Live from Celebrity Eclipse on a 6 day cruise from L.A. to Cabo..,

[Stockjock]

As I mentioned elsewhere, my girlfriend couldn’t get the time off from work, so a buddy and I are doing a six night cruise from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas.  A woman with a big friendly smile approached us and asked if we were looking for the LGBTQ get together. I told her that I am straight, but I would love a good cappuccino.
 

They may or may not alter our itinerary, but I’m hoping they don’t, as you may know Hurricane Norma just got done hitting Cabo pretty hard. 

 

The ship is in decent condition, but you can still see some maintenance areas that need to be improved, wood on armrests in the restaurant that are worn out, spots on the carpet, so on a scale of one to 10 I would say the condition to ship is about seven. it’s a lot like me, it looks better in dim lighting. 

 

We did the concierge level lunch, and it was a little underwhelming, but not bad. I thought the service was a little bit spotty.  I would’ve also liked to see more variety of the concierge lunch on the first day, since they make a big deal about it. It’s not bad, but it’s not a big deal.
 

I also asked them for the champagne that’s supposed to be included, and they brought me one warm bottle without an ice bucket or glasses, so it would’ve been nice to see them chill it, and bring it with a nice bucket and a cloth wrapped around in a couple of champagne glasses. I thought just handing you a cheap bottle of champagne was a little bit crummy.

 

We also did the concierge level sail away from the helipad, and I enjoyed that, although it was a bit cold,

b

Tonight we did dinner in the Tuscan Grill, and it was generally very good. I’ll post a few pictures and probably add to it from time to time. If anyone has any questions just ask.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2023 by Stockjock

[chemmo]

Enjoy your cruise, following along!

[bnurick]

We are on next week, enjoy. Any wine list pictures would be appreciated. Especially in Tuscan and/or Murano if you go (again). Cheers!

[doghog]

We were on the 8 October Pacific Coastal cruise. We had the CBP and no more cans of water (Rain). Plastic bottles (Crystal Glacier). 👍

[DaKahuna]

@Stockjock I know you know but I think it would be a great thing if you gave the Food and Beverage Manager and or Hotel Director immediate feedback on the issues you had with your Concierge Embarkation lunch.  Poor service and especially just handing you a bottle of warm sparkling wine is totally unacceptable and should be addressed immediately.  Also hope you include this an any other major failures in quality and service to your cruise feedback.  

 

BTW, there is usually a QR code in the Daily Planner that you can use to give feedback onboard, good as well as bad.  I encourage you to keep and eye out for it and to use it. 

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Enjoy!  Would like to know what you were planning on doing your evening/night in Cabo and the overnight tender schedule

[Stockjock]

4 hours ago, bnurick said:

We are on next week, enjoy. Any wine list pictures would be appreciated. Especially in Tuscan and/or Murano if you go (again). Cheers!

The dinner at Tuscan Grill was very good, but the wine list was underwhelming to say the least. I’m talking about wine by the glass, and we have the Premium package.
 

There are not a lot of selections, and what they do offer is mediocre. I think that for a specialty restaurant, there should be some superior options that are included in your drink package. so I do recommend Tuscan Grill, but the wine list is poor, although they do have a lot more options if you want to buy a bottle of wine. But of course the whole point of buying a drink package to minimize that sort of thing. 

[Stockjock]

33 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Enjoy!  Would like to know what you were planning on doing your evening/night in Cabo and the overnight tender schedule

I think we will start off by going to some of the beach bars on Medano Beach, such as mango deck, and there’s another nice one right next to it.  
 

There are a couple of restaurants I like across the bay and we will probably have dinner at a place called Dos Barriles, which has a nice dinner for two for maybe $110 that includes lobster tail, filet mignon, local seafood and I think for an extra five bucks or so they’ll flambé it at your table. I also recommend an Italian restaurant really close to the one I just mentioned called Salvatore’s. So we will probably hit up one or both of those later in the evening and then maybe do the tourist thing and go to Cabo Wabo. the next day will probably just go back to Medano Beach and hang out. 

