BEAUTIFUL SILHOUETTE - East Caribbean - Photo Video Trip Report 3/1/15

[FRMPEI]

Camera and Tech (finally done)

 

I love taking videos that I turn into time-lapse in video post production. ( I use Final Cut Pro X) I will take a 1 hour video clip just to get maybe a 3 to 5 second clip. So for my time-lapses I generally fix my cameras on Joby Gorilla Pods. Problem with these are when they get a little old the legs break apart easy. They are real good when they are new. Joby this past year released a new take on Joby pod and call it their Joby Gorilla Pod Action. I like to call it a clamp.

 

So here is a photo of all the camera and Go Pro mounts I took along with. They were all in my carryon except for the GoPole and Monopod stick. Missing from the picture is my GoPole SceneLapse (fancy name for an egg timer that you can mount a camera or GoPro on)

 

 

One final pick of the Action pods (clamps) my new favourite. I was able to get so neat Go Pro footage from our balcony by clamping up high.

 

 

Here is a picture of the Pod clamped. Look close you should be able to see it.

 

 

Proof the GoPro can take a good picture with enough light.

 

 

Well that is it for the tech thing. Please ask any question or comments. I love tech things.

 

Next up we are driving to Moncton to get this thing started.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

That zip line video was awesome!

 

Firstly thank you for your kind comments on the Video. Cruise Critic members seem to love their photos rather than videos. It is hard to get someone to click a video. I love when someone adds a link to a video in their posts. Either Adam or I will editing up a new 2015 version and posting here.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[Coolcruise02]

Can't wait for more!! And, loved our visit to PEI! :)

[poffles]

Thanks for your patience they are coming I promise. Just for you I have a shot of our favourite meeting spot on Deck 10.

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

 

This picture is beautiful. The sharpness and the colours make this seem like I am there and so inviting I want to make this my meeting place in two weeks on the Reflection!

[laurieal]

Flags(for sail-a-way)

 

You mentioned the flags and it made me realize I think I saw you leaving Fort Lauderdale!

 

Did you get a webcam wave? Red shirts? Lots of towel waving action? Canada and PEI flags?

[Bimmer09]

Kevin-thanks for giving us the breakdown of you cameras and accessories- do you have a roadie to help you with all that tackle? LOL.

Are you using Photoshop for the captioning?

 

Count me in as a video lover in cruise reviews-the more cruise info that comes my way the better and if a picture's worth a thousand words then an added video must be worth a million.

 

"we went zip lining" vs "here is the zip lining video" and we are immediately there with you zipping through the trees.

 

Is your snow melting yet?

 

Cheers,

 

Norris

[PathfinderEss]

Awesome photo's, thanks for posting. Looking forward to more of the same.:D

[psternklar]

Thanks so much for your hard work. We (me and DW) are booked on our first X cruise, same itinerary, in Jan. I look forward to more!

[wildcrazyatver]

Thanks so much for your enthusiasm and all the great shots

We also from the Maritimes and know how you feel about the snow

Actually another 20cm or so just last night so I know where your coming from

We have (family) friends whom live in Carleton PEI

Anyways this will be our first time with X and on the sister ship to Silhouette the Reflection. Sailing Dec 12th to 19th

Really looking forward to more of your review and our trip in Dec which s also a first for us as we usually sail in Feb

My question to you is about Northern and the All Inclusive deal

I did lots of research on the subject and I think its a good deal and we probably would have acted on it but a friend of ours got a lot of air miles and we ended up getting airfare for about 800 for both and our cruise for a Aqua class cabin was only $2400US so I think we made the right choice and of course the Free Beverage and free Prepaid Gratuities and OBC of $100 so we couldn't go wrong. Keep up you great review.

[FRMPEI]

Can't wait for more!! And, loved our visit to PEI! :)

 

You officially have the coolest name for a place to live. I am pretty familiar with Ohio but I didn't know where Coolville was until I Googled it. So glad you loved your visit to MY Island. Stayed tuned.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

You mentioned the flags and it made me realize I think I saw you leaving Fort Lauderdale!

