Silhouette Oct 22 to Nov 5 plus pre-sail touring time

[2calgarycruisers]

This was my third cruise, hubbie's second and our first on Celebrity, and our first visit to any of the cruise ports - this is my first cruise report. We are an active couple in our early fifties who love to travel much more than we get the opportunity to enjoy. Since we were travelling so far (from Calgary) we decided to take advantage and spend an extra week pre-cruise in Italy.

[2calgarycruisers]

As we were travelling on points we had to fly into Naples and out of Rome. We were extremely fortunate to be able to fly business class on Turkish Airlines. Do not be nervous to fly this airline, they were amazing beginning to end. Our first flight was Calgary to Toronto on Air Canada then Turkish Airlines from Calgary to Istanbul, Istanbul to Naples. Unfortunately we were unable to enjoy the lounge in istanbul (have heard it's amazing) as we only had a 1 1/2 hour layover. We barely made the connection. Service was topnotch. Food was a bit disappointing from Toronto to Istanbul as we had set our expectations quite high but was amazing on our flight from Istanbul. Reason for that I'm guessing is that it was actually authentic on the last leg as opposed to "Canadian Turkish food" from Toronto. The airport in Istanbul did not appear to be on high alert and we saw no extra security there more than anywhere else. Business class on the last leg was quiet, only four of us with two attendants so we got lots of attention. We even had our turkish coffee grounds read which was a fun experience. We chatted with the other couple as we were going through security and found he was the Regional Manager for Turkish Airlines and gave us his card. Turns out that was incredibly lucky as I left my iPad on board. He very very kindly arranged to have it delivered to our hotel. Like I said amazing service. We arrived in Naples around 6pm on Sunday after starting our journey at 12:30pm the previous day from Calgary. Surprisingly we were buzzed on excitement and still had energy.

We negotiated a taxi fare and headed off to our hotel. We stayed at the Ramada on points which was close to the main train station. While we had read that the area could be seedy and unsafe we did not feel that way. The hotel was fine, very pleasant staff, clean but needs a refresh. We checked in and headed out for a random walk. We were stuffed from constant eating for two days so stopped at an outside cafe, had a glass of wine then headed to bed.

[2calgarycruisers]

I just want to talk a bit about safety here as I had stated we did not feel unsafe in Naples. We didn't feel unsafe anywhere on our trip but we were prepared and kept our wits about us. We both wore pacsafe small backpacks that lock, are uncuttable and unskimmable and hubby also had on a money belt. The backpacks were large enough to hold phone, iPad, bottle of water, sunglasses, fruit etc but not big enough to be called a backpack where we would have had to remove it to go in to view sights. Also not big or heavy enough to cause sore shoulders on long days. Despite our backpacks being very safe, if we felt we were in a pickpocket area (trains etc) we still wore our backpacks on our fronts. We also of course always used the hotel safes. The area around the train station in Naples is seedy and rundown and garbage everywhere but we stayed to bright lit streets and there were always lots of people around.

[2calgarycruisers]

We woke up early the next day as we had a busy day ahead of us. We headed down for breakfast which was very good - primarily continental but still had some hot items. Italians sure love their cakes for breakfast! We noticed that everywhere we travelled. We were spending the next night in Positano then back to Naples so we left our luggage in the hotel and had packed a big backpack with overnight stuff to take with us. We had a short walk to the train station and headed to Pompeii. Once in Pompeii we checked the big backpack in the complimentary lockers. We had decided to do Pompeii with Rick Steves audio guide but when we got there we found that hubby had not downloaded it so we bought one audio guide and I used Rick Steves guide. This did NOT work as we were headed to different places listening to different things. If we were to do it again we would go on a guided tour. Pompeii was of course amazing and so humbling to realize what an advanced society it was. I wore a Garmin Vicoactive HR and we walked 20km on this day..... Once we were sated with Pompeii (we spent about 3.5 hours there) we headed back to the train station and onto Sorrento.

