Just off the 7/2 Eclipse 7 night Alaska Hubbard Glacier: my review

[nogard13]

I want to post my thoughts/opinions on this ship/voyage in case there are others in my demographic who would like an honest review.  I enjoyed my cruise and would recommend the voyage to others, tho I'm not sure I would recommend the Eclipse per se.  Overall, I give the trip a 9/10 but the ship only gets a 3/10 overall.  Why?  Well, let's start off with what we really enjoyed.

 

About Us:

We are a family of 4: Outdoorsy 40-somethings with two girls (9/6).

 

The Good

 

Vancouver:

We love the city.  There is always a ton for us to do and we feel very welcome in Vancouver.

 

Itinerary:

Many destinations in Alaska are only accessible by boat or plane, so taking a cruise is an excellent way to experience this wonderful state.  The truth is that Icy Strait Point, Juneau, and Ketchikan are excellent ports of call.  The wonderful views of the inside passage as you cruise are also amazing, and getting to see Hubbard Glacier up close makes this an excellent itinerary.

 

Excursions:

We did two whale watching cruises as well as a sightseeing tour, but, sadly,  we were never able to book the Hubbard Glacier excursion (group of 6 and excursions were booked solid 8-9 months out).  Everyone I met that did the Hubbard Glacier excursion said that it was easily the most amazing experience of the entire trip, so we're disappointed that we weren't able to book it.  The whale watching cruises proved to be wonderful, even though stormy weather in ISP made for a very rough ride (kids ended up getting a bit sea sick).

 

The Bad

 

Oceanview Cafe (buffet):

Most of the food is your standard, cruise buffet type food.  However, what was substandard was the amount of tables available, the quality/taste of the food, the logistics/design of the buffet, and the incredibly horrendous desserts.

     - Tables: There just weren't enough tables for people to use.  I'm not even talking about the people who sat alone at a 6-person table or the lady who literally held the same table (every day) from breakfast until dinner, either.  There are always people like that on any cruise you go on.  But we found that tables were always insufficient, and we always saw dozens of people standing around, with full plates, waiting on tables to sit at and enjoy their meal.  Not only that, but the spacing between tables was very generous.  Celebrity could have easily fit more tables/chairs in that space had they really wanted to.

     - Food Quality/Taste: My family loves to eat fruit.  But the fruit available was either severely under ripe (especially the cantaloupe and pineapple) or bordering on slimy (green melon).  The salads had tons of wilted/browned/deteriorated greens, to the point that half of them had to be removed from a serving or it wouldn't be edible (this was the first two days, I can only imagine it got worse as the cruise progressed).  The roasts were so dry and tough that my 9 year old couldn't cut them with her knife, and ended up leaving them on her plate.  The only good options we found were the ethnic foods (mostly Indian and Filipino), so we would just eat those (white or fried rice, vegetarian dishes, adobo pork, etc...).

     - Buffet Logistics/Design: My wife and I have been on 15 cruises, and this is the first one that had absolutely no flow to it.  Now, maybe it was due to new cruisers who have never experienced a buffet before (doubt it), but navigating the different stations was a pain in the rear.  I've never seen so many accidents where people were bumped and dropped their plates (at least 4-5 each time we visited the buffet), and it just felt overcrowded and uncomfortable.  Also, most cruise buffets will have duplicate stations for items that either take time to prepare or that are popular (omelet/poached egg station in the morning, or made to order pasta stations at lunch/dinner); the Eclipse didn't have these.  There were tons of longs lines as a result, and it became difficult to enjoy those meals without waiting 20 minutes.

     - Desserts: O.M.G.  This was the worst part of all.  The desserts were always flavorless, dry, or had a funny aftertaste.  Other than the chocolate chip cookies and the Jell-O, nothing else was worth grabbing.  My kids (again, 6 and 9) love desserts/sweets, and they would get 6 or 7 different desserts on their plate, take one bite of each, and leave them because they said they didn't like them.  I've never seen my kids not finish a dessert before this trip.  EVER.  On a positive note, I didn't gain a single pound for the first time in 15 cruises.  I don't think this is due to the crew.  I know they work hard and do their best.  I believe Celebrity is not setting them up for success here, either by purchasing sub-standard ingredients, cost-cutting by removing ingredients, or not having good recipes to begin with.

