mahdnc

First!!!

Eclipse has an Oceanview Bar outside of the Oceanview Cafe and it has a Sunset Bar above it.

The Club Points are coming! The Club Points are coming!

Another vote for doing post-cruise Rome on your own and bypassing Celebrity's more expensive offering. The Celebrity option is good for people that want to do zero planning. My wife and I did a pre-cruise stay in Rome for 5 nights before our Oct 2022 trans-Atlantic and we LOVED it. We stayed at the Albergo del Senato and really liked it although there are other great hotels out there at different price points. It's nice to be able to have dinner in Rome and to explore the city in the evening. Pantheon late at night when the crowds are gone. Oct 2022.

Oh well, but it is Pi Day. So have a Happy Pi Day! Or Happy Ides of March Eve!

Cool itinerary. Ship looks sleek, too. I’ll be interested to see what you post!

Probably was referring to this thread:

Some of us are still sailing on older bookings that had larger OBC attached to it. Our upcoming 14 night canal sailing on Summit next month was booked under a Thanksgiving 2022 promotion which delivered $200 OBC per passenger for my family of 4. So the grand total of OBC back then was: $800 2022 Black Friday Promo OBC $50 2022 Cyber Monday Promo OBC $100 Booking On Board OBC (repositioning cruise even though it is 14 nights) $250 Shareholder OBC $1,200 Total OBC If we had booked a suite (back then), I am sure the OBC would have been even larger.

Yes, you are right, I didn't look close enough at @Ex-Airbalancer's screenshot which is awarding shareholder OBC.

Yes, as I mentioned in my earlier post, the repositioning definition may be inconsistently applied. Congratulations.

Yes, I don't think shareholder OBC cares about repositioning sailings or not. Just length.

I doubt that OBC reduction was the objective when Celebrity determines how long to make the TA and TP sailings. TA/TP and Trans Canal sailings are considered repositioning cruises so the length doesn't matter. Now it is possible that the definition of a repositioning cruise is inconsistently applied at the time booking onboard OBC is awarded, but my point is that Celebrity already has a way to avoid delivering large OBC amounts for those sailings. I believe that the stock ownership OBC cares only about the length of the cruise and does not make a distinction on whether it is a repositioning cruise or not.

"Hello and welcome aboard! You're on Deck 6 all the way in the back......"

Ken the cruiser recently published a "live" thread while onboard Flora this past December. You might find it helpful although it may not assist you in comparing Flora to Silver Origin which is also a very nice and new ship. My thoughts are that the two ships are quite "high end" comparable to one another and that you may decide between the two based on itinerary, land tour options, etc.

In 2017 the owner of a small travel agency with whom I did all my cruise bookings unexpectedly died and her husband (who was not familiar with the business) inherited the travel agency and ran it very poorly. So I was able to unilaterally get my 2019 Reflection booking taken away from that travel agency and got it transferred into the hands of my current travel agent. I did that by writing an email to agencychanges@rccl.com. The email detailed the reasons for the request. I received an automated acknowledgement of receipt and then a few days later my then new travel agent received the booking.

The very positive crew attitude that surrounded you back in 2016 is still here today. So that’s a good thing. I seem to remember that back then you cruised certain ships on Celebrity often enough (like Mercury?) that you were familiar with many of the crew and that many of the crew were familiar with you as well. That’s obviously going to be different for you this time around but you never know, a crew member might remember you on your Eclipse sailing. That would be pretty cool. The ship’s WiFi is much much faster now than it was back in 2016 with the recent addition of Starlink across the fleet. So there’s that. Maybe we’ll hear from you.

I think the general consensus is that the Chef’s Table is worth doing except the pricing has risen to the point where it doesn’t represent a very good value especially when you consider that you could eat at a specialty restaurant 3 times for the same price. So it’s an excellent place to burn OBC if you are sitting on a large mountain of it. There is also a large cook book that is given to each Chef’s Table participant that apparently could double as a boat anchor so if you’re going to attend, be prepared to pack that bad boy back with you. The reports from other Cruise Critic members who have attended say that their experience is good but there are scattered reports that it can be marred by being seated with lousy self absorbed table mates but it sounds like the lousy table mates had a good time. Having said all of that, my wife and I are going to try it for the first time during next month’s 14 night Summit sailing through the canal. We’ve avoided doing it so far because of the poor value but I figure it’s worth trying once especially on a sailing with 8 sea days. But then again, there’s two of us and so we’re laying out $300 for this and so every now and then I think about cancelling and using the money elsewhere. We we’ll see.

Lois, While some Cruise Critic members are not thrilled with it, I think the new Edge class ships embody most of the excitement among today’s Celebrity passengers. Those class of ships are designed much differently than Solstice, Millenium, and Century. The new design also takes the experience for the suite passenger to another level in the form of more dedicated Retreat space and new suite categories to choose from. There are four of those ships currently sailing with a fifth under construction but none of them were around when you last cruised with Celebrity in 2016. If I remember correctly, you were not one to be so easily seduced by sexy new ships so the above might not mean much to you, but it represents where Celebrity is putting their focus. Celebrity continues to do the Galapagos well. I don’t think that has changed since you last cruised with Celebrity. They have added a beautiful brand new ship, Celebrity Flora, to go along with the venerable Celebrity Xpedition and the small 16 passenger catamaran, Celebrity Xploration, which was acquired through a purchase in 2017. Xpedition, Espanola Island, Nov 2023.

Lois, Eclipse itself is largely unmodified from 2016. However some things have changed Bistro on Five has been replaced by Sushi on Five Qsine has been replaced by Le Petit Chef A portion of the MDR (Moonlight Sonata) on Deck 3 starboard side has been walled off as a separate dining room, Luminae, dedicated to suite passengers only. Photo Gallery with the walls of photos have been replaced with kiosks. It formerly occupied an area on Deck 5. It is now in a much smaller area on Deck 4 by Fortunes Casino. Photography staff has been cut way back and so has a lot of photography. I believe the old Photo Gallery area on Deck 5 has been taken over by an expanded Art Gallery for Park West. Molecular Bar on Deck 5 in the center of the ship has been rebranded as the World Class Bar. Cabins have been recategorized with some new cabin categories created such as the suite that you are in as you probably already know. Eclipse's livery has changed with the hull's white color with blue lettering having been replaced with an all blue design and white lettering. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Oh, one more thing although it is not ship layout related, Perry Grant doesn't perform on Eclipse anymore. I cannot remember if you were a fan. . Too bad Summit's canal cruise is full.......

Hi, Lois. It is great to hear from an old Celebrity regular from years gone by. What brings you back? David

You cannot specify a time slot when you book it on line. You do that after you board.

Yeah, you are just going to have to check your CP every now and then.

At least she didn't say, what do you mean by "we"?

It is available online for our Apr 9 2025 Solstice sailing under Onboard Activities (screenshot below). Like most things, the price has gone waaaay up since before the shutdown.