[2calgarycruisers]

We hopped off in Sorrento and onto the bus for Positano. Warning here - there was a stand set up outside of the the bus stop with someone selling tickets. We assumed it was an official person. I believe the ticket was 8.5 euros which I thought was expensive for a one way trip. We found out later that he was a private seller and we actually bought a ticket that was valid for 24 hours unlimited. I'm going out a limb here and guess that the majority of people taking this bus would not need this. You can buy a one way or round trip ticket inside the station. It seemed to take forever to get out of Sorrento but once we did the scenery along the Amalfi Coast was something one must see at least once in a lifetime, that is, if your heart can take the white knuckle drive. The hotel had advised that they were about 200 metres from the bus stop, sounds an easy stroll right? Well, I failed to check to see if there were was more than one bus stop in Positano. There is - one at the top of the town and one at the base - our hotel is the highest hotel in Positano. We missed the first stop and ended up down by the beach..... I wish I could figure out how to post pics on here so I could show you just how far away we were from our hotel. Positano it build into the side of the Amalfi coast - absolutely stunningly beautiful but not the easiest to move around. Luckily we had yet another amazing experience with locals and were given a ride up to the hotel by a very kind couple. We checked into the Hotel Villa Franca - wonderful staff and easy check in. We were taken to a beautiful room with a balcony overlooking Positano and the sea. Within a few minutes we were brought a couple of glasses of prosecco and some great sweet treats. The hotel has a lovely rooftop pool and bar but we didn't have time to enjoy. The hotel has a shuttle that takes you into town and back which is much appreciated as it's about 3500 steps down into town. We toured the town which was primarily tourist shops then had a disappointing dinner at Ristorante Saraceno D'Oro. Average food and less than average service I'm sorry to say.

[Texed]

We had decided to do Pompeii with Rick Steves audio guide. If we were to do it again we would go on a guided tour.

 

2Calgary,

 

I agree. The tour we took with a guide was MUCH better than the one we did without a guide.

 

And, thanks for posting. :)

[riclop]

Thanks for sharing.

[2calgarycruisers]

Thanks to both of you - I did hesitate as to whether to post our pre-cruise week but I just got so much amazing info from the boards I thought if it helped even one person it would be worth it, and if people don't want it and only want cruise info they can skip reading this part!

[2calgarycruisers]

Woke up early to get ready to the activity that brought us to the Amalfi coast in the first place - Path of the Gods hike. Had a fantastic breakfast, with hot food cooked to order and brought to your table as well as a large buffet. Also served in the breakfast room with an gorgeous view of Positano and the coast. We took the bus to Priano and once again (no we don't learn from our mistakes) got off the bus at the bottom of the town instead of the top which added another .5km to our already 1.3km hike up uneven stairs to reach the trailhead. Close to the start of the trailhead is a Monastery which from Priano looked unclimbable. Good - amazing views you could not see from anywhere else, no question as why it's called Path of the Gods. Not so great - it was a tougher hike than I had anticipated and we are in good shape, but to fair I haven't done any hiking other than marked paths, hubby wasn't surprised. Lots of up and down, loose rocks, both in an out of trees and narrow paths on the seafront. Am I glad I did it? Absolutely - off the bucket list - would I do it again? I wouldn't go out of my way to do it but if we there again I probably would. At the end we had the same climb down from Nocelle to Positano. We then headed back to Naples to overnight. We had pizza at Antica Pizzeria - huge lineup of locals at 10:30pm on a Sunday night - good pizza, good local experience and very light on the wallet.

[2calgarycruisers]

We spent the morning walking around in old Naples. We had originally planned on doing the National Archeological Museum but that would have eaten up all our time in Naples - pretty where we were - a definite contrast to the main train area. We headed to Rome in the early afternoon and checked into the Rome Cavalieri. I had chosen this hotel as we were able to do three nights on $ plus points or else would have chosen something central in Rome. As it was, it worked out great for us. It's a beautiful hotel with gorgeous rooms and we had a panoramic view of Rome. We changed and headed to the pools and spa - great Roman experience. We walked to a restaurant about 20 minutes and had a great meal with shaved truffle pasta - I so love truffles.......

