Too much fun…Little time to post…Not much in the way of photos today…

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Pumpkins and Halloween decor decorate the grand staircase.

It’s close to 4:00 pm, and I’ve yet to get to upload today’s post. Nor do we have any worthwhile photos. The only excuse I have is the fact that we are simply having too much fun. Plus, the fact my laptop battery only lasts for about one hour, and there are no outlets nearby any of the areas where we visit with people, posting is tricky right now.

We spent the entire morning and up until this afternoon with Carolyn and Fred in the Cafe al Bacio, sharing various travel stories and experiences, and we had a fantastic time.

We had the laptops in our possession but never got around to getting started on today’s post. Now, we’re back in our cabin with little time until we need to dress for dinner to head up to the Sky Lounge for happy hour at 5:00 pm.

If we don’t get up there on deck 14 early enough, we’ll never find a place to sit. The place is packed with enthusiastic passengers like ourselves, excited to share travel stories with new people they meet.

Tonight is the big Halloween party aboard the ship as we sail toward New York, arriving on our anniversary in two days. It will have been six days at sea to arrive in New York on the 31st with little opportunity to take many good photos.  

It’s a far cry from our previous three Atlantic crossings when we’ve experienced rough seas. Fortunately, neither of us suffers from seasickness regardless of the condition of the waters. But with all this fun, we may suffer from tiredness from the late nights and social activities.

We’re always amazed by how many people we meet during cruises.  We’re both making a point of attempting to remember the names of all the fine people we meet while traveling, but in this case, we’ve met so many, it can be not easy.  

Once again, tonight, we’ll dine in the main dining room with my special meals appropriately prepared, although they may be bland. Without the addition of sauces, many of the meats, chicken, and fish are relatively tasteless. 

Passengers were attending a dance class in the Grand Foyer.

But, for us, cruising isn’t about the food as much as the friendliness of other passengers, the excellent service, and the general ambiance of yet another cruise. On this particular cruise, we’ll remember the good meals we’ll have had in the two specialty restaurants, as illustrated in the posts of the past few days.

We’re enjoying this cruise considerably more than we did the Baltic cruise, which embarked on August 11th and ended on August 23rd. No doubt, the added enjoyment is a result of my feeling better and walking about the ship with ease and the opportunity to meet more passengers.  

Most days, I walk close to 10,000 steps, although we end up spending plenty of time sitting and yakking. It couldn’t be more fun. We haven’t attended a single show in the theater or participated in any classes or games. Even so, we find ourselves in a constant flurry of activity with the many new people we meet.

Sorry to be rushing through these past several posts. But we’ll have plenty of time to languish over future posts when we reach Minnesota in only nine days.

Thanks for all the positive email messages wishing us well as we rush through the cruise posts.

May your day be filled with lively conversation and interactions, as well!

Photo from one year ago today, October 29, 2018:
Her “friends” or family members on the opposite side of the road noticed her dilemma between nibbles on treetops. For more photos as to how this story unfolds, please click here.

Part 2…Two spectacular videos of a most exciting 3D dining experience…A flood in our cabin….

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Please watch this second video of our extraordinary experience in Qsine Restaurant.

Note: Please excuse the less-than-perfect photos all taken in the darkened dining room.  For more clarity, please watch today and tomorrow’s videos.

It’s Monday afternoon. We’re seated in Cafe al Bacio with another couple, the third couple of the day that has joined us at our table while I’ve attempted to post today’s story when I’m not distracted by the delightful conversation.

A digital preview of Tom’s dessert.

Since the onset of this cruise, we’ve had an excellent experience, which included a few nights where we’ve stayed up until 1:00 am or later. Subsequently, last night it caught up with me and I desperately needed an early night and by midnight we were sleeping.

There have been three changes since the onset of the cruise, all of which resulted in turning back the clock that “seemed” to help with an extra hour of sleep each night.  

Tom’s dessert.

On the dress-up night, Saturday, when we returned to our cabin at 1:00 am, a pipe broke in the toilet in the cabin, and water literally filled up the bathroom floor in a minute or two.

Between courses…

We immediately called guest relations to report it, pleading with them to hurry.  There was no way for us to turn off the water. In the 10 minutes it took for the plumber and cleaner to arrive at our cabin, the water escaped the bathroom and soaked the carpeting outside the door.

By the time the plumbing was repaired and the carpeting cleaned, it was 2:30 am.  After all the excitement, I couldn’t fall asleep. My fitness watched showed I’d slept two hours by morning, and I felt exhausted and beside myself.
Colorful displays…

Yesterday, I had a lazy and exhausting day. Mid-afternoon tried napping with no luck. Last night, I hadn’t fallen asleep until midnight but managed a total of six hours of sleep, feeling a lot better today.

Guest relations contacted us, apologetic for the inconvenience, and offered a complimentary dinner in a specialty restaurant. We’d already booked Halloween night, October 31st, the day of our seventh travel anniversary, for dinner in Murano Restaurant.  

It couldn’t have been a more delightful presentation.