 

Did you get a webcam wave? Red shirts? Lots of towel waving action? Canada and PEI flags?

 

YES! that was us if you were watching the March 1 Port Everglades webcam. We had a Canada Flag with a Nova Scotia flag to the left and a PEI flag to the right. Six of us waving to the webcam. I had sent a request for the wave. Went to purchase video today but their new purchase site is not ready yet.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Kevin-thanks for giving us the breakdown of you cameras and accessories- do you have a roadie to help you with all that tackle? LOL.

Are you using Photoshop for the captioning?

 

Count me in as a video lover in cruise reviews-the more cruise info that comes my way the better and if a picture's worth a thousand words then an added video must be worth a million.

 

"we went zip lining" vs "here is the zip lining video" and we are immediately there with you zipping through the trees.

 

Is your snow melting yet?

Cheers,

Norris

 

I know some would find the tech stuff boring even Donna found that boring. I don't care because I love it. NO Roadie.:)

 

You and I are in the minority for videos. I try to do a good job on my videos and not make them too long or boring. I have a 49 minute video up on my Vimeo channel from last year's cruise but, I do give fore warning in my description that it is long may be boring.

 

SNOW please stop! It is SPRING already. Went back to Moncton yesterday for a Hockey Game and it amazed us the amount of snow on the sides of the roads. Just literally mountains of snow. We had EPIC snow storms this winter.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Awesome photo's, thanks for posting. Looking forward to more of the same.:D

 

Thank You! Stay tuned lots more to come.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[kennedybren]

Celebrity Canadian Charter Chosen

 

Last year while i was working on the my Equinox Trip Report Donna was busy on the Celebrity website checking out a cruise for 2015. We were sure we wanted to take our boys again with us. Donna was honed in on a Equinox 10 day Concierge cabin for around $1600 per person. We had it all planned out and Nolan even checked out there was a NHL Florida Panther Game the night before were were to leave. But we waited to long and the price jumped well over $2000 per person and that did not include airfares. Spring had sprung and the summer rolled around and we were not really thinking of cruises until this appeared in our local new paper:

 

 

I started the below thread on July 19/14 regarding this ad in our local paper:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2073739

 

The boys past two cruises were both west Caribbean and basically the same ports of calls. So that is why the 10 Day Equinox was attractive with its non West Caribbean ports. The Celebrity Canadian charters out of the Maritimes offered two choices 1) Halifax, Nova Scotia leaving on Saturdays aboard the Celebrity Reflection and 2) Moncton, New Brunswick leaving on Sundays aboard Celebrity Silhouette. We had already narrowed down the first week of March as Nolan's ideal non game missing timeframe. Personally my first choice was Reflection because Donna and I had done a B2B on Silhouette March 2013. But for the first week in March Reflection was doing a West Caribbean and Silhouette was doing East. Silhouette won out because of firstly it was East and it included St. Maarten and Maho beach. Travel wise from PEI Halifax is about a 3.5 hour drive while Moncton is just over a 2 hour drive. Here is the bonus Nolan checks the Charlottetown Islanders' schedule and we were playing the Moncton Wildcats the night before the cruise.

 

We phoned our travel agent, Carla, and told her to book rooms 1093 and 1095 for us. This would mark the earliest we had ever purchased a cruise. Normally we don't shop until September for the following March. But this newspaper ad moved up our decision to July. The Plan was for just the four of us to travel. Since Donna and I had just become Elite we figured we would book each one of us in the two cabins so our cabin mates (our sons) would also benefit from our new found Elite Status perks. Well that idea fell threw because I mentioned to my sister , "did you see the ad in the Guardian?". I told her that we already booked and she figure she would too. My sister, Michele, and Louis had only cruise once with Carnival about 25 years ago BK (before kid). I went online found that room 1091 was still available so she contacted our travel agent and was booked also. So there goes the Elite Breakfast and cocktail hour because my sister had no Captain club status other than Preview. We were not going to attend those things without them. No big deal.

