Host Andy - Live From Celebrity Eclipse

[lggfly]

Ben Powney is CD currently on Eclipse.

 

Andy told me today he will be posting soon.

 

Sea day today; St. Lucia tomorrow.

 

Kathy

 

Thank you, Kathy...enjoy the rest of your cruise!

[h20cruzer]

What happened to Andy I thought he Was going to occasionally post something he must be having a fabulous time

Norma

[upwarduk]

What happened to Andy I thought he Was going to occasionally post something he must be having a fabulous time

Norma

 

Or maybe a very well deserved rest!

[wwcruisers]

What happened to Andy I thought he Was going to occasionally post something he must be having a fabulous time

Norma

 

LOL Norma -- I've been on a cruise (last February Century b2b) with Andy. I can tell you that he works harder than anyone onboard -- except for the crew, and I'm not completely sure about them. ;)

 

He takes very good care of his lovely mom, and any other relatives/friends traveling with them. He also goes out of his way to get to know the other CC'ers onboard -- and he even hosted the Connections Party, on our cruise. This was all in addition to checking in on the CC boards regularly. My DH and I joked that Andy was going to need a vacation from his vacation! :D

[VikingRob]

LOL Norma -- I've been on a cruise (last February Century b2b) with Andy. I can tell you that he works harder than anyone onboard -- except for the crew, and I'm not completely sure about them. ;)

 

He takes very good care of his lovely mom, and any other relatives/friends traveling with them. He also goes out of his way to get to know the other CC'ers onboard -- and he even hosted the Connections Party, on our cruise. This was all in addition to checking in on the CC boards regularly. My DH and I joked that Andy was going to need a vacation from his vacation! :D

 

 

We have also sailed with Andy many years ago and this is all true!!! He even got us included in his bridge tour, my husband enjoyed this very much. He goes way out of his way for others!!! He will answer everyone's questions and tell us all about the cruise all in due time!!! Hopefully he is having a great time!! Kim

[c-legs]

In other words, let this good man enjoy his cruise !

He is not on duty for Cruise Critic. He's volunteering an awful lot of HIS time for our community. Let's be grateful....and patiently await his next report to us.

Cheers

 

[New Hampshire]

Hi Andy,

We were on Eclipse last month out out of Southampton. Can you check to see if two food items have improved, since they came from Europe? The egg salad wasn't edible and the Caeser dressing was like water. I am hoping it was an isolated problem, since they were great on the infinity this month.

 

 

 

We were on that cruise with you. We never had such tasteless Caesar salad ever!! I complained to our waiter and he said he had many complaints and had brought it to the attention of the chef. The chef visited our table one evening and we told him about it. He said he would look into it. We tried the Caesar again a few days later, still awful!!

Edited December 1, 2014 by New Hampshire
Typos

[TourDeCruise]

Host Andy is having a nice time on the ship and has been busy getting answers to your questions; however, we have been experiencing onboard wifi problems for a good percent of the cruise. Dh and I have done most of our emails and Cruise Critic posts when in ports because of the exceedingly slow onboard wifi. Andy wanted to let you know he has been getting answers and composing responses to your questions and will post as soon as he is able, even if he has to do it when he gets home from the cruise on Sunday.

 

Kathy

[upwarduk]

I did wonder if this was the problem!

[hcat]

Hi Kathy

Have enjoyed your posts including updates that Andy is enjoying himself! Glad to hear that..,

 

Just booked Infinity for 9 day ABC island cruise....fall 2016. Perfect for us...and not quite as long as Eclipse itin so easier to get a pet sitter,

 

See you on Connie in January!

[Adammara]

Home on Sunday? OMG where does the time go. Looking forward to his report and Q&A's when he gets home!

[Hlitner]

OMG! Worthless WiFi and bad Caesar Salad. How on earth will we survive our upcoming cruise on the Eclipse. Hard to understand a tasteless Caesar Salad unless Celebrity has reduced costs by cutting back on garlic :)

 

Hank

[wwcruisers]

OMG! Worthless WiFi and bad Caesar Salad. How on earth will we survive our upcoming cruise on the Eclipse. Hard to understand a tasteless Caesar Salad unless Celebrity has reduced costs by cutting back on garlic :)

 

Hank

 

Maybe they ran out of anchovies? :p

[kenevenpar]

Maybe they ran out of anchovies? :p

 

Say it isn't so :p

[TourDeCruise]

Greetings from St. Maarten, our last port day.

 

Today we are in port with Summit and CDF's Horizon, which many of you know as Celebrity Horizon which was sold or transferred to CDF.

 

This might be the worse wifi connectivity that we have had on a cruise in quite a while. Celebrity is insisting the satellite signal is fine. Everyone (guests) I have talked to is having a problem except for the officer with whom I spoke yesterday. The only reason I am posting now is that I am in port (Marigot, St. Martin). We have two sea days tomorrow and Saturday, so maybe no updates from Andy and me in the next two days if problems persist.

 

Suzanne, we met Bruce last night. He is in Future Cruises like we thought. Very nice. More on that later.

 

Hi Kathy

Have enjoyed your posts including updates that Andy is enjoying himself! Glad to hear that..,

 

Just booked Infinity for 9 day ABC island cruise....fall 2016. Perfect for us...and not quite as long as Eclipse itin so easier to get a pet sitter,

 

See you on Connie in January!

