'Twas the Week Before Christmas – A seasonal review of the Silhouette

[cruisinskier]

 

 

[cruisinskier]

Cozumel is a fun island and one we have visited 4-5 times now. The port is always active and after waking up, I went up to watch us arrive....

 

We were being followed....

 

 

There were four cruise ships behind us...

 

 

The locals were getting ready for the 16,000+ cruise passengers arriving

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

Carnival Pride was arriving

 

 

 

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Disney was docking at the other pier

 

 

A second Aqua Twister boat was getting ready

 

 

Pilot boat was ready for us

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

We grabbed a quick breakfast in the Oceanview Cafe and then headed off to find a taxi. Our destination for today was Nachi Cocum.

 

While eating breakfast, the Oceania Riviera docked beside us

 

 

 

 

The view from the dock

 

 

Taxi rates

 

 

And we hopped in a taxi and were off...

 

[Longhorn-ED]

Hi Jerry,

 

Mary and I really enjoyed our cruise with you and Patti. We would love to cruise with you again.

 

Happy New Year!:D

Ed & Mary

[K L B]

Thank you for taking the time to post all of these wonderful pictures and details of your cruise. We sail for the first time on Celebrity this March. Having sailed on the Epic and with RCL before (which we love), I'm interested in hearing your comparison to those ships. I think you have confirmed most of what I was expecting to be different. Thanks again for all of the time you are putting in!

[cruisinskier]

Hi Jerry,

 

Mary and I really enjoyed our cruise with you and Patti. We would love to cruise with you again.

 

Happy New Year!:D

Ed & Mary

 

Hi Ed. Hopefully we will connect again in the future. Happy New Year to you and Mary!

Jerry

[cruisinskier]

Thank you for taking the time to post all of these wonderful pictures and details of your cruise. We sail for the first time on Celebrity this March. Having sailed on the Epic and with RCL before (which we love), I'm interested in hearing your comparison to those ships. I think you have confirmed most of what I was expecting to be different. Thanks again for all of the time you are putting in!

 

Hi Karen. Thank you for your comments and glad you are enjoying the review. I think in general the various cruise lines are more similar than they are different. Yes there are certain items on Royal geared more to families, NCL is more casual and the dueling pianos on EPIC was the best entertainment on any ship we have experienced so far (including Oasis). Our main intent for this cruise was to spend a relaxing week with our grown kids and we truly enjoyed that.

 

I hope we will always enjoy every cruise we do, even if there are small parts of it that may not go well or if there are small things others do better. There are always way more positives than negatives from every cruise we have done. For example, even when I talked about the dining room food on our recent cruise being ok, we ate every meal, all was good, we enjoyed it, we tried items we had never had before and we didn't have to cook, but it just didn't wow us as we may have expected from Celebrity. In the end, it is always much, much better than being at home :D

 

Enjoy your cruise and happy to answer any further questions as we continue with this review.

Jerry

[cruisinskier]

OK, back to the review....

 

We were taken by taxi to Nachi Cocum, about a 15 minute drive. Cost of taxi was $16....so $20 with tip. We had a reservation made a few months earlier. We had decided to come here given the large number of cruise passengers in port. Nachi only allows a limited capacity each day.

 

We paid the balance upon arrival and went straight to the beach. Manuel was our server and did a great job! Nachi is all inclusive with all food & drink included. We enjoyed Nachi Cocum and would return again on future visits to Cozumel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was as crowded as the beach ever was!

 

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After a few hours it was time for lunch. Ignore the prices as you could order what ever you wanted...I realize now that I didn't take any photos of the food but it was very good and authentic Mexican.

 

 

 

 

I think this about sums it up!!

 

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And a panoramic of the beach

 

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Our little bit of paradise!

 

[cruisinskier]

The pool area

 

 

 

Restaurant area (food can also be served right on the beach)

 

 

Hard to see here but this is the bar in the restaurant and pool bar on the other side.

 

[cruisinskier]

We would have liked to have more time at the beach however given our time in port had been reduced due to the azipod issue, we left Nachi Cocum around 1:45 and there were taxis waiting to take us back to the port.

 

We took our time heading back to the ship however our shopping was limited to just the pier area (we did not make it to the main shopping area in town). I think the only item we bought was some vanilla and we then made our way back on board....

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

Back on-board, we watched the activity in the port area.

