We’re a bit late with this review but only got home a little while ago after an extended trip to Europe. We enjoyed our cruise on the Eclipse and the ports were terrific. I’m surprised that Celebrity aren’t repeating this itinerary as it was very popular. That said, we were somewhat disappointed with our experience on the ship itself. Celebrity seems to be totally focussed on extracting as much money as possible from its guests. Everywhere was sell, sell, sell. You couldn’t walk in or out of the buffet without being pressured to sign up for meals in the specialty restaurants. Waitresses in the buffet were more concerned with selling drinks than clearing tables or helping passengers.

Perhaps the emphasis on paying for the speciality restaurants explains the deterioration in the quality of the food since our other Celebrity cruise. It certainly didn’t match what was we had on our recent cruise on another line. The food in the buffet was just OK but often not hot. Items like waffles and pancakes were premade and left under lights so the waffles were soggy and the pancakes going hard around the edges. The menu in the dining room frequently offered cheap cuts of meat. One night the main choices were beef cheeks or lamb shanks – not quality cuts. On two occasions I resorted to pasta but the sauces were watery and flavourless. The Chateaubriand offered one night was very good but the Beef Wellington I had another night was so tough I couldn’t get my knife into it. The waiter obviously knew it was poor because he didn’t even offer to bring me another serving but whipped it away and suggested I have something different. And the menu the night of the special TV cooks menu was so bad that most of those at our table sent something back.

Drinks were very expensive with most cocktails at $12 plus an eye-watering 18% service charge. Not sure what the service consists of when you have to queue for ages at a bar to get them to make you a drink. Table service was often non-existent. This went against Celebrity as we drank less on this cruise than usual. We ordered room service breakfast twice. The first time it didn't arrive. When we finally got a phone call about the delay we had to tell them not to bring it as we were about to leave the ship. We did receive a bowl of chocolate fudge as an apology. Read more