Photo Review: Celebrity Silhouette 2/7/16 Western Caribbean

[HeatherC430]

For those of you who haven't read my other photo reviews, I very rarely ever complain about anything on the message boards or in my reviews. The Future Cruise Vacations Desk was one of the two complaints I have from this cruise in regards to Celebrity and specifically the service (or lack-there-of).

 

Here's what happened...

 

This sea day morning I had picked up several of the leaflets they had regarding upcoming cruise itineraries. As a backstory, I was booked on the Summit 10-night in 2017 that got cancelled as a result of the jazz charter (which is a whole 'nother issue, and my true first ever gripe with Celebrity). Anyways, I pick-up some information to review during the week, and had full intention on booking another cruise while on-board, to ensure the on-board credit and beverage package on my next Celebrity cruise. I typically overplan in advance and know exactly what cruise I'd like to book, but since my cruise was cancelled not long before my last vacation in December, then the holidays, and this cruise...I really haven't had any time to do thorough research. Plus, at the moment we're planning on doing a Costa Rica land trip next February, so I was searching for Jan/Feb 2018 itineraries and I knew many options aren't available for all cruiselines yet.

 

I take them back to the room with me and review with my DH (he hates to even broach the topic until well after the time I'd like to book, so many times I just book without his knowledge and make my own decisions). For example, he didn't even know that I had the 2017 cruise booked, until after I told him it was cancelled. Anyways, there were a few itineraries that I wanted to find out about specific days of the itineraries and how they fell in terms of making a final decision to book.

 

Let me also add that Tuesday or Wednesday night the Future Cruise Desk had left us a message in the middle of the night on our phone (therefore the red was blinking literally ALL night long). The message warned you to not wait until the last sea day to visit the Future Cruise desk to avoid waits, etc.

 

So, it was either that night or the next, I stopped at the future cruise office, and waited until one of the reps at the desk seemed available and he waved me over (My DH claimed his name was "Chuck", although I was so irritated I didn't pay attention to his name-tag). I ask him about the dates of the specific itineraries I was interested in and what days of the weeks those feel over. He claimed to not be able to give me that information, until I gave him my room number, etc so that he could pull up my Celebrity Captains Club number, etc. Because of the ways the dates had fallen, I told him I didn't think we'd be able to do that specific cruise. I asked about a specific port and inquired if any other itineraries had this port. He immediately responded no. (I would have accepted his answer as accurate however later, I did find other itineraries with that port I was requesting information for). I asked a few other questions regarding options of itineraries for the time-frame I was looking for, and he was pretty much unresponsive with minimal one or two word answers.

 

Since, there was no clear itinerary to book (as I had planned), I then probed further regarding the "Future Cruise Certificate". Clearly, I have heard of them on the message boards and they allude to them in the flyers you receive in the room, but it doesn't give clear specifics as to when you need to use it by, etc. So, I asked the question, he told me all the information was on the back of the Future Cruise Certificate (when I'd receive it), and when booking the cruise you would have to do so through the Future Cruise Vacations number. OK, that's all fine and dandy, but who's going to buy the certificate without knowing when it needs to be used by, or what it applies or doesn't apply to. After I ask that, he said I'd have to go to the Concierge desk. Now, this makes no sense to me because I'm at the FUTURE CRUISE DESK. I know that they should be able to answer my question.

 

It was clear I was getting no where fast with "Chuck", so I left (without a cruise booked or a future cruise certificate). As we walked away, my DH confirmed that it wasn't just me who thought this guy was about as unhelpful as they get. He confirmed my suspicions that it just seemed like he wasn't interested in helping me or even going through the motions of answering my questions. And...it's not like I waited til the last day to go there when they have a line around the block waiting for people to get in to see them. There was literally no one else in Chuck's seat before me, nor was anyone waiting after us.

 

Since my DH knew I was ticked off about my treatment (and the fact that I didn't book a cruise or get a certificate) thus far, he visited the concierge desk the next day and inquired if there was any validity to getting the information regarding the future cruise certificate from them (rather than the future cruise desk). He said the woman was very clear that the future cruise desk would be the place to handle the situation and give the details. She even gave my DH the name of the manager there after he explained the scenario.

