Barwick Cruiser

Omg, I’m so nervous for you. Hope everything aligns and you make it onboard the ship with time to spare! Wow, straight to the martini bar for you! 🍸 🚢 Good luck!

On our recent Silhouette sailing we only saw photographers on Chic night in the Grand Foyer taking pics on/near the staircase. Didn’t see any upon embarkation or on the pier at the ports as we’ve seen in the past.

There was def not a lack of food…we all came home a few pounds heavier 😅

On the Silhouette last week classes were $20 each, plus the gratuity. If you’re in Aqua Class you’d get some free classes and I believe there was a bulk discount for multiple classes. I imagine the cost is the same across the fleet 🤷‍♀️

Normally it would but these balconies are so deep you’ll have some shade on there no matter which direction.

I did, yes, the flounder that @retird tried, as well as the salmon both on the everyday menu and as it was specially prepared another day, there was a haddock or halibut and anytime there was beef that sounded appealing at least one in our party had it. I also had the duck a l’orange and a duck breast. I’m not a lamb lover, well at least not on my plate, but that was also a big hit with those in my party who chose that. Honestly, there’s so much to choose from and you can ask to make changes to the sides that we didn’t feel disappointed at all. That said, a slice of prime rib wouldn’t have been turned down!

Best way to check the options is to go into the app and under Dining you’ll see a link for Menu and it shows all the various choices for dinner as well as the lunches that are offered on sea days. We found that the app was just about spot on with what the actual menu offered. On that note, we did find that a few times the times of activities in the app varied slightly from the times listed in the Daily. We, along with a few other app users, showed up a few minutes late for a Digital Scavenger hunt but the activities member adjusted our times so we could complete the hunt in the same amount of time the others had been given. Was a lot of fun!

SAS were great to deal with just keep in mind they only pick up from select hotels in Ft. Lauderdale/Dania Beach. Check their website to make sure your hotel is among their list. Enjoy your cruise!

I’m not sure why your questions are being removed but I’m happy to answer any relating to my recent cruise if I can. I totally agree that we all want value when planning a holiday and while we didn’t invest as much in this cruise as someone in the Retreat area for example we did expect an experience on par with previous cruises with X and after reading of the extensive cutbacks we were definitely concerned. So glad our experience was again so positive. Did we notice any cutbacks? Of course but other aspects more than made up for it, particularly the wonderful staff and many of the delicious meals we enjoyed.

Hi David, I can’t speak to the Retreat area but in other areas it seems they updated the soft furnishings. Our cabin (bump out veranda on deck 8)we had new carpeting, bedding and pillows and the robes weren’t the waffle type of old but a softer cotton one that was actually quite nice. The towels were also nicer, softer and thicker than the thin ones I remember. Throughout the ship the furnishings were comfortable and we didn’t notice any wear on fabrics.

Same situation here! We took the elevator twice in the ten days otherwise stairs every. single. time…can’t imagine how much we’d have gained if not but apparently eight flights of stairs won’t burn off a Mai Tai 😬🤣. And I have to place a big chunk of the blame on the wonderful staff at Al Bacio…ask for a cookie or tart and suddenly there’s two in the bag, of each! 🤷‍♀️I’m not one to waste food 😇 😉

Pretty much as others have said, reading the posts prior to our embarkation in relation to the food onboard and staffing shortages we were worried we’d spent good money and would be disappointed in our experience. Honestly, if we’d been before final payment we would’ve been very tempted to cancel but by Jan 1st, when the cutbacks seemed to take place we had no real choice other than to proceed and we were very glad we did. It really is what you make of it and we had a very good time.

The following is just our experience but I wanted to reassure others who might be experiencing the same anxieties we did prior to our recent Silhouette sailing. We are a group of four, two couples, myself and DH as well as my sister and her DH who is also my husbands brother 🤣🤔. We booked this 10 night sailing in the early Fall as a mid winter getaway. This was our 13th X cruise, and second since the restart after our Eclipse sailing in Alaska Sept ‘22. We saved money by flying into Ft. Lauderdale even tho the cruise sailed out of Miami. We stayed at a local Dania beach hotel one night precruise and used SAS transport to get from the hotel to the port the morning of embarkation and again when we disembarked in Miami to return to FLL for our return to Canada. Both of our SAS drivers were good and we were happy with their service. We had 10:30 checkin times and the process was easy. We had a short wait until boarding began and were onboard just after 11. Our Seapass cards were at our cabins on 8. We both booked adjoining regular veranda cabins on the starboard hump so our lunch option that day was limited to Oceanview or Mast Grill. The buffet had a good selection of items and we enjoyed our first meal onboard seated at the outdoor tables off the back. We had prebooked Tuscan Grille for our first dinner onboard and all agreed the service and food was wonderful. Was a lovely way to begin our holiday. Throughout the ten days we ate in the MDR for two of our sea day lunches and the options and service were good. We also ate at the Spa Cafe for a few lunches and enjoyed our food there as well. Sometimes a turkey club sandwich just hits the right spot. Several afternoons upon returning from a port visit (around 3ish) we stopped by the buffet for some nibbles and although the lunch options were limited, we found plenty to choose from including scones, sandwiches, cheese and deli meats, salads, a carving station, pasta and pizza. Eight of our ten dinners were enjoyed at the MDR, and I say enjoyed because by night four we had found a table served by a team led by Christobal and his sense of humour and helpful tips made our dinners a pleasant experience and we looked forward to our meals in his section. Even tho we never saw Prime Rib on the menu we did enjoy many other great dishes. I personally enjoyed at least four different fish dishes, none tilapia btw, and the sides are interchangeable so if you don’t like what comes with yours you can ask for one of the other ones. On lobster night we each asked for our lobster along with another protein…I had the duck with my lobster. The lobster was tasty for what it was, prepared well and between the appetizer, main meal and a dessert I can’t imagine needing or wanting more. We also had a dinner at Murano that was very good despite the table side lobster there being slightly overcooked. Service in all venues was excellent. We had intentions prior to the cruise to check out the dinner buffet options but between predinner drinks at either passport bar or ensemble, dinner in the MDR and then catching the entertainment in the theatre there was no time to run up to the buffet to check…sorry! Speaking of entertainment we all enjoyed the various shows and musicians onboard as well as the comedian, magician (a personal meh from me) and especially the foursome of Vox Fortura who’s singing talents amazed the crowds during their regular shows as well as an additional set in the grand foyer. I’ve only touched on a selection of our experiences but wanted to reassure any others, not booked in Suites, that all the talk on these boards that everything is horrible and you won’t find anything to eat isn’t necessarily what you’ll find when you’re actually onboard. We enjoyed lots of very good meals and the service was excellent from the all the crew we encountered. There are definite cutbacks but they didn’t affect our enjoyment of our cruise at all. In fact, we, along with many many others booked future cruises while onboard…that place was definitely not seeing disgruntled passengers lol. Any questions I’m happy to try to answer.

Just disembarked from the Silhouette yesterday. Our group of four all had the basic package and we were very impressed with the speed and how much we could do. Much better than on Eclipse in September. We were able to send and receive emails, browse, use WhatsApp for calls etc. Unless you need to stream movies or participate in Zoom meetings the basic package works very well.

Wow, just off Silhouette yesterday, flew home last night and today I see this new GenX review that’s already at 5 pages and you haven’t even boarded yet lol. This will really help me with my cruise withdrawal. Hope you and Jeremy have a fantastic time aboard Apex, despite all the recent grumbling on the boards our group of four had a wonderful 10 nights and we were only in lowly balconies 🤣. I’m sure in your SS you’ll both be spoiled.

Hey there, we’re just off and it was David (Dave) Clarke…one of the best we’ve had. Very funny and did his job well. The entertainment he organized was very good and we enjoyed many of the shows and musical talents. Overall had a great cruise, even Captain George was humerous and seen often around the ship.

Boarding Silhouette on Monday…Hope it’s not as bad as everyone’s saying but we’ll make the best of it and decide whether Celebrity will be our future cruise line of choice afterwards. Unfortunately the cutbacks have taken place after we paid final payment so no choice to cancel. At least the weather looks a lot nicer than at home and I won’t have to cook or clean 😉

Hope you had a nice trip? Question, when you did the online checkin 24 hours before your flight from Canada, did you need to check a box saying you were vaxxed or was there some kind of attestation on there? When you say you had all paperwork was that including the five pages of the attestation form for each passenger? We have our vaccine proof on paper as well as in our phones but I don’t want to have to print out ten pages of paper for nothing…

We are boarding Silhouette on the same day so I’ll have to catch up when we return. Hope you have a wonderful trip and a very happy birthday..best place to celebrate for sure! I’m sure you’ll be quite spoiled by the amazing X staff, although they’re wonderful no matter what level cabin you have. Unless you go looking I doubt you’ll notice any cutbacks being in the Royal Suite lol, we’re in a regular veranda so it’ll be interesting to see the differences from our Sept cruise on Eclipse. Your tours all sound really interesting as well, thanks for reporting back! 🥂🚢

Thanks for all the great pictures, looks like you’re having a wonderful time. We’ve done the snorkel with Woodwind and it was fantastic, saw so much marine life and they had lots of tasty snacks onboard for between snorkels. Glad that you don’t seem to have caught whatever bug it was that Marley had! Hope he’s ok too!

Great, thanks for this quick reply. I’ll save some paper then! Did you do your checkin through the app or with an actual person on the phone?

Just further to all this, our group of four is all fully vaccinated and are traveling on Air Canada this Sunday to Ft. Lauderdale. Our online checkin for the flights will be Saturday morning. I’m reading that we need to complete the attestation form to show prior to boarding the plane. Do we need to print out the entire five pages or just the second and last one? Someone mentioned completing when they did the online checkin? Should we just wait to complete until Saturday? Thanks for any and all help!

Oh sorry, when you said you could take a bottle to any non-dining venue that’s how I took it. Yes, always knew you could pour a glass in your stateroom and take it with. Wouldn’t work for me as I’d either slosh it or it’d be empty by the time I arrived at the venue lol.

It’s showing the same on my app and we board on Monday. It’s also saying that Masks are required which would make it the only place on the ship that they’re required which makes me think the whole requirement is a typo and they actually mean that only the classes and personal trainers require reservations. We’ll see! 🤷‍♀️

So you can take your own bottle to say, the Sunset Bar and enjoy there with no corkage? Didn’t know this! Thx