Review Eclipse Baltic 3 July 2016

[agathasmum]

Had a fantastic cruise on the Eclipse. I submitted my review to Cruisecritic. Here's a preview!

 

Fabulous Eclipse Baltic Cruise With 3 Days In St Petersburg

 

A couple of years ago we did a Baltic cruise with Celebrity from Amsterdam and vowed that if we ever saw a cruise with 3 days in St Petersburg we would take it. So we did!

 

As background information on us, we are British expats who live in the USA, and we have cruised Celebrity many times so are Elite Plus. We booked with the drinks package and OBC from Celebrity and tips prepaid by our travel agent.

 

Embarkation was very quick. We checked in around 10:45am and sat in the waiting room until they started to call boarding groups at 11. I think we were the 4th group, and were on board by 11:15.

 

Our tradition is to get a fresh glass of champagne and a latte in Cafe Al Bacio when we board, and then have lunch in Bistro On Five at noon, thus avoiding the usual rush in the buffet. The menu in Bistro was different to what I remembered, and we enjoyed a nice stress-free lunch in there.

 

We were in a 1A angled hump cabin, 9292, the one with the oversized verandah. I have a feather allergy and was thrilled that the ship had had advanced notice of this, and our steward Manuel had removed all traces of feathers from the cabin before we boarded. Manuel and his assistant Luis kept our cabin clean, provided the extra things we asked for plus the occasional towel animal, and did a good job without being obtrusive. As Eclipse is homeported in Southampton for the summer, there was a nod to the location with a kettle in the cabin! I thought I might miss some of the “extras” you get in Concierge or Aqua, (fruit, sparkling wine, afternoon canapes), but I didn’t.

 

We are Elite Plus with the Captains Club and on this cruise there were apparently so many Elites and Elite Pluses that they did drinks vouchers instead of the Elite Sky Lounge get together in the evenings. As we had the drinks package the vouchers were pretty useless. We did try the Elite breakfast in Tuscan Grill on the second morning, but found it a bit unfriendly and never bothered to go back. Instead of the Elite helipad sailaway from Stockholm, on this cruise it was a sail-in, so faced with the choice of that or sleeping in and watching the sail in from our bed, we chose the latter!!!! We didn’t bother with any other Elite events, but did use the free internet minutes and all 4 bags of free laundry.

 

We had Select dining and although previously on other ships it’s been a bit of a struggle to get a table for 2 even with a reservation, on the Eclipse it was a doddle. The first night we were seated in Franky and Jaydash’s section, enjoyed their service and managed to sit in the same section every night, often at a table by the window. We ate around 7:45 and the dining room never seemed crowded at that time. The main dining room food on this cruise was the best I’ve tasted in a long time, and I really liked that there were some traditional British dishes in the rotation like fish and chips, chicken tikka masala and Yorkshire pudding, and also an abundance of vegetables on the plate, rather than just a vegetable garnish, if you asked. Wine service by Manuel was excellent. He was always ready to make a recommendation and remembered wines we had enjoyed on other nights. The cheese plate was a nice way to finish dinner.

 

We ate lunch in the dining room on a couple of occasions and enjoyed the food and service from different waiters then as well.

 

We never ate at Murano, Tuscan or Qsine, as there is a bit of a “been there done that” feel about them. The menus don’t seem to change and we find the food too rich and heavy for us and we don’t eat enough to justify the price, even with the hefty discounts they were offering to get people to try them! We did enjoy the experimental “pop up” restaurant, Taj On Five, where Bistro On Five was converted into an Indian restaurant for the night with a $15 charge. The first night it was packed and had a “pick your protein, pick your curry sauce” type format. The second and third times it opened had specific entrees like lamb biriani, vegetable jalfrezi, pork vindaloo. People seemed to like it and there were certainly more takers for it than the regular Bistro menu. Perhaps there is a demand for sit down ethnic food in Bistro’s future, perhaps rotating Thai or Tapas as well as Indian.

 

We used room service for breakfast on port mornings, and usually ordered tea and croissants for breakfast. It always arrived early, (sometimes before the alarm had gone off!), and the order was always correct. The staff on Eclipse have an attention to detail that we have sometimes found lacking on other Celebrity ships.

 

Most people on board seemed to have the drink packages and on this cruise we never had a problem getting a drink in any of the bars. The Cafe Al Bacio staff did an incredible job serving everyone and there was such a high demand for teas and coffees in there, it was often hard to find a table. It was a good spot for a latte and a croissant for breakfast, if you got there early! We spent time in the Ensemble Lounge, and noticed that the Martini Bar was popular but Cellar Masters was like the Marie Celeste!

 

We aren’t fans of the shows so didn’t go to the theatre. We did enjoy the live music from the string duo and the house band, and the interactive music events in the grand foyer. The pianist/singer was dreadful and he didn’t seem to be on board for the second week of the cruise! We didn’t participate in any on board activities as we had bought lots of books and other things to keep ourselves busy.

 

We enjoyed the spa and had six treatments between us. Initially we had a hot stones couples massage, and then I had a seaweed treatment with Janice. I was sceptical about all the “wonderful detox benefits” I would reap from it, but it was followed by a nice massage, and I felt very relaxed and energised if a bit smelly at the end of it! My husband had 3 more massages with Emma, both deep tissue and swedish. I think these were the best ship massages we have ever had, pricy but well worth the money.

 

Our ports were a mixed bag, but we specifically booked this cruise for the 3 days in St Petersburg. We had used SPB last time for a semi-private tour of the city, and had been unlucky that of the two other couples we found on cruisecritic to share with, one needed to visit the bathroom once an hour and the other had difficulty walking long distance, so the things we were able to do were compromised. This time we were taking no chances and splashed out on SPB’s 3 day Deluxe Tour just for the two of us. We were assigned Olga B as a guide and Max as a driver and we spent a wonderful 3 days with them seeing everything on the itinerary and more! As there were only 2 of us we were able to skip the lines and go straight in, so we got to beat the crowds and spend longer in the attractions. As we had 3 days instead of 2 we were also able to visit the Faberge Museum and the Impressionist Exhibition. Lunch was provided and we had two 4-course sit down lunches in restaurants and lunch in the traditional Stolle Pie Shop on the last day.

 

Immigration procedures in St Petersburg were much easier and quicker than previously. It took about 20 minutes the first day, and on the second and third days there was no line. Incidentally, everyone we spoke to who did a private St Petersburg tour, regardless of the operator, raved about their tours. On the other hand those who had ships tours invariably seemed disappointed, not only because everywhere they went was crowded and their tours were more expensive, but also because they discovered that in spite of what they had been told by Celebrity, you didn’t actually need to get your own (expensive) Russian visa to tour with a local company!

 

We also did SPB small group tours in 2 of the other ports. The Stockholm tour was disappointing because the guide was very dithery, hard to understand and didn’t manage her time well. We spent more time than expected on the bus, which greatly cut into the one hour of free time and the one and a half hours walking tour of the old town we were meant to have, giving us just over an hour for both combined. The highlight of the tour was the Vasa Museum. By comparison, the 3 hour SPB walking tour of Tallinn was fantastic. There were only 4 of us and we had an excellent guide who was both knowledgeable and amusing. After the guided part of the tour we had 2 hours of free time before an SPB minibus took us back to the ship.

 

In Zeebrugge we were docked from 7am to 3pm. We took a free shuttle to the port gates then shared a pre-booked taxi into Bruges, arriving around 8:30 am, only to find everything closed until 10am. It would have been nice to have docked later and stayed later, especially as the clocks went forward an hour the night before. We pottered around Bruges, took a boat ride on the canals, ate moules frites for lunch and bought some chocolates.

 

Warnemunde was a DIY port for us. We walked from the ship into town, did some sightseeing and ate lunch in a local restaurant.

 

Copenhagen was our final port, and from where the ship docked we were able to walk first to the Little Mermaid Statue, and then into the centre of town. Again we pottered around and ate lunch before walking back to the ship.

 

Disembarkation was easy. We left the cabin at 8am, had a latte and croissant in Cafe Al Bacio (yes the seapass still worked!), and got off the ship at 8:30. Our bags were waiting and we had no trouble getting a taxi to the airport.

 

I think this was our best ever cruise on celebrity. We found the Eclipse clean and well maintained, and her crew were friendly and provided excellent service. We have booked another cruise on her for next year!

[Clarea]

Excellent report, thanks!

[QuakerBoy]

Glad you had such a pleasant experience, and thanks for sharing your insights. Reviews like this, as opposed to the "bitching threads," are what make this site worthwhile.

[Boommax]

Loved reading your review. We are sailing on Eclipse to Baltics in August and are also booked with SPB tours. Glad to hear you liked your experience with them. We are new to cruising and really appreciate reading reviews as thorough as yours. Thanks!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[DYKWIA]

Love the idea of Taj on five, could see that going down well on a cruise from Southampton (mixed in with other theme nights as you suggest). From Mid September (our cruise) on the Eclipse Bistro on five will be no more and will change to Sushi on five, implementing a concept tried elsewhere

 

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=7072

Edited July 26, 2016 by DYKWIA

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed your review and glad you thought it was your best ever cruise on Celebrity.

 

Keith

[Little Nell]

Thank you for your review. We sail on Eclipse on Sunday and are very encouraged by your positive comments. We loved the Eclipse last year and are hoping for the same excellent experience this year.

[iandjm]

I was also on this cruise. What a great time we all had. Cant wait until Norway in April 17 and the Baltic again in June 17 :)

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[aquanaut1]

Thanks for the great review , we are sailing on Eclipse 26/8 I hope the Indian pop up will be on then !!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[purdo]

Great review, we're also on Eclipse on 14th August, our first cruise.

[ShipsDoc46]

Many thanks for your excellent review .We are again on the Eclipse in a couple of weeks time and are interested in the change in the evenings to Bistro on 5. Sounds really good would give that a try if it were on while we were there.

[mourne]

Thanks you for such a wonderful review. DH and myself are deciding on a Caribbean 'special birthday' cruise at the moment and undecided between Eclipse and Oceania Riviera. Think we may book Eclipse now it does seem better value for money not a lot cheaper mind you but a longer cruise and has been said you can only eat so much. In fact I may look into the same cabin as yourselves. :)

Thanks again.

[ShipsDoc46]

Hi, could you answer a question for me? Your cabin 9292 does it have the bed nearest the balcony doors , or nearest the wardrobe ?

 

Many thanks

[agathasmum]

Hi, could you answer a question for me? Your cabin 9292 does it have the bed nearest the balcony doors , or nearest the wardrobe ?

 

Many thanks

 

Next to the balcony doors. It's great. We didn't have to get out of bed to watch the sail into Stockholm!

[Love 2 Travel]

Good review. Just wondering where you docked in Stockholm?

[81Zoomie]

Sounds great. We are looking at a 3day SPB cruise for next year. When you said you took a taxi to the airport.... Did you fly out of Heathrow? Saw you are from MD, so we are also wondering what your flight arrangements were like. Welcome home!

[busby]

Sailed o n Eclipse 3rd July to the Baltic, this was our first time with Celebrity and loved every minute joined roll call and the discussions before travelling found everyone's tips so useful especially those regarding destinations helped with our planning and how to book excursions other than those available on ship ,it was great meeting everyone at the Connections party too ,have already booked Asian cruise departing next year, joined the roll call and discussion forum.