 

I was too irritated and even bother going back. If Celebrity wanted to ensure I booked on-board, then they could have had someone even semi-courteous to help me. Was it just me he was giving bad service to? Maybe he thought I was an inexperienced cruiser? Or not willing to spend enough for him to care (since we don't book suites, aqua class, etc)? Or maybe because I was younger than 90% of the other cruisers onboard he didn't take me seriously? Who knows. Ok, rant over.

 

Long story short: Bad treatment at the future cruise desk = no current Celebrity cruise booked for me at the moment.

 

 

[HeatherC430]

I really liked how they had these digital ads outside the theater each day so you knew what the shows were and the times. I tried to take pictures if I happened to walk past these each day, but that trickled off as the week went on.

 

 

 

I think this was the first cruise that I didn't get anything from the pastry and dessert case from Cafe al Bacio. They have breakfast type pastries, muffins, sometimes doughnuts in the mornings. In the afternoon and evenings, they have various dessert items, all of which are free of charge (and can be taken to go back to your room).

 

 

My DH decided to buy a gopro onboard during that first sea day. He used much of the sea day to read all the instructions, etc - although we didn't use it at all on this trip. The price onboard was on par with what you'd pay at home. The girl in the photo shop was really helpful and knowledgeable in answering all of our questions.

 

 

Below is Celebrity Central where they'll have movies played (they seemed to always be the same ones available as the free in-room movies). Later in the week we also attended one of the 45 min presentations talking about the Galapagos and Machu Picchu cruise tours available through Celebrity. Both of which we plan on doing at some point. The best part of the presentation was at the end when the presenter went over the prices for each and those in the crowd literally gasped out loud! Each time it was announced! I guess these people were that out of touch with the prices of each. Both prices seemed to be on par with what I would have expected (but then again, I've already done my homework and know there's very little deals to be had for either itinerary, let alone combining them into one trip). I just drug my DH there thinking maybe he'd have a moment of weakness and tell me to book one! lol ;)

 

[HeatherC430]

Last year when I had booked this cruise, I had selected Celebrity Select Dining (because we prefer to just sit alone without having forced awkward conversation with others about "what you do for a living", etc). Plus, we very rarely go to the main dining room. As of recent years, generally only once or twice all week. Knowing that I had prepaid the gratuities in order to have the Celebrity Select Dining (although prepaying is apparently no longer necessary), I was surprised to find a card in our stateroom on the first day that stated we were in the second seating! I knew if we had a set dining time (at 8:30 none-the-less) we'd never make it there! On embarkation day, I immediately went to the maitre'd. Of course there was a sizeable line for others who had been switched against their will. They even had seats out where you had to wait until your name was called.

 

Now, what gets me about this, is I guarantee people who didn't have this booked for over a year, probably had their first choice. And, up until the week before the cruise when I reprinted all my documents, it still said Celebrity Select Dining on all my documents. It wasn't until I was IN the room on the ship that they decided to change me?

 

When it was my turn, I politely asked if I could be changed back to Select Dining as my documents had stated (and that I had already pre-paid gratuities). I also added that we only normally ever come to dinner once or twice all week, and for that reason did not want to have the set dining time. Lord only knows what kind of table we would have been seated with at the set dining time. I think my DH is still scarred from his first few cruises (before anytime or select dining was even an option!). Luckily, he was able to accommodate my requests and just asked that we make reservations to avoid wait times. Duely noted.

 

This being the first sea day was our first "Evening Chic". For a brief period we were planning on going to dinner, until we walked past the main entrance and it was clear there was in fact a size-able wait. So, we decided to head to Bistro on Five for dinner. We really enjoy this place & tend to eat there at least once on each Celebrity cruise. I'll be sad to see them do away with it. You can always count on it to be empty on formal nights, which tends to be one of the days we go there. This visit didn't disappoint either. We tried the new milkshakes on the menu (small, but good).

 

 

 

Like I said...empty (but we wouldn't have it any other way)

 

 

 

 

 

Food was great - just as we've experienced on the Summit. And service was excellent.

[HeatherC430]

After dinner, we walked around a bit looking for anything that might be doing on. Many nights this seemed to be the hot-spot. The band would setup on the lower level of the foyer and play. People would dance on the space in front of them, and on-lookers would observe from the few decks above. And as you can tell from the pictures, they take pictures on the stairs behind the dance-floor on formal nights (oops, I mean "Evening Chic"). I thought the idea of the band playing in that area was a bit odd, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.

