Live but Late from the Eclipse - Thanksgiving (US) Cruise - November 17 - 25, 2023

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Good Evening from the Eclipse! I have been so busy doing absolutely nothing I never started my live thread until just now. But I guess better late than never. Sailing solo this time around for the holiday as mom decided to visit some friemds (and I decided a cruise sounded much more enjoyable!)

For Thankgiving I booked a Royal Suite for the 8 night Celebrity Eclipse Mexican Rivera sailing which includes a stop in San Diego. The best thing about this itinerary is that there is an afternoon arrival in most ports which makes for a relaxed morning. I found it a bit odd that Celebrity decided to do mostly 6 night cruises this season with a few 8 nights mixed in rather than doing 7 night cruises. Of course, what do I know about fleet planning? Absolutely nothing. They didn't seem to have any trouble filling the ship (thanks in part to a last minute cancellation from Carnival).

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Delta always does a nice job and it was a very easy 2.5 hour flight down the coast. For lunch they served a burger which was quite decent. The aircraft is their brand new A321NEO (new engine option) and the seating in first class was very comfortable. Delta typically allows you to pre-order your meal between 24 hours and 7 days prior to your flight, however an oddity of these planes is that the ovens are smaller and they have not yet sorted out how to account for this in their pre-order system. As such you cannot pre-order on their premium, brand new aircraft which typically flies the longest cross country routes wheere a meal selection would be most important. Surprisingly I was in the last row to order and they still had all 3 choices available.

Pre-cruise I opted to stay at the Hotel Maya - a DoubleTree by Hilton in Long Beach with water views. Off to the right is the Queen Mary and the Carnival cruise terminal, which I apparently neglected to take a picture of. The restaurant was fine and Mexican themed. I would honestly not go out of my way to eat there, but I wouldn't avoid it. Overall this was a great hotel, and convenient to the port. I found it much cleaner than the Hilton Long Beach where I stayed last time, and the waterfront location is great. They had fire pits and a nice outdoor pool which I did not use but are a nice addition.

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zgscl · November 25, 2023

Embarkation

After a short Uber ride to the pier I was able to drop my luggage off. Porters were scarce and it was a bit of a struggle to get one. You sort of had to pounce on them as they came out of the back area and there was a massive group of people fighting to get rid of their luggage. I made the mistake of getting dropped off by the retreat awning where there were no porters. I had to take my luggage farther down to the luggage check area. I would suggest trying to get dropped off as close to the luggage drop as possible (about 1/3 of the way down the pier).

The shoreside concierge said to arrive any time after 11 and I think I got there around 11:30. All guests came in the same entrance but there were two lines - one for retreat and one for everyone else. After getting in the Retreat line and going to the first check, they scanned my boarding pass and determined I was in a royal suite at which point I was escorted through security and check in to the Retreat lounge. Altogether it took about 10 minutes to get through check in and security and to be seated comfortably in the retreat lounge.

The lounge was completely empty as everyone had already boarded adn they had a nice display of snacks and beverages. After about 5 minutes the Retreat Manager came down and escorted me onboard and to my suite.

Royal Suite 1607

The Royal Suites on the Solstice class ships are fantastic. I love the dining area and it is so nice having somewhere to spread out all of your papers and things.

The room has a guest/day bath as well as a wonderful master bathroom. Overall a very comfortable place to spend the next week.

The largest problem is that once you upgrade once, it is very difficult to go back to anything else.I have not successfully done so yet. I have booked Sky or Celebrity suites but always seem to talk myself into upgrading.

Edited November 25, 2023 by zgscl

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Michael's Club Schedule

Embarkation Lunch, Luminae

I always have lunch in Luminae whenever it is open and enjoyed the lobster roll, burger & apple berry crumble. Service was great - not nearly as chaotic as I have seen the first lunch be. I also did come a bit later on so that may have helped.

They have a new burger in Luminae since my last cruise. Instead of the bacon jam it is a double burger with pork & BBQ sauce. I actually really liked it, although I do miss the bacon jam.

