Scenic Eclipse News

[Carol From California]

13 minutes ago, RockyandMoose said:

Indeed but they are still showing the wrong docks in nyc and the wrong itinerary.  If she does not arrive as scheduled we will go with the flow!

I am sure they will figure something out!  Fingers crossed it all works out.  💗

[Vpilon]

If there is a change - what is the protocol on last minute - not the passenger fault? I understand things can happen so who is responsible to communicate?

[drron29]

The Eclipse was due in Halifax,NS on friday 6th but had to escape .I wouldn't have thought that they would head for Maine as that would have aimed straight at Dorian.

Edited September 8, 2019 by drron29

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, Carol From California said:

Dave, the news is saying: Scenic Eclipse: The ship, previously scheduled to call on Portland, Maine, on September 6, will instead arrive Sunday evening on September 8.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/4381/

Hopefully it will be able to get to NY in time for your cruise!  Thinking about you and Rocky!  

 

There was a post a little while above this stating that Eclipse was already in Portland on Friday and was still there on Saturday.  So either CC got this wrong, or Scenic gave them wrong info?

 

My thoughts had been:  Portland is a nice city for 1 day – but for 3 days, with a Shore Excursions staff that has zero experience before these two cruises?  Ouch!

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, Carol From California said:

 

Dave, the news is saying: Scenic Eclipse: The ship, previously scheduled to call on Portland, Maine, on September 6, will instead arrive Sunday evening on September 8.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/4381/

Hopefully it will be able to get to NY in time for your cruise!  Thinking about you and Rocky!  

 

22 minutes ago, drron29 said:

The Eclipse was due in Halifax,NS on friday 6th but had to escape .I wouldn't have thought that they would head for Maine as that would have aimed straight at Dorian.

 

If a hurricane doesn't make landfall, it gets steered by the coastline.  The eastern seaboard coastline has this big angle at North Carolina that steers storms out to sea, then a big indent all the way to Nova Scotia.  The ports that Eclipse was due to call at are all on the exposed part, but Portland is sheltered.  OTOH so is Boston, and if I had to hunker down for 3 days I would surely pick Boston over Portland – but maybe Boston didn't have an open berth...

[drron29]

Though the Eclipse was down on the Halifax port site as arriving on Friday 6th but not listed as one of the 3 cruise ships that left that day to avoid Dorian.We watched the track of Dorian throughout friday night and saturday.It was heading for the border between New Brunswick and Maine and a little south of Nova Scotia turned sharply to follow the NS southern cost crossing just west of Halifax at 7.15 pm last night.

I would understand it if the Eclipse had headed straight to Portland on the 6th beating Dorian there.But if arriving on the 8th i  Portland it suggests they waited out to sea until Dorian had passed.Would be good if there was a CCer on board to let us know.

[Vpilon]

Edited September 8, 2019 by Vpilon

[Vpilon]

Portland ferry terminal webcam

[Holy Roller]

At 13:40, Portland time, she still appears to be in dock.  The hurricane is now hotting Canada so I expect she'll leave this evening.

 

[drron29]

Halifax had perfect weather this morning- some clouds,no rain but cold.10C with real feel 6C.

Saint John,NB this afternoon is sunshine and no winds but more trees down here than Halifax.So the Eclipse wasn't spending today in Portland because of the hurricane.

[RockyandMoose]

Ship left Portland hours ago en route we understand to Martha’s Vineyard.  Quite a disconnect between the folks who interact with travel agents on behalf of scenic and what we have found on arrival in nyc.  Example, portage for luggage is two bags per person plus a roll on and a small personal item.  Not one bag not to exceed 50 pounds per person.  Very gracious local personnel...more as we go.  

[RockyandMoose]

 The ship is now approaching Martha’s Vineyard as the local representative here in New York city representative would be when we spoke with him in person yesterday afternoon. We were to have been met at the airport arrivals hall by a scenic representative but he or she was nowhere to be found. We ended up having to take a private service into Manhattan to the Intercontinental Hotel. Scenic had a desk set up in the lobby manned by two gentlemen who could not have been more gracious.   Both were extremely apologetic and assured prompt action and getting us reimbursed for the fare.   One sprung into immediate action calling somebody to seek out an explanation while the other provided us with a packet of useful information including hop on hop off bus vouchers and tickets to a very popular Broadway show for this evening. We were also given a detailed letter of instructions concerning our luggage and our transfer to the ship in time to see the christening tomorrow morning.