 

I have to say, that on both of the Evening Chic nights, I personally didn't see any difference in the way that people on-board dressed compared to previous cruises on "formal" nights. Almost everyone had black suits (men) or black dresses on (women with their glittered or sequen'd accessories). I'd probably fall into the Evening Chic category almost every night as I always wear either a short or long dress each night.

 

Below is what Celebrity has in their Celebrity Today regarding the dress code differences:

Smart Casual: Ladies: Skirt/pants with sweater/blouse; Gentlemen: Pants with sports shirt/sweater

Introducing Evening Chic: Formal Night gets a modern luxury reboot. Say goodbye to Formal Night, and hello to Evening Chic. It's your time to shine-your way. While dressier than Smart Casual, Evening Chic is intended to be less dressy than Formal attire. Women should feel comfortable wearing a cocktail dress, skirt, pants or designer jeans with an elegant top. Men should feel comfortable wearing pants or designer jeans with a dress shirt, button-down shirt or sweater. A sport coat or blazer is optional.

 

 

 

 

 

After watching the entertainment above we headed back to the room as we had an early morning in Cozumel, as we arrived in port at 7am the next day and knew we had to be up early for our excursion to Chichen Itza. We had put the door hang tag outside our room to get room service the next morning knowing we weren't going to have much/any time to get breakfast before leaving the ship. I can't say enough good things about room service as we did it several days during the course of the week. When we'd check the time-frame we'd like it delivered, we'd get a call right at the beginning of the window letting us know the tray would be arriving shortly.

 

[HeatherC430]

We were in Cozumel from 7am until 4pm on this day. My DH & I have wanted to visit Chichen Itza for years now (probably since it was a toss up to visit the Mayan ruins in Tulum or Chichen Itza). At the time we did the tour to Tulum and loved it. To date, it's still one of our favorite shore excursions, even though the travel time was substantial. We didn't think twice when booking the Chichen Itza Mayan Ruins (CZK8) in advance through the Celebrity website. We knew it was going to be lengthy travel time to get there, but were ok with that. We also knew the time spent there would only be roughly an hour, as the tour itself was stated to last 8 hours and was basically the entire time you were in port (as you had to be back on-board by 3:30 that day).

 

To my surprise on the first day I was leafing through the shore excursions ad in our room (even though I had already booked all of our tours either through the ship or independently), when I came across a Chichen Itza VIP tour that claimed to include 1.5 hours of free time as opposed to the 1.0 hour of free time the standard tour offered that I was already booked on. I told my DH and he agreed we should try and get onto the VIP tour if room was available. Clearly, I wouldn't have picked the lesser option if the VIP was available online in advance. This rubs me the wrong way. People like me do all the research in advance to make the most of their time on-board and make decisions accordingly. Then, you get on-board and see a BETTER option available than what was initially given with the choices. The VIP tour was more expensive, but was to be expected as you were given additional time at the ruins. In our opinion it didn't matter how much more the tour was compared to what we had already spent on the original.

 

So, we immediately went to the tour desk. Cancelled our tour and had us added to the VIP tour. I believe this tour maxed at 10 people, but required at least 8 to operate. When we signed up, they said we were the only/first two signed up at the time. We made it clear that if this VIP tour didn't have enough to operate, we'd want to be put back on the orig. tour we had booked. Luckily, we had one more person than what the minimum was required to operate. They had us meet early that morning in the Celebrity Central, where they gave you numbered stickers associated with your tour group, as several different tours would be taking the ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen for their tours.

 

The sun was still coming up as we debarked the Silhouette. The ferry ride was quicker than I had remembered from prior tours and the water wasn't as rough as other times I've been on the ferry (although it was far from smooth). Soon enough we were met by our tour guide at the Playa del Carmen dock, and he led us to our private mini-van/shuttle. We were given our boxed snack which consisted of a juice, muffin, bag of chips and a piece of fruit for the ride. Our tour guide gave us some information on the area in which we would be visiting during some of the ride. Once we arrived, we were told that you were not allowed to take backpacks inside the ruins area with you due to recent events where some of the ruins had been defaced with spray paint.

