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Review Celebrity Eclipse Jan. 10-24, 2016


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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.

 

Welcome, Chelseadons! You should pop over to our Roll Call for 2/21. You will find many ideas for excursions, maybe some folks from your area and the option to join the Cruise Critic Connections Party for a meet & greet onboard.

 

Don't miss the chance for an Everglades tour, and a airboat ride is a must! There are several good options for that.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2055094

 

See you in 3 weeks!

 

Cyndi

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We had a wonderful time on this ship, but we enjoyed the cruise in a very different way. We are not at all adventurous like the OP - kudos to her and her husband. I enjoyed reading about the zip lining, hiking, snorkeling, etc. We cruise to escape the cold weather in the Northeast, relax, see shows, receive great service, meet interesting people, attend lectures, eat good food, take walks in each port, read, and play Mah Jong (my DH enjoys the casino). The Eclipse did not disappoint, except for one area. We look forward to the shows in the Eclipse Theater every evening - especially the production shows. We have taken many Celebrity cruises and were excited to hear that there were 3 new production shows. Celebrity spent a lot of money on Topper, Chandelier, and Rock On. The performers were very talented and executed the numbers beautifully in amazing costumes. What made the shows unappealing to us was the lack of Broadway tunes and pop music - in other words, most of the songs we had never heard before. Celebrity created original shows, but they didn't resonate with us. It sounds like the OP didn't particularly like these shows either - a shame since these shows are expensive and will probably be on the ship for 3 - 5 years. Are these shows on the other S class ships?

 

Welcome hurwitz5!

 

Thank you for your thoughts on the shows. They truly were great entertainers, and we liked various parts, but overall, they were not our favorites we have seen.

 

I also love the Broadway songs!!

 

The shows had a lot of symbolism and made you think very hard. Maybe we just don't find that appealing on a cruise ship where we just want to lay back and enjoy some familiar tunes, with great singers and dancers.

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DH and I were on this cruise and too loved it.

 

Did other excursions, so fun to read about your port days. Thanks for sharing yours. We did Nevis since we've been to St. Kitts 3 times. Fell in love with that little place. Like the nontouristy atmosphere.

 

We too felt the classic drink package was fine for us. Since we had traditional dining, we made "close friends" with the sommelier as he kept my wine glass topped off every night. Didnt need to wait to empty a glass or show our cards after the first night. We had a few mixed drinks along the way too. But found we didn't really drink anymore with the pkg. than when we pay as we go.

 

 

Hi eandj!

 

So glad you are enjoying reliving some of that wonderful cruise. I would love to hear more about what excursions you did, gives me more ideas for when we go again.

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Absolutely loving reading this as we too are about to set sail next week and getting very excited. Will be our second time on eclipse.

many thanks for everyone sharing and have been particularly interested in a couple of threads regarding the evening chic, I too was under the impression that there would be 3 on a 14 day trip, but it seems as if there are just 2.

Am I correct in this assumption? I am sure that we will still dress up as we do love to do so and there are not too many places left where this is still possible. Many thanks again for all the wonderful advice and suggestions, keep them coming.

 

Hello nutty nurse gladys!

 

I bet you are getting so excited. The days are ticking by. I only remember 2 Elegant Chic. I love to dress up, and through the years have acquired a lot of dress clothes for cruises. Sometimes the clothes just have to take turns coming on cruises with us, so I am more apt to be overdressed anyway. I am sure most anything you bring will fit in the dress code.

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Oh my, poor chap! Was it very windy?

 

Thank you so much for your great review so far; hoping to book Eclipse next year and it looks wonderful. I'm really enjoying reading your posts. :)

 

Welcome spanner14!

 

It was only windy starting the evening of our of our fourth sea day and all day on the fifth sea day. It was super hot and still for the morning and afternoon of the fourth sea day, and we really maybe got too much sun while laying on those amazing cushy deck chairs, so really was not a problem to do more inside things on that windy day.

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Am SO enjoying your review and all the wonderful pics! And especially because you are vegetarians like I am. Have you seen any special vegetarian menus? It sounds like you found plenty to eat. I do eat dairy, including cheese, and eggs. Anything that did not have parents actually. Will be sailing Eclipse in April so am especially enjoying anything you can say about what looks like a wonderful ship. Thanks!

 

Just ask your waiter for the vegetarian menu. There are always a few items that aren't on the regular menu.

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Rowse,

Omg, loved reading your review and seeing everything from your eyes. Makes me so excited for our turn Mar 20th. We've been to most of these ports before but wanted to go back to a few of them. Just so happened we found them all in one itinerary!! Yay!!!