[2calgarycruisers]

Had an amazing breakfast - we are gold Hilton so the cost of breakfast was 20 euros, otherwise it's 38 euros per person (!!!) - it was definitely worth 20, not sure any breakfast is worth 38. We then took the hotel shuttle bus to Piazza Barberini and did our tour of Rome for the day. We primarily followed Rick Steves heart of Rome tour with a few added side visits. I'm a Michelangelo groupie so had to search out what we could. Early evening we headed back to the hotel and ate at the same restaurant again - we were tired at this point and just needed something simple.

[2calgarycruisers]

Great breakfast again then we walked to the Vatican from our hotel, about a 40 minute walk - downhill on the way there but had to do the uphill on the way back, would have preferred the reverse... We went through some not tourist Roman neighbourhoods which was great. We again used the Rick Steves tours of the St Peters and the Vatican Museums which were great. The Pieta is my favourite piece of art in the world and I had to choke back tears as I thought about all Mary experienced as the Mother of Jesus. After a long great day we headed back to the hotel and stopped for gelato on the way. We had booked dinner at the 3 star Michelin restaurant La Pergola several months ago so we dressed up and headed to the restaurant. We were given a lovely table with a breathtaking view with St Peters Basilica all lit up. Unfortunately it went downhill from there. Just as I was about to take a bit of my appetizer I saw a black curly hair cooked into the dish. It was whisked away and they offered to replace it but I was a bit queasy at that point. I ordered a truffle main dish and asked specifically how strong the truffle taste was as I love truffles and if I'm spending 75 euros on an entre I want to enjoy it. I couldn't even tell there was truffle in it and sent it away. Hubby thoroughly enjoyed his meal and we shared a delicious chocolate banana dessert. It was an extremely disappointing experience and with my food being removed, before tip it was still 200 euros and our wine was only 60 euros. Hard to recommend. Service was stilted and formal. The hotel however was really great, wouldn't hesitate to recommend or revisit - hotel and service was over the top.

[2calgarycruisers]

Again, another great breakfast and the weather was warm enough that we were able to sit outside by the pool - what a great start to our cruise day - I even enjoyed a Momosa today! I wasn't able to get a shared transfer to the port with our Roll Call as we were so far away from other hotels so I booked a shared transfer with civitavecciatorome. They arrived on time, we were the last pickup and we were whisked out to port. Checkin was quick and uneventful (could not have been anymore less painful than our last cruise out of Fort Lauderdale). We were handed a glass of bubbly as we boarded and we headed up the MDR to make our specialty dining reservations. We had pre bought the five night package. Kayla (from Murano) could not have been more accommodating. We asked to dine in the Lawn Club Grill instead of Murano on the fist night and also asked to substitute an extra Murano as opposed to Sushi on Five. She made a quick call and we were told no problem. Because she was such a great help we upgraded our beverage package with her so she would get the tip. We were pestered like crazy by people asked us to upgrade, it was quite irritating - when we told them we had already upgraded no one offered us a drink, they just walked away. We headed up the Oceanview for some lunch. It wasn't as crazy as had expected and got a table outside. We did enjoy this lunch but for me at least it was all downhill for the Oceanview for me from then on. We got into our balcony room 6300 and met our wonderful cabin steward Roger who was a pleasure our whole trip. It was a balcony guarantee and while we were obstructed looking down we had a clear view out to the sea and loved it - also had a much larger balcony than those above us. We then headed out to explore the ship and get ready for sailaway. I can't remember how we ended up separating but we agreed to meet at the Sunset Bar for sailaway. Somehow our wires got crossed and he ended up at the other end of the ship so we experienced our sailaway from Rome apart :(

[easyboy]

Thanks for sharing.

[Saab4444]

Thanks for your review. Was Captain Dimitrios Kafetzis still in charge? I try to figure out who will be board for our upcoming cruise. Thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[2calgarycruisers]

Thanks for your review. Was Captain Dimitrios Kafetzis still in charge? I try to figure out who will be board for our upcoming cruise. Thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Yes he was and he did a great job both as Captain and as entertainer!