 

Our room at the Intercontinental Hotel is on the third floor and faces into a courtyard. The best news is that the room is as quiet as a tomb.   Because it faces the courtyard we don’t hear the seemingly endless sirens from police and other emergency vehicles of times Square and you frankly don’t hear it at all until you step out of the front door of the hotel which is about a half block away from the center of action. We’ve stayed in multiple places in New York over the years and the room is by far among the more spacious and well appointed although they are charging $12.95 per day and per  piece of equipment for wireless connectivity. It also seems to effectively make it difficult to obtain a cellular signal within the rooms leaving one with little other choice.

 

The scenic desk is manned four hours each day.  It is scheduled on embarkation day to be staffed from eight in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon. The buffet breakfast is included and all the vouchers were provided in the material sent by scenic to our home with our cruise materials no voucher needs to be present for breakfast. The charges are simply signed to the hotel room and covered by Scenic.   All one has to do is remember that room service is not covered for breakfast purposes by the cruise line.

 

One of the questions we had which was not answered by prior cruisers on the eclipse what is the procedure involving luggage and the amount of luggage which one can bring on board. According to the information provided to us a check in by the cruise line itself porters will pick up two pieces of  luggage per person on the morning of departure. The cruise line provided us with for luggage tags for that purpose. Instead of placing the luggage in the hallway which has always been a rather dicey proposal in our experience, we have been instructed to simply leave the luggage in our hotel room near the door with the tags on it and I only bring down with us to the lobby any carry-on luggage we have such as a rolling small suitcase and backpacks or other personal items. The luggage is to be collected an hour before checkout by the bellmen.

 

It is our plan to continue to provide regular updates and information to future Scenic cruisers on this board throughout our cruise up to Halifax. We have two other cruises Booked with scenic.   One in early July around the Arctic archipelago and the second being the Northwest passage cruise out of Copenhagen in mid August of next year. These will be our first voyages on a small cruise ship as our history of cruises as one can see from our signature has been most often with Crystal cruises. We are hopeful of being able to make new friends who we can cruise with regularly or a smaller ship of this type .  Philisophically the two of us have figured out what is really important and are capable of distinguishing between first world and third world problems and keeping a healthy perspective. We intend  to be candid and truthful about our experiences but we don’t sweat the small stuff such as the slight inconvenience of the no-show of the scenic representative at the airport recognizing that these things can happen in there with one telephone call we were able to rectify the situation on our end to get us to where we needed to be. We also are going to keep that event in mind in terms of our transfers to future Scenic cruises at least through the inaugural year. We will give the line a year to get  these missteps accounted for and corrected as part of the growing process of moving from River ships to Ocean vessels and the logistics involved.

 

 We invite you to post questions and we will do our best, with the cooperation of connectivity on board, to answer them. And we hope that as we continue our cruising with this cruise line that we will get to meet some of you in person and enjoy cruising with you on the eclipse into the future. 

 

Finally, I have dictated this text using my iPad and extend apologies in advance for any malapropisms which the iPad auto correct program has a talent for creating. When in doubt, sound it out! Cheers!

Edited September 9, 2019 by RockyandMoose

[RockyandMoose]

The ship is now docked at martha’s Vineyard. Tomorrow, NYC!

[Carol From California]

2 hours ago, RockyandMoose said:

 The ship is now approaching Martha’s Vineyard as the local representative here in New York city representative would be when we spoke with him in person yesterday afternoon. We were to have been met at the airport arrivals hall by a scenic representative but he or she was nowhere to be found. We ended up having to take a private service into Manhattan to the Intercontinental Hotel. Scenic had a desk set up in the lobby manned by two gentlemen who could not have been more gracious.   Both were extremely apologetic and assured prompt action and getting us reimbursed for the fare.   One sprung into immediate action calling somebody to seek out an explanation while the other provided us with a packet of useful information including hop on hop off bus vouchers and tickets to a very popular Broadway show for this evening. We were also given a detailed letter of instructions concerning our luggage and our transfer to the ship in time to see the christening tomorrow morning.

