“LIVE” to the Azores on Silhouette - 13th Oct 2019

[tompeter]

Great reporting, thanks!

[groryjm]

Good morning Portugal.

 

We were greeted by another beautiful sunrise and headed to Luminae for breakfast

 

 

As we were leaving Luminae we spotted something out the window so headed quickly back to our room........

 

 

 

 

 

.........."There's Klingons off the starboard bow Jim"

 

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, groryjm said:

........."There's Klingons off the starboard bow Jim"

 

 

The Firm... Haven't heard that one in a very long time now.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Jamie Petts has always sent me a thank you letter for turning in cards praising crew members.  He's an exceptional HD.  Also very visible around the ship.

[groryjm]

Cont…

 

Another lovely breakfast at Luminae, but ordering the Cheddar cheese grits to try was not my best choice. I won’t be trying grits again.

 

We headed to the front for the sail in on the helipad. It was a Lovely view of the bridge as we sailed beneath it.

 

 

 

 

 

As we approach the dock there was already a garishly painted ship tied up, the Aida Prima. When latter we were leaving the ship my DW pointed out that the way she was docked behind us made it appear that she was kissing our butt.

 

 

 

 

 

Before we finished docking we headed back to the room as by that stage our view would be better from there.  There was a sculpture on the roof of the terminal building that had us wondering and throughout the morning we variously thought it might be a chicken or a mine but eventually settled on Pikachu

 

 

Today we had a Tuk Tuk tour booked through the ship which was fun way to see the narrow streets  and hills.  Part of the tour included a stop at a very quaint cafe to try "pastel de Nata" a delicous reagional custard tart and aslo a vey indeferent port and what they refer to marmalade on a piece of local cheese. The marmaladeRather than returning to the ship we chose to have our driver drop us off in town so we could have a leisurely stroll / shop back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point I must be honest and confess that while the vast majority of the photos are mine I have included a couple of my DWs especially the butt kissing one.

 

To be cont….

Edited October 22, 2019 by groryjm

[Mark_T]

18 minutes ago, groryjm said:

Another lovely breakfast at Luminae, but ordering the Cheddar cheese grits to try was not my best choice. I won’t be trying grits again.

 

Bad grits, or just not something you enjoyed?

 

Thanks for the thread, always fun to 'ride along' while counting down the days until it is our turn 🙂

[hcat]

On 10/21/2019 at 3:50 AM, groryjm said:

Good morning Portugal.

 

We were greeted by another beautiful sunrise and headed to Luminae for breakfast

 

 

As we were leaving Luminae we spotted something out the window so headed quickly back to our room........

 

 

 

 

 

.........."There's Klingons off the starboard bow Jim"

 

Totally amazing  photos!

[groryjm]

3 hours ago, hcat said:

Totally amazing  photos!

couple more from yesterday my DW took.....

 

 

[groryjm]

3 hours ago, Mark_T said:

 

Bad grits, or just not something you enjoyed?

 

Thanks for the thread, always fun to 'ride along' while counting down the days until it is our turn 🙂

Never tried grits before and if that is what the are I don't think I ever will again.

[Mark_T]

2 minutes ago, groryjm said:

Never tried grits before and if that is what the are I don't think I ever will again.

 

They are certainly the antithesis of 'fine dining' so I was surprised to see you mention them.

 

I spend about half my time in Texas, so I've got used to good old fashioned home style cooking there, including grits.

 

I'll look out for them, thanks for mentioning they were there.

[groryjm]

Cont…

 

I bought a bottle of the local Sour cherry liquor in Lisbon, Ginja,  and upon our return noted that the port shop has a great duty free. I bought a couple of bottles and had great difficulty in confirming with the shop that it is in fact duty paid despite the name of the shop. It was not a language problem but that they were unhappy to admit that it did include duty as we were sailing form and back to Europe. An important point for me as despite the large number of bottles I have bought only the ones bought on the ship are actually duty free and therefore I have not exceeded our 2 litre of spirit import limit as in the UK we can import as much spirit as we like for home consumption as long as it has duty paid within the EU. A rule that I understand will remain in place regardless of our Brexit outcome. I am always pleasantly surprised that I never seem to have any alcohol confiscated on re-boarding the ship. I will emphasize that all my holiday alcohol purchases are for home consumption. There would be no point in smuggling on board when we have Michael’s and a Premium beverage package.

 

 

Having had no lunch we arrived back quite hungry and grabbed burgers at the mast grill to eat on our balcony…. We were watched very carefully by the locals.

 

 

 

We ended up at the Lawn Club Grill for dinner. The food was good but there was certainly a lot of meat. We are glad to have at last tried this restaurant but will probably not again. Perhaps on a long summer night in the Caribbean but the concept didn’t quite work for us in October off the coast of Portugal

After we grabbed night caps and headed back to our balcony to watch the Lisbon lights as we sailed away before another episode of Bluestone and an early (ish) night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be cont….

Edited October 22, 2019 by groryjm

[groryjm]

The sun rose this morning on beautifully calm seas

 

 

I grabbed coffee’s and Danishes from Café al Bacio for a very late breakfast then at about 12.30 we headed to deck 10 forward for a bridge tour. We have over the years toured a few of the ships bridges but had missed out on our last cruise to Iceland due to high seas so were very pleased to receive an invite from Lara. It was nice to see the control hub of the ship and the best forward view on board.

