Semi Live from Celebrity Eclipse - Antarctica 14 nights from Buenos Aires

[Kos123]

Hello everyone! 
 

This is our 2nd cruise and first with Celebrity so we are pretty much newbies and have nothing to compare our cruise experience with, so it’s going to be super subjective 🙂

 

I couldn’t find much info about this particular cruise so starting a thread with pictures and thoughts for people who research it. 

We spent a week in Buenos Aires before embarkation — such a beautiful city with colonial architecture, great food and variety of things to do. 3-4 days should be enough to experience it all and we generally felt safe there just by using common sense. 
 

- Embarkation was done in a different terminal because of the storm damage, like others folks already mentioned, it was quite a ***** show with long lines under direct sun and generally poorly organized queues. We arrived about 1pm and were on board around 4pm. 
 

- The stateroom is what I’m kind of disappointed the most so far. We got an aqua class upgraded from a concierge verandah and the first thing I didn’t like is the extended roof and rails hanging from the balcony - it just kind of steals the sky view. Not a biggie but I would rather have a lower deck verandah with a clearer view. The other thing is a very loud bathroom fan which can’t be turned off. White noise from open balcony does the trick but something to keep in mind for light sleepers like myself. There are occasionally employees above moving pool stuff but not really noticeable. 
 

- Food is great, I’m not a picky eater so everything is just great at the Ocean view, a good variety of options all day around. We can’t get the hype of Blu yet to be honest, so not really worth the upgrade as well on my opinion. Just one thing - it does feel crowded during the peak hours in the buffet and some people camp at tables playing cards.
 

- Speaking of another “perk”, Persian gardens are kind of worthless for us as well. A sauna and steam room are not warm enough, and heated chairs were always occupied by other folks so we couldn’t use them two times we went there. 
 

- Staff is the best surprise for us - everyone is super friendly and helpful. I know it’s not easy to deal with variety of different people every day but everyone does a good job and provide excellent service. A huge plus for Celebrity. 
 

- Can’t comment on activities and events much since most of them oriented towards older crowd (we are in early 30s and we expected it - doesn’t really bother us). We did enjoy the silent disco, ABBA, live music, etc. 
 

- It’s day 6 and we only had 1 port day in Ushuaia. I realized that having more than a couple of sea days probably not working for me as it gets just boring. Again, expected, so the book, WiFi (pretty good tbh) and movies help.
 

The port day was just awesome, a lot of time and a lot of things to see/explore for one day. Cape Horn today was interesting as well - we really appreciated the history and info provided by the captain, cruise director and presenters. 

One thing I wish the ship had would be water stations to refill water bottles.

 

Will be updating this thread with more thoughts and pictures as we cruise along! 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 25 by Kos123

[CardowMD]

Thank you for sharing. Was looking at this itinerary but wasn’t sure Celebrity was going to be best for this route. Look forward to your continuing commentary!

[8mma]

Beautiful photos - WOW!  Thank you so much for sharing.  What a wonderful adventure you are having.

Many of us are with you in spirit🚤

[asnaleah]

Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing.

[Kos123]

A couple of night pictures. We do enjoy outside whirlpools -- they haven't been crowded at all. Solarium, however, is quite the opposite - always packed with people and those "self-reserved" chairs with random thrown stuff on them.

 

The library is just a nice place to grab coffee/tea and people-watch elevators. 

[Dancing Shoes]

Tell the pool staff, they will keep an eye on the unoccupied lounger and move their stuff.  

[Kos123]

Today’s morning started with really thick fog and rain. We were really sad and worried that we won’t get to see anything today and questioned whether it was worth to come all this way with a risk to not see much in Antarctica because of the weather. 
 

However as we were going down south it started to clear up a bit and we had one of the most amazing scenery we ever seen. We saw several whales, icebergs with penguins, jumping penguins in water and a lot of birds. Really appreciate the announcements and updates by the captain, and can’t wait for more scenery tomorrow.  

[GatorMomInNC]

Thanks so much for sharing these great pictures!  Sounds fantastic and definitely on my bucket list to do Antartica!

 

[Kos123]

Today was very windy, snowy and freezing cold. The outdoor decks were closed so we were glad to enjoy the view of Elephant Island from the cabin and balcony. 

 

Saw a lot of penguins both in water as well as on icebergs passing by, some whales and sea-lines. So sad to leave Antarctica considering 3/4 of time there was foggy 😞  

[GatorMomInNC]

Great photos!!

