bigbenboys

On 10/18/2023 at 4:58 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I've been searching around and what I received when I ordered a Rib Eye Steak (April May of this year) was actually an Eye Round Steak -   Very little flavor, on the tough side an never ordered since

 

Were just off Eclipse Oct 1st. Your photo is what our rib eye looked like in Luminae. About half that thickness and very tough.

7 hours ago, CruisinShips said:

We were fortunate enough to be in a CS, 1618, which has an angled balcony. It was really wonderful and we spent a lot of time out there.

We were in 1622 on the same cruise. Remember the pilot for Astoria coming in by helicopter. A friend sent me this photo.

5 hours ago, RichYak said:

I assume you mean Kotor, not Koper as I couldn't find a cruise where Constellation calls there. Have you looked at Azamara's Croatia intensive itineraries?

Our Adriatic Sea cruise was on Azamara. 

14 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Where did you 2800. Guest that is S class numbers 🙄

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Fact_sheets/CEL-Constellation-FactSheet-MICE.pdf

 

Yes your right I was thinking S Class. Connie has 2184 to 2559 guest.

On X we book AquaClass or Sky Suites. The Constellation (Connie) is a M Class ship with about 2800 guest. AquaClass gives you a smaller dining restaurant called Blu. Suites guest can dine in Luminae. Connie does have limited pay specialty dining restaurants.

I'm sure Connie could use an update, but overall she should be in good shape. 

Sun Princess will give you more food options and a much newer ship. My question to you is. Is this cruise more about Dubrovnik, Koper, Split. Or is it more about what the ship has to offer.

On 10/4/2023 at 11:38 AM, maggie.1008 said:

We love Rose. Do you know if she will be on the Eclipse on December 1st cruise?

Just checked with a friend getting on Eclipse tomorrow. She said Rose went home Oct 1.

7 hours ago, buzz031 said:

We were on this cruise!  Our staff in early MDR were outstanding. It’s the first time we weren’t in the Blu in a very long time. I did eat a lot of salmon, but at least it was tasty. Shows were good. Beyond the Podium talk on the PNW left a lot out. Was more of a port talk rather than what was advertised regarding geography. Other than bringing home Covid (my first time—knew it had to happen eventually), it was a great cruise!

My MIL came down with Covid. She shared her V1 with her sister. We all had booster shots about 4 months ago. Out of the 4 of us only my MIL came down with Covid. She only has a scratchy throat. 

I had salmon twice dining in Luminae. DH had the turkey main entrée from the MDR, also the chicken parmesan with spaghetti. Both were very good. I know I will order the chicken parmesan with spaghetti next time.

7 hours ago, abbydancer said:

Maybe back to the Equinox?  She was maitre d there for a long time, and I was surprised to see her on the Eclipse last summer (she said she wanted to see Alaska).  What we loved was that our assistant waiter from Equinox in 2021 was our waiter on the Eclipse.  He was excellent on both, so a well deserved promotion.

 

And btw, over on FB there's a long thread about the hot mess that immigration was in San Francisco.  Sounds similar. I think because you both went to Victoria, so had to do it at your first US port.

Yes, the good thing was we just walked off the ship in LA. No immigration/customs.

3 minutes ago, Veinless said:

No longer Aurica as maitre d? Wonder where she’s gone, she’s great!

I dont know where she went. His name starts with Mar??? He has been with X for years.

1 hour ago, maggie.1008 said:

did you do a move up offer or did you book a suite ? thanks 😊 

I did not do a move up. My favorite sky suites on S Class were changed to Aqua Sky Suites. So I've started to book SC on the S Class ships. I'm not going to pay for something I wont use.

4 hours ago, maggie.1008 said:

We love Rose. Do you know if she will be on the Eclipse on December 1st cruise?

I dont remember when. She might have gone home Oct 1st. I know she was going home out of LA and not going to South America with Eclipse.

19 minutes ago, micruiser2002 said:

What night menu is this?  In the app for the current Solstice sailing it showed prime rib on night 1 in MDR.

MDR PR was on night 6 of a 7 night sailing on Eclipse.

I booked a 7 night cruise in a CS for Alaska on 12/12/22. Cost was $12,401.28. With all 4 perks. The OBC is $800.

Looked today at the same cruise. With the 40% off and no OBC. I did add tips. The cost today is $12,806.42.

Here is a photo from Eclipse. PR from the MDR on Sept 28, 2023.

The man is me starting my 1st of 2 PR's in the MDR. I was very full after dinner. It was a great night. The DR did flashing lights and music. The wait staff circled around like they did with Baked Alaska.

While I normally dont gain any weight on cruises. I did lose 1 pound on this cruise.

9 hours ago, D. B. said:

I had not been on Eclipse in 10 years and it is still in good shape.

Boche ball lawn bowling was fun and the Hollywood Hot Glass thing is still interesting.

Overall I did think the Eclipse is in good shape. I made 2 glass pieces.

10 hours ago, Cruisin4ABruisen said:

We were on this cruise too — first cruise since earning Elite. We thought it was pretty good overall. OVC had a good selection and food was good. We also did the “Wines of the world” event at cellar masters. $30pp but good wine and plentiful. 
 

We caught the tail end of the Seattle mess, probably was in line around 45 minutes. Definitely wasn’t ideal, but it beats standing around in Canada Place for hours, like our last trip out of there. 

Yes, I have been in the Vancouver mess before.

