Day 6

 We awoke to find ourselves in Nassau and since we have been to Nassau a number of times including twice recently, we choose to stay on the ship and work on our tan.

After a couple of hours in the sun, it was time for lunch.  We met Barb & Tim and Vera & Jeff on the back of the ship for a couple of hours of eating and catching up. 

It had been since New Years 2020 that we had cruised with Jeff and Vera, just before Barb was in the hospital in Aruba.

After lunch we can back to the cabin and relaxed before getting ready for the evening, which first included music in the Grand Foyer.

After relaxing and walking around the ship, we went to the show for the evening with our 4 friends.

The show was a singer named Amanda Cole who was very good singing a tribute to Whitney Houston.

After the show, we went to Aqua with Barb and Tim for dinner. 

As Jeff and Vera did not upgrade to Aqua, they ate in the main dining room.  We plan to eat in Aqua the next two nights then join Jeff and Vera in their dining room for dinner. 

After that we went to the casino.  It was wonderful having 5 at the black jack tables – our own private game.

For the evening at the casino, Barb lost and Ed also lost. 

Tomorrow is our first of two consecutive sea days.

Nite - Nite

                                                            A ship saling next to us and docking

                                                            Going out for the evening

                    

Day 5

After a quick trip to the airport and then an Uber ride to the terminal we met our friends outside the boarding area at 10:00am.  Soon afterwards we were allowed in and went through security and the “wellness” check-in areas.  Both went smoothly and we had a short wait until we were allowed to board the ship.

The Celebrity Silhouette is one of the larger ships in the Celebrity fleet, but not the largest.  Its capacity is 2,886 and we are sailing with only 1,200 on board.  Masks had not been required for our New Years cruise, then they were required as the virus spread and last week, the mask restrictions were taken off for all guests.  The crew still are required to wear their masks.

As is tradition, we met Barb and Tim on the back of the ship for lunch and catching up.  It is always fun to cruise with them.

Later we went to a casino meet ‘n greet to meet our casino host.  She was a dealer several years ago on our cruise from Dubai to Singapore and is very nice.

The casino manager was the assistant manger on that cruise also.  It is always nice to see people we have sailed with before in the casino.

We then unpacked and got ready for dinner. 

We are in a class called Aqua so there is a small intimate dining room just for the guests in that cabin class.  The next cabin class above Aqua is the suites class and they also have a private dining room, separate from ours.  At a minimum the suites cost a couple of thousand dollars each.    For this cruise, the top suites are about $12,000 and they are full!!

We usually go to the theater production first and then a late dinner; however, there was only 1 show tonight and that was at 9pm so we went to dinner at 7:15.

Dinner was excellent and then we went to the show where a comedian preformed who was outstanding – one of the best we have seen

After the show we went to the casino for our first session where Barb didn’t plan and Ed lost a little.

At about 10:30pm, all of a sudden, we were surprised by our friends from New York, Jeff and Vera who had booked this cruise sometime ago and didn’t tell us – what a great surprise.  Also, that gave us 5 at the table for blackjack.

At busy day and tomorrow Nassau in the Bahamas.

Nite from the Atlantic Ocean.

                                                   Packed and ready to go to the cruise ship

                                                Barb eating desert - now that's amazing!!

                                                     Time to go out for the evening

    

Day 4

It is Sunday and our last day before boarding the Celebrity Silhouette tomorrow morning.

Again, we slept in a little and then drove about 15min to St Matthew’s Church for mass.  It was a neat little church and the service was nice.  They had a singer who was outstanding.

Then we drove to the town of Weston which is right on the edge of the Everglades where we met our friends from Wisconsin, Pam and Eric Degelau and Jeff and Pam Beier. 

Eric was our sponsor for Corvette Adventures who also sold us our yellow Corvette.   Jeff and Pam were lead drivers at Corvette Adventures where they met each other and become life-long friends.  They now live close together and travel a lot together.  Pam and Jeff are retired and Eric and Renee have a very successful real estate business rehabbing homes prior to their selling them.  We are very blessed to have them as friends.  Another wonderful story of friends finding each other at our event – one of many!!

We had a great meal together at Bone Fish Grill.

