LIVE food photos from the Eclipse | South Pacific | 14-26 January 2023

[nz1]

Hello everyone,

 

I’m onboard the Celebrity Eclipse for the 14-26 January 2023 South Pacific sailing which visits Fiji, Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga.

 

A fellow traveller, @Redking, is doing a live report but I didn’t want to hijack her thread with constant food photos, so I thought I’d create a live thread purely for food and nothing else! 😂  If you’d like to follow her travels and learn about the ship and the ports, visit her thread here:

 

 

I know a lot of us on these boards love looking at food snaps, especially when between cruises, so I hope you enjoy this thread of pure escapism and indulgence!

 

Cheers,

Brendan

[nz1]

My partner and I are travelling in the Retreat in a Sky Suite. So, fortunately, this means we get to enjoy Luminae.

 

We couldn’t miss trying Luminae out on embarkation day, so we popped in for a quick lunch before our spa appointments.

 

 

 

 

We both skipped the appetizer and went straight to the Grilled NY Steak Frites with bearnaise sauce, sautéed spinach, and parmesan wedge potatoes.

 

While waiting for the steak, I had a lemon martini and a buttery Californian chardonnay which went well with the fresh breads.

 

 

The steak was delicious - juicy and tender, and the spinach (hidden under the steak) nice and garlic-y. The potatoes and bearnaise complimented the steak nicely.

 

Followed by…

 

 

The creamy dark chocolate and dulce de leche with mango marmalade. This was incredible - I was worried it was going to be a tad heavy for lunch but it was surprisingly light.

 

Finished off with a lovely black coffee and then it was off to the spa!

 

Tune in for my photos from Tuscan Grille next…!

 

 

 

[nz1]

Months ago we prebooked Tuscan Grille for our embarkation day dinner. We were excited to have a great sailaway view from Auckland, New Zealand and were seated just before we departed around 6:00pm.

 

 

I forgot to take a photo of the menu but I’m sure most of you already know it! We enjoyed the view of Princes Wharf with some pinot noir and breads.

 

We had the meatballs and pork belly to start. Both were so tender and flavourful - incredible!

 

 

 

Followed by the goats cheese and arugula salad. I enjoyed this for the first half and then the balsamic got a bit much for me.

 

 

Followed by filet mignon with rosemary and peppercorn sauce, garlic mash, carbonara, and a tiny taster of the lasagna!

 

 

 

Not much to say other than 🤤

 

Somehow we still had room for dessert but it was a difficult decision what to get! Too many good options.

 

 

We chose the pistachio marble creme brûlée and the zabaglione strawberry shortcake. Again, so good!

 

 

 

 

And to finish, just a black coffee was all I could manage to fit in before attempting to walk it all off on the top deck! 😂

 

 

Next post will be breakfast from day 2… stay tuned!

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by nz1

[Jim_Iain]

Really enjoying the food porn.      Just what I needed before dinner.  

[nz1]

Breakfast in Luminae was lovely with the morning sun streaming in. We started off with croissants and the most delicate yet warming apple turnover.

 

 

I normally go for a cooked breakfast (I.e eggs) but I wanted to mix up my usual routine.

 

Pineapple juice and coffee alongside some strawberry pancakes. Felt so decadent having such a sweet breakfast!

 

[nz1]

3 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Really enjoying the food porn.      Just what I needed before dinner.  

Haha I almost called it the “Eclipse food porn” thread but I was worried I might break some official CC rules! 🤣

[Redking]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Afternoon from the South Pacific!

 

Being a rookie to LIVE reviews I’m trying to work out a rhythm for posting my reviews. I’ve landed on a daily post, reviewing the previous day’s shenanigans. Might post additionally as appropriate.

 

So without further ado:

 

Embarkation Day.

 

We woke to a beautiful sunny day in Auckland. A very welcome sight after the atrocious summer weather we’ve been having in the Bay of Plenty.

 

We stayed at Voco,  a relatively new (I think coming up for a year old) IHG property. This was our second stay (the first being back in December when we went to the Billy Joel concert). We got an IHG membership rate of NZ$295 which I thought was very reasonable for an Auckland CBD hotel. We also got an upgrade to a harbour view room as part of our membership. I have to confess to feeling a bit dizzy when looking out the window on the 33rd floor, but it was worth it for the view. Didn’t manage to see any crazy folks doing the Sky Tower jump!

