BEAUTIFUL SILHOUETTE - East Caribbean - Photo Video Trip Report 3/1/15

[SavvyAdam]

I noticed that a lot of people were ordering drinks thinking that they were are Starbucks, and the staff seemed to get confused when their was a modification to their order. I only ever ordered a tea there which they always got right.

[Jimmanknows]

Great Pics of Qsine!! I hadn't seen the slider tray or Taco's when I ate there last time. They look very good. Might have to give them a try next week!! Thanks again for the great review and pictures.

 

I totally agree, best pics of Qsine I've seen. Definitely gives you a taste of what they offer, thank you!

[FRMPEI]

Day 3 - San Juan - Sea Day 1.5

 

Now this is a display that can make me stop and take a look.

 

 

Trivia was general knowledge and we finished second again. The Trivia was quite tough. Pic of Adam and I at the Ensemble Lounge.

 

 

We , "the boys", all wanted to catch "How to cook the Perfect steak" at 11:00 AM up at the Lawn Grill. We never got there until 11 and place was already packed. So they opened/rolled up the rear plastic windows on the Lawn Club so more people could watch. The MC did not have the Mic /PA system turned up load enough and it was hard to hear what he was saying. Nolan was bored in about 10 minutes and wanted to leave so we did.

 

 

 

We just wandered around took some pictures and enjoyed the Beautiful Silhouette.

 

Now are they giant Adirondack or Muskoka chairs?

 

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

I totally agree, best pics of Qsine I've seen. Definitely gives you a taste of what they offer, thank you!

 

You are Welcome! and thank you for your kind comment.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Day 3 - San Juan - Sea Day 1.5

 

More Picture wandering before lunch

 

Scheduled arrivial in San Juan is not until 3:30 PM and when you think about this really is just like an other Sea Day, If you are fan of the Alcoves this would be a good day to rent because you would get it for $99 (port day) vs $149 (sea day). Donna is a fan of the Alcoves and we have talked and said that our next San Juan day maybe an Alcove day.

 

 

Go Pro Pic of Solstice Deck 15

 

 

 

I always love taking this picture of the Solarium Solar Array roof.

 

 

After our Silhouette wandering we found Donna up on deck 14. So we found some lounge chairs across from Donna. On the pic below I don't like how Celebrity got rid of the the little fountains and lights in this deck/pool area.

 

 

Nolan enjoyed his first burger from mast grill while we watched the Pool X Olympix going on down at the main pool. It was still pretty windy and my prized Equinox ball cap flew off but, luckily it blew down onto deck 12 pool area rather than the other way into the ocean. Adam was the good son and retrieved it for his dad. Lunch time was upon so we were able to get another nice table outside aft of Oceanview.

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

 

Day 3 - San Juan - Sea Day 1.5

 

We had another great lunch from Oceanview... Love being able to sit outside to eat in the shade.

 

 

We knew we must be getting close to see land so we figured we would go over to Sky Lounge and check out the view. But not available... closed for a private event... I think they were setting up for one of those very well attended and important Park west Art Auctions. So I told everybody to follow me and I would take them down to the Relaxation lounge. I knew there was an entrance at end of our hallway last year Forward deck 11 on Equinox so it must also be the same on Silhouette. Right you are Kevin! I didn't stay too long because I wanted to have time to get my video cameras set up on our balcony to catch the sail into San Juan.

 

 

Tag on Adam's T-shirt (east coast lifestyle)

 

 

Harbour Pilot Approaching Silhouette

 

 

I really like this picture that Nolan captured of the sea gull. I had never noticed how colourful these birds were.

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[ILgirl]

I am loving your review as I did last year as well! You have a beautiful family. I have to say I feel a bit cheated, though....we didn't see what color of socks you were wearing on Qsine night!😊. By the way, I think Celebrity owes you a commission. We had talked ourselves out of a cruise in 2015. Your review is pure torture. We booked the Reflection today for the week after Thanksgiving. We would have booked the Silhouette but it is chartered that week for a Swingers' cruise. Thanks again for all of the time you put into your reviews.

[plucasana]

I want to thank you for this review aswell! You do a wonderful job reporting your holidays. i was happy to be taken along. It must have cost you days to write this! Thanks again!!!!

[FRMPEI]

I am loving your review as I did last year as well! You have a beautiful family. I have to say I feel a bit cheated, though....we didn't see what color of socks you were wearing on Qsine night!😊. By the way, I think Celebrity owes you a commission. We had talked ourselves out of a cruise in 2015. Your review is pure torture. We booked the Reflection today for the week after Thanksgiving. We would have booked the Silhouette but it is chartered that week for a Swingers' cruise. Thanks again for all of the time you put into your reviews.

