Eclipse from Southampton - Secrets!

[marinefish]

Great advice, what did you do in Zeebrugge? was there much outside the port or do you then pay further to travel into Brugge?

Actually we stayed on the ship in Zeebrugge. We have been to Brugge before and decided to have a relaxing day, as you have already lost an hour and the ship leaves at 3pm so the tours start quite early. "Brugge on your own" (about £25 each) is probably the safest option or a pre-booked taxi (about Euro90 return). The much cheaper alternative is the free shuttle, a tram into Blankenberg and then the train into Brugge. We met people who had done this, but you need to be off the ship asap and download timetables before you go, as the train sevices are more limited on a Sunday. Most people on our rollcall decided the Celebrity "Brugge on your own" was the safest way, given the early departure.

Some people took the free shuttle to the port gate and walked to the RIGHT to a Maritime museum,cafes and a shop I think, which is very close. If you walk on further you get to the tram stop which takes you to the station in Blankenberg. If you "google map" the area you will see the tram line and stops, museum etc. One difficulty may be small change for the tram driver or the ticket machine at the stop. Other posts have said both work. Blankenberg itself looks quite reasonable if you use the "yellow man" on google to look around.

We tried to pace ourselves as you loose three hours by the time that you get to St. Petersberg, obviously it gets better is you turn for home and start to get the hours back. Hope this helps.

[Sox59]

Thanks for the Eclipse info...we've sailed on the Equinox& Solstice and loved them both..I had a big issue with the Equinox internet area and performance, but I believe it was because it wasn't an Apple based ship...From your iPad discussion, can I assume that the Eclipse is Mac based?

Thanks for the info!

[Sox59]

Just returned from the Eclipse..answered my own question..this is a mac based ship, with Apple products to sell. the internet connection was excellent, only went down twice in 14 nights!