Eclipse 12/13 Sailing - Long Review of a Short Cruise

[CrankySailor]

A little behind in getting out some thoughts on my recent sailing (12/13) on the Eclipse. 5-Night W Caribbean (Costa Maya and Cozumel).

AQ stateroom 1606 - on the slant...so larger balcony.

 

Embarkation in Miami was super-smooth. From the time I was dropped off at the pier until I hit deck 5 was about 25 minutes (maybe less).

 

Stateroom was in great shape - basically brand new looking (not sure if they were refurbished during the recent dry-dock, but nonetheless, great shape - almost no signs of wear). I do like the stateroom layout a little better on Constellation - where the shelves/drawers are in the closet (vs across the room), but s-Class ships have the overhead bins over the bed.

 

Overall condition of the ship was very good. A few things were not refurbished during dry dock...but mostly minor (textured decking in some areas was peeling...and the ceiling over the covered area at the pool was pretty weathered...as was a lot of the outdoor furniture at the Ocean View Cafe and up on the Solstice deck). Arms on the dining chairs in the MDR were rubbed bare in places...I saw them during the safety drill and while I was waiting to go on the galley tour.

 

Good segue to the food...

 

Food in Blu was mostly very good. I thought the meat dishes were better than the fish dishes, which were a little weak, in my opinion (usually a bit over cooked). I also thought the desserts in Blu were not strong - and most nights, we went to Cafe al Bacio for espresso and pastry (even there, the cakes/pastries were not always great...I think the desserts on Eclipse need a bit of an upgrade. Even the ice cream - which on Constellation was always outstanding - was icy and not worth having.

Service in Blu was great - hostess, waiter, and asst waiter from the first night treated us like were were long-time customers of their restaurant. Hostess (Olga) made sure we had the same wait staff for breakfast and dinner every day (Mentor - waiter we knew from Constellation) - we were so appreciative of their service we gave extra cash gratuities to the Blu staff on the last day.

We were very fortunate to have friends in a suite who were able to have us dine with them in Luminae one evening. The food was good - but I felt it was a little over the top and maybe "trying to hard." Couldn't imagine eating there every night- would need to have some serious self-control to avoid over-eating.

Service was outstanding in Luminae, but there were some small miscues with the food. The server created a "surf and turf" dish for us, by combining the lamb chops from one entree and the seared scallops from another. Lamb was great but the "seared" scallops were definitely not seared (with a brown crust as you would expect).

Desserts here were also a little underwhelming...and the dessert cart (with many small "goodies") just added more unnecessary decadence. Some diners were raving over the dessert cart, but I didn't find anything I would want to have again on another night.

Ocean View Cafe had good food. The salads were basically my lunch choice every day (along with some of the Indian dishes). Even the pizza - which they crank out all day long - was pretty good!

Gastro Bar - sigh. Had high hopes this would be like the pub on Queen Mary 2. Nope. Food not worth getting here at all. Fish and Chips....the fish was wet (liquid came out when you cut into it) and the batter soggy. The pub burger was not really edible, and not even close to what was described on the menu (caramelized onions...aged cheddar..etc). It was basically a grey blob of meat that didn't even hold together (ended up in a pile...partially in my lap) - not one bit of sear on it (they have hot griddles all over the galley - it's not hard to griddle a burger and get a nice seared crust on it!).

Cafe al Bacio was a great place for coffee every morning before breakfast at Blu. The servers encourage you to sit and have table service (vs. waiting in line at the counter). I preferred the table service, as I like to drink my coffee from a ceramic cup (vs paper). I am also a bit of a coffee geek, so I am very particular about my espresso. The espresso here is fine, but nothing like what you would get at say, Stumptown or Blue Bottle or Intelligentsia (and didn't expect it to be). Some days, the drinks were a little better than others, depending on who was pulling the espresso shots and frothing milk. Had the IGLU one afternoon - next time, would ask to double the espresso, and cut the rest of the ingredients (ice, mike, iglu powder) in half so it's stronger/less sweet. If you like Sbux Frappucino, you will like the IGLU.

Did not eat at any other specialty restaurants - I think they are completely overpriced at this point (and I think Bistro on 5 needs a refreshed concept). Friends ate at Qsine twice and loved it - but all specialty dining was included with their suite fare and they admitted they would likely not pay $45pp to dine there.

 

Have to save my harshest judgements for the bar service. On Constellation, we always had a great time with the bar staff...on Eclipse, I felt that many times the bartenders at the outdoor bars were disinterested, and at times, just not in the game at all.

Slush - drinks are OK (great on a hot day) - but as you would expect, a little on the sweet side (ok, a lot on the sweet side). The ones with fresh herbs are interesting (helps temper the sweetness), but when making the drink I had with fresh thyme, the tender threw in the entire stem. If you cook, you know that thyme stems are woody, and they did not pulverize in the blender, so I was picking stems out of my mouth with every sip through the straw. Clearly, this is a "first world" problem to have - but I wouldn't order that drink again.

Gastro Bar - continuing with the poor execution on the food, the bar service here was very shaky. First, this bar was not widely visited, which is odd given it's location on the ship, but I guess not much else outside of Guest Relations happens on Deck 3, so maybe most Pax don't really know it's there. Was not a fun place to hang out because it was so dead (was a good place to get caught up on game scores, however). Bartenders are not very knowledgeable about the beers, and sometimes they didn't even know what I was trying to order (after the first couple of days, I would just go to the wall of coolers, take out what I wanted, and have the tender

ring it up). I do think the bar is a good concept - but needs work on the execution. Have not been on any RCCL Quantum class ships...but I have to imagine the Michael Schwartz pub on those ships is a much different/better experience - and Celebrity will need to step it up with this type of venue (both food and drink).

World Class Bar - the drinks I had were good (Celebrity No. Ten and the Strawberry Fields...and friends had straight-up Manhattans...which the tender would make stirred...hard to find). HOWEVER - the bar is totally understaffed at times, and you can wait up to 20+ minutes for your drink. I understand that these are craft drinks, and it takes some time to make them, but when there are four drinks ahead of you...and each drink takes 5 minutes to make...one at a time...you can do the math. Lord help you if the bar runs out of an ingredient and the bartender has to go take a walk to get it.

Martini Bar - saved the best for last (or should I say, worst). On Constellation, we spent every night before dinner (and sometimes after dinner) at the Martini bar. On Eclipse, after the first night - never went back. The bartenders are completely out of control, and I was shocked the ship's officers have not addressed the situation. I am all for creating a fun atmosphere, but these guys were at times standing/dancing on the bar...or the area where the glasses were stored...or the area where the drinks were being made...(I was imagining drinking out of those glasses...so you get the picture). They were pouring drinks on each other...and they even stopped a server with an entire cake en route to Cafe al Bacio...took it from him, then proceeded to use their hands to "serve" the cake to the passengers. Though I never went back after the first night, I walked by many times on the other nights, and the shenanigans were ongoing.

 

Beverage Package. Did the math when I purchased the cruise, and the FL resident special (with NO perks) would have saved me about $500 over the "Go Better" promotion, after accounting for the cost of out-of-pocket gratuities. Decided to go ahead with the Go Better promo, and used the $300 OBC to cover gratuities and the upgrade to the Premium Package (the leftover OBC went to cover my $35 "meal" at Gastro Bar and some up-charges we had to pay for wines that were > $13 per glass).

I am sure we did not drink $500 worth of coffee/wine/beer/water/liquor...but we decided that we liked the freedom of not thinking about what we were ordering/drinking, so was worth it, even if it cost me a bit more in the long run.

 

Hot Glass Show - was the best thing on the ship. I think we went to every show. The gaffers are very personable, interesting, creative, talented (I could go on...) and were happy to chat with the Pax after the show.

 

Also enjoyed the other "Celebrity Life" lectures (astronomy...ship navigation with the Chief Navigation Officer, etc.). Didn't really go to any shows other than the singer Claire Vinkelstijn (from "Holland's Got Talent). She's a good singer - but some of her material was questionable. Opening number was "9 to 5," then she sang "You Light Up My Life" and a couple of other old songs that I would not consider perennial classics - so it seemed a little bit like C-level Las Vegas entertainment (that you would find way off-strip) for senior citizens, which is a shame, because she really is good. She's a classically trained pianist, and she performedsome snippets from the classical repertoire, but turning classical music into pop music is really not my thing, so we didn't stay for the entire performance (saw about two-thirds though).

 

Since there has been so much anxiety over the new dress code...I will say that I don't think the Evening Chic diminished the overall dress quality or ambiance at all. It may actually be helping, in a way. There were plenty of people in more formal attire (on three nights, I chose to wear jacket/time..though not a suit/tux and two nights, I wore very dark jeans with a dress shirt/vest). I didn't notice people walking around in shorts/tees/flip-flops like I did on previous X cruises. Maybe relaxing the code is also reducing the "rebellion" attitude some folks had (i.e., won't do formal attire...so just wearing shorts - whereas now, with jeans

being "ok" that's much easier to comply with).

 

Also - since so much anxiety over the lack of water in AQ staterooms, will comment briefly. Will admit, it was weird. Never asked the Stateroom Attendant for a pitcher of ice water (so not sure what the response would have been), as I usually just grabbed a bottle from a bar on the way back to my room.

 

Overall service was very good. Had to go to Guest Relations twice and both minor issues were resolved promptly. Once was to fix an errant charge on my Sea Pass account (charged for drinks even though we has Premium Pkg - not really sure how that happened...but was from Gastro Bar...so yet another grumble about that place).

Also had to go down to try to get some attention when my jacket that was sent out for pressing on the first afternoon, failed to show up the next evening. Stateroom Attendant was "off" so was dealing with this issue over the telephone, and was not having any luck (no phone calls back with status...at one point received a call asking me what I needed to have picked up for pressing...). All turned out well - the jacket had the wrong stateroom tag on it (after three hours, my stateroom attendant was back "on" so she went down to the laundry to go find it herself).

 

For the record - I have three more trips booked on X (1/2/17 on Eclipse, 1/2/18 on Eclipse, and an Asian itinerary in 2017 that I may switch to something later in the year or Galpagos). For now, no reason to "jump ship" as we still like the brand/experience. We are sailing Viking Star in mid-February (was an impulse purchase two years ago) - so looking forward to a much smaller ship experience at a premium price point as a comparison.

 

That's about it. Hope this is helpful.

[tiggerman101]

Thanks for the review. I am doing a short 5 day on her next week and wondered how it would be. I was on this ship two years ago in Norway and it is my favorite. I am taking my mom on this cruise just to experience the ship. I have been on three X cruises now, but none of them Caribbean.

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[CrankySailor]

I should add that service throughout the ship is terrific. Any time you passed a crew member, they would smile, and say "good morning" (afternoon, etc.). An anyone you asked a question, would work to get an answer if they didn't know it (i.e., they "owned" it - didn't tell you to go talk to someone else).

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Thanks for the review. How was disembarkation? I read that Miami has luggage carousels like airports. Did that make it easier or harder to find your luggage?

[NLH Arizona]

Thanks, I'll be on the ship on January 5th.

[Bimmer09]

Thank you! A very informative read indeed.

 

Norris

[CrankySailor]

Thanks for the review. How was disembarkation? I read that Miami has luggage carousels like airports. Did that make it easier or harder to find your luggage?

 

It was pretty easy - lines to leave are a bit long after getting luggage (only two Customs agents!) but it was orderly. I have experienced disembarkations that we utter chaos - no lines, just a mass of people jumping in. Here, even the porters get in line....no jumping ahead even when someone is slipping them money. Maybe took 30 minutes from the time you left the ship tomget outside.

 

The luggage carousels are easy too. You just need to find someone to tell you which carousel to use based on your departure group number. There are several agents with clipboards.

[Gordoncruickshank]

Thanks for the review. How was disembarkation? I read that Miami has luggage carousels like airports. Did that make it easier or harder to find your luggage?

We did a couple of cruises last year from Miami and on both the disembark was good. We did rake our time but compared to Fort Lauderdale, Maimi is well organised and foes not have the huge queues. There are 3 carousels and luggage delivered there slightly ahead of you disembarking.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Thanks for the information on disembarkation in Miami. It's our 1st time in this port.

[cruisehome]

any suggestions for a midprice hotel in Miami near brickle village

 

thanks

[crzndze]

I should add that service throughout the ship is terrific. Any time you passed a crew member, they would smile, and say "good morning" (afternoon, etc.). An anyone you asked a question, would work to get an answer if they didn't know it (i.e., they "owned" it - didn't tell you to go talk to someone else).

 

I was on the cruise also and agree with you. I thought the crew were the best! The ship is gorgeous too. It was a wonderful cruise!!