 

Good luck to your SIL on her move.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Thanks coldweathergirl!

 

My SIL is actually spending a week in Cuba before her move north. And yes she will need those woolies! :D

 

Stay warm!

Jerry

[cruisinskier]

We had dinner reservations tonight at Tuscan Grill to celebrate our son's birthday!

 

The interesting mural in the hallway heading to the specialty restaurants

 

 

Arriving at Tuscan Grill

 

 

Sorry but for some reason I did not get photos of the menu here...the food and service were great!

 

Ravioli starters....

 

 

A goat cheese salad!!

 

 

The Caprese salad

 

[cruisinskier]

The filet mignon...cooked perfect!

 

 

My wife had the sea bass

 

 

Each main came with a choice of 2 sides

 

[cruisinskier]

We really enjoyed our meal in Tuscan Grill and would definitely recommend for a nice night out!

 

Time for dessert!

 

 

 

And then they brought out something for the birthday boy! (They then delivered this to the room given we just had dessert)

 

 

And we finished with Limoncello!

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

We stopped into the Ensemble Lounge to watch some of Johnny Java Mantra (sorry for the poor quality of the photo)

 

 

We then stopped into the theatre to see the end of Joel Mason's show (he is an Elton John impersonator with great personality) . He was very good! Overall, the attendance at the shows we did see this week was the lowest of any cruise we have done to date. I did not take any photos during the show.

 

 

After the show, we made our way back to the cabins and found it was now decorated!

 

 

 

 

We may have finished the wine on the balcony as the evening came to an end......

[Sparky333]

Glad they decorated the right cabin when they finally did it :p

 

Thanks for going to the trouble of checking on the Nachi Cocum site regarding lockers. We can always ask some other folks nearby to keep an eye out if there aren't lockers.

[suntan]

cruisinskier - Thank you for the memories. We were on the Silhouette in Sept. 2014 in the Med. Great pictures. What type of camera are you using?

[cruisinskier]

cruisinskier - Thank you for the memories. We were on the Silhouette in Sept. 2014 in the Med. Great pictures. What type of camera are you using?

 

Hi Suntan,

Always glad to bring back some memories of past trips!

 

As far as the camera goes, i am not one to lug around a big DSLR. I prefer the convenience of having something compact that will fit in my pocket and that I can easily carry with me for my trips. After some research, we bought a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V. It is a great little camera, basically a higher end point and shoot. It has a 16x optical zoom, 16.2 MP, and full 1080 HD video. It is not great in low light but otherwise it has worked well for us over the past few years.

 

Thanks for your interest and safe travels!

Jerry

[cruisinskier]

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

 

 

[cruisinskier]

We were up early and had breakfast again in the Oceanview Cafe. The omelette station was very good with lots of choices (they also did eggs, french toast, etc). Shortly after 9 am, we headed over to get in line for tender tickets, arriving around 9:10. There were maybe 50 people on front of us.

 

 

They started giving out tickets right at 9:30. We had tender group 4 which we felt was good and may help us get off the ship a little earlier.

 

By the time we were leaving the line was very long

 

 

We wandered some on the outside of deck 5. It is not a full promenade deck but basically you can walk outside between the two sets of elevators

 

 

 

There are some chairs to sit and watch the world go by

 

[cruisinskier]

Next we went back to the cabin for a while given we were not scheduled to arrive in Grand Cayman until 11:00 am.

 

They did wash down the balcony each morning due to soot from the smoke stacks. We were also given an extra set of towels to use to sit on the balcony chairs. We did notice some soot but not enough to make it an issue. We would book aft cabins again for sure!

 

 

You can see some soot by the drains in this pic

 

 

But this view is more than worth it!!!

 

[cruisinskier]

We headed back to the upper decks to watch our arrival into Grand Cayman.

 

 

Selfie time

 

 

We had some friends in port

 

 

[cruisinskier]

We were starting to see that nice blue shade of the water

 

 

 

 

The first tender boat was waiting for us to arrive.

 

[cruisinskier]

Chicken on the high seas :) Actually we are almost stopped and tender is moving in.

 

 

 

Now that we had arrived, we decided to grab a quick snack at the buffet before we headed off...

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

 

 

 

 

We found the bar in the Oceanview was typically less crowded in the evenings and also a great spot to grab bottles water before heading off

 

[cruisinskier]

We ended up arriving about 30 minutes late t Grand Cayman (in addition to our already shortened itinerary). Around 11:40 they called tender #'s 1 & 2. And then all was quiet for well over 30 minutes. Yes I know this was to allow all suite guests and those who had booked Celebrity Shore excursions to get off first.

 

But then they called tender numbers 3-9 all at once causing major congestion on the lower floors, the stairs, etc. This did not seem like a great idea as it was wall to wall people pushing to get off.

 

Eventually we did get to the front and onto a tender.

 

 

They were loading the next tender as soon as we pulled away

 

 

 

 

We were docked the furthest away from the actual pier

 

 

But soon we were on land

 

[cruisinskier]

When planning what to do in Grand Cayman, we had previously done the stingrays and visited Hell and the turtle farm. This time were we looking to spend more time on Seven Mile Beach.

 

We hopped in a taxi and were headed to the Westin where we had arranged a day pass. Cost was $119 for a day pass, it includes an actual room, internet, and use of all facilities. Unlike some more expensive day passes, it does not include drinks or food however we found both to be reasonably priced.

 

Given the delay in arriving and the slow tenders, it was almost 1:00pm by the time we actually arrived at the Westin. Check-in was quick and we enjoyed the property, just wish we had more time there....

 

 

The lobby

 

 

Our room

 

 

Yes the kids were already logged in...

 

 

 

 

We actually used the room more than I thought we would. It was great to lock up the valuables, have our own restroom, and we used the showers before heading back out...

[cruisinskier]

 

The weather had changed and it was quiet cloudy but we still enjoyed the beach and pool areas...luckily the rain held off!

 

 

There were some ominous clouds...

 

 

Nice pool!

 

 

 

And no crowds....

 

[cruisinskier]