Celebrity Eclipse Baltic 19th July 2014 Review

[SWORRUB1]

So we are homeward bound.

Helsinki was the next stop.

Booked on a excursion today, to the Rock Church, which I thought was unremarkable, went to the Sibelius statue, again unremarkable, and had a brief walk around Helsinki, weather still excellent.

This was the most unremarkable stop so far, so so. Started to feel ill now with no energy and heavy legs. Good job 2 sea days coming up.

Spent an afternoon in bed sleeping and watching Gravity on the in house movie Channel. Guess it would have been better in 3D and on a big screen, but I just had no energy.

We sailed into Copenhagen. Strange that the Denmark/Sweden Bridge is too low to let Eclipse sail under it, so you have to go all the way around to get to Copenhagen. I dont think time was an issue at this point though. Still feeling quite second hand went on a trip around Copenhagen where the traffic was very busy and the weather the worse that we had had all trip. Got a little wet on the open back of a boat. Have been to Copenhagen a few times so it was all very routine for me. The centre was pretty much like a building site, apparently they are building an underground. The point of docking was miles away from the centre and most definately not walkable. Needed a shuttle bus to get into Copenhagen. It was a new bit of the Port, no facilities. Shuttle bus exceptionally busy with queues.

 

Weather and the lingering cold didnt help my general mood. Soon it was time to leave and our final two days!

 

Mood was lifted by the evenings show The Tenors of Rock, these guys can belt out a tune!

Edited August 20, 2014 by SWORRUB1

[TeaBag]

Loved your story about the seagull as I had a similar one. I am still berating myself for not having a camera in hand. We were on the last minutes of our cruise sailing into Vancouver. We had an aft balcony and I was enjoying the view. Beneath us people were enjoying eating outside. A guy came along with his plate, 2 eggs, hash browns, bacon etc and placed it on a table, then left to get something else. The movement of an opportunist seagull on the canvas top beside us caught my eye and I could just guess what was about to happen. He swooped down and I never saw 2 eggs disappear as quickly in my life, slurp, slurp and they were gone and so was the seagull. I couldn't stop laughing. The look on the poor man's face when he returned was priceless. People at the next table told him what happened.

[SWORRUB1]

We sailed away from Copenhagen on the stroke of midnight, and on out way home to 'Blighty'. It was the last formal night on the Thursday evening , we bumped into Tenors Of Rock in the lift on the way to dine. They were dressed in black basically. They rushed off to get changed, as they felt somewhat underdressed. We arrived to be seated for dinner at about seven, this was the first night that we couldnt be seated on Select dining straight away. Camped out in a packed Martini Bar, whose waiters seemed to spend more time in the Dining Room looking for people who had ordered drinks but had been called into dining. We had to wait about 40 minutes or so, but that actually worked to our advantage, as we were still in the Restaurant when 'Party

Time ' happened. This consisted of the Ships heiracy thanking everyone for their efforts over the Cruise. The MDR was transformed by flashing and colour changing lights in the ceiling and a large 'Conga'!. CD Sinan (Sinbad as Mike Doyle dubbed him) led the festivities for the last time as he was off to the Med to continue his induction to all things Celebrity. We would have missed all of this had we dined at the time we turned up, glad of the wait!

CD Sinan and Members of the Catering Team

 

As we had several different waiters and assistants throughout the Cruise we didnt really get to know our waiting staff, they were all efficient and friendly, however as previous mentioned Silva (from India) and Deepuksing (from Mauritus) were the outstanding combination. How Deepuksing managed to keep smiling whenever and wherever you saw him is a mystery to me.

Waiting team Extrodinaire

Silva and Deepuksing

 

And that was it really, we had a Top Chef menu on the final night, wasn't impressed with that, thought that the normal fodder was better!, and at 20 minutes after our appointed 0900H we disappointedly departed the Eclipse , quickly finding our luggage and that was it . A trip 36 months in the making was over (We had to do a trial first to see if one of our Party could cope with being at Sea)

 

Back home and changeable weather! YUK YUK work on Monday as well!

 

Final opinionated views will follow in a couple of days!

Edited August 20, 2014 by SWORRUB1
Spelling again D minus Sworrub!

[SWORRUB1]

Loved your story about the seagull as I had a similar one. I am still berating myself for not having a camera in hand.

 

Yes the lack of a camera was frustrating, dont know if I could have taken pictures though with all that was going on! Will remember it forever though!

:)

[SWORRUB1]

So it was over , have been back 4 weeks now so have had time to reflect on what was originally planned for my 50th Birthday trip, Ok so it was 4 years late but we prepared by having a trip for 7 days to the Fjords to get the feel of cruising, that trip was taken 2 years ago, on the P&O Azura so any comparisons that I do will be based on that experience.

 

Check in was much better, for the earlier Cruise we waited in a car line for what seemed like hours but was actually about 90 minutes when all we wanted to do was get on the Ship, in fact when we did board it was only 20 minutes until we sailed, with Celebrity we were on Board for 1145H for an 1130H time. Very good Celebrity, I would guess that we had pretty much the same class level on each of the ships but it was great to be on board before 1200H, and we could relax until our cabin was ready at 1340H. We ate the excellent Burgers at the Mast Bar for lunch, and had a few Beers whilst sitting in glorious Sunshine, a fantastic start. They also did Hot Dogs that I can recommend and Fish and Chips that presumably only appear on sailings from the UK, but I didn't try these.

 

Luggage was delivered to the Cabin about 1430H, and we spent some time unpacking before going exploring. The Cabin was smaller than our previous sailing (were we had a Bath that we never used once!) however we all thought that it was much better designed. The advice re the hump cabin came from Celebrity when we booked and they were correct 1075 was plenty roomy enough for us as the enlarged Balcony was great. If I was a sun worshipper I guess I could say that it was a little shaded but I preferred that to the tiered overlooked balconies of Azura. The layout of the bathroom was great and although small perfectly adequate. Great power in the shower.

 

Staff, all great and extremely friendly, a credit to themselves and Celebrity, cant believe that they are so happy being away from loved ones 6 months at a time.

I think that I heard they had 77 different nationalities of Staff on board, well done to all.

 

 

 

Bar Service

Every drink that you wanted really. I am not a big spirits drinker, so Classic Package was fine, tried all the Canadian Whiskies and managed a couple of JDs

as well. There was plenty of choice for me on the wine list both reds and whites at dinner and a refreshing fizzy white during the day. Good choice of non alcoholic drinks, coffees from Al Bacio were good as was the evening Hot Chocolate for my daughter. If anything the area around Al Bacio needs increasing as it does get rather crowded. Only went in Cellar Masters once and that was atmospheric to say the least, Michaels Club was closed to people like me! Spent pre Dinner in Passport Bar

although the non alcoholic mixed drinks were actually poor there when compared to getting them at your table. We also had a JD put on out tab at that bar for no real reason. This was immediately credited by Guest Relations once they were made aware. Ran out of Coke on the last night, all over the ship, actually had a Diet 'Caffeine Free' Coke, didn't taste of anything! I need to ask Coca Cola what is the point in making that? Drinks service from the bar at the table in the MDR was super, always turned up quickly, and if you wanted a refill they were soon available if you asked.

Wouldn't frequent the Sunset bar due to smoking.

 

 

Casino

What a waste of space all those slots are. Sparingly used on this Cruise , could do much better with that space, however I guess they will be used more in US sailings.

I am a very small time Blackjack dabbler but I went to play a couple of times towards the end of the Cruise, felt intimidated as players even on the five dollar table seem to be gambling fifty dollars a hand, too rich for me, so I didn't get to play. Must be a cultural thing!

 

Food

This was good. Most mornings had Room Service breakfast that was a great way to start the mornings, and avoid the scramble at the Oceanview Cafe, towards the end of Breakfast service. The hot items on room service were actually hot.

Mast Grill, great Hamburgers , Hot Dogs too much of a temptation just to stay there for lunch!

Oceanview Cafe

Well what a surprise this was. I mention above about avoiding the scramble at Breakfast time, however that was a perception, when we actually got there it wasn't too bad at all, and we got a table quickly on all occasions. Tables were cleared really quickly, so this obviously helped, and the set up of the stations was great. Carvery of the Day looked good although I never tried it, the Pizzas were realistic, the English Breakfast items were good, including Black Pudding!, tried the Eggs Benedict a couple of times, also very good. The Curries at lunchtime packed a punch and were great. In all a good buffet restaurant. Only thing I would have done differently was to have the late Breakfast items available even later!

The drinks servers were not particularly abundant, but you could easily walk to the bars and get served quickly.

Cafe Al Bacio

Cakes and Cookies were great so the girls tell me, but they are not on Sworrub's menu!

MDR

Excellent excellent, sure there were things that we didn't like, but the choice was amazing. The quality of the beef was superb and by far the best that I have had outside the USA. Never even considered for one minute eating in any Speciality Restaurant as this was at a good enough level for us. I took a particular liking to the Caesar Salad, and the Apple Pie A La Mode, and enjoyed both of those on several occasions. No problem in getting any drinks either wine or Bar service, you only had to ask and they were there in 2 minutes, or less. Particularly liked being seating on the Balconies edge, looking down on our subjects (haha!), in fact preferred this to a window seat, were we looked to be moving so fast!

My own opinion is that Dress Code must be enforced strictly. It doesn't spoil my holiday but people who want to down dress have a place and that place is the Oceanview Cafe.

 

Qsine

Although we didn't dine in here sat here as we awaited disembarkation all I could think of was how enclosed and claustrophobic it was, I don't think I would have enjoyed eating here as it was one of the poorest spaces on the Eclipse.

 

 

 

 

Entertainment

This was appropriate to the cruise I feel see fuller review of the acts in an earlier post, some I liked some not so much, however in general I would say it was all fine. A couple of things though I thought that the trivia quizzes were to short, should be aiming for any hour, really what is the point of it being over in 20 minutes, and the Games available on the Lawn were rather restrictive having set times for example only between 1400 and 1600H, why?, we can manage to throw a few things around without supervision! Seemed a little too regimented.

 

Excursions

OK, but I can never get over the fact I don't really like coaches! The Local Life Experience on the Underground in SPb was the highlight for me. We did get everything the narrative on the Excursions said. A surprising highlight was the Vasa Museum, the low light Belgium. Could have been better but for traffic and Weather Copenhagen. The ship also docked a disappointingly long way from the Centre in Copenhagen ridiculous when we were there for 16 hours or so, didn't make seeing Copenhagen on your own easy!

 

 

Overall

I would most certainly travel with Celebrity again. Everything was at a level that we enjoy, never enjoy 'slumming it' on holiday and would much prefer to go less often at the level we want rather than go somewhere we don't like. I know that sounds awfully snobbish, but it is true! The original travel agent we saw when booking our first cruise got us to list the Hotels that we had been to and enjoyed, then she came up with P&O or Celebrity as being the Cruise lines for us, she was correct. We rate Celebrity higher than P&O having now tried them both, and with identical itineraries would probably

choose Celebrity first. I am a little worried about the UK cutbacks in schedule as this limits our choice, (sworrub is sick of flying!), but it is true to say that our next Cruise will probably be to the Canaries or Med, and the line of choice will be Celebrity. (I also want to sail into New York but this will obviously be with the Market leaders in this Cunard!)

 

One slight issue was that they added $10.50 to my final bill for no reason, immediately credited it when I complained but said that it happens a lot, why why why? only upsets Customer for GBP6.50 whats the point, but if you multiply it by 2800 then I guess there is a point!

 

Didn't think the the Photograhers were very good, in fact only bought 2 photographs down from 6 last time, would guess though that Sales figures tell Celebrity of this issue.

 

The one big improvement that all Cruise lines could and should make is to completely ban smoking and make offenders walk the plank (ok so the last bit is a joke!) Loved the Celebrity policy though, as it must be one of the toughest at sea. That automatically puts them up my list of future Cruise suppliers.

 

 

If you have read all of my review thanks for sticking with it, hoped it has helped some of you to decide on what to do, but I can thoroughly recommend Celebrity and the Baltic itinerary.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2014 by SWORRUB1
Added comments re Photographs

[OhioDogLover]

Thank you for your review. Glad you had a great vacation.

 

Ohiodoglover

[england1]

Your review was very entertaining. I am happy you had such a great time.

[Guern69]

An excellent read, thanks for sharing.

[SWORRUB1]

Had spaghetti and meatballs one day in the Oceanview, spaghetti cooked fresh and was excellent, Meatballs, totally and utterly tasteless, perhaps it was a poor day for the meatball chef! Pity the seagulls didnt take those away!

Edited August 24, 2014 by SWORRUB1
spelling again! you will be getting an E soon Sworrub

[Surrey_Pirates]

Hi and thanks for an excellent and well balanced review.

 

We will be on Eclipse on Saturday for 8 days to the Fjords. Have sailed on her earlier this year and loved it. Looking forward to the entertainment, Tenors of Rock and Mike Doyle sound great.

 

Cheers

[SWORRUB1]

Have a great time, wished I was going as well, I can recommend traveling on the Flam railway to the waterfall halfway along , fantastic when we were there 2 years ago.

Edited August 24, 2014 by SWORRUB1
added pic

[AntjeG]

Thanks for your review and the great pics.

 

Your comments on Warnemünde made me laugh. The seagulls stealing tourist´s bread roll with fried fish are a common plague in town but seagulls stealing cruiser´s pizza are new.

And I suppose the "bored locals" who waved you in and out port were mostly excited tourists from places with no connection to the sea. July/August is the main tourist season in Warnemünde and it is a favorite spot for people from other parts of Germany who want beach holidays. Those people are impressed to see all the big ships.