CHICAGOPAUL LIVE BLOG!!!!!! December 13th, 2019 - SILHOUETTE SOUTHERN CARIBBEAN

[Chriskoo]

Thanks for all the great info Paul! I was happy to find your instagram too, I lived in Chicago for a few years about 10 years ago and I miss it a lot - nice yo live vicariously though your beautiful pictures!

[CruisersTimesThree]

7 hours ago, chicagopaul said:

Love it! I’ll be sure to show him tomorrow. If anyone else has any photos You’d like me to pass along to Dominic or even Dev let me know and I’ll be more than happy to show them. We all know they work hard and I’m sure they have some rough days. As much as they take care of us, the passengers, I think we have an obligation to make them as happy as possible too so I’m loving these responses! 

 

From our March cruise....Dominick keeps in touch with our son on FB

Edited December 18, 2019 by CruisersTimesThree

[chicagopaul]

Good Morning from Bonaire! It’s definitely warm today but there is a good breeze so hopefully that will keep us cool when we get off the ship shortly. Before I discuss yesterday here is the Daily for today. 
 

 

 

 

 

Morning View 

 

 

[maggie.1008]

Hi Paul, Have you seen any information about Drink tickets ? I believe it was $59. for 5 premium drinks or $29. for 5 Classic drinks. We have a cruise next August that doesn`t have a bev. pkg. This would work for us if they still offer.

Thanks, heather

[chicagopaul]

28 minutes ago, maggie.1008 said:

Hi Paul, Have you seen any information about Drink tickets ? I believe it was $59. for 5 premium drinks or $29. for 5 Classic drinks. We have a cruise next August that doesn`t have a bev. pkg. This would work for us if they still offer.

Thanks, heather

Yes they’re offering this. We’ve seen a good handful with the cards. I’ll try to get one to take a picture but the price I saw was still $59 for the premium. 

[jcpc]

Paul,

Maybe these 2 photos will bring a smile to Domnic's face.

Janice

 

[maggie.1008]

Thanks Paul, glad to hear they are offering the drink tickets. Will work well with Elite Plus benefits. 

Our April cruise will be my 28th cruise with X. I will never make Zenith as we have cruised on 12 different lines. 

You cruise often and in a suite. Have you and Edward figured out when you will make Zenith ? 

[chicagopaul]

Thank you everyone for the pictures of you and Dominic as well as the stories. I’m going to have these all saved on my photo tonight so I can show them to him. 
 

The internet is running slow right now so I’ll write about last night and then try to upload the photos. 
 

Last night we hit the martini bar around 6:30 and grabbed seats right away. Kadek started to do a lot more tricks last night and some were very good! Balancing multiple martinis on his forehead, etc. I had some video put on my Instagram story       I’ll put all of them together in a YouTube video for you. We chatted with a couple people as usual and met Janbear from CC who even gave us a few pointers for good bars / food in Grand Cayman. 
 

Last nights dinner was Lawn Club. We had 8:30 reservations and arrived just before 8:30. We ended up with a nice table with a great view of the kitchen. It was fun to watch them cook. It was also a good table choice because I met another fellow CC person! 
 

We started with a light salad and then of course had the flatbread. We split one with one side sausage & peppers and one side BBQ chicken. I thought it was very tasty. 
 

For our entree we both had the filet. I got a skewer of tandoori chicken and Edward had a skewer of scallops and shrimp. For sides we had the cream corn and lobster Mac n Cheese. 
 

Steak: Seasoned very well and great quality. We both ordered medium rare. Edward’s was perfect medium rare. Mine was a little closer to medium but nothing worth complaining over. 
 

Tamdoori Chicken: Home run. Awesome. I think they used to mostly used breast mean. Now it seems like they’re using thighs or tenderloins because the meat was much more moist with lots of flavor. Not dry at all. 
 

Shrimp and Scallops: Nice char flavor to them. Cooked well. Good texture to the scallop. 
 