 

[Boatharbour]

4 hours ago, Kos123 said:

Saw a lot of penguins both in water as well as on icebergs passing by, some whales and sea-lines. So sad to leave Antarctica considering 3/4 of time there was foggy 😞  

It’s a pity that Celebrity only spends two days cruising in Antarctica. There’s little time to double back or vary the route for the weather

 

Princess and Holland America spend four days in the region. Not to say you couldn’t end up with four foggy days, but at least your chances of seeing something clearly  are doubled. 

We were booked on the January 2026 Eclipse sailing until Celebrity cancelled it. Now we’re sailing with Princess in January 2025. 
 

 

 

[LXA350]

Is your cruise full, there must be a reason X has cancelled the entire next season to South America + Antarctica?

 

Given the many sea days + a very high likelyhood of a additional sea day given the stop at Falkland Islands is often cancelled they should rather spend at least 1 more day in Antarcitca which is the main reason most people choose this cruise. Yet again, given the size of the ship it at least gives the opportunity to get a small glimpse of this remote part of the world. Given the beautiy most people owuld probably want to return but then it would only make sense through a expedition to get the full experience.

[Kos123]

That’s exactly my thoughts. At this point I would not recommend this cruise for people who want to see Antarctica like myself. Too many sea days + a high probability of bad weather + a high probability of Port Stanley to be cancelled.
 

The reason we went for this cruise is because I wanted to go together with my wife and the high price of an expedition would make it impossible to go for one together. We are still having great time just not our travel style. 

[BSinPNS]

The lack of days in Antarctica is why we booked a similar, but longer (22 days) cruise on Holland America )Oosterdam).  It offers four days in Antarctica which is just about right in our opinion.  

[Dancing Shoes]

14 hours ago, Boatharbour said:

It’s a pity that Celebrity only spends two days cruising in Antarctica. There’s little time to double back or vary the route for the weather

 

Princess and Holland America spend four days in the region. Not to say you couldn’t end up with four foggy days, but at least your chances of seeing something clearly  are doubled. 

We were booked on the January 2026 Eclipse sailing until Celebrity cancelled it. Now we’re sailing with Princess in January 2026.

January 2026?  Was that a typo?

14 hours ago, Boatharbour said:

 

 

Edited January 28 by Dancing Shoes

[Boatharbour]

1 hour ago, Dancing Shoes said:

16 hours ago, Boatharbour said:

January 2026?  Was that a typo?

Oops sorry it was January 2025 that was cancelled and it was on Equinox. 
We booked while on board the Apex in July last year. One month later we received an email stating the ship had been redeployed. 
 

Edited January 28 by Boatharbour
Typo

[Boatharbour]

7 hours ago, LXA350 said:

 

Is your cruise full, there must be a reason X has cancelled the entire next season to South America + Antarctica?

 

Our cancellation email said Equinox was being redeployed to the Caribbean for “exciting 7 day itineraries”. 
 

It turned out to be a good thing for us as with a little more research we realised that only two days in Antarctica would be chancing it with the weather. With so many sea days we then booked a 17 day Princess cruise rather than the 22 day Holland America. 

[jimbo5544]

Am on same cruise doing live review

[MisterMatthew]

These photos are fantastic.  Simply, fantastic!

 

I have not sailed on CELEBRITY.  But, thinking of it.. one day.

 

----MisterMatthew

[Ken the cruiser]

Have a great cruise! We’re currently on the Sapphire Princess you almost met up with at Elephant Island yesterday! 😁

 

One suggestion. If you put an extra line with a space between each picture, that will eliminate them blending together.

Edited January 29 by Ken the cruiser

[Kos123]

Today’s sunset! 
 

the captain said we are looking good for Falkland Islands tomorrow, so at least something! 

 

Edited January 29 by Kos123

[Kos123]

And then there is the moon view straight from the balcony. 
 

also a big plus for Celebrity - we love the live music at the ship much all the time. 

[Kos123]

So our Falkland Island experience is the second ***** show with Celebrity. We were told to come at 7.30 to collect our tender tickets. When we showed up at 7.29 we got #25. So it has been 3 hours since then and they are at number #12.
 

I know logistics is not easy but I’m pretty sure there is a better way to organize this since they know the # of people with excursions, # of boats they have, # of people on board, but they chose to trying to sell us spas and special restaurants while we wait for their mistakes and our #. 
 

Now the emotional part - f Celebrity for ruining our experience and I will make sure I never get on board Celebrity cruises in the future. And I will make sure all my friends know about this. 

Edited January 29 by Kos123

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Most tender ports are a Sh$t show 

[Kos123]

Totally. I just don’t get why we are being told to collect tickets at certain time when it clearly doesn’t work when people camp those lines before the announced time. A lottery of random numbers a day ahead would make more sense than camping the line 2 hours before the announcement time. 

 

4 hours and still waiting. We missed our private tour hopefully we will be able to taxi to gipsy cove and get a refund.