This worked out perfectly for us…they pay for our anniversary dinner, priced at US $55 per person. I suppose in the realm of things. It didn’t turn out so badly after all. We’ll undoubtedly enjoy our comped dinner at this fine restaurant.

The tabletop is a plain white blank canvas, making such colorful presentations possible.

Tonight, we’ll dine in the main dining room, most likely seated with a new group of people, enjoying the fun chatter, among which seems to center around travel-related experiences.

Later in the evening, there’s a Queen (rock group) sing-along in the Sky Lounge, which we look forward to attending. We may dance a little as we had a few nights ago, good exercise for both of us.

We loved the polka dot display!

In a few days, we’ll arrive in New York. We’ve yet to decide what we’ll do in the Big Apple, but whatever it is, we’ll be sharing it with all of you here.

May your Monday be filled with insight and purpose. Happy day!

Photo from one year ago today, October 28, 2018:

A young male kudu learns the ways of being so cute its impossible to resist giving him pellets.
For more photos, please click here.

Part 1…Two spectacular videos of a most exciting 3D dining experience…

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The 3D mapping presentation with Le Petit Chef far exceeded our expectations. Our photos are blurry, but the videos are more precise.

Note: Please excuse the less-than-perfect photos all taken in the darkened dining room.  For more clarity, please watch today and tomorrow’s videos.

If you tend to avoid watching our videos, as we do from time to time on other sites, please watch each of the two videos on today’s and tomorrow’s post. You won’t be disappointed. No words we can write here can adequately explain last night’s unique and entertaining dining experience.
When we first got situated at the table, the only special lighting we noticed was this white line around our perfectly placed plates.

As described online and on each of the two YouTube videos, Friday night’s dining experience was genuinely over-the-top, unlike anything we’d experienced in the past. It’s not easy to explain but here goes:

“Le Petit Chef is a two-hour dining show that tells the story of how the world’s smallest chef followed the route of Marco Polo. The 3D mapping concept has been live since 2015, which uses animated optical illusion techniques to project a little chef cooking on your plate.”  

Moments later, the letter Q appeared on our plates to represent the specialty restaurant, Qsine.

What a fantastic experience we had aboard the Celebrity Silhouette in Qsine Restaurant at a shared table, including other diners and members of Cruise Critic, each of us experiencing this unusual show for the first time.  

More advertising for the ship.

The conversation at the table was lively, and responses to the animated show were enthusiastic and enthralled over the unique dining experience. The light show, coupled with the exceptional food and service, was as good as it could have been for a memorable experience.

The company that created this exciting and entertaining concept.

Adaptations were made for my way of eating, and I never felt cheated over anything I missed…except perhaps the delicious dessert I eyeballed on Tom’s plate, as shown in the photo below.  

The digital Le Petit Chef appeared on our plates, dragging a digital lobster onto the plate in preparation for serving the bouillabaisse.

Instead, our fantastic waiter Alton (who remembered us from a cruise in the same-named specialty restaurant on another Celebrity ship in 2017) brought me a special dessert of a small bowl of fresh berries and a little unsweetened whipped cream, exactly what I needed to “hit the spot.”

Before dinner, we had a delightful happy hour on deck 14 in the Sky Lounge, again meeting new people to become delightfully engaged in enriching conversations.

The delicious bouillabaisse was served in “real-time.”

After the fabulous dinner ended, we headed to the  Entertainment Court, next to the Quasar Nightclub where the silent disco was in full force with all the participants dancing in a quiet room with the lighted headsets on their heads, listening and dancing to three options of types of music such as rock, disco or current pop.

Le Petit Chef illustrates an upcoming steak to be served in “real-time.”

I hadn’t danced since the heart surgery, and at first, I was hesitant. It’s so easy to get wildly winded while dancing to fast tempo music, but I gave it a try, and did we ever have fun!  

Tom’s plate with filet mignon, fingerling potatoes, crispy onions, and broccoli.

I must admit I checked my fitness watch to see how my pulse was doing a few times, but all seemed fine at a maximum of 130, shortly returning to the 60s when stopping. After this traumatic heart experience, it’s hard not to be a little paranoid when getting one’s pulse up through vigorous exercise.

My filet mignon was cooked to perfection…rare.

By midnight we were back in our cabin with both of us so energized we didn’t fall asleep until after 1:00 am, even with the second of two-time changes. There will be several more time changes as we get closer and closer to the US.

A video representation of Tom’s upcoming dessert.

Tonight is “dress-up night,” and we’ve gotten the wrinkles out of our clothes after hanging them in the steamy bathroom. Ships don’t provide irons due to fire hazards. We won’t be the only passengers with wrinkled clothing and, of course, with this older (like us) crowd, wrinkled faces. Who cares? We’re having fun!

What a novel concept!

Have a superb Sunday!

Photo from one year ago today, October 27, 2018:

The Matsamo tribe in Swaziland performs for tourists providing the village with income.  The cost for the performance and tour is ZAR 200 (US $13.70) per person. For more photos, please click here.