Live-ish! Journey Across the Pacific: Easter Island & French Polynesia on Scenic Eclipse II

[Redking]

Given that the Scenic Ocean Voyages Forum is somewhat quiet, I thought I’d drop in and do a Live-ish review of our Transpacific voyage on Scenic Eclipse II which sets sail on Wednesday 13 March.

 

We will be first time Scenic Cruisers having been Celebrity loyalists for the past 13 years. We needed a change but weren’t sure we would enjoy a small ship. So here we are about to try a yacht with up to 224 guests, go figure?

 

This voyage marks the first of three legs (I think) to reposition the Scenic Eclipse II to Australia, New Zealand and Asia from its summer season in South America including Antarctica.

 

Our itinerary takes us from Valpariaso in Chile to Papeete in French Polynesia. Very much looking forward to these islands. Living in New Zealand, our visit to Easter Island will complete our visits to the apices of the Polynesian Triangle. Also looking forward to learning more about the connection between Tahiti and those jolly mutineers from the Bounty who ended up on Pitt Cairn Island. As a Scot, I’m also looking forward to learning more about what sounds like a ‘colourful’ Scotsman (what a surprise) and how he came to be Daniel Defoe’s inspiration for Robinson Crusoe.

 

 

We're flying into Santiago from Auckland 3 days early. The plan is to spend two nights in Santiago before taking a wine tour in the Casablanca Valley en route to Valparaiso where will overnight before setting sail. That’s the plan anyway. We’re currently sitting in the lounge in Auckland with a current delay of nearly three hours! The inbound flight from Sydney has just arrived so here’s hoping we have no further delays.

 

More to follow!

 

[makai 7]

Following, thank you for sharing your experience!  We did a wine tour out of Valparaiso many years ago and enjoyed immensely.

[2SailingNomads]

Look forward to your perspective having sailed 3 times on Eclipse 1 and 2

[JaneAustenCruiser]

Oh wow, this is timely! My husband and I are both Celebrity afficianados, but are looking for a bucket list trip with something new. Looking forward to your review and information!

[Justpackingmybags]

You could be tempting me into serious spending! Following 

[Norwaylady]

Bon Voyage!

Looking forward to this🤩 This is on my bucket list of cruises..... 

[mchell810]

Thanks for taking us along with you.

[Redking]

Pre cruise wrap up

 

We arrived 3 hours late into Santiago on Sunday, but still on time for happy hour at our hotel – Castillo Rojo in Provendencia. It transpired that a 3 hour delay was but a minor inconvenience. The aircraft that flew the route the following day suffered a technical problem which resulted in a sudden drop in altitude on the leg between Sydney and Auckland. As a consequence, the Auckland to Santiago leg of the flight was cancelled. Had we flown on the Monday we would most likely have missed the cruise. Thoughts go out to the some 50 people who were injured in the incident, a salient reminder to wear your seatbelt.

 

After a quick freshen up we headed out to dinner at the Bella Vista Patio and enjoyed the first our first Pisco Sours with our Cruise Buddies from Sydney.

 

We headed into Santiago the following day to enjoy the sights in the city centre. We last visited 12 years ago and the aftermath of the civil unrest in 2019 was still visible with barricaded buildings and what seemed to be a lot more graffiti. We nonetheless enjoyed our day with a visit to Santa Lucia and San Christobel before heading off to the Sky Constana enjoy some excellent cocktails whilst watching the sunset.

 

 

 

 

The following day we were picked up by our guide for our wine tour to the Casablanca valley. We visited three wineries. All were very different but I think we enjoyed Bodegas RE the most. Very interesting winery working hard to bring about a renaissance in some of the more traditional wine making processes and with a smaller production. Our guide dropped us off at our hotel (Pallacio Asterico) in Valparaiso around 7pm, so it was long but enjoyable day. We headed out for dinner at which was a short, but very steep walk up the hills of Valpariaso. We sat outside with a good view of the port. Food was generally good. After sharing a bottle of Mille Carre, a lovely red from the south of Chile we headed off to bed.

 

 

 

Wednesday bought the excitement of watching the Scenic Eclipse arrive around 7.30am. The excitement of watching your ship or in the this case yacht come in never grows old. She’s an absolute beauty and to be honest the photos and videos I’d seen did not do her justice.

 

 

We had a beautiful breakfast before heading off down the hill for a stroll around town and closer view of the Eclipse.

 

Day One of the voyage follows.

[liptastic]

Have a wonderful cruise. We were on Scenic Eclipse 11 in September. It was amazing and delivered in all aspects. Look forward to follwing your updates. Thanks, Jean. 

