Just back from the Silhouette TA – a brief review after 4 years away from Celebrity

[jamacka]

On 11/23/2018 at 3:59 PM, Turtles06 said:

I almost forgot to mention one of the most fun things that that Sue and her staff organized for us -- an ABBA sing-along/dance party in the Sky Lounge late one night.  The place was packed and it really was HUGE fun. 

 

A few months ago, we took our first Holland America cruise.  We chose it for the very unique itinerary, and we really enjoyed it.  But I have to say, it could have used some ABBA sing-alongs in the evenings.  😜  

 

We had the ABBA sing-along back on a cruise on the Eclipse with Eddy Jenkins as cruise director.  It was a hoot then too.  I think they could have replayed the video/playlist and the crowd would have gone through it all over again.  We were thinking of other popular musicians they could do that sing-along with.  Maybe Elton John or Queen?  

[Turtles06]

Just to wrap things up here, I wanted to comment on our embarkation and disembarkation experiences, as both were terrific, which isn't often the case (at least not for disembarkation from a TA).  I realize that folks might have had different experiences, especially disembarking, depending on their schedules.

 

The Silhouette TA left from Southampton.  My wife and I began our trip began with several wonderful days in London (capped off by seeing "Hamilton," which was brilliant,  and special to have seen in London); we came down to Southampton the afternoon before we sailed.  We'd been to Southampton before, and this time we visited the Sea City Museum, which has an excellent exhibit on the Titanic and the impact that the disaster had on the city, which was home to so many of the crew members.  We stayed in the Holiday Inn, which is just across the street from the City Cruise Terminal, giving us this wonderful view out our window early the next morning:

 

 

Talk about being excited! 

 

As you can see, the cruise ship terminal is walkable from the Holiday Inn, and our plan in fact was to walk over, rolling our luggage along the way.   Still, it's a long schlep with the bags, and we totally lucked out when I spotted one of the terminal's luggage carts right outside the hotel, left by some folks who'd just disembarked.  So we did our civic duty -- we put our own bags on the cart and returned the cart to the cruise terminal.   

 

We arrived at the cruise terminal around 10:15am.  We had no wait to check in, and, to our great surprise, we were told the ship was already boarding!   So that embarkation could not have been any easier.

 

We had a similarly excellent experience on the other end in Ft. Lauderdale.   Walk offs started at 7am, while those who had checked bags began disembarking by group numbers around 7:30am.   Our number was called just after 7:45am, and we were off the ship in seconds.  We retrieved our bags, went over to the Global Entry lane, showed our passports to the agent, and were out of the terminal almost instantly.  Painless.  We've had some very awful disembarkations, including from a TA in Ft. Lauderdale four years ago, so this was a very welcome way to end our trip.

 

There were definitely challenges along the way because of the weather and our changed itinerary, but overall we had fun and enjoyed this cruise.  The Silhouette remains our favorite ship, and we really love Celebrity.

 

Thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to read along, and to comment.

 

I wish everyone a very happy holiday season!

 

[signman]

• Turtles, enjoyed all of your review, especially photos.   I board Silhouette on Sunday.   Happy Holidays to you.

[Silkroad]

Turtles06, thanks so much for your wonderful review & photos. Happy holidays to you😊

[abbydancer2003]

On 11/28/2018 at 8:51 AM, Turtles06 said:

Another excellent show (one of the best I've ever seen, in fact) that has just opened in London is "Come From Away."  We saw it in the U.S. and would have seen it again in London had it opened when we were there; we just missed it. 

I've seen both - Come From Away in NY and Hamilton in San Francisco.  We saw Come From Away second, and all four of us (including my friend who is a total Hamilton freak) thought Come From Away was better.  Best play I've ever seen.

 

And I get to see it again in January, and Hamilton again in February.

 

Also, thanks for the great and balanced review.

Edited December 3, 2018 by abbydancer