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Review: Celebrity Eclipse Exotic Southern Caribbean, March 1-15, 2015


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Review of the Celebrity Eclipse Exotic Southern Caribbean cruise, March 1-15, 2015 (long)

 

Overall: Celebrity Gets It! After all the negative threads about food, service, music, entertainment, etc. – I am happy to report that this cruise was the best we have enjoyed in ten cruises (or at least tied with Crystal and AMAcello)

 

Priest on Board – we can’t stress how important it was to us to discover that Celebrity arranges to have a Catholic Priest on board throughout Lent (we thought it was only for Holy Week) – we had Mass every day at 5 pm in Celebrity Central, which was a great location – as word spread the size of the community grew until almost all the seats were filled – Father Wally is a wonderful Priest and pulled off the difficult feat of saying a reverent and thought-provoking Mass in 25 minutes

 

Cabin – well thought out – at first we thought there wasn’t much storage space, but we were able to hang everything we wanted in the closet and the large shelves over the bed were better sized for larger items than most cabin drawers; that left the few drawers for the smaller items like socks, and everything fit somewhere – DW thinks it would be handy to have a shelf in the closet – our cabin attendants were friendly, efficient, and eager to please

 

Location – 7286 is very convenient to the main elevators and stairs, and we did not hear any sounds from the atrium – the cabin is right across from the steward’s trolley so we had access to towels and toiletries whenever we needed them – deck 7 is a good central location that encouraged us to use the stairs (up to deck 14 for breakfast to start the day with a workout and down to 4 or 5 for dinner, shows, etc.)

 

Bathroom – best on any ship so far – shower is large, sliding glass door is great (no leaks) – most importantly, lots of storage (we didn’t use it all) – separate shampoo and conditioner (yeah!), in little bottles (double yeah!) – only problems were that the faucet was plumbed backwards, so you had to pull handle to right for hot (this may be only cabin 7286?), the soap tray in the shower is too low so the water flow dissolves the soap, and we did miss having a clothes line (we were forewarned so we brought string and rigged our own, plus the balcony was a great spot to dry the wash)

 

Bed – very comfy – ours was located near the balcony, which made it easier to move around the cabin as a whole – the drapes were almost perfect in shutting out light, so we had no problem sleeping in on sea days

 

Balcony – 7286 has one of the super-large balconies, on the rear edge of the aft hump – it is indeed very large and usually gives a choice of sun or shade with sufficient room in each – the view is excellent, especially aft, and no “tunnel vision” – too bad the chairs don’t have foot rests, so they are not as comfortable as the loungers by the pool (hint to Celebrity: if you added footrests on all the balconies, there might be less crowding at the pool)

 

Layout – S-class is the best ship design we have seen – overall layout was easy to learn – we never felt crowded even though this was the largest ship we have sailed – the wide variety of public spaces allowed entertainment options aimed at many ages and tastes – the Grand Foyer was used very effectively (we did not hear the noise in our nearby cabin except on a few occasions; but the open-air Library was little used because of ambient noise from the foyer) –one downside was that DW missed a Promenade Deck, so her daily walking was tedious as she tried to count the laps back and forth on Deck 5 starboard – the overall feel is a good fit for the "Modern Luxury" theme

 

MDR (“Moonlight Sonata”) – overall the dinners were very good – every item was well seasoned, well presented, and cooked as ordered – all meat and seafood was of good quality (often we couldn’t even tell that it had been frozen) – there was the occasional miss (especially fish) but each meal had plenty of items that we liked very well – we had Select Dining but latched on to a great waiter/sommelier team after a few days and stuck with them (and tipped them extra at the end) – whenever we showed up, even though we were limiting the range to one wait-station, we were always seated within 5-10 minutes (even if they had to expand their station by a table: that is real service!) – the one breakfast I tried was disappointing (nothing was hot)

 

Menus – we went through all 14 Celebrity menus on this cruise, and some are better than others (our favorite waiter had them all memorized and advised us which nights to use for the specialty restaurants) – but we were surprised that even though Celebrity had provided a Priest for Lent they made no effort to accommodate Lenten meatless Fridays with additional fish selections (ironically, the buffet carving station offered Salmon on other days, but never on Friday :confused:)

 

