goorawin

On 9/13/2019 at 12:36 AM, RockyandMoose said:

Some photos of the deluxe veranda stateroom And bathroom. Shower pressure is excellent with both an overhead rain shower  and handheld spray as well. Products are excellent quality with mild if any scent. They are also hypoallergenic. Bathroom has ample drawer, wall cabinet space for stowing product and personal items. 

I have just caught up with your Eclipse experience which is certainly very interesting and detailed. More importantly it covers a different angle to mine, so that’s great.

I have noticed that you have only minor concerns about your suite and yet your photos reveal some of the concerns we had with ours.

Firstly I would appreciate your assessment of the reflections in the TV when viewing it. Since the TV is such an important device in a paperless ship its vital that it is easy to operate and view.

Secondly would your prefer to have a more conventional type of basin in the bathroom, instead of the very flat surface which is far more prone to splashing?

Thirdly what are your thoughts on the square and very sharp door handle in the shower.? Do you think it could present a danger to someone, in the event they slip, which of course can happen anytime but is far more likely in a moving ship.

Finally those narrow depth wardrobes may be fine in a home but on a moving ship, no. If the ship has gone through a heavy swell, a lot of what is placed on those shelves will end up on the floor when opening the door.

There are many other issues like this on the Eclipse that I strongly believe Scenic needs to be made aware of. This is important before the final design of the Eclipse 2 is locked-in. It is only through honest assessment by passengers will these sort of changes be incorporated.

On 9/1/2019 at 2:31 AM, Carol From California said:

I thought this would be the response and I completely understand. I admit, there has been no news about the building of Eclipse #2 and wonder whether they will build it and where. Maybe they will wait to see how Eclipse #1 bookings go and then decide.   

We were told on board that Scenic have already hire a large team of people to start the final design and negotiate contracts for Eclipse 2. They are thinking they may just get the ship built in one shipyard, still to be decided and have it fitted out by another. The plan is to have it completed within 2 years. 

Well I wasn’t going to comment again but Scenic have done it again. Last night, after a long day, and the final get together and recap on the whole cruise and just before dinner they asked everyone to completed an online survey, that night. They said it only had about 100 questions, when pressed by passengers, they said they could extend it to 48 hrs before completion!! How inconsiderate is that!!!!!!

If you have long flights etc you would really feel like filling out such a long form, They said you could not even get a copy, for your own reference. Even staff could not believe the request.

Well tonight I did try to logon, even through I tried three different browsers, and guess what the site timed out!!!!!!!! Will try again tomorrow, but seems they do not want comments on the Eclipse.

Many of us were starting to warm to Scenic but that stupidity has set our opinion right back again.

I just do not think they will ever learn, and they seem to have lost the plot.

Oh by the way, we disembarked in Quebec and that did not go as planned either.

We are staying in Quebec for three nights before travelling throughout eastern Canada and USA for five weeks.

4 hours ago, drron29 said:

Well we have now seen the ship here in Vancouver.

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I hope the little grey bags in this shot weren't yours Goorawin.They took a bit of a tumble.

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And from on high.

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One Art Gallery in the Old Port area was pleased to see you.

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Noticed a few disembarking passengers headed to our hotel-the Auberge Saint Antoine.We originally planned our stay there because it was such a short walk from the cruise terminal.

The Discovery team leader is now Jason. From what we have been told Kara could not handle all the delays and uncertainty of the ship and decided to move on. Jason has been very good, as have all the other team members. Given the small number of staff, most outings have gone very well indeed, certainly better than expected.

One area that was working well in the beginning was announcements throughout the ship. However a number of passenger complained about having them in their cabin, so now if you wish to hear announcements you have to be in a public area or rush outside your cabin to hear them at all, which is totally unsatisfactory for an expedition ship.

The tour quality has generally been of a high standard, with good information and duration. Mostly they have used very competent local guides, and most passengers seem to have enjoying the experience.

One area where the team has excelled is with the evening recap and briefings. They have been entertaining, informative and not to long (about 30 minutes). The recaps and briefings are certainly the best we have experienced.

The hotel staff are settling in well and trying their best to deliver top service and they are getting there. There have been instances where passengers asked for something that was not on the ship, so at the first available port staff went into to town and purchased the product. Pretty good indication that they are bending over backwards to give the best service, and I’m sure other ships would not do that.

Anyway unless someone wants to know more information, I'll sign off as our cruise is quickly coming to an end. There is still a lot of work to be carried out to complete the ship so hopefully by the time it reaches NY most of it will be done. For all of you who are booked on the Eclipse in the coming months, I'm sure you will enjoy the experience.

On 8/23/2019 at 10:09 PM, smoothCs4us said:

When Scenic first announced that they were building a cruise ship, we made a booking which was later cancelled due to the construction delays. 

As soon as the first plans were issued and also prior to the build,  we raised the question as to the  forward visibility because it looked then that this would be an issue. 

We raised this both in Scenic information sessions and also by email directly to Scenic. 

The replies were always that it would not be a problem.  

Amazing to have no actual observation lounge. 

Following up on the Observation Lounge here are a couple of photos. The one looking out is from a standing position. The third photo is of the best viewing deck which is deck 10. It has 360 degree viewing but unfortunately it also has a smoking area which limits some of it, sometimes. As well there is only one door leading to it.

23 hours ago, docboss1 said:

G- How are the closets and balcony space in comparison to silversea? 

The Cloud had a walk-in-robe and certainly had more room and more hooks to hang items. The suite feels much the same size as does the balcony, I think it is quite a good size for short to medium duration voyages, without going overboard.

23 hours ago, towel-animal said:

 

 

Sorry for the confusion, by "room service" I was referring to the dine-in-your suite option. Wasn't sure if they have a specific menu for delivery, or the food comes from the selections of the restaurants. 

 

Nevertheless, I'm delighted to hear that the butler service is so nice!

We have not as yet used the in room dinning, however the menu is somewhat limited. There was also a question about  menus in restaurants as I did mention that there were no printed ones available . They do have a limited supply now in the restaurants but that is the only place to can see what is on the menu, they do not have one outside the venue, like so many other ships. That may change, one can only hope.

17 minutes ago, RockyandMoose said:

 I posted a few days ago but perhaps with all of the back-and-forth of messages and photographs no one had time to respond. So I’ll give it one more try. We are set to board the ship on September 10 out of New York. We are trying to get an idea from somebody who is presently on the ship as to what the ambient temperature is in the common area’s of the ship during the day and evening. I tend to run rather warm while my wife tends to run a bit cooler. We’re trying to figure Out how to pack.   Ships we have sailed on in the past 10 to keep the temperature pretty warm – – short sleeve weather. Is that the same on the scenic eclipse? We’d really appreciate it if somebody on board would take the time to answer this for us. It will help us pack and are sure that we will enjoy ourselves more. Thank you in advance to whomever will be kind enough to share an answer. 

Sorry I missed answering your question. Most common areas on the ship are on the cooler rather than the warmer side. I would guess that they are held around 21 to 22 degrees C. That's very similar to the Silver Cloud. Cabin temp, is easy to change upwards from 18C. Hope that helps.

22 hours ago, Carol From California said:

Thank you for posting these photos. Except for two suites at the front of the ship on deck 6, the cabins on deck 6 are Deluxe Verandah with 366 sq. ft. EXCEPT #612, #617, #628 and #633, which are Verandah with 344 sq. ft. Those four cabins are slightly narrower than the rest. Are you in one of those?  I was wondering if you are because you mentioned how the door makes it difficult to access the bathroom when it is open.  I am booked in one of those standard Verandahs on deck 5 so just wondering.  Hope you are continuing to enjoy your cruise!

Yes, it is the Deluxe Verandah suite.

Cruise is going well thanks. Today we visited Gros Morne Canada, which is a pretty and interesting area. Internet very slow at the moment which has not happened that many times. A couple of time it has dropped out completely for a short period,  but then that is to be expected in the region we have been. 

Overall the food quality has been very good and probably on average better than Silverseas. However there are small areas where it is below par, for instance cheese selection is not good while sandwiches from the Azure Bar always look dry and unenticing.

Last night we had a meal in Lumiere’s (French menu) and it was superb, world class and as good as you would get anywhere.

On the issue of viewing wildlife and nature from both inside and out. I think Ponant ships have set the standard.  Even having only one location for lifts and stairs does not allow easy and quick access to the outside to view wildlife. Its just pity Scenic did not use that as a base when designing the Eclipse.

5 minutes ago, smoothCs4us said:

Thankyou Goorawin for your feedback. Our Antarctica cruise was cancelled and we did not rebook due to the new price being dearer than our original cancelled booking. 

It is good that the Eclipse is finally sailing. Can you tell me if the forward view from the observation lounge inside, is good, as it seemed like the height of the bow would hinder the outlook? Can you enjoy the view without having to stand up? 

As others have said, we really appreciate the time you have spent reviewing and reporting everything, thanks again. 

That is a big issue you cannot see forward for the lounge. There have been many complaints about the lack of vision. That is also a big issue on the Silver Cloud, even though they do have a lounge that you can see forward, you have to go outside to get to it, another poor design. 

On 8/22/2019 at 12:12 AM, Carol From California said:

Thank you so much for posting more photos. The cabin looks very nice! Is that the lowest cabin category?  That is what we booked and it looks like it might be that category. The reception area looks very nice! In your post #161 it looks like there are three photos that did not come through....at least I am not able to view them. 

 

Hope you continue to enjoy your cruise! 😁

Our cabin is mid-ship on deck 6 and I think is a standard cabin. It has a nice amount of room but cupboard space is a bit limited and with the doors open into the passage makes it impossible to get in or out of the bathroom with them open. Also one of the three cupboards is totally useless as its only about 5 to 6 inches deep. We have been in a cabin on deck 8 with a four poster bed which has more space but still not a very good design.

On 8/22/2019 at 4:23 AM, towel-animal said:

 

I agree that for expedition style cruising, one may not wish to dress up or have a formal type dinner after a tiring excursion. Perhaps if people leave enough feedback onboard, they'll considering opening Yacht Club for dinner.

 

Also curious if you've taken advantage of Room Service yet and how that experience went? If you have any time to post a photo of the menu, that would be fantastic. 

 

Thank you again for your continued reporting! 

The dress code is very informal, certainly not as formal as the Silver Cloud which we were on about three months ago.

The Butler service has been very good, mind you, on the Cloud we had a Butler that was unbelievably good, one you would die for. 

On the right is the reception desk and to the left is the main bar, which then leads into the theatre. A very open plan.

14 hours ago, Holy Roller said:

Thank you so much for the useful insights Goorawin.  I shall certainly benefit from  much of your advice when we board in October for Miami to Lima. 

If I still have a concern it is about the layout of the Spa Suites.  The only pics I’ve seen show totally open plan with no privacy between the bathroom and bedroom.  We’re reasonably open minded but this would seem a little candid.  I know we are all begging you for information so please, after all you’ve been through, feel free to ignore this and enjoy the rest of your cruise.  Thanks for being so unselfish and generous in your posting.

We have only seen into a number of different cabins and all those have a separate bathroom and toilet and no see-through glass.

15 hours ago, towel-animal said:

 

@goorawin, thank you for returning and reporting more on your experience, plus the beautiful photos! We are all hungry for any morsel of info and you taking the time out of your vacation to provide your insights is so generous.

 

I'm curious, was it ever explained why they proceeded with boarding of the ship in the first place on Day 1 when it was so clearly not ready for guests? 

 

Nevertheless, it sounds as if things have improved significantly and I'm delighted to hear that the experience is so enjoyable!

 

Would love to see a photo of your suite in its "finished" state if you're able to post some. Also curious if they keep Yacht Club open in the evening for a dinner buffet?

 

 

Completed cabin. The bed is very comfortable and is able to be tilted which is a nice touch.

No, the Yacht Club is not open for dinner, which I and many other believe it should be for this type of cruising. So no buffet options for dinner.

Thank you all for your feedback. Carol you nearly lost me with those comments, which I certainly felt were directed at my negative comments.

So I will do another post.

I have limited all my previous comments to what I was able to asses reasonable quickly. As well these were only based on the ships design, that being of an expedition vessel.

We have been very lucky and have sailed on many different expedition ships throughout the world, including Ponant and Silverseas and others, so my assessment is only based on that experience. We do not like big ships and don’t travel for entertainment or food particularly but prefer to see the more remote locations and nature around the world, but of course in reasonable comfort.

Having said that, I am now able to say after spending more than three days on Eclipse and in varying conditions, that this ship is brilliant for doing that sort of cruising. As I have already said, it’s smooth and very quiet which is great.

It manoeuvres extremely well and with it’s dynamic positioning system which not only speeds up positioning of the ship but also keeps it stable in orientation. This is really ideal for expedition cruising and the other big advantage is, it does not waste time dropping anchors, a really great system.

On board everything is starting to settle down now, with staff under much less pressure and by the look of them starting to get some good nights sleep. Generally they are a very happy bunch and are easy to get along with, while still bending over backwards to help make our experience better. They just need more time to learn to work really smoothly together as a team, but then that is to be expected on such a new ship full of automation everywhere. Maybe it‘s an example of automation overload, with everyone trying to get a handle on it.

The ship is still being fitted out and some cabins are still having issues such as hot water that only available sometimes, so you have to have a shower when there's hot water. Most passengers are now just accepting the fact that they will get it fixed ASAP and just enjoy the rest on the experience on board.

The drink selection is a lot less than we were under the impression Scenic were going to provide, while savouries at happy hour or any other hour for that matter, are almost non existent, which is unusual for a cruise ship.

However food is generally very good with the best selection at lunch, in the Yacht Club (buffet). Unfortunately seating is limited there, as it is in all restaurants, which may mean sometimes waiting for lunch .

Last night we dined in Koko’s Teppanyki, which only seats 8 but the meal was fantastic. Because of its quality it is booked out for the remainder of this cruise, so again be quick.

Seating could at times, also be an issue in the theatre which is disappointing for an expedition ship.

The expedition team although small in number, are actually doing a pretty good job with few dramas and all are interesting and easy to talk to. There have been a number of enrichment lectures and culinary programs

The 6 seat helicopters are also very smooth and quite, and great for getting a different perspective of the area, but bear in mind they are popular and book out very quickly.

The submarine is another excellent experience, unfortunately when we did our dive down to 100 meters, visibility was very limited because of the glacial water. Never the less we did see some small marine life which was colourful and interesting at that depth.

Again this activity is very popular so booking as soon as possible is the go.

The Pilots for both the helicopters and submarine are very competent which makes the experience that much better.

So all in all most things are staring to look up, mind you the design faults, some of which I have already mentioned, are not going to be fixed anytime soon, so passenger are just going to have to live with those and hopefully no one get injured.

The ship is now leaving Greenland and heading to Canada.

5 hours ago, Carol From California said:

Thank you Tripician. I was hoping to keep this thread "positive", but honestly concerned about what I am reading here.

I though I was giving you all a rather balanced report, give that more than 90% of passengers have had significant issues and were not happy.

So if you don’t want to hear how it has been, good and bad, that’s fine by me. So maybe there is no point in continuing wasting my time in posting anymore comments or photos.

Today was our first expedition experience in the air and on water, which was all wonderful.

This is the last photo I’ll post and its from the Scenic helicopter looking over a Greenland glacier.

12 hours ago, Sweetpea711423 said:

 

 

Hi, goorawin.  Thanks so much for all of the good information about what the Scenic Eclipse is actually like.  I have a question that I'm hoping you might be able to answer.

 

My husband is a pipe smoker -- it is part of the way he relaxes at the end of the day.  Do you know whether there is anything like a cigar lounge or other smoking lounge on the ship?  If not, that would be a deal breaker for us.  Even if there is outdoor space for smoking, it really doesn't serve the same purpose.  Particularly since the cruise I am eying is transatlantic (Dublin to Boston), trying to relax, sitting outside smoking a pipe in the middle of the Atlantic, would not work.

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.  Enjoy your cruise!

There is no smoking room, sorry

3 hours ago, rojaan19 said:

 

HI Goorawin,  so sorry to hear all is not going well on board.  The cruise was expensive,  and you have lost the first day  already.  Have there been any offers of compensation from Scenic management ??  If not  why not ??

They did mention a refund for the day at the time but so far nothing has been done. They did provide a very good day tour which included an excellent lunch. The cost for them for the days delay would have been huge.

Thanks to everyone for their support.

Well we finally boarded just before 5pm with the ship leaving port at 6pm.

It was full on, for the next few hours so no early update, sorry.

They certainly pulled out all stops to get the ship ready enough to allow us to board. The staff must have been under huge pressure, so they look very tired. I really feel so sorry for them.

How ready is it, not very, and from what we hear most cabins have issues, from main doors not closing to items missing or not working at all and showers not working. Our own cabin has had it’s issues as well. including no safe and lights that came on many times in the middle of the night for no reason, just to make sure we did not get a good nights sleep. We now have a safe and hopefully lights that do not come on in the middle of the night again. The complaints have been many with people not that happy, but at least staff have been addressing issues reasonable quickly.

They have introduced many changes to what I consider to be those normally expected. Toiletries are not provided either only soap, conditioner and hand lotion, all in dispensers.

No printed menus, newspapers or daily programs, most of which is now electronic and displayed on the room TV.  These TV's are not working that well and are difficult to learn and slow in operation. The TV itself is behind a glass panel (no doubt to make it look classy) which reflects all the light from everywhere making it less than ideal for viewing the screen. This also makes it almost impossible to view from bed, mind you I not a fan of watching TV in bed anyway.

One of the other interesting things is the light switches which are not only small and difficult to read what they do but rather complex to work out, what does what. With no printed instructions its a trial and error system, in fact there are no printed instructions for anything.

On the positive side the ship is certainly smooth and very quiet. Scenic has an open bridge policy for expedition cruising, which is great from my point of view.

The internet connection speed seems to be better than normal, but then there aren’t as many passenger using it either.

In my opinion the ship looks better from the outside than it does from the inside. I know this is always going to be a very personal thing but then I like things to be practical and functional.

I certainly do not think this ship has been designed with any of this in mind. Instead it’s a classic example of systems being designed by what I call OEA’s . They are the ones who do not have a practical bone in their body.

Hand rails, taps and other fittings all have sharp edges which certainly could be an issue for safety, particular with a moving ship and rough seas.

On the other hand anyone who like to see themselves in mirrors, together with all the other reflection all around, will love the bland colours and design.

It’s a cleaners nightmare, with plain dark carpets, smooth and shiny surfaces which all show marks and dirt so well.

In my opinion the most impressive room is the Yacht Club restaurant. which is the main dinning area for breakfast. It is bright and airy and it even has the inside swimming pool, and two showers on the outer walls of the room. The roof of the pool area can also be opened. Mind you having all that water around people eating is probably not the most practical thing, but then it looks really good.

The Eclipse has a really good viewing area from the bow of the ship, as seen by the attached photo.

Currently we are heading to Greenland and have just nominated our preferences for helicopter and submarine trips, so hopefully the weather is kind to us for those activities. We are all looking forward to those. As well it appears that this trip is going to be a little more of an expedition cruise than we were originally expecting, which is great.

Many rooms are still not complete, as are some of the outside decks and signage. Hopefully that will all be done by the time the next cruise starts.

I will send some other photos over time.

Today is another day and they have offered us another tour with boarding after 4pm, maybe!!!!!!

The ship is not full, only 147 so I have been told. Just as well probably, as this city probably may not have fit us all in last night. Last night we were all in many hotels across the city, as it is a very busy time here.