[registrar]

Enjoy!!! So eager to hear about your journey 

[Redking]

Oops apologies for the duplicate post. Too much Sangria at lunchtime. 

[removed]

 

Busy couple of days, so playing catch-up.

 

Day One

 

Embarkation was between 2 and 4 pm. Given our hotel checkout time was 12 noon, we decided to head down to the port at about 1pm and fully anticipated that we’d then have to wait until 2pm. To our surprise our names were checked off a list, bags were checked, we were through a security scan and onto a bus for a short trip to the ship. I think we were on board in less than 15 minutes. Embarkation on Scenic is more of a hotel check-in experience. We were greeted with champagne and escorted to the reception desk in the main lounge to complete the check-in formalities. Our room wasn’t ready, so we headed up to the Yacht Club for lunch and more champagne.

 

Lunch completed, our next stop was to make our restaurant reservations. Although Scenic is all inclusive, reservations are required for three of the restaurants: Lumiere (French), Night Market (teppanyaki styled) and Koko Sushi. You can’t book prior to boarding and we’d been advised to book as soon as you board. We were able to get three reservations for Lumiere and one for the Night Market. 

 

We kicked-off our first night in Lumiere with a fabulous degustation and wine pairing experience.

 

 

 

The Amuse Bouche

 

 

Lobster Bisque

 

 

 

 

Salmon Normand

 

Oysters

 

 

Sorbet palate cleanser

 

 

Chateaubriand

 

 

Both desserts

 

 

[Redking]

DAY THREE

 

After a day at sea, we arrived at Robinson Crusoe Island, one of three volcanic islands in the Juan Fernandez Archipelgo, situated 670 km off the coast of Chile. The islands are sparsely populated and rely on tourism and fishing for income.

 

The Scottish privateer, Alexander Selkirk was marooned on the island for more than four years from 1704. Apparently, he was marooned at his own request when he considered that the ship he was sailing on was unseaworthy. His story was reputedly the inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe.

 

The island has a population of 1000 of which 250 are school children. Interesting ratio. The islanders only received internet connection a year ago, so I’ll leave you to surmise whether there is any connection.

 

Three activities were offered. We decided to wonder around the main town San Juan Buatista, located in Cumberland Bay on the island’s north coast.

 

 

Cumberland Bay

 

Fauna and Fishing Boats

 

 

 

 

Set up for the pirate party

 

 

 

A beautiful teacher brought some of her students down to the jetty to practice their English.

 

[Norwaylady]

Looks amazing! 

Can't wait for the rest🤩

[Redking]

Day Four

 

 

After a  somewhat choppy night (continuing 3 to 3.5 metre swells) we arrived at the second island in the archipelago, Alexander Selkirk Island. The island is located 180km west of Robinson Crusoe Island with an area of 49.5 square kms and a temporary population of between 40 and 60 fisherman during the lobster season. Pretty impressive rock with a peak of about 1.2 metres which falls sharply away to the sea. Kudos to the hardy souls who fish for the lobster that is exported to China by a cooperative. Unfortunately, the weather did not allow us to see the settlement, so the photo is courtesy of the cooperative’s website.

 

 

This was our first zodiac trip of the voyage. Kind of strange feeling bobbing around in the middle of the Pacific, but great to get a closer look at the spectacular geological formations which initially looked like vines growing on the cliff face. I suspect that it’s just the way the rock has eroded but I’m not sure – I’m such a nerd!

 

 

The sun came out in the afternoon to make for a beautiful sail away.

 

 

We now have four sea days enroute to Easter Island, so I’ll endeavour to get some interior shots around the ship and share more information on the overall experience, including the dining.

[2SailingNomads]

Curious if Alex is the head Sommelier and Brendan the Bar Manager (Brendan I have known for many years, he was on Seabourn for many years and other than Captain Rado he is my favorite Scenic crew although now Wandille also joined Scenic)  Who is the Captain, Rado, Ewan, James?

[Redking]

On 3/18/2024 at 12:06 AM, 2SailingNomads said:

Curious if Alex is the head Sommelier and Brendan the Bar Manager (Brendan I have known for many years, he was on Seabourn for many years and other than Captain Rado he is my favorite Scenic crew although now Wandille also joined Scenic)  Who is the Captain, Rado, Ewan, James?

Head som is Sacha, bar manager is Miloush and Captain Tory from 🇳🇴 is at the helm - first time we've had a Norwegian cruise Captain @Norwaylady

[2SailingNomads]

Good to hear Sacha got promoted to Sommelier, he was studying for it when we were last on with him, and Milos we have known for years going back to when he was on Seabourn.

