Celebrity Eclipse Cruise to Antarctica Feb 2020 I have always wanted to go to Antarctica but, like Uluru, had no desire to leave my footprint on this pristine land. And my hubby gets seasick on small ships, so an expedition ship was out. So, Celebrity Eclipse fitted the bill perfectly. You get to cruise in and around Antarctica, covering Drake Passage, Schollart Passage, Paradise Bay, Elephant Island erc, all the biggies, without stopping, landing and footprint contributing. AND IT WAS AWESOME! The ship is lovely (older but still nice - being refurbed soon). It was not overcrowded (although it was full they said) and whatever time you got to the Solarium Pool (indoors/warm) you could always get a seat. There was heaps of activities, (including glass blowing which was awesome), to do every day. The spa area was great with hot beds and saunas. It was a lovely relaxing start to an awesome cruise. We saw so much of Antarctica. Captain Leo 360’d the ship a few times so we could sit on our balcony and see everything. We saw penguins Read Less

Value for money cruise. Facilities good. Cabin decent size. Room attendant Michelle did very good job of making room clean and comfortable. Everything put in place and so pleasant to return to after breakfast. Restaurants very nice ambience and wide range of menu selection. Interesting food items available at mealtimes. Dinner in Moonlight Sonata made very enjoyable by excellent service from Aditya and asst waiter Rodrigo. Both were ever ready to accommodate personal request whenever made. Both always gave clear explanations of the dishes in the menu. Additional service from the pair was their nightly summary of the highlights for the next day, (food and activities). Food presentations need improving. Quality control appears to be missing on several occasions. Vegetable garnishes were wilted and made the dish unappetizing. Shoos offered a good range of products for sale. Embarkation and disembarkation well organized. Settlement of on board accounts process very good. Cost of cruise was money well spent. Foid, service, cabin, and activities were good. Possibility of repeat ctuyse onbanother ship. Read Less

We chose this particular cruise because of the Antarctica Itinerary. We had been to Buenos Aires, Ushuia, Montevideo and Stanley, Falkland Islands previously. Antarctica islands were fantastic. We are Elite (almost Elite Plus) on Celebrity and in a Concierge Veranda stateroom which was fine. On previous Celebrity cruise ships we had experienced good food and were looking forward to same on the Eclipse. Unfortunately, from day one until disembarkation the food was a big disappointment. Additionally, they were short of supplies like sweeteners, etc. for the entire cruise. The desserts (cakes, etc.) were beautiful but tasted so bad that we would take one bite and leave them. We ate ice cream (like most people) for dessert even in Antarctica because the desserts were inedible. The "grilled" items were usually cold and dried out - as were many of the entrees. Best items were the pasta line (you always had a line) and pizza (not that great but better than most items). In the buffet the service was almost non-existent. Everyone must get their own beverages unless you are ordering alcohol. 98% of the time I had to take my used plates to the waiter stations myself - or leave them on the table. To add insult to injury, Celebrity has increased their Gratuities. Fitness Center always had equipment that stayed out of order causing long wait lines for using equipment such as treadmills, bicycles, cross country and rowing. Captain Leo was entertaining and the Cruise Director, Alejandro, was magnificent. Celia, the "Naturalist" was good. Would I go on the Eclipse again - not unless it was nearly a FREE cruise. Food on a cruise is important and this cruise food was a disgrace for Celebrity. Since we are going on the Edge soon, we are hoping it has much better food and service. Read Less

We chose this cruise to see Antarctica. We had been booked originally with HAL but after doing an EXC Holland America cruise through the Pacific last April we decided to cancel. We wanted a cruise that had some entertainment for the many sea days. This was our first cruise on Celebrity and we were very happy with most things. Our cabin was nice on the 10th floor mid ship Concierge class. I don't think I would bother with Concierge class again, it's the same as an ordinary balcony cabin and the so called extra perks were not worth the extra money. We had to ask our steward for better towels as the ones we had were threadbare, not deluxe fluffy ones as stated. Everything we paid extra for was standard in a HAL balcony. The website gives a lot of extra perks but in reality when you get on board the list has been cut by half. The weather on the cruise was perfect. We had calm seas, sunshine and warmth. The previous cruise had fog and rough weather. Captain Leo was amazed at the difference and said that in 11 cruises he's done to Antarctica it was the best he'd experienced. Weren't we lucky! We liked how the Captain interacted with the passengers and kept us fully up to date from the bridge. Alejandro the cruise director was amazing with his banter and had everyone laughing and enjoying themselves. He just doesn't stop and it's a pity his assistants don't have that natural ability. Cecelia Garland the naturalist on board was fantastic, so knowledgeable and able to communicate her love of nature to everyone. The other presenters knew their stuff but were so boring. The entertainment was great, provided by both guest artists and resident troupe. The band is incredible and can play anything asked of them. We never missed a show. Entertainment around the ship was generally good. Bingo was overpriced, boring and not enough games. The glassblowing also overpriced. Food on the ship was plentiful and of good quality. We ate in the dining room and had 4 specialty dinners. Tuscan Grille was the best with good steaks,soups, entrees and dessert. The restaurant is at the back of the ship where we watched whales and seals playing in the wake , icebergs going past and a beautiful sunset, it rounded off a perfect day in Antarctica. Qsine was also fun with good food. We went to Murano for Valentines Day and I had to send back the lamb it was so tough. The atmosphere there was like a men's smoking club and we couldn't wait to leave. The staff were snobbish and made you feel like you shouldn't complain about sub standard food. Not the romantic dinner we envisaged. The shore excursions were overpriced like all cruise ships. We found that if you just got off the ship the prices were less than half that the ship was charging or even less. The staff on the ship were fantastic. Nothing was a problem. They had happy smiling faces and most had been with the line for a number of years so that tells you that the company must be good to work for. We did a tour of the kitchens and everything was spotless. The staff worked as a team and there seemed to be no problem in preparing thousands of meals a day. Freshness is the key and anything out over 4 hours is thrown out (incinerated). We would happily do another cruise with Celebrity and we hear the Eclipse will be coming down to Australia after it's refit so we'll look for a cruise that suits us.. Read Less

This has been our 10th Celebrity cruise. I would still recommend Celebrity, and we have two more cruises already planned with Celebrity, but overall this cruise did not come out as the best one we've had. Still good, but not great! This is with regards to the cruise it'self, not the destination. Our room was concierge class on the 10th floor. The room itself and our attendant were as expected. But the staff are so busy, they don't have time for little things to make the cruise more personal. There are no longer those towel animals the room attendants used to make. They just don't have time. Celebrity no longer provides concierge guests with canvas shoulder bags. Now it's just a cheap shopping bag with "CELEBRITY" printed on it as free advertising for them. Room television has gotten cheaper too. Meals in the main dining room were just OK. On a 14-night cruise only three times did I comment to the manager that we had a good meal. The waiters were much less attentive; not noticing little (but important) things like we had no butter, or people didn't like their meal. On past cruises, if a passenger pushed back form a full plate of food, the waiter would instantly be there to ask what was wrong and offer another meal. This was obviously missing as a number of times several people at our table pushed they're food away without eating it. No one on a cruise wants to be the bad-guy and start being a table critic against the waiters. It's not the passengers job. The entertainment on the ship was average. The main ship cast were just OK. The individual nightly entertainers were not memorable. We never left saying we wished we could see that person again. As it was with Celebrity cruise to Iceland, this cruise to Antarctica had a very limited supply of "Antarctic" clothing to buy. From around the world we have shirts with "Celebrity Mediterranean" or "Celebrity Alaska", and so on. As they said for Iceland, it's not worth the money for Celebrity to stock up on this type of clothing. Therefor not thinking of the passenger! This cruise had quite a few "sea-days". We were prepared for this but many passengers were very bored. Besides the great destination speakers, why did they have a retired officer discussing his views of DNA? What a waste of time. But besides guest speakers, they had paper airplane making, archery and golf in the main lobby area. These involve a limited number of guests and not very exciting. But to watch someone putt takes up a few minutes of an entire day... There was just not enough day time activities. When we started with Celebrity 6 years ago they had ship tours of the theater, or galley. People were interested. These tours are now called on-board excursions that you must pay for. That is pretty poor as far as I'm concerned. The ship staff were great, and some excellent. The self-serve buffet served great food, often better than the main dining room. The food there was kept hotter than on many other cruises we've been on. I would not recommend using the room service for breakfast unless all you want is juice and cold pastries. We've learned once again that any cooked food prepared for room service cannot be eaten. We notified the room service manager and was told that they were sorry, but it was a busy day. Still makes no sense if all we're going to do is throw the food out and go ourselves to the self-service restaurant. But the last night of the cruise after watching the late show in the theater, waiting in our room was a bottle of champagne and strawberries from the room service manager. Twice we called to report something or someone banging in the private crew passageways opposite our cabin. This was occurring after 3:00 am. Many passengers were woken by this banging. Even though multiple cabin reported being woken up through the night, we were pretty much told this banging was impossible. Our cruise director was from Argentina. He was quite funny and was often the best part of the nightly entertainment. I've been tough with this critique, and as mentioned, kept with the cruise and not the destinations. I did this because these cruises are expensive and we have expectations. If they are not going to meet these expectations, then Celebrity should be told. Read Less

