Review!!! December silhouette and eclipse b2b

[butterbread]

great review, saving for later!

[true45]

Excellent review chicagopaul

Leaving in 3 days for Silhouette

Great info & videos of entertainment

I appreciate all your work

Glad you two had a good time

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[chicagopaul]

Did you get a chance to see the glass blowing? If so what did you think?

 

We did! We only watched it for about 30 minutes or so, but we did enjoy it. I forget the name the guy that was narrating it when we were watching (tall guy, blue glasses) but he was a very good speaker and very interesting to listen to. We also watched the auction toward the last day of the pieces they made throughout the cruise. Most were selling for around $400 to $700.

[chamima]

We did! We only watched it for about 30 minutes or so, but we did enjoy it. I forget the name the guy that was narrating it when we were watching (tall guy, blue glasses) but he was a very good speaker and very interesting to listen to. We also watched the auction toward the last day of the pieces they made throughout the cruise. Most were selling for around $400 to $700.

 

 

 

We get hooked on those glass shows and end up getting something at those auctions every time. (Hey , the $$ goes for scholarships, right? ;) )

 

The pictures are deceiving - those pieces are about 18" tall each.

We really love them and the memories they bring back.

Edited January 8, 2015 by chamima

[chicagopaul]

The Transition Between Cruises!

 

The Celebrity Silhouette ports out of Port Everglades and the Eclipse out of Miami. Now, normally I love to NOT WORRY about anything on vacation. Which means, normally we would have booked a car service to pick us up. I didn't want to do anything, did not want to lift a bag! But, Edward convinced me that if we booked a car service we are set to a certain time, etc. etc. and therefore we should take a cab instead. OK, we will do that I said!

 

 

Let us back track just slightly. The last night of the cruise we put the luggage tags on our bags. We would normally self debark but since we had so much luggage it was not possible. We each had two checked pieces and one carry on piece each. We don't pack lightly...unfortunately. So the night before we filled out our luggage tags and placed the luggage in front of our cabin and headed off to the martini bar and dinner. After dinner we met up with our British friends Darren and Kennie at the martini bar, at which point Darren ended up tearing my daily and telling us we had no schedule as it was the last night (notice the daily schedule from the last night is not in the best of shape!). Our original plan was to head to bed early so we could have a fresh start the next morning to head to the Eclipse.

 

 

The plan to head to bed early failed and it failed miserably. We stayed out quite late and we didn't really want to go to bed as we knew it meant goodbye to everyone we met on the Silhouette. We ended up at Quasar talking into the wee hours of the morning. I think we made it back to the room at 3am?

 

 

So, we wake up the next morning feeling a bit hungover but so glad we stayed out and spent time with our new friends (not only Darren and Kennie, but Philippe and his partner and several others). This is when our transition to the Eclipse takes a little turn, but nothing too bad.

 

 

During our Silhouette cruise we had pretty bad allergies. Coming from cold Chicago to the humidity of the Caribbean should HELP allergies, but apparently not. Our allergies seem to get worse and worse every year. The other thing to know is Edward is a slight hypochondriac and thought his bad allergies might turn into something worse. Even though I knew we were both fine and it was just allergies, I gave in to relieve his anxiety. So at 7am in the morning I am waking up one of our best friends in Chicago (who is a doctor) to call in a script for both of us in Miami so we can be on the ultra "safe side." We (really Edward) just wanted to be on the safe side not just for us, but for the entire ship in general. So I google the closest Walgreens to the Port of Miami that has a pharmacy open early on Sunday and have our friend call in the script. We then get our luggage and get in a taxi and tell him our first stop is the Walgreens on 13th and some other street.

 

 

On the way to Walgreens I call them to confirm they received the script. They claim they did not, so I had to speak to the pharmacist who claimed she could not make out the voicemail properly from our doctor :eek:. So I then had to call my friend back (wake him up for a second time) and have him call back to clarify. We get to walgreens. The script won't be ready for 30 minutes. So we had to take our luggage out of the cab and stand outside walgreens like we were stranded as we waited for our script to be ready. Finally our prescriptions are ready so we get them and I call a cab on UBER who shows up promptly and takes us to port. All of this for the slight off chance we might get sick! :rolleyes:

 

We had a great UBER driver with a large SUV to fit all of our luggage. He was very friendly and got us to port right away. He knew the Miami port well (always a concern I have about any driver we have) and seemed to know exactly where our ship was without even looking at the port information signs. So we are back on track to enjoying our wonderful adventure!

 

 

 

So with our pills in hand, that we really didn't need, we give our luggage to the porter around Noon and head to security. Of course we get in the wrong line behind someone who does not have their cruise docs. Why don't people have these ready??? But oh well, again, we are on vacation. There is no rush. We finally make it through security after a few minutes of waiting and eye rolling and walk up to check in.

 

The line for Aqua class was very short and it only took us a few minutes to get our cards and go up the escalators to the ship (we had a very friendly agent). What a wonderful feeling to be back on the ship again (after only a few hours of being away!). We promptly upgraded our drink package to premium and then headed off to order our first drink on the ship at sunset bar.

 

My shoulder was killing me! My carry on bag was stuffed full with some shoes, my laptop, ipad, and all of our bathroom supplies. So I needed a seat at a bar and a drink pronto!

 

 

 

At Sunset bar we met Tiggertastic from our Roll Call and a gentleman from Montreal named Arlen, whom little did we know, we would see every night throughout the rest of the cruise! I enjoyed a couple mojitos at Sunset while updating my blog, checking my e-mails, and calling home.

 

They finally made the announcement that our rooms were ready and off we went to check out our first Aqua Class stateroom! :D

 

More to come shortly!!!

 

 

 

[mlrandpkm]

I am thoroughly enjoying your review. My DH and I are heading out for our first Celebrity Cruise on the Silhouette on Feb. 15th and this is just making me more excited! Thanks so much for taking the time to do it--both on the ship, and since you've back, having to return to the subzero temps!! ;)

[chicagopaul]

Celebrity Eclipse December 21st, 2014 - Holiday Cruise Review

 

So as I stated before we started the cruise at the Sunset Bar....ah how I wish I could be there again. Instead, our fireplace is on, there is snow on our balcony and tomorrow will have a high of 5 Fahrenheit. Lovely.

 

OK, where was I....ah yes, we started at the Sunset Bar just after 12:00. I ordered a Mojito and I believe Edward ordered a beer. I started writing my blog and ran into Tiggertastic, actually she noticed us and came up to say hi!

 

As I was writing, Edward started talking to a gentleman at the bar named Arlen from Montreal. He was traveling on the cruise with his partner Jean. Little did we know, but we would end up spending much time with him and Jean throughout the cruise.

 

The weather outside was beautiful. Partly cloudy, around 80 degrees. I caught up on my blog, my e-mails, and made a phone call home to my parents to check in. I went through a couple mojitos and then we heard the wonderful announcement...our rooms were ready! So off we went to check out our first Aqua Class room. Here is my review.

 

Sail Away

 

The Sail Away party was at Sunset. By the time we got back to Sunset bar it was packed! And we forgot out beads so no one could identify us :( so we grabbed a drink at the bar by Ocean View and we went to the very front of the ship on Solstice Deck to watch the sail away and it was a beautiful spot to watch other ships pull out and to watch ours as well.

 

Now I took some nice video of the sail away, but for some reason by iPhone was being passive aggressive (maybe because I neglected it for so long on our first cruise or it is taking after Edward?) and recorded the video upside down. So once I am able to edit it and flip the video, I will do so and will upload it. In the meantime, please see the link below for some photos.

 

Celebrity Eclipse Sail Away Photos from the forward deck

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157647872200993/

 

 

Our Room

 

We were in room 1529, which is Forward in the ship, near the forward elevators which was very convenient. We were also only a handful of cabins away from the relaxation room and easy access to the spa / Persian gardens. For those of you not familiar, the Persian gardens have wonderful hot beds to lay in. We only used them once, but I found them very relaxing and the view was very nice from there as well.

 

Our room was spotless when we arrived. It was complete with everything you expect in Aqua Class from our two bottles of water, to our daily tea, and slippers.

 

Josefino (sp?) was our room attendant and he was very nice. He introduced himself right away. We are pretty low maintenance so all we requested were firmer pillows. He said no worries, he would have them to us by the evening. A few moments later, around 1:45 he knocks on the door again and all of our luggage is already there! Perfect! We started unpacking right away and had our room organized in no time. We used the storage above the bed for T-Shirts, Shorts, Swimsuits and the like. We used the drawers by the TV for underwear, socks, belts, etc. We then used the closet for all of our dress shirts, suits, pants, etc. We used every bit of space, but everything fit very nicely. The bathroom had plenty of storage for all of our stuff as well, including the copious amounts of sunscreen we brought.

 

Please see below video of room 1529

 

Blu

 

The problem with Blu is once you try it, you will never want to go back to MDR. As much as we enjoyed MDR on our previous cruise, we have become spoiled and as long as it is remotely near our budget we will now only book Aqua or above. How easily spoiled we can become huh?

 

Our waitstaff was Captain Kirk from Jamaicaand his assistant Julianna from Macedonia. Our Sommelier was Jelena...I forget where she was from but my gut is telling me Serbia?

 

Captain Kirk: What a wonderful person. He was always very nice and had a very fun personality. He could be quite to the point, but if you took the time to ask him about his day or an island you would really see his personality come out. The BEST part of Captain Kirk? He would not let you order certain foods. He would say "No, you don't want that. Order this and this." And that is exactly what we would do! We took his advice and everything turned out great. Of course some meals were better than others and I will describe those below, but we were never disappointed by his recommendations.

 

Julianna: Oh, I wanted to bring her home with us. She was so nice....an absolute sweetheart. It only took her 1 day to know we wanted Pellegrino and she was always very nice in asking us how our day was. She was our go to person for beach recommendations. Despite her very sweet demeanor she LOVED beaches and she LOVED drinking at bars on beaches. She always gave us great recommendations. Her dessert recommendations were PERFECT. We always went with whatever she recommended and they were perfect. She preferred lighter desserts that were not overly sweet which is exactly what we like so we were a match made in Blu heaven. We were speaking with her the last day and found out that the next cruise was her last cruise ever. She had her bachelors degree and she was going back for her masters in a combination of Marketing / Economics. We wish her the absolute best! We hope to see her on a future cruise, but hope she is a fellow passenger when we do see her!

 

Jelena: Hands down the best Sommelier we've ever had on sea or on land. Despite the fact that she had to handle more than half the restaurant, she was prompt and had no problem not only refilling our glass, but also providing us with several pairings throughout each meal. Her recommendations were flawless and she would always get excited about the wine she was serving which made us more excited about what we were drinking and eating. When I opened my first bottle of wine back home (This was on Tuesday, I gave my liver 1 day off) I missed her so much!

 

The Food: I wish I would have taken photos of the menus and I apologize to all of you that I did not. I really should have, but here is a highlight of some of our favorite meals / meal combinations along with desserts.

 

#1 Favorite: To start we had Quail which was fall off the bone tender I remember for our entree we had Filet Mignon and ordered Lobster Ravioli on the side.

 

#2 Favorite: I think for number two I say our favorite was the Chilean Sea Bass in a miso broth.

 

#3 Favorite: Short Ribs!

 

#4 Favorite: Lobster Tail with Scallops, Mussels, and Shrimp. Lobster was great, but the shrimp were particularly tasty. They must have been lightly tossed in a smokey / blackening seasoning of sorts. Scallops were good too, so were the mussels...who am I kidding, it was all good.

 

Overall, all the food was great. The only thing I was not crazy about was the off menu ceasar salad I ordered. Besides that, all was great.

 

Desserts

 

Well, basically whatever Julianna recommended. Cherries Jubilee was incredible. There was a rum cake with Coconut ice cream that was amazing. There was something with peaches....amazing. I'm sorry I can't be more specific as all the nights are blended together in my head. I heard the lava chocolate cake was incredible, but we did not try it, our friends did.

 

How did we always get the same section every night in Blu?

 

So some of you have been asking, how in the world did we always get the same section in Blu? Well, first off, after our first night we went up to the Hostess Anita and told her how much we loved Captain Kirk. We just wanted to put it out there that we liked him. We would typically come around the same time, but we would occasionally alternate. Our first night we ate early but typically we would come to Blu around 8:15 to 8:30. Anita always had a table for us or we only had to wait a little bit.

 

We ended up meeting some wonderful people on the cruise, but particularly, we met a great couple from Sweden; Henric and Johan. They were in Aqua Class as well, so midway through the cruise we started to eat together. Anita made sure we had a table for 4 in Kirk's section. One night she even moved tables around and even moved Kirk's section just for us.

 

Anita was the best Hostess you could ask for. She remembered our room number, she would check in with us, she would joke with us, she took care of us. It was a joy to see her every night. We had several inside jokes with her which I will explain later in the review. It had to do with some other passengers on the ship that were...quite interesting and had some very interesting complaints.

 

Wrap up of Blu: I now swear by Blu. I know not everyone agrees, but I loved it. The food is not too healthy, the portions are not too small, everything is JUST RIGHT, IMO.

 

Other Dining Venues:

 

Our goal was to eat at Tuscan and possibly Murano, but we never got around to it. We were very happy with Blu so we just stuck with it. For lunch we would either eat in the Ocean View Cafe or Mast Grill. The burgers and hot dogs were great at Mast Grill. The food in Ocean View was typical Ocean View food. Things didn't change too much, but on a couple days they had ham and turkey carving (around Christmas) and it was quite good. The pizza was also very good. Nice and thin, perfect to accompany a light lunch if you've been out in the sun all day. It was sometimes difficult to find seats outside for lunch if you were coming during the rush (12:15 to 1:30) but if you were early or around 2pm you would have no problem finding great seats outside or inside.

 

Room Service:

 

We ordered room service several times on the ship. Several times in the wee hours of the morning (once on NYE, but that to come later in the review) and once for lunch as well. The Ceasar salad through room service was particularly tasty as were their burgers. I was not crazy about the pizza through room service. Pizza on the Silhouette through room service was better than the Eclipse. Timing of delivery for room service was always very prompt. It was very fast when we ordered it for lunch one day around 2:30/3pm.

 

 

MORE TO COME! I am running out in the bitter cold to pick up our deep dish pizza (yep, we are in Chicago after all). The pizza place is 2 blocks away so I always feel bad getting it delivered.

 

I'll update more later this evening. Cheers!

[need2bespoiled]

Hi Jackie, we've sailed on both. As others have noted, the ships are virtually the same. Perhaps the biggest difference is the Hot Glass Show on the Eclipse, space that is used for the Lawn Club Grill on the Silhouette. There's a very active thread right now about one versus the other, and I don't intend to have this thread go off on that. I'll just say that we very much loved the Lawn Club Grill, as well as the Porch, which is also not on the Silhouette.

 

The Silhouette has alcoves on the lawn, the Eclipse doesn't. Personally, I think they are an eyesore and detract from the lawn.

 

If both ships were doing exactly the same itinerary at the same price, and the dates worked, I'd pick the Silhouette over the Eclipse, just for the Lawn Club Grill, but I'd happily sail on the Eclipse again. They are both stunning ships.

 

Great review, thanks so much! Makes me want to be on board!

 

Hey Turtles,

 

Just a quick note to point out what is surely a typo. The Porch IS on the Silhouette, not the Eclipse.

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna

[Scott2.0]

Paul, thank you for posting this! I'm really enjoying your review. Forgive me if this is covered as I haven't yet made it through your entire review, but where on the ship do they offer the three pages of beers that you posted the pics of?

[chicagopaul]

Paul, thank you for posting this! I'm really enjoying your review. Forgive me if this is covered as I haven't yet made it through your entire review, but where on the ship do they offer the three pages of beers that you posted the pics of?

 

 

No worries I haven't covered that yet. They've moved the specialty beers to Cellar Masters. Though I suppose if you're nice to the people at the Martini bar they could run to cellar masters and get you one as cellar masters is quite dead at night unless there is a show going on.

 

 

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[Cybercsp]

Thanks so much for your thorough review of Blu. We board the next cruise, and I am so pleased to know that we will be in such good hands!

[chicagopaul]

Great review, thanks so much! Makes me want to be on board!

 

 

 

Hey Turtles,

 

 

 

Just a quick note to point out what is surely a typo. The Porch IS on the Silhouette, not the Eclipse.

 

 

 

Happy sailing,

 

Jenna

 

 

Thanks Jenna! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I loved your live review of your Asian adventure B2B as well!

 

 

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[Scott2.0]

No worries I haven't covered that yet. They've moved the specialty beers to Cellar Masters. Though I suppose if you're nice to the people at the Martini bar they could run to cellar masters and get you one as cellar masters is quite dead at night unless there is a show going on.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Ahhh yes, I completely forgot about Cellar Masters. Thanks!

[Turtles06]

Great review, thanks so much! Makes me want to be on board!

 

Hey Turtles,

 

Just a quick note to point out what is surely a typo. The Porch IS on the Silhouette, not the Eclipse.

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna

 

Yes, thanks for correcting my brain fart! I truly, truly hate that one can't edit/correct one's own post after a relatively brief period of time. :(

[lovestx]

So glad to hear that you met Tiggertastic! Jan and Dave were on our Silhouette cruise of the Eastern Mediterranean in June and spent fun times with them at the martini bar. We love meeting new friends on Celebrity.

[wedding96]

Hey Chicagopaul. My partner and family were on the same cruise with you. Spotted you guys at the Martini Bar a few times and should have said hi. Anyways, I'm enjoying your review. It's always fun to hear other people's perceptions of the same experience. My upcoming review will highlight some of the areas you weren't able to comment on such as Canyon Ranch Spa, specialty restaurants, and food in the MDR. Stay tuned!

[chicagopaul]

Hey Chicagopaul. My partner and family were on the same cruise with you. Spotted you guys at the Martini Bar a few times and should have said hi. Anyways, I'm enjoying your review. It's always fun to hear other people's perceptions of the same experience. My upcoming review will highlight some of the areas you weren't able to comment on such as Canyon Ranch Spa, specialty restaurants, and food in the MDR. Stay tuned!

 

I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet! I'll definitely look forward to your review, especially your reports on MDR as I heard polar opposite comments from various on board.

[chicagopaul]

Well, it is a very balmy 5 degrees Fahrenheit here in Chicago so again let me try to get lost in my recent cruise experience and forget where I am.

 

So in my last portion I covered the food....now lets move on to the bars. But before I do let me quickly cover the condition of the ship.

 

Condition of the Eclipse

 

As always we find Celebrity Ships to be in great shape. We don't nit pick and look for problems like some people do, we have better things to do like enjoy our vacation! But, I must say, that while we found the Silhouette to be in very good shape, we felt that the Eclipse was in BETTER shape. It smelled cleaner. The tables seemed to cleaned quicker in public areas, etc.

 

Sunset Bar

 

We would normally visit sunset bar soon after it opened around 10:30am. I'd either get a mojito or a screw driver and it was a nice relaxing place to start the morning. When I had enough energy to head all the way down to deck 3, I would pick up a couple papers for us to read and catch up on things. The service at Sunset was always prompt. I forget her name, but I believe Lolita was my favorite bartender at Sunset. Short....kind of wild black hair...I believe from the Philippines? She seemed to recognize us from day 1 when we got on board and ordered a couple drinks.

 

Pool Bar & Mast Bar

 

We found Mast Bar to be more crowded than the pool bar on many occasions. One of our favorite bartenders from Martini Bar, Ida, would work the pool bar from Noon to 3pm, so we tended to go to the pool bar if we needed a drink during the day since she would always take care of us ASAP.

 

Beer Prices actually varied from the pool bar to Cellar Masters. I noticed that on the menus. Take a look at the link below. You'll see the fun pool bar type menu and then go through the beer list from Cellar masters a few photos over, you'll notice some differences. We had the premium package so it really made no difference to us and we did not order beer that much.

 

Bar Menus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157650081518276/

 

Ensemble Lounge

 

We only had a drink here twice, but as usual there was always good music playing. We would either hear the quartet which was always very nice or the guitarist who did a very nice array of music. One night when Edward went to bed early :eek: and Martini Bar was too crowded for me to find a seat :eek: I went to Ensemble and really enjoyed the solo guitarist. He was playing a little Billy Joel, Elton John, etc.

 

MARTINI BAR

 

Yes, I saved the BEST bar for last! Well, as you know from my previous review on the Silhouette the Martini Bar is where we go. Despite the fact that we prefer martini or liquor straight in general, we really enjoy the venue. We get to see many people come and go to dinner. We find that the people around the martini bar are very talkative and we would able to meet so so so many wonderful people throughout the cruise at the bar. It was also the place where everyone we met on the cruise knew where to find us if they wanted to (or knew where to avoid if they wanted to avoid us :cool:).

 

The Martini Bartenders were as follows: Sasha, Edgar, Ida, and Charul (pronounced I-Rule).

 

Sasha always closed and was a very good bartender, but pretty much just to the point. If you poked some fun at him you could get him smiling and having fun. Edgar was not a bartender that served us much, but he served our friend Arlen every night. He kept special scotch and brandy for Arlen behind the bar that they normally do not have there. After day 1, Arlen never had to ask for his drink again (neither did his partner). Edgar always had it poured moments after Arlen sat down or even approached the bar. Way to go Edgar!

 

Ida, was a ball of fun. We would see her at the Pool Bar during the day and she would always ask us how our day was. As the night went on, she had more fun. She was a blast and we made sure to give her a big hug on the last night.

 

Charul: Our absolute favorite! He took care of us every night. He knew our drinks after night 1. Even when the bar was packed, he would see me approach and I could just make a hand signal about which drink I wanted (Kettle on the rocks or a kettle martini). Now don't freak out, he wouldn't skip over everyone to get to us (well, maybe 1 or 2 people :rolleyes:) but he would just take our order so I could relax and chat with people and then as soon as he could he would get us our drinks.

 

We will miss him very much. He made sure to take down all of our contact information. I'm still waiting for his Facebook invite! So if you happen to be on the ship make sure you tell him Edward and Paul from Chicago, from the Holiday Cruise say hello. Plus it will be a great ice breaker for you and I guarantee you he will become your new favorite bartender.

 

I have a few other videos I will have uploaded soon.

 

I have plenty of fun stories regarding the martini bar, which I will save for the end. It includes everything from angry bar patrons (some throwing ice to get bartenders' attention) to how we spent our New Year's Eve!

 

SEA DAYS!

 

Loungers by the Pool....

 

The Eclipse had to be at FULL CAPACITY. Let me say that again....The Eclipse was at FULL CAPACITY. So standard full capacity for the Eclipse is probably around 2950. But when you have 3 to 4 to a room the cruise industry would then consider the cruise 101% sold, or 103% sold, etc. I believe max capacity for the Eclipse is probably around 3,300. I believe this cruise was at the max, especially given how many children there were on the cruise.

 

So with all this being said, Sea Days were a hassle finding chairs. As you probably have already guessed, we are not early risers. One day Edward went to save 2 chairs around 9am, which on any other Celebrity Cruise would be plenty early to get 2 chairs at least on deck 14 in the sun. Nope! Not on this cruise!! Since there were so many families...I'm talking LARGE families of 8 to 12 people, the chair hogs were in full force and in full force early. You probably needed to be out on deck by 8/8:30am to even have a chance of getting good chairs. 1 person would save 10 chairs. It were people like this that I consider not to be normal cruisers. Unfortunately, we ran into a handful of people that had attitudes / behavior that led me to assume it was their first cruise. This was very evident around the pool on sea days. But oh well, what are you going to do?

 

Complain to the pool butlers? Well, we were going to....but then we heard this story from our bartender Ida, who was working the pool bar while we were in Barbados.

 

Apparently a fight broke out over people saving loungers. A fight so bad that Barbados police were called on board. So, I figure if that won't get the pool butlers' attention regarding chair hogs then my little "excuse me sir....." complaint won't make much of a difference.

 

Music on Sea Days

 

During the day they would have a combination of the DJ, House Band, and Guitarist by the pool. I didn't find the music too loud and thought the DJ played the typical party music by the pool, but it was varied. It was everything from the 60s through current pop hits.

 

I never noticed Zumba by the pool....I think maybe on one day?

 

Activities on Sea Days

 

We did not partake in any of the sea day activities but we did watch them. I enjoyed watching the golfing challenge on the lawn (putting, not chipping or driving haha). It was a progressive game, but you could join in at anytime. It was fun to watch and the activities director was pretty outgoing and engaging.

 

They had volleyball games several times throughout the cruise in the pool which I always enjoy watching as well as pool Olympics.

 

Trivia: There seemed to be multiple types of trivia every Sea Day from General Knowledge, to History to Music Trivia. We attended the Music Trivia once and found it fun...but not that challenging!

 

Decorations on the Ship!

 

The Eclipse had all the standard decorations you would expect on a ship around the holidays. Garland around the railing the foyer, poinsettias on the grand staircase, Christmas trees, Menorahs, etc. My favorite was the gingerbread village that was set up outside of Quasar. We actually saw them setting this up one night.

 

Christmas Setup

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157650081341496/

 

 

More to come shortly!!!

[chicagopaul]

Below please find a link for photos of all the dailys for our 14 night cruise on the Eclipse.

 

Eclipse Holiday Cruise Daily's

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157647852053203/

 

THE PORTS!

 

So let me describe what we did in the ports as well as post some photos. When we cruise, unless we are cruising somewhere like Europe or Asia, etc. we mainly care about the ship. As much as we love the Caribbean islands, we love the ship more!

 

December 24th - Aruba!

 

I was excited for Aruba because I had never been there before but EVERYONE has told me wonderful things about it. We asked Julianna, our assistant waitress in Blu what beaches she would recommend in Aruba and she recommended either Eagle or Palm Beach (when sort of end up running into each other). We decided on Palm Beach as we were told there were more things to do (bars, restaurants, water sports, etc.). Palm Beach is covered with hotels so the beach was crowded, but the sand and the water was absolutely beautiful. We rarely saw someone selling stuff on the beach and felt safe leaving our bags, towels, etc. on the sand while we went into the water.

 

We ended up laying out for a couple of hours and then heading to a bar on a pier at Palm Beach to get a couple drinks and connect to WiFi. Their WiFi was in and out but we were able to connect long enough to download my e-mails, send a few iMessages, and of course update my live blog on CC.

 

The one thing to note about Aruba Beaches: ALL BEACHES ARE PUBLIC! Hotels cannot control or own beaches. However, things such as beach chairs, tables, umbrellas, etc. are owned and controlled by hotels and are for hotel guests only. So if you want a beach chair you will need to find a couple areas where private companies are renting them. Outside of that you will be stuck laying out on a towel.

 

Here are some photos and video of beautiful Aruba at Palm Beach.

 

Photos from Palm Beach in Aruba

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157647857647834/

 

 

 

December 25th, Curacao

 

On Christmas day we were in Curacao. FYI, this is just the port portion of the review. I will review our Christmas dinner, etc. later on.

 

Curacao is a very cool little island. Unfortunately we were there on Christmas day so much of the stores and shops were closed. However, many of the bigger restaurants were open. Curacao has free WiFi on the island. It works very well in certain areas and not so well in other areas.

 

Our original plan was to go to Mambo Beach. While it was sunny out we could see some dark clouds rolling in. We decided to walk around the town as much as possible. We hung out in a small little square where we had a good WiFi signal. We watched people walk by. We watched a father yell at his adult son because his son said he was going back to the ship but instead decided to walk around a little bit (I should've recorded the argument. It was quite comical. You would've thought his son had just killed someone).

 

As we were walking into town, over the walking bridge, we noticed a restaurant with a huge outdoor area right on the water. It is called Iguana Cafe I believe. It had plenty of umbrellas so we figured it would be a good place to grab a drink and if it rained we were fine. The view was beautiful. We were able to be right on the water, see the beautiful color buildings across the way, and people watch. The WiFi signal was great here so I was able to catch up with friends and family and wish them Merry Christmas. And of course I was able to update my CC blog.

 

Edward just had a coke, I had a couple of large beers. The bill, despite being a tourist trap location, was quite inexpensive at $12 total.

 

The walking bridge is the bridge that swings open, sometime for 30 minute time periods to let boats come in. The restaurant we were sitting at was right by the bridge and I was hoping it would open....and it did! Here are some great photos and videos of Curacao and the bridge! Please notice the large oil tanker making its way through the canal.

 

Photos from Curacao

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157649737541008/

 

 

Our plan to visit the beach was definitely foiled when it started to rain. So we ended up heading back to the ship around 2pm.

 

December 27th, Grenada

 

We stayed on the ship! We did not have any tours planned and did not feel like getting off so we enjoyed another private ship day!

 

December 28th, Barbados

 

Julianna recommended a beach called Boatyard Beach where much of the crew goes. So we ended up making the 25/30 minute walk to Boatyard Beach. It was pretty easy to get there and we got to see some of the town on the way. There were PLENTY of cabs in Barbados but we wanted to talk. It was not that sunny out so we weren't too hot walking.

 

Boatyard Beach is $15 to enter which includes the use of chairs, tables, etc. as well as 1 free drink. It was quite crowded and sure enough we saw much of the crew there including our bartenders, future cruise sales reps and even the activities director. All the beach chairs were taken so we sat by the bar which had a nice view of the water. The WiFi here was not that great at all. It took forever to connect....but no worries, we were on vacation. We finally got it to work. If you plan to go to Boatyard, I would recommend it, but get there early. We did not get there until 11:30am and all the chairs were taken. I think if you get there by 10am you should be safe.

 

There was a DJ on the beach as well. At one point he announced that when he sounded an alarm there would be free shots at the bar. Here is a video of the bar once the alarm sounded!

 

 

Photos of Barbados & neighboring ships

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157649781305548/

 

December 29th, St. Lucia

 

OK, CC you let me down here. Before I left on the cruise I printed out the Cruise Critic summary of each island which gives you a few things to do, etc. In St. Lucia CC recommended, for a half day beach day to visit a beach called Choc beach. CC claims lovely stretches of white sand.....

 

Well, we get into a cab with Johan and Henric, our friends from Sweden and we head to Choc beach. The cab driver lets us off, we pay him and he leaves. We walk through a little restaurant and bar where the owner greets us and shows us to the beach. We walk out onto the beach and well....I felt like I was in someones backyard. I should have taken a photos. The water was rough and the beach was completely shady as it was covered with trees. If we looked behind us our view was a road with a gas station. Lovely. Maybe the cab driver took us to the wrong beach?

 

So we head back out to the road and end up flagging down a taxi. We get into the taxi and tell him we are looking for Choc beach and he says that is where you are now. Really? We asked the cab driver to take us to a beach where the sand is actually white, or close to white and clean. He took us to a beach...name is escaping me now, but it was more of the beach we were looking for. It was very crowded, a bit too crowded, but we had great seats in the sun and the water was warm. There were plenty of bars and restaurants and washrooms, etc.

 

If you plan on visiting St. Lucia however, I would recommend the beach by the Pitons. While we did not go there, we talked to several people who did and they loved it.

 

Here are some photos from St. Lucia

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157647857712314/

December 30th, Antigua

 

Ummm so we stayed on the boat again. Another private boat day. We noticed this was the most crowded port day on the ship. I think with so many port days in a row many people decided to stay on the ship.

 

We did get some great shots of the landscape in Antigua from the ship.

 

Photos of Antigua from the ship!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157647866261003/

 

And we had some nice video of us leaving Antigua

 

 

December 31st, St. Kitts!

 

I was really looking forward to St. Kitts because last time were there we ended up at a place called Carambola Beach Club. It is set in a little bay. It is not cheap, but not overly expensive. But, it keeps away most of the idiots you don't want around you on the beach. There are no sales people on the beach. Only waitresses bringing you drinks. Plenty of nice cabanas to rent....ah we were so excited!

 

Again we went with our friends Johan and Henric. I needed to make up for my terrible recommendation of Choc beach so I thought I could redeem myself today. Well, we get to Carambola Beach Club and....CLOSED....for a private NYE function. Son of a......

 

So the cab driver takes us to the other side of the island to a beach...I'm forgetting the name but it is right next to Turtle Beach. The sand was nice towards the end of the beach and the water was very calm. We were able to get great sun and had some beautiful views. The sun was out most of the day until it came time to leave. We left the beach at 2pm (the time we told our cab driver to pick us up). At 2pm is when it started to rain. If you've ever been to St. Kitts you know about the windy roads with guard rails that could not keep a golf cart from going over a cliff let alone a large van.

 

It was an interesting ride back to the ship, but by the time we were back at the port the rain had stopped. We walked back on the ship very excited to start our NYE celebration! (review of this to come separately!).

 

Here are some photos from St. Kitts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157649774653259/

 

January 1st - St. Maarten

 

St. Maarten is a great island. Our plan was to go to Airport Beach. However, there were 5 ships in port and it was New Years day....we assumed Airport Beach was going to be packed! So we went to the beach that was close to port. It was only a 20 minute walk or you could take a water taxi.

 

I was surprised! It was a beautiful beach. I would have thought a beach so close would have been too crowded....not that large, etc. But the beach was very nice. We walked towards the end of the beach where we ended up running into Johan and Henric again. We grabbed 4 loungers with a perfect view of the water and started enjoying our last beach day. The water was beautiful and the sun was warm.

 

We spent some time in the water, some time laying out in the sand and Johan spent some time building a sand castle and then subsequently trying to protect the sand castle from the tide (look for it in the photos).

 

If you end up at this beach try some of the restaurants. We did not get a chance to but they all looked very good. We spoke to a couple people that did eat on the pier and they said the fish was very fresh and not too expensive.

 

Photos of St. Maarten

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157650196029165/

 

 

I hope you are all enjoying the review! I have plenty more video of NYE which I am excited to post as well as my review of Christmas and NYE on the ship along with my "Funny Stories" section which will cover some interesting situations we came across on the ship.

 

I promise to get to that later this afternoon. For now I must run out and meet a client. Cheers!

[chicagopaul]

Holidays on the Ship!

 

The ship was full of wonderful Christmas decorations from Christmas trees to poinsettias to a gingerbread village outside of Quasar. There were multiple Menorahs throughout the ship as well and plenty of garland on all the railings. I was hoping for a little more Christmas decorations. We found the Silhouette before this sailing to have more decorations throughout the ship, but just marginally so.

 

Christmas Eve and day all the bartenders were wearing santa hats. Some of them loved it...some of them were not thrilled as I'm sure they were quite warm and didn't bode well for them moving so quickly behind the bar.

 

Christmas Dinner in Blu was a standard Blu menu but they did have two specials which was a ham dinner and a turkey dinner.

 

We ended up eating with our new friends from Canada, Arlen and Jean that evening. They had the specials that evening. I had the lamb shank (one of my favorite items on the ship) and Edward had the ham dinner. I tried the ham and it was pretty good, but a bit salty (though it is ham???).

 

All the staff on the ship would say Merry Christmas throughout the day to us. On Christmas Eve there was a holiday show in the theater. Now we are not suppose to video in the theater but there was one part I had to sneak a very quick video of. See some videos below.

 

 

I've never experienced Christmas on a cruise ship before. It did not feel like Christmas for us at all. I'm used to be in the cold during Christmas, driving from the city into the suburbs to see family, etc. But even though I missed that I would much rather spend my Christmas on a beach in the Caribbean!

 

Last thing to say about Christmas is that the Music station on the TV did have Christmas music which I was happy about. It was nice to listen to while getting ready for dinner.

 

New Years Eve on the Ship!

 

Now this is what we were looking forward to!

 

Here is a video of us getting ready that explains what we planned to do that evening.

 

Celebrity offers you the option to order a bottle of champagne and have it delivered anywhere on the ship at any point in time throughout the day or night. Our wonderful Sommelier, Jelena, gave us the order form at dinner.

 

Our friends Henric and Johan suggested we make a night of it. Since they were only a few cabins away from us they said they would order a bottle of champagne to their room that we could enjoy with them pre-dinner and then we could order a bottle to be delivered to a bar that we could enjoy at midnight. Sounds good to me!

 

NYE was Formal Night. WOW, people really were dressed up tonight. It was a great great thing to see. Everyone was festive. Everyone was in a great mood. I wore a tux without the tie (maybe I was going for the James Bond look minus the athleticism and European swagger?) and Edward wore a dark suit with a silver tie and handkerchief. We headed next a couple cabins down to meet our friends and enjoy some champagne.

 

The room steward Josefino (we both had the same one) found out we were coming to their cabin for some champagne and he brought extra Canopies (which I find to be better in AQ) and he brought a nice cheese plate that actually had a nice little selection of cheese, fruit and crackers. Our friends are from Sweden so at 7pm (actually we all forgot, so a little after 7pm) we toasted to their New Years in Sweden. We then headed to dinner in Blu.

 

Anita, our wonderful hostess, had a table all ready for us. Perfecto! We sat down and Julianna walks over with 4 New Years hats for us. They were interesting hats. We were not too crazy about them. Check out some photos of them here:

 

Click Here: Picture of Edward not thrilled with wearing a hat

Henric and Johan embracing their NYE hats

 

So since we were all not feeling the NYE hats we decided to switch for 4 of these:

 

Tiaras for NYE we wore throughout the night

 

After dinner we headed to the Martini Bar (this was around 10:15) and we were able to snag 4 seats at the bar. Then the bar started to fill up. So happy we got there when we did!

 

We ordered drinks and talked while we waited for midnight to come near. We had planned for our second bottle of champagne to be delivered at 11:20/11:30pm to the Martini Bar. Right at 11:20 we see Jelena, our Sommelier, running through the bar over to us with our bottle of Champagne. Our bartenders kept it cold for a little while, then we each had a glass that we took up to the pool party. Our bartender Charul at the Martini Bar told us not to worry, after the party our seats will still be there for us. Yay!

 

We headed up to deck 14 and it was already crowded. So we headed down to deck 12 and found a great area to stand right by the ice sculptures! If you are going to watch any videos I have posted, watch these from NYE on the pool deck. It was a great party. EVERYONE was ecstatic from the staff to every single passenger. It was amazing.

 

 

 

Watch the entire final countdown video. Toward the end you will see two people come up to us with champagne. The woman on the left is Anita, she is the hostess from Blu. The woman on the right, who is still hard at work is Julianna, our assistant waitress from Blu!

 

 

 

We stayed on the pool deck for another 20 minutes or so after countdown. The music was great but we had been standing for an hour and well, we wanted to sit! So we headed back down to the Martini Bar which was mostly empty. Again, however, we came at the perfect time. After a few moments the bar started to fill up!

 

We had a final glass of what was left of our champagne and then we started to drink more. Another round of martinis...and then Charul thought we needed shots. Not just any shots, but Mezcal. This Mezcal didn't have a worm in the bottle...it had a scorpion. Lovely. But hey, why not! Might as well start 2015 off right, right?

 

So we all had that shot which was actually quite nice and then we went back to our drinks. Then Charul had another idea. He was going to make a bit shot for all of us to drink at the same time (4 straws) but he was going to mix it as we were drinking it. Again...why not?

 

We decided to stay at the bar until 2am to ring in the Chicago new year. We did just that! Some photos from NYE

 

NYE Photos

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129725878@N04/sets/72157649737748988/

 

We stayed at the bar I think until around....2:30/2:45am? Basically, until they started to clean up. We then thought...we made it to Chicago NYE...maybe we stay up for LA? So we all headed back to our cabin to have...yes, you guessed it, another bottle of champagne. And....Room Service! Cheeseburgers, Turkey Club, Pizza....I think chicken skewers too?

 

4am would have been 2015 in LA....I think we made it to 3:45am and then needed to call it a night.

[Christine Frances]

OMG What fun:D We are going to have to do a New Years Cruise!!!