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

[jules815]

Glad to see the butter is back! ;p We're boarding Reflection 12/8, which just went through a deep cleaning before guests boarded yesterday, so we may have butter packets in Luminae for our cruise.

 

Also, the picture of the menu reminded me of something. I sailed on Reflection back in April with my daughter, and every evening the waiter would bring us the Cauliflower Steak entree as a shared side. If you haven't tried it before, it's delish!

 

Enjoying your review. Have they begun decorating for the holidays?

[chicagopaul]

Glad to see the butter is back! ;p We're boarding Reflection 12/8, which just went through a deep cleaning before guests boarded yesterday, so we may have butter packets in Luminae for our cruise.

 

 

 

Also, the picture of the menu reminded me of something. I sailed on Reflection back in April with my daughter, and every evening the waiter would bring us the Cauliflower Steak entree as a shared side. If you haven't tried it before, it's delish!

 

 

 

Enjoying your review. Have they begun decorating for the holidays?

 

 

 

Yes they have started decorating. Slowly new things have been added each day. Here are some quick photos I took today of the decorations. They look very tasteful.

 

 

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

For lunch today we went to Luminae. We had three courses but they weren’t too heavy. See the photos below.

 

 

 

 

After lunch we went to a future cruises talk about an African Safari add on package.

 

 

Lastly we walked through the shops a bit. Here is a photo for Mr. and Mrs. Dewars. You know who you are!

 

 

 

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[DESTCRZ]

Hi Paul,

 

Always enjoy your posts - these are no exception. We were on the Transatlantic in a Royal Suite and enjoyed every minute. Nenad and his waiters, Davut, Victor and Tony took great care of us for the 15 days. Victor, the sommelier was great too. We ate almost every meal in Luminae - your pictures are making me miss it even more!

 

Please tell Nenad "Miss Fancy Pants" sends her regards . . . . as do, Mike and Bob!

 

Enjoy your cruise. I look forward to your future posts.

[chicagopaul]

Good Evening Everyone - This evening we started at Michaels Club for a drink and then went to the Martini Bar. While at Michaels Club we scanned the Luminae menu and didn’t find it too appealing so we were considering going to a specialty. On the way out of Michaels we ran into and finally met Arno! The legend aboard Celebrity. He mentioned that the menu tonight in Luminae wasn’t that great so it helped solidify our decision to go to a specialty. Since it’s included in our RS we figured we might as well. So we ended up at Qsine. Per the usual it was a lot of food! So here are some photos from dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

Dinner and service in Qsine was very good. All the staff was very friendly and we had a nice table by the window. One of the restaurant managers we met in Sushi on 5 remembered us and stopped by to make sure everything was ok.

 

I noticed upon boarding the ship that some of the bar staff seemed out of sync. Some bars had missing items etc. Today it seemed as though they were all getting their groove back. I think a lot of this had to do with the health inspection on embarkation day as it does put a lot of stress on the crew.

 

We are currently sitting on our balcony enjoying a glass of Remy. Quick funny comment - we get back to our room and there is an extra lounger on our balcony. We had already requested an extra one (so we’d have two) with the shoreside concierge and that request was met. But now we have 3? Perhaps our neighboring RS requested one and they got confused. Either way we will have it removed in the morning.

 

Right now we may just fall asleep on the balcony in our bath robes. The sound of the sea is so calming and the breeze is strong enough to keep us cool but gentle enough to be comforting while dozing off.

 

I’ll leave you all with this beautiful sunset photo from earlier today.

 

 

 

 

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[Azulann]

Beautiful sunset at sea!

Thanks for taking time to do this live blog of your cruise.

I am enjoying it immensely .

Love listening to the ocean at night from the aft or from your balcony at the end of a day at sea.

[burrma]

I will confirm with the above statement but from what I’ve heard on the ship yes? Jan 21 is when Sue leaves as does many of the other crew members.

 

There is no charge at Mast Grill. I will take some photos for you but this practice died pretty quickly. Mast Grill is free again with burgers and hot dogs. Not to worry.

 

 

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Thanks again for the great posts. Good to know about Mast Grill but so sad we won’t have Sue Dunning’s. If you ever get to talk to her and she is so friendly, please tell her... we are sad we won’t have her on our b2b in Feb. love her as Cruise director!

[stinsowm]

I love following your posts. Surely someday we will end up on the same ship together. Arno and his lovely wife I have met many times while sailing. If you see them again please tell them Walter from Nashville sends his regards and hugs. Look forward to following more of your and Edwards's adventures!!

 

Walter

[chicagopaul]

Good Morning from the ship docked in Saint Kitts. Today we have reservations at the Carambola Beach Club and the weather looks pretty nice this far. We will get off the ship around 9:30/45 to get in a taxi. We will probably plan to leave the beach club around 2:00/2:30.

 

Per the usual please find today’s daily program below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[lola2013]

Good Morning from the ship docked in Saint Kitts. Today we have reservations at the Carambola Beach Club and the weather looks pretty nice this far. We will get off the ship around 9:30/45 to get in a taxi. We will probably plan to leave the beach club around 2:00/2:30.

 

Per the usual please find today’s daily program below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Good morning,

Enjoy Carambola...my friends and I have visited twice before and have another visit planned for March. The masseuse attached to the club is amazing; next time we plan to try one of the women who offer massages right on the beach. And the Shipwreck Bar (just a short walk down the beach) has great food. I'm living vicariously through you as I look out at a chilly Chicago morning.....

Susan

[Sarahbear99]

Really enjoying following along with you & Edward! Thanks so much for sharing your adventures with us all, Paul! Looking forward to heading to FLL next Wednesday and then boarding the Eclipse on December 10th when u disembark :(. Will be doing b2b....looking forward to 23 nights on board my fav ship! :)

Would love to see some pics of bartenders on board to see who I recognize from previous cruises!

Thank a mil, Sarah :)

[chamima]

I see that Jordan Bennett is performing tonight.

He's great - don't miss him!!! :D:D:D

 

And, again, I have to sadly comment on the amount of sales promotions disguised as "activities" in the Today. :((n):(

[RotaryMike]

Paul, thanx for all the posts and updates. A favor, even with my tri-focals i'm having a hard time squinting at the dailies. If you notice a "service club at sea" meeting listed, could you mention it, day, time, place. They are usually on sea days, there will possibly be one each week. We board Eclipse on 1/21. Thanx, Mike in CT

[chicagopaul]

Today we took a cab to Carambola beach club. We had reservations and good thing they did as if you did not you were turned away. Seabourn had bought out pretty much the entire club but they did a good job to accommodate us and some other celebrity cruisers. We ended up getting free drinks because of it and the staff there could not have been nicer.

 

The water was a bit cool at first but we got used to it quickly and then it started to feel like bath water.

 

We arrived via taxi at just before 10am at a cost of $5 per person. We had two others with us. If it was just us he was going to charge us $16.

 

We had the driver pick us back up at 2pm to hear back to the ship. He was there right on time. Same price to go back. The other two who were with us (we did not know them they just got picked up by our driver) were turned away at Carambola and had to go to a different beach.

 

Reservations at Carambola were free. Two nice loungers and an umbrella cost $30 total.

 

 

 

 

The below photos were on our way to the beach.

 

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

Also just wanted to continue to thank all of you for following along and for commenting. I’ve noted the most recent comments and questions above and will pass long well wishes and get updates to all of you.

 

 

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[Dawg74]

Hi Paul, just loving your live review!! Was it nice and sandy when you went in the water at Carambola? We have been to Cockleshell beach and want to try something different. Thanks!!

[chicagopaul]

Hi Paul,

 

Always enjoy your posts - these are no exception. We were on the Transatlantic in a Royal Suite and enjoyed every minute. Nenad and his waiters, Davut, Victor and Tony took great care of us for the 15 days. Victor, the sommelier was great too. We ate almost every meal in Luminae - your pictures are making me miss it even more!

 

Please tell Nenad "Miss Fancy Pants" sends her regards . . . . as do, Mike and Bob!

 

Enjoy your cruise. I look forward to your future posts.

 

 

 

This is coming to you live from Luminae. Nenad sends his absolute best. He most definitely remembers you and told me to send you the absolute warmest regards. His eyes were lit up like a Christmas tree when I made the comment. He most definitely remembered you. Cheers!

 

 

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[cementhands]

Thanks for heads up on Caraboda Beach Club being sold out. We will reserve first before cruise. Excellent snorkeling from shore beach there with reef.

I noticed on your activities schedule a class called Sole Energizer right after morning stretch. Has anyone information on these classes.

Following your review as we’r going early next year.

Many thanks.

[aquidneck1]

Sole energizer is about giving yourself a foot massage using some equipment that they have in the gym. Rolling devices etc.

[chicagopaul]

Good Morning from St. John’s Antigua. It’s definitely a warm day here and the sun is out in full force.

 

We have zero plans today but I’ll let you know what we get into.

 

Here is the program for today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

Last night we started at the Martini Bar per the usual. I had a couple difficult work calls to deal with so my first drink was much much needed. We actually came by the bar at perfect timing and got seats right away without any struggle.

 

Dinner last night was in Luminae and the food was very good. We did both opt to start with a salad off the MDR menu but everything else was from the Luminae menu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[jules815]

Good morning Paul.

 

The last picture, a dessert. Was that a type of pudding made with Olive oil? I think that's the one I had on Reflection in April that I really wanted to have again. I forgot what it's called...it was so good!

 

Looks like you're having a great cruise. We'll also be going to St. Lucia, which will be a new port for us. We've made zero plans for any of our stops.

[chicagopaul]

 

We were docked with the Silhouette today!

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

Good morning Paul.

 

 

 

The last picture, a dessert. Was that a type of pudding made with Olive oil? I think that's the one I had on Reflection in April that I really wanted to have again. I forgot what it's called...it was so good!

 

 

 

Looks like you're having a great cruise. We'll also be going to St. Lucia, which will be a new port for us. We've made zero plans for any of our stops.

 

 

 

I forgot to take a picture of the menu yesterday but it was some sort of lemon custard that I believe did have olive oil. I’ll ask tonight what the name of it was.

 

 

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