Lobster Mac n Cheese: I remember this used to be better. The cheese sauce was a bit runny and I tasted more lobster as oppose to cheese if that makes sense. 
 

Cream Corn: Excellent. 
 

Dessert: We split the cookie ice cream for dessert. As usual it was absolutely amazing. Perfectly gooey, hot, lots of chocolate. 
 

Service: Service was great. Our waiter was Dennys from the Ukraine. Wine was served quick and constantly refilled. Water refilled quickly. The manager checked in during dinner and the head chef even went around to talk to each table. 
 

OK now let’s see if I can get the photos to load! 

[raudacruise]

I’m late to the party but following. Paul, your blogs are so informative and well-written. Love getting my foodie fix, but I’d say my favorite part overall is your positive attitude.  I’m looking forward to your cruise “aha” moment. Always makes my day. Say hi to Edward. 🍸🍸🍸

[upwarduk]

11 hours ago, maggie.1008 said:

Thanks Paul, glad to hear they are offering the drink tickets. Will work well with Elite Plus benefits

I too was thinking the same, as our cruise on Silhouette 01.08.20 (1st August) doesn’t have a drinks package attached.

[chicagopaul]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally these have loaded! Lawn Club dinner from two nights ago. 

[chicagopaul]

Good Morning Everyone. I’m sitting by the lawn having some coffee looking out onto the beautiful ocean. We gained our hour back last night so everyone should be energetic today. 
 

Before I review all of yesterday with you let’s start with the daily for today. 
 

 

 

 

 

[chicagopaul]

Yesterday was Bonaire. The weather was beautiful though a bit warm in the afternoon especially if you were in the sun. We don’t dive or snorkel so our day was spent at a usual spot we know in Bonaire which is Karel’s. Karel’s is about a 10 minute walk from the ship. It sticks out onto the water and has multiple bars and tables right on the water. We sat at the bar, had a couple beers and ordered a light lunch. We ended up getting some bitterballin and splitting a fish sandwich. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Another ship that met us in port 

 

 

 View from the ship. You can see Karel’s to the left sticking out onto the water 

 

 

A nice edited photo that I took of the Silhouette in port. 

 

 

 

 

 

[chicagopaul]

After the drinks and food at Karel’s we just strolled back to the ship. Total bill at Karels for food and 2 beers each was $40. 
 

Two nights ago we closed down World Class Bar. This bar has been the busiest I’ve ever seen it. Last night we couldn’t even get a seat there. Two nights ago we were there and there was also the ABBA show in the grand foyer so we could hear the music whilst still being somewhat quiet haha. That night we had the bullet infusion which I haven’t had in some time. 
 

 

The head bartender is...Umit? I think that spelling is correct. He is from Romania. Here he is trying to be a flair bartender too. 
 

 

He was trying but he still couldn’t compete with Kadek at Martini Bar! 
 

 

 

[chicagopaul]

Last night we started at the martini bar of course. It was crowded but Kadek made room for seats for us. There was a scooter parked at the bar taking up space. He asked if he could move it to the side and the woman who had the scooter happily obliged. She gave him the key and he drove it a bit but too fast and almost ran into some chairs. I wish I had it on video. It was hysterical and everyone at the bar thought so too. It was all in good fun. But that made room for a couple chairs that he brought over. We had our martinis and chatted with a couple new people at the bar. I have to say lots of people at the bars have been very conversational this cruise. We’ve a lot of people in all different venues to talk to and have had some wonderful conversation. 
 

After martini bar we headed to Michaels to check in with Lara, and Sergiu behind the bar. We then headed to dinner. We got our usual corner table in the back left of the first section in Luminae next to our new cruise friends Jeff and Evie. We chatted a bit before they got up to catch the show. 
 