After we left the group we went to the largest discount mall in southern Florida, Sawgrass Milles to look for a new wardrobe for Barb.  There are tons of suitcases on the market; however, we did not find a wardrobe for Barb as they are apparently are just not making them.  Time to look on Amazon!!

We came back to the hotel with first stopping at a grocery store to buy Ed some A & W Root Beer to take on the cruise.

Dinner was at a little spot on Sunny Isle Beach that served Peruvian food and dinner was wonderful.  Sorry, we did not take pictures of the food but it was a grilled salmon served Peruvian style, including a salad and plantains.

We were in our room by 8:30pm so that we could pack for the cruise tomorrow.

Night for now – next post from the ship

                                                                Going out for lunch

                                                  Choclate Warming Cake - it was sooo good!!

                                            From the left, Jeff, Pam, Ed, Barb, Renee, Eric

                                               A little hole-in-the-wall with outsanding food

Day 3

 For our second day we also woke up late again and finally headed to the beach at 10am.

It was really windy; however, the sand on the beach is coarse enough that it doesn’t blow around much at all.

We left the beach at 12:20pm and went to a Columbian restaurant where we have eaten before.

For lunch we had a Columbian Shrimp Ceviche and it was very good and served with fried plantains – which are a type of banana.

Then we hurried back to our room to watch the Miami – Syracuse basketball game.  It was an exciting game as was the first meeting between the two teams.  In the end and the very last seconds, Miami pulled out a victory.

For dinner, we are meeting our contact in the casino, Reny at a Peruvian Restaurant called Divino Ceviche which was about 45 minutes away.

Reny just came back yesterday from the initial cruise of the Royal Caribbean ship, the Wonder of the Seas, which is now the largest cruise ship in the world. 

It has a capacity of 5,519 passengers which is more than twice the size of the largest Celebrity ship!!  Way too big for us.

It was a fun evening with good company and some great food.

Also, this afternoon we both took our COVID tests and we were both negative – yea!!

That’s all for tonight.

                                                                Going to the beach - 80 degrees!!

                                                    The Shrimp Ceviche and Fried Plantains

                                

                                                                          Dinner

                                                                    Going out for dinner

                                  Main course - 3 kinds of  Ceviche plus 3 kinds of  sauces and fish

                                                                                                                 

                                                            Reny - our casino contact

                                                        Desert - Passion fruit cake

                                                 Some kind of donuts in an amazing sauce

Spring 2022 – Celebrity Silhouette - Day 1 & 2

 Spring 2022 – Celebrity Silhouette

Day 1 & 2

Inspire of having to get up at 3:45am for a 6:00am flight, it was a good trip to Ft. Lauderdale.

We had 2 hours in Atlanta so we made a 1 ½ stop in the Delta lounge for their breakfast and drinks.

The Flight to Ft Lauderdale was right on time and we then picked up our bags and took the shuttle bus to the Enterprise Rental Center. 

They upgraded us to the large 4-door Nissan and it has been a great car.

The Residence Inn that we are staying in is right next one of the nicest malls in South Florida, Aventura Mall and the hotel said there were some good places for lunch.

We went there and found an amazing outdoor food court which was unlike anything we had seen in a mall before.

There were no fast-food or buffet style restaurants.  All of them were sit-down with different themes like Susi, Greek, Peruvian, etc.  They were a little expensive but very good food and service.

Dinner was at one of our favorite restaurants which is right in the center of the Russian and Jewish areas – the town of Sunny Isle Beach.

In the past we have talked about all of the exotic cars we have seen in this area at anytime of the day or night.  This year it is different.  We saw a lot of fancy SUV’s but virtually none of the high-priced sport cars.  The only thing we could figure is that, because of the war in Ukraine, they are “laying low”!!

We very seldom turn on the tv when we are gone; however, we did watch the University of Illinois squeak another win.

We slept in and finally made it to the beach at 1:00pm after first having lunch. 

We stayed on the beach until 3:30pm and then drove back to the hotel and left for dinner at a Greek restaurant that we like in Surfside.

Then we watched the Bulls play before going to bed.

Night from Florida.

                                                        Becker wants to go with us!!

                                                            Relaxing in the Delta Lounge in Atlanta

                                                            Salmon Tar Tar - it was very good!