 

After a quick coffee at the hotel, we headed down to the Cruise Terminal. This was the first time Celebrity had an embarkation out of Auckland this season (all others to date have been from Sydney) and I had a suspicion all might not be plain sailing. I suspect Mark Twain had me firmly in his cross hairs when he said “I’ve been through some terrible things in my life some of which actually happened.”

 

On this occasion, the embarkation challenges that I had anticipated did indeed eventuate. We arrived at Princes Wharf and the first thing we saw was people dropping off their luggage at a truck with a hand written sign saying: Celebrity bag drop off. Apart from the fact that this wasn’t a priority bag drop, there was no way we were going to leave our bags at a truck with no official signage. Imagine what a ruse that could be, head down to the port with a truck when a cruise ship is in town, put up your sign for folks to drop off their luggage and sayonara, you’ll never see your bags again! Anyhoo we kept our bags and walked about 200m to the terminal entrance only to be told we should have left our bags at the dodgy truck stop. Nope not walking back down there. The contractor handling the embarkation wasn’t across Celebrity’s embarkation processes. I could go on, but in spite of the issues, we were thankfully on board an hour after our arrival, minus the la-di-dah escort onto the ship and up to our fabulous piece of real estate aka Royal Suite. A project director I once worked for described a successful project outcome as being like a ski race. You can cross the finish line with aplomb as you swish a flourish of snow from your skis or you can tumble over the line with your skis around your neck; either way you made it over the finish  line. Lets’ just say there was a fair bit of tumbling and clattering of skis yesterday!

 

 

 

I am pleased to say that once onboard the smiles emerged and it was a great to know that the feeling of being on a cruise hasn’t become old after three years. We met our butler Gordon from Goa later in the afternoon who explained that they were having supply issues and the therefore they hadn’t been able to complete our bar setup prior to our arrival. Just as well I’d done a BYO on the vermouth! Today brought success and the bar setup has now completed. I’m hoping they’ve managed to source Campari; a Negroni with Aperol is just not the same.

 

We lunched in Luminae and both had the Prawn Ceviche. Fin also had the English Pea Soup and I treated myself to the Kale Salad (Kale is not a welcome ingredient at our place, Fin pretty much considers it the Devil’s food!).

 

We had a wonderful casual dinner at Sushi on Five. I only counted two other tables with guests. As ever we saw a few of the crew dining there. Apologies, no photos but I’m sure we will be back before the end of the cruise.

 

The ship seemed fairly quiet last night. We grabbed a cocktail at the Ensemble Lounge and another in Micheal’s Club before heading off to bed.

 

It’s a sea day today, so watch this space for a post tomorrow on our adventures.

 

Update: clearly @nz1 is having more luck uploading photos than I am. I'll post this for now and keep trying with the photos!

 

 

[Redking]

Bar setup with byo and after.

 

[Redking]

Some sail away shots

 

 

 

 

[nz1]

@Redking Wow your suite looks incredible!!

 

I think you accidentally posted in the “live food thread” rather than your actual live cruise report thread! Sorry if I confused things!! 

[Ken the cruiser]

So excited to follow along as we will be flying over there in April to do a 30-day B3B on the Eclipse from Sydney to Vancouver.

 

If I might ask, did you have to present a negative COVID test as part of the check-in process prior to boarding the ship? If so, do you remember what form of proof they accepted? I’ve included what’s listed on the Celebrity website.

 

Sailing Testing Requirements 

Pre-Arrival/Embarkation Covid-19 Testing

All guests ages 2 and older must test negative for COVID-19 in order to board their sailing. 

Accepted test options include:

• A PCR test taken at a private laboratory within 3 days prior to boarding;
• Any commercially available Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), including self-tests, within 1 day of boarding. Tests do not have to be supervised or proctored. (For guests  selecting this option who are traveling internationally, we strongly recommend pre-purchasing your test kit in your home country and traveling with it to Australia.)
• Antibody tests will not be accepted.  

