“LIVE” to the Azores on Silhouette - 13th Oct 2019

[Gordoncruickshank]

6 minutes ago, groryjm said:

The mystery deepens

At least you know what should be available in Luminae. I think we had Carlos either this year or on an earlier one so he should still know how to make them.

[groryjm]

....... cont

 

Sea day on the Bay of Biscay....

 

 

 

 

The lovely calm sea of the Bay has been gradually brightened as the morning has progresed as I headed down to our CC Conections party organised by the ever smiling Gabriella. Once we had gathered Bethany the CD introduced the officers and then Jamie Petts our HD gave an entertaining and informative speach. Be warned that what you type on these boards about Silhouette will almost certainly be noticed by him. My appologies for the appalling video quality and thanks to Anne who started our roll call.......

 

After the meet and greet DW and I headed upto the top to get the conbwebs blasted out before lunch. The weather may have warmed and the seas be calmish but the wind up top is a bit fresh. We ventured up to where the retreat sun deck will be and had a little trouble standing. I look forward to seeing what it looks like when we return in July but supect it will be better suited to the Caribeean.

 

Lunch at Luminae was good with my tuna uncooked to perfection 

 

 

The Chocolate Lava was pretty good too

 

 

Good news .. My DWs chosen Italian Rose was back in stock

 

Just time for a few ZZZs before heading for fortification before we dress for tonights Chic night. Unfortunately we only have two this cruise which with six sea days seems seems a litle short so I intend to go chic at leaste a couple of extra times  

 

[groryjm]

8 hours ago, Gordoncruickshank said:

At least you know what should be available in Luminae. I think we had Carlos either this year or on an earlier one so he should still know how to make them.

Usually he asks the bread/water person to fetch them from anothe bar. For us it has been Jazreel doing the fetching.

 

I did today ask for and recieve the Luminae Signture Cocktail list to peruse....Yea. The list Carlos give me to look at is attached to the non UK menue and while the wines are almost the same the prices are not and do not include the 20% addition for tips that are added to the menus out of Southampton but excluded from menus from other ports where a 20% compulsory tip is added afterwards at PoS.

 

so once the ship leaves the UK the menus change back and presumably Luminae will have its own wine menu again.

 

[Gordoncruickshank]

7 hours ago, groryjm said:

I did today ask for and recieve the Luminae Signture Cocktail list to peruse....Yea. The list Carlos give me to look at is attached to the non UK menue and while the wines are almost the same the prices are not and do not include the 20% addition for tips that are added to the menus out of Southampton but excluded from menus from other ports where a 20% compulsory tip is added afterwards at PoS.

 

so once the ship leaves the UK the menus change back and presumably Luminae will have its own wine menu again.

 

It is amazing what they do to hide the tip from the UK and Australian markets!!

[mrsgoggins]

I'll be following along too. I met you briefly at the M&G at the start of the Ireland/Iceland cruise and enjoyed your cocktail countdown prior to the cruise and also your review.  I'll be on the Reflection in 2 weeks' time out of Lisbon, so hoping for a warm (ish?) weather cruise. Hope yours lives up to expectation. 

[groryjm]

Headed down to Michael's for the officers soiree in our finest and had a couple interesting conversations with some of the officers. One particularly interesting nugget of information came from Jamie about the new suites. From what he said I gather the idea to convert part of the sky lounge into the reflection/signature suites has been abandoned and there will be 4 Sunset suites replacing the family verandas 8107, 8108, 7107 and 7108. These will be around the size of CSs but he was unsure of the level the will slot into. 

 

Tonight’s unusually for a chic night was not a production show but a group of for lads called the Flyboys and were I have to admit pretty good. I assume the change to Vigo meant that the Chic night had to be brought forward. 

 

At luminae tonight my DW had a very interesting chat with our sommelier Carlos and the head sommelier who he introduced to her. It seems that the cocktail problem is explained to so all is better on the wine front.  It was a surprise to have no lobster on the first chic night but to be honest I rarely choose it any way.