 

Main Dining:

I'd like to meet the person who designed and/or purchased the chairs in the main dining room so that I could give them a piece of my mind.  Holy cow, were they uncomfortable.  I've been married to my wife for 17 years now, and this is the first time I've ever heard her complain about a chair.  My whole family ended up asking for cushions/pillows just so that we could sit through a meal without needing to visit a chiropractor afterwards.  Also, either the chairs are too wide or the round tables are not large enough, because three of the six people couldn't pull the chairs all the way in without the other three being a foot away from the table.  IDK if they work for rectangular tables as we never sat at one (6 people in our group), but they were a horrible choice for round tables.  Not to mention the pleather on the arm rests was peeling on most of them, making them very scratchy and even more uncomfortable.

 

The food itself was pretty good, and I'd give it an 8/10 for apps/mains.  The desserts were much better than at the buffet, and I'd rate those a 7/10.  Service was excellent, tho, and we ended up tipping our waiters quite a bit on the last day (each of them received $100).  They really were superb.

 

Kids Activities:

Yes, they have a kids club on the ship, but they seemed to be understaffed and did not have enough games or entertainment for kids.  My kids were both in the same group (6-9 year olds) and felt bored.  I met some of the other kids at the pool and around the ship (my kids recognized them and spoke with them), and most had so-so reactions when I asked if they liked the kids club.

 

Not only that, but the pools weren't really set up for kids to enjoy.  My kids are basically fish, and they spent probably 4-5 hours on sea days at the pool.  The problem is that the pools are cold (outdoor pools during an Alaska voyage) so I worried about them.  The solarium is good, but the family times are only 4-6pm (all other times are for adults only).  This overlaps with early dining (5:45pm), and since I had to pull my kids out at 5:15ish to get them to shower and get ready, we felt that the times were not as good as they should be.  Maybe Celebrity should allow kids for longer periods, or move the times around so that kids can enjoy the entire two hours (most kids seemed to have the early dining time as almost all of them left around the same time we did).  Either way, it's not very convenient for families who have the early dining time.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Honestly, I don't think Celebrity is the best line for our family.  This was our third Celebrity cruise (once without kids, once with a 2-year old, and now), and we've felt like we didn't fit in with the demographics each time.  My in-laws love it, but I think that is because Celebrity caters to boomers/empty nesters and just barely tolerates families with young kids.  Others may have different opinions, and that's OK, but I wanted to get my perspective out there in case it helps others.

 

Edit: remove duplicate sentence.

Edited July 11, 2023 by nogard13

[Fedic]

Thanks for taking the time to review.  We are boarding the Eclipse for this same itinerary on Sunday and I appreciate your thoughts.  Is your 3/10 rating for the ship primarily due to buffet issues, kids club and family pool hours or were there other issues that contributed to your overall rating?  

[RTShaker]

Different stokes for different folks. I actually prefer the buffet layout on the S class to the M.

[nogard13]

1 hour ago, Fedic said:

Thanks for taking the time to review.  We are boarding the Eclipse for this same itinerary on Sunday and I appreciate your thoughts.  Is your 3/10 rating for the ship primarily due to buffet issues, kids club and family pool hours or were there other issues that contributed to your overall rating?  

Yes.  It's not that the ship is in disrepair (for the most part).  Everything in the cabin worked as intended and looked about right for the age of the ship since last refurb, and the common areas were in good condition as well.  My main issues are the incredibly uncomfortable chairs in the MDR, the buffet, and not having enough entertainment for the kids.  Kids that are bored get disruptive, and while my kids are fairly well behaved, we did encounter a few issues when they got bored on sea days.

 

Also, the timing for lunch is tight.  The MDR is only open like 12-1:30, so if you don't get in by then, you have to do lunch at the Buffet.  We like to sleep in and start our days late on sea days (we're on vacation after all), and if you have a late-ish breakfast (say around 8:30-9am) then it's hard to make it to lunch by 1:30pm because nobody is hungry.  So you end up either forcing yourself to lunch earlier than you want or dealing with the horrible experience of that buffet.  It makes you feel as if you have to plan your whole day around choosing between uncomfortable chairs or bad food in a crowded area.  Not enjoyable.

[39august]

I agree with you that Celebrity, at least the S and M class ships, are not a good fit for families with young children.  Due tp my earlier cruise history with RCI, I have to say that RCI would be a much better fit for you.

[theopup]

Glad to hear that you enjoyed your time in Vancouver 

[RTShaker]

I absolutely agree on the dining chairs.

