As first time cruisers we were totally open minded about what to expect from this cruise, it was the best holiday we've ever had.

Embarkation was an easy process, the pre-booked quay side disabled parking was yards from the ship and the luggage drop off efficient and easy. There were many personnel on hand to smooth things out, as I was in my wheelchair we didn't have to join the line, so I dont know how it felt for the rest of the passengers, but we didn't hear any complaints. As we had followed all the 'what to do' info in our Celebrity documents there were no check in problems, and we got on board to be greeted by smiling crew and complimentary drinks, champagne flute in hand we became cruise passengers! The staterooms were not yet ready so we mingled with our fellow passengers and took our first look around Eclipse, it was clean, opulent and very glamourous, marble floors, thick carpet and mirrors and lights everywhere. Finding our way up to the Oceanview Cafe we enjoyed our first meal on the ship. Oceanview is the cafeteria for casual dinning and its open 24/7 for tea (at least 8-10 types, including fruit, herbal and traditional black blends), coffee, regular and decaff, and cold juices, water and ice from self service stations, from 7.30 am till past midnight food is available in a bewildering array from the various service stations all served by smiling, helpful staff. I could go into great detail about every meal, but I cant type for that long! Suffice to say its all good and I loved the puddings and afternoon tea 3.30pm to 4.30 pm, the scones are fantastic my only nit pick? Its difficult to find a cold plate to put your whipped cream on when you get a cream tea. Staff constantly bring out ultra clean plates from the dishwashers which run at very high temperatures for hygiene reasons, the many types of food available seemed to more than satisfy every palate and national favorites were available for all passengers. The Oceanview is just that a great viewing place, panoramic floor to ceiling windows on all sides and access to a large out door deck at the back, comfy seating and tables of many types are on every side with dividing walls and partitions to break the space up, it does get hard to find a seat at the peak serving times, but we always managed it as long as we were not fussy about exactly were to sit, the prime window seats usually went first! There are 3,000 passengers but it was hard to remember that as there were always so many options available for eating.

Our cabin was easy to find, there are plans of the ship and helpful signs by all lifts and in corridors, it was exactly like the pictures in the brochure and on line, an Ocean view stateroom with a large window, dressing table/desk with tea and coffee making kit and kettle, a very useful hairdryer was in one drawer. Only 4 sockets in a row, though so I was very glad I had taken note of cruise critic members and taken an extension lead with a multi socket panel for all our chargers, the sockets were US and European so we also needed our UK to other adapter, the extension panel lived on our windowsill which made a great shelf for charging phones, camera and I-pad. Read more