 

....we are now arriving in Vigo so I will catch up latter

[villauk]

2 minutes ago, groryjm said:

Headed down to Michael's for the officers soiree in our finest and had a couple interesting conversations with some of the officers. One particularly interesting nugget of information came from Jamie about the new suites. From what he said I gather the idea to convert part of the sky lounge into the reflection/signature suites has been abandoned and there will be 4 Sunset suites replacing the family verandas 8107, 8108, 7107 and 7108. These will be around the size of CSs but he was unsure of the level the will slot into. 

 

Tonight’s unusually for a chic night was not a production show but a group of for lads called the Flyboys and were I have to admit pretty good. I assume the change to Vigo meant that the Chic night had to be brought forward. 

 

At luminae tonight my DW had a very interesting chat with our sommelier Carlos and the head sommelier who he introduced to her. It seems that the cocktail problem is explained to so all is better on the wine front.  It was a surprise to have no lobster on the first chic night but to be honest I rarely choose it any way.

 

....we are now arriving in Vigo so I will catch up latter

 

 

I wonder if they will will do that to the FVs on M class ships when they ‘Revolutionise’ the other two ships?

[hcat]

Glad they will not  ruin the Sky Lounge on Silhouette, as it remains our favorite ship.  Interesting news about converting to 4 new suites in lieu of the Family Verandas. Some will be disappointed, others pleased but it  will be adding a few more people to the suite areas.

 

Hope Vigo went well,

[groryjm]

 ...

Edited October 15, 2019 by groryjm

[wwwfla]

Following your Suite life this week. We board the Silly next week.

Have fun!

[Georgia_Peaches]

Can you speak to the existence of free on demand movies available in your stateroom?  Do they exist?

[groryjm]

...cont

 

 

Service in Luminae was much improved last night and I think the slow service of the first night was just a temporary glitch. The maître d' said they had been caught out by the majority of guests all arriving at the same time.

 

We retired to Ensemble Lounge to catch Charlie's last set but arrived only just in time to catch the last song so we headed to Michael's with my Fernet Branca. Bumping into Paul and Tom again we stayed a while but decided that if we wanted to manage breakfast at Luminae with the time going back an hour a pre midnight bedtime might be useful. Personally I think ending the breakfast service at 9am especially on sea days or when, as today, we don't dock till 11am, it is a bit early. Making it even half an hour later would be far better. On cruises where we have had our DD getting her up before 8.30 when there is no tour has been a struggle. This cruise we are managing to make it to Luminae and we do prefer it to room service or the buffet. 

 

Up until today the internet has been slow, as one might expect from a rolling ship trying to connect to a satellite, but usable, this afternoon tied up at port it has been unusably slow and we have been using our phone connections to mobile data to hot spot lap tops etc to get a usable speed.

 

It has been nice to revisit Vigo but I think next time we might hire a car and go further afield... Talking of which we booked again for next year 😎 😎 😎  . Before going to future cruises I did check in with Madre, our consultant at Celebrity in Weybridge, as we are hoping to move this one forward when the new itineraries come out in late November. part of that conversation touched on the new unusable changes to the UK website. She mentioned that they are also much concerned and hoping something may be done to alleviate the problems. More on that latter....

 

Time for a pre-dinner tipple

[upwarduk]

6 hours ago, villauk said:

I gather the idea to convert part of the sky lounge into the reflection/signature suites has been abandoned and there will be 4 Sunset suites replacing the family verandas 8107, 8108, 7107 and 7108.

Glad that they are not messing up the Sky Lounge.

 

P.S

I think the quote should be credited to Groryjm, but I cannot delete. 

Sorry villauk.

Edited October 15, 2019 by upwarduk

[gfkcruiser]

We will board the Silhouette in December for a Caribbean Cruise and look forward to tasting many of those cocktails from the menus posted.  Never know what to order and menus are limited on Bar menus.  We won't be in a suite  and will have to print out the menus so I will know what to order to take advantage of our Premium package.

 

We have been to the Azores twice on eastbound transatlantics.  In 2018 we had incredibly beautiful weather for the 2 days we visited.  This year we had one miserably rainy day and a second beautiful day.  It is unfortunate you have to miss it as it is a great place but gives you a reason to take another voyage.   

 

The internet was difficult on our cruise on the Reflection in April.  We only had 90 min each and if the wifi dropped before you could sign off you could lose your minutes.  No help from ilounge.  Very frustrating.  