[PTC DAWG]

I agree, I wouldn’t sail on Celebrity with little ones either…

 

That said, I have never had any issues with the layout of the Equinox in the past. One of my favorites. 

[Travel-and-See]

Question - How was the live entertainment on the Eclipse? 

 

I took the Millenium a few weeks ago and I would say I had the same experience and thoughts about the buffet and food quality. The seating in the MDR on Millenium was very comfortable though! 

[horseymike]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise to some degree, certain cruise lines are more geared for kids than others, all the best going forward.

[nogard13]

4 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

Question - How was the live entertainment on the Eclipse? 

 

I took the Millenium a few weeks ago and I would say I had the same experience and thoughts about the buffet and food quality. The seating in the MDR on Millenium was very comfortable though! 

Ah, I knew I forgot something!

 

Entertainment:

The entertainment on board was excellent.  We enjoyed the shows so much that my youngest daughter went to the 7pm and 9pm showings three of the nights.  She was very excited to talk to the dancers/singers that stand by the exits as you walk out and they basically recognized her by the third night.  We were fortunate enough to do a backstage tour for about an hour and the lead singer (Kelsey) really took the time to talk to my daughters and even let them try on some of the costumes in the dressing room.  This was on the last day of our cruise, but that night they made sure to look for my daughters while performing and sing/dance/gesture towards them while performing and then stop by when they came to perform out in the audience to give them high fives.  I cannot say enough good things about the performers and the shows themselves.

[bigAWL]

Thanks for the honest review.  Did you experience or have any thoughts about specialty dining, Mast Grill, Café al Bacio, or other onboard activities?  And there have been discussions on this forum about noise levels around the ships' public areas/venues, particularly concerning loud music.  Was this your experience, as well?

[mahdnc]

17 hours ago, nogard13 said:

I want to post my thoughts/opinions on this ship/voyage in case there are others in my demographic who would like an honest review.  I enjoyed my cruise and would recommend the voyage to others, tho I'm not sure I would recommend the Eclipse per se.  Overall, I give the trip a 9/10 but the ship only gets a 3/10 overall.  Why?  Well, let's start off with what we really enjoyed.

 

About Us:

We are a family of 4: Outdoorsy 40-somethings with two girls (9/6).

 

The Good

 

Vancouver:

We love the city.  There is always a ton for us to do and we feel very welcome in Vancouver.

 

Itinerary:

Many destinations in Alaska are only accessible by boat or plane, so taking a cruise is an excellent way to experience this wonderful state.  The truth is that Icy Strait Point, Juneau, and Ketchikan are excellent ports of call.  The wonderful views of the inside passage as you cruise are also amazing, and getting to see Hubbard Glacier up close makes this an excellent itinerary.

 

Excursions:

We did two whale watching cruises as well as a sightseeing tour, but, sadly,  we were never able to book the Hubbard Glacier excursion (group of 6 and excursions were booked solid 8-9 months out).  Everyone I met that did the Hubbard Glacier excursion said that it was easily the most amazing experience of the entire trip, so we're disappointed that we weren't able to book it.  The whale watching cruises proved to be wonderful, even though stormy weather in ISP made for a very rough ride (kids ended up getting a bit sea sick).

 

The Bad

 

Oceanview Cafe (buffet):

Most of the food is your standard, cruise buffet type food.  However, what was substandard was the amount of tables available, the quality/taste of the food, the logistics/design of the buffet, and the incredibly horrendous desserts.

     - Tables: There just weren't enough tables for people to use.  I'm not even talking about the people who sat alone at a 6-person table or the lady who literally held the same table (every day) from breakfast until dinner, either.  There are always people like that on any cruise you go on.  But we found that tables were always insufficient, and we always saw dozens of people standing around, with full plates, waiting on tables to sit at and enjoy their meal.  Not only that, but the spacing between tables was very generous.  Celebrity could have easily fit more tables/chairs in that space had they really wanted to.

     - Food Quality/Taste: My family loves to eat fruit.  But the fruit available was either severely under ripe (especially the cantaloupe and pineapple) or bordering on slimy (green melon).  The salads had tons of wilted/browned/deteriorated greens, to the point that half of them had to be removed from a serving or it wouldn't be edible (this was the first two days, I can only imagine it got worse as the cruise progressed).  The roasts were so dry and tough that my 9 year old couldn't cut them with her knife, and ended up leaving them on her plate.  The only good options we found were the ethnic foods (mostly Indian and Filipino), so we would just eat those (white or fried rice, vegetarian dishes, adobo pork, etc...).

     - Buffet Logistics/Design: My wife and I have been on 15 cruises, and this is the first one that had absolutely no flow to it.  Now, maybe it was due to new cruisers who have never experienced a buffet before (doubt it), but navigating the different stations was a pain in the rear.  I've never seen so many accidents where people were bumped and dropped their plates (at least 4-5 each time we visited the buffet), and it just felt overcrowded and uncomfortable.  Also, most cruise buffets will have duplicate stations for items that either take time to prepare or that are popular (omelet/poached egg station in the morning, or made to order pasta stations at lunch/dinner); the Eclipse didn't have these.  There were tons of longs lines as a result, and it became difficult to enjoy those meals without waiting 20 minutes.

     - Desserts: O.M.G.  This was the worst part of all.  The desserts were always flavorless, dry, or had a funny aftertaste.  Other than the chocolate chip cookies and the Jell-O, nothing else was worth grabbing.  My kids (again, 6 and 9) love desserts/sweets, and they would get 6 or 7 different desserts on their plate, take one bite of each, and leave them because they said they didn't like them.  I've never seen my kids not finish a dessert before this trip.  EVER.  On a positive note, I didn't gain a single pound for the first time in 15 cruises.  I don't think this is due to the crew.  I know they work hard and do their best.  I believe Celebrity is not setting them up for success here, either by purchasing sub-standard ingredients, cost-cutting by removing ingredients, or not having good recipes to begin with.

 

Main Dining:

I'd like to meet the person who designed and/or purchased the chairs in the main dining room so that I could give them a piece of my mind.  Holy cow, were they uncomfortable.  I've been married to my wife for 17 years now, and this is the first time I've ever heard her complain about a chair.  My whole family ended up asking for cushions/pillows just so that we could sit through a meal without needing to visit a chiropractor afterwards.  Also, either the chairs are too wide or the round tables are not large enough, because three of the six people couldn't pull the chairs all the way in without the other three being a foot away from the table.  IDK if they work for rectangular tables as we never sat at one (6 people in our group), but they were a horrible choice for round tables.  Not to mention the pleather on the arm rests was peeling on most of them, making them very scratchy and even more uncomfortable.

 

The food itself was pretty good, and I'd give it an 8/10 for apps/mains.  The desserts were much better than at the buffet, and I'd rate those a 7/10.  Service was excellent, tho, and we ended up tipping our waiters quite a bit on the last day (each of them received $100).  They really were superb.

 

Kids Activities:

Yes, they have a kids club on the ship, but they seemed to be understaffed and did not have enough games or entertainment for kids.  My kids were both in the same group (6-9 year olds) and felt bored.  I met some of the other kids at the pool and around the ship (my kids recognized them and spoke with them), and most had so-so reactions when I asked if they liked the kids club.

 

Not only that, but the pools weren't really set up for kids to enjoy.  My kids are basically fish, and they spent probably 4-5 hours on sea days at the pool.  The problem is that the pools are cold (outdoor pools during an Alaska voyage) so I worried about them.  The solarium is good, but the family times are only 4-6pm (all other times are for adults only).  This overlaps with early dining (5:45pm), and since I had to pull my kids out at 5:15ish to get them to shower and get ready, we felt that the times were not as good as they should be.  Maybe Celebrity should allow kids for longer periods, or move the times around so that kids can enjoy the entire two hours (most kids seemed to have the early dining time as almost all of them left around the same time we did).  Either way, it's not very convenient for families who have the early dining time.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Honestly, I don't think Celebrity is the best line for our family.  This was our third Celebrity cruise (once without kids, once with a 2-year old, and now), and we've felt like we didn't fit in with the demographics each time.  My in-laws love it, but I think that is because Celebrity caters to boomers/empty nesters and just barely tolerates families with young kids.  Others may have different opinions, and that's OK, but I wanted to get my perspective out there in case it helps others.

 

Edit: remove duplicate sentence.

Thanks for posting your in-depth review. It's disappointing for me to read how the kids club came up short for your kids. It's distressing to read about your dining experiences. 

[nogard13]

3 hours ago, bigAWL said:

Thanks for the honest review.  Did you experience or have any thoughts about specialty dining, Mast Grill, Café al Bacio, or other onboard activities?  And there have been discussions on this forum about noise levels around the ships' public areas/venues, particularly concerning loud music.  Was this your experience, as well?

I did not visit any specialty restaurant or the Mast Grill.  We did go to Al Bacio several times a day for coffee, tea, and just water bottles.  They seemed to be quite efficient and I have no complaints other than the to go cups being a bit thin and thus making it a bit difficult to carry two hot beverages back to the cabin.\

 

Noise levels seemed completely reasonable to me, and no loud music.

[bigAWL]

Thanks!

[hcat]

very complete review

i think the Alaska itins are focused more on outdoor exploration..less about on board itself.

 

We would  not like expanded Solarium hrs..other than perhaps after dinner time    The Solarium is  an adult only space,  but X tries to give some time to families as an accomodation.

 

sounds like OP family would be a better fit on Royal C....geared more to kids and active adults

 

[TMLAalum]

Did you and/or your wife visit the casino? If so, do tell about the vaping experiment currently being tried on the Eclipse.

[nogard13]

 

8 hours ago, hcat said:

very complete review

i think the Alaska itins are focused more on outdoor exploration..less about on board itself.

 

We would  not like expanded Solarium hrs..other than perhaps after dinner time    The Solarium is  an adult only space,  but X tries to give some time to families as an accomodation.

 

sounds like OP family would be a better fit on Royal C....geared more to kids and active adults

 

Thanks.  The family hours don't really have to be expanded much, to be honest.  In fact, if they just did the family time from 3-5pm instead of 4-6pm, I would be very happy. 

5 hours ago, TMLAalum said:

Did you and/or your wife visit the casino? If so, do tell about the vaping experiment currently being tried on the Eclipse.

I visited the casino only on the last night.  I took my remaining $425 cruise credit and cashed it out to play black jack (ended up walking away with $395 in cash after playing their promotional chips).  I sat at the table for maybe an hour around 9pm and didn't see a single person vape or smoke (and couldn't smell it, either). 

[newbie202020]

Thanks for the detailed review. I will be on the Eclipse in a few days with same itinerary.

 

Was the embarkation process smooth? I heard that Vancouver port embarkation can involve a lot of walking and I am trying to minimize that as I am traveling with seniors. 

 

Do you have any tips like stuff you wished you packed, etc?

 

I'm hoping that we don't have to wait long for MDR. We're anytime dining and waitlisted for early dining. Thanks 

[nogard13]

1 hour ago, newbie202020 said:

Thanks for the detailed review. I will be on the Eclipse in a few days with same itinerary.

 

Was the embarkation process smooth? I heard that Vancouver port embarkation can involve a lot of walking and I am trying to minimize that as I am traveling with seniors. 

 

Do you have any tips like stuff you wished you packed, etc?

 

I'm hoping that we don't have to wait long for MDR. We're anytime dining and waitlisted for early dining. Thanks 

The port was smooth for us, but I heard one lady talking about it taking her and her family 5 hours to get thru the embarkation process and make it on the ship.  There is a longshoreman strike, but I don't know how that affects the ship other than luggage taking longer.  Hardly anyone put luggage out on the last night and chose to do self-assisted disembarkation due to the warnings about luggage times being severely delayed.

 

I was able to reserve a 10am embarkation and was with two seniors as well.  We arrived at the port around 9:40am, dropped off our luggage, and headed up to the main floor where we were told that Celebrity was ready for us.  We did the check in and proceeded to customs, where we had to wait in a line for about 15 minutes.  After that, we sat in a large room until we were told that our ship was ready to board.  We boarded the ship around 10:45ish, went to our cabins, dropped off our carry ons, and then went up to the top deck to look out until the Buffet opened at 11:30am.

 

Tips? Not really anything I didn't mention in my review.  I constantly heard my family say they overpacked, but I used every item of clothing I brought except for one pair each of shorts, underwear, and socks (I packed them knowing they would be extra).  Just make sure you have good layers that you can remove when days heat up.

[newbie202020]

Thanks very much nogard13 for your response.

 

Forgot to ask if you noticed covid or norovirus on the Eclipse? Just being extra careful as I am traveling with seniors. Thanks 

[nogard13]

13 hours ago, newbie202020 said:

Thanks very much nogard13 for your response.

 

Forgot to ask if you noticed covid or norovirus on the Eclipse? Just being extra careful as I am traveling with seniors. Thanks 

No, we didn't experience or notice either.