February 2020 - 12 Night Southern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip) Cruise on Celebrity Silhouette
LoriCarroll
Second Mate
DeBary, Florida
Joined 12/2017
3
Cruises2
Reviews66
Helpful VotesSuch a relaxing way to get away from it all. No ringing phones, no texts... great food, enjoying being back at sea (retired US Navy sailor!).... so much to see and do, either underway or in port. Good value for the money.
Past cruises
February 2019 - 7 Night Western Caribbean (New Orleans Roundtrip) Cruise on Carnival Dream
November 2017 - 6 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip) Cruise on Freedom of the Seas
Great cruise... packed ship due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Ate in the main dining room (Leonardo's) every night. Our waiter Jonathan and assistant waiter Slim were excellent! Plenty to see and do... we did karaoke and family feud, saw the ice show and another show. Johnny Rockets was really less than impressive. Food quality wasn't the greatest (I would have enjoyed just grabbing something from the Windjammer more), and the waitstaff in there were really in no particular hurry to take orders or bring beverage... They seemed rather indifferent.
Freedom of the Seas
Sail date: November 19, 2017
Great cruise... packed ship due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Ate in the main dining room (Leonardo's) every night. Our waiter Jonathan and assistant waiter Slim were excellent! Plenty to see and do... we did karaoke and family feud, saw the ice show and another show. Johnny Rockets was really less than impressive. Food quality wasn't the greatest (I would have enjoyed just grabbing something from the Windjammer more), and the waitstaff in there were really in no particular hurry to take orders or bring beverage... They seemed rather indifferent.
Cruise tips
Have been here before... beautiful city, took no tours but I walked the city and rode the bus a bit to go do some shopping. The people were very nice and very helpful in pointing out good places to eat and shop.
Always a favorite for me (and I was lucky enough to be stationed here for a year!) The Pearl Harbor tour is always a moving experience. If you are military (active, reserves or retired) or work for the DOD, I highly recommend The Hale Koa for lodging accommodations. Rates are based on your paygrade, and it is located right on Waikiki, next to Fort DeRussy, and within spitting distance. Avoid the highly commercialized luaus, and eat where the locals eat (I highly recommend Helena's... doesn't look like anything special on the outside, but it's the food that counts. The pipikaula short ribs are a must have!).
I was here years ago, and I really need to get back. For great food, be sure to get to The Greenhouse! The people in St. Thomas are so warm and welcoming!
Excursions I wanted to do were sold out, so I went about on my own. Wandered around on my own... the people were lovely and quite friendly. Did some souvenir shopping, and made sure I picked up rum cakes to bring home!
No excursion, just did some last minute shopping for souvenirs to take home. Vendors can be a little pushy... all you have to do is give them a polite "no, thank you" or "no, gracias" and all will be fine. I speak Spanish, and it seemed like they really appreciated people who took the time to learn their language... I conducted the majority of my transactions in Spanish. Ate at a little shack of a restaurant that had good food... other family members saw me sitting outside eating, and joined in as well.
Did an excursion to the Mayan ruins at Chacchoben. We went with a private tour company (I believe it was Toucan... my SIL booked for us). Tour was informative, some of the family got off the bus at the beach afterwards to hang out for a bit and eat. It was a very enjoyable day!
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida
Didn't do an excursion... been here before. Embarkation and debarkation went smoothly, especially in light of the fact that the ship was sold out and it was a holiday week (Thanksgiving) with loads and loads of children running about.
Did the Chacchoben ruins tour through Toucan Tours. This operator cannot pick up right at the port... it's about a one mile hike up the street outside the port area. Tour was good, and our guide was friendly, engaging and knowledgeable... only problem was that she didn't have a microphone on the bus, so sometimes it was hard to hear what she was saying. We stopped at a roadside stand on the way back and got bags of fresh pineapple... So delicious!! Bus continued on after the tour to take people to the beach and a restaurant... the area near the beach isn't really set up well to handle buses.
Port was a bit crowded with quite a few ships in port. Excursions sold out fast, so I wandered around on my own. Beautiful town, very clean, everyone was super nice, not pushy at all. Had to pick up rum cakes to bring home! Will definitely make a point to book my excursions early next time I come here! The shopping was great!
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida
Stayed at Comfort Suites in Dania Beach the night before the cruise (there were 15 of us). Parked the car there, and they had a shuttle to and from the port, it was 10 or 12 bucks each way. It was Thanksgiving week, and it was a full ship. Had 2 mobility challenged family members with me, had requested wheelchairs in advance and they didn't have any record of it. Waited a bit and they managed to get us a pair. Boarding wasn't bad after we got that issue squared away... Would have been less chaotic if it wasn't a holiday week, but we chose this week since we had college students in the family, and we wanted the whole family to be able to take a nice vacation together