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Just returned from Baltics on the Eclipse

pacheco18

By pacheco18,
in Celebrity Cruises

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pacheco18

pacheco18

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Just thought I’d share a few observations about our Eclipse Baltic Cruise

 

The ship is divine. Laid out wonderfully.

 

We had hump CC cabins on deck 12. Location was perfect.

 

We ate in all the specialty restaurants (bought a dining package which essentially gives you 5 dinners for the cost of 5).

Murano was too stuffy/formal for me. We loved Tuscan Grille and Qsine. Don’t eat lunch if you plan to have dinner in either.

 

The buffet on Eclipse is a huge improvement over M class both in layout and offerings. We would have been content to eat there instead of the MDR. The two things Celebrity just does not do well are coffee and ice cream. Gelato was good, however, as were the lattes. Of course, you pay extra for those.

 

We did not understand the hype about Bistro on 5. We ate there once and never went back. It always seemed empty. Nothing special at all.

 

Entertainment was fabulous. The cruise director, Dru Pavlov, was the best I’ve experienced on Celebrity.

 

As others have posted, we missed the dance music in the lounge adjacent to the dining room on M class ships. Although having music in the center of the ship allows it to be heard in all venues, it is an inconvenient place to dance. We danced very little because of the location.

 

We took classes in the I Lounge (we are Mac users) and learned a great deal. I also did boot camp – rigorous 4 days of workout. I hope it kept some of the pounds off.

 

We did all private shore excursions and we are glad we did.

 

The service was great. The crowd was largely British (Southampton sailing) and international. Formal nights saw many tuxes and even non-formal nights saw many men in jackets and ties and women in sequins.

 

We will be on the Solstice to Australia and NZ in January 2013 and I am looking forward to another cruise on the S class ships.

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pacheco18

pacheco18

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We booked the May Eclipse Baltic because it had the extra sea-day we could enjoy on our favorite Line and Class ship. Can you share what private tours you used?

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Den

 

SPB for St Petersburg and Berlin. I have never had better guides.

We did everything else on our own. You do not need tours for any of the other ports.

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pacheco18

pacheco18

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You can ONLY book the dining package on board.

We made our reservations in advance to be sure we would get the dates and times we wanted. The fees were charged to our credit cards. As soon as we boarded we were able to transfer the reservations to the dining package (which came out of our OBC) and get a credit for the credit card charges back to our OBC. We had a net gain of the cost of one meal (5 meals for the price of 4).

 

You have to use their restaurant combination -- 1 Murano, 2 Tuscan Grille and 2 Qsine. Perfect for us.

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