Celebrity Eclipse LIVE! 8 Night Mexican Riviera Halloween and Day of the Dead Cruise! October 28th 2023

[binro01]

Hi to all the Celebrity Cruisers out there! 

It sure feels like a long time since our last cruise in May of this year on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas out of Galveston, so we really cant wait for our first post pandemic cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse out of Los Angeles.

We have done the Mexican Riviera many times on many different lines, (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, and NCL) but this is the first time for us to do it on Celebrity, and one cool and different thing on this itinerary is that we will be staying overnight in Cabo San Lucas, so that should be fun and interesting!

 

Me and my wife are avid cruisers and love getting away on the ocean. She is Ex-navy so the ocean is her happy place, and me growing up on Long Island and my family owning a boat, I love being on the open waters too. Living in land locked Utah now really puts a damper on our ocean activities, but we try to get on a cruise three to four times a year.

A little bit about us, I'm a full time Principal Software Engineer at a wonderful company that gives us "Boatloads" of time off, pun intended and my wife volunteers for many organizations for our armed forces veterans. She is very active in the American Legion and provides color guard to our heroes when we say good by to them during their grave side services. She is also an editor of an online magazine called "She Served" that runs articles about the amazing women who served our country in the armed services. We also own a small business that we run together that is starting to grow quickly and about a year and a half ago I started a YouTube channel about our travel adventures that also took off. My wife operates and writes a great travel blog. So we are quite the busy beavers. Our boys are all adults in the eyes of the law now, so its easier for us to get away and we feel so lucky and blessed to be able to travel.

Like I said before, we are avid cruisers and have done this itinerary many times, but we will looking at this cruise under the pretext of seeing what has changed with Celebrity Cruises since the restart and how Celebrity does a Halloween cruise combined with the day of the dead celebration in Mexico.

We are planning on eating at all the specialty dining restaurants and doing the Chef's table. We love going to the shows, and we enjoy a venture into the casino. We will eat dinner, some breakfasts and lunch in the Main Dining room too, as well as visiting the Buffet, the Spa Cafe and the Mast Grill from time to time.

We will be staying in a Concierge Class Veranda to help push us up the loyalty tiers faster with Celebrity, so we are not going to be eating in Blu or Luminae. (We are crossing our fingers for a suite in January when we cruise on the Ascent to give Luminae a whirl).

We also have the premium drinks package and a decent amount of OBC so I will be trying out all the fancy drinks and somewhat fancy wines.

Feel free to ask us any questions about this ship, the food, menus, what slot machines are available to play in the casino... ANYTHING! We love interacting with people and we plan on giving our new DJI Pocket 2 camera a good workout as well as our phone camera, so be prepared for a bunch of short videos and pics here. I just need to play around with that little camera more to get the full hang of the thing!

We will be driving from Utah to LA on Friday, and spending the night in the Crowne Plaza right near the port in a Port view King suite and have an early boarding time for Saturday.

So lets get hyped up for this virtual cruise with us! Remember to feel free to ask away with any questions! And to kind of get everyone excited along with us, I created a Hype video about this trip with the aid of Google Earth and a fun back track showing the itinerary we are going on! Talk to you soon!
 

 

[bnurick]

We are on this cruise too. I usually do a live CC thread, but happy to post pictures here too if you don’t mind. We are in a Celebrity Suite and can comment on The Retreat experience, post cutbacks. Cheers!

[JulsInAZ]

We'll be on the Eclipse the week after you for the Cabo/San Diego run! It's my family's first cruise with Celebrity, so I can't wait to hear all about your trip. Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts. I'll have to check out your YT channel!

[hcat]

sounds like it will be a fun review!

(Also interested in suite perspective from Bnurick.)

 

We cruised  the Mex Riv  itin once on Royal C..Radiance..yrs ago; Had a great ABC Island  Halloween Cruise ..can't recall which ship or cruise line, but the big party was on ARUBA  overnight. 