 

Thank you for adding your encouraging comments. Nope! I just wore plain old boring black socks. Swingers cruise LOL! You are right... I googled and found a site for bookings. I wonder if you still get Captain Club Points for this "Lifestyle" cruise?

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

I want to thank you for this review aswell! You do a wonderful job reporting your holidays. i was happy to be taken along. It must have cost you days to write this! Thanks again!!!!

 

Thanks for coming along. It is a labour of love.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

 

Day 3 - San Juan - Sailing Past San Felipe del Merro Fort

 

This was our third time visiting the port of San Juan all times arriving late in the afternoon. In 2013 I missed getting any pictures of the beautiful sail by of the old fort. This time we made up for it and between us we took a few hundred photos of course I will only share a few here. Arriving this late in the afternoon really limits what you can do.

 

The beautiful historic 500 year old Spanish fort of San Felipe del Morro is within sight.

 

 

Supposedly a "rougher" area of old San Juan. (with an ocean view)

 

 

Nolan bringing the fort in focus.

 

 

Nolan's Picture

 

 

Graveyard to the left. Which we were later told was used for scene in the 1995 movie "Assassins".

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

 

Day 3 - San Juan

 

In the distance the high rises contrast the beauty of historic old San Juan.

 

 

 

Cool spot to watch cruise ship come in?

 

 

This photo also include the iconic fort turrent in the background.

 

 

 

I thinking the sail into our Charlottetown harbour would be similar to this but not quite so majestic as San Juan. Sail through a narrow passage until you have to swing into the harbour for docking.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Your comment: Supposedly a "rougher" area of old San Juan. (with an ocean view)

 

That is the famous La Perla Slum. Not a bad location, eh? Efforts to take over that highly desirable territory over the years have been strongly resisted by the La Perla residents. Can't say as I blame them. None of them would be able to afford to live in what would be built to replace it. It's been there since I lived in San Juan in the early 50s and I'm sure it was there long before that.

 

Linda

 

[FRMPEI]

... It's been there since I lived in San Juan in the early 50s and I'm sure it was there long before that.

 

Linda,

 

The tour op we hired also used the word "slum". 50's I was for sure you would mean the 70's when you were a kid.:)

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Day 3 - San Juan - More Photos of Sail In

 

Other Ships in with us today:

 

NCL Gem 2466 Passengers (8AM-5PM)

HAL Westerdam 1848Passengers (12PM-5PM)

Alda Vita 1266 Passengers (10AM-9PM)

 

We were the last ship to arrive for the day. We were in a little earlier than the planned arrival of 3:30 PM and were okayed to disembark around 4:00PM. But a few more pictures of sailing into and past the fort.

 

 

 

NCL's Gem along with HAL Westerdam's Stacks.

 

 



 

 

Aft of HAL's Westerdam

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[upwarduk]

This was our third time visiting the port of San Juan all times arriving late in the afternoon. Arriving this late in the afternoon really limits what you can do.

 

How long do you have in Suan Juan?

[FRMPEI]

 

Day 3 - San Juan - Bring Back the Fanny Pac

 

Adam told me this story about the mix up of the naming of San Juan. I hope I get this right? Originally the Island was called San Juan and the city was Puerto Rico but some map maker mixed the two up. Our tour op later confirmed this story.

 

The other fort - Castillo de San Cristobal in the background

 

 

Silhouette Swinging into Position

 

 

My Fanny Pac. Taken exclusively for my Co-Worker. Real Men Wear Fanny Packs.

 

 

Down on deck 5 Starboard side.

 

 

The second and last photo we purchased.

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

How long do you have in Suan Juan?

 

We were scheduled for 3:30PM to 9:00PM for San Juan. We left right on the schedule. It started to get dark around 6:30 to 7:00 PM so we really only had a couple of hours of daylight when we were there. Of course later in season the daylight would increase and I just googled and Puerto Rico does do daylight savings time so + one more hour of daylight.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

 

San Juan Sail In Video

 

Attached below is a very quick 1:24 minute video of our sail into San Juan harbour. Give it a click and a view.

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[Baatman]

should have said

"i love looking at others photos, as long as they're not snow!"

 

lol!:d

[FRMPEI]

 

 

Have you ever wondered what these markings are on the dock? No it is not graffiti. They are put there by the crew to aid the captain in pulling up to the dock. When walking on the pier look straight up when under the bridge wing and you will see a glass hole in the floor. I learned this on my 2013 behind the scene tour.

 

 

 

Now we did not do any pre-planning for our stop today in San Juan. The plan was just to walk up to fort San Felipe del Morro and hit the CVS drugstore . Walking along the boardwalk we were approached by quite a few offering tours for $10 per person. I guess this late in the day the price drops to this value. We just keep walking further up. Then we were approached by Jose (he said he was the only Jose on the Island) for a private tour for just the six of us at price around $250. We said no at that price. Then he came down to $20 person and just us on his bus for a couple of hours. We agreed! But he then attracted an other group and tried pull a fast one but the group told us they he agreed to $10 person for them. So Jose had to take his price down to $10 for our group of six. At the end of the tour I still gave him $20/person because he was worth it.