• Specialty Restaurants – Murano was almost as good as we remembered from three years ago (only the goat cheese appetizer didn’t measure up), so we ate there three times: Chateaubriand with Béarnaise sauce – it’s listed as “for two” but since DW didn’t want to order it, they gave me the whole thing – and I ate it (:) but then Tums…), Venison Loin (DW liked it so much she had it twice), and Grand Marnier soufflé were highlights but everything was very good – Tuscan Grille: surprisingly I had the best fish onboard here (Mediterranean Sea Bass – the version in Murano comes with a sauce that takes away from the taste of the grilled fish) – Qsine remains an interesting experience with a large group (our Roll Call had two tables of 10), but not something I would go out of my way to do again – Bistro on Five: worth the charge for embarkation day lunch to avoid the crowds in the buffet, but the food doesn’t do much for us (crêpes were ok, but a dessert that claimed to be Trifle was Jello with Cool Whip :eek:)

 

Buffet (“Ocean View Café”) – the separate stations were confusing at first, but once you figured it out it was great because it broke up the lines into small segments and bottleneck areas like carving and omelet stations didn’t hold everybody up – Indian food and Bread Pudding at lunch were great – but breakfast was a disappointment: no fresh berries or mango, eggs were generally pre-made (even the poached eggs, which meant they were always too well done and the English muffins were soggy in the Eggs Benedict – finally figured out to get toast made to order and then two eggs “sunny side” which required using fresh eggs), the cold cereal selection was very limited (the only high-fiber choice was Raisin Bran, and that wasn’t available every day) – and why don’t they have trays? especially since the tables fill up at all peak times

 

Wine & Beer – two World Wine Tour tastings (Old and New) very worthwhile @ $20 [+ 18% of course] – also included a silent auction: I won one bottle each time, for a good discount off Celebrity list (Hess Collection Mount Veeder Napa Valley 19 Block Mountain Cuvee 2010 [blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Syrah, and Merlot] – excellent; Barolo 2009 Dagromis – even better and since no one else bid I got it for a terrific discount!) - otherwise most of the wine was priced high enough that it paid to bring some favorites on board and pay the corkage – beer selection included Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA [seriously great beer and not made by Bud-Mill-Oors]

 

Staff – overall the crew was very friendly and we were constantly being greeted by happy faces – this made the cruise even more enjoyable [Happy crew = happy ship]

 

• Celebrity Showtime: the sheer number of shows was amazing, and the quality was very good – Edge the Show was good except for the attempt at tap dancing and too many strobe lights; Hard Day’s Night was the best Beatles tribute group we have seen; Justino & Daniela’s magic act was interesting (not great on the magic, but a good show overall); Eclipse the Show was disappointing; violinist Hannah Starosta was very good; Perry Grant is a force unto himself (I peaked in at Cellar Masters one night and was not impressed, but his one-man show was actually quite good on its own terms); Jesse Hamilton was a good singer in his one-man show; gymnast Lance Ringnald gave us good insights into both Olympic gymnastics and “cirque” silk routines; Sue Denning’s one-woman show was funny and touching; The Unexpected Boys was even better than the “Jersey Boys” show on Broadway; Ovations the Show was very good; band leader Jeff Hughes’ one-man show was great; comedian Dan Wilson was hilarious; plus people were raving about several shows that we skipped – the cast and show band were excellent, as were the guest artists

 

• Other Entertainment – Celebrity Life events Poolside, in Sky Lounge, and Grand Foyer were very good (a hit with us Baby Boomers, but I discovered I know less about ABBA than I thought ;)) – Blue Velvet jazz group was very good – Amazing Steelton one-man steel pan band was very good – Sonata rock band was mediocre – Beacon Street string duo showed the limits of budget cuts as two violins are just thin and screechy – Bear Stevens guitar/vocal was poor – DJ Constantine played to the Baby Boomer crowd at Celebrity Life events – Movies: so glad they’re shown in a theater and not Under The Stars; good selection and we saw more movies than we ever expected to on a cruise – DW enjoyed Melinda Bates’ lectures on the White House – we both thought the Hot Glass shows were amazing! (we thought we would look in on one, and ended up staying for five full shows plus the charity auction) – the Liars’ Club with Perry, Sue and Jeff Hughes was very funny – Egg Drop and Golf Putting Competition were good uses of the Grand Foyer

 

Photographers were the most considerate on any ship we have cruised (they understood that "no" means "no")

 

Recycling: we were happy to see recycling bins on decks 5, 12 and 14 – it would be good if they added recycling containers in the cabins so passengers would be more aware of this [Celebrity really does seem to be making an effort to be the Greenest cruise line]

