Review of Silhouette Nov 2016 Transatlantic

[sippican]

The trick is to allow plenty of time! I would be curious though if it was easier for folks getting off earlier or for the ones who paid for Fort Lauderdale tours.

 

We did self-disembark and were on the sidewalk waiting for our shuttle by 8:00'am. No lines, no wait.

[cruisecatmama]

Hi tweetylori! We were on your cruise, too, we walked off moments after sippican and the only people in the terminal were CBP agents. I really enjoyed your review of the Silhouette, which reminded me, again, of how much we enjoyed the cruise and made me book another cruise on her for May 2018. :D

[tweetylori]

We did self-disembark and were on the sidewalk waiting for our shuttle by 8:00'am. No lines, no wait.

 

Guess we were in the majority when we thought we would be in the minority. Good to know for future reference, thanks!

[tweetylori]

Hi tweetylori! We were on your cruise, too, we walked off moments after sippican and the only people in the terminal were CBP agents. I really enjoyed your review of the Silhouette, which reminded me, again, of how much we enjoyed the cruise and made me book another cruise on her for May 2018. :D

 

Thank you! And glad to hear you got off easily as well. I'm so happy that you enjoyed the cruise as much as we did. Very excited for you that you already have another sailing to look forward to!

[tweetylori]

As promised, let's talk back to the beginning and Rome!

 

Honestly, the most intimidating part of the planning process for me was Rome. The European part, transatlantic, Celebrity...everything was all new to us, and I wanted to max out our possibilities, so that meant research. Lots and lots of it.

 

Had heard the dislike stories from others who talked about how big Rome was, and how it was like New York! (but wait! we like NY :rolleyes:)

 

I heard about scary high speed cab rides and pick-pockets and stolen items. :eek: We had never dealt with euros, didn't know where to stay, how to get from the airport to a hotel, then to the port. Seriously it freaked me out for quite awhile. Not to mention the AIRFARE. :eek:

 

When I first looked it was $2,000 for one way from Raleigh, NC to Rome. :mad:

Nope. Not happening. We weren't about to pay way more for 9-10 hours to Rome than we were paying for a 15-night Celebrity Cruise!

 

Did some more looking via Expedia, Kayak, etc, and managed to see that same itinerary go down to $879 per person. Still not what I had in mind!

 

That's where Cruise Critic came in. I spent literally hours one day reading the roll call for this sailing, desperate for tips. After 90 pages or so, I came upon a suggestion that mentioned Choice Air! :p Well, I hadn't heard of Choice Air before, so I looked it up, found out it was affiliated with the cruise line, and sure enough...they offered the same exact itinerary that I had seen for $2,000 and later for $879...for $439!!!!:D Yes, this website, these forums are invaluable!

[tweetylori]

After scoring our airfare, next up was finding a hotel in Rome. We were flying in on a Thursday afternoon, with embarkation on Saturday. Two nights in the big city, with the problem of having to get from the airport to the hotel, then to the port. When I looked at distances I saw that nothing was close together! Airport is here, the city is there, and the port is way the heck northwest of all of that! :eek:

 

I scoured websites looking for a hotel experience that wasn't crazy expensive, but would take some of the stress of things off of us. I spent days and weeks looking, sending Husband websites to look at, wanting to stay in a good location, with decent accommodations, yet not pay crazy rates, and still have a feel for the ancient city. It was a daunting task!

 

Finally one night, when we were discussing the possibilities ONCE AGAIN, Husband was wise enough to say, that's it! This last one you suggested...book it! Wise man as it turned out to be perfect for us!

 

So, let's go to Rome! :D

 

After all the research, all the planning, we found ourselves FINALLY at RDU (Raleigh Durham International Airport) on Wednesday November 3rd.

 

 

It was right before the Presidential election, and President Obama had chosen this day to decide to fly to Raleigh to campaign for Hillary. A lovely thought, but all we could think about was don't mess up our flight out!

 

So we had my Dad pick us up extra early, which turned out wise, as we did get stuck in traffic that was held due to his arrival. Once we could continue on to the airport, we did get to drive right by Airforce One which was cool to see! (sorry, didn't get a pic of it).

Edited December 22, 2016 by tweetylori

[tweetylori]

As pictured, Carolina Ale House was our first stop past security, which surprisingly was fast as heck for us as we were both given TSA Pre! :confused:

 

No idea why. Wouldn't expect anyone to get it before an international flight, but well, we'll take it! :)

 

Which meant that we had time after having a drink at Carolina Ale House, to go to Carolina Vintages for another drink and dinner.

