Silhouette 3/7/22 A Short Review

[daydreamer16]

So, this was the first cruise for my DH and I since January 2020, and we were super excited to get on board. Arrived in Florida on March 3rd and visited with a friend in Palm Beach for a couple of days & then went to Walgreens in Boca Raton for our tests. Got our results 90 minutes after we left & headed to Ft Lauderdale, staying two nights at the Renaissance near the port.

 

Arrived at the port at 11:30 and we dropped off our stuff in our cabin at 11:45! The staff on board were so welcoming especially Joseph our cabin attendant. We were in Aqua class and enjoyed breakfast and dinner at Blu. One night we went to the Lawn Club Grill, where I had made a 6:30 reservation online about two weeks before the cruise. I had wanted 6pm but that was not available. The LCG was practically empty at 6:30 with only two other tables each with two people. I guess that they are really limiting people. I spoke to Maitre'd, and he said they were only expecting 26 people that night! We usually love the liveliness of LCG and always go at least once when we are on the Silhouette or Reflection, but not this time. There were a lot of staff just hanging around.

 

The shows were good & we loved the comedian who did two shows. Music around the ship was very good, my DH enjoyed Vivace Strings the most. The service at the bars was great, loved World Class & the Martini Bar!

 

My only gripe was with the internet. The surf was very inconsistent and the 90 Elite minutes were not much better and this was with half the full passenger count!

 

The ship is in fantastic condition and service was great too! We sent out our two bags of Elite laundry and everything came back without a hitch. I heard there were about 1300 passengers, but I don't remember who told me. The captain did make an announcement about covid, but I really didn't pay too much attention except that it was under 1%. The last full day of the cruise my DH saw medical staff in the doorway of cabin next-door, after that we never saw or heard our neighbors. We always wore a mask in the elevator but nowhere else.

 

The ports were good but we only got off in Nassau, Cartegena & Bonaire. We did not do any tours.

 

If anyone has a question,  I'd be happy to answer it.

Denise & Sam

[DaKahuna]

Did you spend any time at the Ensemble Lounge?  We usually enjoy listening to the entertainers there in the evenings after dinner.   Just wondering if you had any entertainer recommendations aside from the Vivace Strings?  (we are on the March 28th sailing)

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for the review.   Sounds like a wonderful cruise.   Do you happen to remember who the Captain and CD were?

[asnaleah]

Loved the Vivace Strings!

[daydreamer16]

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

Did you spend any time at the Ensemble Lounge?  We usually enjoy listening to the entertainers there in the evenings after dinner.   Just wondering if you had any entertainer recommendations aside from the Vivace Strings?  (we are on the March 28th sailing)

We did go to the Ensemble Lounge a couple of times, it's nice but a little too quiet for us. We also liked the duo Smooth Ride, guitar & singing.

[daydreamer16]

38 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Thanks for the review.   Sounds like a wonderful cruise.   Do you happen to remember who the Captain and CD were?

I forget who the Captain was & we didn't go to the CC event as we were trying to avoid crowds.  It  was held outdoors but I didn't read that until it was too late. CD was Tim, not sure of his last name, he's from the UK.

[daydreamer16]

30 minutes ago, asnaleah said:

Loved the Vivace Strings!

I was looking online to see if they had any recordings? I should have asked them as my husband really really liked them!

[Kathy53]

Thank you for your review.  We're on the Silhouette on a B2B in May so very excited as we've not sailed on her before.  Our last cruise was July, 2019 on the Eclipse so looking forward to see the refit.  I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise. 

[scidee]

We also were on this cruise.  It was fantastic.   Captain was "George" but not spelled that way.  the CD was Tim from England.  He was very animated, visible and full of energy.  He was hysterical at "liar's Club".  The ship was beyond ship-shape.  The small musical groups all over the ship were wonderful and there was always a group playing somewhere.   The upgrades to the ship were beautiful especially on deck 14 by the Sunset Bar.

[Turtles06]

5 hours ago, scidee said:

The upgrades to the ship were beautiful especially on deck 14 by the Sunset Bar.

Totally agree! We loved the new seating areas near the Sunset Bar. 

[sippican]

Thank you for your review!

Do you recall the showtimes?

 

[granddutchess]

Thank you for this review.  We will be sailing next week.  Looking forward to getting back out there.

[DaKahuna]

8 minutes ago, granddutchess said:

Thank you for this review.  We will be sailing next week.  Looking forward to getting back out there.

So will we !!

 

[daydreamer16]

4 hours ago, sippican said:

Thank you for your review!

Do you recall the showtimes?

 

The first night was one show at 9pm, I think. All the other nights it was 7 & 9pm.

[chemmo]

We were on Silhouette last September and loved all the changes! In particular the seating area at the Sunset bar and the new suite deck.
 

We also loved all the choices of speciality restaurants, Murano for something more formal, Tuscan for a relaxing steak meal, Lawn Grill for that family bbq feel. We cruise her again in October, now our official favourite ship!

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[BleuzLex]

We enjoyed the March 7th sailing as well. Very relaxed! Aqua class was amazing and our state room attendant, Stanley, was consistently excellent. We were wowed by the cuisine and service in Blu. I would like to hear from anyone who dined in qZine. I was dying to try it, but DH, not so much.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

1 hour ago, BleuzLex said:

We enjoyed the March 7th sailing as well. Very relaxed! Aqua class was amazing and our state room attendant, Stanley, was consistently excellent. We were wowed by the cuisine and service in Blu. I would like to hear from anyone who dined in qZine. I was dying to try it, but DH, not so much.

Three of us dined in QZine on that cruise. The head waiter told us the menu had just changed. I take it that the "show" changes when the menu changes. One good feature is that there are two menus. The animations follow the courses on Menu A, but it doesn't really matter if you have chosen from menu B. The animations are still funny, even if they don't match your food. 

I was surprised that the lovely animated tablecloth changes with each course. 

My ever restless husband thought the meal lasted too long, but even he enjoyed the experience as a whole. At first I thought QZine would be wonderful for children, but the long spells between the animations might be hard for really active children to endure. It probably depends on the child, however. 

My sister and I  thought the courses were interesting and the food was good, but Hubby still prefers Murano. 

Sis and I would go back to QZine when the menu and animations change because we thought it was so cute, but Hubby might be harder to persuade. I don't know how many different animations there are in a typical cruise. Our cruise on Silhouette was 11 nights. I know they did at least two different animations, but maybe more. Can't say. 

Hubby wants me to tell you that a popular web site that features videos, has the QZine full animations on their site. Don't know if I am allowed to say the name of that site. 

[phoenix_dream]

We were also on this cruise.  Overall, we had a great time and the ship is looking really fine.  I agree about the internet - we got stream and while sometimes it was ok at other times it was really slow.  Interestingly, it always seems worse when you're in port for some reason - it seems to me it should be the opposite.

We dined in one specialty restaurant - Murano, where we have dined a number of times before on this and other ships.  Honestly, we were disappointed.  We had the pork belly appetizer which was nothing but fat (I know it will have some, but this was the worst we've ever had) and the salad dressing for my salad was awful - literally as thick as jam and not very tasty.  The dover sole, thankfully, was great as always as was the souffle.  

I was a little disappointed that this Captain was not very communicative. For example, I would have liked to understand more about the Covid situation.  In particular, I don't understand why our ship was in orange status on the CDC chart (which means 3% or more cases) but the Captain only said 1%.  There may be a reasonable explanation but I would like to have heard it.  

We did not go to the production shows, so can't comment on them.  We saw most of the other entertainers and I thought they were good, but not as good as those on our 21 days on Connie in January.  The live music was very good, but sometimes there was not as much during pre-dinner and dinner time as I would like.  But the musicians were very talented.  

[daydreamer16]

3 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

We were also on this cruise.  Overall, we had a great time and the ship is looking really fine.  I agree about the internet - we got stream and while sometimes it was ok at other times it was really slow.  Interestingly, it always seems worse when you're in port for some reason - it seems to me it should be the opposite.

We dined in one specialty restaurant - Murano, where we have dined a number of times before on this and other ships.  Honestly, we were disappointed.  We had the pork belly appetizer which was nothing but fat (I know it will have some, but this was the worst we've ever had) and the salad dressing for my salad was awful - literally as thick as jam and not very tasty.  The dover sole, thankfully, was great as always as was the souffle.  

I was a little disappointed that this Captain was not very communicative. For example, I would have liked to understand more about the Covid situation.  In particular, I don't understand why our ship was in orange status on the CDC chart (which means 3% or more cases) but the Captain only said 1%.  There may be a reasonable explanation but I would like to have heard it.  

We did not go to the production shows, so can't comment on them.  We saw most of the other entertainers and I thought they were good, but not as good as those on our 21 days on Connie in January.  The live music was very good, but sometimes there was not as much during pre-dinner and dinner time as I would like.  But the musicians were very talented.  

 

 

I agree about the Captain. I only heard one announcement about covid & the message was not clear. Also, agree there could have been more pre-dinner music!

[talljules1]

9 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

We had the pork belly appetizer which was nothing but fat (I know it will have some, but this was the worst we've ever had)

We had that experience on one of our trips to Murano last July. But we said something to the waitress and she brought us new ones that were much better.

 

Apparently the trick is to say you would like a meaty piece rather than a fatty one when you order.  We'll try that out on our next cruise (because when it's good it's really good).  Like you, we love the dover sole.

[bunzini]

On 3/22/2022 at 7:23 PM, phoenix_dream said:

We were also on this cruise.  Overall, we had a great time and the ship is looking really fine.  I agree about the internet - we got stream and while sometimes it was ok at other times it was really slow.  Interestingly, it always seems worse when you're in port for some reason - it seems to me it should be the opposite.

We dined in one specialty restaurant - Murano, where we have dined a number of times before on this and other ships.  Honestly, we were disappointed.  We had the pork belly appetizer which was nothing but fat (I know it will have some, but this was the worst we've ever had) and the salad dressing for my salad was awful - literally as thick as jam and not very tasty.  The dover sole, thankfully, was great as always as was the souffle.  

I was a little disappointed that this Captain was not very communicative. For example, I would have liked to understand more about the Covid situation.  In particular, I don't understand why our ship was in orange status on the CDC chart (which means 3% or more cases) but the Captain only said 1%.  There may be a reasonable explanation but I would like to have heard it.  

We did not go to the production shows, so can't comment on them.  We saw most of the other entertainers and I thought they were good, but not as good as those on our 21 days on Connie in January.  The live music was very good, but sometimes there was not as much during pre-dinner and dinner time as I would like.  But the musicians were very talented.  

I believe that orange is over .3%.  I may be wrong.  I'll have to check CDC website.

[bunzini]

OK, I looked it up and Orange is over .3% total of crew and passengers.  So I believe your captain was truthful about the 1%.