[DaKahuna]

23 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

The dinner at Tuscan Grill was very good, but the wine list was underwhelming to say the least. I’m talking about wine by the glass, and we have the Premium package.
 

There are not a lot of selections, and what they do offer is mediocre. I think that for a specialty restaurant, there should be some superior options that are included in your drink package. so I do recommend Tuscan Grill, but the wine list is poor, although they do have a lot more options if you want to buy a bottle of wine. But of course the whole point of buying a drink package to minimize that sort of thing. 

 

When we ate in Tuscan Grill on our cruise last April/May, our sommelier recommend a very nice Primivito that I thought was excellent.  I was looking through my pictures (over 1500 of them) from that cruise but could not find a picture of it.  I am hoping they have it on Millennium again when we sail on her in May. 

 

I agree with you in general though.  The wines available by the glass on the Premium package could use some adjustments for the better.  It gets old having the premium package and being served wines off the Basic package because that's all that is in stock by the glass.

 

[Stockjock]

Took this picture last night. Just a couple more quick comments. The so-called premium Wi-Fi is miserable from the rooms. You cannot get a signal, nor can you get one from the hallway on deck 10. I’m on the back of the ship eating breakfast right now and it does seem OK, but it’s not acceptable in certain parts of the ship.

 

The shower is a lot better than what I experienced on Infinity last month. So far we’ve had good consistent water pressure and plenty of hot water. I took several ice cold showers on Infinity, so this is a step up in that regard.

 

The breakfast buffet is pretty good. The bacon tasted weird to me  I really like bacon, but I couldn’t even eat it.  The biscuits in the biscuits and gravy were so hard that I didn’t think it was possible to make them that hard, but they were. But most of the food was pretty good, including the omelettes and eggs Benedict.

[Stockjock]

A few pictures from tonight’s show and dinner. I thought the show, Topper, was pretty good and the costumes and singing were nice. 
 

I mentioned that on my recent cruise on Infinity, the food was not very good, and the service was maybe even worse, but tonight was the first night that we ate in the main dining room, and the service was excellent. I thought the food was quite good too.  We do have the Anytime dining, so I guess we will have different wait staff, but the staff we had tonight was very good.
 

I had T-bone lamb, but I guess it’s a formal night and I thought it was excellent. I’d probably rate it a nine on a 10 scale and I don’t give out nines easily. My buddy had the grilled chicken and he gave it a seven or eight, but he seemed to enjoy it.

 

We arrive at Cabo San Lucas tomorrow. Apparently they opened the port again this morning after hurricane Norma hit them hard, so I’m hoping it’s in reasonable shape. Once again, if you have any questions, just ask.

 

 

[lovecruzin]

Thanks for your posts! We cruise in a couple of weeks. The question has been asked on another social media group re tender schedule for overnight in Cabo… From previous experience in think they run overnight, just less frequently?

Also, do you have 1 or 2 chic nights and when…

Have a great cruise.

 

[binro01]

Looks amazing! We will be on her next week and cant wait. Thanks for getting us even more pumped up for this cruise!

[Mrsgtravels]

Hope you enjoy restaurants in Cabo. I found Main dining room food great ion summer cruise to Alaska, I’m curious to know if it’s more rocking in that weather…..heading that way soon and I get seasick. Maybe November will be better?

[Stockjock]

We will be calling in a night soon, but a few pictures before then. My friend Charles has reverted to water, but I’m still working on martinis.

[Mrsgtravels]

Great photos! Cosmo martini also divine. 

[DaKahuna]

21 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Took this picture last night. Just a couple more quick comments. The so-called premium Wi-Fi is miserable from the rooms. You cannot get a signal, nor can you get one from the hallway on deck 10. I’m on the back of the ship eating breakfast right now and it does seem OK, but it’s not acceptable in certain parts of the ship.

 

 I recommend you go to the iCafe and complain about the quality of the wireless in your location on the ship.  Maybe they can put a signal booster in your area.  

 

21 hours ago, Stockjock said:

The breakfast buffet is pretty good. The bacon tasted weird to me  I really like bacon, but I couldn’t even eat it.  The biscuits in the biscuits and gravy were so hard that I didn’t think it was possible to make them that hard, but they were. But most of the food was pretty good, including the omelettes and eggs Benedict.

