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Last week, the Eclipse had a made to order stir fry station, a made to order pasta station, a grilled meat to order, carving station, salad bar, an entire bar of quite a few varieties of bread, plus quite a selection of hot and cold dishes in the evening. We were only up there one night for dinner and I don't recall if there was a specific theme but I was actually pretty impressed with the options, especially after I all I had read on this board over the last months. It far exceeded the dinner buffet I have seen on any cruise ship (on a variety of lines) in the last year and a half.

Last year they released 2024 itineraries in batches starting mid-November continuing through December. Alaska was one of the earlier itineraries to be released. Caribbean wasn't until mid-December. I don't recall where exactly Europe fell in that timeline.

We had lobster last week on the Eclipse (final evening chic night). I don't eat red meat so can't recall whether prime rib was on the menu.

You need a numbered ticket to get on a tender for the first hour or two until demand dies down. Elite and above get priority. On our sailing, those in Elite and above went to Quisine when they wanted to get off. Retreat guests went to Michael's Club when they wanted to get off. They seemed to use one tendering platform for the general passengers and the other for priority guests (suites, loyalty status) and sometimes shore excursions although that changed from time to time. If you don't have priority, there will be a place to go and pick up numbered tickets (I think it was the martini bar on our sailing) and then you just wait in a lounge until your number is called. Once demand dies down, they will make an announcement and then you can just show up on deck 2 at whatever tendering platform is open (they will tell you whether they are using the mid-ship or the forward platform).

You can close and lock the exterior vestibule doors so you aren't going all the way out to the hallway to go between rooms.

That is a great deal for AI. Lately, it's been about $80 per day per person on the cruises I have checked out. Which is not a good deal for us since my husband doesn't drink (so wouldn't make use of the drink package really at all) and I don't drink enough to cover that difference for both of us.

I just checked my 2025 Ascent cruise which is not covered under this promotion and they raised the price on that cruise as well to $149 (plus service charge) and are only offering the standard 7% discount I have been seeing pre-cruise lately which is $137.99 (plus service charge) per day per person which is insane.

If you cancel in the last couple days before your cruise, you usually are not entitled to a refund except port fees. That is what they are referring to here. After 9/4/2024, the only refund you would get is the port fees. I haven't looked at this cruise specifically but if I am understanding OP correctly, this is the part that is a bit odd since the cruise leaves on 8/24. So the 9/4 date makes absolutely no sense. The general format of the schedule is pretty typical. After 7/7/24 but before 7/22/24, you can get a refund of 75% of the cruise. After 7/22/24 but before 8/5/24, you can get a refund of 50% of the cruise. After 8/5/24 but before 9/4/24, you can get a refund of 25% of the cruise. On or after 9/4/24, your only refund is port fees. But again, it seems the specific dates in this cancellation schedule don't actually match a cruise that leaves on 8/24/24.

You only pay a service charge once. So if you buy a drink package, the 20% service charge is added at the time of buying the package (on the value of the package). If you pay for drinks individually without a drink package, you pay a 20% service charge on each drink. We just cruised the Eclipse and had some people in our travel party with a drink package and I did not have one.

Yes, there are two stations for fresh cooked omelettes and poached eggs, and I'm sure they would be happy to cook other eggs. Neither were ever all that busy whenever we ate.

I walked past those deck 9 cabins on the hump to get to the elevators many times over the past few weeks (although not the couple aft of those elevators - our cabin was forward) and I did notice the doors to make an exterior vestibule. So I can't speak to those couple concierge ones you are talking about, but that is definitely true of the verandah ones just forward of the cabin you are looking at.

No, the Retreat deck only has been added to ships that have been revolutionized (like the Summit). Neither the Infinity nor the Constellation have been revolutionized so there is no Retreat sundeck and the lounge is the traditional Michael's Club with the darker woods.

I want to preface this by saying food is very subjective. We all have different tastes. We order and select different foods. And are comparing it to different experiences. I was on this same cruise and was very happy with the food overall. In talking with others, I also didn't hear any complaints so I question how huge an amount of people in the MDR were extremely upset. That's not to say there were no misses (like I agree on the scrambled eggs) but I found the buffet had a lot of options that were very good and almost every dish we ordered in the main dining room was quite good and always hot. We also really enjoyed the Spa Cafe. Also, after sailing quite a few different lines in the last year and a half, this was the easiest buffet to navigate with my food allergy with the most options for me. My only real complaint with the buffet is that there was not enough seating. Since Royal Caribbean was brought up, I will share that I also sailed on Freedom of the Seas in February of this year, right after the switch to their new menus. I had a very good food experience on the Freedom as well but Celebrity definitely was a step above that in quality.