[2calgarycruisers]

After the muster drill which for us was hosted in Qsine, we hiked around then picked up a glass of Chandon to enjoy while we got ready for dinner (turned into a nightly ritual). After we cleaned up we headed to the Martini Bar for a pre-dinner drink (again, turned into an almost daily ritual). I decided to turn dinner backwards and ordered a Creme Brûlée martini - yum.... I had read about it on CC and the bartender was surprised when I ordered it as they said it hadn't been on the menu for a couple of years. We then headed up to the deserted Lawn Club Grill for 8pm. As everywhere we asked for wine pairings and they did a lovely job of pairing with all wine items. We did fine a lovely red, Atalon that we fell in love with but ended up being out at many venues (including Cellar Masters where it was out of early in the cruise) later in the cruise. Although it was $14 a glass we were never charged any extra for it. While we were reluctant to have a flatbread (fancy name for pizza) as we didn't want to fill up on this we were persuaded to give it a try as I was promised they had real buffalo mozzarella. The margharita pizza was good but to us, nothing special. We picked at the salad bar but were trying to hold out for the star of the show - protein! While we didn't want to cook our own meat, hubby did want to learn from a real chef how to bbq a steak properly. As the restaurant was very quiet we received lots of great attention. The Chef was very helpful and spent lots of time with us. While we had just wanted beef (filet for me and ribeye for hubby) we were also persuaded to try lamb chops and a seafood skewer. We also ordered the lobster mac and cheese (just because we could). Hubby is still raving (as he did onboard to anyone that would listen) how much he loved his ribeye but the portion size was just too much. My filet was also fantastic, but again too big. Also really enjoyed the lamb chops but didn't really like the scallops. I thought I would never meet a scallop I didn't enjoy but it appears they were all residing aboard the Silhouette.

We missed the Beatles tribute show and wished we hadn't as we had heard after that it was really good. After dinner had a walk around then headed to bed.

[2calgarycruisers]

I wish I had kept the Celebrity Today flyers and pictures of the MDR menus. As I'm trying to plan the posts going forward things are not clear on a daily basis so I think going forward I won't do it on a daily basis but rather highlights.

[2calgarycruisers]

While we didn't eat dinner here, we ate breakfast and lunch several times and also some late afternoon pizza. I generally found the experience disappointing. Starting with breakfast - there was often long lines to get both eggs and toast, and if you walked away at the toast station while your toast was cooking, if someone came up and requested toast and yours was ready it was given away :mad:if you waited, then what was already on your plate got cold. If you got the food after your toast was cold (yes, I know first world problem). I have a serious issue with eggs that are not done well, they make me queasy to even look at. I tried twice to get eggs benny stressing eggs done very hard both times - and both times they came out with the white barely set. Breakfast over for me. I did like the english bangers, english bacon, smoked salmon (although I struggled to get cream cheese, there was a line of about 10 of us waiting for us, it wasn't even out on the buffet at that point). Lunch offerings I found were okay, some of the Indian was very good. I just can't think of one thing that stood our for me the whole time. Hubby was less critical and enjoyed his meals. And yes, we were the bad people who held a table while getting food as we found that if we didn't do that our already lukewarm food would be stone cold before we could find a table. We also found that by the time we received drinks, including breakfast our food would be done so by mid cruise, when we remembered we got our own drinks at the bar before getting our food. Servers were very pleasant and tables were cleaned quickly. I just think they need more servers. Maybe, as many upscale brunch places do, they should take toast and egg orders at the table, but again they would need more staff.

[2calgarycruisers]

We had several lunches in the MDR, two with others on some upcoming port tours and one with friends. Service was great and prompt, food came out hot and as ordered. I've looked for menus and can't find any. I had a disappointing sandwich (tasted like it had been held in a warming tray for awhile as the bread was very dried out and not much meat on it) but had a great tuna salad and I can't remember the third. Much, much better than Oceaniew IMHO.

 

We also ate breakfast in there were the same success, no problems. We even ate in the there on disembarkation day and they did a great job of feeding the masses and getting them out in a timely manner.

 

Dinner for us was hit and miss. We had the best ever prime rib we've ever had in our whole life, and a huge portion. I can taste it now.... but an absolutely inedible leg of lamb that we literally could not cut with the knife. Enjoyed the chicken liver parfait, duck terrine, pate, duck quenelles, tuna nicoise (you get the idea what I like). We rarely ate desserts but did enjoy the creme brullee.