10 hours ago, bnurick said:

Thank you for the review.  We have a CS on Eclipse in October.  Did Roland provide water in your suite or did you have to visit the lounge to get?  I really prefer the large Evian bottles late at night before bedtime.  Trying to figure out what to expect.  Thank you.

We were in 1622. Ronald did say we could drink the water bottle on the counter. I think it was Evian in a tall clear glass bottles and the 2 plastic bottles.

11 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Thank you for the review. Please forgive me but I’m not understanding what happened here. What was the hiccup?

The hiccup was that Immigration in Seattle was to be about 1 hour. It took 4 hours.

We have been cruising with X for many years now. Mostly sky suites the last 5 years. This was our 1st time booking a Celebrity Suite. My MIL and her sister booked just before final payment. They booked a V1.

We took the train from Seattle to Vancouver BC and stayed at the Pan Pacific hotel at Canada Place. Our room was available when we checked in at 1pm. The next morning the bellman picked up our bags and sent them to the ship.

As we were in suites we were checked in just as we walked in about 11:30am. They checked us and my MIL's cabin. All 4 of us were escorted to a separate line for suites. After scanning of us and our carry-ons we went to a Retreat area with water, coffee and food. Retreat staff said we could board now. So we went on board. I looked for the sparkling wine. No sparkling wine, not even near Café al Bacio. We got our seapass cards and check out our cabins. I surprised my DH with the CS.

We dined in Luminae, Murano, MDR (select section) and OVC for breakfast and lunch. My worst meal was the ribeye in Luminae. The steak lacked taste and was like shoe leather. My best meal was the Prime Rib in the MDR. I ate 2 Prime Ribs. I will say when I get the PR in Luminae from the MDR it is twice as thick as the one I got in the MDR. Over all the OVC was very good. Some of the pork was really good. What I missed was the baked potatoes, minute steak, chicken and pork medallions cooked to order.

Our butler was Ronald. We had breakfast each morning at 7am by delivered Ronald. I told Ronald one time what I wanted each morning (Coffee, fruit, croissants). Ronald saw a birthday card in our suites. He check and saw that my DH did have a birthday in Sept. One night after dinner we had a bottle of wine (4 glasses) and a cake on the coffee table. When it comes to butlers, Ronald is in my top 3. Ronald had 8 suites to attend too. The staff in Luminae were wonderful. We new the Luminae maitre d from last year on Solstice. Also on our sailing was a former Captain's club host that is now a officer. We have known her for 15 to 20 years. So proud of Rose.

The ship did have one hiccup. We left from Vancouver BC to San Pedro. We did not have Immigration in Vancouver as we were going to Victoria. So we had to Immigration in Seattle. Celebrity had to zero out Eclipse guests. We met at MC to be escorted down. I was told to wait 45 mins as the lines are long. Well it went from bad to really bad. The 4 of us went back to my suite. We could see the line from our balcony. This is what I was told after we were back on the ship. "Celebrity had been told that US and Canadian citizens could just show their passport and move to the holding area." While waiting in line we were told US and Canadian citizens could just show their passports. So we lucked out. We were not in the holding area very long. X had to bring out water and sandwiches. X was doing what they could. BUT, I heard one guy say he had been their for 4 hours. I'm sure some were there for 4 hours. 

Overall our sailing with X was good. I'm hoping in time the new staff will get up to speed. X will add more staff. I did not book another cruise. I'm going to keep our sky suite on Apex for next June. I might try for a CS. It comes down to 2 things. Quality of meat and price of suites. I really think the best deal on X is the AquaClass cabins at this time. Blu is very nice.

I found this on X website.

02_03_23_SP_AquaClass-Amenities-Flyer-2023-Updated.pdf

We were in suite on Eclipse. We dined in the MDR last week for one night. I had 2 Prime Rib dinners. The Chateaubriand for two in Murano was very good. The worst steak I had was a Ribeye in Luminae. The steak was tasteless and like shoe leather to cut. Luminae staff were great as always.

4 hours ago, micruiser2002 said:

Was the OBC from CEL or from your TA?  I have never had my OBC posted to another persons account just by linking reservations.  I have had it happen when from a TA without linked reservations because of an error on their part.

The $150 was on the V1 booking. That is what I dont get. My $600 was on my booking. I'm the stock holder. Why did X send it to my MIL's cabin account. I have used the same TA for 20 years. I booked glassblowing with OBC. Booking Murano was with OBC through the Retreat Concierge phone number before we sailed. Just one of those IT things.😵

4 hours ago, micruiser2002 said:

Was the OBC from CEL or from your TA?  I have never had my OBC posted to another persons account just by linking reservations.  I have had it happen when from a TA without linked reservations because of an error on their part.

This was all from X. $600 as part of my booking suite. $100 for having 100 shares of stock. $150 for booking V1. $850 OBC all from Celebrity. I did book our CS over year ago. Then booked the V1 just before final payment. 

While we love Victoria and Butchart Gardens. Just not worth our time when X stops in the evening. We live in the Seattle area and take the train to Vancouver BC for a better cruise. Also enjoy seeing the goats at Beacon Hill Children's Farm near the cruise terminal. Our cruise left from Vancouver BC last week.

I did take the shuttle into town to get our rental car. The shuttle was 15 Canadian for round trip. Dropped me off at the Empress Hotel. The inner harbor is very nice. All lite up at night. Nice restaurants if you want a change from X. Butchart Gardens should be lite up in the evening. I love going to BG in Dec to see the Holiday lights.