 

Loved the door decor,  food carvings and amazing Costumes!  DJ  open deck party and  also great after parties.

 

Curious as to your Jan Ascent date..We are booked Jan 28th..

Still living on LI..with downtime in Fla.

 

 

 

 

[binro01]

35 minutes ago, bnurick said:

We are on this cruise too. I usually do a live CC thread, but happy to post pictures here too if you don’t mind. We are in a Celebrity Suite and can comment on The Retreat experience, post cutbacks. Cheers!

That's awesome! We should meet when we get on the ship. I plan on being at the Sunset Bar for sail away. Please feel free to put up pics and videos here and let us all know about your Retreat Experience!

[binro01]

35 minutes ago, JulsInAZ said:

We'll be on the Eclipse the week after you for the Cabo/San Diego run! It's my family's first cruise with Celebrity, so I can't wait to hear all about your trip. Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts. I'll have to check out your YT channel!

Thanks! We will keep you well posted. Thanks for joining in on the thread!

[binro01]

22 minutes ago, hcat said:

We cruised  the Mex Riv  itin once on Royal C..Radiance..yrs ago; Had a great ABC Island  Halloween Cruise ..can't recall which ship or cruise line, but the big party was on ARUBA  overnight. 

 

Loved the door decor,  food carvings and amazing Costumes!  DJ  open deck party and  also great after parties.

 

Curious as to your Jan Ascent date..We are booked Jan 28th..

Still living on LI..with downtime in Fla.

 

 

 

 

I hope we have a great costume party and a great day of the dead celebration. I even bought the makeup!

We are traveling on the Ascent on January 7th 2024, I plan on doing a live on that one too, so hopefully I can give you a great prequel on that cruise too.

[hcat]

28 minutes ago, binro01 said:

I hope we have a great costume party and a great day of the dead celebration. I even bought the makeup!

We are traveling on the Ascent on January 7th 2024, I plan on doing a live on that one too, so hopefully I can give you a great prequel on that cruise too.

looking forward  to all your posts!

[dpdeedee]

Thanks for sharing.  We are on this cruise too and have our costumes ready to go.  We're looking forward to a great cruise and perhaps we'll see you at the sunset bar at sail away!   

[binro01]

28 minutes ago, dpdeedee said:

Thanks for sharing.  We are on this cruise too and have our costumes ready to go.  We're looking forward to a great cruise and perhaps we'll see you at the sunset bar at sail away!   

Awesome! Can’t wait to meet ya! Here is a pic of me and my wife Sheryl in case anyone wants to spot us onboard. Looks like we found tow folks on this cruise with us!

 

 

Edited October 22, 2023 by binro01

[hcat]

thats a great pic.. we can compare it with the costume pics

[AMediator]

We already on her December 1st.  We love Mexico and are just looking to enjoy it all. I am so excited for your report. 🎉

[calicakes]

7 hours ago, binro01 said:

That's awesome! We should meet when we get on the ship. I plan on being at the Sunset Bar for sail away. Please feel free to put up pics and videos here and let us all know about your Retreat Experience!

We're also on your cruise. My wife is retired military( Senior Master Sgt)  AND she retired as a Sgt from LAPD last year.  We live 40 miles from the port and we're spending the night at the Doubletree, we booked the stay and park package.     I also plan on live blogging as I've done for all our cruises.  

 

We were originally booked into an OV( first time) as we usually sail in Aqua or Suites.  We've taken 8 trips this year( with 2 more to go) so I wanted to save a bit of $$$.  We did the move up offer and for 185PP, we now have a Veranda.  We're also going to dress up in Costumes.  Look for Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks on Oct 31st!! 

 

I hope we'll get to Cabo( we've never been).  It will be interesting to see where this itinerary ends up. 

