Alsmez

My DH and I just returned from our maiden voyage to Alaska on Eclipse, marking a happy return to cruising after four long years away. While we have sailed the S-class (Equinox, Silhouette and Reflection) many times before, our last cruise was on Summit, so we were pleased to come “home” and visit all of our favorite S-class venues. However, many of the recent negative reviews and reports of cutbacks I read pre-cruise had me feeling a bit trepidatious, especially when it comes to food and drink – as a certified foodie and devoted wine aficionado, the dining experience is important to me. Fortunately, Alaska was breathtaking in every way, making this one of our all-time favorite vacations despite some negatives on board. Don’t worry, there were plenty of positives too! Before I dive into my dining review, a bit about me: I am an avid cook, occasional food writer, natural yeast baker, sausage maker, and chocolate/sugar art dabbler. We live in NYC, so we are privileged to be surrounded by some of the world’s finest restaurants and every cuisine and ingredient imaginable. I realize that taste is subjective, but quality and skill of preparation generally are not, so I will try to include both opinions and objective observations here. I know I have high standards, but if Celebrity is going market itself as a “modern luxury” line, I feel they should be up to the task of meeting (or exceeding) them! And now, the review!

Yes, just disembarked on Sunday. It was a fantastic cruise overall and Alaska is MAGNIFICENT. I'll be posting a thorough dining review soon. To answer some of your specific questions:

I haven't had this happen, but we just bought a future cruise certificate on board Eclipse last week, and our representative told us the same - if we don't choose a cruise within 6 months, it will be refunded. She also confirmed that if you want the freedom to change your itinerary without penalty, you can book a refundable fare and change the ship/sailing date/etc. as many times as you like without paying any fees. Once you are certain of the itinerary you desire, you can change to a non-refundable fare (which are always cheaper), but once you do that, any further changes incur a $100 pp fee, which effectively erases your $200 deposit. Make sure you are going on that cruise before you go non-refundable!

I actually love the grey/white color palette on E-Class ships as well, regardless of whether it's on trend anymore. However, I didn't think it sat well on Summit given her age. I liken her Edgification to bad plastic surgery and fillers on a 70-year old face - it doesn't erase the years, it actually highlights them by drawing attention in an unnatural way. I agree that the color palette on S-class ships needs to be updated, but I don't think they should match the E-class.

We were on Summit to Bermuda in 2019, right after she was Edgified, in an S2. While the suite experience and Luminae were great overall, the room itself was TERRIBLE - they ruined the layout of bed and bath when they remodeled. Also, the public areas were naturally in tip top shape but much of the newer furniture was horribly uncomfortable. Eclipse has some wear and tear but I would choose her (and the Sunset Veranda we had on deck 6 last week) over a suite on Summit any day.

Interesting - we inquired about that Indian dining event (Taj X) and were told that we could use a night from our package if we wished, or pay separately if we preferred. Yet another example of inconsistency between ships.

There will be tons of porters in the baggage area ready to help you as soon as you get out of your cab or van/bus. Someone approached us with a cart as soon as we got out of our Uber, piled our luggage on and asked us which ship we were on since we didn't have tags. He then took us over to the Celebrity tagging desk and waited while the lady looked up our room and filled out our tags, helped put the tags on and whisked our luggage off to the appropriate area (which would have been difficult to find on our own given that luggage from all three ships was all over the place). No charge, and there are signs everywhere saying that tips are not required, but IMO this is a job that deserves a tip!

We just disembarked Eclipse yesterday. On our check in day, there were three large cruise ships in port in Vancouver, all of whose passengers had to be processed through the same customs line. We arrived around 11:15 and walked right up to the baggage tag desk (because we forgot to print them at home) - no wait there at all. However, once we dropped our checked bags, the wait began - customs took FOREVER. Many of the passport scanning machines were out of service, and many passengers seemed to have difficulty figuring out how to use them in any case. All of the other Celebrity-run check-in steps were very quick but be prepared to wait for passport control if there are other large ships in port. On the bright side, once we got through customs we basically walked right on, around 1:15-1:30.

Could be, although I don't think so since you've already paid gratuity when you purchased the package. Our "bill" showed only the charges for the items we ordered, no additional gratuity. It's more likely that different ships are allowing different amounts, or that someone on Solstice (whether staff or guest) was misinformed.

Happy to help! I would suggest verifying the amount if the allowance with someone on your ship before dining - I believe I saw another post from someone on Solstice who said their allowance was $50. Consistency is not always Celebrity's strong suit 🙄.

You can use your dining package. On Eclipse this week they gave us a $60 allowance (per diner) when using our dining package. DH and I spent $107 of the $120 total allowance and ate quite well! Don't miss the kobe beef slider.

Just FYI, they have changed the "allowance" for dining at Sushi on 5 if you use a dining package to do so. It used to be $30 or so, which made it smarter to pay for Sushi on 5 separately. However, we learned this week on Eclipse that they have raised it to $60, which is more reasonable. The two of us ended up spending $107 of our $120 allowance and ate quite well.

We're just getting ready to disembark Eclipse now - sitting in the outdoor part of Oceanview as I type. She is definitely showing some signs of wear but nothing egregious IMO. Our aft balcony had some peeling paint/rust etc and we didn't have sheer curtains, but the steward kept everything spotless. Public areas were also clean, though there was worn carpet and upholstery here and there. While she does need a refresh, I sincerely hope they don't "edgify" her the way they did Summit. IMO the classic S-class builds call for richer and warmer colors. All that cool modern grey looks awful on an older ship like Summit (and is already on its way out from an HGTV trend perspective).

Thanks for this - I had no idea a discount on the upgrade was a Captain's Club perk. We're Select so it's only 10%, but still, it's something!

Thanks! Just saved $125 on our dining package for our cruise next week. I'm going to need it to pay for the damn premium drink upgrade! 🙄

Celebrity briefly offered an unlimited specialty package (known as the Ultimate Dining Package), but it was discontinued years ago - we enjoyed it on our Reflection cruise in 2016 but it was no longer available when we returned to X in 2018, and to my knowledge it has not been offered since.

I don't see any mention in your post #7 of what I am referring to - that is, the ability to book at least the one night of your dining package online pre-cruise. As for the rest, our practice has always been to go directly to Murano upon boarding and book the remainder of our dining then. No need to bribe the Maitre'd, either. Fortunately, Celebrity customer service was able to confirm for me that they do not allow reservations pre-boarding for the dining packages. Now we know.

On a related note, I purchased a 5-night specialty package for our upcoming Eclipse cruise. I could have sworn you were allowed to reserve one night in advance with the packages, but I can't find a way to do so either on their website or app. Have they eliminated this, or am I misremembering? Our last cruise was in a suite on Summit so we didn't do specialty, and it was pre-COVID so my memory has mostly been erased in the intervening years anyway 😁. If anyone knows how to do this, let me know!

In my experience, diet tonic water is very difficult if not impossible to find on board. The selection of diet sodas is also very limited. If there is a specific mixer you like, bring a case onboard with you. Otherwise, learn to love seltzer! I often order Bombay Sapphire on the rocks with a lime wedge, then pour in Perrier to taste (ask for a large glass).

True - but they are charging gratuity on these now as well. I bought a 5-nighter today for my upcoming cruise and noticed it at checkout. We typically leave a tip when we buy a specialty package anyway so no biggie, we just won't bother anymore since it's now prepaid.

We have done this at Sushi on 5 many times in the past, but the policy may have changed since our last cruise in 2019. We just asked the maitre'd at non-busy times and never a problem. So5 is a little more casual than other restaurants, though - I don't think this would fly at Tuscan or Murano.

Actually, you can remove priority dining times from the list, because AQ doesn't need them - they get AQ. We have done this calculation over and over and just fail to see any value in Concierge over a regular balcony. We always compare the price of AQ vs a regular balcony and make our decision largely based on whether we can upgrade to specialty dining plus a Persian Gardens pass for the whole cruise for the same price or less.

Ah, okay - very good to know! We're on a 6-night so wouldn't have been worth the bother. It would be nice if they made that clearer on their website, though - would probably save a lot of calls to TAs and their own customer service department!

I checked our Scarlet Lady booking the other day for this deal and the fare had gone up $250 ($125/pp), but I couldn't tell from their website whether we qualified for the full $600 in free bar tab. I didn't have time to reach out to my TA to check at that moment, and unfortunately when I checked again today the fare is up about $1100 from what we paid. Not sure whether we missed out on a deal, though, because there's no way to see exactly how much free bar tab you're getting when booking (and website is careful to specify UP TO $600). Oh well. Our cruise is almost a year out so I'm sure there will be other deals along the way.

Our Eclipse to AK dropped about 10%, then went back up about 48 hours later. We were able to grab the drop, though. Price alerts have saved me a bundle on cruises over the years.