!!! SILHOUETTE !!! Western Caribbean- The Ultimate Review & Complete Pictorial Guide!

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

Ok my fellow followers, that day I made a decision that I thought I would never do. I decided to leave my main camera and my iphone on ship and to only take the underwater camera and a few bucks in this underwater pouch we bought. (by the way bad product, it broke before I even got to use it, we got it exchanged).

 

 

 

So why did I make that decision? Well, a few reasons really… The first was that the weather was not looking at its best and I did not felt like protecting so much equipment against it. The other reason was because I really did not feel like looking for the locker section on the Hilton and maybe having the bad luck that they ran out of lockers (limited amount of lockers). So with my heart a little sore, I packed all my equipment into the lower drawer and we headed our way to the buffet for breakfast with just my tiny cam.

 

 

 

Please note the Pictures from now on (until I saw otherwise) are taken with a Sony TX20 underwater camera. All pictures have post editing do to them, mainly boosting color and sharpening them.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2013 by gambee

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

The grass getting worked on.

 

 

This little guy showed up, he looked a little tired.

 

 

Here folks is the infamous bathroom that my mom was locked in the night before.

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

Some pics from the aft overlooking the shore excursion boarding area.

 

 

 

Now the main shopping area.

 

 

And here is my breakfast from that morning

 

 

[gambee]

 

Once we were done eating we got our stuff (which wasn't much) and decided to go downstairs to our meeting location. This is probably a good time to talk about the elevators in the Silhouette, we rarely encountered a problem getting an elevator. The software is pretty fast and they stop frequently. The only issue is that sometimes your stop gets bypassed, at first I thought I failed to press the floor button. But one day I actually saw it deactivate itself and miss our stop. It only happened a few times, maybe one time each day. But overall the elevators on the Sily are pretty good. I did however feel bad for people in the aft cabins as they have to walk a lot to get to the nearest elevator.

 

 

Once downstairs I took some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was extremely windy!!

 

 

That's it my friends, that's all I have for now. Ill try to post more tomorrow =)

 

 

[KGSB11]

 

That's it my friends, that's all I have for now. Ill try to post more tomorrow =)

 

 

Thanks...but come on; you can't leave us hanging like this ;)

 

Can't wait for more! :)

[MyDogRudy]

I don't know what it is but the coloring of the sky and water is just incredible in the pics of the journey to the port. Beautiful!

 

As for your travel situation, glad you felt good about the situation and happy it seems it turned out nicely... will find out more soon :)

 

Me being me I starve organizations that discriminate or follow unethical practices; they don't get a dime of my money. It seems to be getting harder to do because it is easier to find out about companies, countries, states, etc. that at best ignore unethical/discriminatory behavior and at worst engage in it.

 

Sent from my Motorola Electrify using Tapatalk 2

Edited April 11, 2013 by MyDogRudy

[beachbuddy]

Wow, finally done reading everyone's threads!!! Now I can get some sleep!! LOL

[swim13]

It's truly sad how anyone is still discriminated in this world. No matter if we are black, white, gay, lesbian, straight, male, female, etc. we are all ONE in this world. We are all human beings! We shouldn't have to classify someone by their race, religion, sexual orientation, or whatever it may be - we are all simply PEOPLE! Sorry you may have had to feel a bit awkward in Jamaica during your Allure vacation, I hope you got to enjoy yourself better this time!

 

Great pictures as always, I'm kind of glad you are leaving us hanging because it's getting late! :D Your secondary camera is actually really good!

 

Can't wait to see more tomorrow!

Edited April 11, 2013 by swim13

[workingmom200112]

All of your pictures are outstanding, but, really, this moon shot over the ocean and the reflection on the water is one of your best. Truly an amazing shot. I know you have your favorite shot, but I think this one is mine

 

OWD

 

I'll second that one! (Oh and the one of the coast guard :D)

[English101]

Gambee sets the bar high for all future cruise trip reports. Very entertaining and informative. For those of us who's cruise is 15 months away, this is a great way for us to live vicariously through others. Thanks!

 

Totally agree with everything you said, except my cruise is a month after yours!