[Redking]

11 minutes ago, 2SailingNomads said:

Good to hear Sacha got promoted to Sommelier, he was studying for it when we were last on with him, and Milos we have known for years going back to when he was on Seabourn.

Sacha is wonderful. Our second night tonight with him in Lumiere. I believe a high percentage of the crew are ex Seabourne

[Redking]

My decision to title this “Live-ish” was well considered. So much respect for the commitment of those who post daily. By contrast, I spent our first set of sea days imbibing, dining and enjoying the discovery team lectures. Hence my big push to play catch-up today before arriving at Pitt Cairn Island tomorrow.

 

I’ll start with an overview of dining experience so far and then post a summary of our fabulous two days on Easter Island.

 

Scenic list up to 10 dining venues on their Eclipse yachts, including room service. I’ll cover seven of them in the next posts

 

Lumiere

 

On our first night we dined in Lumiere a French styled degustation experience. Bookings are required for this venue and we have been fortunate to make a total of four reservations, possibly assisted by the fact that we are sailing with only 150 guests out of a capacity of 228.

 

 

Our third reservation is this evening, so I’ll post more on that later.

 

Menus from our second night  with some photos of the stand out dishes follow.

 

 

 

Kokos

 

Kokos comprises three dining experiences in the same location: Koko Sushi, Koko Fusion and Koko Night Market. Reservations are required for sushi and the nigh market. All are open for dinner only. The option of sushi atlunch time would have been a plus.

 

Night Market

 

This was a fabulous experience. The chef prepares the meal in front of you teppanyaki style. The theme changes every three days and we have so far enjoyed an Indian themed meal with a Philippino experience to follow. It’s a very intimate venue with bar style seating for up to 8 guests.

 

 

8

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sushi

 

Again this is a bar seating venue. The sushi is prepared freshly in front of you if your fortunate enough to be seated at this bar. We were seated at an ocean facing bar, but the experience was still very enjoyable and the food was excellent.

 

 

 

 

 

Fusion

 

We dined twice at fusion. As the name suggests, this an Asian fusion themed restaurant with menu changing every three days. It has a really relaxed atmosphere.

 

Elements

 

Whilst there isn’t a main dining room on the Eclipse, Elements would probably come closest as it’s probably the largest restaurant. Italian themed, the menu changes daily. On days when we didn’t have reservations at other venues, we’d check the Koko Fusion and Elements menus in the afternoon and decide between the two. Lots of flexibility at Elements to order starters

 

 

 

 

 

Azure Café

 

Café venue that serves breakfast until 10.30 am, great for late risers. Casual dining available for lunch and dinner including: pizza, pasta, burgers and sandwiches to order. A range a of desserts, sandwiches and salads are available from the cabinet. Have reached the food and wine saturation point of the cruise, we dined there last. Seems that everyone else felt the same because it was very busy! We initially sat on our own but were joined by another three people and had a great evening. Amazing that after so many days we’re still meeting new people.

 

Yacht Club

 

This is the buffet venue. Having said that there is table service, so options to serve yourself or not. I have a passion for interiors and soft furnishings and the yacht club is right up my alley with a quirky range of chairs and pattern fabrics. Absolutely love the salad selections. Bread look wonderful too, I’m gluten intolerant so a bit challenging to pass it by. That said, I have been offered the most amazing bread baskets with an array of gluten free goodies at most venues.

 

 

 

[Norwaylady]

🤩❤️😋 looking great! 
Seems like they have taken good care of you🥰😎⚓️

 

[mchell810]

Food looks wonderful; and such a great variety.  😋

 

[registrar]

Beautiful dining spaces.

would love to she pictures of cabins

[Redking]

7 minutes ago, registrar said:

Beautiful dining spaces.

would love to she pictures of cabins

Coming up!

[GMIAC]

I'm enjoying your reports. We're contemplating a January 2026 Antarctic exploration. Is there much difference between Eclipse I and Eclipse II?

 

We're also on the 9 April Grandeur NYC-Barcelona crossing!

[Gourmet Gal]

Thanks for posting Redking.  I’m intrigued by this line.  I know they had a shaky start during Covid and I’m wondering if they’ve worked out the kinks.  Also interested in RC and the upcoming 4S.  My DH and I have mostly cruised with SS and it seems the line is having some growing pains or Royal Caribbean pains lately and we’re looking for alternatives.

 

When you get a chance could you post some pix of the staterooms and bars?  Does the gym seem big enough?  How are the included excursions?  Is there any entertainment? How is the service in general?