We sailed on the Celebrity Silhouette on the December 27 sailing in the Western Caribbean. Our sailing included NYE. We were a party of six, with three cabins in a row on deck 6. Myself and my husband have been on the other four S-Class ships, some more than once. Our daughter and son are young adults, and had taken one Celebrity cruise previously, while our daughter's partner had taken two cruises on other lines previously a number of years ago. Our son's GF had never taken a cruise previously.

We drove from St. Louis to Ft. Lauderdale, leaving on Christmas night. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale late in the afternoon, having taken turns driving overnight. We were all ready for dinner and a night's rest before boarding. We stayed at the Hyatt Place in Plantation, FL, and parked the vehicle at Park 'N Go.

We arrived at the port about 11:30 and dropped our bags. All were already tagged and simply needed to be placed in the rolling bins. Sadly, one of the porters made a point of announcing, "We are here to make certain that your bags arrive on the ship, and we appreciate your donations toward that purpose." My husband was afraid that without a tip, we've have an issue, so handed the guy a $10. Read more