 

Roll Call – this was the largest and most active Roll Call on any of our cruises, and it added a lot to our enjoyment – the embarkation sail away party had 122 on the lawn, the Connections party was also very well attended and the Gift Exchange was a hit, the Slot Pull was losing very badly until we decided to keep going ‘til broke and finally hit a big enough payout that everyone got their money back plus $2.55 [yes, there is a decimal point there], and the two shore excursions I was able to arrange through the Roll Call were both much better than the ship’s excursions we took

 

Other Group on Board – we had a Harley bike group on board, which was really kind of cool – they had two private events in Quasar during the day (when it would otherwise be empty), and we got to watch the unloading/reloading of their bikes at the beginning and end of most port days – they seemed to have a good time and we enjoyed watching them

 

Shore Excursions – we did not see any signs of “Modern Luxury” in the four Celebrity shore excursions that we took (see Grenada, Barbados, Antigua, and St. Maarten below) – maybe we were spoiled by Crystal on this, but I expected that the Celebrity tours would be at least a little nicer than the Royal Caribbean tours on the next bus

 

Aruba: we walked around in the morning, dodging downpours (Aruba is a desert island; Seattle is a rainforest, but I’ve never had any rain while visiting Seattle and Aruba got its annual quota that morning) – back to the ship for lunch – then took the local bus along the northeast shore of the island (quick photo op of California Lighthouse)

 

Curaçao: we walked around Willemstad and got a full show when they had to open the floating bridge all the way to let a large freighter exit – Willemstad is very cute but the most interesting feature was the free Wi-Fi

 

Grenada: we took a Celebrity excursion to Douglaston Estate (not very interesting explanation of spices), Grand Etang (they call it a glacier lake but it’s nothing like the one in Oregon; this is just a mountain tarn and is silting up like they all do), and Annandale Falls (which is not on the top-10 list of world waterfalls and doesn’t even match Ocho Rios’ Dunn’s River Falls or Ivie Blue Hole) – Grenada is a very poor island and when a hurricane destroys something, they just leave it (the Anglican Cathedral and the House of Parliament – these are iconic buildings that have just been left as ruins) while all the other islands have repaired and rebuilt – this was our least favorite island and if we were to repeat this cruise I would select the itinerary that substitutes Bonaire for Grenada

 

Barbados: a much more prosperous island, but a very poor Celebrity excursion – the itinerary was changed after we had booked, but Celebrity did not let us know so we were disappointed to miss Orchid World – thankfully Flower Forest was excellent – the really bad part was that the A/C on the bus was broken and the rear suspension sounded like it wasn’t going to last the day – it was mortifying to see the Royal Caribbean passengers getting on shiny new buses while we had the “Modern Luxury” of a rattletrap van! [they had warned us that about the A/C and offered no discount for that, but when I complained about the itinerary changes and rear suspension issues they gave me a 15% refund – I should have pointed out that 18% is the new 15% ;)]

 

St. Lucia: I arranged a Roll Call group with James Tours featuring a tour of Castries with a visit to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (murals everywhere, but simple stained glass windows) and the park dedicated to their two Nobel Prize Laureates; visits to Morne Fortune and the Roseau Banana Plantation; photo op above Soufrière; lengthy visit to Diamond Falls Botanical Garden & Waterfall; excellent lunch at La Haut restaurant (chicken curry and a freshwater white fish of St. Lucia; banana splits for dessert); then return to the ship via boat – everything was as I had planned, except that the boat return was nicer (large catamaran with lots of shade) but longer (we joined another group that had arranged a 45-minute swim stop) than anticipated – still I would recommend James Tours to anyone wanting an excursion on St. Lucia

 

Antigua: we took the Celebrity excursion to Stingray City, which was great – they were much more realistic about photos than when we swam with the dolphins in Cozumel (your own cameras are ok, and the default option to buy a photo puts it on the CD at a reasonable price) – but again we got exactly the same experience as Royal Caribbean pax

 

