Detailed Photo Review of Celebrity Eclipse 14 Night Southern Caribbean Cruise 3/4/18

[deladane]

Venison Carpaccio

 

Seafood Crepe

 

Crispy Pork Schnitzel

 

Whole Wheat Spaghetti Pomodoro

 

When Pinto brought over our dessert menu, he mentioned the customer satisfaction survey that we would receive by email at the end of the cruise. He told us that the scores we give for the Oceanview Buffet also reflect on him and the rest of the MDR waiters because they work up there too, and he encouraged us to give him as many 10’s as possible. Celebrity uses these surveys to decide who gets promotions and other accolades, so Pinto stressed how important it was for us to fill it out and give positive feedback. We were very happy with Pinto and Jose, and we did plan to give them good marks on that survey, but this whole interaction felt very awkward. I don’t like being told how I should fill it out and what scores I should give. That defeats the purpose of asking about customer satisfaction! Perhaps he is instructed to do this by his superiors? I’m not sure, but it just felt awkward and forced.

 

Dessert Menu

 

Blueberry-Apple Turnover

[deladane]

Beggar’s Purse

 

After dinner, we went to the Martini Bar so I could order my favorite after-dinner drink: the Black Forest Martini with Grey Goose Cherry Noir, Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, maraschino cherry juice, and chocolate syrup (it can come with whipped cream on top but I skipped that)

 

Just as we were finishing our cocktails, we noticed Captain Leo was walking by so we asked him to pose for a photo. He was a great captain- very funny, often visible on the public decks, always willing to chat or answer a question, oh, and he’s pretty good at driving the ship too!

 

Tonight’s show in the theater was a comedian named Dan Wilson. The daily schedule described him as a class clown, and his act was very funny. Of course, comedy and humor are subjective, but judging by all of the laughter from the audience, it sounded like lots of other people enjoyed his act too!

 

After the show ended, we went upstairs to the Sky Lounge for a few minutes where the house band Back Before Sunset was performing for a dance party. We only stayed for a few minutes though because we also wanted to check out an event down at the Martini Bar. It was called Mirage @ Martini and was described as an MTV video hits dance party. We weren’t quite sure what that meant, but when we got downstairs, we saw that they had cleared away all of the couches and coffee tables from the area around the martini bar. They set up 2 large screens, one which played the original music videos for some popular 80’s songs, and another which was back lit to show the silhouette of one of the dancers performing from behind the screen.

 

 

 

It was an interesting concept, and I do love some good 80’s music, but ultimately that early wake up call this morning got the best of us and we retired to the cabin by 10:30pm.

 

Step Tracker Daily Total: 10,077 steps; 3.826 miles

[deladane]

Day 16: Friday, March 16 ~ Sea Day #4

 

I am so sorry to say that I forgot to take photos of today’s daily schedule. On all of my previous cruises, I brought home all of the daily schedule papers so if I forgot to take any photos, or if I realized one of the photos was blurry and needed a re-do, I could flip through the pile of papers and get what I needed. This time, we were very tight on space and weight in our bags so I decided to leave all the papers behind. I thought I had taken all the photos I needed, and I almost never refer back to the originals once I get home, so why bother schlepping all of that extra weight? Well, it looks like I did accidentally miss taking photos of the schedule for today, so I apologize for that.

 

After going to sleep so early last night, I was awake at 7:15am today. I couldn’t fall back asleep and I didn’t want to wake up DH, so I quickly got dressed, grabbed my camera, and left the cabin to walk around the ship taking lots of photos of the public spaces while they were still vacant. I already posted all of these photos at the start of the review, so I won’t repost them here. About an hour later, I arrived at the Solarium. I was getting hungry so I stopped by the Aqua Spa Café for a light breakfast. They have a bunch of options set out on individual plates, and the options remained the same for the whole cruise.

