784caroline
11-16-2010, 11:32 AM
Just back from the inagural transatlantic crossing of the Clebrity Eclipse. Beautiful ship and great trip (13 nights at sea). Left from Southampton with stops in Le Harve France, Cherbourg France, Vigo Spain and the Azores ending up in Miami.
Landed in Heathrow and had a private hire pick our group of 6 up and we arranged for a tour of Stonehendge and other sites aon the way to our hotel in Southampton. This was a great way to beat jet lag and avoid all the hassle (and added expense) of getting a bus or taxi from heathrow to Southampton. PLus we were dropped off right at the holiday Inn overlooking the Port at Southampton.
While in Southampton we visited the martime Museum that has alot of history reagrding the Tiantic with some original artifacts. We walked the town and visited open air markets and then we found teh oldest pub in Southampton the Duke of Wellington. This was a great place to have a "pint" and they were getting ready for HAlloween that night......absolutely beautiful bar area and the people were all very friendly.
First stop was le harve but it was a naitonal Holiday in France (All SAints day) and nothing was open...so we took the bus into the city and just walked around.
Next stop was Cherbourg and herer we rented a van and headed to the beaches of Normandy (Omaha and Utah) and also vsiited teh D-Day Memorail/museum and the American Cemetery. This was really the highlight of the trip and you can spend hours here. It is very wel done . The van we rented from national car rental had a GPS so driving weas not that difficult but we were concerned about the stirkes in France adn teh ability to get gas.
Fortunatley we had no problem but if we were a week earlier we unerdstand it would have been a disaster.
From here we cruised to Vigo Spain and to get here we had to pass through the Bay of Biscane..this was our only "real" rough spot in cruising and that lasted about a day. Vigo was a nice city..nothing what I rememebr from my last visit here 30 years ago.Very hilly but it did have walking streets and open cafes where you can sit and enjoy a drink and lunch while watching the people walk by. AFter a day at sea we stopped in the Azores and walked the ole city and stoped again in an open cafe to people watch.
Then it was 6 straight days of open sea crossing the atlantic. Weather was fairly good but we did have some rough spots sea wise but nothing that stopped any activity. (Sea of Biscayne (earlier) was much worse) WE are fairly experienced cruisers on any lines and "Elite" cruisers with Celebrity and have done 14-16 days cruises in recent years. This was our first Trtansatlantic and 6 staright sea days can be a challenge if you are not prepared to relax and just have time to yourself. Dont get me wrong the ship had plently of lectures, bingo, gambling, art presentations wine tastings etc..stuff that hapens on-board, but I can see where some people after 2-3 days could get antsy on what to expect next. The cruise was packed full with 40% brits/europeans, 50% americans and 10% other nationalities represented. The highlight for our group was to dine at the captains table which was a pleasurable experience. Otherwise we dined in Select Dining where you choose your dining time......worked out great and would do it again. Food on the ship was as always overwhelming. The Quality of the food was mostly above average having some of the best prime rib ever. ONe disappointing item was the lobster..they only had the small langusitos and mixed it with other sea food over pasta. Service was always TOP notch and since this was a new ship and first time comming to the USA I think Celebrity tried to have a better crew on board to serve it passengers. Of the 2800 passengers on board more than 800 were "Elite" passengers with more than 10 cruise credits. Thats alot of experienced cruisers for one ship and they had another 1000 passengers between 5-9 cruise credits.
We returned from Miami using Cruise Connection bus service. First off it was convient and one way fare was $69 per person to lady lake McDoanlds. BUT we got off the ship at approx 9am and had to wait until; 11:55am before we left the port of Miami. NOw were were told not to gte off until 10-10:30 but the wait on concrete benches was tough. WE had some stops but NO transfers all the way from Miami to lady Lake and got in about 6pm. They showed 2 movies on the bus (Old VHS movies)..and we had friends pick us up.
Highly recommend the Celebrity Eclipse during its 2010-2011 winter Carabean sailing out of Miami ....but we are "Glad to be home" !!
!
Landed in Heathrow and had a private hire pick our group of 6 up and we arranged for a tour of Stonehendge and other sites aon the way to our hotel in Southampton. This was a great way to beat jet lag and avoid all the hassle (and added expense) of getting a bus or taxi from heathrow to Southampton. PLus we were dropped off right at the holiday Inn overlooking the Port at Southampton.
While in Southampton we visited the martime Museum that has alot of history reagrding the Tiantic with some original artifacts. We walked the town and visited open air markets and then we found teh oldest pub in Southampton the Duke of Wellington. This was a great place to have a "pint" and they were getting ready for HAlloween that night......absolutely beautiful bar area and the people were all very friendly.
First stop was le harve but it was a naitonal Holiday in France (All SAints day) and nothing was open...so we took the bus into the city and just walked around.
Next stop was Cherbourg and herer we rented a van and headed to the beaches of Normandy (Omaha and Utah) and also vsiited teh D-Day Memorail/museum and the American Cemetery. This was really the highlight of the trip and you can spend hours here. It is very wel done . The van we rented from national car rental had a GPS so driving weas not that difficult but we were concerned about the stirkes in France adn teh ability to get gas.
Fortunatley we had no problem but if we were a week earlier we unerdstand it would have been a disaster.
From here we cruised to Vigo Spain and to get here we had to pass through the Bay of Biscane..this was our only "real" rough spot in cruising and that lasted about a day. Vigo was a nice city..nothing what I rememebr from my last visit here 30 years ago.Very hilly but it did have walking streets and open cafes where you can sit and enjoy a drink and lunch while watching the people walk by. AFter a day at sea we stopped in the Azores and walked the ole city and stoped again in an open cafe to people watch.
Then it was 6 straight days of open sea crossing the atlantic. Weather was fairly good but we did have some rough spots sea wise but nothing that stopped any activity. (Sea of Biscayne (earlier) was much worse) WE are fairly experienced cruisers on any lines and "Elite" cruisers with Celebrity and have done 14-16 days cruises in recent years. This was our first Trtansatlantic and 6 staright sea days can be a challenge if you are not prepared to relax and just have time to yourself. Dont get me wrong the ship had plently of lectures, bingo, gambling, art presentations wine tastings etc..stuff that hapens on-board, but I can see where some people after 2-3 days could get antsy on what to expect next. The cruise was packed full with 40% brits/europeans, 50% americans and 10% other nationalities represented. The highlight for our group was to dine at the captains table which was a pleasurable experience. Otherwise we dined in Select Dining where you choose your dining time......worked out great and would do it again. Food on the ship was as always overwhelming. The Quality of the food was mostly above average having some of the best prime rib ever. ONe disappointing item was the lobster..they only had the small langusitos and mixed it with other sea food over pasta. Service was always TOP notch and since this was a new ship and first time comming to the USA I think Celebrity tried to have a better crew on board to serve it passengers. Of the 2800 passengers on board more than 800 were "Elite" passengers with more than 10 cruise credits. Thats alot of experienced cruisers for one ship and they had another 1000 passengers between 5-9 cruise credits.
We returned from Miami using Cruise Connection bus service. First off it was convient and one way fare was $69 per person to lady lake McDoanlds. BUT we got off the ship at approx 9am and had to wait until; 11:55am before we left the port of Miami. NOw were were told not to gte off until 10-10:30 but the wait on concrete benches was tough. WE had some stops but NO transfers all the way from Miami to lady Lake and got in about 6pm. They showed 2 movies on the bus (Old VHS movies)..and we had friends pick us up.
Highly recommend the Celebrity Eclipse during its 2010-2011 winter Carabean sailing out of Miami ....but we are "Glad to be home" !!
!