 

Here is copy of the Moncton (YQM) Celebrity Canadian Charter I picked this up at a local Travel agent. I edited out their name.

 

 

Price $2350.00 CDN per person. Here is what it included:

C2 Concierge Cabin

Return Air from Moncton, NB to Miami, FL

Classic Alcohol Beverage package

Prepaid Gratuities

Transfer From Miami Airport to Port Everglades

Transfer From Port Everglades to Miami Airport

Other:

No $25 per bag per trip fee (Thank you Air Canada)

No $20 per seat per trip fee advance seat selection (Thank you again Air Canada)

No $$$ charged for in flight meals, drinks, or headphones.

 

Now what our American friends don't quite understand about this deal is that the price of the flight is included. At first look to them they think it is not really a good deal. But we Canadian do not have a SouthWest type of Airlines in Canada and we can easliy pay in excess of $800-1000 per person for flights. (thanks again Air Canada). We just can't fly for $200 like our neighbours to the south.

 

So this is were Kevin out smarted himself and actually made a mistake in choosing his rooms. Take note of this because I may never admit I screwed up again. With your captains club you get one free upgrade within your class so we booked a C2 cabin at the C3 price. Personally I have no problem with C3 cabins and actually I think I prefer their location over the C2. Call me crazy. The whole idea of booking cabins beside each other is that it allows you to open up the balcony divider between you. But the location of our deck 10 C2 cabins have that diagonal support pole coming down in between each pair of balconies. The C3 cabins on Deck 10 aft do not have this problem because that diagonal support pole is one deck up on Deck 11. But with sister Michele joining us and three cabins there would be diagonal pole. If only I had studied more closely the deck plan I would discover that 1095 and 1093 were indeed the balconies with the diagonal pole coming down it was actually rooms 1093 and 1091 with joining balconies. Donna and I ended up with 1093 with the bed near the sliding balcony which is opposite to what we prefer. No big Deal.

 

If you look between the humps on the scan below you can see the diagonal support poles.

 

 

Attached below is scan of Deck 10 with the location of our rooms.

 

 

 

Here is a picture of the Diagonal pole between our cabin 1093 and the boys 1095. Adam posing for sail-a-way.

 

 

So that is story of how we ended up with the Celebrity Canadian Charter. A big thank you to Celebrity for thinking of us Eastern Canadians, please bring it back for 2016.

 

Next up - Let get to YQM.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

Ken this will be our 2nd Canadian Charter out of Hamilton. Reflection last year and Silhouette this year!! Here's hoping they also add a 10 days Canadian Charter!! Keeping my finger's crossed for that one!! Last year they also had Canadian Charter to Alaska and Bermuda!! Way to go Celebrity and let's keep it going!!

 

Thanks for all your insight on Silhouette!! Will make my cruise even better!!

[FRMPEI]

Thanks so much for your hard work. We (me and DW) are booked on our first X cruise, same itinerary, in Jan. I look forward to more!

 

Hi psternklar,

 

I am sure you will find your first X very enjoyable. It will be quite different from your recent Carnival cruise. Not that I dislike Carnival it is just a different market. As you can tell form my signature I have one Carnival cruise to my credit.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid.

[FRMPEI]

Thanks so much for your enthusiasm and all the great shots

We also from the Maritimes and know how you feel about the snow

Actually another 20cm or so just last night so I know where your coming from

We have (family) friends whom live in Carleton PEI

Anyways this will be our first time with X and on the sister ship to Silhouette the Reflection. Sailing Dec 12th to 19th

Really looking forward to more of your review and our trip in Dec which s also a first for us as we usually sail in Feb

My question to you is about Northern and the All Inclusive deal

I did lots of research on the subject and I think its a good deal and we probably would have acted on it but a friend of ours got a lot of air miles and we ended up getting airfare for about 800 for both and our cruise for a Aqua class cabin was only $2400US so I think we made the right choice and of course the Free Beverage and free Prepaid Gratuities and OBC of $100 so we couldn't go wrong. Keep up you great review.