 

The pilot boat was ready for us to depart

 

 

The waterjet ferry was returning from the main land

 

 

Some of the folks on excursions were dropped directly onto the boat (similar to tenders) given the shorter time in port

 

 

More people returning from the Atlantis submarines

 

[cruisinskier]

Once these folks were dropped at the ship, we were ready to depart

 

 

Staff were ready....

 

 

Time to untie us...

 

 

Pulling away from the dock

 

 

Goodbye to the Riviera

 

[cruisinskier]

NCL & Disney at the other pier

 

 

And the two Carnival ships

 

 

 

 

Looking straight down the aft of the Silhouette

 

 

Goodbye Cozumel!

 

[coldweathergirl]

I'm enjoying your review. Thanks. We'll be sailing on the Silhouette in the middle of February with our three daughters who are all in their twenties for a family trip during their university break so your review is making me look forward to it even more.

 

 

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[paradiseawaitsme]

What a great review! Enjoying all the pics and getting even more excited for my very first cruise on Reflection in February. Can't wait for the rest of your review :)

[Sparky333]

Nachi Cocum looks like a great choice if we make it to Cozumel again. I love that it limits the number of people and it looks very laid-back which appeals to me.

 

I'm wondering if there are lockers to stash valuables if we both wanted to go in the water at the same time. I've read other posters saying they never felt there was anything to worry about and that their items were safe just on the lounge chairs but I don't think I'd want to take a chance (not just there but anywhere in the world!) losing a credit card or camera, for ex.

[cruisinskier]

I'm enjoying your review. Thanks. We'll be sailing on the Silhouette in the middle of February with our three daughters who are all in their twenties for a family trip during their university break so your review is making me look forward to it even more.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Hi Coldweathergirl,

 

Thanks for checking out the review and glad it is helping to get you excited for your upcoming trip. Family time together is really what it is all about when the "kids" are no longer kids.

 

How far north in Ontario are you? I have a sister-in-law who is moving to Moose Factory in a couple of weeks....they will be very north!

 

Stay warm and safe travels!

Jerry

[cruisinskier]

What a great review! Enjoying all the pics and getting even more excited for my very first cruise on Reflection in February. Can't wait for the rest of your review :)

 

Hi paradiseawaitsme,

 

Thanks for your kind comments and glad you are enjoying the review. Yes lots more to come!

 

Enjoy your trip on the Reflection! Safe travels.

Jerry

[cruisinskier]

Nachi Cocum looks like a great choice if we make it to Cozumel again. I love that it limits the number of people and it looks very laid-back which appeals to me.

 

I'm wondering if there are lockers to stash valuables if we both wanted to go in the water at the same time. I've read other posters saying they never felt there was anything to worry about and that their items were safe just on the lounge chairs but I don't think I'd want to take a chance (not just there but anywhere in the world!) losing a credit card or camera, for ex.

 

Hi Sparky,

 

We did not feel the need to use a locker given there were four of us so someone was always with our stuff. I have checked the Nachi Cocum website (http://www.cozumelnachicocom.com/default.cfm) and looked under amenities and FAQ's and neither indicate that they have lockers. I am thinking they do not unless some other visitor to Nachi Cocum can confirm the lockers.

 

Yes it was laid back and the fact they limit guests to 100 per day does keep it enjoyable. We felt it was worth the $55 pp which is similar to the cost of a shore excursion.

 

The downside was that occasionally they would try to upsell activities which is fine, however everything seemed overpriced (i.e $35 for an hour of stand-up paddle board). They did offer snorkeling, jet skis, etc however we just relaxed on the beach this trip.

 

Jerry

[cruisinskier]

OK, so we are back on-board and we head back to the cabins. As I mentioned today was our son's birthday and we had arranged to have his room decorated. We arrive back to the room and.......nothing! Nope, they had not decorated. We call down to guest services and they realize they still have the request. It had never been sent along to be actioned.

 

They apologize and they tell us they will do it while we are at dinner. While not ideal at least he will have it for a small part of his b-day. When they did decorate, they also sent a bottle of wine and in reviewing my bill, they never charged us for the decorations so they dd recover with flair but it would have been nice to be done earlier in the day.

 

A little story here...we have not had luck with ordering room decorations. A few years back we were sailing on Oasis and it was our best friends 25th anniversary so we arranged to have their room decorated accordingly. Well, somehow, they decorated the wrong room and it was our kid's cabin that was decorated. It was just very funny when everyone returned to the cabins! Again it got fixed but we have not been very successful when ordering room decorations......