 

Dry cereal canisters

 

Fresh fruit and turkey wraps with tomato, kale, and cinnamon sweet potato spread

 

Avocado bruschetta on multi grain toast with mashed avocado, tomato, chive, and grated eggs; a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter, apple, bananas, and blueberries

 

Zucchini muffins, banana nut muffins, and 3 types of fruit and nut bars (apricot/coconut/walnut/honey, pumpkin seed/chia seed/raisin, and dates/almonds/figs/apricot/honey)

 

I picked out a muffin and an apricot and nut bar, and I ordered one of the juices from the menu. This was the Purple Rain, made with blackberry, blueberry, pear, apple, and acai. Everything was light and tasty, and it was a nice change from the breakfast I ordered from room service on all of the port days.

[deladane]

After my light breakfast, I continued walking around the ship, snapping more photos. At 8:45, I went back to the elevators outside of the buffet, planning to head down to the cabin and see if DH was awake yet. When the elevator doors opened,guess who stepped out… DH! We had perfect timing! I asked how he knew where to find me and he had a funny story to tell me… When he first went to look for me, he went to the MDR to see if I was eating breakfast there. Cervine was standing at the hostess stand and she told DH she had seen me stop by at 8am when the MDR first opened so I could take some photos, and then I left. Glad to see she was keeping track of me and that she let DH know I had been there! That’s when DH decided to go up to the buffet because he was planning to wait for me up there, assuming that I would need to eat breakfast eventually. When I ran into him, I told him that I had already eaten a light breakfast at the Aqua Spa Café. He thought that sounded good so we went back down there so he could get something to eat. Of course I couldn’t let him eat by himself, so I took another mini-muffin and fruit and nut bar. I also ordered a pina kale juice, made with pineapple, kale, cucumber, and I skipped the ginger.

 

 

After breakfast #2, we went back to the cabin and relaxed on the balcony for a few hours, just gazing out at the endless ocean and watching the waves pass by. At noon, it was time for our next feeding so we went down to the buffet for lunch. The theme was Falafel and Kebabs, and they had a station set up with several kinds of each.

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

I tried 2 kinds of falafel but didn’t care for them. The lamb kebab with tzatziki sauce and hummus was quite tasty, as was the pasta and pizza of the day.

 

 

We took some dessert to go and brought it downstairs to eat by the pool. I love red velvet cake, but this was very dry and I didn’t like it at all. They made a huge apple pie in one of the paella pans, and that was delicious! I was tempted to go back upstairs to get more but restrained myself.

 

 

There is a section of upright chairs and couches when you first enter the pool area on the starboard side. Whenever we had trouble finding a vacant lounge chair, we could usually find a place to sit over here. It was close enough to all of the action in the pool and with the DJ and activities team, but still far enough away that we could have our own little quiet corner.

 

We pulled 2 of the chairs to the side and relaxed there until it was time for pool volleyball. DH really wanted to play pool volleyball, but he was disappointed to learn it is only offered this one time through the whole 2 week cruise. They have a tournament where several teams compete and the winning team goes on to then compete against a team of ship officers. Flory was hosting the event and when he asked for volunteers to play, DH ran right over to him. They had enough people to form 3 teams, so Flory divided the players up and DH’s team was playing in the first round. They had a few minutes to practice, and then started the game.

 

 

 

[deladane]

DH’s team won this round, so they got out and the losing team played against the third team. I think the third team won that round, so DH’s team got back in the pool and they played each other to determine who goes on to play against the officers. DH’s team was really strong and they won the tournament! They had a few minutes to rest, then Flory introduced the officers and it was time for the final round.

 

 

DH serving the ball

 

The teams were pretty evenly matched so the score kept going back and forth for who was in the lead, but in the end, the officers pulled away with a victory. To be fair, they probably have more practice considering they get to play pool volleyball on every cruise, whereas the people on DH’s team likely haven’t had as much experience. In the name of good sportsmanship, everyone walked away with a medal and Flory lead the crowd in arousing rendition of “We Are The Champions”

 

 

 

Volleyball ended with just enough time for DH to get dried off before we had to go up to the Sky Lounge for music trivia. At this point in the cruise, our teammates were counting on us showing up to help with the more current songs, so we couldn’t let them down! There was no real theme today, just a bunch of random songs, but our team did really well. We scored 24 out of 30 points, but of course another team scored 29 points and beat us. We were okay with that though because we were proud of our team’s performance.