 

Our room at the Intercontinental Hotel is on the third floor and faces into a courtyard. The best news is that the room is as quiet as a tomb.   Because it faces the courtyard we don’t hear the seemingly endless sirens from police and other emergency vehicles of times Square and you frankly don’t hear it at all until you step out of the front door of the hotel which is about a half block away from the center of action. We’ve stayed in multiple places in New York over the years and the room is by far among the more spacious and well appointed although they are charging $12.95 per day and per  piece of equipment for wireless connectivity. It also seems to effectively make it difficult to obtain a cellular signal within the rooms leaving one with little other choice.

 

The scenic desk is manned four hours each day.  It is scheduled on embarkation day to be staffed from eight in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon. The buffet breakfast is included and all the vouchers were provided in the material sent by scenic to our home with our cruise materials no voucher needs to be present for breakfast. The charges are simply signed to the hotel room and covered by Scenic.   All one has to do is remember that room service is not covered for breakfast purposes by the cruise line.

 

One of the questions we had which was not answered by prior cruisers on the eclipse what is the procedure involving luggage and the amount of luggage which one can bring on board. According to the information provided to us a check in by the cruise line itself porters will pick up two pieces of  luggage per person on the morning of departure. The cruise line provided us with for luggage tags for that purpose. Instead of placing the luggage in the hallway which has always been a rather dicey proposal in our experience, we have been instructed to simply leave the luggage in our hotel room near the door with the tags on it and I only bring down with us to the lobby any carry-on luggage we have such as a rolling small suitcase and backpacks or other personal items. The luggage is to be collected an hour before checkout by the bellmen.

 

It is our plan to continue to provide regular updates and information to future Scenic cruisers on this board throughout our cruise up to Halifax. We have two other cruises Booked with scenic.   One in early July around the Arctic archipelago and the second being the Northwest passage cruise out of Copenhagen in mid August of next year. These will be our first voyages on a small cruise ship as our history of cruises as one can see from our signature has been most often with Crystal cruises. We are hopeful of being able to make new friends who we can cruise with regularly or a smaller ship of this type .  Philisophically the two of us have figured out what is really important and are capable of distinguishing between first world and third world problems and keeping a healthy perspective. We intend  to be candid and truthful about our experiences but we don’t sweat the small stuff such as the slight inconvenience of the no-show of the scenic representative at the airport recognizing that these things can happen in there with one telephone call we were able to rectify the situation on our end to get us to where we needed to be. We also are going to keep that event in mind in terms of our transfers to future Scenic cruises at least through the inaugural year. We will give the line a year to get  these missteps accounted for and corrected as part of the growing process of moving from River ships to Ocean vessels and the logistics involved.

 

 We invite you to post questions and we will do our best, with the cooperation of connectivity on board, to answer them. And we hope that as we continue our cruising with this cruise line that we will get to meet some of you in person and enjoy cruising with you on the eclipse into the future. 

 

Finally, I have dictated this text using my iPad and extend apologies in advance for any malapropisms which the iPad auto correct program has a talent for creating. When in doubt, sound it out! Cheers!

Thanks for your very detailed update! As you know (but others on CC do not know), we had the pleasure to meet you in person since we live in the same city and we will be sailing with you on the Eclipse next July. I do have one question....you mentioned the hotel is being covered by Scenic. I was under the impression that the pre-cruise hotel is not included with the cruise. We were told the pre-cruise hotel is not included with our cruise in July.  So exciting that you get to attend the christening!  Enjoy the play tonight and enjoy the cruise! 

[towel-animal]

3 hours ago, RockyandMoose said:

It is our plan to continue to provide regular updates and information to future Scenic cruisers on this board throughout our cruise up to Halifax ... we invite you to post questions and we will do our best, with the cooperation of connectivity on board, to answer them. And we hope that as we continue our cruising with this cruise line that we will get to meet some of you in person and enjoy cruising with you on the eclipse into the future. 

 

 

Thank you so much, and very much looking forward to your updates. It's always so kind when someone takes time from their vacation to post on here — and the Christening should add an extra special element to your trip.

 

15 minutes ago, Carol From California said:

 I do have one question....you mentioned the hotel is being covered by Scenic. I was under the impression that the pre-cruise hotel is not included with the cruise. We were told the pre-cruise hotel is not included with our cruise in July. 