After lunch I had to visit Cafe al Bacio for my usual iced tea. I found it to be well staffed and the service efficient.

Sailaway

While Logn Beach is certainly not the most scenic of sail aways as you are in the middle of a container port, it is a pretty day, and sailing away on a cruise is always a special moment.

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Dinner

Back to Luiminae for the 1st night dinner. I usually lie to do the first few meals here so I get to know the crew before branching out to specialty restaurants. After reading about a lot of cutbacks I was a bit nervous but found the staffing in Luminae to be sufficient (although maybe a couple less people running around than my last cruise). I did not notice any impact on service. It seemed like I had a little more interaction with my main waiter and less with the assistant waiters than before, but the assistant waiters were still there and did the bread, water, clearing tables, etc. We also had a wine steward/bar person still who did all of the wine and alcoholic beverages. I found all of the food to be quite good, and the crew confirmed this is the first sailing with the restored MDR menus which added some additiional choices each meal.

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Day 1 Program

Day 2 Program

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Day 2

Breakfast in Luminae was lovely as always.

For Lunch I decided to take advantage of the unlimited specialty dining that comes with the royal suite and try Sushi on 5 which was excellent. The restaurant seemed a little short staffed when it was full, but the servers did a great job keeping up. It just seemed like they really needed 1 or 2 more with a full restaurant and the service was a bit slow although this could have been on the kitchen end more than the front of house. One added benefit of the later arrivals is that there are only 2 days Luminae was closed for lunch - Mazatlan & San Diego day.

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Dinner in Luminae was excellent except for desert. It was called "Celebration of a Carrot" and was kind of a deconstructed carrot cake with carrot pure and strips of carrots on it. A traditional carrot cake would have been much better.

The main show tonight was Topper which I hadn't seen before. Although the cast did a great job, I really just find that I am not particularly interested in the production shows on most cruises.

The comedian who I saw the night before (Kristen Kay) did an adult set after and she was quite funny for both shows.

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Day 3 - Cabo San Lucas

I did a light breakfast today in Luminae, but they couldn't resist giving me extra salmon.

Arriving to Cabo is always beautiful. They started distributing tender tickets at 11:30 (for 12:30 arrival) in the Martini bar. If you want to go early you need to be there early, unless you have priority access via Retreat or other status.

I signed up for the Luxury Sunset Sail excursion which had a 3:15 meeting time so I decided to have a relaxing lunch and go ashore a bit later on. Tender operations seemed slow and a bit inefficient. They had plenty of tenders - all 6 of the ship's plus multiple local tenders. Unfortunately they only really used one of the tender embarkation areas so many tenders just sort of sat around waiting for a load. They did have both starboard doors open, but really were using just the midship one for most of the process. If they used both (or even better all 4) it would have been much faster. I went to Michaels around 2:45 and they still had a lot of people to get ashore. Even the concierge said they were surprised because it is usually open tender by 2:30. They brought me right down and I got on the first tender leaving when I was ready. Wonderful perk of the retreat.

For lunch I went to Luminae but decided to try the pesto chicken panini from the MDR. It definitely sounded better on the menu than it actually was.

Luxury Sunset Sail

This afternoon/evening tour had 2 departures - a 4 and 4:15 with meeting time 45 minutes before departure. Turns out they don't actually need you there until about half an hour before but they pad the time to make sure people get ashore with time to spare. They split the tour into 4 boats of 16 passengers each. Each group took one of these sail boats - guests sit up on the front part (no back rest). There is a seating area in the back for folks who had a hard time climbing up to the bow.

They served drinks and a snack box. Primarily we motored out to see the Arch and get out to the ocean before putting the sails up and sailing for about an hour and a half. It gets dark early this time of year so the sunset about 6 and we headed back in shortly afterwards. it was completely dark out by the time we got back to the pier. Getting a tender back to the ship was quite easy.

They have 3 crew members. The captain/chef, the bartender/server/DJ, and the photographer who will take any pictures you want plus plenty of candids.They offer a photo package for $45 and will email you all of the pictures they got of you.