[4774Papa]

It's truly sad how anyone is still discriminated in this world. No matter if we are black, white, gay, lesbian, straight, male, female, etc. we are all ONE in this world. We are all human beings! We shouldn't have to classify someone by their race, religion, sexual orientation, or whatever it may be - we are all simply PEOPLE! Sorry you may have had to feel a bit awkward in Jamaica during your Allure vacation, I hope you got to enjoy yourself better this time!

 

Great pictures as always, I'm kind of glad you are leaving us hanging because it's getting late! :D Your secondary camera is actually really good!

 

Can't wait to see more tomorrow!

 

Agree that we should judge people on content of their character. But this is a travel website and we should talk cruising and travel.

[lovestx]

Gambee,

 

Thanks for another wonderful review. Somehow I found your Allure review in the fall before our second cruise on Celebrity and was so happy to find this one for the Silhouette. Brings back lovely memories of our Eastern Med trip on Equinox. Our Connie cruise was a disappointment but we will still cruise Celebrity in the future.

 

I remember well your concern about Jamaica when you stopped there on the Allure. Your generous spirit and optimism is heartwarming given that I am sure you have endured countless acts of discrimination in your lifetime. Just last week, my husband mentioned that one of his business partners (who is gay and married) told him he would never go to Jamaica or Grand Cayman because they are known to dislike gays. Hubby was surprised but I told him right away that I now knew about the Jamaica situation from you!

 

I would have been very disappointed had my cruise had the bad weather yours did (o.k. my Connie cruise had bad weather but was only 4 nights). Glad you and mom were able to see the silver lining!

[gambee]

 

I forgot to post a video of the infamous bathroom, this one is the male one on the other side.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

For some really good pictures of the art work go to my Allure review. By the way someone asked me last time about the price of the shark, but I failed to ask back then. This time around I asked, he asked $45 for the one on the right, but when we were leaving he said $40. I imagine if you wait until the end of the day maybe $35?

 

 

Looking back towards the ships.

 

And walking towards the shore excursion area.

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

That area was a little disorganized, but thankfully the jamaicaforaday attendant was right there with a sign and directed us to right place.

 

 

This was the bus

 

The AC was nice and cold

 

 

 

There was a little confusion about the times, on the paper it said eastern time, but really it was supposed to be Jamaica time. So a few people in the bus were a little frustrated as they waited there for over an hour. I knew otherwise as I had spoken with Stuart and I verified the times with him. I already reported the mistake to them, I assume they took care of it already.

 

 

Please note that this excursion is not cheap by any means. I think the total after taxes comes out to a little over $100 per person. It is an all inclusive resort.

 

[gambee]

And we were on our way, since I had no iphone to take notes I simply took a pic of my watch. I know I can look at the metadata, but figured I probably forget :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

This short trip to the hotel only clarified my current thought on Jamaica, it is an extremely poor country. Something that stuck from that experience was that there a extreme amount of houses that are left unfinished. This is not uncommon for us coming from Colombia, however the amount of unfinished structures is just crazy...

 

 

 

The driver while very nice, was extremely hard to understand a word he was saying. We still tipped a few bucks both ways, he tried to tell us a little history on the way and such.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So it took us a little under 25 minutes to make it from the gates of the port to the gates of the Hilton.

 

 

[gambee]

And here you have it the Hilton under perfect weather ;)

 

 

 

The hotel is kept nice and clean. The driver told us the meeting time, there is only one meeting time, so you have to stay there until set time. Trust me, you will want to stay longer.

 

The first thing you do is get off the bus and go through the door and the wrist band counter will be to your left. It is actually the same counter as the Hilton Honors club.

 

A few pics of the lobby.

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

and outside

 

 

 

 

Here is the main pool, we never really spent any time there.

 

 

 

To get to the watermark you simply go out to the main pool and make a right, that little path leads you directly to the beaches and water park.

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

The weather was just miserable, we decided to look for a couple of lounges to set our cloths and hope they would stay dry. Then look for the hot tubs and hope that at least it stopped raining…

 

 

 

That is the ocean front lunch place that he had lunch at.

 

 

The little path heading towards the water park

 

[gambee]

 

The hotel rooms

 

The towels were hot and toasty, perfect for day. Unlimited towels just like X :)

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

Obviously a deserted beach, it would get a little more action later on.

 

A few games and the ocean front dining

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

We had a hard time finding an umbrella that was not occupied.