 

 

If you ever fly through RDU, know that it is a very nice airport these days! Never mind how primitive it was before :rolleyes:...now that the masses are flocking to the Triangle area, the airport folks are doing a grand job of having the airport keep progressing!

[tweetylori]

Carolina Vintages is a wonderful place in Terminal 2 for wine, beer and fries! Their sweet potato fries are especially good. Have had them in the past. But we soon discovered that sliders are not the way to go.

 

Husband got the pork bbq ones and his weren't too bad:

 

 

But my Trio of Sliders, no matter how grand that sounds, were not good at all. Crabcake dry, burger dry, mound of flavorless pimento cheese...sure wish it was as good as it sounded and looked!

 

 

As always though, the sweet potato fries and even Husband's regular fries were quite good.

 

So on top of not being the greatest food ever, honestly wasn't the wisest choice to eat rich food before boarding an international LONG flight...just sayin':o (note to self...never again!)

 

Seriously, think about dealing with bathroom issues in coach on a 7 1/2 hour flight. :(

 

Note also that they will feed you on such a flight. Now it might not be the best food on the planet...I had something that was supposed to be chicken (actually made my sliders seem good), but there are choices...it was chicken or pasta with spinach...there was some vaseline cheese with crackers...and yes! free wine! red or white from big bottles (the red was better)

[tweetylori]

When we boarded our plane (a 767 I believe), my first thought was, wow, this won't be so bad! Comfy looking chairs with quite a bit of room...I can do this! :)

 

But we kept walking toward the back and passed into coach :eek: UGH! Reality set in! This is what we were going to endure for our cheaper airfare! :eek:

 

And we did. We survived. Husband's legs were only so cramped. Nobody died. It was a mere 7 1/2 hours out of our lives and only one emergency xanax was consumed (by me when turbulence hit at the exact moment I had just gotten in the tiny bathroom.)

 

Flight landed! Yay, we're in LONDON. The famous Heathrow! :D This was seriously exciting!

 

Little did we know we were about to embark on all kinds of terminal/security fun to get to our flight to Rome. :(

 

Starting with this line to get a bus to get to the connecting terminal:

 

[tweetylori]

Then yay a bus!

 

 

So, now what? :confused: Well, more security. Husband at one point completely disappeared. Confusion. We both got stopped with our carry-ons going through the last security check point. So we both had to wait and wait while a security guard had to deal with the gal in front of us who had a gazillion tiny vials of some kind of liquid (perfume samples perhaps?)...who knows! Whatever they were, she didn't seem to care that she was holding all of us up while the poor security guard had to test every one of those teeny vials. :rolleyes:

 

Note: if you ever go through Heathrow...do know that they take liquids very seriously! The same liquids we had no problem carrying on in the US were not cool in England. :o

 

Despite the hassles getting through the confusion, we did take comfort in knowing it is a secure airport to fly through! :p And we were good and ready to fly through and GET to Rome!

[tweetylori]

We finally got through all the security mess at Heathrow, only to discover that they won't tell you what gate you are flying from until the last minute. They will even check to see what time your connecting flight is before allowing you to go into the gate area. Once you're finally in, at least there is a bar and restaurant plus shops.

 

 

We were just relieved to get through it all and glad to find a place for a beer for Husband and glass of wine for me. (despite the early morning hour...our bodies had no clue at this point what time of day it was, and it would STAY that way!)

 

We didn't do breakfast because they had actually fed us again on the plane. A nice little variety...yogurt, granola, a muffin. Edible.

Edited December 22, 2016 by tweetylori

[tweetylori]

So a few minutes before our flight, we can finally see the signs of what gate we need to go to, and it is right where we are at...easy enough! :)

 

Before we know it, we're on board our 2 1/2 hour flight to Rome! I was put in a window seat. Husband in an aisle seat, with a super friendly English gentleman in between us.

 

It was a smooth flight, and wa lah! There was Rome! We were finally in ITALY. My dream! Get me off this plane to kiss the ground please! :p

 

[tweetylori]

So one thing that led to us making our hotel decision was reading reviews (all 5-star ones, I might add), and seeing that the hotel arranged for airport transfers. I was all about taking the hassle out of that process! So thanks to Aimone at Arpinelli Relais who we had excellent email communications with before our trip, we also had not one but two gentleman waiting for us at the gate when we exited (after getting our passports stamped...so cool!) holding a sign with our name! :D

 

They grabbed our luggage and we made the trek (a bit of a long one) to where their vehicle was parked. It was a big super comfy vehicle that my short legs had to climb into. Felt nice and safe. Ahhhhh, we're really in ROME. We might not have any idea at this point what time of day it was (early afternoon Rome time...no idea US time) but we had the comfort of knowing they were going to take us to our home away from home for the next two nights.