Great to hear about the "classic Beverage package". That's what we have and was wondering about Martini's and if we could get them....and in the proper glasses!!!! I see that you guys had no problem at all. So happy to hear. Love the look of those mudslides....have to try one or two of those...😜

Just a question, I have some knee problems and stairs can be a little troublesome but loved a couple of the tours you've done. The one in St Kitts and I think St Maarten was the other. Would you recommend?

I'm 53 if that helps. Not as active as you, just may need a little more time to do stairs. Hubby is fine. Won't do and climbing though....lol

Thanks so much for so much info on these ports. One of the best I've read.

Cathy

 

 

Welcome Cathy,

 

I am sure March seems like a long way off, but time seems to pass more quickly in our 50's that's for sure.

 

I would not recommend the tour in St. Kitts for you, it involved a lot of climbing over uneven surfaces and rocks. There is so much to do in St. Kitts, I am sure you will find something fun to do. I WOULD recommend the tour in St. Maarten of the Rhino Rider. There was no stairs or climbing involved just bouncing softly along the water. It was a hoot, the snorkeling was fabulous, and an amazing day all around.

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Hi Rowse, Enjoying your review; we are on the Eclipse for the 3/20 cruise, and were wondering if they had the big buffet (breakfast/lunch) on this cruise as they have done in the past. Thanks, Carolyn & John

 

 

Hello Nibby1, so happy you are reading along.

 

I LOVE those breakfast buffets! Sadly, I did not see one listed, and if someone chimes in and says there was one I will cry. I experienced one of these in prior years, and I did miss how elegant and festive it was. I am sure the expense of one of those was where they decided some cutbacks would occur. DANG!!!!

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Rowse, how were the mosquitos in Barbados and St. Marten? We are hearing so much about the Zika virus so I wonder are there more mosquitos. When in the Caribbean last year I didn't notice a big problem.

 

Greeting SharonK!

 

We did not see any mosquitos at all in any of the ports! I only wore repellant one time and that was In St. Lucia zip lining. I wore it, but didn't see any anyway.

 

My advice is to bring repellant with you just in case, but don't worry. Sometimes things like this gets blown way out of proportion. If I were pregnant, I would be a bit more careful.

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Rowse, thank you so much for this lovely, fun and positive review! We are going on Eclipse on March 20th, and really cannot wait. I am so happy that you loved every single second of your cruise. It is so refreshing to read a review that is so positive and it just says volumes about your outlook on life as well. I am loving every second and will be sad when you are totally finished with this review. Thank you again for this uplifting, beautiful, fun review and the fabulous photos. I loved "tagging along" on your cruise.

 

Joanne

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Rowse, thank you so much for this lovely, fun and positive review! We are going on Eclipse on March 20th, and really cannot wait. I am so happy that you loved every single second of your cruise. It is so refreshing to read a review that is so positive and it just says volumes about your outlook on life as well. I am loving every second and will be sad when you are totally finished with this review. Thank you again for this uplifting, beautiful, fun review and the fabulous photos. I loved "tagging along" on your cruise.

 

Joanne

 

Rowse, you are a good example of the people who see the glass half full versus those who see it half empty! Guess who is happier? :)

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Greeting SharonK!

 

We did not see any mosquitos at all in any of the ports! I only wore repellant one time and that was In St. Lucia zip lining. I wore it, but didn't see any anyway.

 

My advice is to bring repellant with you just in case, but don't worry. Sometimes things like this gets blown way out of proportion. If I were pregnant, I would be a bit more careful.

 

Thanks so much! I don't have to worry about being pregnant any more but I don't like mosquitos buzzing all around either. So glad to hear you didn't see any!

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Rowse, thank you so much for this lovely, fun and positive review! We are going on Eclipse on March 20th, and really cannot wait. I am so happy that you loved every single second of your cruise. It is so refreshing to read a review that is so positive and it just says volumes about your outlook on life as well. I am loving every second and will be sad when you are totally finished with this review. Thank you again for this uplifting, beautiful, fun review and the fabulous photos. I loved "tagging along" on your cruise.

 

Joanne

 

Thank you for such lovely compliments Joanne, so glad you are "tagging" along. Wish I could hide in your luggage and tag along on March 20th!

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Rowse, you are a good example of the people who see the glass half full versus those who see it half empty! Guess who is happier? :)

 

Thank you opa& oma! Now as long as that glass is half full of those Mudslide drinks, I am on board:)

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Thanks so much! I don't have to worry about being pregnant any more but I don't like mosquitos buzzing all around either. So glad to hear you didn't see any!

 

I am enjoying the review..

 

We were just in St Maarten at the beach; St Kitts.at a garden resort on the lawn; and on Martinque...city and park.....no mosquitos, no bites ( other than in Fla)

 

I am a prime mosquito magnet even with DEET so very happy. Worst so far was Belize....next yr concerned abt Costa Rica &, Panama

 

Happy Cruising!

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We had a lovely weekend away near Seattle visiting with our daughter, so I was unable to continue with pictures till today. Thank you all for hanging in.

 

We woke up before the sunrise today, and thought it would be fun to be on the walking/jogging track area when it happened. This is the pool that the track goes around.

 

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This is far later in the day, but I didn't have my camera earlier. We ended up using the stairs at the front area walking around that, then back down stairs on the other side down to the track and then up stairs at the back around there and back down stairs to the track making it a complete, around the ship, walking path for us. It was beautiful!

 

In general, we used the elevators very few times, but those glass ones in the atrium are just stunning. Every crew member works so hard to keep everything sparkling clean.

 

After breakfast in the buffet, we returned to our room to change to our swim suits. It was incredibly hot and applications of sun block happened often. Quick dips in the pool happened often as well. I felt like I was refilling my tank on Vitamin D for sure.

 

Apparently the cruise director, Richard, and his assistant just couldn't take the time to put a swim suit on and hit the hot tub anyway. They were really a lot of fun and high energy. I hope to cruise with both of them someday again.

 

 

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We enjoyed a Veggie Burger and fries again today. It was just steps away

from our perch. Once you place an order for a veggie burger they tell you it will be 20 minutes.

 

Be sure to ask for the grilled onions and mushrooms on top they were wonderful!

 

After feeling thoroughly baked, we changed and caught the movie "The Walk" in the Eclipse theater. We really enjoyed it, and I know my husband must have as he is usually fast asleep within minutes if he sits in a chair in a dark theater.

 

We attempted trivia again up in the Sky Lounge. There was commotion at the window and I got to see two very large dolphins beside the ship. That was the only siting of wildlife other than birds, and flying fish off the ship while it was sailing, so I was very excited to get to see that.

 

I think I mentioned earlier, but if not, we had about $400 on board credit. We had about $60 left, and I was under the impression from reading various things on Cruise Critic that you are not refunded the money. We got a couple things from the Apple store and I got a new evening purse. We got it down to $1.95 and just let that go. Well, it was only a couple days and I saw the refund on my credit card. No big deal, we did need the things we purchased. Who knows why some people did not have it refunded and we did.

 

We had a lovely dinner with our wait staff we had come to love in Anytime Dining (Jujub and Nyoyomen).

 

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If you have the drink package, they sure give you a LARGE pour! The sommeliers do an amazing job keeping them full.

 

This is a scallop starter.

 

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That evening we went to the show Rock City. Of the three production shows, I liked this one the best. Even if the shows were rather different, the talent of the young people is top notch.

 

Off to bed after another wonderful day.

 

NOTE: Make sure you read the TODAY left on your bed this night, it says

"During the night of Friday to Saturday, the ship's clocks will be set one hour back".

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I think I mentioned earlier, but if not, we had about $400 on board credit. We had about $60 left, and I was under the impression from reading various things on Cruise Critic that you are not refunded the money. We got a couple things from the Apple store and I got a new evening purse. We got it down to $1.95 and just let that go. Well, it was only a couple days and I saw the refund on my credit card. No big deal, we did need the things we purchased. Who knows why some people did not have it refunded and we did.

 

Enjoying your experience immensely. I'll be on the Eclipse next January for a 14 nighter so I particular enjoyed the pictures since this will be my first time on her. Thank you.

 

There are two types of OBC. The $ from Celebrity are Non refundable and show up on your ship board account (via TV screen) as OBN. Then the OBC from your Travel Agent, you've pre-purchased or someone gifted you IS Refundable. That shows up as OBR. They pull from the OBN before hitting the OBR.

Edited by ChucktownSteve
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I woke up at what I thought was 6:50a.m. We HAD forgot to read that little blurb in the Today, and it was really 5:50a.m. Oh well, this is our last day, we want to do a lot.

 

After doing some yoga we walked around the upper decks again. For as gorgeous and hot as it was yesterday, today was windy and cool and overcast. We were so glad we had our wonderful deck day yesterday.

 

We decided we were both against going home, but alas that was what we had to do tomorrow! We really had had the best time ever!

 

We ate in the buffet for breakfast after our walk. With the drink package, you are able to have most things at the Cafe al Bacio. I tried several teas which were amazing. My favorite coffee type drink was the Carmel Macchiato, but note they are not even close to Starbucks flavor. We usually grabbed them to go, but today we sat down and enjoyed.

 

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Next to this area is the Gelateria Cafe. Being Select on Celebrity, you get a coupon for a free scoop. We are not ones to waste, so we had those this day as well. It was a pretty small scoop, slightly larger than a ping pong ball. I am curious, if anyone actually paid for a scoop, was it bigger than that? Probably best that it was small as it was too yummy. We sat in this area later as well to eat that and got quite a chuckle seeing person after person using their coupons. Guess others are not wasters as well.

 

Since this was our last day, the Glass Blowers also held their action. Even though they had raffled items at each session, they still had many for the auction. Here are pictures of that event.

 

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The bids went up into the high hundreds, and the blue one on the far right in the back went for $1700. The money went toward scholarships for the Corning Glass Museum, and I believe that blue one's amount went toward Breast Cancer Research. It was very informal and a lot of fun to see.

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We had wanted to check out the Bocce Ball, and of course put it off till today. Now it was so windy and cool, but we tried it anyway. I think one of us scored higher because the wind blew HIS ball closer.

 

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We did a couple more trivias in the Sky Lounge, but I am thinking it was more or less to have that last Mudslide or two.

 

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Sadly, it was time to start packing, but we didn't actually have to have our bags out till 11:00 p.m. We just wanted it ready so we could just throw a last few things in and put them out when we were done for the evening.

 

At dinner this evening, I had an amazing dish. It was actually whole wheat pasta, and from experience, whole wheat pasta on a cruise is rare!

 

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My husband had this amazing dish, and I think it was mushrooms or tofu, I can't remember, it is not chicken, although it looks like it.

 

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Then I had a pumpkin, mushroom, ginger item and it was quite spicy

and wonderful.

 

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We saw a bit of the British Invation Pre-Party in the Grand Foyer with DJ Mulvey, who is the assistant cruise director. The singers and dancers put on a little show on deck 3. Then we danced a little as had not had time to fit that in before tonight.

 

The show for tonight was both Jesse Hamilton and the Beatles tribute band called Hard Days Night.

 

It was time to call it a night and get that luggage out. We had a ship's excursion tomorrow for the Everglades Tour and Fort Lauderdale Airport dropoff. Our luggage tags and directions for meet time corresponded to this. We were to meet in Celebrity Central at 7:45.

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I am enjoying the review..

 

We were just in St Maarten at the beach; St Kitts.at a garden resort on the lawn; and on Martinque...city and park.....no mosquitos, no bites ( other than in Fla)

 

I am a prime mosquito magnet even with DEET so very happy. Worst so far was Belize....next yr concerned abt Costa Rica &, Panama

 

Happy Cruising!

 

Thank you for coming along hcat, and for that information. It is always great to have first hand knowledge instead of some of the scary stuff that people are reading in the news.

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Enjoying your experience immensely. I'll be on the Eclipse next January for a 14 nighter so I particular enjoyed the pictures since this will be my first time on her. Thank you.

 

There are two types of OBC. The $ from Celebrity are Non refundable and show up on your ship board account (via TV screen) as OBN. Then the OBC from your Travel Agent, you've pre-purchased or someone gifted you IS Refundable. That shows up as OBR. They pull from the OBN before hitting the OBR.

 

Welcome ChucktownSteve!

 

Well, that explains it. We had $100 from our travel agent. That is nice to know they pull from the OBN first.

 

Sorry you have so long to wait till you too get this amazing adventure!

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Before retiring last night I was out on the balcony trying to climate myself a little, as it was really cold. DANG, real life is breaking in.

 

Seems I didn't shut the curtain as well as the room steward does, and I was awaken by a bright light streaming in. It was 5 a.m. and I grabbed my robe and stepped out to watch us sail in to Miami. There were spot lights in the sky and all kinds of music.

 

Wow, I think, they really welcome the ships, home at Miami. Then I realize this is all to do with the Miami Marathon. What an amazing experience to get to see this from our balcony. The race begins at 6 a.m. and I am guessing that is because it is usually very warm to hot in Miami and that would be better for the runners.

 

It is fairly dark out so my pictures are not great, but I will post them anyway. There are a ton of runners out there, trust me.

 

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