 

Thanks, hcat, on the Infinity alert. We will check it out as we might like to go on this cruise with ABC on the itinerary.

 

Thank you, everyone, for your patience while we are enduring onboard wifi problems.

 

Kathy

Edited December 4, 2014 by TourDeCruise
Typo

[Hlitner]

The Wifi situation sounds a bit like our government. If you do not admit there is a problem it just does not exist :).

 

Hank

[SPF 350Z]

Greetings from St. Maarten, our last port

 

Suzanne, we met Bruce last night. He is in Future Cruises like we thought. Very nice. More on that later.

 

Kathy

 

Kathy -

 

I look forward to the info on Bruce! So hope I get to see him in January!!

 

Thank you so much for all of your updates. I hope you enjoy the sea days! I just love the sea days! :)

[upwarduk]

I would think Andy needs to ask Customer Services ( if he hasn't already) when the Wi- Fi will be fixed.

Did I read somewhere that there is a new system, but Celebrity have chosen not to upgrade and are still sticking to C at Sea?

[ECCruise]

Noticing more and more internet problems.

 

Obviously a problem on this sailing. In laws are on Millennium right now and reporting worst internet ever. We were on Eclipse for 3 weeks in the spring (TA and Norway) and had the best internet ever (speed/accessibility). Were on the Eclipse 2 weeks ago (TA) and had impossibly poor internet.

 

It is nice that you no longer have to go to the Icafe to sign up, but would trade that in a heartbeat for the access speeds (which seemed abysmal at the time) during those years!

[hcat]

This will likely be too late for those onboard, but in St Maarten we always try to stop for lunch or snacks at the Greenhouse (? ) Near 2d water taxi stop....great food and service and FREE wifi...

 

wifi in ports best option to check and send e mail...

[Lexy08]

Was just in Curacao on Explorer and there was free WiFi all over the Island. It was wonderful.

Jackie

[New Hampshire]

I was on Eclipse in Europe from 10/19-10/30, and the Wifi was the best I've ever experienced on a Celebrity ship.

 

I made the comment about the Caesar salad. Someone joked about garlic being eliminated in budget cuts. It was garlic that was missing. I was not just my taste buds that found this, but the other three people in my group, a couple from the UK we met on board, our waitress in Select Dining, who said she had received many passenger complaints about it. Sounds crazy that something as simple as Caesar salad was as bad as it was, but on this sailing, it was awful!

[Andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

Did I miss any Celebrity news while I was away ? (kidding !)

 

Nice to be back from 2 excellent weeks onboard Eclipse. I really missed our Cruise Critic friends. The internet was a total mess. Yes, there is a new system onboard, but there's just soooooooooo much to talk about - some of it good... The balance ? mostly awful !!! I was terribly frustrated being unable to provide onboard updates - not to mention a number of work related concerns.... which provided for a very stressful cruise. More about that later. My sincere apologies for not providing "live" updates, but it was totally out of my control. I will share plenty of insights in the coming days.

 

While we had a very nice time on Eclipse (another update coming tonight), I caught a lousy cold on the last night of the cruise, and also have laryngitis. I noticed lots of coughing and sneezing the last 2-3 days of the cruise, and I kept thinking "please dont let Mom or I catch this" - and we did. Thankfully, Mom's case is much less than mine, and we should be ok in another day or two.

 

Please allow me to catch up with work stuff, and I will provide some insights from our cruise, later this evening. I also have answers to your questions, and will post them on the "Have Eclipse questions" thread.

 

Great to be back ! Have a wonderful day everyone !

Edited December 8, 2014 by Host Andy

[Andy]

I would think Andy needs to ask Customer Services ( if he hasn't already) when the Wi- Fi will be fixed.

Did I read somewhere that there is a new system, but Celebrity have chosen not to upgrade and are still sticking to C at Sea?

 

Hi UpwardUk,

 

Believe me, I tried my best to obtain answers. FWIW, the onboard folks sure tried their best to assist, and I sincerely appreciate their efforts.

 

Depending on who you spoke with, some said there were no problems. This couldn't possibly be accurate, as many folks were having issues. Others admitted to a problem - but had no timetable on resolution. They seemed to have a sense of being very proud of the new system. From what I observed, their excitement is very premature.

 

There actually were a few good things - the biggest being that you do not have to visit the Icafe to sign up, and the Captains Club minutes are linked to your seapass account. However, what good is all of it, if you can barely get connected. Even when I did get connected with my laptop, I couldnt get the sessions to hold.... usually anywhere from 1-10 minutes, and I was disconnected. I fared better with my Tablet (though not from my cabin). However, without a real keyboard, it would have been impossible to type large volumes of information. Of course, I have no choice but to assume the worst case scenario for our next cruise (Equinox in late January), and purchase a keyboard for My Tablet. At least I have a chance that way.

 

Hopefully, whatever I experienced on Eclipse, will be better on Equinox.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Host Andy

[ECCruise]

Andy,

Sorry to hear the internet access degenerated even more from our experience on the TA (which was still bad). I know how important work access is for you.

 

Can't believe how much worse the new system is than the old. We sailed Eclipse for 3 weeks in April/May and found the quickest, most responsive internet in our 50 cruises.

 

Then, alas, came our trip last month. Worst in all our cruises, including the NCL Dream in 2001 when satellite internet access was in its infancy.

 

Hopefully the will get the rather sizable kinks worked out by your Equinox trip!