Edited October 23, 2023 by calicakes
picture

[binro01]

2 hours ago, AMediator said:

We already on her December 1st.  We love Mexico and are just looking to enjoy it all. I am so excited for your report. 🎉

It’s going to be fun! I hope Cabo is ok for us after the hit by the hurricane this weekend. 

[binro01]

2 hours ago, hcat said:

thats a great pic.. we can compare it with the costume pics

Thanks! We get natural smiles when we are at sea. 

[binro01]

1 hour ago, calicakes said:

We're also on your cruise. My wife is retired military( Senior Master Sgt)  AND she retired as a Sgt from LAPD last year.  We live 40 miles from the port and we're spending the night at the Doubletree, we booked the stay and park package.     I also plan on live blogging as I've done for all our cruises.  

 

We were originally booked into an OV( first time) as we usually sail in Aqua or Suites.  We've taken 8 trips this year( with 2 more to go) so I wanted to save a bit of $$$.  We did the move up offer and for 185PP, we now have a Veranda.  We're also going to dress up in Costumes.  Look for Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks on Oct 31st!! 

 

I hope we'll get to Cabo( we've never been).  It will be interesting to see where this itinerary ends up. 

Great Pic! Congrats on your move up win. Please thank your wife from us for her service both as a Sr Master Sergeant and as a police Sergeant! We will be on the look out for you. Please seek us out and start up a conversation. We love meeting new people!

[ometauru]

12 hours ago, binro01 said:

Feel free to ask us any questions about this ship, the food, menus, what slot machines are available to play in the casino... ANYTHING! We love interacting with people and we plan on giving our new DJI Pocket 2 camera a good workout as well as our phone camera, so be prepared for a bunch of short videos and pics here. I just need to play around with that little camera more to get the full hang of the thing!

If you feel like taking a video of all the slot machines, I would for sure watch the entire thing 

I play a lot of stuff but I'm a bit picky. I'll be on the ship in the coming months so kinda want to know what I'm in for. 

 

Thanks! Enjoy!

[hcat]

2 hours ago, ometauru said:

If you feel like taking a video of all the slot machines, I would for sure watch the entire thing 

I play a lot of stuff but I'm a bit picky. I'll be on the ship in the coming months so kinda want to know what I'm in for. 

 

Thanks! Enjoy!

i think photos are discouraged in the casino area

[ometauru]

I've seen plenty of casino walkthroughs online, but I don't want anyone to get in trouble. I've done videos while the casino was closed (either when I first get on a ship or before it opens). 

[binro01]

5 hours ago, ometauru said:

I've seen plenty of casino walkthroughs online, but I don't want anyone to get in trouble. I've done videos while the casino was closed (either when I first get on a ship or before it opens). 

Yep. I will take a video of the entire casino when closed.

[binro01]

5 hours ago, hcat said:

i think photos are discouraged in the casino area

You can take video when closed

[Jim_Iain]

Hope you and @calicakes have a wonderful trip.    If you don't have anything planned try out WhaleWatch Cabo  https://whalewatchcabo.com/  I booked via Expedia "Things to Do"   

 

Best Whale watching I have ever had.   They also give you a link to the photos and videos their photographer takes during  the excursion - for FREE

[calicakes]

33 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Hope you and @calicakes have a wonderful trip.    If you don't have anything planned try out WhaleWatch Cabo  https://whalewatchcabo.com/  I booked via Expedia "Things to Do"   

 

Best Whale watching I have ever had.   They also give you a link to the photos and videos their photographer takes during  the excursion - for FREE

I hope we make it to Cabo.  Someone in our FB cruise group said that X cancelled their booked shore excursions for both days in Cabo.  I don't think the current cruise is going due to an impending hurricane.  

[hcat]

4 hours ago, binro01 said:

You can take video when closed

that makes sense!  pics/ video will be interesting

[ksiffer]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

that makes sense!  pics/ video will be interesting

Been a while since we have cruised. Interested in a slot pull  also add my idea e we hat the entertainment will be in the show room