We were looking for an Australian Cruise when we stumbled on the Antarctica cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse, with a 4 perk deal that we couldn’t refuse. This was our second South American cruise, with our first being two years prior on the Emerald Princess with an Around the Horn. As vacation days are still limited for me, we booked a direct flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires and skipped overnighting. We opted for the Celebrity Airport meet and greet transportation with our luggage collection at the airport. It was waiting in our cabin when we got there. Celebrity had advised us there would be staggered check-in times and for our deck it would be 2:00 and limited waiting room. We arrived about 11:30 and were assigned a boarding group number. By noon our number was called, and we were quickly on board. After a quick lunch at the Ocean View, we were able to go to our cabins for a quick nap. Everything ran smooth with no surprises. We chose 9278 as a cabin as it was near the center of the ship, and the elevators. There is a glass door from the game room to the hallway that shuts out nearly all the noise from the central atrium and the game room. It also has little traffic to or from the elevators. The cabin is not much different than the other verandas with the exception this has a drop down bunk above the sofa. I find the Celebrity cabins to be a bit more functional and spacious feeling than those on Princess, due to the bump out in the wall for the beds. The ship was clean as was the rooms. With the layout much like the Silhouette in that same class. One of the major differences is the lawn club grill on the Eclipse was replaced with the Hollywood Hot Glass studio. For our first Sea Day we went and made some paperweights with some of our On Board Credits. This was a lot of fun where they individually help you create your own glass work of art. The instruction lasts about 20 minutes, but makes for a great sea day activity. My wife later in the cruise created a penguin as a souvenir of our cruise. They also have many demonstrations and raffle off a few free classes. The instructors are great, and it was something I never thought you’d find on a cruise ship. I believe they are on two other ships also, the Solstice and the Equinox. Our first glass blowing experience was in Skagway, and the prices are quite reasonable in comparison. The sea days had several lecturers including a Naturalist (Celia Garland), Historian/Geologist (Ken Williams), and a Criminologist (Ron Boward). They were all good. In addition there were many other activities including an indoor archery in the Grand Foyer that was a lot of fun. The Cruise Director staff did a wonderful job of keeping us entertained, and Alejandro had a marvelous Argentinian schtick that was adorable. Because of the mixed audience, many of the traditional game show type events were moved to matinee because of the large non english speaking population. This was a brilliant move! The other brilliant move the Entertainment staff accomplished was when a port was closed, they immediately reworked the days activities to give the passengers some entertainment on what should have been a port day. They got it worked out, published and distributed in record time, and didn’t leave for a whole bunch of bored passengers. I’ve seen ports cancelled, but I’d NEVER seen a schedule reworked like that before. Hats off to the staff! We were traveling with another couple we met from our very first Transatlantic. They typically don’t care to spend the time in the dinning room when there are so many good shows to see (which there were), so we more frequently dined in the Oceanview Café than the dining room. Our first night out, we did went our own way and we did the main dining room (select dining), and were seated with two Australian couples and a woman from Ireland. As it turned out, one of the Australian couples had the balcony next door. I’m a fan of their French onion soup, and had a wonderful NY Strip from the everyday selection. Simply wonderful! We previously were sailing frequently with Princess, but the last two cruises, Princess eliminated the steak option, and replaced with a hamburger de jour. The food option is what brought us back to Celebrity. One of the other dining options we did was the Tuscan Grille. This was simply marvelous, and one of the finest filets I can remember. As mentioned before the bulk of our dining was in the Oceanview Café, where they kept a variety of themes interesting. The staff in the Oceanview were so friendly, and made you feel so welcome. From Aline at the front door with the squirter, to Treshawna in the back with the coffee wagon (Ferrari as she calls it), and Dora in the middle, the Oceanview staff was wonderful. The bar servers were quick to learn your preferences, especially Erick, and ready to please. Early on in the cruise I discovered Evan working the grill, and he cooked up some wonderful sirloins cooked and seasoned to perfection available every night. Several nights saw crepes that were to die for! Desserts were good, but the best of all is the home(ship)made Ice cream available everyday with new and different flavors to tempt the palate. One of my other favorite places on board was the Coffee Shop on Deck 5, where Victoria served up our morning cappuccino. Thank goodness for the beverage plan! The evenings were spent at the Captains Club Hors Dourves hour where Fabio and Aroli were our hosts, and Nicholas (on his first voyage) kept us refreshed. They made it a point to try and spend a little time with everyone, and one evening Aroli came by to check on us. My wife told her she missed our dogs. Aroli said she couldn’t travel without hers and he was onboard. The next night she brought her dog (a stuffed toy) for my wife to visit with. Aroli says she travels everywhere with Enuito her dog and he has seen much of the world. As a whole the staff on board were so welcoming, and made it fun to travel with them. Lastly I’d like to mention the cabin steward Yaadish. This is one of the best stewards we’ve ever had. I mentioned I needed something, and it would appear. We adopted a stuffed penguin from one of the shops on board. We found it tucked into bed one night with it’s own chocolate, the next night it was wearing glasses and the celebrity medal I had one from archery the day before. You never knew what to expect, and made for a really fun cruise. Port calls: Ushuaia -- We’d been here 2 years prior, and booked the catamaran tour, but canceled due to my wife not feeling up to it. Weather looked poor, and it started raining before we had a chance to get off. We did get pier space and did not have to tender in as was originally listed. Port Stanley – The port was closed after 300 people tendered to shore. The Amsterdam arrived shortly after we did, dropped anchor, launched tenders, then hauled them back on board, raised anchor and sailed off. We waited for the seas to calm and reboarded the 300, and sailed away. Disappointing none the less, but the lifeboats were bobbing like corks as they waited. Port Madryn – We walked off the ship after the rush, and ended up taking one of the local tours to Punta Tombo on the pier. Cost was $100 +$10 entrance fee. We had a wonderful state registered guide and translator for the trip. It’s rather long trip (180km 120miles) down the Patagonian plain. Our guide kept us busy telling us all about the penguins along the way. When you get there, you will find yourself surrounded by a million Magellanic penguins (old and young) as you walk along stone pathways. There was also llamas running about. You are not allowed to touch or approach the penguins, or leave the path, but you will frequently have the penguins walk past you. The guides are pretty good about keeping us tourists from bothering the penguins. Definitely something you must experience. It was definitely windy and just and temps around 70, so very pleasant. Montevideo – Walked off the ship and took one of the City Tours on the pier. $26 and was actually cheaper than the hop-on-hop-off bus. Not a bad way to see the city. Great weather, glad for a little heat. Scenic Cruising: The Horn -- Great weather, faired off and had blue skies when we reached the Albatross Memorial. We had a starboard cabin, but the captain spun in place to give all a view. Schollaert Channel & Paradise Bay – Heavy cloud blanket over the islands and made for a surreal effect. Simply breath taking. Saw many whales blow and flukes as they dived. We were the first cruise ship of this size to enter Paradise Bay. Be prepared for the cold. I didn’t bring gloves and while the temperature was around freezing, it was very penetrating. We watched from the balcony, and frequently warmed our hands in the bathroom sink. Perhaps a slight advantage on the starboard side…. Maybe. Not worth fretting over. Elephant Island – Heavy fog as we arrived but burned off. Good views from the balcony, also went on deck to enjoy the panorama. Again we spun to give both sides a view. Many penguins were in the waters just right off the boat. We had a lone penguin just under our balcony that was fishing and swimming along that made for good video. Many rafts of penguins would swim abreast breaching in unison. No bias on cabin sides. Disembarkation: We were the last to get off the ship. We had a midnight flight, and arranged for a hotel stay to rest before the flight. Unfortunately the hotel was not informed or prepared for an early checkin/checkout and we ended up spending a fair amount of time in the lobby. We made the arrangements through Celebrity. I’m not sure who dropped the ball. The Celebrity Concierge in the hotel claimed no knowledge. The Intercontinental is a lovely hotel, with good security. The neighborhood I didn’t feel too comfortable walking alone. The pub in the hotel is quite reasonable and very good. Other comments: Days get long past Ushuaia with only a couple of hours of darkness. This made for tough sleeping for us, as the body says its not time to go to bed/ and time to get up. I believe we were the first of two Antarctica cruises this season for Celebrity. Overall comments. My wife and I agree this was one of the best cruises we’ve done. We were glad to have seen some of this already with our prior South American cruise, as it left for no real disappointments this time. Again, I have to say this was one of the best crews for which we’ve sailed. I think a lot of this credit goes to Captain Michaels, and Guest Relations Director Carolina Ramirez. Our next cruise in May we’re heading to Ireland on the Reflection to see Iceland. This will be trips to both polar circles in the same year, does this make us Bipolar? Read Less