For starters we had the smoked potato soup which I’ve had before but thought this one was better. I then had the escargot and Edward had a Cesar salad. Then we both had the veal. I felt it needed a bit of salt but it was very good. Mine had a bit more fat than I would have preferred but I thought the meat quality itself was very good and the sauce that was served with it was excellent. For desert we had the chocolate soufflé which you’ll see in the photo Edward dug into it before I could get a proper picture. 
 

For wine we went with a bottle of Emmolo Merlot. Cost was $25 (30 with gratuity). We only had half and may have the other half at lunch today. 
 

Here are the photos from dinner. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we were finishing up dinner Claire came over to check in with us to see how dinner was. I told her about all of you talking about Dominic and asked if she could bring him over if he wasn’t busy. I showed him all the photos and the comments you made about him. He absolutely loved them all and actually took his time to read them and look at all the photos. Thank you for sharing the stories! I also showed Dev the comments a couple of you made about him and he too loved it. Claire thought it was fantastic and I hope it helped make their nights! 

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Thanks for sharing our comments and pictures with Domnic!

[barbette165]

The other ship in port is Marella Explorer 2 - which was the Celebrity Century.  If you look closely the X is still detectable behind the Tui logo on the smoke stack.

[upwarduk]

39 minutes ago, barbette165 said:

The other ship in port is Marella Explorer 2 - which was the Celebrity Century.  If you look closely the X is still detectable behind the Tui logo on the smoke stack.

Loved the Century. We sailed to Hawaii on her in March 2012 and should have been on her last voyage for Celebrity, Dubai to Rome, Easter 2015, where she was going to be refitted. 

However, the previous September, we were informed that she was redeployed to the Asian market.

 

[SWFL Cruisers]

Hello Paul, Thank you for the wonderful review! We will be boarding as you disembark so we are very excited to see what is instore fore us. I hope the rest of your cruise is as lovely as the first part!

[CruisersTimesThree]

So glad Dominick was able to see how much people appreciate what a wonderful person he is and how much he has enhanced many of our cruising experiences!  Thank you for sharing all of our comments and pictures with him!

Now I'm off to check out sailings on the Silhouette, hoping to snag something for 2021!

[Jim_Iain]

Continuing to enjoy your post.

 

Wondering if they are offering Extend Your Stay and Luggage Valet on your cruise.   I haven't seen anything in the daily. 

 

I've been trying to find out if they allow you to combine both extend your stay and use Luggage Valet.   It seems that even Captain's Club is unable to answer with certainty.

[chicagopaul]

33 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Continuing to enjoy your post.

 

Wondering if they are offering Extend Your Stay and Luggage Valet on your cruise.   I haven't seen anything in the daily. 

 

I've been trying to find out if they allow you to combine both extend your stay and use Luggage Valet.   It seems that even Captain's Club is unable to answer with certainty.

Luggage valet is offered. As far as extended stay is concerned I know it’s not allowed in US ports (unless there was a recent change) as this is not allowed by CBP. I wish they offered it as we’d definitely take advantage. 

[chicagopaul]

2 hours ago, barbette165 said:

The other ship in port is Marella Explorer 2 - which was the Celebrity Century.  If you look closely the X is still detectable behind the Tui logo on the smoke stack.

I had no idea! Thanks for sharing this! Ironically Lara, the Michaels Club concierge used to work on the Marella Explorer 2. 

[garyl62]

4 minutes ago, chicagopaul said:

Luggage valet is offered. As far as extended stay is concerned I know it’s not allowed in US ports (unless there was a recent change) as this is not allowed by CBP. I wish they offered it as we’d definitely take advantage. 

I think they just started the extended stay in FLL, or at least announced it was starting.  Seems to me I got an email about it a week or so ago, but I can't find it now. 

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

2 hours ago, barbette165 said:

The other ship in port is Marella Explorer 2 - which was the Celebrity Century.  If you look closely the X is still detectable behind the Tui logo on the smoke stack.

 

I enjoyed one of the last cruises on the Century.  It was a great little ship.  Met some people I still cruise with today.