I would be very surprised if that rumor was true. I suspect it is more likely the Infinity is just due for it's routine dry dock in 2024 and its possible she gets a little bit of a refresh in things like carpet, paint, furniture.

On the 12 night Honolulu to Vancouver sailing that just ended this past weekend, Sushi on 5 was open every day for lunch, Tuscan was open for lunch on 2 of the 5 sea days, Murano was never listed open for lunch.

The revolution is on hold and with the financial challenges Celebrity is still facing, I don't expect them to restart it soon.

Neither ship has been revolutionized. The Constellation had a pretty good refresh in July of 2021 just before her restart which included new carpet, paint, furniture, etc. in most of the public areas. I don't think any of the cabins have had refurbishments since before the pandemic but they were in decent condition when we were on in late 2022 and late 2021. On both cruises, we really enjoyed the wait staff and food in Luminae but crew and chefs will have changed over several times before your cruise. I wouldn't hesitate to book the Constellation again. I haven't sailed the Infinity so I can't speak to the condition of that ship.

You might want to do the math on the cost of your cruise with the full price of the drink package. The All Included price is a better value for anyone planning to buy the drink package even if you don't use the wifi. As to your question, if you buy a drink package, it will add gratuities and so there won't be any additional gratuity on each drink. If you are talking about the daily gratuities (which cover your room steward, dining staff, etc.), there is a way to pay that in advance in the cruise planner (under the details of your cruise) if you booked on your own or through your travel agent if you booked through one.

My perspective may be a bit skewed after sailing on the Caribbean Princess last summer, about 6 weeks after it was supposedly in dry dock. That ship is only a couple years older than the Eclipse but had more visible maintenance issues, including some significant ones (plumbing, AC, loose tiles, etc.) than I have ever seen on a cruise ship. So coming from that perspective and just disembarking the Eclipse this past weekend, I thought the Eclipse looked amazing. That's not to say I never saw anything wrong or that she looks as new as the Edge class ships (some of which probably still have that new ship smell) but I really think she is in amazing shape for her age. I won't hesitate to sail her again if the opportunity comes up.

My gut says it has been a fair amount in the recent past although that is likely changing with the changes they have been making in their deposit/refund policy. On my recent Eclipse sailing, the ship was just about booked in the weeks leading up to final payment time. After final payment, there were so many suites of all kinds suddenly available. Quite a few of them stayed available until a lot closer to sail date.

We just returned from the Honolulu to Vancouver sailing and had an interior room so ate in the MDR each night. The servers we interacted with each night were some of the best we have had and overall, I really enjoyed most of the food we ordered. We had anytime dining but managed to sit in the same section each night. The only real service issue we had in the MDR was the one night the maitre'd decided to take my pre-order (I have a dietary restriction). He didn't get my order right at all and so not everything I wanted was made special for me the next night. Our normal waiter bent over backwards to find me foods I could eat that night and then made sure to handle my order each night after that. Between the two rooms in our travel party, we had two different room stewards and both were excellent. We really enjoyed the show Amade but I didn't get to a lot of the other entertainment. We tend to enjoy more quiet days and evenings just relaxing and enjoying the sea. I do wish they had music (like the strings duo or the guitarist we had on board) earlier in the afternoon. But if you like trivia and game shows, there were tons of them throughout the whole cruise. Overall, we really enjoyed the cruise and I would book the Eclipse again.

Panama inspected all of our passports in February of 2022. It caught the cruise line (different line) a bit by surprise as they had to at the last minute set up a way to collect them and re-distribute them mid cruise. Maybe they aren’t consistent.

I am allergic to dairy (which seems to be in everything) and for a time was avoiding gluten to see if it was also a trigger for my health problems. Luminae has been absolutely amazing in accommodating that allergy. Your waiter will be your main point of contact and they will likely try to keep you with the same waiter. You should not have to go over your list of dietary restrictions more than once. You can pre-order your meals the night before which gives them a lot more flexibility to make you special dishes and pull from items on the Blu and MDR menus. And if you don't see something on the menu, with advanced notice they can often make you something different. Celebrity really has been quite amazing in dealing with my allergies. You will not go hungry.

Unless you need to travel through a third country with a six month rule, all a US citizen needs is a valid passport to get back into the US. The six month rule is not a US rule for its own citizens returning home.

I was in my early 30s when I first cruised Celebrity (and got married on Holland in my early 20s and cruised Princess in my teens). In my opinion, age doesn't have a lot to do with what will be the best fit. It matters more what you are looking for in a vacation. And each cruise line has so much to offer that quite a variety of people will find things they enjoy with each line. I don't find generalizations like this couple in their 30s made at all helpful. By the way, NCL isn't really a great fit for us but I have to say we absolutely loved the Prima. @njsmom I'm sure you will make the most of your first Celebrity cruise and have a great time.