[ridgeland11]

Is anyone taking this new year's cruise?

[Papa]

Originally Posted by ridgeland11

Is anyone taking this new year's cruise?

We leave in a couple of days on an earlier Celebrity Eclipse cruise ;-)

[PennBF]

I would not recommend the "Eclipse" for a cruise. They have reduced the costs to a point where the service and food are allegedly not good. They tout spending additional money to experience their "Specialty" restaurants at a cost of an additional $80 per couple. They haver 4 specialty ones and whereever you go they keep pushing to reserve a table in one. The internet is terrible. It is down a lot and there are as many excuses as there is down time. On most crusies (we have taken a lot) if the service or food is below par there has been an Officer to notice it and take control. Not so on this ship. Allegedly the Officers would walk by food that should have been taken away and ignore that it has been there for quite some time. Everyone has opinions of ships this is just one opinion.

[jnieman]

Originally Posted by PennBF

I would not recommend the "Eclipse" for a cruise. They have reduced the costs to a point where the service and food are allegedly not good. They tout spending additional money to experience their "Specialty" restaurants at a cost of an additional $80 per couple. They haver 4 specialty ones and whereever you go they keep pushing to reserve a table in one. The internet is terrible. It is down a lot and there are as many excuses as there is down time. On most crusies (we have taken a lot) if the service or food is below par there has been an Officer to notice it and take control. Not so on this ship. Allegedly the Officers would walk by food that should have been taken away and ignore that it has been there for quite some time. Everyone has opinions of ships this is just one opinion.

If contemplating taking a cruise your best bet is to visit Cruise Reviews, Cruise Deals and Cruises - Cruise Critic. There are tons of reviews on every ship on that website. You will also run across people who will be on your ship. Lots of info on there. Good luck. I have loved every cruise I've ever been on. My favorite was a Celebrity cruise but that was a few years back. Good luck!

[buggyone]

Originally Posted by PennBF

I would not recommend the "Eclipse" for a cruise. They have reduced the costs to a point where the service and food are allegedly not good. They tout spending additional money to experience their "Specialty" restaurants at a cost of an additional $80 per couple. They haver 4 specialty ones and whereever you go they keep pushing to reserve a table in one. The internet is terrible. It is down a lot and there are as many excuses as there is down time. On most crusies (we have taken a lot) if the service or food is below par there has been an Officer to notice it and take control. Not so on this ship. Allegedly the Officers would walk by food that should have been taken away and ignore that it has been there for quite some time. Everyone has opinions of ships this is just one opinion.

The quote from the above post says the food and service on the Celebrity Eclipse is "allegedly not good" and "allegedly, the officers would walk by food and ignore ..."

It does not sound like a first-hand experience to me. I personally love Celebrity ships and have been on the Equinox (sister ship to Eclipse). It is excellent. The specialty restaurants are wonderful and it is fun to go to one or two. The food in the "regular" main dining room is very good.

The Internet service is not good. Too many people have their electronic devices going and the servers cannot handle the traffic. Go without your emails for a week or at least wait until you get to a port and go to an Internet cafe on shore for a very cheap price.

If you own at least 100 shares of Royal Caribbean stock, you will get an onboard credit of $50 to $250 depending on length of cruise. Contact Celebrity for details. Also, a former military person (does not have to be retired) can qualify for a substantial discount on Celebrity. Just contact Celebrity for details.

All in all, Celebrity is a very good cruiseline.

[PennBF]

Each experience is a very personal thing. We have been on other Celebrity
cruises and liked them including some of their ships. We were surprised to find this cruise so poor and chalked it up to the cruise lines going for deep cost cuts which may have also impacted the staff/officers. It was different to see the constant touting of the speciality restuarants. Even as you entered the buffet in the Oceanview Cafe they were pushing you to sign up for the $80 speciality diners. There no longer was the music and dancing in the Centrum which was always enjoyable. Yes, we sat in
the Oceanview Cafe and noted the used dishes stayed on the tables, Officers walked by and did not even raise the question to the servers. The type/quality of the food remained pretty much the same day to day and
the meat tough and breakfast meat cold.
I would stress we are not new to cruising and are Diamond and Elite on some lines and have made a number of Transatlantic crossings. This was the poorest we sailed on and almost cured me of wanting to cruise again if all are cutting so deep into costs.

[784caroline]

I have no idea what cruise you were on BUT we find Celebrity to be the best of the affordable cruise lines out there. We just returned from the Celebrity Summitt (15 nights) from Bayonne NJ to Quebec and it was a great cruise. The Summitt is an "M" class ship where as the Eclipse is bigger and of the newer "Solstice" class. We cruised the Eclipse on its inuragural transatlantic crossing and it was great. Very modern and stylist....great cabins.

I personally know the Resturant Manager who was just on the Eclipse and recently moved to Celebritys newer ship and I can tell you this mans work ethic is beyond reproach. He is on the floor monitoring the buffets, walks unepectantly throughout all the speciality resturants and shows his staff what he expects by he himself doing it. ...ie carrying a tray /plate for an elderly passenger.

Your comment about trying to upsell the newer speciality resturant...we have seen this and to be honest with you we just say no. There certainly was NO pushing you to sign up for an additional $80...in fact when we did see this upsell in the buffet areas they were actually selling it at a cheaper price ($40-50) becasue reservations may have been light for that particular night. Many people did take advantage of the discounted price. Our group of 6 always ejoy the main diding room and if there is a problem it is easily corrected just by telling the waiter or developing a relationship with the Assitant Matrie 'D...problem solved.
ONe problem we did have on our most recent cruise to Canada was that since it was fairly chilly ..read cold on the cruise, outside tables off the buffet area or tables by the pool were not available...that made seating at lunch time in the buffet area at a premium. I dont think it had anything to do with lack of or unattentive staff.......but this issue did cause some problems for people.

Overall anyone crusing Celebrity especially the newer Solistice class ships should have a great time. As someone recommended, definitely go to cruisecritic.com and visit the bulletin boards for both celebrity as well as Roll Call for your particular ship and sail date. Thee is a wealth of information on those boards.

[Papa]

Originally Posted by ridgeland11

Is anyone taking this new year's cruise?

Just returned yesterday from a 14-day Ultimate Caribbean Cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse. We had a wonderful time, as always, with Celebrity Cruise lines. Food, and service, were excellent. The only thing we were disappointed in, were the 3 Production Shows. However, the other entertainers were superb (We actually have seen 2 of them on previous cruises)

If you want any info on our Eclipse cruise, just ask. We would be delighted to share the most recent experience on the Eclipse. I even saved the Daily Programs for future reference.