Review Celebrity Eclipse Jan. 10-24, 2016

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We had an extra long port time in Barbados. It was 8:00a.m. to 11:45p.m.

It was a Sunday and typically a lot of things are closed. I researched and most tourist attractions were open.

 

We were up for adventure, and off we walked to the bus station which is about a 10 minute walk outside the port main road that runs parallel to the bay.

 

We were intent on reaching Welchman's Gully. We were armed with the small umbrella from our Concierge Cabin, and in hindsight we so wish we would have had the big one. Those are such a nice feature, however.

 

Just a note, some information online is a little out of date. The bus I thought we were looking for was now part of the regular bus company and pulled in to the area of the buses. Some of these very brightly colored buses pull in across the back area in a dirt area and these are not the bus to take. Everyone was very helpful.

 

We were told bus #7 to Sturges was our bus. Here is a picture inside the bus and then one of it's schedule. My notes say it was a yellow bus even though this looks green.

 

 

 

 

It is a little smaller than their regular buses, and goes in to small local roads once we got up to the Sturges area. All in all it was a 50 minute ride and even a taxi takes about 30, so an affordable way to go. The bus ride is $1 each way per person. You pay cash to the driver. They are very very helpful to get you where you are going.

 

We encountered such lovely locals and a lot dressed in their Sunday best. We were the only cruise ship people on the bus.

 

It poured rain for most of the drive, but hey we are only here today, so off we went, umbrella ready. The price for Welchman's Gully is $12 ea. US.

There is a beautiful path through this collapsed cave area which is now reclaimed by nature. It must have collapsed years ago.

 

Here are some amazing pictures of the beauty we encountered.

 

 

 

 

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The area is about a 3/4 mile walk, and we did it back and forth, hoping to see the green monkeys that love this area. Sadly, the rain kept them away.

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It was really hard to ever leave this beauty! The

entrance operator gal, was thrilled we rode the local

bus and told us since it is Sunday not as many buses come

by the front entrance so that when we are

done to go over a chain at the back of the trail, up

some big stairs and come to their back gate area which

is not hard to crawl over. This brings you to a more

main road and you can flag any bus down that says

Bridgetown on it.

 

After going through once more to the back we did just that.

 

 

We walked across the street, as remember they drive on the left. A bus came almost immediately and a construction worker walking down the road told us to flag it down. Easy as can be, we were on the bigger bus back to town. This ride back is only 20 minutes I think. I asked the driver if he want to the terminal, and he asked if we were off the cruise ship, if so he had a place for us to get off that is even closer.

 

 

He told us where to go and quick as can be we were back to port area.

 

We decided to walk it instead of the shuttle to the ship.

 

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Once back on board, it happened to be NFL playoffs with our team

of Seattle Seahawks playing the North Carolina, Panthers, so we dawned our support shirts, had a quick lunch in the buffett, and back to the room to watch the game.

 

I had a mudslide, and maybe one to go...

 

 

Alas, our team lost today, but there is always a rainbow in everything to brighten our spirits, oh here it was right on the balcony.

 

 

We also watched half of the Denver vs. Pittsburgh game-Go Denver! before we headed to dinner. We actually had to have a pager tonight, which was no problem as we waited in the Martini Bar, where we discovered as I said earlier, that the Classic Package does get you some things here.

 

 

 

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After dinner, tonight's show was called Chandelier.

 

Again, rather a modernistic performance, and neither one of us

was sure we liked it. The acrobatic performers are just amazing though.

 

St. Lucia promised an amazing adventure ahead.

 

Morning arrived and another balcony breakfast. St. Lucia is probably one

of my top favorites in the Caribbean, it is so beautiful.

 

I had booked a Zip Line Canopy Tour with Tree Top Adventures and we

were to meet at 8:30. What an amazing tour for $59 each. WOW!!!

We were met by Tessa and happen to be the only two taking their

tour today. A private tour for that price is unbelievable!!!

 

Our driver Val, took us in a luxury car instead of a van, so we felt so spoiled! It was a long drive of 50 minutes or so, so to be in comfort like that was wonderful.