 

 

 I have stopped ordering the biscuits and gravy.  My southern soul cringes each time I think of the brick hard silver dollar sized lumps they call biscuits and the slices of something they dare to call sausage. 

 

P.S.  Beautiful picture. 

 

[kruzerci]

I hope you enjoy your sailing. We were on the past two sailings. Really enjoyed everything other than the MDR food. Very small portions and the quality was just abysmal aside from the lamb t-bone night. 

[bnurick]

@Stockjock What is your experience getting bottled water onboard?  Hearing mixed reviews on getting for your room.  Thank you.

[lostchild]

Eat some tacos at Cabo for us!  The tacos and seafood there are so good.   Our favorite was the tacos from El Paisa.

[JDPCruisers]

23 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 I recommend you go to the iCafe and complain about the quality of the wireless in your location on the ship.  Maybe they can put a signal booster in your area.  

 

 

 I have stopped ordering the biscuits and gravy.  My southern soul cringes each time I think of the brick hard silver dollar sized lumps they call biscuits and the slices of something they dare to call sausage. 

 

P.S.  Beautiful picture. 

 

I'm with you on the biscuits and gravy. Have not had them, especially when I saw what they looked like when one of our sail mates on Edge in April ordered it one morning! 

[JDPCruisers]

On 10/23/2023 at 12:13 AM, Stockjock said:

As I mentioned elsewhere, my girlfriend couldn’t get the time off from work, so a buddy and I are doing a six night cruise from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas.  A woman with a big friendly smile approached us and asked if we were looking for the LGBTQ get together. I told her that I am straight, but I would love a good cappuccino.
 

They may or may not alter our itinerary, but I’m hoping they don’t, as you may know Hurricane Norma just got done hitting Cabo pretty hard. 

 

The ship is in decent condition, but you can still see some maintenance areas that need to be improved, wood on armrests in the restaurant that are worn out, spots on the carpet, so on a scale of one to 10 I would say the condition to ship is about seven. it’s a lot like me, it looks better in dim lighting. 

 

We did the concierge level lunch, and it was a little underwhelming, but not bad. I thought the service was a little bit spotty.  I would’ve also liked to see more variety of the concierge lunch on the first day, since they make a big deal about it. It’s not bad, but it’s not a big deal.
 

I also asked them for the champagne that’s supposed to be included, and they brought me one warm bottle without an ice bucket or glasses, so it would’ve been nice to see them chill it, and bring it with a nice bucket and a cloth wrapped around in a couple of champagne glasses. I thought just handing you a cheap bottle of champagne was a little bit crummy.

 

We also did the concierge level sail away from the helipad, and I enjoyed that, although it was a bit cold,

b

Tonight we did dinner in the Tuscan Grill, and it was generally very good. I’ll post a few pictures and probably add to it from time to time. If anyone has any questions just ask.

 

 

IMG_0234.mov

 

 

 

Have never seen them just hand a bottle of warm Champagne to a passenger for any type of dining occasion, special or otherwise. Totally unacceptable and that server needs to be re-trained as soon as possible. Surely this can't be the level of service that X considers to be the norm now (may be a rhetorical question)?

[Stockjock]

We are leaving Cabo at the present time, and we had a nice day and a half there. Even though a hurricane hit recently, the weather was quite nice for us.
 

I would say our experience on Celebrity Eclipse has been more good than bad, but still mixed.  There still have been some areas that could definitely be improved. I’ve already discussed a couple of them so I won’t be redundant.
 

We haven’t had a lot of an opportunity to have dinner in the main dining room, since we have been eating in Cabo and we had a specialty restaurant one night, but we will be checking it out tonight.
 

We had the toilet break twice and overflow all over the bathroom floor, and I had to stand there, pressing it constantly to keep the flooding from getting really bad.

The plumbers came once, and they are on their way right now. I pushed it about 25 times and it finally stopped flushing and overflowing, but obviously there’s a significant problem with this. hopefully the plumbers will fix it this time. 

 

I did mention that the Wi-Fi did not work in the room, but I went down to the Internet desk, and now it does work, so we had a problem for half of the cruise, but it seems better now.

 

We were underwhelmed by the concierge class lunch, it just really didn’t seem that special and the service was not very personal. Even though a concierge class guest is not exactly the same as a suite guest, I think they should really try to make it special, and it didn’t feel that way at all. I did appreciate the tender Priority, which helped in Cabo. 

 

I see the Hotel Director all over the ship, so it seems like he’s very hands-on and that’s a good thing. My impression of him is favorable.

In terms of cocktail service, the drinks have been very good and consistent and the service has been strong.  I think the world-class bar is excellent, and so are the people that work there.
 

Even though our cabin steward did not do a terrific presentation on the “champagne“, she’s been very good otherwise, and the room has been very clean.
 

I think the front desk is pretty much clueless in terms of understanding this toilet issue. They just now called and more or less were arguing with me about it. I tried to explain about 40 different ways that the problems not resolved, and they are basically blowing smoke at me.
 

First, they said that somebody in our cabin flushed a towel down the toilet, which I am quite certain did not happen, and then they said that somebody in another room flushed the towel in their toilet, and it affected our unit, but I’m not sure I believe that either. But we did ask for a plumber ASAP and in a polite way I thought the guy was politely argumentative and so far I still don’t have a plumber.
 

The toilet is not overflowing at the moment, but I am afraid to flush it because I think we’re gonna have the problem all over again, and we will have toilet water overflowing into our bathroom once again.  
 

So right after I wrote this, the plumber did show up and acted a little bit like I don’t know what I’m talking about. He flushed the toilet, and it did not overflow, but I still don’t think the issue was resolved. And I don’t think he has done anything to fix it, so I suspect it will happen again.

 

There are little things that we consider to be a lack of attention to detail. One of them would be that they bring you plates of small bites for two guests, but they give you one fork. And that’s happened two nights in a row. And it’s not a nice presentation either but just little things that could definitely be cleaned up.  When MSC gives you champagne and snacks, it’s a very nice presentation with a bottle in an ice bucket, and goodies presented in a attractive way.

 

We will eat in the main dining room tonight, and it’s not a formal night so later I’ll post some pictures of the food and some impressions. Again I haven’t been able to judge it fairly because we’ve only had a specialty restaurant night and elegant night so far.

 

I don’t want to make it sound like we’re not having a good time because we are. But I can see some things that probably could be cleaned up, put it like that.

 

That said, here are some photos from the last couple days in Cabo San Lucas.  
 

Let me also add that if you see the picture of me standing with a gentleman, that is Poncho, the owner of Los Barriles restaurant, which is about two blocks from Cabo Wabo. He is really a nice man and his restaurant is outstanding.
 

Not only do they have, excellent dinners at reasonable prices, but it’s a nice place to go for a traditional Mexican breakfast. I recommend the Machaca with eggs, but you can also get something like the more traditional American Ish breakfast, and ask them to cook the eggs as huevos rancheros, but this is a short walk from the drop off from the tenders, and again it’s something that I recommend.
 

Another restaurant I recommend is Salvatore’s, which is about one block away, and it’s not only good for dinner, but what we did is have a nice flambéed shrimp dinner at Los Barriles, and then go to Salvatore’s for dessert and a cocktail. 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

11 hours ago, bnurick said:

@Stockjock What is your experience getting bottled water onboard?  Hearing mixed reviews on getting for your room.  Thank you.

We have gotten bottled water from the bars and that type of thing, and it hasn’t been an issue. They are now providing it in the clear, plastic containers, rather than the aluminum containers that you might be used to.

[Stockjock]

Nice sunset this evening.
 

We did the backstage tour which pertains to the theater only, and I posted a couple pictures from that just a little bit ago.  We thought it was really interesting and fun walking around backstage with members of the cast.
 

Tonight we are going to see a show called Amade, which Benji the cast member shown earlier described as not making any sense, but he said don’t try to make sense of it because you won’t enjoy it. He said, just take it all in, and kick back, and it will be fun. So we will find out.  From what we’ve seen of the entertainment so far, it seems pretty good.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Stockjock