 

After trivia, I wanted to go watch the hot glass show because this was the last one on our cruise, and DH went back to the cabin to change out of his bathing suit. When I arrived, Tom was working on a vase with a pretty twisting pattern on the outside.

 

 

It is so impressive how these guys work together so seamlessly. This was Tom’s project, but Jeremy jumped right in there to do the blowing work. They worked together as a team with an almost unspoken knowledge of what needed to be done.

 

[deladane]

 

 

When they pull out the giant gloves, you know the project is nearly finished.

 

 

Right around then, DH showed up with a little treat. We get drinks like this at one of our favorite restaurants at home in San Jose, so he was super excited to find it on the ship. This was the Margarita Coronita from the new menu at the Sunset Bar, and DH drew a lot of attention as he carried it over to the hot glass area, with everyone wanting to know what that was and where he got it lol

 

(yes, he is still wearing the medal he won from the pool volleyball tournament haha)

 

 

At the end of the show, the gaffers raffled off 4 of the pieces they made during the cruise. Since the next cruise would be the last one with the Corning Museum on the Eclipse, they wanted to clean out some of the older projects. I really hoped we could win one of these because they were all so beautiful, but unfortunately, we were not that lucky. The man sitting right next to me did win, so I was close, but not close enough! This would have made an incredible souvenir to bring home from the cruise.

 

 

There is a funny story about that larger piece on the far right side. That is a giant bowl with an irregular shape. Tom gave a disclaimer when he picked that piece to be part of the raffle. They usually give out some bubble wrap to protect the pieces for transport home, but he warned us that the larger piece would not survive airline travel. He said he normally puts a piece that large into a crate for special shipping, and that if we were flying home after the cruise, we could not have that piece. He said that if the first 3 tickets he pulls belong to people who are flying home, they must pick the 3 vases, and then he would do another raffle for only the people traveling by car to try to win that large piece. As it turned out, the very first ticket he picked belonged to a lady who lives in Florida, would be driving home from the cruise, and who really wanted that big piece! It was fate for her to get it! I would love to see how she put that on display in her home because it was really quite large and heavy!

[deladane]

Tonight was our last Elegant Chic night, so after the raffle ended, we went back to the cabin to get ready.

 

After a quick photo shoot outside the entrance to Blu, we went to the World Class Bar for a few pre-dinner drinks. DH had the Zacapa Old Fashioned and I had the Celebrity No. Ten. I love how it worked out that they are on the same page of the menu for easy photographing hehe

 

 

I don’t think I posted this yet, but this is the wine and cocktails menu from the MDR. It was the same menu for the whole cruise.

 

 

Tonight’s dinner menu

 

 

Creamy Salmon Rillette

[deladane]

Elderflower Blush cocktail

 

Broiled Lobster Tail (I requested 2 lobsters but only 1 portion of the side dishes)

 

Creamy Wild Mushroom Risotto

 

Dessert Menu

 

We skipped dessert tonight because we wanted to hear Back Before Sunset playing in the Grand Foyer. They always put on a lively set that is worth checking out.

 

 

[deladane]

On most cruises, they do one of the big production shows on formal nights. Eddy said that he likes to save that for the last night of the cruise to end on a high note, so tonight’s show was more subdued. It featured the 6 core singers from the shows, each singing a Broadway showtune of their choosing, backed by the Eclipse Orchestra. As I’ve already mentioned, we are big fans of Broadway shows, so we were looking forward to this performance. They all have wonderful voices so it was great to see them show it off! They sang songs from Motown, Les Mis, Cabaret, Guys and Dolls, Jersey Boys, and a few others.