St. Kitts: I arranged another Roll Call tour to Nevis through Thenford Grey, which was very enjoyable (bussed a few minutes to the ferry terminal for the 45 minute ride over to Nevis –picked up by local guide Ozzie – tour around Charlestown with visit to the Nelson Museum – then an hour at the Nevis Botanical Garden, which gives you the idea of what it would have been like to own one of the great plantations – then photo ops at the Montpelier Plantation Inn and the Nisbet Plantation – a delicious lunch of lobster sandwiches at the beautiful Golden Rock Plantation Inn – then a short ferry across the narrow channel to the South end of St. Kitts, where we were picked up by another van for the ride back to Basseterre – this tour was more expensive than the one in St. Lucia, but Thenford showed me his costs and explained that while he doesn’t really make any money on Nevis tours he does it for love of the island – I recommend Thenford Grey very highly for either St. Kitts or Nevis

 

St. Maarten: our final Celebrity excursion was a bus tour from Philipsburg to the French capital, Marigot, and a big loop around the island back to the ship – nice bus but we were in the back row and couldn’t hear the driver over the diesel engine and while the driver pointed out the road to the nude beach we didn't get within view

 

Bottom Line: I think this is it for us in the Caribbean (Caribbean islands are like lager beer: some people will debate the fine points of distinction, but they all taste the same to me ;)) but not for Celebrity. We have cruises booked later this year to Galapagos and next year in the Greek Islands on Connie (AquaClass aft balcony – looking forward to trying Blu) and one on Azamara to the Norwegian Fjords. As we look to the future, Celebrity’s new builds will be high on our list.

 

Photos: here are my albums of photos from this cruise:

https://jazzbeauxeclipsecruise2015.shutterfly.com/pictures/5

Note that I don’t have many pictures of Eclipse. For those, I recommend this excellent review by prim8keeper of the sailing before ours:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2177164

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I realize that I didn't mention the Sea Days, which added a lot to the enjoyment on this cruise. We started with two Sea Days out of Miami (giving those who flew in a chance to decompress), then another Sea Day after the first two islands, and finally two Sea Days on the way back to Miami (that, and the 14-day length of the cruise, made the trauma of packing to leave much less than on previous cruises). Before this cruise we were a little worried that we would be bored on 5 Sea Days, but there were so many activities that I made very little progress in my book!

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Hi Host Jazzbeau,

 

Thanks for the excellent and informative review. Now that you've experienced her, I'm sure you can see why Eclipse is one of our favorite Celebrity ships. We are looking forward to sailing on her again in November. In the meantime, we're sailing on Equinox in a few weeks - she's a great ship too !

 

I'm so pleased that you had a great cruise, and welcome home !

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Thanks for posting. We (for sure I) want to do Southern Caribbean cruise for 14 days. Just the thought of getting on ship and not having to get off for 2 weeks in a warm Caribbean setting is wonderful!

 

Will have to check out the Chateaubriand for two (one) on our next cruise. :)

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I realize that I didn't mention the Sea Days, which added a lot to the enjoyment on this cruise. We started with two Sea Days out of Miami (giving those who flew in a chance to decompress), then another Sea Day after the first two islands, and finally two Sea Days on the way back to Miami (that, and the 14-day length of the cruise, made the trauma of packing to leave much less than on previous cruises). Before this cruise we were a little worried that we would be bored on 5 Sea Days, but there were so many activities that I made very little progress in my book!

 

Absolutely outstanding review and very well organized. We are on the March 29, 2015 cruise in 5 days.

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Great Review..........we were on this ship with you and we concur. For us, the best cruise to date. Although I am pleased that Celebrity was sensitive enough to have a Catholic Priest on board, I am curious why you would expect that Lent and consequently, your religious preferences, would be carried into the dining room. We are not all Catholic. In fact many of us are agnostic. Should we observe Muslim customs in the MDR as well?

 

This is a forum that represents a group of souls that are representative of the entire population. Our personal religious preferences have no place here.

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Sugarbug I think your remarks were insulting. I am not Catholic and I dont think it is too much to ask for an extra fish choice during Lent. Nor do I think anyone should be upset that X offers kosher meals for those that want them or vegan or glutenfree. Why should you care if others' needs are accomodated?

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Very good review - well organized and easy to read. I'm a little confused, though. Twice you compared your excursion experience to those on a Royal ship - once noting they got the nicer transportation, and at another point saying "we got the same experience as the Royal passengers." We do cruise mostly Royal. We sailed on Summit several years ago, and are booked on her again in 2017. So we should expect a lesser experience when we cruise Royal? Oh - that wouldn't happen, we only do private excursions.

Edited by Miss Vickie
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Thank you for sharing your detailed review. We are onboard in Nov for our first Eclipse in the Caribbean. So it feels great someone had an exception experience.