We are not gourmet eaters but the food on this cruise was the worst my wife and I have ever had on any cruise and we are experienced cruisers. With the exception of one lunch and one dinner in the dining room, we ate our meals in the Ocean View Cafe. Meals in the dining room were no better than the Cafe. Meats at the carving station were dried out and tough from sitting under the heat lamp. Mashed potatoes were lumpy and baked potatoes were cold inside. The desserts tasted of shortening and were repetitive and breakfast pastries were what you could buy at Costco. They ran out of lemonade by the third day and out of Sweet & Low midway thru the cruise. The entertainment, both ship and outside entertainers, was excellent. The onboard naturalist was excellent and the cruise director was the best we've ever had. Although the ship and itinerary were fine, the sub-standard quality of the food ruined this cruise. Read Less

Jan 5 Santiago to Buenos Aires trip. Celebrity is not a luxury cruise line but nice anyway. We choose this cruise for locations to see. Expected bad weather and overcast from seeing You Tubes of many other persons trips but still wonderful way to see this area. Cabin: On this class of Celebrity unless you can book a 3-4 person cabin (have to do thru travel agent) you will get your bed- not the couch next to balcony (veranda or aqua class or concierge. Cabin storage:NOTE: You need a lot of hangers. Our steward was not able to get more wooden hangers but found hangers left by past passengers for us- some plastic and some wire ones. Storage is above head of bed- stacking clothes and stand on bed to get to it and 3 small drawers. Lots of shelves in bathroom. Best ventilation system in bathroom of any ship we have been on and best heating/cooling with stabile temperature set without a lot of fan noise. Boat: choose this class of boat as handles rough weather well with its stabilizers and you probably will hit rough weather. Handled gale forces well. Embarkation: chaos but if LISTENED to crew no problem, if not - as many didn't got turned away at gangplank to go back to step 1. Enrichment: more than on other Celebrity Solstice class trips we have taken and most really good and varied. Public rooms: great on all solstice class ships. Café gets packed but people willing to share tables and meet new friends. Service. excellent dining, café, shopping, steward etc Service: laundry. If you pay by the piece comes back hanging and folded with no wrinkles we used 2x.. If use the special offer $49.99 by the bag will come back folded with wadded wrinkles that will not come out unless completely soaking wet and hang the clothes. Our friends and we used 2x each and got the same result. Never had this happen on other ships. Service: VERY POOR customer service before and during every Celebrity trip we have taken. Example: 1.when we got on we told them we had rented private cars at several ports and would need to get our passports after port authorities saw, stamped and whatever else needed We needed passports as REQUIERED by renal companies. AT both ports we had to go thru multiple personnel and told by all we COULD NOT HAVE OUR PASSPORTS at all. We were told we did not need to rent our cars but rental car companies told us explicitly we did. Real time calls to rental companies to convince ship customer service finally allowed to have passports. Customer service said they were doing us a HUGE favor by allowing us to take our passports. NOT had this trouble with other cruise lines even in non European ports. 2. On 2 different cruises with Celebrity-asking for shore excursion print out or brochure. Very rude on phone. Shore excursions: Pre trip: Easter island on our own. Only way to Easter Island is thru Santiago or weekly thru Tahiti. Easy to arrange, rented a car thru insular and had a great time. Santiago Airport door 4-5 for hotel pick ups. We arranged private transportation from airport hotel to cruise ship in San Antonio thru welcome pick ups- van for $183. We were 4 plus large luggage but room for 8. Puerto Montt: we rented a car and drove to Puerto Varas and Petrohue falls. Easy and much cheaper. Roads excellent and well signed. Punta Arenas: port cancelled due to bad weather DO GET UP in the AM and see Glacier Alley. Gorgeous scenery even in bad weather. Ushuaia: rented a car and went to Tierra Del Fuego park and other sites. Easy and much cheaper. Puerto Madryn: took ship excursion to Valdez reserve. Could not have done on own in the time allowed. Comfortable bus (but some on dirt roads-beware). Excellent guide. Saw lots of animals(penguins, guanaco, flacons, owls, rhea). Lunch great (3 course meal with roasted lamb and beef empanadas) at a working estancia. Nice museum area, Lots of clean bathrooms. Punta del Este: weather too bad to tender. Went to Montevideo for an extra night instead. Which was fine for us as not much in Ponte del Este to see.. In Montevideo most everything walking distance. Be sure and try grilled meat there. We ended up eating in the Mercado at El Palenque twice. It had such outstanding beef. Buenos Aires: we arranged a private tour with John Boyle. Excellent and cost effective Post trip: Our friends went to Iguazu on self arranged trip. Note CDC warning about yellow fever and danger if over 60 getting immunization-even in posh hotels there. They then joined us 2 days later in San Carlos de Bariloche. Cheaper for us to fly home to LA from Santiago than Buenos Aires. So took the money we saved and spent a week in Patagonia. We headed for San Carlos De Bariloche. Note President Clinton and Bush visited LLao-Llao resort there. We rented a car and drove the gran (long) and chico (short) circuits- spectacular scenery. You can prebook a rental car but a car rental agency 2 to a block there- some with a chauffeur. Took Cruz Andino across the Andes to Puerto Varas. . Then a Viator tour to Chiloe Island . One of the highlights of my trip but maybe too idyllic for many people. Be sure and buy some hand spun, hand knit wares - beautiful and cost next to nothing. English is spoken but be patent if you don't speak Spanish. We decided to beak up our trip home by going Copa airlines with an overnight hotel in Panama City. Went business class for the cost of premium economy . 2-6hr flights instead of one 12 hr flight. Cost of the hotels minimal. Coming down stayed at Rianda Hotel and going home Crown plaza. AC better at Crown plaza. Note: weather varies by location from very windy, jackets and raingear to shorts and lots of sunscreen. Read Less