 

Sure enough, they dropped us off on a tiny street. One like this that was nearby:

 

[tweetylori]

Here we were!

 

 

 

Not knowing what to do, dumb us walked in and dragged our luggage up a few flights before we realized this wasn't like a normal hotel. Back down we went and this time had enough sense to ring the bell that was outside of the relais. :rolleyes:

 

Immediately we were told he would be right down. And he was. Also discovered they have a small elevator, so this time we and our luggage went up the easy way.

 

We were brought into this beautiful parlor:

 

 

This was the NICEST check-in we have ever had at a hotel. We sat down in this beautiful room while our host took our credit card to check us in, and our hostess presented us with a map and all kinds of information about our surroundings.

 

We learned that this Relais was a five-generation family home from the first half of the 17th century. Only within the past year they had renovated part of it and turned it into a 7-room hotel. They were still living there as well on the top floor.

 

Well they did one heck of a job with making it modern yet historical. Our room was in the back on the left of the parlor pic. Yes, this was going to be OUR parlor for our stay! We didn't see our hosts again until the day we left).

[tweetylori]

This beautiful room was also super comfortable and SPOTLESS, with amazing polished hardwood floors.

 

 

The bed with the map our Hostess gave us with all kinds of historical sights marked for us.

 

[tweetylori]

And omg, the bathroom was amazing! We called it our disco bathroom, because it had LED lights that changed colors! The shower was elaborate with all kinds of bells and whistles. But the changing colors were especially cool but in a very classy way.

 

 

 

In case you are wondering if we had to sell our first born for this place, I can assure you that it was surprisingly affordable for the quality! $159 euro per night. ;) I'm telling you, this quality in the US (if it existed) would easily be $300 a night.

[tweetylori]

Beautiful example of the family history of this place:

 

[tweetylori]

So here we were, FINALLY in our dream (well mine at least) of ITALY, but we were pretty exhausted from the long trip, the time change, etc. But leave it to us to still be hungry and ready for our first Italy eating experience!

 

We quickly found this place right near our hotel:

 

 

Due to the early time of day we pretty much had the place almost to ourselves while we were there (although we did end up with company)

 

 

Beyond excited for our first Italy meal!!!

 

[tweetylori]

But before food comes drinks and I was sooooo ready to experience Italian wine in Italy! Not knowing how exactly this worked, I chose to order five euro red wine. And OMG, this PITCHER of wine appeared! :D

 

 

Although I offered Husband some, he was feeling jet lag and was more impressed by the bottled water we ordered as well.

 

No worries! I wasn't about to waste a drop of my 5-euro Italian wine!:p

Edited December 23, 2016 by tweetylori

[tweetylori]

We decided to share a sausage pizza:

 

 

Along with the infamous cacia e pepe I had heard so much about:

 

 

He even brought us some chile oil in case we wanted to kick up the pizza, but honestly I couldn't taste the kick when I tried it. Looked cool though!

 

 

The pizza was better than the pasta. Even more so when we had cacio with handmade pasta the next day. (will post a pic so you can see the difference). That being said, it was all still good. And not expensive at all.

[tweetylori]

Husband had his first espresso...which we both became fond of very quickly!

 

 

And like I said it was quite inexpensive!

 

 

We were off to a great eating-start in Italy, but believe me, it had just begun, as I had booked us for a Walking Food Tour that we were about to embark on in the morning!

 

More of Rome coming up!

[kayehall]

Husband had his first espresso...which we both became fond of very quickly!

 

 

And like I said it was quite inexpensive!

 

 

We were off to a great eating-start in Italy, but believe me, it had just begun, as I had booked us for a Walking Food Tour that we were about to embark on in the morning!

 

More of Rome coming up!

 

How much is that in USD?

[maxsales]

How much is that in USD?

 

At current exchange rates $25.087. :)

[tweetylori]

At current exchange rates $25.087. :)

 

Thank you for sparing me from doing math! :D

[tweetylori]

Even though we were super tired and jet lagged, it wasn't possible to be in Rome and not see anything. We knew that our hotel was close to the Trevi Fountain, and despite going about it the wrong way, we discovered that it was indeed just two short blocks from where we were staying. :D I can still feel the amazement and awe that we felt when we rounded the corner and there it was!:eek: