Just got back from Eclipse... some thoughts.

[M.R.X.]

This was our first cruise... we loved it and really loved Celebrity and the Eclipse. The crew were terrific, the ship beautiful, and we made lots of friends.

 

1. The crew and guest services can NOT be praised enough. My wife and I are experienced travelers - she works for the UN - and we've got easily 100 countries between the two of us, so we have a bit of travel experience - plus I spent years in corporate sales for Virgin Atlantic. Bruce, Annie, Marinelle are an absolute credit to the travel industry. Guest Relations is a tough job, pleasing guests while still holding the line for the company, they are unsung heroes who I will sing about.

 

2. Captain Skylogiannis (sp?) seemed to be quite a gentleman, met him twice on board - once with his family at lunch - left him alone other than to thank him for a great trip after he said hi. My wife just wishes he'd have more female senior crew members.

 

3. The shows we went to were okay to pretty good. Edge was kind of... errr, lame. Seemed geared towards UK rock and pops and was bit cheesy. The pseudo Cirque du Solei was better (forget the stories, just do acrobatics - Ring Man is awesome). The Christmas Eve show was also the right balance of homey, cheesy, and wow! Mike, you're a pretty good singer, and your cheese ball jokes are alright - part of the job! Rip Tides were enjoyable, because they loved what they were doing, the strings as well, also the ring trapeze duo were amazing.

 

4. Food was generally outstanding. MDR is good and you could always find something pretty good and the staff helped here. Would not do select dining next time, as the regular tables seemed to have more fun... but did hear some horror stories about awful tablemates - see more about guest behavior later.

The specialty restaurants were incredible to awful.

Murano is one of the best dining experiences I've had anywhere (live in NYC, spent time in Tokyo, London, Paris, Hong Kong and more - we know food), and having table side cooking with open flame is no small thing on a cruise ship - fire regulations and all. Having it done well, even better! If you only do one restaurant on board and love fancy food and acting like a grown up, this is the one!

Tuscan was a bit more relaxed and was an absolutely great meal. The steaks are high quality and the service was in my opinion, the most likable (DW liked Murano better). We ate a full and enjoyable meal of asopao and mofungo in old San Juan less than three hours before dinner at Tuscan, and Tuscan's cuisine still shined through - that's quite a feat. If you like good food, but want a slightly more relaxed restaurant, Tuscan is the one.

Q-Sine. Hmmm, how to put this? It was awful. The colors are orange and brown... Halloween. Should have been a warning. There are too many different items on the menu all in competition - they don't do any of them excellently - and several were inedible - my wife (who is Japanese) and I couldn't stomach the sushi lollipops - cute looking, but inedibly hard rice with substandard fish. The sliders were the best prepared items we had (and we tried a lot of items looking for the good stuff), but should a specialty restaurant's best item be a burger? The Chinese food was worse than the average NYC outerboro delivery place... and everything all over the menu was TOO SWEET. The desserts were nicely presented and a bit better, but to say we were disappointed with Q-Sine would be an understatement. This menu would be better at a night club or a disco, but it is not fine dining by a stretch. We thought that it might be fun for families with kids or teens, but it's not for anyone who is going for the food itself.

 

5. The cabins. We had a regular balcony cabin on 8, near the bow. It was lovely. The room was well appointed, and Ambert, who was our steward was great. Unobtrusive and ready whenever we needed him. We never ran out of anything and he was helpful getting us more blankets and whatever else we needed. Just wish the odd family in the next cabin who almost never left would stop hitting each other and wrestling, and turn down the TV please. Oh, and stop cursing each other out loud enough for us to hear you through the walls. When they weren't around, the cabin was peaceful and relaxing.

 

6. Aquaspa. The low point of the cruise. The couples massage we booked was fine - not great and not bad at all. The spa is quite beautiful as well. The staff were the issue. Why would anyone act so condescending - we are your guests. The wife and I have had massages on several continents (five), over a span of decades and we are not unfamiliar with what a spa should be like, even though there will always be differences. Selling products (oils, and other skin treatments) is understandable - but NEVER in the massage area when the client is still unclothed - that space is for relaxation and not business - completely ruined the relaxed feeling. Sell in the lobby or at the cosmetics counter - we would have probably bought. Also spa staff were rude in the lobby area (and after we complained, elsewhere on board as well). When we brought this to guest services' attention, the Celebrity staff were horrified and made every attempt to follow up and reassure us about our lovely cruise experience. The spa is run by an outside vendor - and it showed - they are not up to Celebrity's quality of service. Guest Relations were really upset with the spa when they discovered that after 24 hours, the spa manager never followed up with us. We had given up at that point, but GR did not - thankfully. When the spa manager finally contacted us, she offered excuses rather than accepting responsibility and was less than truthful (in my opinion). She only seemed to offer any real solutions after I mentioned that we were speaking of our experience at the spa with another guest and some vacationing travel agents overheard us and asked us more. We were eventually refunded under the 100% satisfaction guarantee, but that is not really what we wanted. We love spas, and we really wanted to pay for what we received and be treated nicely. We would have gone several times (love the Persian Garden sort of spa rooms, love facials, pedicures, and of course massages), but we didn't even bother going to to gym space again (they are side by side), and it was awful going up to the 12th floor at anytime because the spa (with its two particularly nasty staff members) was right there. If anyone from Celebrity wants to contact me, I'll name names gladly, now that we are not on board. I wish we could have a Men In Black memory eraser regarding the spa.

 

7. Drinks - overall not insanely priced. The packages are a bargain if you use them, but it'd be nice if you could by them in 24 hour blocks. Some days I don't want to drink and others I do.

 

8. Ship days... we loved spending time on board when we were in St. Thomas and St. Maarten - no crowds, relaxed crew, quiet areas all to ourselves. Take a break from the crowds, stay onboard, especially when 5-8 other cruise ships show up in the same port on the same day.

 

9. Solarium pool - a wonderful (usually) quiet space with nicer deck chairs. A great place to read and relax and the pool was nicer. Just wished that the 16 and older policy for the Solarium Room was enforced as much as it was for the pool. We love kids, but one screaming and tired youngster will wreck the calm for the other hundred folks in the room. Take him or her outside if necessary. The food was healthy her, and the wife loved this. I liked the relaxing fountain and the general calm of the room. Nice hot tubs too.

 

8. Guest behavior. Overall we were really really impressed with the behavior of the kids on board (this was a Christmas cruise, families abounded). The kids were generally polite and played nicely with others and had fun in the outdoor pool areas. We loved hearing parents correct their children calmly and nicely when mistakes were made (part of growing up is learning how to act around others), and we saw lots of evidence of good parenting even when the parents were NOT around. There were some other less nice adult behaviors - the permissive grandfather who let his "17" year old grandchildren (they were 14-18 more likely)roughhouse for the afternoon in the Solarium pool, and they cursed at him as well as were discourteous to other guests. The guy who deliberately cleared his throat and spit in the pool was pretty gross (a cultural thing perhaps - he wasn't from the US, but really gross nonetheless). And the clueless folks who could only bring up Pearl Harbor, WWII, MacArthur, relocation camps, and the like when speaking with my wife after discovering that she was Japanese... this is not polite conversation, and certainly not a good conversation to have after only knowing her for five minutes... to the folks from Rockland County, yes we did move tables because of you... I was ready to start asking you about the holocaust - but though the better of it. We moved tables because we wanted to have a nice meal.

 

9. Relaxing. We loved this cruise and can't wait to do it again! Great job Celebrity. We loved the Eclipse.

 

10. Almost forgot, the glass show was great too. The right balance of humor as well. Wish that we could have afforded some of the glass.

[M.R.X.]

11. Formal night. I loved being able to wear a tux. Liked seeing others do it as well. Loved getting the daily ascot reports. If you don't or won't wear a tux guys, a sport coat won't kill ya' and if you need to wear jeans, maybe you could eat in another restaurant on formal night. Dressed up kids looked great on Christmas. Ladies overall looked great (but too short is not always sexy).

[Lois R]

Hi, thanks so much for your review:) Glad you had an enjoyable time.

Eclipse is a great ship.

 

Food is definitely a subjective topic here on Cruise Critic;) I went

with friends to Qsine and we had a fabulous evening together:D

And I would go again as I know others would as well. The M's are

delicious! It is sort of a large shadow box with different types of

Mediterranian foods....love it.

 

Sorry you were so disappointed:(

 

Different strokes for different folks:)

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[M.R.X.]

Lois, the MMMM box did look great. I guess having had quite a lot of the real thing, I was less overwhelmed. But like you said, different strokes. :) We thought of ways to improve it, but mainly, we think there were too many things happening at once in the kitchen (and on the table) to get a good balance.

[gelo7]

Thanks for your review.

[fishycomics]

thanks for your review as well.

 

In the Long run you enjoyed the trip.

[M.R.X.]

thanks for your review as well.

 

In the Long run you enjoyed the trip.

 

Loved the trip!!!!! Would certainly do it again!

[bessinfl]

Seems like we had a similar experience on the Eclipse a couple of weeks before you. Lovely ship -- and I agree with you about Qsine. Lots of smoke and mirrors, not so much good food. Thanks for the thoughtful review.

[jimbob622uk]

Many thanks for the great review.DW and I are on Eclipse 18Feb celebrating our 40th anniversary.Have booked Murano for our big night and as it is a Formal night I suppose it is ok to wear the Tux.I presume this is expected even in speciality restaurant??

[M.R.X.]

Many thanks for the great review.DW and I are on Eclipse 18Feb celebrating our 40th anniversary.Have booked Murano for our big night and as it is a Formal night I suppose it is ok to wear the Tux.I presume this is expected even in speciality restaurant??

Wear a tux in Murano and you won't feel out of place, especially on formal night. It is the one specialty restaurant where you will feel the same formality as the MDR.

 

Our neighbors wore khakis and polo shirts. My wife wore a nice dark dress and I wore linen with nice loafers... you'd be out of place in jeans or shorts, but I doubt that the Murano staff would make you feel bad. I wish we'd gone to Murano on our anniversary (we went to QSine instead).

[librarylady19]

Thanks for your thoughtful review. Now I know why I never had any desire to use the Aquaspa! Employees always seem snotty and I heard horror stories of guests being pressured tombuy products. Live using the Persian Gardens, so,will stick with that!

 

Sorry yOu didn't enjoy Qsine, as it was my favorite dining experience onboard Eclipse. Alas, we didn't get to Murano. I don't think it claims to be fine dining, just a fun concept with lots of cleverly presented options and great service. Even living close to a great food city (Chicago) I don't eat at high end restaurants often, so appreciate such an original concept. Some dishes were definitely better than others, but with so many choices, just don't eat what you don't like and they will happily bring something else. I thought Ms favorites and the Taj Mahal were just great, but as Lois said, different strokes and all that!

[islandgirlejfan]

I must have lucked out with the spa employee I got then....wow, no hard sell and she was awesome! It was such a good experience I would have booked her again.

 

There were some things we liked about Qsine. I feel a little differently about the restaurant-it has a very funky vibe to it and we had a lot of fun there our now friends from the CC roll call. We would only do this as a group....we would never do it on our own. Qsine is sort of like going to our local Teppanyaki.....once you've done it, you pretty much know how it works the next time you go. If you've been there several times, you know the chef's schtick. The only other thing....there was just too much food for us.

 

Thanks for your review MRX.....it sounds like most of your time was wonderful! :)

[Denny01]

Very usefull review. Although dining experiences are subjective and loud neighbors are usually isolated cases, I enjoyed your descriptions. We cruise Eclipse in two weeks (but who's counting!) and nice to read up on the ship.

 

We are trying Aqua Class this time, and the cruise is 4 At-Sea nd 3 ports....love at sea time!

 

Thanks,

 

Denny

[nukester]

what kinds of food are offered at Murano

thanks

[Lois R]

what kinds of food are offered at Murano

thanks

 

Click on the following link and you can see some of the different foods

offered in Murano's:

http://www.celebritycruises.com/onboard/tabLanding.do?pagename=onboard_dining#onboard_specialty_dining_tab/onboard/asrPanel.do%3Fpagename=onboard_specialty_dining_menu&ProductCode=MURADINNER&componentType=3%2BDining&shipCode=EQ

[Azulann]

Thanks for a great reviewfrom a seasoned traveler.

 

How was Christmas celebrated on the ship? Anything special on that day?I will be on the Century next Christmas .

[jimbob622uk]

Wear a tux in Murano and you won't feel out of place, especially on formal night. It is the one specialty restaurant where you will feel the same formality as the MDR.

 

Our neighbors wore khakis and polo shirts. My wife wore a nice dark dress and I wore linen with nice loafers... you'd be out of place in jeans or shorts, but I doubt that the Murano staff would make you feel bad. I wish we'd gone to Murano on our anniversary (we went to QSine instead).

Great review,many thanks for the info.

[fishycomics]

Sounded like each cruise varies. Could have the staff changed hands for the spa, and the guests above, below, to the sides. We found each night, like to say kids. running late in the room , from above.

 

Guess having eligant dish each night , made me want local food more, especially deserts.

 

It is said each individual has their own taiste.

 

Holiday they had a show, singing Christmas songs/carols. very enjoyable, one of the better shows if asked. Children were singing two songs on the upper right stage side. rudolph the red nose raindear. and frosty the snowman.

 

just what I have had the week prior Huddler's cruise.

 

Now only if we had someone who went out News Years time after Hiddler (wink);)

[librarylady19]

what kinds of food are offered at Murano

thanks

 

I noticed that the Murano menu is fairly new. I have a copy I will scan.

[juliawinston]

thanks for the review :)

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Thanks for a very well thought out review - especially from a first time cruiser!

 

...

Q-Sine. Hmmm, how to put this? It was awful. The colors are orange and brown... Halloween. Should have been a warning. There are too many different items on the menu all in competition - they don't do any of them excellently - and several were inedible - my wife (who is Japanese) and I couldn't stomach the sushi lollipops - cute looking, but inedibly hard rice with substandard fish. The sliders were the best prepared items we had (and we tried a lot of items looking for the good stuff), but should a specialty restaurant's best item be a burger? The Chinese food was worse than the average NYC outerboro delivery place... and everything all over the menu was TOO SWEET. The desserts were nicely presented and a bit better, but to say we were disappointed with Q-Sine would be an understatement. This menu would be better at a night club or a disco, but it is not fine dining by a stretch. We thought that it might be fun for families with kids or teens, but it's not for anyone who is going for the food itself.

 

...

 

For our Eclipse sailing later this month we are booked two nights in Qsine (2 in Tuscan Grille, and 3 in Murano). I must admit that the one thing which caught my eye from a previous pictorial review of Qsine was indeed the sliders! I had not thought that they would be the focus of my meal, but I enjoy a good burger! Fingers crossed that I'll be able to find a couple of other items which are very good.

 

 

 

...

6. Aquaspa. The low point of the cruise. The couples massage we booked was fine - not great and not bad at all. The spa is quite beautiful as well. The staff were the issue. Why would anyone act so condescending - we are your guests. The wife and I have had massages on several continents (five), over a span of decades and we are not unfamiliar with what a spa should be like, even though there will always be differences. Selling products (oils, and other skin treatments) is understandable - but NEVER in the massage area when the client is still unclothed - that space is for relaxation and not business - completely ruined the relaxed feeling. Sell in the lobby or at the cosmetics counter - we would have probably bought. Also spa staff were rude in the lobby area (and after we complained, elsewhere on board as well). When we brought this to guest services' attention, the Celebrity staff were horrified and made every attempt to follow up and reassure us about our lovely cruise experience. The spa is run by an outside vendor - and it showed - they are not up to Celebrity's quality of service. Guest Relations were really upset with the spa when they discovered that after 24 hours, the spa manager never followed up with us. We had given up at that point, but GR did not - thankfully. When the spa manager finally contacted us, she offered excuses rather than accepting responsibility and was less than truthful (in my opinion). She only seemed to offer any real solutions after I mentioned that we were speaking of our experience at the spa with another guest and some vacationing travel agents overheard us and asked us more. We were eventually refunded under the 100% satisfaction guarantee, but that is not really what we wanted. We love spas, and we really wanted to pay for what we received and be treated nicely. We would have gone several times (love the Persian Garden sort of spa rooms, love facials, pedicures, and of course massages), but we didn't even bother going to to gym space again (they are side by side), and it was awful going up to the 12th floor at anytime because the spa (with its two particularly nasty staff members) was right there. If anyone from Celebrity wants to contact me, I'll name names gladly, now that we are not on board. I wish we could have a Men In Black memory eraser regarding the spa.