 

I don't see where the poster indicated the hotel was covered. However, you can purchase a pre or post cruise hotel package which covers transfers and breakfasts, etc.. which aligns with what's described in the post.

[Carol From California]

6 minutes ago, towel-animal said:

 

Thank you so much, and very much looking forward to your updates. It's always so kind when someone takes time from their vacation to post on here — and the Christening should add an extra special element to your trip.

 

 

I don't see where the poster indicated the hotel was covered. However, you can purchase a pre or post cruise hotel package which covers transfers and breakfasts, etc.. which aligns with what's described in the post.

Maybe I just assumed the hotel was included, but the poster mentioned the buffet breakfast was included, and all the vouchers were provided in the material sent by scenic to their home. I wonder why Scenic would send breakfast vouchers for a hotel stay they weren't paying for.  There are also Scenic representatives in the hotel lobby.  Perhaps they booked and paid for the hotel night through Scenic. 

[towel-animal]

6 minutes ago, Carol From California said:

 Perhaps they booked and paid for the hotel night through Scenic. 

 

Yes, this is what I was suggesting and sounds exactly what they market in Scenic's pre-cruise package. 

[RockyandMoose]

On this particular cruise out of New York part of the enticement for signing up was that scenic offered three nights complementary pre-cruise accommodations including breakfast and transfers from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the ship.  When we arrived at the hotel we were presented with a packet of materials which included free passes on the hop on hop off bus for New York City tours and tickets to see Tootsie at the theater or the next night. In the materials which were sent to us before we headed to New York it which included the luggage tags in the backpacks, there was a book of vouchers which included that vouchers for each breakfast. I hope this clears Up your questions. 

[towel-animal]

6 minutes ago, RockyandMoose said:

On this particular cruise out of New York part of the enticement for signing up was that scenic offered three nights complementary pre-cruise accommodations including breakfast and transfers from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the ship.  When we arrived at the hotel we were presented with a packet of materials which included free passes on the hop on hop off bus for New York City tours and tickets to see Tootsie at the theater or the next night. In the materials which were sent to us before we headed to New York it which included the luggage tags in the backpacks, there was a book of vouchers which included that vouchers for each breakfast. I hope this clears Up your questions. 

 

What a wonderful start to your adventure! Let us know how Tootsie is 🙂

[RockyandMoose]

Ship will berth at pier 88 manhattan Elise terminal.  Confirmed by the MCT site itself.  That particular berth has an indoor terminal building with a substantial overhang adjacent to it to protect passengers in poor weather.  That should not be an issue tomorrow with the forecast calling for sunny low to mid 70’s.  BTW porter service for passenger luggage confirmed as covered for two bags per passenger!

Edited September 9, 2019 by RockyandMoose

[RockyandMoose]

8 hours ago, towel-animal said:

 

What a wonderful start to your adventure! Let us know how Tootsie is 🙂

 Both of us enjoyed Tootsie very much. For those going to the theater expecting it to be a word for word repetition of the film version they will be disappointed. The general theme of the show and outcome remain the same but the script has been modernized and updated to be more topical and current, the premise is identical but the storyline is quite different as well and the jokes are fast paced with lively choreography and excellent musicality on the part of the cast.    Neither of us left the theater humming any tunes from the show but we also left remembering lots of the one-liners and both corny, sexy and literary dialogue which made for two hours of great escapist entertainment.   Will the lead win a Tony award – – we think that he should. He did a fantastic job.

Edited September 10, 2019 by RockyandMoose

[mochuck]

I can't wait until you guys board so I can hear all about the ship.

 

[Carol From California]

4 minutes ago, mochuck said:

I can't wait until you guys board so I can hear all about the ship.

 

DITTO! 😁

[scbbabyboomertravel]

I so appreciate everyone sharing their experiences on the Scenic Eclipse.  We took our first Scenic adventure last summer on the 15 day Jewels of Europe w/ National Geographic.  It was such a great trip, as soon as we got back to the States,  we booked a spot on the Eclipse - Mediterranean Treasures cruise next May.  Please keep posting your experiences.

[Host Jazzbeau]

New article on Cruise Critic about Scenic Eclipse:

Live From Scenic Eclipse: First Impressions From The New Luxury Expedition Ship