The prospect of visiting South America and cruising the Chilean Fjords was something we had on our bucket list. This was our second cruise on the Éclipse and fourth Celebrity cruise. Embarkation: took a Port transfer with Vasalfa Turismo from our hotel the 4 Points Sheraton in Providencia, Santiago to Valparaiso for a tour and then onto the Port of San Antonio. Our guides Christian and Ashton were excellent and ensured our personal safety and our luggage was secure. Check in was quick, note all passengers had to surrender their passports at check in. Passports were returned to all passengers later in the cruise. The Port of San Antonio and Celebrity need to design another gangway, as this one was too steep and supported by sea containers as a base. Ports : Puerto Montt, Chile is a tender port. Tendering was ok overall. Booked our own tour at the Pier, went to Petrohue Rapids and the Chilean Lake District with a stop in Puerto Varas. Two sea days were next where we cruised through the Chilean Fjords & The Straits of Magellan. A third sea day was added due to inclement weather conditions in the South Pacific Ocean, which resulted in the cancellation of our next Port of Punta Arenas, Chile. The ship rocked and swayed all night as Captain Michael let the storm system pass ahead of the Éclipse. Cruised past Glacier Avenue at 0430 am. Our stateroom was on deck 8, port side and were treated to scenic views of the Glaciers as daylight started at 0425 am. Arranged a private tour of Tierra Del Fuego National Park. Cruised around Cape Horn at 0600 am under cold, windy grey conditions. Cruise Director Alejandro and guest speaker Alan Riles narrated our passage and the history of Cape Horn. After another sea day we docked in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. Took a Celebrity excursión to Punta Tombo Penguin Rookery. This is a 2 1/2 hour coach ride each way through the rugged Patagonian country side. Because of the cancelled port we docked in Montevideo, Uruguay over night. Explored the city on foot and took taxis with no issues. Our final port was Buenos Aires, Argentina where we over nighted. The ship docks about a 15 minute coach ride to the cruise terminal. Dining : Ocean View was very busy on sea days and ran out of items towards the end of the cruise. Cafe Al Bacio is good spot to relax and chat, ran out of speciality teas by day 10. Moonlight Sonata main dining room was ok, a good option for lunch on sea days. Celebrity should update the menus ad we had the same items on two Med. Cruises . The chefs also need to cut back on the heavy use of salt. Main of note was the lamb in pastry, best of the cruise. The Kobe beef meatloaf ranks as the most unappealing main we have been served, grey thin slice of something soft and mushy, I took a small bite and ordered another main. Service in the main dining room was off overall. Premium drink package was good ad was the wine and beverage service. Cabin Attendant Alfred got to know our schedule and took care of us and our requests. Overall staff were attentive, polite and greeted passengers through out the ship. Entertainment was good, the high light was the Tango show on our last night. Cruise Director Alejandro was funny and active through out the cruise. Tip: take clothing for 80F to 40F, warm socks, toques, layers, comfortable foot wear, rain gear. Only about 25 percent of male passengers wore jackets on Chic Nights. Disembarkation went smoothly and orderly. Read Less

