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Pulling into the Celebrity Cruiseport in Bayonne, NJ, it seemed like we were back in the 60s when we saw a sophisticated lady holding a cigarette in a fancy holder. We instantly thought we were in for a more elegant, new, and sophisticated cruising experience. Our cruise this time was on the Celebrity Eclipse. Having cruised dozens of times, mostly on Carnival, we were really excited and anxious to be treated like a “celebrity”.

Once the fancy cigarette lady was in our rearview mirror, the men in our party got out of the vehicle and handed the bag porters our luggage. Then we followed the other cars to the parking garage. We took our parking ticket, slipped it in the wallet, remembering to pay when we return from the cruise. $210 for a weeklong cruise, we’ve seen better, but we’ve also seen worse. It was nice to be able to park in an enclosed parking garage, no hot cars when we are to return and plus – no bird droppings! Almost a guarantee that our vehicle would still be there when we would return. Being near a big city, like NYC, you just never know! We parked and headed to the check-in terminal.

Check-in was a breeze. Showed our celebrity boarding passes (we had on our phone), and passports, and we were free to wait for our turn to board the ship. Until then all passengers were escorted to a sort-of “waiting room” where you could sit in the order you arrived until you were called by row to get on the ship. We sat for about half an hour, which went by rather quickly. Then, being full-of-excitement, our row was called, then we single-filled onto the ship.

Stateroom

We were told we could put away bags that we chose to carry-on the ship into our rooms. What a relief! This was the first cruise ship that we have been on that ever allowed this. Given the rooms were not fully cleaned, but you could put your bags down, use the commode, and have a sit in peace-and-quiet for a minute or two.

Restroom

Our balcony stateroom, although not clean at this time, dazzled us and furthered our thoughts that this would be a good cruise experience. Large and grand were the first two words that came to mind as we looked at the restroom. From the large shower with glass enclosure, large vanity area with big mirror, lots of cabinets and storage, and big space for getting ready – this sure seemed more like a suite restroom then a balcony.

Stateroom

Moving into the room, there was a large couch for sitting, storing clothes, bags, etc. The bed was very large and featured crisp, cool, white bedding. Cabinets galore. The large flatscreen tv faced our bed and swiveled so you could watch from either the bed or couch. Our balcony featured two chairs that recline and accompanying footrests. Our room, our sanctuary on the cruise – we thought this was the best room we have ever had on a cruise ship. It was large, clean, and made us feel like celebrities – no pun intended 🙂

Room Stewards

We can’t finish talking about our room without talking about our awesome room stewards in our area. Level 10 AFT even side, our room steward Glenn was great! We mentioned needing more washcloths and within 5 minutes he was at our room with more washcloths. Then every time after he would always leave us with more washcloths. He cleaned our room twice a day, 50% more often than any other cruise we have been on post-COVID 19. Anything we wanted, he would say “no problem” and rush to fulfill our requests. Every night we would come back to our room nice and tidy, chocolates on our pillows, and the next day’s program guide. We can’t move on without recommending another room steward, not even ours. Since he wasn’t our dedicated room steward, we weren’t able to catch his name. However, he and his wife both work on this cruise ship in the same area. He was super nice to us and always had a smile on his face, it may be because we would treat the stewards with candy occasionally and in return they would put chocolates on our pillows at night.

We must admit this section was quite long, because the room was our overall favorite part of the ship. The ship was very clean, decorated nicely, and laid out well.

Food

Buffet Pros:

Breakfast – At least one day we noticed that staff were walking around with trays of pastries handing them out to anyone who wanted. They also walked around refilling coffee cups, something I haven’t seen on another cruiseline.

Ice-cream Station – Both soft-serve and scooped ice-cream. During the day the soft serve was strawberry and vanilla and, in the evenings, it was chocolate and vanilla. The scooped ice-cream rotated each day but overall had a variety of flavors.

Pasta Station – featuring at least 4 different types of pasta and about 3 different kinds of sauces. It was my staple most days as I’m not a very adventurous eater.

Stir-fry Station – available for the dinner buffet. Very, very good! You can choose your vegetables, meats, rice/noodles, sauces, and spice level. Then the cook would stir-fry it. Depending on how busy the buffet was, it could take about 15 minutes, but it was very worth the wait.

Rotating Menu – Each evening the menu would rotate to a different country’s cuisine. One day the buffet had German food, the next it would be Spanish food, and the next would-be Great Brittan. It was pretty cool to try different cuisines.

Buffet Cons:

Seating, seating, seating! – There was not enough seating for everyone. It seemed like this particular cruise ship had a lot of ‘hanging out’ guests, who tend to just hang out in one area for a while. In our experience, most other cruise ships the guests eat and get out, but this ship was different. Most of the guests were loungers… which is fine, but they are lounging and taking up valuable seating, seating that was already lacking.

Cruise food – not amazing food, not bad food, just food. I don’t know if it was from the nearly 10,000 steps, but we didn’t come home with any extra pounds around our waste.

Desserts – not good. Most of the cakes were incredibly dry and many didn’t have any flavor.

Dining Room Pros

We are a family who enjoys meeting each night in the dining room to discuss our day, our adventures, and the plans for the following day – for us due to all the reasons I will discuss below, we ended up skipping all of this and meeting at the buffet. Pros of eating at the dining room included lobster night, escargot every day for an appetizer, baked Alaska, and softened butter for the rolls!

Dining Room Cons

In our opinion, the dining room was quite a letdown. We were really expecting to receive the luxury service that ‘celebrities’ receive, and it just wasn’t there. From the long waits the first day, the crowded seating assignments, and the lackluster service – we just were really letdown. Why sit for over an hour, receive lackluster service, and eat the same meal we would off the buffet?

Specialty Dining

We didn’t try any specialty dining options, so unfortunately cannot comment on any of these restaurants.

Bars

We are not big alcohol drinkers, so please excuse the short review of the bars as we did not spend a lot of time in those areas. Below are our experiences at two bars we did experience:

World Class Bar

This was a really cool bar which features sophisticated bartenders who create magical concoctions with smoke shows. The bartenders are very knowledgeable and attentive. The drinks were expensive, but boy did we feel a buzz after, so you are definitely getting your money’s worth. Check out a video we made here

Martini Bar

Celebrity is known for their Martini Bar, featuring an iced bar top with premium liquor on top of the house. This was a very social and popular bar. It seemed to be a hangout for many. The drinks were expensive ($17+ gratuity) but did look good.

Activities

Aqua Aerobics

Was held nearly every sea table at the pool. You could choose to do this in the pool, on the deck, or in your seats. The aerobics instructor played about 4 songs, and it really was a lot of fun and a great workout.

Keychain making

There were a lot of arts and crafts on this ship. PLEASE for the love of cruising, get there EARLY, and not 2 minutes early, like 10 minutes before the start. These were incredibly popular and filled up very fast. Even people who showed up 5 minutes early were turned away.

Scavenger Hunt

There were a few scavenger hunts throughout the cruise. These were fun to get to know the ship and learn where everything was

Golf Games

Hole-in-one, chipping, and a few other friendly competitions were held throughout the cruise.

Magician, Comedy & Rock Shows

This cruise had a variety of different shows. If you don’t like one, try another the next day, or try them all.

Games

There were a variety of games held throughout the cruise in an area called ‘Celebrity Central’ by the Casino. A few we attended included ‘Don’t Say Yes or No’ and ‘Majority Rules’. These were lead by the Activities Director, who honestly made the games really fun and interactive. She had a sense of mystery behind her, never really knowing what she’s about to say. She was really good at her job.

Ship Layout

• Deck 15 –
  • Open area with real grass.
  • Huge smoking section. ‘Cheap Charlie’ our travel companion, said this was the best smoking section he has ever experienced on a cruise ship.
  • Hot glass blowing = WOW! Can you imagine hot glass blowing being done on a cruise ship?? It gets even better because you can join the Pros and help create your own piece of glass or just sit and watch fellow guests create their own magical pieces of art! I could, and I did, sit for hours! So unique!
  • Lots of places to sit back and relax, enjoy yard games, or enjoy a drink at the bar

• Deck 14 –
  • Buffet
  • Lounge chairs looking down at the pool
  • Conference rooms for crafts and activities
  • Sky Lounge
• Deck 13 –
  • No Deck 13, bad luck, bad juju
• Deck 12 –
  • Pool outside – unique feature was the towels were already on the lounge chairs and in towel areas that you can take as you need. No need to ‘check out’ towels from an attendant. Celebrity trusts their guests, I guess 🙂
  • Solarium (Indoor Pool)
• Deck 11 –
  • Staterooms
• Deck 10 –
  • Staterooms
  • Big library with tables to sit at and books to borrow
• Deck 9 –
  • Staterooms
  • Big card room with tables to sit at and games to play
• Deck 8 –
  • Staterooms
• Deck 7 –
  • Staterooms
  • Lounge Area
• Deck 6 –
  • Staterooms
• Deck 5 –
  • Shops
  • Coffee
  • Sushi
• Deck 4 –
  • Casino
  • Celebrity Central
  • Shops
• Deck 3 –
  • Guest Services

Final Thoughts

While we don’t know what it feels like to be a celebrity and unfortunately, we never will (unless our travel business instantly booms and we become a viral sensation overnight – wishful thinking), being onboard the Celebrity Eclipse, we got a taste of what being a celebrity could be. Our staterooms were large and stately, the staff were friendly, and the design of the ship was grander than what we have previously experienced. Even celebrities have their flaws, and Eclipse had a few in our experience. While there were flaws, we definitely had a great time and look forward to being treated as a ‘celebrity’ again next November 2025 on the inaugural Celebrity Xcel cruise.

Ready to Travel Our Purdy World?

Now that you’ve made it to the end of our honest review of our cruise aboard Celebrity Eclipse – are you ready to Travel Our Purdy World? I know, I sure am! If you are interested in traveling – please let us know!

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