 

 

 

Back in 2013 we booked a city excursion through the ship for I think around $50. To be honest it was not very good. The bus was packed and the air conditioner was so loud we could not hear him well. The mistake that he made was assuming that everybody on the bus was an American and talk/commentary was based on that. 2015's San Juan's only tour operator called Jose was so much better. He took us were we wanted and when stopped would ask us how long we wanted to stay.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

Edited April 12, 2015 by FRMPEI

[FRMPEI]

Day 3 - San Juan - Jose's Tour

 

Our tour op Jose did a good job of showing us the highlights of old and new San Juan. Our other group were more interested in hearing themselves talk rather than Jose. I found it rude.. then they had the nerve to ask questions that Jose had already covered. We had a another name for them that we will not share here.

 

Our first stop was at a "park" / beach just a little bit past were we stopped in 2013. Jose said he doesn't stop there because they have too many fancy expensive shop nearby and that we would have no money left over for his tip. LOL! This stop was also at a nearby gift store that you could also use their washroom.

 

 

The surf was a little wild behind Adam.

 

 

I had mentioned to Jose about an abandoned hotel that was built in the shape of ship so he made a point to go by the old Normandie Hotel. Such a shame that it is not a going concern.

 

 

We made a quick stop at Castillo de San Cristobal Fort. It was near closing time and we agreed to stop for about 15 minutes but we were still able to to see some of the fort for free. But our other loud group were too busy talking and missed that it was only 15 minutes and it was closing soon. They went to the entrance and tried to go in but were turned back.

 

During 2013 we stopped here for about an hour and our admission was included with the cost of the excursion. It was neat to see but I didn't want to go thru the fort once again.

 

 

 

Donna catches a pic of me with her iPhone. This fort is very close to port and a very easy walk from the ship. While we were there I noticed that NCL Gem was leaving from my vantage point.

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

Edited April 12, 2015 by FRMPEI

[FRMPEI]

Day 3 - San Juan - Jose's Tour

 

Jose was able to also give us some movie trivia. The next picture of the graveyard at the base of the fort San Felipe del Morro was used for a scene in the 1995 movie "Assassins" and that the Senior Frogs next to the port was used in a scene from the movie "22 Jump Street".

 

Pic of the graveyard and NCL's Gem in the background.

 

 

To the right of NCL's Gem in the picture above you can see a brown object probably some type of barge. Our "Not listening" group asked, "Is that a prison?". "Yes and it called Alcatraz", I replied.

 

Jose dropped us off near the Cristobal Colon.

 

 

The boys can smell a Starbucks from kilometres away. Adam wanted to see if he could use his iPhone Starbucks app but, they did not have the machine that could read it in this store. Next picture taken from the back of my head's baseball cap Go Pro. Me... I am not into the Starbuck thing. Rather my double chocolate donut at Tim's.

 

 

Donna meet a new friend on our walk down to CVS.

 

 

The CVS was quite busy. Nolan picked up a battery for his shaver. I picked up a Twix bar and it survived all the way until our flight back to Moncton. It is weird to get pennies back in your change now. Canada got rid of pennies.

 

As you can tell from the next couple of pictures the sun has already gone down. Snapped this picture from my iPhone Go Pro app.

 

 

There was actually quite a few fellow passengers trying to get back onto the ship at the same time. With NCL's Gem gone I was able to get a picture of HAL's Westerdam with the moon also out.

 

 

Up Next our first evening in the Grand Cuvee Select Main Dining Room.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Day 3 - San Juan - Grand Cuvee MDR

 

 

So back in our rooms after a few hours of touring San Juan. Just enough time to take showers and get ready for our first Grand Cuvee Main Dining room experience and actually our first ever experience at Select Dining. We had no reservations we just down around 7:30 PM. Which must be a good time because it was not very busy then but, very shortly after this it looked quite busy. Our waiter tonight was the fantastic Jorge. So good in fact that sister Michele insisted on tracking him down give him an additional tip.

 

 

The Grand Cuvee Menu tonight... Left Every Night Right Changes

 

 

My Gosh! I love the MDR's bread basket of rolls and Bread sticks.

 

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Day 3 - San Juan - Grand Cuvee - Select Dining

 

Sister Michele had the Rigatoni Boscaiola

 

 

Donna - Grilled Chicken Breast from the "favourites" menu

 

 

Myself and the boys ordered the Turkey Parmesan

 

 

Desert Menu (Left & Right Side)

 

 

Donna ordered the New York Cheese Cake

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid