Written by Kim
Our last 2 days onboard were sea days. It was fun to explore the ship. Last time we were on her was 2013 shortly after she launched. There was one refurbishment since then but no real significant changes. Silhouette is a beautiful mid-sized ship that holds about 3,000 passengers. I didn’t take a lot of ship pictures but here’s a few
Unfortunately our friends, Dee & John, had to cancel and couldn’t join us but we brought them along wherever we could so they could enjoy a few laughs and drinks with us.
Our first sea day heading home was rainy so we hung out inside, played a bit in the casino and napped. It was Captain Kirk day on board (yes that was the captain’s name). His real name is Kyriakos Matragkas; however, he explained in his talk that early in his career he took the nickname Kirk since his Greek name was quite difficult. Now it’s ironic he’s Captain Kirk – and certainly a legend! He had his captains talk in the morning explaining the stripes of the ranks, engineering of the vessel and answering questions.
The first show in the evening was Antonio Salci. He was an amazin* pianist providing an energizing instrumental show accompanied by the orchestra. It was quite a treat but we had no clue what we were in for next!
The Captain’s show followed in the big theater. Captain Kirk came out with a guitar and the orchestra backed him. We thought he’d just play a little guitar and would be that good but he was fantastic. He rocked out with amazing vocals, played guitar for most songs and got on the drums for one song. In our 28 cruises we’ve never seen anything like it. I honestly would book a cruise to see him perform again. He was awesome. Here’s a few videos
He played for about an hour. We loved the set list.
*Dylan – Knockin’ On Heavens Door
*Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
*Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama
*Beatles- Hey Jude
*Bryan Adams – Summer of ‘69 (Cap’t on drums)
*Bob Seger – Turn the Page
*Metallica – Enter Sandman
*Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer
*Eagles – Hotel California (encore)
I did pretty well on the slots. I started with a $20 on our sea days and cashed out for $520. Alex also hit a straight flush on the last night. Not a bad profit to offset some of our losses at cards on the ship and at Hard Rock.
Our last day on board we got some pool time before some more shows at night. The entertainment onboard was excellent. The production cast of singers and dancers were very talented. The music was top notch – the orchestra, house band, DJ and several duos around the ship kept us entertained. Eddy Jenkins, the cruise director, and his activities manager, Kelsey Swan, were ah-mazing. T
he last production show was Intimate Broadway Cabaret where the singers chose their favorite Broadway songs and shared stories about why they loved the song. It was a nice touch
We really enjoyed Celebrity. The passenger to staff ratio is about 2:1 and you can feel the impact in good service, The food was very good in the dining room as well as specialty restaurants. They still do some of the small things that make your voyage special like chocolates on the pillows, face clothes to wipe your hands in restrooms, cabins ready as soon as you board, waiter serves you table side cocktail sauce & sour cream, no smoking in casino, no showing seapass for pool towels. The staff was exemplary – the captain’s rock show, the cruise director walked around the dining room one night asking how our cruise was, the CD was on the gangway with Kelsey saying goodbye, the hostess at the dining room always had a smile and something nice to say. You could feel that staff was happy doing their jobs. .
Disembarkation was simple. We were off the ship, got our bags and through customs in about 20 minutes. We had to wait a few minutes to board the shuttle to Park n Go. There were shuttles but it just took time to get all the luggage on them. I definitely recommend Park N Go for FLL cruise port. We saved about $10 a day vs parking at the port.
Goodbye Silhouette. We will definitely be back.
Up next on the blog is our long awaited cruise comparison of Virgin, RCCL and Celebrity. We have a long ride home so I can pump Alex for his thoughts and I can write. Until then….