Overall the tour was good, however sitting up without a back rest can get a bit tiresome particularly if you do the longer luxury day sailing tour. If you would have a hard time climbing on and off the boat then you really should rethink the tour.

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Edited November 25, 2023 by zgscl

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Dinner was another great meal in Luinae. The desert was some sort of bread pudding whch I was not particularly impressed with. Fortunately royal suites get unlimited gelato so I headed over there for a make up desert.

Smmessineo · November 25, 2023

Thanks for your travelogue! Great information on the Royal suite, Luminae, and west coast ports. I've taken some notes.

hcat · November 25, 2023

5 hours ago, zgscl said:

Embarkation

After a short Uber ride to the pier I was able to drop my luggage off. Porters were scarce and it was a bit of a struggle to get one. You sort of had to pounce on them as they came out of the back area and there was a massive group of people fighting to get rid of their luggage. I made the mistake of getting dropped off by the retreat awning where there were no porters. I had to take my luggage farther down to the luggage check area. I would suggest trying to get dropped off as close to the luggage drop as possible (about 1/3 of the way down the pier).

The shoreside concierge said to arrive any time after 11 and I think I got there around 11:30. All guests came in the same entrance but there were two lines - one for retreat and one for everyone else. After getting in the Retreat line and going to the first check, they scanned my boarding pass and determined I was in a royal suite at which point I was escorted through security and check in to the Retreat lounge. Altogether it took about 10 minutes to get through check in and security and to be seated comfortably in the retreat lounge.

The lounge was completely empty as everyone had already boarded adn they had a nice display of snacks and beverages. After about 5 minutes the Retreat Manager came down and escorted me onboard and to my suite.

Royal Suite 1607

The Royal Suites on the Solstice class ships are fantastic. I love the dining area and it is so nice having somewhere to spread out all of your papers and things.

The room has a guest/day bath as well as a wonderful master bathroom. Overall a very comfortable place to spend the next week.

The largest problem is that once you upgrade once, it is very difficult to go back to anything else.I have not successfully done so yet. I have booked Sky or Celebrity suites but always seem to talk myself into upgrading.

great photos..that Suite is Cruising in Style! Enjoying the review!

cruzzzinma · November 25, 2023

Beautiful photos!

Texed · November 25, 2023

Nice pictures, nice suite, nice commentary. Thanks for posting. 😊

Pinboy · November 25, 2023

8 hours ago, zgscl said:

Sailing solo this time around for the holiday as mom decided to visit some friemds (and I decided a cruise sounded much more enjoyable!)

Absolutely an excellent review---

The Royal suite looks magnificent.

The photos of the food, in particular the presentation of same, makes me wonder why there are so many negative comments on CC about it recently. I'll bet it tasted as good as it looks.

LOL----"and I decided a cruise sounded much more enjoyable!" ----- Watch out !! Better hope Mom doesn't see this !!!

zgscl · November 25, 2023

29 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

Absolutely an excellent review---

The Royal suite looks magnificent.

The photos of the food, in particular the presentation of same, makes me wonder why there are so many negative comments on CC about it recently. I'll bet it tasted as good as it looks.

LOL----"and I decided a cruise sounded much more enjoyable!" ----- Watch out !! Better hope Mom doesn't see this !!!

Absolutely incredible cabin!! Service has been impeccable. Going into this cruise i was a little bit worried after all the negative feedback and I am happy to say that this cruise has been just as good as all of my previous celebrity cruises. Service is top notch. Food has all been delicious, I can’t recall a bad meal anywhere. while some portion sizes have been slightly smaller, there is absolutely no issue if you want to order an extra dish or another one. I actually prefer the smaller portion size for exactly this reason.

Oh she knows, I absolutely told her directly that I would rather be cruising!

SouKnoMe · November 25, 2023

Great commentary and pictures. Thank you!

Pinboy · November 25, 2023

58 minutes ago, zgscl said:

i was a little bit worried after all the negative feedback and I am happy to say that this cruise has been just as good as all of my previous celebrity cruises. Service is top notch.

