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Host Andy - Live From Celebrity Eclipse

Andy

By Andy,
in Celebrity Cruises

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TourDeCruise

TourDeCruise

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Happy Thanksgiving from Curaçao, the second port on our Eclipse cruise. I'm not Host Andy obviously, but I'll post just a few general notes on our cruise so far.

 

Bistro on Five was open on embarkation day for lunch. No new Bistro on Five menu; same one as before. Our Sailaway Party and Connections meet and mingle were both well attended. Food for us has been excellent so far as has been service. We're looking forward to a good Thanksgiving meal onboard tonight.

 

At the Elite breakfast, we have had the usual buffet in Tuscan Grille and not the plated options ordered via a menu. We're particularly enjoying the Elite "happy hour" lounge. Although we are getting drink vouchers, which are still paper/not coded to sea pass card, we are still going to the Sky lounge where they also have appetizers and friendly and efficient service. Deborah, the Captain's Club hostess, is lovely and personable. We have enjoyed talking to her. Also we have enjoyed the adventure enrichment talks presented by Shane Dallas from Australia in Celebrity Central and main theater.

 

Regarding some changes since our last cruise on Reflection seven months ago: 1) No more chocolates on the pillows at night although we did get two large peppermint patties on the frog towel animal on our only formal night so far. 2) Security is now scanning the bar codes on our sea pass cards when we debark and embark the ship in the ports versus our having to insert the card into the machine. This makes for a faster process. 3) Signing up for wifi is simplified if you are a Captain's Club member qualifying for free minutes. You can sign up from your tablet almost anywhere on the ship or the iLounge. It will prompt you for portfolio number and cabin number and automatically recognize and display your Captain's Club status and apply the benefit. No more turning in coupons for package or waiting for the credit to be applied. The charge won't even show up on the shipboard account for qualifying members, just simply applied. As Elite Plus members, we are getting 240 free onboard wifi minutes. 4) We had a special boarding process where we received an email in advance requesting us to show up at designated times by deck number. Suite, Zenith, Aqua Class, and Elite Plus guests could come anytime from noon on. We arrived at 10:30am per our arranged transportation, got into the terminal shortly after, (11:00am?) and boarded around 12:30pm (I think a little before 12:30pm; previous cruise was a TA with longer immigration process and I heard ship was a little delayed coming into Miami). They announced cabins were ready at 1:05pm. It was seamless for us as Elite Plus members, but I did hear complaints from others who had later assigned times. Not everyone could come at their designated times due to arranged transportation or traveling with others. I do not know if these changes are particular to the Eclipse or apply fleet wide. If I think of or notice more changes, I will post.

 

We'll be doing express self-debarkation, so I can report after the cruise how it went. We have done it in the past and it works well except for very full elevators and sometimes the need to get your luggage up or down steps or to exercise some patience with elevators.

 

Kathy

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Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

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Hi Andy and a very Happy Turkey Day to you and your family. We will be waiting for you in Miami and happy to take your place in the various bars. But please leave some booze on the ship and make sure you leave Perry in good spirits.

 

Hank

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Lois R Great Review Rare

Lois R

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Hi Kathy, Happy Thanksgiving to you and Jack and thanks for the updates:) Sounds like lots of changes were made as compared to when I sailed

Reflection a couple of weeks back (for the better).

 

Hope you have a great cruise:)

 

Maybe they will start putting the buffet for Elite Breakfasts back on all the ships.

Edited by Lois R
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TourDeCruise

TourDeCruise

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Hi Kathy, Happy Thanksgiving to you and Jack and thanks for the updates:) Sounds like lots of changes were made as compared to when I sailed

Reflection a couple of weeks back (for the better).

 

Hope you have a great cruise:)

 

Thanks, Lois. Happy Thanksgiving to you too. Maybe the changes are only on Eclipse and who knows, maybe some of the "changes" are only on our sailing although I hope the wifi sign-up and Security sea pass scanning are here to stay. One thing to note about logging off wifi is that I was still able to load a page on Safari after I logged out and after receiving the message I successfully logged out! Per their recommended instructions, I did an additional logout after pressing the log-off button by typing logoff.com on the top address line. Then I made sure to turn off wifi in Settings.

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Wine-O

Wine-O

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Thanks, Lois. Happy Thanksgiving to you too. Maybe the changes are only on Eclipse and who knows, maybe some of the "changes" are only on our sailing although I hope the wifi sign-up and Security sea pass scanning are here to stay. One thing to note about logging off wifi is that I was still able to load a page on Safari after I logged out and after receiving the message I successfully logged out! Per their recommended instructions, I did an additional logout after pressing the log-off button by typing logoff.com on the top address line. Then I made sure to turn off wifi in Settings.

 

Those changes were on Silhouette during our TA last month. They instituted the new wifi system with your seapass back in the Spring when we took Constellation across the pond. It is being implemented ship by ship, so it will soon be on a ship near you if you don't have it already. No more internet coupons, so those who have been saving them for a future cruise, they are no longer any good. :eek:

 

The problem with the buffet for the elite breakfast was due to health concerns. There were no sneeze guards. They did have them on Silhouette, and I'm assuming it will be back on all the ships in the not-too-distant future.

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wwcruisers

wwcruisers

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Thanks Kathy! Hope you and Jack have a nice Thanksgiving on Curacao!

One question: if Deborah is the CC hostess (as we had previously heard), is Bruce van der Boon currently serving as the FCC? You guys often book something onboard, so you'll probably find out. :cool:

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TourDeCruise

TourDeCruise

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We finally have a good wifi signal at Starbucks in Curaçao which we were not having at the Aruba Starbucks yesterday or on the ship. So I will take advantage of the good wifi.

 

Thanks, Suzanne. Happy Thanksgiving to you, Rick, and family too. I will check, but I believe Bruce is in Future Cruises on this sailing. We aren't booking anything believe it or not. We are already booked all through 2015 and up to spring 2016. But I will go into Future Cruises anyway and look for him. Ship is decorated beautifully for the hoildays!

 

Cathy: Connections party for us was on the first full sea day, the day after embarkation, in the Sky Lounge at 11am. Could be different on other sailings, depending on number registered, schedule of officers, and availability of a suitable room and time although most of the time it is the first sea day around 10, 11, or 11:30am. For our sailing, formal nights are all scheduled for sea day nights: 1) first sea day night (day 2 / day after embarkation), 2) sea day after the first three ports which will be on Saturday for us (we have embarkation day, 2 sea days, then Aruba-Curaçao-Bonaire ports then sea day (day 7), which will be a formal night for us), and 3) 2nd last night which is also a sea day. Celebrity never has it on the last night because people are packing and preparing to get off the ship. Sometimes the 2nd sea day (day 3) is the formal night on this sailing as it was during one of our other three times on this sailing (most of the time 1st sea day though).

 

Wine-O: Thanks. They have a sneeze guard on the Elite buffet station in Tuscan Grille on the Eclipse. I like the new wifi signup process and security procedure.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.

 

Kathy

Edited by TourDeCruise
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chamima

chamima

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Thanks for all of the info Kathy.

I'm happy to hear that the service is good because last February it always felt like they were always short staffed and, although the staff tried hard, they could never quite keep up and were always running around looking tense and frazzled.

Sorry to hear about the pillow chocolates - i was hoping they'd reverse that decision.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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curiouscat

curiouscat

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Hi Karen

 

You get chocolate mints on the second formal night... I of course had to request the corkscrew but had had a great room attendant and got one promptly.

 

On your last X sailing do u remember if there were "pool games"... ? They had some on sea days and that was too RCCL esque like:(

 

 

CC

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chamima

chamima

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Hi Karen

 

You get chocolate mints on the second formal night... I of course had to request the corkscrew but had had a great room attendant and got one promptly.

 

On your last X sailing do u remember if there were "pool games"... ? They had some on sea days and that was too RCCL esque like:(

 

 

CC

 

The only pool games I remember were the officers vs. passengers water volleyball.

I love to watch the cute Israeli security officers! ;) :D

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curiouscat

curiouscat

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The only pool games I remember were the officers vs. passengers water volleyball.

I love to watch the cute Israeli security officers! ;) :D

 

Yes that is what I remember.. they had "pool olympics" for the Pax.. it was obnoxious IMHO... total ambiance buzz kill by the pool.

 

And the DJ was so loud like a Miami night club.... just not the same as 2 yrs ago

 

CC

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ECCruise

ECCruise

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Hi Kathy!

Happy thanksgiving!

I too want to know about Bruce! I will be on the January 4th sailing and wonder if he will still be onboard!

Thank you for posting. I'm enjoying this thread! [emoji1]

 

Bruce moved to Future Cruise Sales on the cruise before this when Deborah took over as CC hostess. Not sure how long his contract will run and whether he will still be onboard in January.

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MVPinBoynton Great Review Rare

MVPinBoynton

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Hi Andy,

We were on Eclipse last month out out of Southampton. Can you check to see if two food items have improved, since they came from Europe? The egg salad wasn't edible and the Caeser dressing was like water. I am hoping it was an isolated problem, since they were great on the infinity this month.

Edited by MVPinBoynton
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TourDeCruise

TourDeCruise

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Hi Kathy

Glad you are enjoying your cruise. How was Curacao?

Looking forward to sailing with you in January on Connie

 

And hi to Andy as well!,

 

hcat, we like Curaçao. We wanted to repeat this itinerary because it has Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire on it. Bonaire, where we are today, is our favorite as it is very pretty with more nature, more pristine, and less touristy. We have done an island tour in Curaçao before, so yesterday we just did wifi and walked through town several times including after dinner since we we were in port until 11pm. Looking forward to meeting you in person in January. Off to enjoy Bonaire! Kathy

Edited by TourDeCruise
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lggfly

lggfly

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Sue is already on vacation, isn't she? Ben should be cruise direc tor by now

 

Sue was due to leave after the TA, so she should be off already. I heard it was supposed to be Ben Powney, but thought I'd check with those aboard now to confirm.

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