All guests ages 2 and older will be asked to present proof of a negative test result. Test results may be presented as a printout, screenshot, or photo of the test result or the actual test. 

For guests traveling internationally and selecting the RAT testing option, we strongly recommend purchasing a test kit in your home country and traveling with it in order to meet the one-day prior-to-boarding testing requirement. 

[nz1]

Just now, Ken the cruiser said:

So excited to follow along as we will be flying over there in April to do a 30-day B3B on the Eclipse from Sydney to Vancouver.

 

If I might ask, did you have to present a negative COVID test as part of the check-in process prior to boarding the ship? If so, do you remember what form of proof they accepted? I’ve included what’s listed on the Celebrity website.

 

Sailing Testing Requirements 

Pre-Arrival/Embarkation Covid-19 Testing

All guests ages 2 and older must test negative for COVID-19 in order to board their sailing. 

Accepted test options include:

• A PCR test taken at a private laboratory within 3 days prior to boarding;
• Any commercially available Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), including self-tests, within 1 day of boarding. Tests do not have to be supervised or proctored. (For guests  selecting this option who are traveling internationally, we strongly recommend pre-purchasing your test kit in your home country and traveling with it to Australia.)
• Antibody tests will not be accepted.  

All guests ages 2 and older will be asked to present proof of a negative test result. Test results may be presented as a printout, screenshot, or photo of the test result or the actual test. 

For guests traveling internationally and selecting the RAT testing option, we strongly recommend purchasing a test kit in your home country and traveling with it in order to meet the one-day prior-to-boarding testing requirement. 

We weren’t asked about ours during check in - I had my photo proof ready to go so was surprised. That being said, I checked in pretty early when the port staff were still being trained on the system…!

[Redking]

10 minutes ago, nz1 said:

@Redking Wow your suite looks incredible!!

 

I think you accidentally posted in the “live food thread” rather than your actual live cruise report thread! Sorry if I confused things!! 

🤣🤣🤣Classic Kim!

[nz1]

No great photos from lunch as we tried the buffet out - which was very busy. So instead, for all those tea lovers out there - here’s what I found in Michael’s Club after lunch.

 

 

There are more in the range, including the African Solstice rooibos 🥰

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by nz1

[nz1]

Michael’s Club is a lovely spot for a cup of tea.

 

 

 

 

 

[nz1]

7 minutes ago, Redking said:

🤣🤣🤣Classic Kim!

Partly my fault for starting a separate thread and confusing things but I didn’t want to flood your thread with food snaps! 😂

[Mark_T]

10 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If I might ask, did you have to present a negative COVID test as part of the check-in process prior to boarding the ship? If so, do you remember what form of proof they accepted? I’ve included what’s listed on the Celebrity website

We were on the previous sailing out of Sydney, that ended in Auckland. 
 

A photo of the negative test was enough, but they were checking the original date/time of the photos.

[Beachlover1989]

I love this food review with pictures! Thanks so much for doing it! Enjoy your cruise!

[nz1]

5 hours ago, Beachlover1989 said:

I love this food review with pictures! Thanks so much for doing it! Enjoy your cruise!

 

Thank you! 😊

[nz1]

In the spirit of “‘my body is a temple”, I stuck with fruit-based drinks this evening 😉

 

An Appletini a day keeps the doctor away! Or so I hope - so we had a decent number of these at Michael’s Club during the senior officer soirée where we had a great chat with fellow traveller @Tranquility Base

 

 

See! There’s real apple in there! Can’t be all bad…

 

 

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Thank you so much for the food pictures. I know it takes a lot of time to take them and post them and it is much appreciated. All the best!

[dcbiker97]

You're in for a treat having Gordon as your butler. We sailed with him in November on our Sydney cruise and he was just fantastic.

[dock]

Wow. Enjoying,all the food pics. 

Thank you for taking the time while on your vacay. 

[mchell810]

Loving the food pics.  Thanks!

[nz1]

Thanks @LouChamp, @dock, and @mchell810 - I’ve loved reading about other cruisers’ experiences - particularly the food - for so long so thought it time for me to add my own 😊 Hopefully I’ll have many more food photos to add this trip!