Live from Celebrity Eclipse on a 6 day cruise from L.A. to Cabo..,

[doghog]

12 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

I am sorry for the issues you faced, especially the toilet one and how it was  handled.  I appreciate the balanced review you are providing. I agree contacting the Hotel Manager is a good idea. He seemed to be a very personable guy who seems to take his job seriously.

 

As to sailing Eclipse in general, just got off of her Sunday after a b2b of 14 days total. We had zero issues of any consequence. We were in two separate cabins, a Sky suite on 12 and a corner Sunset Sky on 9. We had some noise issues with the first one - carts rolling from around 3 am on. Luckily not loud enough to cause us to lose sleep, but a bit annoying. Our stream Wi-Fi was not as good as we’ve experienced on some ships, but not that bad. We had a lot of fog on our 2nd cruise which might have worsened the reception.  Service and food overall were great. We ate in Luminae with an occasional stop at the buffet for lunch. We noticed some wear and tear here and there but we felt she was overall in good shape. We dined in both Tuscan and Murano and enjoyed both. 
 

I am writing this mainly to ally concerns of future passengers. Not denying at all the issues mentioned, just saying I think they were more the exception than the rule. 

We were on the 8 October cruises. Disclaimer, we don't look for little issues. We had no complaints with our stateroom condition (7130). Everything worked, shut, flushed, drained and closed as they should. The mattress is firm. Just the way we like them. The bed was by the balcony. The couch was a standard size so getting to the closet was a little tight. A love seat would have worked better. The balcony rail could have used some stain and varnish. But no way did that take away from the balcony experience. This was our third time on the Eclipse. First for 2023. 

Edited October 27, 2023 by doghog

[doghog]

5 minutes ago, asnaleah said:

Be careful of the ship’s water if you’re prone to swollen ankles.

I shower 3 times a day and my ankles have never swollen. 😉

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Oh my gosh! That's a long line and completely unacceptable!!

 

May be unacceptable but that's what unfortunately happens when everyone decides to go to dinner at the same time.

 

On cruise we were on in Blu the Maitre'd was visibly upset when we came to dinner late.   He said he was going to get destroyed in ratings.   He said 90% of his guests were lined up before he even opened up and he had to give out beepers to many of them because he filled all the tables.  

 

At 8:30 there were only 2 tables in use.  

[Stockjock]

There’s a quick room review that I did. I usually do a little more comprehensive review, but I didn’t have a lot of time. As mentioned, we had problems with the toilet, but the room itself was otherwise in decent shape.

 

[Stockjock]

There was a smoked cocktail they make in the world class bar, so here’s how they make it for anyone interested.

 

 

[lovecruzin]

16 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

 

We were in two separate cabins, a Sky suite on 12 and a corner Sunset Sky on 9. We had some noise issues with the first one - carts rolling from around 3 am on. Luckily not loud enough to cause us to lose sleep, but a bit annoying. 

Nice to read this. We did a move to a sunset SS and were assigned to deck 12.  Surprisingly our TA was able to get this changed to a corner on deck 9.

[lovecruzin]

@Stockjock Glad you are happy with the WCB. The mixologists are different from August, it’s usually our favorite bar depending on who is making the drinks!

 

How was customs/immigration in San Diego? Did it take long? In Feb it was a time consuming process.

 

 

[ILgirl]

Thx for this review!  I always enjoy reading your posts/reviews.  I upgraded my beverage package to premium earlier today for both my November Beyond and January Ascent sailings. World ClassBar here I come!

[Stockjock]

1 hour ago, lovecruzin said:

@Stockjock Glad you are happy with the WCB. The mixologists are different from August, it’s usually our favorite bar depending on who is making the drinks!

 

How was customs/immigration in San Diego? Did it take long? In Feb it was a time consuming process.

 

 

I would say customs took about 20 minutes to clear. There was a fairly long line, but it moved pretty quickly.

[Stockjock]

14 minutes ago, ILgirl said:

Thx for this review!  I always enjoy reading your posts/reviews.  I upgraded my beverage package to premium earlier today for both my November Beyond and January Ascent sailings. World ClassBar here I come!

I will be on Ascent in August out of Rome, so I’ll look forward to seeing what people think of it. It looks like a beautiful ship.

[hcat]

7 hours ago, asnaleah said:

 

Be careful of the ship’s water if you’re prone to swollen ankles.

definitely..and read labels on any included water..buy a clean lo salt if needed..We bring a few if our own btls and a small brita filtering pitcher..

[bnurick]

@Stockjock Thank you for the review, we board tomorrow. If you haven’t dined at Murano yet, if you could post a picture of their whole bottle red wine list I’d appreciate it. American Pinot Noir and Cabs/blends.  We have a few reservations setup for Murano.  Many thanks.

Edited October 27, 2023 by bnurick

[Stockjock]

1 hour ago, bnurick said:

@Stockjock Thank you for the review, we board tomorrow. If you haven’t dined at Murano yet, if you could post a picture of their whole bottle red wine list I’d appreciate it. American Pinot Noir and Cabs/blends.  We have a few reservations setup for Murano.  Many thanks.

We haven’t eaten yet, so if I don’t forget, I’ll take a shot for you.

[NutsAboutGolf]

4 hours ago, lovecruzin said:

@Stockjock Glad you are happy with the WCB. The mixologists are different from August, it’s usually our favorite bar depending on who is making the drinks!

 

How was customs/immigration in San Diego? Did it take long? In Feb it was a time consuming process.

 

 

 

We were on two Mexican Riveria sailings on the Soltice last season, The first sailing was 3 Mexican ports and the second was 2 Mexican ports and San Diego.  Going through customs in San Pedro was so much faster, we self-carryed off, at least 50 in front of us and we waited in line for less than a minute.  As @Stockjock said, in San Diego it was about 20mins.  Also, they'll assign you a time window to get off, I'm sure there's some room to arrive arrive up to an hour early/late but if you're a night owl, you can't sleep until noon

[lovecruzin]

13 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

We were on two Mexican Riveria sailings on the Soltice last season, The first sailing was 3 Mexican ports and the second was 2 Mexican ports and San Diego.  Going through customs in San Pedro was so much faster, we self-carryed off, at least 50 in front of us and we waited in line for less than a minute.  As @Stockjock said, in San Diego it was about 20mins.  Also, they'll assign you a time window to get off, I'm sure there's some room to arrive arrive up to an hour early/late but if you're a night owl, you can't sleep until noon

We were on Solstice in Feb, LA, Catalina, Cabo, San Diego, LA.

Customs in SD was 45-60 min. No assigned times. I would say that was average unless you hit it just right!

[cruzzzinma]

Stockjock, I’d recommend you write up the world class bar and anything else that was very positive in the new attention to detail format as well. It is a very big deal for the crew.

[DaKahuna]

7 hours ago, Stockjock said:

There was a smoked cocktail they make in the world class bar, so here’s how they make it for anyone interested.

 

 

"Zacapa Beneath the Clouds" or something similar to that right?  Was it still priced $2.00 above the premium beverage package price limit ?  It's my favorite drink at the World Class Bar. 

 

Zacapa 23 Solario is my 'go to' rum for something to sip on when I am just relaxing with a nice drink.  XO is nice but not, IMHO, nice enough to warrant the additional cost above the 23. 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by DaKahuna

[Stockjock]

15 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

"Zacapa Beneath the Clouds" or something similar to that right?  Was it still priced $2.00 above the premium beverage package price limit ?  It's my favorite drink at the World Class Bar. 

 

Zacapa 23 Solario is my 'go to' rum for something to sip on when I am just relaxing with a nice drink.  XO is nice but not, IMHO, nice enough to warrant the additional cost above the 23. 

 

 

The drink is now priced at $22, which is five dollars above. I wanted to try it, and the presentation was very nice, but the drink itself was not terribly impressive. In the future, I will just stick to the drinks that are offered at the $17 or below price. I also thought about doing Johnny Walker blue, but it’s something like $67 or $69 a shot, and that’s obscene, imo.

[DaKahuna]

13 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

The drink is now priced at $22, which is five dollars above. I wanted to try it, and the presentation was very nice, but the drink itself was not terribly impressive. In the future, I will just stick to the drinks that are offered at the $17 or below price. I also thought about doing Johnny Walker blue, but it’s something like $67 or $69 a shot, and that’s obscene, imo.

 

Had no idea they were charging that much for it.. Zacapa 23 but not the XO has historically be available on the Premium Drink Package list but were out on our last couple of cruises.  I like it on the single ice cube, normally found only at the WCB, or as the rum in my run Old Fashion.  

 

[calicakes]

Thanks for blogging.  We'll be getting on tomorrow.   This review makes me a bit nervous. 

[Stockjock]

So, tonight is our last night on Eclipse. Here are some photos from the show and from dinner.  I’ve also included some photos from our tour to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and I do recommend that.

 

As mentioned, we had the toilet back up three times, so they comped us a specialty dinner, and we chose Murano. It was very good, but I think it was better when I had it a few years ago, also on Eclipse. The service in Murano was impeccable, and they did have some better wine offerings which I will show in the photos. In terms of the lobster, I think the sauce was a little bit thinner and it had a little more of a Dijon flavor than I remember, and the bacon flavor was less pronounced. But having said that, it was still very good and I enjoyed dinner and my buddy did as well. 
 

Even though we had a few issues, I still do recommend the ship. We had a good time, and every now, and then we had some frustrations, as noted, but I think that the pros definitely outweighed the cons.  

We had a good time in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and I think the captain had previously decided to change the itinerary, as everybody received a notice of an itinerary change. Probably changed to Catalina, or something like that, because of hurricane Norma, and then he decided to sail toward Cabo, even though the port was still closed at the time. That worked out well, and the weather was beautiful and really not much damage down there.
 

I’ll be writing a review after I get back and I try to keep my reviews fairly simple and short, so once again, don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Stockjock

[LaCal]

1 hour ago, Stockjock said:

So, tonight is our last night on Eclipse. Here are some photos from the show and from dinner.  I’ve also included some photos from our tour to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and I do recommend that.

 

As mentioned, we had the toilet back up three times, so they comped us a specialty dinner, and we chose Murano. It was very good, but I think it was better when I had it a few years ago, also on Eclipse. The service in Murano was impeccable, and they did have some better wine offerings which I will show in the photos. In terms of the lobster, I think the sauce was a little bit thinner and it had a little more of a Dijon flavor than I remember, and the bacon flavor was less pronounced. But having said that, it was still very good and I enjoyed dinner and my buddy did as well. 
 

Even though we had a few issues, I still do recommend the ship. We had a good time, and every now, and then we had some frustrations, as noted, but I think that the pros definitely outweighed the cons.  

We had a good time in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and I think the captain had previously decided to change the itinerary, as everybody received a notice of an itinerary change. Probably changed to Catalina, or something like that, because of hurricane Norma, and then he decided to sail toward Cabo, even though the port was still closed at the time. That worked out well, and the weather was beautiful and really not much damage down there.
 

I’ll be writing a review after I get back and I try to keep my reviews fairly simple and short, so once again, don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

 

 

Thanks for a great review each day and the photos 

 

We loved Murano on our first Celebrity cruise in April and we’re on the Eclipse 11/17 🍹🍹😜

 

While we really liked the Lobster table side with the dijon sauce this time i’m asking them to do the Lobster poached with drawn butter 😃 and we also get the Chateaubriand 

[Norwaylady]

Thanks for a great review🕺🏻🕺🏻

[Stockjock]

3 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

Thanks for a great review🕺🏻🕺🏻

You are more than welcome.
 

Let me add one other comment, we are directly across from the crew entry and exit, which is very busy, and we didn’t hear any noise at all from it. We are also pretty close to the elevator and we didn’t hear any noise from that either.

 

So other than the clattering divider on the balcony that I mentioned earlier, the room was very quiet. And my buddy went in and stuffed some more paper in there and it seemed to “fix“ it temporarily. 

[Stockjock]

Well, unfortunately, I just ran into some bad news. The toilet isn’t working at all.

 

I mentioned that it was overflowing three separate times, including at 2 in the morning. But now it’s completely non-functional, and as we get ready to disembark the ship and the timing is pretty bad. That definitely sucks.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Stockjock