 

Hello Fellow Maritimer.

 

Our cruise partner Ken and Norma Jean just got off Reflection yesterday. They did the Canadian Charter out of Halifax. I sent Ken a heads up text telling him that his car would more than likely be buried in the Holiday Inn's Parking lot. Norma Jean's Bother who lives in Halifax spent over an hour digging the snow away from the front of his car.

 

We did Aqua last year on Equinox - not really for us. But was just or experience. If you have a chance take a look at my Equinox Trip Report from last year where I cover Aqua. Link also in my signature.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2017737

 

This is what my loving wife says when she hears people on the ship talking about their "great cruise deal". "What you and I might consider to a good deal could be two different things." Bottom line as long as you feel comfortable with your price then it was good deal.

 

Have a great future Cruise on Reflection.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Ken this will be our 2nd Canadian Charter out of Hamilton. Reflection last year and Silhouette this year!! Here's hoping they also add a 10 days Canadian Charter!! Keeping my finger's crossed for that one!! Last year they also had Canadian Charter to Alaska and Bermuda!! Way to go Celebrity and let's keep it going!!

 

Thanks for all your insight on Silhouette!! Will make my cruise even better!!

 

Agree with everything your said. I just hope Celebrity continues this for us Canadians.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[quiltingdiva]

 

Hi Kevin,

This looks like the perfect carry-on for our trip to the Mediterranean this fall. Would you mind sharing the brand of this suitcase and maybe the approximate size?

 

Thank you!

[poffles]

Agree with everything your said. I just hope Celebrity continues this for us Canadians.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

 

Me too! At least that's my thoughts for now, guess I should hold judgment until actually gone and experienced it LOL

Edited March 22, 2015 by poffles

[FRMPEI]

....

Are you using Photoshop for the captioning?

Norris

 

I missed this on my reply to you.

 

No I do not use Photoshop. I have an iMac and I simply use the annotate function in the Apple Photo Preview app. Also use the free Border FX plug-in for Aperture for titles.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

 

Hi Kevin,

This looks like the perfect carry-on for our trip to the Mediterranean this fall. Would you mind sharing the brand of this suitcase and maybe the approximate size?

 

Thank you!

 

Ask and you shall receive. The make is Bently - Maybe just a brand name her in Canada. We ordered at a trade show and put our company logo on the front. Approx dimensions 16"wide X 13" Tall x 9" Deep.

 

A couple of extra pics below. Complete with Sammy's cat hair.

 

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[quiltingdiva]

Thank you! Yes, Bentley seems to be a Canadian brand, but the dimensions are very helpful. We may end up with a TravelPro carry on but still looking...

 

The pics are great!

[nolman29]

You mentioned the flags and it made me realize I think I saw you leaving Fort Lauderdale!

 

Did you get a webcam wave? Red shirts? Lots of towel waving action? Canada and PEI flags?

 

I had my Team Canada olympic hockey jersey on too during the wave!

[FRMPEI]

 

Day 0 - Moncton YQM - Charlottetown Islander Hockey

 

Saturday February 28, 2015 we are finally ready to leave this EPIC winter we are having here on Prince Edward Island. The weather forecast for this Saturday/Sunday believe it or not is NO Snow or Storm just beautiful sunshine.

