Tenn4ever

Thanks Gambee. I still have to do my post cruise ratings and opinions plus I plan on being at the inlet to watch Silhouette sail away to Rome :)

Which we will be on in Rome :D. Thank you for your review and wonderful photos. I'm ready and waiting.............

 

 

That's it for today my friends, hope you all enjoyed the photos. We arrive in Cozumel tomorrow at 7am and I'm joining some friends and heading to Nachi Cocom :)

 

Thanks for tuning in everyone or as the Captain would say.... OUT :D

Wishing I were sitting on my balcony looking at this. Have a fun day tomorrow.

First formal night my friends, honoring my pink boa friends...

 

 

Very, very nice:)

 

However the MDR desserts were excellent every night!

Agree.:D Love Gambee's pictures of the desserts.

Ohhh. Eurodam...good looking ship. Too bad about HAL's smoking policy :p....keeps us from sailing them.;) Don't like the looks of the Oasis. Don't know what to think of the profile of the Silhouette yet ( I know, I know it's the inside that counts) but I loved the Millennium from last year... at least the profile.

Gambee almost always skips dessert at buffet, that's the only way I maintain my not so slender physique :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

This can not be expressed in writing. There is just no way . I want one of each. What is that red and green stuff in the little glasses? Please don't tell me it was jello. :eek:

On a side note. Those little desserts actually look better than they taste. I tried so many on our last cruise....they all began tasting the same. I really should limit myself.

The problem with the camera may be moisture. The camera has been indoors and it's cold. You go outside and it's hot and humid. Humidly builds up in the camera. .

This happened to our camera once while at the beach.....cold air conditioning and then humidity.

I see the double post bug has struck me! LOL :D

Pre-cruise pictures are so good (esp. the food :D) I can't wait for the live review. You and Gambee must really enjoy doing this to give up so much of your time because it does take quite a bit of time. The rest of us benefit. (You're either an NCIS fan or a Mark Harmon fan or maybe both?)

Happy birthday...hope it is a good one! :)

Looking forward to your live review...should be fun.:)

I think you must of just experienced bad timing. Believe me I am never at breakfast before 9:00am and I have never noticed this. I assume you walked around to look? The Millennium has multiple stations that serve the same stuff.

Gambee--what a great review--thanks.

Hi Lynda, you're on our roll call. I'm not kidding... there were NO pastries at the buffet when we went to breakfast on the Millennnium last June - not at 9:00 when we were there and not a single day. We would walk around the entire buffet looking for them. We could see where they were supposed to be but they were all gone and there was no ship personnel to ask about them present. That was very disappointing because I'm a big pastry lover. There were plenty of scrambled eggs and bacon and sausage. However, the scrambled eggs were never done even those which we ordered per room service. That's one of the items I wrote about on the card at the end of the cruise. The breakfast buffet was one of the poorest areas on the otherwise wonderful cruise. Also, the men who did man it were either surly or completely absent.

You can always order some through room service. This way you are sure to get some. :rolleyes:

We tried that once and all they brought up was a croissant not a pastry even though that is what we had requested and this was like 6:30am :(.

Another problem we had was going down to breakfast at 9:00 am (we are late risers normally) but the buffet is still supposed to be open, many stations did not have any food left and what was left at other stations was cold. Plus, most of the stations did not even have anyone manning them if you wanted to ask a question or ask for something when the bin was completely empty. I felt like Celebrity really fell down on this. I suppose if we showed up for breakfast at 7:00 everything would have been full but of course then you would have to stand in line with the crowd. The point is the buffet is open at 9:00 am for breakfast and it should be completely full of all offerings at that hour just as it is at 7:00 am. As you can see, I was not pleased with the breakfast buffet.

Gambee, the first thing I do in the morning after signing on and checking my April 29 Roll Call is to check your thread. I'm going to have Silhouette withdrawal after our cruise and my have to go back over your photos.:) One thing I do hope is that the pastries will be available at breakfast in the Oceanview Café on this cruise. On the Millennium last year, by the time we got down to breakfast, there were NO pastries left :(.

Loved looking at your photos this morning.

yeah and he was pretty hot too!!!! :eek:

Yes' date=' wasn't he:D[/quote']

 

My thoughts too ;).

 

Gambee, I love your photos especially when they include the local scenery.:)

Gambee, I agree on the karaoke. On Millennium last year it was in Cosmos. It was too large of a venue for the number of people participating.

I'm loving your review and photos (we're on Silhouette in three weeks). Went to get a glass of wine to enjoy the sail away video - awesome. Have to disagree about the balcony light. We love sitting out there in the dark plus we don't like to see other balcony lights on from our state room when we're inside - personal preference I guess.:)

We have an answer to our question, so if anyone is interested here it is.

Yes it is the policy of the Port of Venice, no one is allowed to self-disembark with their luggage.

I would think one small luggage would be allowed to stay in the cabin for clothes and other items needed for the evening and next morning. This would have to be the procedure. Otherwise what do you do with your toiletries, dirty clothing from the evening before, clothing to be worn the next morning and your night clothes? Do you just carry those items in your hand and then repack your bags when your other bags are picked up.

We will be meeting an airport transfer shuttle at 6:00 am so we will need to be off the ship and have our luggage in hand before that, possibly, as early as five thirty.

If you are on a daytrip from a cruise, it would indeed be impossible to walk between all 5 villages. If you are NOT on a cruise (and therefore have no time restriction on when you get there and when you have to be back), you can do it in one long day. I was staying in Vernazza with two friends. We started out between Vernazza and Monterosso after breakfast. Walked around Monterosso awhile (the house at the end of the "beach" has some amazing architectural embellishments (!)) and sampled some gelato and some fruit juices, then took the train to Riomaggiore. Walked around Riomaggiore and then took the hike to Manarolo. Walked around Manarolo and had lunch there. Hiked between Manarolo and Corniglia. Walked around Corniglia and took the bus to the top of the hill. Finally, the hike between Corniglia and Vernazza. Got back to the apartment exhausted LATE afternoon. Cleaned up and walked over to Il Pirata for dinner. It was an amazing day!!!

We plan on doing this next April pre-cruise.:) We have our reservations in at a B&B for three nights in Monterosso. We will most likely break the hike up and do it in two days.

We got to the donkey line and paid the man 5 euros per person. Shortly after we paid, he got into a shouting match with the man who had just brought a bunch of donkeys down the hill. The two men were fighting loudly in Greek while the 20 or so cruise passengers just watched. I thought it was actually going to come to blows, but, of course, I have no idea what the fight was about. Let's just say that it didn't occur to them to handle the customers, and none of us said anything or had a clue what to do. Eventually they decided to stop fighting and to start loading us on the donkeys.

 

Anyway my son (16) and my husband went first. There are no reins, but there is a metal bar on the saddle to hold onto. I think they probably do slap the donkeys to get them started, but I don't remember that clearly. My husband and son's donkeys, and some woman's donkey decided to race. Apparently the three donkeys went as fast as they could all the way to the top. The donkeys were very competitive.

 

My donkey followed the man in front of me (another cruise passenger). My daughter (19) and a slightly younger boy ended up behind us. My donkey did whatever the donkey in front did, so we slowly made our way up. My daughter's donkey would stop a lot, so I was soon separated from her. I could have gently kicked my donkey and made him pass the one in front of me, but then I would have been completely alone, so the donkey and I just followed the slow poke in front of us. At some point the operators sent a slew of donkeys down the hill (on their own). It felt a little like a stampede was approaching (but not actually dangerous). When they reached the boy my daughter was traveling with, his donkey turned around and started heading down the hill with the pack. Luckily he was laughing, and eventually through kicking, I imagine, got his donkey to head back up. My daughter said it was one of the funniest things she ever saw.

 

The path is wide, and the cliff wall is on one side. The wall on the other side is as high as the donkey. While they sometimes go near the edge to "look over" it's too high for any part of them except their snout. Unfortunately, for the passenger, you are higher than the wall (since you are on the donkey). When my donkey went to "admire the view" I just looked at the cliff side until the donkey got bored and moved on. When we weren't near the wall, I enjoyed the view immensely.

 

The whole experience was really fun. If you think you'd like to do it, you absolutely should. We laughed about our respective experiences the rest of the day.

 

Lydia

Lydia, I don't know if we will do this or not but you just made my day. I laughed all the way through your post.

There is a free shuttle

Comes about every 20 minutes. We took the free shuttle the opposite way - from the port to the train as our cruise ended in Seattle and we were going to Anchorage.

Many years ago, we were on a cruise where our luggage was left sitting in the terminal and items were stolen. My husband actually walked off and retrieved the one missing bag himself. We had driven to the terminal and I didn't realize that we would have to give up our luggage to a porter outside the terminal. We tipped him , only to realize later that he went through our luggage and took anything of value. Since that time we have always breathed a sigh of relief when all of our bags were delivered to our cabin. Recently, we went on a 5day sailing on the Millenium and took our own luggage on/off the ship. Our cabin was ready when we got on and we went directly to it and unpacked. So easy. On disembarkation day, we had a leisurely breakfast and returned to our cabin and retrieved our luggage and walked off. We never relenquished control of our luggage . This would be harder on a longer cruise, but I think we could do it.

This will be our first cruise. If we are able are we allowed to carry all our luggage onboard ourselves?

I've heard a few complaints about this on and off the ship. But I've never read of someone getting Celebrity to cover any losses here. I think the biggest problem is proof that the items were there and when they went missing. Then on top of that the cruise contract indicates that Celebrity is only liable if they are negligent, so you might have to establish negligence, and even then the liability is limited to $300 per passenger.

This happened to our son a few years back out of Miami but different cruise line - RCI. He left his luggage with the check-in except for a small carryon which he carried on board. He never saw the checked luggage again. He had no recourse. His luggage had his suit, several dress shirts and ties and several pair of slacks. His carryon had some shorts, polos and swim trunks.

Thanks Lsimon.