 

 

The ladies sang a “Single Girl’s Medley” where each sang one of these songs: On My Own from Les Mis, Maybe This Time from Cabaret, and I Don’t Know How to Love Him from Jesus Christ Superstar.

 

 

Then the men all sang Bring Him Home from Les Mis.

 

 

After the show ended, they had another event called the Liar’s Club. This is a game hosted by one of the women from the activities team, and the contestants are Eddy, Captain Leo, and the comedian from last night’s show, Dan Wilson. They pick a word that most people have never heard of, but it is really a real word, and the 3 contestants try to convince the audience of what the definition is. After all 3 have had a chance to say what they think the word means, the audience votes by applause as to who we think said the correct definition, and then they reveal who really got it right. They used 4 different words, and the contestants did everything from just stating “oh, I know that word, the definition is ****”, to telling a big long-winded story to explain the meaning of the word. Some of their replies were funnier than others, but it was a clever game and we learned a few new words in the process!

 

 

Does anyone know what zopissa means??

 

The show ended around 11pm, and we went back to the cabin to rest up for our last full day of the cruise.

 

Step Tracker Daily Total: 9302 steps; 3.761 miles; 18 flights of stairs

[oskarNZ]

Thanks for your very honest reviews of your activities in Aruba. It’s always useful to read about the excursions that people loved, but also the ones that could do with a bit of improving.

 

A bit sad that your report is nearing its end - the port reviews in particular have been extremely helpful.

You’ve no doubt mentioned this already, but do you have another cruise booked for the near future?

 

Edited to add: By the way that Liars Club game sounds like it’s inspired by a fun board game called Balderdash. It’s one of my oldest and most well loved Boardgames.

[Marvy Mare]

Hi again Dana

Still following your review & I'll have to refer back to it when we start serious planning for our next cruise which is a little less than 2 years away. We will be going to Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao as well as one or two other stops. You are a trooper and doing an amazing job. I too love those big productions. Your photos are great.

 

Maris

[deladane]

Thanks for your very honest reviews of your activities in Aruba. It’s always useful to read about the excursions that people loved, but also the ones that could do with a bit of improving.

 

A bit sad that your report is nearing its end - the port reviews in particular have been extremely helpful.

You’ve no doubt mentioned this already, but do you have another cruise booked for the near future?

 

Edited to add: By the way that Liars Club game sounds like it’s inspired by a fun board game called Balderdash. It’s one of my oldest and most well loved Boardgames.

 

I try to be as honest as possible. Not every tour is fabulous, and while my extensive research usually leads us to book good tours, sometimes things don't go according to plan. Part of the reason I write my reviews is to help others plan their vacations the same way I used other people's reviews to plan mine, so if a tour is less-than-perfect, I definitely want to call that out!

 

Unfortunately, no we do not have any other cruises booked right now. Instead, we have a few land vacations this year (including getting home late last night from a crazy busy holiday weekend in Chicago).

[deladane]

Hi again Dana

Still following your review & I'll have to refer back to it when we start serious planning for our next cruise which is a little less than 2 years away. We will be going to Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao as well as one or two other stops. You are a trooper and doing an amazing job. I too love those big productions. Your photos are great.

 

Maris

 

Thanks Maris! Part of the reason this review has gone on for so long is that it was a 2-week cruise with 8 port days, so there was a lot to write about. I had to take a few days off from writing because we were playing tourist in Chicago for the holiday weekend, but now that we're home, I'll try to finish up this review this week :)

[deladane]

Day 17: Saturday, March 17 ~ Sea Day #5

 

 

 

 

 

The final sea day of the cruise conjures up thoughts so packing and moping around the ship, fearing the return to reality that comes with the end of a vacation. The one good thing that made this final sea day different than all other final sea days was that today was St. Patrick’s Day! How can you mope on such a festive holiday? We’re not Irish, but everyone is Irish today!