...

 

I am not a big spa/massage person, but Cheryl does enjoy it. After a few experiences (by outside contractors such as these) she has all but stopped getting any treatments onboard, she makes up for that on land though - and at a much fairer price. When she does (though it's been 2-3 years now) opt for a massage or facial at sea, she usually has to make the point up front that she does not want to be SOLD products during the service. When she does this (which she shouldn't have to), they have been accommodating. It should be all about the experience - not the sales!

 

Glad you had a great time!!

 

Tom

[Dunmore2]

Thanks for posting your review. It was interesting to read. We too are well-seasoned travelers and are amazed at the number of people we run across who think that cruising won't appeal to "folks like us". We find cruising to be a relaxing, romantic holiday. We love to meet and chat with others, especially our MDR table mates, Cruise Critic Friends, and the Celebrity staff. There are a lot of fascinating talented people on this earth!

[ghstudio]

Q-Sine. Hmmm, how to put this? It was awful. The colors are orange and brown... Halloween. Should have been a warning. There are too many different items on the menu all in competition - they don't do any of them excellently - and several were inedible - my wife (who is Japanese) and I couldn't stomach the sushi lollipops - cute looking, but inedibly hard rice with substandard fish. The sliders were the best prepared items we had (and we tried a lot of items looking for the good stuff), but should a specialty restaurant's best item be a burger? The Chinese food was worse than the average NYC outerboro delivery place... and everything all over the menu was TOO SWEET. The desserts were nicely presented and a bit better, but to say we were disappointed with Q-Sine would be an understatement. This menu would be better at a night club or a disco, but it is not fine dining by a stretch. We thought that it might be fun for families with kids or teens, but it's not for anyone who is going for the food itself.

 

Qsine is meant to be a fun meal...it's not about the food, it's really about the way the food is prepared and served. It's also not priced as a fine restaurant.

 

There is no good sushi on board any celebrity ship (and that includes Silk Harvest)...if...you know what sushi should be. That's not to say that many don't like it...they do, but their frame of reference is quite a bit lower than yours and your wifes. As far as dishes being too sweet, the American diet is too sweet...people like sweet...they taste test their recipes and sweet always wins.

 

I am a foodie...I enjoy good food and have eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world. I also appreciate creativity and Qsine is very creative. I agree that the food isn't the best, but it's Okay and we continue eat at Qsine once per cruise on the Eclipse.

[M.R.X.]

Thanks for posting your review. It was interesting to read. We too are well-seasoned travelers and are amazed at the number of people we run across who think that cruising won't appeal to "folks like us". We find cruising to be a relaxing, romantic holiday. We love to meet and chat with others, especially our MDR table mates, Cruise Critic Friends, and the Celebrity staff. There are a lot of fascinating talented people on this earth!

This is so true. We have travelled a lot, with family on both sides of the globe - and the wife's job involving travel to Africa, Bhutan, Samoa, Europe, and so many other countries. This cruise was our most relaxing vacation. We just really enjoyed being on a beautiful ship, going to beautiful places, and chatting with nice folks - so many who were really interesting and were there for the same reason...to spend time with loved ones, while having enough separate things to do too.

 

It also sounds like the restaurant experiences must vary, not only from restaurant to restaurant, but cruise to cruise due to staff changes. Still I can see patterns emerge from reading the various threads about the restaurants.