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I was on the eclipse in December....aside from some expected wear and tear I thought it was in wonderful shape.

I got one of those Eclipse deals lol...$429 base for a concierge cabin

I haven't been on the Apex...but I have been on Celebrity and had Cafe al Bacio. Anywhos...as a Seattleite that has my own Breville Barista Express Espresso machine at home...that uses fresh roasted beans 99% of the time for Americanos...I would say you should bring what you need to be happy. Imo...al Bacio is fine for what it is but I found early on I needed to order flavored lattes there vs Americanos or similar. They're just churning through stuff in such quantity that I don't see how they could get the quality to what I imagine you'd want.

I was on it in December for my first cruise on X....it felt impeccably maintained to me... obviously you could tell certain areas had been used...but nothing felt old and busted or anything along those lines. If anything I was super impressed with how good everything looked despite the lack of a big refresh anytime lately.

40 here....first cruise on Celebrity was in December on the Eclipse in a concierge cabin. Prior to that I'd been on like 15 cruises going back as early as 2000...all with carnival + one horrid experience with both NCL & Princess. Anyhow, I just loved my time on the Eclipse...love that Solstice class layout. Found the service to be like it was on my first cruise back in 2000...which was a wonderful surprise given how much things have changed since then. Since I live in Seattle and have gone on several Alaskan cruises... I booked the Edge in May in a Sky Suite...so definitely interested to see how the retreat experience stacks up. Luminae sounds like a dream tbh. The only negative - and it really isn't a big deal because I think it's an issue with most cruises - they're like 10 years behind the curve on their cocktail program. World class and (I assume) Eden bars kinda approach where things should be...but they don't stock enough different spirits to push the envelope. Take world class on the eclipse - the bartenders were absolutely the best on the boat, but they often didn't have base spirits to make a number of classic cocktails. I wish mother corporate built them a better foundation so to speak to take things up another notch. Oh and I found the martini bar - albeit super energetic - more about style over substance. Once again not a big deal as I asked them to correct it - which they happily did...but a Manhattan for example shouldn't be shaken, and shaken cocktails should always be double strained. I'm kinda bar industry adjacent though sooooo I'm probably a bit over the top vs the average joe. Anyhow, as for value...I think it just depends. I've gotten both cruises at what seem to be price points well under the average for the respective cabin types - like $450pp base for the eclipse concierge & $1600pp for the edge sky suite. I dunno that I'd want to pay the $1200+ pp I see for many concierge rooms or the 3k+ pp for the retreat I see for many other itineraries...but I've always been happy to seek deals and walk away if the numbers don't add up. At those higher price points I'd probably prefer to just go to a place myself and do more of a deep dive into the location than a cruise could ever offer. Anywhos...I think that about covers it...once again I'm really excited to go on the Edge in May. 🙂