                                                                Salmon for dinner

                                                              Day 2 - Going to Haulover beach

                                                    Moroccan Salmon Wrap with Pita Bread

                                         In the parking lot at the beach - appears to be original!!

                                              Branzino at our favorite Greek Restaurant in Surfside

                                                            Moon over Miami Beach

                                                    Tiramisu from a European market

 

Videos from the Celebrity APEX - New Years 2022

The Oceanview Cafe

Our Cabin - Room 8231 with Infinite Balcony

A Motown show in the theater

Jessie Hamilton Jr - one of the best singers ever!

A tour of the kitchen at the Eden Restaurant.

The is the #1 specility restaurant on the APEX and

we were there as guests of the Casino.

An amazing experience in production, preperation and presentation

Our best meal even on probably any ship!!

Preparing our dinner

More of the dinner preparation

The special dessert - a gift from the chef

 

Day 8

We awoke in Nassau, a place we were just at in October.

It was Sunday, so we arranged to meet Barb & Tim at the Catholic Cathedral for their 10am service. A beautiful church and a wonderful service.

After that we walked to the #1 5-star hotel on the island, the Graystone Hotel, a 300-year-old hotel with it seemed like every major star from around the world has stayed there including members of the British Royal Family.

History has it that the mansion was originally built in 1740 by Captain John Howard Graysmith, a famous pirate of the Caribbean who commanded the notorious schooner Graywolf and plundered treasure ships along the Spanish Main. His buccaneering not only made him rich, but it also brought him fame and he was greatly feared for his famous exploits.

We had a guide who walked us through the hotel seeing the areas that made history. After church, we took Barb & Tim there. The also had a cigar factory with Cubans rolling Cuban cigars!! Also, there was a chocolate factory right at the hotel.

Then we walked to the church for their 10am service.

After the service we walked back to the ship and had our last lunch for this trip in the Oceanview Café and we sat, as always outside on the back of the ship.

We finish lunch and when up on the deck for an 1 ½ in the sun.

We cleaned up for dinner which for tonight was at 7:00pm. We were the guests of the casino at the Eden specialty restaurant.

It was, no question the best restaurant on the ship and we had an amazing meal.

As we were there on the casino, they took especially good care of us.

Then we went to the casino and Ed lost at little - $100.00 and Barb broke even.

That was just fine as we protected our winnings which was one of the best casino winnings ever.

This ship was the nicest and the staff was the best of any ship we have been on.

That’s all for tonight as tomorrow we fly home, arriving in Bloomington at 9:55pm.

Our cruise schedule for the next year and 1/2 is:

Jan 22- Carnival Horizon with our 3 children and spouces

March 7 - Celeblrity Sihouette - Aruba, Bonaire, Curasoe

July 29 - Celebrity Millenium - Alaska

October 5 - Israel & the Medditteranean, Venice, Rome

December 30 - Eastern Caribbean - Celebrity APEX

March 5 - Eastern Caribbean - Celbrity Beyond

There is no question that this was by far the best ship and the best crew of any cruise we have ever taken. It started at the top with the Associate Hotel Director, Cameron Robertson and went down to every crew member we came in contact with. Thanks soooo much to Cameron and the entire APEX staff for this remarkable experience.




Thanks for following us.

Good night.

Going out forour final eveing

In the #1 restaurant on the ship - The Eden speciality restaurant

This was Ceviche

The kitchen from our seats - they are amazing!

2nd course - Braised short ribs for Ed

Crab Cakes for Barb

The Executive Chef preparing our food.  Notice the tweezers

Ed's Filet and Beef Wellington combo

Barb's Sea Bass on a bed of bubbles

Dessert - It started as a white choclate egg.  

They then  poured dark choclate on it and it opened up in a blossom to show the surprise dessert inside - amazing preperation and presentation and it tasted wonderful!!

Sade - Our wonderful casino supervisor who we have sailed with several times before.

She did an amazing job under a lot of pressure - thanks so very much for your friendship once again.

Alin - The Casino Manager who under difficult times with Covid, ran a wonderful casino.

Probably the best run on any ship we have been on.

Out Casino Host Cris - For her first time, did a good job

In the Delta Sky Lounge waiting for our plane in 5 1/2 hours

A great place to wait.  Barb's first Kahula's and they will also have lunch here.

A Make a Wish flight

Only 2 12 hours to go!!