We decided on this cruise because of the itinerary. We had not previously been to this part of South America. We usually cruise Celebrity and enjoy S-Class ships like Eclipse. The ship was very well maintained in all areas but it will be updated in April 2021. Pre-cruise: We flew Philadelphia/Miami/Santiago on American Airlines. Long trip. We stayed a couple of days in Santiago at Hotel Plaza San Francisco. Unfortunately it was very close to the area subject to the government protests so we would not recommend it. On the day of the cruise we arranged for a group of us from Cruise Critic to share transport to the San Antonio port. Embarkation: Long lines but we had a suite so we were ushered through. The San Antonio terminal was a large tent. It seemed kind of chaotic. Celebrity took everybody's passports and they were returned later in the cruise. We went to Luminae for lunch before going to our cabin. The ship had an issue getting a fuel delivery and we departed 6 hours late. Cabin: Corner aft S1 Sky Suite 1666. See review below. Service: The service was exceptional for the entire 14 days on the ship. Dining: The dining was mostly Luminae or the Oceanview Buffet for some breakfasts and lunches. Luminae was superb. The buffet was decent but not great. We had breakfast once in awhile in the Spa Cafe (good). Most morning we got coffee in Cafe al Bacio (very good). We dined in Tuscan Grill (excellent) and Le Petit Chef (great food except for very weird Japanese desert). Entertainment: The theater entertainment was very mediocre compared to every other Celebrity ship we have cruised. The cruise director Alejandro was really entertaining and funny! The entertainment at other venues on the ship was mostly very good. Itinerary: We took the cruise for the great itinerary but the weather did not cooperate at all! We missed two ports (Punta Arenas and Punta Del Este) because they were tenders and we had high seas. This resulted in far too many continuous At Sea days. Kind of boring because we could not really see much on ship due to the rain, fog, mist and high winds. We barely saw very much of the Chilean Fjords and the Strait of Magellan and our rounding of Cape Horn was diminished by fog. We were not allowed on the outside decks on some days. This all really put a damper on the enjoyment of this cruise. Shore excursions: The Puerto Mont excursion to the rapids and volcano was very scenic. We missed visiting penguins in Punta Arenas as we missed the port. We took the End of the World Train excursion in Ushuaia which was scenic and historically interesting. We finally saw penguins, elephant seals, sea lions and a lot of other wildlife in the Valdes Peninsula out of Puerto Madryn. We nissed Punta Del Este and over-nighted instead in Montevideo. We had a nice city tour there by a local guide. The first day in Buenos Aires our shuttle from the ship was delayed in traffic and we were 5 min late getting to our privately arranged tour (Shore Excursions Group) who promptly left without us and refused our request for a refund. Do not use this company!! We arranged for a similar excursion with Tour Gurus at the cruise port and it was terrible. Avoid at all costs! Disembarkation: In Buenos Aires the cruise ship is in the cargo port and you take a shuttle (15-20 min) to the passenger cruise terminal and pick up your luggage. It was easy. We had private transportation to our hotel. At the end in Buenos Aires we really enjoyed the city and stayed in the Savoy Hotel. We had a great private tour by Francour tours and also went to a very nice dinner and Tango show by Tango Porteno. Travel Home: American Airlines Buenos Aires/Miami/Philadelphia. Last impression: No issues with the Celebrity Eclipse. Just bad weather caused us disappointment! Read Less

I chose this cruise for the itinerary, wanted to do a Chile/Argentina cruise and knowing we would be in big seas a large ship was preferred. We booked aqua class for Blu dining and thought we would use Persian Garden spa area. Highs: nice ship, very stable, our room was excellent (we are not big on Celebrities redos and this ship isn't being changed till later this year). Blu dining great as usual. Service was great for most things. Nice gym. Buenos Aires is a nice city to visit. Lows: ship was full and seemed a bit crowded. Persian garden was always crowded and not a place you wanted to be. We missed 2 of the better of our 6 stops which resulted in too many sea days, the first (Punta Arenas) because of bad weather and the second (Punta del Este) for no good reason (weather claimed by it was nice out). The excursions were hit and miss and not good value. Santiago Chile is a mess because of full on, daily rioting that has closed the metro and many services. Celebrity should be advising people on conditions and where to stay, we were subjected to tear gas etc. Read Less

Ship is beautiful and cabin was fine. Service was good in restaurants and bars. Cabin attendant was excellent. But from there it was mostly disappointing. The food was bland and frequently tastless, despite a "gourmet" presentation on the plate. We dined 20 times for lunch and dinner so our assessment was formed over a long period. The cruise was over the holidays and was beyond full, so the buffet dining room was a mob scene and the specialty restaurants were booked. Our only choice was Moonlight Sonata which was very attractive and good service, but as mentioned the meals were far from memorable. We have cruised Princess, Silversea and Norwegian and even on Norwegian (a cheaper cruise line) the food was more tasty. The entertainment was heavily skewed toward rock and roll - alright for the kids but not very varied or entertaining for most of the adults. We noticed the theatre was frequently half full, so we were not the only ones bored (or tired of blaring music and loud drums). The bands by the pool and in the atrium were similarily blaring rock. Perhaps Celebrity thinks if you can't hear yourself think you must be having a good time! The excurions were way overpriced. We invariably found the same identical excursions offered on the dock by other local companies for a third of the price! The ship was beyond full in the sense that there were so many families who were doubled up with their children; the ship was way beyond its advertised 2850 capacity. This caused several problems: already mentioned like the chaotic buffet restaurant, packs of unsupervised children running (not walking) in the restaurants and public areas, and long waits for tenders to get back on the ship (several were over an hour). And the children including teens ignored all hand cleansing offers from ship staff. Not surprisingly there was rampant hacking and coughing around the ship by the end of the cruise. We will not cruise with Celebrity again. Read Less

We have been wanting to do a South America cruise for some time now and this holiday cruise was a perfect time for us. This was our 15th cruise with Celebrity. The cruise director, Alejandro from Argentina, was an absolute riot. We loved this guy. The entertainment was excellent too as was our dining room service with David from Kenya. His assistant Alvin was also outstanding. We loved the itinerary and were overwhelmed by the beauty of Patagonia and especially the scenery as we sailed through the Beagle Channel. In Punta Arenas we took the ferry out to Magdelana Island to see the Magellanic penguins and their newborn chicks. You can get to Magdelena Island by zodiac or ferry. We opted for the slower ferry in case of rough seas. Fortunately the seas were calm and the ride out - though slow - was uneventful. The ferry looks like a Higgins Landing Craft that hit the beaches in WW2 at Normandy. You are inside however and go down into the bottom just before landing on the island. They drop the ramp and off you go. We had an hour on the island and saw thousands of penguins, their chicks and seagulls and their chicks - who also nest there. The place that really surprised us was Uruguay. We spent a day in Montevideo with an outstanding tour guide and the next day went to Punta del Este, Uruguay which is a magnificent resort area. Beautiful homes, beaches, condos, restaurants, a busy harbor area with all the yachts and sailboats you would see in Miami. It was very classy. We ate at a nice restaurant on the water and had excellent food and service. Uruguay is a very progressive country, very secular which surprised us. The cruise through the Chilean fjords was beautiful and dramatic as you might imagine. Overall, we loved this cruise, The eclipse was showing its age in a few places but the food, service and itinerary made up for this. Read Less

We had never traveled to South America and were interested in the itinerary. We were incredibly pleased with the combination of ports and the days at sea. We enjoyed the restful days at sea. It is perfect for those who do not need to be constantly entertained. However, the on-board entertainment was outstanding. We enjoyed lectures about the culture and nature of Chile and Argentina and attended nightly musical performances. The cruise director, Alejandro, was charming. He had a wonderful sense of humor. He is definitely the best cruise director I have ever met. The service was phenomenal. Our state room attendant was helpful and kind. The wait staff were outstanding, though we were disappointed in the quality of the food in both the formal dining room and the buffet. Overall, it was an amazing trip. We enjoyed the beauty of Patagonia and look forward to visiting the continent again. Read Less

We chose this cruise to celebrate our 50th anniversary and we wanted something out of the ordinary to remember it by. The cruise around the Horn was just what we were looking for. The only complain I had is the sail around the Horn went to smooth--calm seas and no wind was not what I was expecting, but I think most of the passengers were delighted, including my wife. The Eclipse is an amazing ship and the staff was just wonderful. Alejandro was our cruise director and was the best we have ever had. The captain and Alejandro kept us up to dat with all the events happening on the ship. Ship embarkation at San Antonio went smooth although the terminal is not the most modern. The ramp up to the ship was very steep and several people had trouble climbing it. We were booked Aqua Class for the first time and enjoyed the amenities very much. Our cabin was on deck 11 and was very nice, but also exactly like normal veranda cabins. We ate in Blu and enjoyed it immensely. Wait staff was awesome and food was very good. Onboard lectures in the "from the podium" series were excellent. Lectures included geography of the Chile and Argentina areas we were cruising around as well as history and information about the local people and food. Library was well stocked at the beginning of the cruise but the staff took all the books from the shelves for sanitation reasons when a norovirus outbreak occurred. Entertainment was outstanding. The Celebrity singers and dancers presented several broad way calibre shows and the guest entertainers were also very good. The first night show was by a gaucho group called Impact who had appeared on America's Got Talent and went deep into the competition. There were matinees at 2:30 in the afternoon on most sea days which were very well attended. Wait lines for getting off the ship at each port were very long, especially at tender ports which was most of them. Lines to get back on the ship were usually very long since most people were getting back from excursions at the same time. Shore time at each location seemed too short. We seemed to be struck by an unusual number of passenger incidents that resulted in at least 4 people being evacuated to a shore hospital. One of these required us to reverse course to Puerto Madryn after leaving the port by at least 5 hours to evacuate a passenger. This resulted in missing out next port, Punta del Este, but the life of the passenger greatly outweighed any inconvenience to us. Ship staff took immediate action when a suspected norovirus a outbreak occurred. Strick sanitation procedures went into effect to limit the number of cases. Debarkation went very smoothly but we had booked an excursion of the Tigre River Delta that then dropped us off at the airport. Read Less