 

I am now ready to start using the notes that I had jotted down in my notebook. Three sets of luggage packed in the CRV for the 2 hour drive over to Moncton. While sister Michele would meet us over there. Temperature of -15C to greet us for our trip over. To get off our lovely Island you only have two choices 1) Fly 2) $45.50 Confederation Toll Bridge. The Confederation Bridge opened in 1997 and replaced the Marine Atlantic Car Ferry. Cost $1.3B 12.9KM long and at its time of opening it was longest bridge in the world over open water. Our Bridge will some times close itself to high sides vehicles during high winds and only on a few occasions does it close completely. During our big Valentine's storm this past month it closed completed when winds in excess of 130kms occurred. These winds snapped off 11 light standards and further damaged 17 which were required to be removed. We were counting the missing poles on our way across.

 

Pic of our Confederation Bridge and light standards that survived.

 

 

Us Islanders go to Moncton for generally for one reason: 1) Shop at Costco or Champlain Mall. Probably the reason why they will not build a Costco here is it would hurt Moncton's. LOL!

 

We didn't need anything at Costco so headed straight to the mall for some lunch before Adam arrived from Halifax. Nolan and I love Teriyaki Experience and that is what we normally get.

 

Nolan saving the table at theChamplain Mall food fair while Donna gets her lunch.

 

 

Beside being here for the cruise we are also here to watch our Charlottetown Islanders take on the Moncton Wildcats. Look who Nolan runs into at the mall? It is Wild Willie the Wildcat's mascot. Wild Willie was very good to pose for a picture with the enemy in the Islanders Cap. Nolan used this photo as his Facebook profile picture.

 

 

Of course Donna runs into sister Michele at the mall. Michele had already finished her shopping at Costco and bought Louis a pair of panting that required hemming. Look at Donna being the good sister-in-law and doing the hemming.

 

 

Adam arrived at the Moncton airport via Maritime Bus at 4:30 PM which was only minutes from the Holiday Inn Express where we were staying. I booked the Hotel in July because I figured it would fill up quick. Good thing because this week was also New Brunswick's March break. The hotel was $180 for the night which also included parking for the week. I hate to harp on the snow all the time but it is hard not too. In the hotel lot there were quite a few cars still buried in snow from the previous storm. I made sure for my parking spot that I was backed in and took a shovel from home just in case. Thankfully when we got back my CRV looked like I left it and had no snow around it. Unlike my poor travel partner Ken who just arrived home in Halifax yesterday from Reflection to a HUGE mess.

 

Our lovely accommodations for the night in Moncton.

 

 

There was no big pre cruise night meal to report on because none of us were really that hungry so we figured we would just get something at the Moncton Coliseum during the hockey game. Michele and Louis would not be joining us for the hockey game.

 

Next up Islanders vs. Wildcats.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Islanders vs Moncton

 

The game was at 7:00 PM but Nolan feels he must be at the game at least one hour before. Why? He had to check in with Moncton's media to get his media credentials which would allow him access to the players. He also picks up his media press kits which allows him to tweet out his pre-game tweets such as starting line up, line match ups, scratches and other stats.

 

 

Make no mistake about it Major Junior Hockey is big business in Canada. The CHL is were the top players are drafted into the NHL. Some of these kids after they are drafted and still playing in major junior are making up to $100K and more. But they still call it amateur hockey. LOL!

 

Opening face-off

 

 

Nolan sporting his partisan Islanders Jersey in a visting rink.

 

 

Unfortunately we did not fare very well this evening we went down to defeat 4-1. We were lucky enough to break Wildcats' goalie bid for a shut out late in the third period. The good news is that we returned to Moncton yesterday for our final game of the regular season(before playoffs) and beat the Wildcats in a wild one 7-6.

 

After the game we waited for Nolan to get his interviews with a couple of the Islanders players and were back at the hotel by 10:30 PM. We put our Celebrity luggage tags on our bags and took all the stuff that was not headed to Florida such as winters coats etc back to the CRV. Alarm was set for 4:30 AM. Not sure how well any of us slept I think I got a bit of sleep.

 

Next Up Day 1 - Canadian North Celebrity Experience

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid