Eclipse Caribbean Inaugural review - 11/20-27/10, very long!

[Infi]

We were a group of four on this sailing: my daughter (DD, 26th cruise) and my aunt and uncle (DA and DU, 3rd cruise). Our favorite line is Celebrity, with honorable mentions to HAL and Princess. If you don’t like narratives or especially long reviews, this is probably not for you. For those who do, I hope you enjoy this review.

 

Since we live in Ft. Lauderdale, we almost always use a car service to get to the port. We have used Black Pearl limo (http://www.blackpearllimo.com) for years and have always been very pleased: they’re punctual, professional, and just great folks to work with. If you’re looking for a car service, I highly recommend them.

We arrived at the port a little after 10am. This was the first time I have sailed out of the Port of Miami in probably about twenty years, so it was a completely new experience for us. The port has really come a long way since then! Eclipse was at Terminal G, the last terminal in the line and closest one to the bridge and downtown. The usual chaos and confusion greeted us when we arrived, as most were still disembarking and waiting outside. We headed over to the non-descript entrance and went through the “sailing guests” entrance. (Apparently there were quite a few people visiting the ship today, mainly crew and TAs. My daughter also saw Simon Weir wandering through the terminal as we waited to board.)

 

A quick check of our passports and we were on our way upstairs. A line of about twenty people waiting to go through security greeted us. Since we were with my elderly aunt and uncle, we chose to sit down and wait for the line to subside. In the meantime, we filled out our health questionnaires. The security finally started letting people through around 10:45am.

Check-in was quick and painless. Afterwards they took photos for our SeaPass cards and placed a blue sticker on each (never figured out what those were for, any ideas?). Good thinking on X’s part – on other lines, they take photos at the gangway, causing a large backup. We continued walking the length of the terminal before we reached the large waiting room, which was actually part of the empty terminal ahead of us. We were thankful we got there early, as the room filled up quickly and people had to stand later. I think all the visitors delayed our embarkation, as everyone was still sitting in the terminal even after noon. X did bring out a table with refreshments (fruit punch and water), which helped appease the crowd. At this point I wasn’t really a fan of the Miami terminals: for one, the seating was inadequate and in some cases, cheap (folding chairs, really?). Two, it felt silly to walk the entire length of the terminal and into the next, only to eventually have to walk back to our starting point in order to board.

 

At about 12:15, they finally began boarding. Walked back up the length of the terminal and finally stepped onboard. Servers greeted us with champagne, which was nice – on our last X cruise, some greedy folks in front of us grabbed two glasses of champagne each, leaving none for anyone else. It takes all kinds!

 

Headed up to the buffet, which was eerily empty – the calm before the storm, perhaps. We managed to snag a table by the window and enjoyed a view of downtown Miami while we ate. The buffet served up the usual favorites, salad bar, make your own stir-fry, made-to-order sandwich bar, etc. I really like the buffet on S-class. I normally dislike eating at the buffet on embarkation day, but not on Celebrity. The Oceanview Café is well-laid-out, spacious, and has a great variety of dishes. From Asian to Italian food, they really try to cater to many tastes.

 

Our cabins were ready at 1:30pm, between the later boarding and eating lunch, we really didn’t have too long to wait. We waited for the rush to subside and then headed out to our cabins. On our way out, DA and DU discovered the ice cream bar in the Oceanview and enjoyed their first cone of the cruise.

We both had Cat 1B cabins on Vista deck, with DD and I on the port side in #8275 and DA and DU on starboard in #8242. Both of these were on the bumped out section of the ship so we could see both forward and aft, which was nice. If you looked straight down, you saw a little strip of the promenade area and the rest was all ocean. In the past, we’ve had balconies on the lower decks (Continental and Sunrise) and found this to be comparable to the Sunrise/deck 7 view. Both cabins were also connecting cabins, so they had the mini-foyer sort of entrance, which we did not use. They also had a trundle bed underneath the sofa, along with a pull-down bunk in the ceiling.

Most importantly of all, we had the much-coveted bed-by-bathroom configuration. It always cracks me up to see how people get so worked up over what configuration they’ll get in their cabin. Now that I’ve sailed in both types, I can confidently say there is absolutely no difference in actual space or perceived space. If you do get the “undesirable” configuration, relax – it’s not as bad as you think, and it certainly won’t ruin your cruise.

 

[Infi]

DD and I spent some time sorting through all the welcome aboard-esque paperwork in the cabin, mainly looking for our MDR table reservation. She volunteered to go down to the MDR and double-check our table location with the Maitre D’ while I stayed in the room. She returned a short while later, rather upset. Our reservations were linked with our relatives’, as we were assured many times by both our TA and Celebrity, and we requested a large table. However, our dining assignment had DD and I at a table for two, and DA & DU at a table for eight. The Maitre D’ told her there was nothing they could do, as it was Thanksgiving and a family-heavy cruise, no large tables were available. Apparently they were, if our family was at a table for eight without us! He told her to come before first seating and he would try to at least arrange a table for the four of us. I’m going to be blunt: I was very disappointed in Celebrity for messing this up. What’s the point of linking reservations if they put everyone at separate tables? Ugh. The Maitre D’ was of little help or apology, either.

 

After that mess, we all kept busy during the afternoon. DD and DU went on a ship tour so he could get a good overview of the ship. Our bags arrived shortly after 2pm, so DA and I did a little unpacking in our respective rooms.

Later we headed down to Moonlight Sonata for our muster drill at 3:45pm. We were not required to bring our lifejackets. We watched a short video in relative comfort, as there were plenty of chairs available for everyone. Painless!

 

Now it was time for sailaway, so the majority of the ship rushed upstairs to snag prime spots around the pool or at the railing. All the rushing was for naught, as we didn’t actually sail until about 5pm. The party band, D’Revelation, was very good and they had a lot of people up and dancing. I know a lot of people miss the Caribbean bands, but I think the party bands bring a great energy to the pool deck, as well as the dance parties in the Grand Foyer.

 

The sailaway from Miami is very nice, nicer than Ft. Lauderdale IMHO (or maybe I’m just jaded). It’s almost like being overwhelmed with nice views, between the skyline and the sights along the waterway. The views of A1A, Star Island, Fisher Island, and all the boats in the harbor are all very pretty. Some cars will even stop along A1A just to wave and watch the ships sail out. Both the luxury homes on the barrier islands and the condos on Miami Beach are especially impressive to see – vacation home, anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

We headed down to dinner early, where we discovered that the Maitre D’ had apparently given a large percentage of passengers the same advice to see him for changes before early seating. He managed to place all of us at a table for four, but was just as resolute in the no-larger-tables declaration. He did promise that if he could do anything, he would send a card to our room with our new table assignment.

Our new table was on the lower level, in the center of the dining room – fantastic location and you could really appreciate the beauty of the whole room. We weren’t as lucky with our waitstaff team, however. Our waiter was over-the-top and sickly-sweet, IMHO, explaining the menu courses to us as though we had never been to a restaurant before. He continued on like that for the rest of the meal. Our assistant waitress seemed distracted and slow to respond to simple things, like a request for more water. I will always give waitstaff a pass on the first night, I’m sure it’s incredibly hectic and most are not on their A-game, no matter how good they are. But really, our waiter’s personality rubbed all of us the wrong way. Though I wasn’t optimistic, I was really hoping for a table change.

Aside from the service issues, our meal was excellent. I got to indulge in my first escargot of the cruise – love the dish and especially love that X has it on the Always Available menu. It’s things like that that separate X from other lines, IMHO. DD enjoyed the goat cheese tart appetizer, and both of us had a nice prime rib for our entrée. DA and DU tried the Always Available salmon and enjoyed it a lot as well.

 

After dinner, we wandered the ship for a bit, enjoying the various lounges and spaces on the way to the theater. Our relatives were very impressed with the modern style of the ship and were wide-eyed as we explored. The shows on this cruise were always at 7 and 9pm, and we found early seating gave us plenty of time to make the 9pm show. The show was alright, very introductory, and included a performance by one of the acrobats from the upcoming Eclipse production show. He did a juggling and balance routine as a chef and it was really cute. The CD was John Grantham, who we enjoyed throughout the voyage. He was very visible around the ship, always friendly, and most importantly, not too cheesy or it’s-all-about-me in his hosting duties.

DD went up to the late night buffet for a late snack of cookies (her little tradition) and I turned in for the night. We were set to lose an hour (clocks set forward), so it was time to get some shut-eye before our first sea day.

 

End of day 1, next installment coming soon.

[tiggypooo]

Hi Infi:

The mystery of the blue dot is about to be solved. We were on the next sailing and also had a blue dot. We were told that there had been some issues with the cameras doing the embarkation pics and anyone with a blue dot had already had their picture taken.

tiggy

[Classynfun1]

Love this style review!!

 

I was on the Eclipse the week after you and have my own blog. My installments are much like yours, without the pics. Would you be ok if I linked your review on my blog?? :-) You can look at it before you decide..

 

http://www.classynfun1.com

[Classynfun1]

Here is the link to cruise only related posts (just to make it easier)

 

 

http://classynfun1.com/tagged/Celebrity_Eclipse_11.27.2010

[alexsarasota]

Classy:

 

You are a HOOT;)....Cheers (hiccup).

 

We are on the 1/15 Eclipse in AQ with the premium drink package. Thanks to you and Infi for great blogs!!!