 

We had Celebrity select dining and while we were always open to eating with others we were always seated on our own. We never had a wait unless we requested a window seat (which we often did) so the wait was fair. We generally ate after the activities at 8pm so around 8:30 to 8:45. We did not like either of the sommeliers that serviced the select dining area - felt they were a quite bossy and not really interested in pairing - "White or red?" was the only question asked when we told them what we were eating - and very rushed. We gave up and ordered our own. Then.... when we were in Israel for 3 days all seating was open and we ended up in the general dining room and had consistently fantastic sommeliers! They were not only knowledgeable and caring, but also friendly and funny. What a difference it made.

 

All in all we were very happy that we made the choice to purchase the 5 night speciality dining package. While the food in the MDR, and the choices were more than adequate the speciality dining venues were for us, what made dining on the cruise very special.

[amcco]

Thanks for reviewing. Sounds like a busy time pre-cruise!

[2calgarycruisers]

Thanks for reviewing. Sounds like a busy time pre-cruise!

 

It was crazy busy but loved it. It took us so long to get there to we figured we might as well take advantage of being there. This trip, including the cruise, was a trip which in order for you to experience it to the max you needed to be in good physical health, there were some days when we walked over 20km and walked up over 30 flights of stairs (I wear a fit band to track). We saw many people, and heard many complain on tours on how much walking there was and were unable to do and see as much as they wanted. I'm so happy (and blessed) that we were able to do this trip at 110% while we are still able to.

[2calgarycruisers]

I sounded like such a whiner in my last post about Oceanview I wanted to say that while Oceanview wasn't my favourite I think it dimmed more than it probably would because everything else on the cruise was amazing. Our cabin was in top shape, lots of storage, more than we could even use and we had four suitcases (two big and two small). We did have some pretty horrible pillows in the room but finally asked if we could switch them up mid cruise and were given great memory foam ones, just wish we had asked earlier. I haven't compared, but the cabin seemed much more roomy, and the bathroom bigger than the same level cabin we had on Explorer of the Seas. We were on the Explorer on the last cruise before the refurb and it did look tired and needed it. We did try room service breakfast on the first day in Israel and it was a pretty epic fail - based on conversations we heard it was an epic fail throughout the ship. I don't think we got one thing we ordered apart from coffee but lots of what we didn't. The coffee is undrinkable (a feeling mirrored by many) but maybe that's planned, if it was good everyone would order it in the am - what a nightmare for the RS team. While we didn't complain at all to anyone we came back to chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of Celebrity sparking wine and a note saying "compliments of the Room Service manager".... We loved our roomlocation as it was a hike from everything and we were trying to get in steps to work off all that booze and food and it was nice and quiet. We took the advice of others on CC and used the life jackets containers for foot rests of the balcony. I knew we wouldn't have body wash in the room so I collected some from the hotels in Rome to bring onboard. When I ran out of water in the room I would use the big bottle of Evian in room that comes with a charge and then just replace it when I hit the bar (big bottles of Evian are included on the premium plan). I must have timed it right as we were never charged. Don't forget your bottle of Downey Wrinkle Remover - a lifesaver when you have no iron.

[2calgarycruisers]

The activities team were great. We like to do activities, especially on sea days and while there wasn't as many as on RCL we still kept busy. Enjoyed bocce ball, cornhole deck toss, the 8pm activities to mention a few. We also did some trivia but it was crazy, and took away from the experience, how competitive some people were - to the point of cheating and using their phones to get answers (we ended up leaving two different teams for this reason). Its for fun people! We enjoyed the silent disco and a few different competitions in the Sky Bar. The team worked very hard and were unfailingly upbeat. We also enjoyed the photo scavenger hunt and reigned supreme :) Many people thought that "picture of a man in high heels" needed to be someone they saw on deck but we hoofed back to our cabin, slid my hubbies big feel into my small high heel sandals and that put us enough ahead to win! Boy did we burn a few calories racing around the ship that day...

[FlorenceItaly]

Thanks so much for taking the time to do a review. We are considering a sailing on the Silhouette next month. How was the live music on board? This is something we really enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Marie