jimbo5544

Conclusion..... I probably lost most of you along the way once we got off the ship (rightly so). I will summarize and move on the next adventure in this journey we called life. We spent the avast majority of our cruising life cruising Carnival (55 plus cruises). We will not leave them, not really material to our cruise or my review. But I do not think I can leave without giving some comparisons between the two lines (you all know they are different, but .....). Celebrity is surely more upscale in the experience and the price. From the quantity of room servicing (twice daily vs once a day) to the detail in dining. That said, and I have said this many times, all cruise lines have WAY more in common than differences. We were pleasantly surprised (not shocked) with the level or service we got on the Eclipse. It certainly over achieved. Will we sail this line again? Absolutely. Will we continue to sail on Carnival? Absolutely. For us, this type of journey, this type of cruise, is a perfect fit for doing a X cruise, your opinion may vary. Thanks for coming along for the ride, I hope my doing this live review brought and delivered what our experience on this cruise was. It was a great trip. Until another time.....happy cruising.

The crew. One word....outstanding.

Entertainment. Celebrity from the outside has a bad rap regarding their nightlife. What there was is really good, just not a lot going on. From the cruise world we came from, it was noticeable. That said, I totally recognize that the clientele is...well.....somewhat more mature. We got by just fine.

The bars all around the ship. We had the classic drink package and we were impressed at all bars (not that I spent hours a day at them.... Several are worth mentioning. Sunset bar (aft open air) great spot when weather is cooperating. Martini bar, pretty busy around 5 but we had cocktails there more than few days before dinner. Lastly this bar.

LOL typo..... it was NOT enjoyable. To further clarify, it was NOT due to lack of effort on the staff's part. They tried hard, from top to bottom. There was tons of options but, an especially at lunch time, it really was not that good. I do not set the bar all that thigh for buffet food. When you add in the fact that around one it was virtually impossible to get a seat (especially when the weather was not forgiving enough to sit out on the aft open area.

Specialty restaurants. I have never seen as much talking for trying to get people to go there as we saw on this sailing. Was it the crowd? Has something changed recently? I would be interested in anybody's thoughts in this. Blu I have zero bad to say on this, the menu was a little eclectic for our taste, but food was good to really good. Service from hostess to water servers was top notch, among the best we have EVER had. And now for the negative. Ocean View was plain not good, WAY WAY too small, it made some breakfast and ALL lunches close to totally enjoyable. Maybe other cruises it is more balanced, but frankly it sucked.

Storage in the cabin felt tight, took us 3 days to find the overhead over the bed ...... duh. Also the drawers were really tiny, or so it seemed.

The ship. SO as you all know, X was new to us. While I had read about this particular ship, we had never experienced it. There is much on the ship that I really enjoyed. First and foremost, she handled the seas admirably. We had no technical issues, and the crew and then operations ran just fine. The cabin. Seemed somewhat smaller to me than we are used to, but some of that was because of all the extra clothes we brought (layers and layers). Even on our Alaskan voyages we never brought near to what we brought on this trip. Cabins seemed a little more narrow and longer, if that makes sense. We were staying in Aqua class on floor 11, port side. About 8 to 10 cabins down from forward elevator (never counted). Never asked, but maybe someone can opine as to what those red lights every 20 cabins or so always lit in the hallways. Always meant to ask but never did. To be honest, was a little disappointed in our position and the cleaning rigs (not in front of us but if we look hard forward they were always in the way. The second thing was those dang supports from the overhang coming down on an angle to the side of ship. Normally, probably would not have been an issue, but with all the pics, was always trying to zoom more or less, go right a bit or left, more of a knit.

totally agree on the moon thing. Being that far down in the southern hemisphere really screwed with my head.

IF we do that trip, that is the way we will do it, maybe make it two nights....

Sometimes the "getting there" is the biggest hurdle, at least that is true for us.

Wish I had known more about those, sounds memorable, and I AM a foodie. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Thanks for following along, it has def been fun.

Without going over the top, the world we live in is not just OUR world, but all those inhabit here. I got that sense when we were with the whales.

LOL, wow thanks for the compliments. It is a labor of love.

Next up, the ship itself.

Are we sorry did the trip? No way. It met our expectation totally. I would highly recommend all that are considering it to do it. There are risks (mostly weather), but these risk are small compared to the awe we got to see. If you are considering it.....do it.

This is a not the longest air we have traveled to do a journey, but as we get older, the toll from the air travel gets heavier. It was the downside going in and both ways having redeye's met that expectation. While I did a little homework on Buenos Aires before the trip, we made a mistake. We should have come in earlier and done two days to go over to the falls. Our biggest mistake. That said, the city is HUGE. Blown away by its size, especially in regards to the emptiness that surrounds it. Thirteen million people....WOW. The time we spent there was great. Never felt at risk, wish we had more time.

The cruise itself. This was a step out of our comfort zone, for many reasons. We have never sailed Celebrity before (came close a couple times, but for reason that are not meaningful to you) so this was something different. In the past, we have sailed other lines, we are Diamond on Carnival (our kids get up on their ships) and have sailed Royal, MSC, NCL, Princess and Azamara. I will talk on my feeling on this new part of our journey a little later. We chose this cruise and this line. There were several options that fit for us, but we kept coming back to this cruise. We were NOT disappointed. It was exactly as billed. It hit all the buttons and dotted all the I's and crossed all he T's.

Time to wrap this up. As I normally do, I like to summarize our experience, not as breath taking as the live report or by any means the pictures, but for me, it puts a bow around the whole thing.

I totally agree about the talks. A friend who did some commenting (a cruise critic friend, never actually met the person) on this review gave me the insight to go to these talks. They were great.

The afternoon with the whales was a highlight that we will ALWAYS remember. It was simply outstanding. Some were so close, I could have thrown a snowball (well maybe a baseball) and be able to hit them they were so close. They seemed to even be playing with us. It gave you a feeling of being one with nature. A little over the top, but it captures the essence.

Your weather this day was better than ours, but there was much discussion on the ship about you missing the Falklands.