 

Some of your comments echo ours from our 14 day Summit b2b in December.

 

They are.

 

food seems better, not 2011 better, but improved and we were happy for this.

 

grenada...descriptions were hyped a bit. Not sure what to do a second time.

 

Ships tours ...really could use checks on descriptions, safety. Othere lines do better. One of my top tours ever was a ships tour on another line. So it is possible to offer something between what they do and 1000 per day private tour. We were not given but did not ask for any compensation for a poorly described tour we took. With the amount of Obc these days, having nice ships tours would be great.

 

Eclipse was our first X experience and we look forward to being on her again.

 

Now I am going to read your Camino review.:)

Edited by hulamoon
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Sugarbug I think your remarks were insulting. I am not Catholic and I dont think it is too much to ask for an extra fish choice during Lent. Nor do I think anyone should be upset that X offers kosher meals for those that want them or vegan or glutenfree. Why should you care if others' needs are accomodated?

 

Exactly!

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Great Review..........we were on this ship with you and we concur. For us, the best cruise to date. Although I am pleased that Celebrity was sensitive enough to have a Catholic Priest on board, I am curious why you would expect that Lent and consequently, your religious preferences, would be carried into the dining room. We are not all Catholic. In fact many of us are agnostic. Should we observe Muslim customs in the MDR as well?

 

This is a forum that represents a group of souls that are representative of the entire population. Our personal religious preferences have no place here.

 

Actually, YES, if there were a large percentage of Muslim passengers onboard, I would imagine that the cruise line would - and should - observe those dining customs in the MDR as well.

 

Some people can't (or don't want to) separate their religion from the rest of their lives or identities. And guess what? That's okay!!! :)

 

I for one enjoy hearing about other peoples religions, and how the cruise line addresses religous issues and holidays onboard, and it absolutely has a place on these boards!

 

Happy cruising to everyone!!!!

Edited by micmacmissy
typo
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Host Jazzbeau

Thank you for your review.

Did you hear any up to date news regarding the non conversion from Cellar Masters to Gastropub during dry dock?

 

Didn't ask. Cellar Masters was almost totally empty any time I looked in there, except where Perry Grant was playing. All the wine machines were disabled -- the daily program often listed a regional "wine tasting" running all afternoon/evening in CellarMasters, but I have not idea who that would have worked with no wine visible and Perry clearing the place out so he could rehearse. I would look forward to the GastroPub concept (love craft beer), except for the continuing slippery slope of a la carte food charges.

Edited by Host Jazzbeau
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Very good review - well organized and easy to read. I'm a little confused, though. Twice you compared your excursion experience to those on a Royal ship - once noting they got the nicer transportation, and at another point saying "we got the same experience as the Royal passengers." We do cruise mostly Royal. We sailed on Summit several years ago, and are booked on her again in 2017. So we should expect a lesser experience when we cruise Royal? Oh - that wouldn't happen, we only do private excursions.

 

I hope you didn't take my remarks as disparaging of Royal. [Perhaps I'm missing your droll humor?] My reference was to Oceania, which offers small-group versions of some of their tours at a price closer to the regular tours than to private cars, and especially to Crystal, which cuts off their tours at about 1/2 the capacity of the vehicles and puts a Crystal staff member on board as a quality check and ombudsman. I realize that Celebrity is not in the same luxury category as these lines, but they claim to be at a higher lever than Royal so I expected to see that reflected in the product. It was onboard; not in the shore excursions.

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Was that " cruise cough" going around the ship?

On the sailing before yours, so many crew and passengers were sick with that, including me!

Hope it disembarked with us!

 

There were a few passengers on the shore excursions who coughed a bit, but I chalked that up to the age demographic (which I share). I think the British call it "catarrh." We were impressed that Celebrity had someone stationed at the entrance to the Ocean View Cafe at all main meal times with a squirter of hand sanitizer from day one (in addition to the regularly placed machines) -- even though there was no sign of an outbreak. We had only seen this before on Princess as part of their "code red" procedure and on Norwegian with their much less classy "washy washy happy happy" ladies.

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Perry clearing the place out so he could rehearse.

 

Oh, Please I sincerely hope that doesn't happen on our cruise. We like Cellar Masters and look forward to it in the late afternoon, early evening. We avoid Perry so we will have to avoid Cellar Masters in the evening. I wish there was another ship doing a similar 14 day itinerary. I would switch in a heart beat.

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