 

As usual, I woke up before DH. Knowing that would likely happen, I put a few piles of dirty laundry and a few empty packing cubes over near the bathroom last night so I could silently sit on the floor in the glow of the bathroom nightlight and start folding and rolling our laundry to start the packing process. I managed to get through most of our clothes before DH woke up, so I think that was a good use of time. The hardest part of packing is figuring out how much we can fit in our big suitcase without going over the weight limit, and then trying to cram everything else into our rolling carry on bags and backpacks. On all of our previous cruises, packing is a full-day project where we do little bits at a time throughout the day. Despite my best efforts, sadly, today would be no different.

 

Now that DH was awake, it was time for a break from packing, so we went upstairs to the buffet for breakfast.

 

[katysuerx]

The hardest part of packing is figuring out how much we can fit in our big suitcase without going over the weight limit, and then trying to cram everything else into our rolling carry on bags and backpacks.

 

 

 

That’s our hardest part as well! We usually check two bags (one per person) so It’s a game to see how close we can get to 50lbs in each bag!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[deladane]

I was very pleased with the number of activities offered on sea days during this cruise, and we had quite a few things we wanted to participate in today. First up was that Eddy gave a talk in the theater called “10 things you didn’t know about ship life.” It was a behind-the-scenes look at life working on a cruise ship, followed by a question and answer period with 3 of Eddy’s team members. Cruise ships are like their own floating cities and it takes thousands of people to keep the operation running smoothly. Not only do all of these people work on the cruise ship, but they also live here. When they finish their work day, they don’t get to go home to their family. They go to a small cabin, which they often share with another crew member, spend a few hours eating, showering, and sleeping (not necessarily in that order), and then they do it all over again tomorrow. I find the whole thing fascinating and always appreciate when a cruise offers a talk on this topic.

 

 

Eddy explained that there is a whole language of words that only people who work on cruise ships can understand. For example, paisano is someone who is from the same country as you but works in a different department on the ship. If someone gives you a banana, it means they are reprimanding you for something you did wrong.

 

 

Several of the “10 things” were things I already knew, like that there is a bar for the crew on the lower decks, and that the crew always know the best places to find free wifi while in port. It was an interesting perspective, and Eddy was funny and entertaining, as always. The talk lasted about an hour, and was followed by a talk about ship navigation given by Captain Leo. We listened to a similar talk on the Equinox, but it was given by one of the other officers, not by the ship captain! It was pretty cool that he took the time to come talk to us.

 

 

After that, we went back to the cabin to do some more packing until it was time for lunch. Not only was today the Extravaganza Lunch Buffet, but they also had decorations setup for St. Patrick’s Day. There was even a station selling green beer!

 

 

So I have a serious question… was this little piggy stashed away at the back of the freezer for the last 2 weeks?! Or did they pick him up while we were in Aruba? Haha

 

They weren’t kidding when they labeled this an extravaganza! There were so many great options that I wound up with food piled high on my plate… there was seafood paella, lasagna, meatballs, fish and chips, grilled zucchini, and a few other things buried on the bottom

[deladane]

The hardest part of packing is figuring out how much we can fit in our big suitcase without going over the weight limit, and then trying to cram everything else into our rolling carry on bags and backpacks.

 

 

 

That’s our hardest part as well! We usually check two bags (one per person) so It’s a game to see how close we can get to 50lbs in each bag!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thank goodness for portable luggage scales!!

[deladane]

After all of that, I barely had room for dessert, but I couldn’t pass up dipping a donut in the green chocolate fountain!

 

 

Lots of shamrocks and green cakes

 

 

 

They also had this cocktail special for sale. It was called the shamrock cocktail, made with vodka, melon liquor, and pineapple juice, and cost $5 including the souvenir cup. I asked the bartender if it was possible to just get the cocktail poured in a normal cup so it would be covered by the beverage package. After consulting with her manager, she said that was okay and poured me a little sample in a champagne flute. It was okay, but I think the color was more fun than the actual drink.

 

 

After lunch, we went down to the pool, grabbed 2 of the wicker chairs in the front corner, and ordered some drinks from the roaming drinks server. If you’ve read my 2015 and 2016 reviews, then you know our tradition on St. Patrick’s Day. Once again, DH packed his tube of green food dye so we could improve our beverages for today. This is what happened when he got his hands on my pina colada!

 

 

I am wearing my “lucky shirt” while DH is wearing a Thanksgiving shirt, but we’re both rocking our green party beads!

 

[deladane]

We hung around out there for another hour or so until it was time for the hot glass auction down in the Grand Foyer. As per the contract between Celebrity and the Corning Museum, they auction off 7 of the pieces created on each cruise. Proceeds from six of the pieces (2 by each of the gaffers) go towards scholarships for students to learn the art of glassblowing, and the final piece is something created by all 3 gaffers together and the proceeds go to Celebrity’s charity of choice- the World Wildlife Fund.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

 

We both LOVED this piece by Tom of a baby sea turtle hatching from an egg. We thought it was so beautiful and unique and we tried to bid on it, but were soon outbid beyond our budget. It sold for over $1000.

 

 

 

We couldn’t stay for the whole auction because it was running late and we needed to get back upstairs for the last day of 3pm music trivia at the Sky Lounge. Like I said before, there were a lot of activities we wanted to participate in today… go big, then go home! Or something like that hehe When we got upstairs, our teammates were waiting for us so I’m glad we made the effort to show up. I think the activities team was running out of ideas by this 14th day of the cruise, so there was no theme again today. That’s okay though as it leads to more diverse song possibilities. As usual, we did fairly well, but not well enough to win. So now it’s official, we did not win any of the rounds of trivia that we participated in on this cruise. We always had fun playing though, so I guess that’s all that really matters!

 

We went back to the cabin to finish packing our big suitcase. We had to put it outside of our cabin by 10pm, I think? Not wanting to worry about it during dinner or when we were at the show, it just made more sense to finish with it now. I always bring my suitcase scale with me from home, so we weighed the bag and spent a few trials pulling things out to get it under 50 pounds. I swear, clothing weighs more on the trip home!

 

Keeping with tradition, we went to the Martini Bar for a pre-dinner cocktail. I ordered a Blue Wave Martini, but of course DH brought his green food dye to jazz it up a bit! Usually the bartenders notice us drinking bright green drinks and give us quizzical looks because they realize that wasn’t what they served us, but that didn’t happen tonight. Maybe these guys are just too busy to notice?

 

 

Even though it was the last night of the cruise, the bartenders still put on quite a show. Whenever one of them was pouring a bunch of drinks like this, another bartender was blowing a whistle to draw more attention.

 

[deladane]

 

At 7pm, we went to our last dinner in the MDR. Cervine had a table for 2 next to the window in Pinto’s section ready and waiting for us.

 

 

Chilled Seafood Salad

 

Warm Goat Cheese Croustillant

 

French Onion Soup

 

Vitello Tonnato

[deladane]

Aged Prime Rib of Beef

 

Creamy Corn Farrotto

 

I don’t think I have posted this yet… This is the drinks from the dessert menu and it remains the same for the whole cruise

 

Dessert Menu

 

New York Cheesecake with Strawberry Topping

 

[deladane]

Chocolate Cake

 

Our waiters Jose and Pinto

 

After dinner, we went over to the theater for one final show. Eddy had mentioned that he likes the final show of the cruise to be a big production show, and this show definitely fit that description! Euphoria highlights the aerialists and acrobats in a performance similar to Cirque du Soleil. I really loved this show and I was so impressed that these acts could perform perfectly on a moving cruise ship! They are all extremely talented!

 

 

 

[deladane]

They flew out over the audience creating a really cool effect!

 

 

The dancers came out dressed in these funky outfits…

 

…which somehow morphed into a giant inflatable crab!

 

 

Inflatable sting rays swimming down the aisles