[Gordoncruickshank]

28 minutes ago, groryjm said:

Personally I think ending the breakfast service at 9am especially on sea days or when, as today, we don't dock till 11am, it is a bit early. Making it even half an hour later would be far better. On cruises where we have had our DD getting her up before 8.30 when there is no tour has been a struggle. This cruise we are managing to make it to Luminae and we do prefer it to room service or the buffet. 

 

I am afraid that the breakfast timings have been like that since the restaurant opened in 2015 and it is unlikely to change. By the time they clear out the brisk trade that arrives at 8.55 to 9.00 and clear up from that, set up for lunch (if at sea) it is getting close to 10am. The staff need to be back either in the buffet or in Luminae for lunch starting.

[upwarduk]

8 minutes ago, gfkcruiser said:

We have been to the Azores twice on eastbound transatlantics.  In 2018 we had incredibly beautiful weather for the 2 days we visited. 

We too were lucky on 03.09.19. We saw the blue and green lakes, which can often be shrouded in mist.

Edited October 15, 2019 by upwarduk

[gfkcruiser]

10 minutes ago, upwarduk said:

We too were lucky on 03.09.19. We saw the blue and green lakes, which can often be shrouded in mist.

 

I should print your photo.  All we saw was clouds.  Fog was so thick you could not see past the railings!  The folks who went the next day said it was beautiful!

[Jim_Iain]

On 10/13/2019 at 4:53 PM, maggieq said:

Jim,

 

if my memory serves me correct, you will be getting on a ship soon?

Yes we are flying to Rome on Friday for a B2B on Edge

[chemmo]

9 hours ago, groryjm said:

Headed down to Michael's for the officers soiree in our finest and had a couple interesting conversations with some of the officers. One particularly interesting nugget of information came from Jamie about the new suites. From what he said I gather the idea to convert part of the sky lounge into the reflection/signature suites has been abandoned and there will be 4 Sunset suites replacing the family verandas 8107, 8108, 7107 and 7108. These will be around the size of CSs but he was unsure of the level the will slot into. 

 

 

Interesting, we are just off Equinox and asked if the rest of the S class ships would definitely still get the full refurbishment and were told ‘yes’.

 

Please could you ask/confirm that even if the extra suites are not going ahead as planned that the full two level Retreat deck will be...We made the most we could of the deck 16 Retreat space on Equinox but without a water feature and additional shaded space it’s value was limited....At times it resembled the Marie Celeste...

 

Send our regards to Jamie, I think he will remember us, we enjoyed three cruises together! 

[hcat]

5 hours ago, upwarduk said:

Glad that they are not messing up the Sky Lounge.

 

P.S

I think the quote should be credited to Groryjm, but I cannot delete. 

Sorry villauk.

 I am still glad they are not messing up the lounge and hope I did not mess up the quotes... lo tech here!

[hcat]

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Yes we are flying to Rome on Friday for a B2B on Edge

This has been a great travel year for you....will look forward to your posts!

[Oceansaway17]

Yes to OP I do agree about Jamie the hotel director. I just got off the ship on Sunday and he was at the exit saying goodbye to all.

Not only is he a charming and handsome officer, he also took one of the trivia sessions in the sky lounge and created questions. They were hard too.

He was very good at speaking and interacting with guests for an officer.

 

Sorry you won't see Azores. Our weather was a bit rough at beginning and end. I never thought the seas would be rough in Bay of Biscayne. Then again never thought I would be  dealing with tail end of hurricane either.

 

Glad I got to Canaries just once. No need to return.

Enjoy your trip. I hope they find a way to make ship quieter.  Never heard so many vibrations with doors slamming or cabinets in rooms. Also carpets need better soundproofing as it sounded like bunch of cattle stomping around.

 

Food was wonderful in buffet especially at lunch. Toodles

 

 

 

[wwwfla]

Can you get those wines in all venues or just MC and Luminae?

[Jim_Iain]

I was really sorry to hear you missed the Azores.  Our east bound TA on Silhouette was also supposed to have stopped in the Azores but was changed due to scheduling.   I think Edge went in and bumped Silhouette.   We have been to the Azores a couple times and really enjoyed ourselves.  

 

Sounds like you are having a wonderful time in spite of the change.

[groryjm]

Oh and in Vigo we lunch in the street of Oysters.... on tapas 😁