Cruise Reviews

My family (wife and son age 13) I just returned from a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Eclipse. This was our first time sailing with the Celebrity Eclipse. (i.e. RCCL.)

We have sailed with Disney-3, Carnival-1, and Holland America-1. We were looking forward to this cruise for a long time. Spring break for my son and a well deserved vacation for my wife and I. We live on Merritt Island, Florida, so the short 3 hour drive to the Port of Miami was easy. Parking there was easy, but the $20.00/night price is a little much.

As to not bore you with detail after detail, here is our opinion of the Eclipse, in as few words as possible.

The ship is nice, with nice areas to relax. (The Card room and Team Earth areas were wasted space though.) First, save some money and do not get a concierge class cabin like I did. This cabin class is over priced for the perceived value. A regular veranda would do just fine. The cabin size was fine but the storage was lacking. The bin over the queen size bed was hard to reach and therefore not practical. Closet was too small for 3 people. Bathroom was of good size and so was the balcony. Our cabin steward never made the sofa bed back into a couch doing the day. It was always covered with pillows and a blanket, so that was weird for us. Towels were nice, queen bed was good and the pillows were fine.

As to the food, it was just okay for us. The Ocean View Cafe buffet was just alright, Standard buffet food. The sushi bar that open each afternoon at 5:30 was not too bad and my son got his share. Room service was very slow.
An hour and 15 minutes one late afternoon, my son and I left to go up to the buffet a couple of other times, my wife just told them, "They already left." All we wanted were small appetizers.

The Moonlight Sonata was the regular banquet style affair. No menu was over the top at any of the services. We went here for "the brunch" and it was fine, but crazy with people all over the place. Found a table easy enough; but we had a hard time finding a server for coffee and juice. Speaking to the coffee, worst my wife and I have had in a long time. Very strong and tasted burnt, just not one morning, all the time. One morning for room service, the staff came to the cabin with the coffee in 3 creamer holders because they were out of regular coffee pots; "Sorry for this." was the answer. But the specialty coffees at the Cafe Al Bacio were very good. ( Extra charge.)

Over all the service for the standard dinner at the Moonlight Sonata was average. Head waiter, asst. waiter, one fellow for soda pop, another for beer, and then another for wine. ????? We didn't get this at all and none of them could be found, not even by the head waiter. The head waiter was great, did all the work so week tipped extra in cash under the table. The Murano and Tuscan restaurants were very good and the service great. We liked the Bistro on Five ($5/Person cover) the food was good and service good as well. Bar service around the pool and sun deck areas was really bad, I tipped my self to get beverages for the family. No staff came by to take orders or to pick up, so by the end of the day, half empty food plates, drink cans, beer bottles were everywhere. And we were not the only nutty guests to observe this.

The teen club "X Club" was the worst we have seen. Never saw anyone in there. It just isn't what young adults are into. The gym is fine, just enough equipment as to not wait to long. Jogging track is like running down 5th Ave. at rush hour. Good luck. We did not use the spa. The Lawn Club was very nice. We enjoyed the Bocci Ball and played a lot. This was strange, the ship has almost no trash cans. Not by the elevators, not by the pools, so guests left items here and there for the crew to pick up. Just an observation that we had made.

The couple of senior officers we greeted seemed nice enough, but some of the junior officers didn't even say "hello," "good morning," "afternoon," which we all were surprised with. Just walked by without even a head knod. The housekeeping staff and regular crew seem nice and friendly. There seemed to be a staffing shortage or something wrong on this cruise. The crew to guest ratio was way out of ratio as to other cruise ships we have been on.

Over all. Six and a half stars out of 10. Service being at the bottom. If not for a couple of the crew and 3 good dinners at the specialty restaurants, all of us would have been very disappointed.

Sorry to say, that this family will not be sail with the Eclipse again.
116mongo