Celebrity Eclipse Question

[keithm]

Can anyone answer a few questions to compare this ship to Cunards Queen Elizabeth?

How does the entertainment compare?

My husband and I are considering a Med cruise on Eclipse in September but are concerned that there may be children onboard and that would ruin the cruise for us.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

I've cruised both lines & can give you pointers.

1)The Eclipse is the closest to Cunard in dress codes & such

2)Entertainment is similar on both lines. Some great, some a tad boring.

3)Food is similar. A little better in Eclipse MDR. Much better in Cunard Grills(better than Luminae on Celebrity) Buffet better on Celebrity. Staff we found very similar on both lines

4) Few children are on both lines as both lines cater to a more mature crowd. Really never saw problems with kids on either lines. Their parents? Well, that can be another story.

[Hlitner]

My husband and I have no children and want to cruise with adults especially when it comes to dinner.

A romantic meal would be ruined with badly behaved children crying on the next table.

Are there any adult only ships?

 

If you want adult-only ships (or at least very unlikely to have a lot of children) you should consider some of the very high end ultra luxury small ship cruise lines (like Silverseas, Seabourn, etc). We have also been on Cunard and there were actually more kids on the Queen Mary 2, then we normally see on our Celebrity cruises. If you do cruse in mid to late September, there will likely be a relatively small number of very young children (because it is during the school year)...and the longer the cruise, the fewer the children.

 

If you want another issue to consider, September is right in the middle of the hurricane season!

 

Hank

[Bluebell28]

Well in over 400 days at sea, on 39 cruises, we have only seen one really badly behaved child on P&O. If you do decide on Celebrity, go for an Aqua cabin, and dine in Blu, we have dined in Blu 69 times, and cannot remember seeing any children at all. Most of the children we have seen on cruise have been impeccably behaved, unlike some adults.

 

Sorry to go off-topic, I've got a question following on from what you said. Last August I took my daughter on a med cruise with P&O Oceana (I hope she's not the badly behaved child you mentioned!;) ). This August we are going with Celebrity Eclipse on the Baltic cruise, my partner is coming too this time. Please can you let me know what the differences are between the P&O cruise experience and Celebrity?

[techwatcher]

Sorry to go off-topic, I've got a question following on from what you said. Last August I took my daughter on a med cruise with P&O Oceana (I hope she's not the badly behaved child you mentioned!;) ). This August we are going with Celebrity Eclipse on the Baltic cruise, my partner is coming too this time. Please can you let me know what the differences are between the P&O cruise experience and Celebrity?

 

We have been on P&O once, in June 2015, here were our impressions:

 

The cruise was on Arcadia (adults only ship by the way), a short 5-day cruise to Amsterdam, Zeebrugge and Guernsey.

 

1. Embarkation/disembarkation - fine, well organised. Had to wait about 30 minutes on embarkation to be checked in - lots of seats so no big deal.

2. The ship - obviously Arcadia is not a new ship and styles have moved on, but it was fine. Bits of the ship didn't 'flow' very well, e.g. forward on Deck 9 you have to exit via the Spa? It's reasonably well maintained and clean.

3. Cabin - functional, bathroom beginning to show its age but reasonably well designed.

4. Food - better than expected, and better than Celebrity in our experience. We dined mainly in the MDR and food was always hot and reasonably tasty. We had so-called Freedom Dining, which like on many cruise lines, isn't really. P&O should consider allowing reservations here.

5. Service - a bit rough around the edges in places. Speaking with the Hotel General Manager he acknowledged that this was due to the Britannia effect, where experienced staff had been sent to their newest ship and there are lots of new and inexperienced staff on Arcadia. Honest, but not impressed.

5. Entertainment - typical cruise line fare. We don't care for the shows but dipped our toes into a couple - singing especially was amateurish. The activities staff (P&O still have a team as opposed to Celebrity's 2 people + CD) didn't engage with passengers - they'd turn up one minute before something was due to start and disappear one minute afterwards.

 

Overall we enjoyed the cruise. P&O didn't wow us enough to make them our new favourite but given the right itinerary we would sail with them again.

Edited May 30, 2016 by pward123

[Bluebell28]

Thank you for your reply pward123. I found your observations very interesting, especially in relation to food. We were disappointed with the MDR food on Oceana so we are hoping for better food on Celebrity.