 

 

 

 

 

One thing I have never realy noticed before was the Man over Board life belt release lever.

 

 

Lunch today was Luminae and enjoyed another excellent meal. We even bumped into Tim and Paul again who joined us after their meal for a chat.

 

 

 

 

Now I know having hot plates helps to keep the food warm but the spinich and rocket sallad with my smoked sausage sandwich had wilted some what in the heat

 

To be cont….

[mchell810]

15 hours ago, groryjm said:

As we approach the dock there was already a garishly painted ship tied up, the Aida Prima. When latter we were leaving the ship my DW pointed out that the way she was docked behind us made it appear that she was kissing our butt.

 

 

 

 

🤣🤣🤣

[mchell810]

Your photos of Lisbon are lovely.  I was there a few months ago and it brings back good memories.

[groryjm]

cont....

 

Tonight was the last chic night and as we wandered down to the World Class bar I was impressed by the number of tuxedos and long dresses. I would have to guess but from what I saw as we left the show something like half the men were in suit and tie or tuxedo, myself included.

 

The show, being the last chic night was Euphoria and one we have seen at least four times before but one we love. It very heavily involves the aerialists and a calm Biscay helped but I thought it one of the best casts I have seen and performed better than last time we saw them in August on the way back from Iceland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be cont….

Edited October 23, 2019 by groryjm

[isdoo]

Enjoying 🙂

On the ship over Christmas/New Year - but only a Sky Suite - at around the price you paid for the CS.

The CS is £11,500 per person for the 11 days!

[groryjm]

Southampton in the dawn

 

 

Time to finally to catch up on the last couple of days. We had intended to try and eat latter to see if that eased the crowds in Luminae post show so headed to our now favourite bar the World Class. There was not a seat to be had so we moved to the Martini and that was worse. Being the last chic and a meet the captain going on in the main foyer the ship round the atrium was crowed to the gunnels. 

 

In desperation we headed for the sanctuary of Michaels and Found Tim and Paul sheltering their too. They had plans to eat at Tuscan and we decided to shift ours and join them. On the way out we bumped in to Jamie who was there to meet a Captains club group for a dinner. He greeted us fondly and remarked that my DWs dolphin pics were better than mine 😎.

 

Our meal in Tuscan was excellent and I, as in the past, tried my way through their cocktail menu. Paul Valiantly offered to help though not all were to his taste. We rounded off the evening once more in the sanctuary of Michaels.

 

 

Wednesday was the last day and packing day, always a sad day. I cheered it up a little by booking another future cruise which always helps.

 

Rather than boring you all with such things as our non-winning attempts at trivia or my forlorn wanderings around the ship trying to fix her in my mind until we return in July. I will cover a few of my thoughts and feelings about this cruise and the ship.

 

The Tree is very much a point in question. Over the last three cruises we have watched it slowly lose all its leaves and die. I gather that it will be replaced over the dry dock as it has to be removed through the roof.

 

 

Talking of wood another loses is the little wooden cocktail stirrers with the X logo being replaced with sticks. Ok sticks work fine but it does bring down the sense of style. I realise plastic has to go but the sticks rather than logo seems a little to cheap.

 

 

Salt and Pepper! In England the dispenser with one hole is for salt and the shaker with many is for pepper. Is it really topsy turvy in the US

 

 

Oh and not meaning to wish any one ill I did however find Bethany’s Toodle Loo a little to reminiscent of Hi-de-Hi! And Buttlins

 

These few points may seem critical but they are little details that niggle. I do enjoy the Celebrity product and will continue to book. They are just little grates that I feel I need to air.

 

Back home now and all I can do until July is read other’s blog. Thank goodness for Cruis Critic to keep me going in the intervening months

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

As always,  really appreciate the review. Made the days until our Silhouette embarkation move a little  more quickly. 

The dead tree is a bit of a disappointment. Knowing there is really nothing they can do until dry dock, I wonder why they don’t consider stringing it with white lights just to give it a little character and “lively” purpose for the meantime. 

You have also motivated me to get out of my comfort zone with my cocktail choices!  Gin gives me a raging headache but I may brave it to try something new. 

Take care...until the next review! Cheers 🥂!

[chemmo]

Sincere thanks for bringing some sunshine into a rather gloomy Autumn after spending late September and early October in a very hot Florida and Caribbean!

 

[mahdnc]

On 10/15/2019 at 4:08 AM, groryjm said:

Headed down to Michael's for the officers soiree in our finest and had a couple interesting conversations with some of the officers. One particularly interesting nugget of information came from Jamie about the new suites. From what he said I gather the idea to convert part of the sky lounge into the reflection/signature suites has been abandoned and there will be 4 Sunset suites replacing the family verandas 8107, 8108, 7107 and 7108. These will be around the size of CSs but he was unsure of the level the will slot into. 

 

 

We were looking into booking a Solstice FV for Dec 2021 which is after her Revolution makeover.  It turns out that this category has not been released for booking for probably the reasons that you outlined.