 

Before leaving the van, our tour guide gave us headsets and receivers so that we could hear him (?) as he guided us through the ruins. For someone like me who has their camera and wants to take pictures, having to wear the headset, and carry the receiver box thing, was trying. All it did was get in the way. It didn't take long before my DH gave both of the headsets and gear back to the guide so that we could take pictures as we walked. Plus, our guide was standing right in front of us (unless you were hard of hearing), really was there any reason to wear the headset to hear what he was saying? After we walked through all the main areas with our guide he gave us about 15 minutes of "free" time before we had to meet up with the group before leaving. During our "free" time we had only enough time to go back to about half of the ruins before it was time to hustle back to the meeting spot.

 

Our guide was friendly, knowledgeable, etc - however, I would have much preferred him to give us much of the pertinent information about the ruins during the shuttle ride (he was talking over a microphone in there too so it wouldn't have been a problem for people to hear him). It would have been nice to have been given the option once you arrived at the ruins if you wanted to stick with the group and hear the details as he walked you through (or you could have gone on your own and met up with the group in the meeting spot before it was time to leave). I see where they were going with the notion of it being a VIP tour and the headsets, but personally the speed of the tour moved a little too slow for my tastes, especially knowing we only had 1.5 tours in total there at the ruins. It just felt like at times we were wasting time or moving too slow (for me).

 

After the ruins, we were given cool cloths to cool off with if you wanted, and a sandwich and coke (and/or water) for the ride back to the ferry terminal in Playa del Carmen, and ferry ride back to Cozumel to return to the ship. We did enjoy our time at the ruins, however a different format would have fit my personal tastes better. I can't speak to whether or not the regular Chichen Itza tour operated in the same manner, or if only the time was slightly longer.

 

The ruins are something to see, but I must say I really enjoyed the ruins at Tulum (as did my DH) MUCH better when comparing the two (Tulum vs. Chichen Itza). It seemed like there was much more to see at Tulum, and the picturesque scenery of the ruins with the backdrop of the water was really something. I'm still unclear if we saw all of what Chichen Itza had to offer - or if there was more outside of our standard tour with the guide.

 

 

The must have been some sort of Medical issue because we were among the first groups to get off the ship due to the time of excursion an this ambulance was literally on the dock outside the ship.

 

 

On our way...

 

 

 

[HeatherC430]

I have to say, the one thing I found most surprising was all the vendors that were setup inside the area where the ruins were (like in the pathways). I would have expected them outside the park, and maybe even in one area when you first walked in, but it seemed strange that they'd be hustling their wares inside sacred Mayan grounds? We must have been there shortly after they opened because initially many of the vendors were still setting up shop.

 

In general, the ruins themselves were MUCH busier than I would have expected for a Tuesday morning. I try to exclude people from my pictures (other than us of course) as much as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Here's our tour group (with their headsets on) - note how not far away everyone is from the tour guide.

 

 

 

 

 

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I told you there were lots of people!

 

 

 

 

 

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As we were leaving, it appeared the crowds funneling in were growing...

 

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Within minutes of arriving at the ferry terminal, our ferry was heading in to pick us up. It didn't waste any time either. Once everyone was loaded in, we immediately pulled out to head back to Cozumel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HeatherC430]

The upper deck of the ferry on the way back is shown below. Personally, I think when you sit up top and you have a breeze, the length of time on the ferry and the motion of the boat don't get to you as much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HeatherC430]

The other ships in port...

 

 

The Silhouette as we were about to reboard.

 

 

 

[HeatherC430]

After boarding the ship, we dropped off our bags, changed clothes, and headed to the top deck for sail-away. I grabbed my zoom lens to take some pictures from the top deck of the coast line of Cozumel. I really only ever use my zoom lens on the top deck as we pull into port in the mornings (if time allows), or as we're leaving port in the afternoon/evening because I hate to lug around any extra "stuff" with me during the days. So, my DH grabs a drink and he accompanies me as I take some photos by the railing.

 

Funny Story: As I'm snapping away, he informs me an older gentleman is "checking me out". Before I even realize who my husband was talking about, a gent' straggles over to me and starts quizzing me about what kind of lens I have on my camera. He shoots the breeze with us about my camera, photography, etc for awhile. After he leaves, I laughed to my husband and say, "He definitely wasn't checking me out...he was checking out my camera & lens!"

 

View from our stateroom: (through the window)

 

 

And onto the heli-pad