LIVE!!!!! From the ECLIPSE 14night Southern Carib!! - CHICAGOPAUL -

[chicagopaul]

This was in our room when we returned from lunch which I thought was a cute and nice gesture. And signed by the captain!

 

 

 

 

 

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[chamima]

Avi

If you're interested in a bridge tour ask Mary about it.

She has arranged one for our "group" in the past.

[chicagopaul]

Our lunch for today was in Luminae. I had the turkey gyro which was actually very good.

 

 

 

Now we are going to take a break to pack. We have two bottles of liquor we haven’t used. Anyone have luck flying back with them in your luggage? I’m worried about them breaking.

 

 

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[chamima]

We've flown with wine in the past - lots of times.

We usually put the bottles in large ziploc bags but they've never broken so that may not be necessary.

Wrap the bottle in a sock and then surround it with dirty laundry and put it in the middle of your luggage.

As I said - it has worked many times so far.

 

 

EDIT: I just remembered that we flew home last year with 3 (yes THREE) bottles of Scotch we got in St. Maarten. They were really good Scotch (like 21 year old) and we would have been really upset if they had broken. They didn't.

[chicagopaul]

We've flown with wine in the past - lots of times.

We usually put the bottles in large ziploc bags but they've never broken so that may not be necessary.

Wrap the bottle in a sock and then surround it with dirty laundry and put it in the middle of your luggage.

As I said - it has worked many times so far.

 

 

EDIT: I just remembered that we flew home last year with 3 (yes THREE) bottles of Scotch we got in St. Maarten. They were really good Scotch (like 21 year old) and we would have been really upset if they had broken. They didn't.

 

 

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

 

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[Smmessineo]

This was in our room when we returned from lunch which I thought was a cute and nice gesture. And signed by the captain!

 

 

 

That was a thoughtful gift. It seems like you and Edward are the best sort of passengers, and obviously the staff appreciates it !

[di T]

Wow! I love following your wonderful adventures, Ecipse is the only Solstice we have not been on but we will try her in September! Thanks for being to follow this. Roll on April for our next cruise. Happy Christmas to you both! Dianne xx

[chicagopaul]

Well our cruise is coming to an end. We just got back to our suite after saying our goodbyes.

 

Tomorrow we have lots of time to kill at the airport. I’ll be sitting in the Centurion lounge for quite some time so I will update this blog with tonight’s activities, debarkation, and other menus I took photos of. I will also start working on my final review so you can expect that here very soon.

 

Overall we had a wonderful cruise as we always do. Thank you for continuing to follow along and even though we’re drawing to a close feel free to ask any questions as I’ll still be active wrapping up this review in the coming days.

 

 

 

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[jenZ]

We’ll be just behind the bridge for our upcoming cruise.. since they’ll be able to look in at us.. I hope they let us look in on them!

 

 

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The bridge crew will wave at you! Fun!

 

 

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[kittypurse]

Thoroughly enjoyed your excellent review ....THANKYOU ....were joining Eclipse 7 Jan .xx

 

 

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[jcpc]

Loved following along with you. Thanks so much for posting.

 

 

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[Cruise a holic]

Thoroughly enjoyed your excellent review ....THANKYOU ....were joining Eclipse 7 Jan .xx

 

 

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Thanks again for the great review! We will also be on the Eclipse Jan 7!

[chicagopaul]

Thank you again everyone for the comments. We are now Judy relaxing in Michael’s Club at the moment. We can disembark now but given our late flight we might as well relax here as long as possible. Until they drag us off! Haha

 

 

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[C-Dragons]

Thank you again everyone for the comments. We are now Judy relaxing in Michael’s Club at the moment. We can disembark now but given our late flight we might as well relax here as long as possible. Until they drag us off! Haha

 

 

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It was nice reading about your trip, thanks!

 

Please make sure you have a jacket with you at the airport.

The Centurion Lounge is like an ice box - freezing!

Have a safe flight home. 😊

[NAYRB]

Great review Paul, now if anyone wants to know how our trip was I can just point them to this thread. It was great meeting you and Edward on the beach at Carambola and also spending time on the ship.

 

Safe travels,

Lee & Barb

[chicagopaul]

Great review Paul, now if anyone wants to know how our trip was I can just point them to this thread. It was great meeting you and Edward on the beach at Carambola and also spending time on the ship.

 

Safe travels,

Lee & Barb

 

Pleasure meeting you as well! Have safe travels home and hopefully we will run into each other on a future cruise!

[chicagopaul]

It was nice reading about your trip, thanks!

 

Please make sure you have a jacket with you at the airport.

The Centurion Lounge is like an ice box - freezing!

Have a safe flight home. 😊

 

We just sat down in the lounge, I opened up my blog and I'm thinking "wow, it is cold in here" and then there is your advice! Thankfully I did bring my blazer with me as it was quite chilly in Miami this morning.

[MCarmine]

Thank you for the wonderful review, Paul. Our January 21st sailing cannot come fast enough!

 

Also, I am impressed and delighted to see how you treat the staff. I often see service workers mistreated and it takes a special person to go out of their way to show the level of appreciation that you do. I plan on following in your footsteps during my upcoming cruise and will do handwritten cards.

 

Cheers!

 

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[chicagopaul]

Last night we finished with drinks by the martini bar, dinner in Luminae, one final drink in the martini bar and then we made our rounds saying goodbye to passengers and crew. It was a slightly depressing night as the last night always is.

 

Dinner in Luminae was good last night. We ate pretty light since we didn't want to have something too heavy on our stomachs before bed and traveling. We both had the veal meatballs and I opted for the sea bass (Loup de mer) and Edward went with the chicken. I'm typing this on my laptop so I will post photos below from my phone. For dessert we went with a cake of some sort and a chocolate cake of sorts. Both were recommended so we figured we'd try them both since we declined desserts on most nights. Victor our sommelier brought out wines for us and then a nice sparkling dessert wine from Italy.

 

We said our goodbyes and left Luminae. On the way out Nenad was waiting to say his goodbyes. We gave him a hug and chatted for a bit. We really hope we see him again. He is absolutely fantastic. I believe someone is boarding today or in the near future and had concerns about allergies. Make them clear to him. He will let his staff know. Our waiter was Tony and he was fantastic. Occasionally another waiter named Victor would assist Tony (he is a main waiter just would help out when it got busy) and he was fantastic as well. Ask for each of their sections. The sommelier is also named Victor.

 

After dinner we went to do a little shopping because we had roughly $60 OBC to use or loose. We ended up getting a couple t-shirts and some luggage tags. We then went to have one last drink at the Martini Bar and say goodbye to everyone. After this we went up to World Class bar to say good by to a few passengers there we had gotten to know and of course the wonderful bartenders Vasil and Toni. Both are fantastic guys so if you're on an upcoming sailing please do us a favor and say we said hello.

 

After this we wandered up to Sky Lounge to try to find our friends Bill and Sue but couldn't find them. Thankfully we exchanged information. They cruise many times a year so I am sure we will run into them on another cruise soon.

 

Debarkation

 

This morning we left our room around 8am. Last night we gained an hour which made a HUGE difference to us. I didn't sleep all that well, but we were in bed by 11pm (or 10pm with the time change) so we had plenty of sleep. We ended up hanging out in Michaels Club for 2 hours talking to people and dozing off here and there. Finally around 10am it was time to clean house on the ship and we were escorted off by Sara the MCC. I'll talk more about this later, but I briefly want to say that Sara is fantastic. We didn't utilize her for much but we always felt like we could. The few requests we had her deal with she took care of swiftly without delay. She also made a point to stop and talk to us as much as she could. We really hope to sail with her again and if you have her on a future cruise you are in luck!

 

Walking off the ship was a pretty simple process today. We used luggage valet so we had no luggage to pick up or worry about which was nice. Once walking off the ship we maybe waited 30 seconds to see a customs office and he simply looked at our passports and let us through. We waited about 10 minutes or so for a cab and it was a smooth ride to the airport. FYI cab to MIA is a flat $27.00 from the port (at least for 2 people).

 

Security lines at MIA are of course a mess. The pre-check line was terribly long but it was moving quicker than it looked. Once we entered the main pre-check area the actual security moved very quick. Our AA flight departs out of gate D12 and that is exactly where the Centurion Lounge is. Right now we are parked at a table by the bar (I know surprising I'm not sitting at the bar!) and I have a wonderful view of the runways. I'm sipping on tea, yes tea! Why you ask? I woke up..actually started to go to bed, with a sore throat. It didn't get better this morning but the tea is helping. Hopefully I can have a drink or two before getting on the plane!

[johhnnyt]

The bridge crew will wave at you! Fun!

 

 

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I had that cabin one cruise, by the end of the cruise I knew all the bridge officers. Only bad size it was constant in and out, but still one of the best cabins I ever had

[johhnnyt]

Thank you again everyone for the comments. We are now Judy relaxing in Michael’s Club at the moment. We can disembark now but given our late flight we might as well relax here as long as possible. Until they drag us off! Haha

 

 

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Thanks as always for such well thought out observations and insights to the Eclipse, her crew, and the ports. See you in a few months on RF. Hopefully the tea (chamomile is good) helps your throat.

[chicagopaul]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

 

Photo with Nenad from Luminae.

 

 

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[Want2Cruise 701]

Thank you for the fabulous review Chicago Paul and taking the time out of your vacation to write it. I enjoyed it immensely. We board Eclipse on the 21st after the current sailing. This review was just what we needed to get our feet wet with anticipation.

 

Safe travels back.

Jessica

[chicagopaul]

Recap of my review

I'll start here as I have another 4 hours to kill at lovely Miami International Airport (insert sarcasm here) but hey, it's better than the Southwest gates at FLL. I have no screaming children around me in the lounge thank goodness.

 

 

I've already covered a lot in my live review, but I thought I would start out by talking about the state of the ship itself (condition of the physical aspects of the ships) and then we can move on to any issues I saw with service or maybe where there was confusion among passengers on the drink packages, etc.

 

 

Condition of the Eclipse

 

I've always found all Celebrity ships, but particularly, S-Class ships to be in great shape. On this cruise it was no exception. The common areas were very clean. We did not notice any major issues in the common areas. The common bathrooms were in great shape and always were kept very clean and well stocked. The busy bathrooms by the restaurants were always staffed in the evenings and the bathrooms by the pool always had enough towels (at least price to 2pm, we didn't use the pool baths after that). One thing that I am always amazed by are the bathroom attendants. Particularly the ones by the MDR. On almost every occasion of using this bathroom they would greet me, thank me for using the restroom (as if I had a choice haha) and always had the door opened. They always did it with a smile. These employees always stand out to me.

 

 

Our Room

 

Our room was in very good shape. We were in 1118. The interior furnishings were well cared for and we didn't notice any rips or tears in the carpet or any staining. Our balcony was covered in salt which I suppose is to be expected. The railing was in need of some repair as the varnish was coming off in multiple sections. I would think being a royal suite that these rooms might get priority on these fixes. However, at the same time royal suite guests have been allowed to hang out in their rooms longer and many times the MCC will escort guests to their suite prior to all rooms being ready so they don't have that much time. Also, the last thing you'd want to do is tell someone who just spent an exorbitant amount of money on their suite that they are refinished their railings today and tomorrow. So I completely get that aspect of it. Just an observation and it certainly did not take away from the enjoyment of balcony or our suite.

 

 

Bar Package Confusion

 

I did notice there was some bar package confusion on the first two days. Some passengers claimed certain liquors were included when a bartender would say no. Some passengers would say that a certain bar would say yes XYZ is included but another bar would say something to contradict this.

 

 

After a few days things seemed to get sorted out. The bartenders were always very nice about it and would simply point to their POS system and explain that when they type it in it comes up as under "Premium" etc.

 

 

I'm sure part of the confusion are some of the old printed menus which might be out of date. Or bartenders simply pouring and then entering a well vodka or the sort into the system. Or Celebrity's website being incorrect. At the end of the day this is a simple thing for Celebrity to correct and they should do it. I feel sorry for the bartenders who need to explain something to a passenger and I feel sorry for the passenger for having incorrect assumptions due to outdated information. We didn't see this happen much, but we did every now and then.

 

 

Bartenders on the ship

 

As you know most of my favorite people on the ship are bartenders. They are on the front line with passengers because even if you're not a drinker, you're seeing them for bottles of water or other drinks. Either way, you're encountering them multiple times a day. Their service is highly important in my opinion.

 

 

The bartenders on this cruise were as always very hard working. I would spend most of my time at the pool bar in the morning and when it became crowded they did a very good job at handling the crowds quickly. The only bar that seemed to have a slight issue was Sunset Bar, but we only visited them on the first day and the first day is always hectic, especially when health inspectors are on board! So they get a complete pass from me.

 

 

The Martini Bartenders were as always fantastic. There was regularly 3 behind the bar handling the crowds. I did notice some people get frustrated that they weren't getting served fast enough. However, they also seemed like the kind of people who might not visit bars all that often and had a hard time getting the bartenders attention. The biggest issue at the Martini Bar are two bar to ceiling cylinders that hold liquor. They create blind spots for both bartenders and bar patrons and it is around these areas where many people get frustrated with delayed service. However after a few days the passengers got the hang of it. The bartenders did a nice job of taking many drink orders at once (4 to 6) and were multi-tasking well when they needed to.

 

 

I'll mention a few bartenders by name because they really stood out to me:

 

 

Boon at the Martini Bar Boon can be pretty quiet, but he is a very nice guy and quite outgoing once you get to know him. He is a very good memory with drink orders and knows them quickly. He never forgot simple things like my sparkling water on the side of my martini, lemon twist, etc. He also has VERY good hearing. He hears everything at the bar...so beware!!! In all honesty he is an awesome person and no matter how busy he was he made sure to check over and make sure our drinks were good and we were happy.

 

 

Ahnung Ahnung at the Martini Bar and also Pool bar on some days is fantastic. He is very out going, very friendly, and really cares that you're OK and happy with your drink. He is very fast behind the bar and he is working on his flair bartending. He is getting better and definitely fun to watch.

 

 

Wayan Wayan is like the godfather of the martini bar. He is always walking around making sure things are OK. He doesn't smile much, but he will once he gets to know you. He is quiet, but he will open up once you start talking to him. If you're very particular with how you like certain drinks made (manhattan perhaps?) then he is the guy you want to see.

 

 

Dinesh Works the Pool Bar and is a senior bartender I think he manages the pool bar. Whenever there is a pool bar issue he needs to take care of it so for the lack of better words he needs to deal with a lot of cr*** but he does so very well and very professionally. He knew my drink order after day one and made sure everyone else did as well. He made sure there was enough sparkling water stocked for me behind the bar as well. He is clearly a very hard worker.

 

 

Cveta She is at Ensemble Lounge. Pretty woman with her blonde hair pulled back and she works the bar. 1) She loves to dance so when music is playing she is dancing behind the bar. 2) She is super sonic hearing. We watched her one night pick up on drink orders from across the room and start making them for the cocktail servers. She loves her scotch. She gives good recommendations. We only drank with her a couple of times, but she is lovely.

 

 

Vasil Vasil works in the World Class Bar. We've cruised with him before. He remembered all of our drink orders and would always take good care of everyone at the bar. He was a great bartender no matter how busy the bar got. He is actually the husband of Cveta! He has fun making drinks and really enjoys his job. He was working at Bacio one day when the water went out to Bacio. We wanted a drink and he ran somewhere else right away (ironically I think to Michael's Club) and got it for us so we didn't have to trouble. He is awesome.

 

 

Toni Toni works at World Class bar and likes to have fun. He is very funny, likes to mess with the guests (in a good way) and likes to talk. He is genuinely interested in guests, wants to know how they like the drinks or what they don't like about them. On the last night instead of shaking our hands he came out from behind the bar to give us hugs. He's a great guy and loves his bow ties!

 

 

There are so many other people I could mention, but these are the bartenders that I had the most interaction with. Coming up next will be dining experiences!