 

We all chatted and had the best time getting to know each other. Here is an overlook view along the drive.

 

 

 

Once we arrived, we walked through their beautiful facility.

 

 

 

 

 

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After placing our gear in a locker, which we rented for $5 and then

got it back when you returned the key, we used the restroom and

we were suited up in our gear.

 

 

We were assigned to young men and here they are. They are the ones on the right and left.

 

 

It was just the two of us with them, and they took my camera and took photos of us the whole day. They did videos of the amazing zip lines, but I am a rookie and am not able to post the videos.

 

Here is some still shots.

 

 

 

 

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There were 12 zip lines and each one was exciting and wonderful.

We have done zip lines in Puerto Vallarta, Barbados, and Costa Rica, and this was by far the very best one.

 

 

 

Tessa and Val were right there after our wonderful adventure and back to port we went. We got on to get cleaned up. Zip lining is sweaty stuff.

Grabbed a bite to eat and headed off to explore.

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We headed back off the ship and wanted to walk the little inner harbor right beside us. There is construction going on there, and they said we could

walk through it.

 

There are some hotels back in there with some pretty things to see.

 

 

 

We kept on walking and came to the road that backs the airport. Can't cross in this area, but we walked along the dirt road to see where it went.

 

 

It circled back to a little sand area where we put our feet in the water.

 

 

 

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We so wish we had our swimsuits and snorkel gear.

Next Time!

 

 

We found a little friend along the way.

 

 

On the harbor we could see a restaurant and this is the sign off the

road that points to it.

 

 

We walked down but were not hungry at all. I talked to fellow cruisers just coming out and they said it was fantastic. They had taken a little water ferry from the port over to get there. So that is another option. Again, next time!!!

 

Very hot walk back, then back on the ship after using some free wifi in port to get e-mail. It is so nice when the ports have this. We napped, cleaned up and had a lovely dinner.

 

Each night from 5:30 to 9:30 they have some amazing Sushi up in the Ocean View Buffet and this night my hubby got a plate and brought it to dinner as his starter. No one cared and he enjoyed that so much.

 

The show tonight was Violinist David Klinkenberg. What an amazing young man. He is definitely going places!

 

This was another fantastic day!

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I too am enjoying your review and pictures of our February cruise.

 

A really basic question from someone with no Celebrity status and its laundry privileges, can you remember if they had any 'by the bag' specials' and if pressing is included with any laundry as on HAL. It's been some time since our first and only Celebrity cruise.

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Ruth

 

Hello Ruth, glad you are reading along.

 

Celebrity is fantastic! We did miss the self serve laundry we have on Princess ships, but they do have a $20 by the bag laundry service on this ship. I'm not sure if they press it too. Someone else maybe can answer that. As Select on Celebrity, we were given coupons for two items to be complimentary pressed. My husband used mine too, and that was all we used of the laundry service.

[Been There, Planning That]

Hello Ruth, glad you are reading along.

 

Celebrity is fantastic! We did miss the self serve laundry we have on Princess ships, but they do have a $20 by the bag laundry service on this ship. I'm not sure if they press it too. Someone else maybe can answer that. As Select on Celebrity, we were given coupons for two items to be complimentary pressed. My husband used mine too, and that was all we used of the laundry service.

 

Given the cost of the cruise we can afford to do some laundry, but have been spoiled with HAL's blue bag specials all neatly pressed and Princess' laundry rooms.

 

You two sure know how to tackle everything with great enthusiasm.

 

Ruth

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Next up was Antigua, and I took some pictures as we pulled in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The store Exotic Antigua in this picture is where we were to meet our tour today with Paddles Antigua. We did not book this tour from the ship.

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We were to meet at 9:30 and would be back at 2:00. Their tour is amazing and only $60 per person.

 

We easily found our contact and with a total of 11 of us, we were off for about a 30 minute drive.

 

 

 

We arrived and were greeted by Jennie, and directed to restrooms then onto their boats.

 

 

The following picture is not the best, but it is James, Jennie's son and he was our guide all day.

 

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Paddles is a kayak, hike, snorkel adventure, so first thing, we

were off on the kayaking part.

 

 

 

 

After a wonderful time kayaking, we motor boated over to Bird Island and took a small hike to the top of this hill.

 

 

 

Here is a Where's Waldo moment. There is a little gecko in the next picture can you find it?

 

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Next up was snorkeling and off we went out in

the boat to the reef. Anyone could opt out of

the hike or the snorkeling and just lay on the beach.

 

Here are some underwater pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The coral was just beautiful out here.

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Looking alot like drowned happy rats, we picked up

everyone at the beach and headed back to base camp.

 

 

Once back at the house, we were treated to some of Jennie's banana bread and either juice or rum punch. After a brief time we were transported back to the ship. What an absolutely wonderful day!

 

After a quick cleanup, we were absolutely starving as we didn't eat much of the banana bread. We thought it might be fun to try the Gastrobar Pub lunch. There is an extra charge for this and they don't open till 3:00 to 7:00. We LOVE the pub lunch on Princess and thought it would be similar.

 

Princess does not charge for this. We paid $10 per person for fish-n-chips.

It took about 20 minutes for it to come out and we kept getting hungrier and hungrier. I may have even been Hangry which is our families name for hungry getting angry acting too.

 

It comes and we are floored by how big this is. We should have split one.

 

 

 

Excuse me, where are the mushy peas that the menu says? Need to have greens after all. The waiter goes to find out and brings back those too. Silly me, I should have skipped that. We ate and ate and ate as when you are at the super starving stage you have NO common sense!

 

There was so much breading it was silly and it was a challenge to find the fish in there. It all tasted maybe too good. As vegetarians normally, we are not use to this amount of grease and let me tell you, we suffered for it the rest of the night.

 

Sadly, we were not hungry for our regular dinner, and at 10:30 I ate a salad just try to combat how really awful healthy wise this was for us.

 

Word to the wise, unless you are super use to this kind of meal, split one!

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After trying to nap some of that awful feeling away, we got ready

and went to the show. Tonight featured singer/entertainer, Jayne

Curry. She was fabulous and so funny too.

 

We went up and caught the 8:00 to 10:00 glass blowing show. They

had quite a treat of the Bella River Duo playing while the three worked

on their glass blowing creation. This gal and guy group were wonderful.

 

We ended the day exhausted.

Since I talked about the up charge Gastrobar Pub, I will also put a few pictures of the lunch we had one day in Bistro on 5. There is a charge of $10 a person here.

 

I had acorn squash soup, and my husband had French Onion. We both had the Portabello Mushroom burger.

 

 

 

[Chelseadons]

Thanks for this review. We are first time cruisers going on the 21st February Eclipse sailing and getting all this information really helps. I guess you will get there in due course but I'm interested in your Everglades trip. We have 2 nights in Miami before sailing and I'm trying to wade through the Everglades options !! Any guidance you can give would be greatly appreciated.

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Here I booked our most expensive tour at $85 a person, but it was a 7 hour tour and well worth the money.

The operator I booked was called Island Tours with Javin.

 

We met him in the port in front of the Smoke-n-Booze store. He had a sign with my name on it. We again, were the only two on this tour. Wow! We felt kind of bad as I know his tours usually have several people. We were in an open jeep type transport that could have held 20 plus people.

 

 

 

 

 

First a quick over view of Basseterre.

 

 

 

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Javin had a speaker system so we could hear him talking

in the back of the vehicle.

 

 

 

 

Next we were off to see the ruins of the only Cotton Mill in St. Kitts. Now

there were 68 sugar mills, but only one Cotton Mill.

 

 

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It was amazing all this machinery is still there.

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Next we drove along the countryside to the Black Rocks.

 

 

 

We climbed down see them up close.

 

 

 

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With the help of a rope, we climbed back up.

 

[Melissa at Mohair Meadows]

I am so enjoying your review. Great pictures. Did you hear of anyone doing a sunset cruise in Curacao or Barbados?

 

We will be on the Eclipse April 3. I can hardly wait.

 

Melissa