Celebrity Eclipse
This will be my 2nd cruise aboard the Celebrity Eclipse, after a transatlantic in 2016. And my 66th cruise. 13th cruise with Celebrity.
The Eclipse is part of the penultimate generation of Celebrity ships (the Solstice class) and has become “older” with the arrival of the Edge class in recent years. But above all, the eclipse suffers terribly from a lack of refreshment. The last dry dock visit only concerned the hull, painted blue to standardize it with the rest of the fleet. But the interior, apart from a few details here and there, is in its original condition. This is particularly felt in the cabins. The woodwork is more than worn and the only electrical outlet in the cabin, without a USB socket, no longer matches the state of the art.
Quite quickly, I had the impression that the ship was very loaded in terms of passengers. Coming out of a period of recovery, it is true that I had the chance to do a few cruises with a rather low occupancy rate, so I told myself that it was just a return to normal.
But in fact, it was a bit like that: Celebrity filled these 2 cruises to maximum capacity. I was able to speak with a Canadian travel agent who knows the company well and he confirmed to me that he had never seen the ships so loaded. There is no doubt that the company had to compensate for long months of lean times. But it seems that it does so to the detriment of its passengers. I will come back to this with specific examples.
Stateroom
The stateroom with balcony, Aqua Class, apart from its now somewhat dated side, is sufficiently large, with plenty of storage space. The bathroom with its shower meets the standards of its kind. You have to organize yourself a little when you need to charge several devices such as smartphones, tablets, cameras, or laptops… and have the right adapters. Big difference with the last generation of Celebrity ships (Edge class), much better equipped. Let’s hope for a quick dry dock visit to bring everything back up to standard (and erase all the traces of rust that appear here and there, making the urgency of the intervention clearly visible).
NB: during another cruise, in February 2024, on the Viking Jupiter, I was able to see the Celebrity Eclipse moored right next to us, in Ushuaia… no upgrade carried out, and more and more traces rust…
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