"I am happy to say that this cruise has been just as good as all of my previous celebrity cruises. Service is top notch".

Nice to hear--

I've mentioned many times that we never had a bad cruise--- just go with the " flow "--

Ok, on occasion a dish wasn't the " greatest ", so, we ordered something else -- never a problem.

The entertainment/activities ?? What the hell-- sometimes very good, other times not so good-- doesn't spoil the cruise.

The Service has always been excellent.

"after all the negative feedback "---

IMO, some of the negative Threads/Posts are absolute nonsense--- ok, ok, to me.

zgscl · November 25, 2023

21 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

"I am happy to say that this cruise has been just as good as all of my previous celebrity cruises. Service is top notch".

Nice to hear--

I've mentioned many times that we never had a bad cruise--- just go with the " flow "--

Ok, on occasion a dish wasn't the " greatest ", so, we ordered something else -- never a problem.

The entertainment/activities ?? What the hell-- sometimes very good, other times not so good-- doesn't spoil the cruise.

The Service has always been excellent.

"after all the negative feedback "---

IMO, some of the negative Threads/Posts are absolute nonsense--- ok, ok, to me.

Attitude is definitely everything!

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Day 4 - Puerto Vallarta

I definitely enjoyed having the morning at sea. It is so great sleeping in before getting to port. The other advantage is that Luminae stays open for lunch!

I was scheduled to do the half day luxury sail tour today but really did not want to go. It was quite hot and I had enough sailing in Cabo. I finally resigned myself to go and went down to the meeting point - and when I got there they let us know the sail boat had a mechanical problem and the tour was cancelled and we would be getting a full refund. They had several other tour options but I happily handed back my ticket and went back to relaxing on the ship. I need to plan less excursions - I always think everything sounds great when I am at home and then when I get there I don't really want to do it. Enjoyed a nice quiet afternoon on the ship!

For dinner I went to Murano. Service was excellent as it always is. I absolutely love their baguette rolls. The goat cheese dish was a little cold in the center but still good. I always love the lobster Murano where they prepare it table side. Such fun to watch.

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Day 5 - Mazatlan

Another hot day, and I had planned to make it a ship day. Originally I was going to do the harbor tour but I cancelled it as it left at 8:15 AM and I barely am up and ready at 8:15 at home so I didn't think I should push myself on vacation! Really enjoyed sleeping in this morning!

For lunch Liminae was closed (one of 2 days only) so I made a reservation for Sushi on 5. Love having the unlimited specialty dining as a perk in the Royal Suite.

Really beautiful day in Mazatlan! We shared the port with Discovery Princess. I can't decide if them blasting the love boat theme song when they leave is cute or obnoxious. Given how few people today would know the theme song I sort of wonder why they keep that tradition going.

For dinner I went to Tuscan which was also quite good, actually better than I remember it on the Solstice. Service was efficient but I did go late so the restaurant was not too crwoeded.

zgscl · November 25, 2023

Day 6 - At Sea

Michael's club invited a group of retreat guests for a bridge tour which was fun. If you have never done one I highly recommend doing it. (If you have interest the inside access tour is well worth while if you have any interest in ship operations). The crew is always so proud of their ship and love to show it off!

Edited November 25, 2023 by zgscl

zgscl · November 25, 2023

After the bridge tour I had another nice lunch in Luminae.

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I also did the Captain's Club behind the scenes theater tour. Didn't get a chance to take pictures but is interesting seeing the back stage area. They do a lot of with not much space. The cast trains for about 2 months to learn all the shows on shore in Miami and then come onboard for about 6 months. The first 3 weeks is an install period where they have a whole team come onboard with them to install the crew onboard, fix costumes, etc. The cast has to apply for captain positions such as the arial captain, vocal captain, costume captain, etc. and those cast members have added duties

Dinner in Luminae was another lovely meal. The chicken came from the main dining room and was really good. I enjoyed all of the MDR items I sampled this cruise also. Very glad we were the first cruise where they added back the larger menus.