Review of my 10-22-23 sailing on Eclipse, from Los Angeles to Cabo (overnight) to San Diego & back to L.A.

[Stockjock]

About us: I'm in my early 60s and my buddy is in his early 50s. I've cruised over 20 times, mostly on Celebrity & MSC.  He hasn't cruised a lot, but recently did a Ritz Carlton Yachts cruise in Europe.
 

Overview: This was a 6-night cruise out of Los Angeles.  It sailed to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, overnight, and then spent a day in San Diego, which is where I live.

Thread: I did a live thread that you might enjoy called Live from Celebrity Eclipse on a 6 day cruise from L.A. to Cabo.
 

Our Cabin: Cabin 1065, which is a Concierge Class veranda.  Check YouTube for my recent video cabin tour.
 

Transportation: We took the bus from San Diego to Long Beach and then Uber from Long Beach to the Port of Los Angeles.  On the way back, we reversed the process.  Long Beach is sketchy to the point of feeling filthy and dangerous & I recommend avoiding it.  If you're in a hotel near a port (Long Beach or San Pedro), you should be fine.
 

The Passengers: Overwhelmingly American, an eclectic mix of all ages. Just about everyone was well-behaved.
 

Embarkation and Disembarkation: Relatively smooth, fast and efficient.  However, it was extremely busy and crowded at the Port of L.A. post-cruise.
 

The Ship: It's older but in relatively good condition. I wouldn't hesitate to book it, but there were a few problems, to follow.
 

The Food: Not bad, not as good as it used to be.  The specialty restaurants (Tuscan Steak House and Murano) were excellent, especially Murano.  See the thread referenced above for more details.
 

The Service: Generally very good.
 

The Bars: We really enjoyed World Class Bar & the Martini Bar.  High marks.  I also have a couple of YouTube videos showing these bars.
 

Problems: 
 

Here's a partial copy and paste from an e-mail that I sent to Celebrity.  They offered us each $100 future OBC, which I felt was a touch light.
 

The biggest problem is that the toilet failed 4 times.  3 out of the 4 times, it simply would not stop running to the point where it overflowed onto the floor.  One had to stand next to the toilet, flushing it continuously, until it was fixed or stopped running (flushing 25-50 times or more).  One of these failures occurred at 2 am.  On the final day, the toilet stopped working entirely, which was very inconvenient, as we were trying to get ready before disembarking.
 

On the night where the toilet failed at 2 am, we had an interesting experience where the front desk called and started yelling at us, and we couldn’t figure out what was going on.  The fellow, with a heavy Indian accent, just kept saying, “Tell the guest to clean the toilet!“ over and over again.  I would say, "I don’t understand what you mean" and he seemed to be very upset and confused. Finally, I said, "I don’t know why you keep saying this, because I am the guest" and he didn’t realize that, but his first tipoff should’ve been that I don’t have an accent, nor does my friend (he spoke with both of us). But it was kind of odd, and then they sent a housekeeper here at two-something in the morning,  But we really needed a plumber, and the whole yelling thing was unusual.  I have no clue what “Tell the guests to clean the toilet!” meant, in the midst of a toilet failure at 2 am. 
 

We also had a lot of noise from the balcony glass that separates our cabin from cabin number 1063 next to us. It seemed that the bracket that holds the glass in place is loose and so the wind causes squeaking and clanking/banging noises as the glass bangs within the support bracket. Somebody, perhaps staff, wedged some paper in the gap, which may improve the situation a little bit, but it still can create a bit of a nuisance in terms of the noises.

The Wi-Fi did not work in the room for three days. I did visit the Wi-Fi center and on day 4 it worked properly.
 

When I asked about the bottle of champagne for Concierge Class, I was handed a warm bottle of cheap champagne (Prosecco) with no glasses or ice bucket or presentation of any kind. I think that you guys could probably do this in a little bit nicer way to make the guest feel special, like they do on MSC.  On MSC, they serve it in a bucket of ice with a towel around it, and some little snacks and chocolates in a really nice clear presentation tray, so I thought that was a little bit odd.
 

Even though the service was generally pretty good, actually, we do feel like there is a general lack of attention to detail. As an example, I mentioned the situation with the champagne, but we’ve also had times where one bath towel was missing (housekeeping was generally good though), or when they do bring the snacks. Every couple of days or so, they only bring one fork which is odd when you have two guests. 
 

Excursions: We did the San Diego Safari Park tour, even though we live in San Diego.  I recommend this.
 

Entertainment: Very good, actually.  One show was odd, but all were worth seeing.  See the thread I referenced earlier for more specifics.
 

Ports: 
 

Cabo San Lucas: I've been there many times.  Plenty to do and see, even though a hurricane had hit a few days prior.  Lots of nice food.  I recommend Los Barriles and Salvatore's downtown.  Cabo Wabo is also fun, and it's near Los Barriles & Salvatore's.
 

Overall: We had a nice time and recommend this itinerary for a quickie getaway.  Don't hesitate to reach out privately or in one of the aforementioned threads if you have any questions. 
 

Cabin Review
 

Concierge Veranda 1065:
Probably not worth the extra cost versus a standard veranda.  I also have a YouTube cabin tour, as mentioned.

Photos: I'm bummed, as I tried to upload some really nice photos to Cruise Critic and they failed every time after about 15 pics.  Refreshed and everything was lost.  And I spent over an hour on this review, but I'm done.  So I'll just point you to my original thread which I'll link to here w/plenty of photos:
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2970317-live-from-celebrity-eclipse-on-a-6-day-cruise-from-la-to-cabo/

Edited November 21, 2023 by Stockjock

[FlutePrayer]

"Long Beach is sketchy to the point of feeling filthy and dangerous & I recommend avoiding it.  If you're in a hotel near a port (Long Beach or San Pedro), you should be fine."

 

I live and work in Long Beach. As with any large city, there are areas that certainly match your description. Having said that, there are many, many other beautiful areas of Long Beach including lovely parks, a truly outstanding Nature Center, lots of great restaurants, and many cultural events. I'm sorry your experience in Long Beach was unpleasant.
 

[Stockjock]

12 minutes ago, FlutePrayer said:

"Long Beach is sketchy to the point of feeling filthy and dangerous & I recommend avoiding it.  If you're in a hotel near a port (Long Beach or San Pedro), you should be fine."

 

I live and work in Long Beach. As with any large city, there are areas that certainly match your description. Having said that, there are many, many other beautiful areas of Long Beach including lovely parks, a truly outstanding Nature Center, lots of great restaurants, and many cultural events. I'm sorry your experience in Long Beach was unpleasant.
 

I'm a former San Diego Police officer and my buddy is a decent sized guy.  We felt quite unsafe in Long Beach.  Disgustingly dirty homeless everywhere, giving us and others menacing looks and yelling obscenities.  My friend was about to drop a couple hundred bucks just to rent a car and get the hell out of there rather than wait another 45 minutes for our bus.

We had a longer than expected wait for the bus due to a schedule change, but we both were grossed out and felt unsafe.  We tried hanging out @ Jersey Mikes to stay away from them, but we weren't even safe there, as a homeless guy came up to the glass and screamed at us, then threw his comb at my friend.  Fortunately, it bounced off the glass.  The employees at Jersey Mikes were like unsmiling zombies and seemed to hate their lives.  Guessing the homeless & crime has made their job unpleasant.

My friend lives in downtown San Diego and I worked there for many years (as a cop & in my role w/a big Wall Street firm). It too has many problems.

I'm sure you're correct that there are nice parts of Long Beach, but we had a poor experience in two different parts of the city.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Stockjock

[phoenix_dream]

2 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

I'm a former San Diego Police officer and my buddy is a decent sized guy.  We felt quite unsafe in Long Beach.  Disgustingly dirty homeless everywhere, giving us and others menacing looks and yelling obscenities.  We had a longer than expected wait for the bus due to a schedule change, but we both were grossed out and felt unsafe.  We tried hanging out @ Jersey Mikes to stay away from them, and a homeless guy came up to the glass and screamed at us, then threw his comb at my friend.  Fortunately, it bounced off the glass.

My friend lives in downtown San Diego and I worked there for many years (as a cop & in my role w/a big Wall Street firm). It too has many problems.

I don’t know where you were in Long Beach but our experience was way different than yours. We stayed at Hilton Long Beach, and for dinner or shopping we walked or took the hotel shuttle to the area by the very nice aquarium.  We never felt unsafe and never encountered homeless people bothering anyone, and honestly I don’t remember even seeing any. I’m guessing like any fairly large town there are good and bad areas. I just felt I needed to clarify for people that not all of Long Beach is like that.

[Stockjock]

2 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

I don’t know where you were in Long Beach but our experience was way different than yours. We stayed at Hilton Long Beach, and for dinner or shopping we walked or took the hotel shuttle to the area by the very nice aquarium.  We never felt unsafe and never encountered homeless people bothering anyone, and honestly I don’t remember even seeing any. I’m guessing like any fairly large town there are good and bad areas. I just felt I needed to clarify for people that not all of Long Beach is like that.

This is why I specifically mentioned that if you're staying in a hotel near the port in Long Beach or San Pedro, you will likely be fine.  But our experience downtown was not fine.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Stockjock

[phoenix_dream]

23 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

This is why I specifically mentioned that if you're staying in a hotel near the port in Long Beach or San Pedro, you will likely be fine.  But our experience downtown was not fine.

The Hilton Long Beach is not near the port.

[Stockjock]

18 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

The Hilton Long Beach is not near the port.

I'm not implying that the entire city of Long Beach is a dump, just as my hometown of San Diego is not a dump.  But clearly, there are some areas in Long Beach that have issues, just as we have issues in parts of San Diego.

Again, we felt unsafe in broad daylight.

[cruisequeen4ever]

My friend and I had a similar but not as bad experience with our toilet on Solstice. The room steward acted like we had done something wrong with the toilet when it wouldn’t stop running. We had done nothing. We were fortunate he was able to stop it in time before it over flowed at least. They need to better train their crew not to attack their guests for ship issues out of pax control.