the ship it self is still in quite good condition ,the cabins are well laid out and spacious , the staff were friendly and helpful ,especially in the ensemble lounge. this is not a family vacation ship as there are no slippery slides , wall climbing , surfing etc, only indoor kids area, which we were glad about, unruly kids on ships don't float my boat. The food in the main dining room moonlight sonata and ocean view café was repetitive and a lot of the time tuff, tasteless bland, (many felt the same) it felt like you were eating at a retirement village buffet. they did manage to do 1 lobster night on the whole cruise which was the second last night (presumably to make you feel warm and fuzzy) there were numerous charges added to our room account (by mistake) that we had to ring up about and have removed so keep an eye on your tv statement, the is no APP for this ship or touch screens to see what's going on (menu etc) you have to use your tv which did not display free dining menu for more than 3/4 of the trip only specialty dining, drinks and drink packages are now getting over the top a drink package costs nearly as much as the cruise? in room movies are limited and repeat often, the cruise director would bang on for ages every morning doing the hard sell for everything but the kitchen sink!!! the first 3 ports in Mexico were good but the tendering at Cabo san lucus was a joke up to 3 hours to get to shore only leaving a few hours to look around as it was a short stay. that's where things go really down hill from there (after Mexico ports) the remainder of the cruise ports were CONTAINER SHIP TERMINALS, (presumably because its far cheaper to dock at them) every port was a shuttle bus to the gate or another bus to town, ALL tours for san Antonio were cancelled the day before arrival BUT wait a minute hasn't the unrest been going on for months (we didn't care as we got off but many, many were not happy Jan) if this is the best that celeberity can come up with then its not looking good (I mean why pay more when you can do MSC and get the same) Read Less

This was my 7th cruise. First on Celebrity. Previously, I had found that Holland was the best I'd been on, FAR superior to Princess and Royal Caribbean. I'd cruised solo, with family, and with a GF. First off, if you're single, do NOT take this cruise. Not only are there virtually no singles, but, the SOLE listing for any singles get-togethers on board were innocuously placed on a card near guest services. There was no notification inb the daily planner. Second, if you are under 60 years old, do NOT take this cruise. While the stats say that the average age is 55 (A "bit" older than other cruise lines), don't you believe it. The average is WELL above 60. The food: VERY good, however, not better than Holland. As to the buffet, the choices were MANY; however, the same choices, day after day, led to monotony, even though delicious. While Holland (and Royal) had less choices EACH DAY, they varied each day so that there was something new. I believe Celebrity does this to "push" you into going to specialty restaurants. The pushiness onboard to "upsell" you on everything from spa to restaurants, etc., while present in ALL cruise lines, was much more prevalent (and pressurized) on Celebrity. Further, I had expected my stateroom towel animals - nope. Not once. Lastly, the extra money for a veranda is a waste - there is nothing to see but "sea". most of the time...BHUT, it WAS the largest stateroom I've ever had, by far. The entertainment - VERY mediocre, especially on a 15 day cruise - I expected better with the SOLE exception of one show. In short, while the ship itself was superior, everything else was not better than, say, Holland. It was certainly NOT the huge difference that I was led to believe. Oh...one more HUGE thing...To NOT have (free) water outside the sauna is cheap and inviting a health problem; further, to have a free sauna, but a STEAM room that carried an extra cost, was chincy and cheap. Read Less

Celebrity Eclipse is rated as a 5.5-star cruise ship, for which I had brought a high expectation before boarding the ship. However, it was not anything that I had expected and I consider the ship is worse then many other 4.5 star ships that I have cruised (overall impression). It was a very boring ship. No activities such as barbecue/fruit lunch or dinner organised for which some 3.5-star ships would provide (such as Costa Victoria). The most disappointing part on the ship was dinner. Choice of food, including appetizers, entrees, and desserts were very limited. The quality and taste of food were not enjoyable. Evening performance was not attractive. Most of the evenings, the ship only used its own cast to perform. One of the worse cruise experience I have ever had (I have cruised 25 times) . Service of the dining room waiters, bar tenders, cabin steward, and customer service are good. Read Less

Aqua Class service was still very good. Ship needs immediate refurbishment. Many passengers complained about dusty rooms and aged furniture. Food service in Oceanview Cafe needs upgrading and individual dispensing to avoid noro virus. Food service has to be improved. All food must be dispensed by food server. Tables in buffet cleared off of used dishes infrequently and required asking staff to clean tables. Long tender waits to reboard. Handicapped passengers require better accommodations in ports. Crew staff should be required to assist these passengers expediting their accessto limited tenders. Other cruise lines assign specific crew who are identified in ports to assist handicapped. We missed Puenta Del Este because of a medical emergency but we still could have gone to this port later in day because of it’s closeness to next port of Buenos Aires. Luggage delivered to Buenos Aires airport was very difficult to be identified. Hundreds of pieces of luggage was mixed in with several numbers 6-7-8. It took over half an hour to identify. Read Less

We sailed on the Eclipse about 8 years ago and knew the ship was due for refurbishment next year so we were concerned it may be a bit worn about the edges but to our surprise it was very well maintained. We had a balcony and it was a 16 night cruise and felt there was not enough storage. Entertainment on the ship was good, one poor act, some not so great, some really good, overall very enjoyable. Most of the staff were very good especially in the dinning areas, in the bar staff could be a bit elusive at times. Then menus were varied and would suit a lot of people but for us they lacked variety of vegetarian dishes, there was too heavy a reliance on mushrooms. The cost of drinks were very expensive and it was criminal what they charged for a small bottle of still water ($4 plus 20%). We took several excursions and the quality was mixed, some were good some poor and one in particular was shocking. The later involved what was described as a trip in a "comfortable catamaran" which turned out to be a trip on a catamaran using cheep untethered plastic seating and open slatted side benches, I complained to the Celebrity rep before boarding but her grasp of English surprisingly deserted her, This is not the first time we have had transportation on an Celebrity excursion that has fallen below acceptable standard but complains often fall on deaf ears. Read Less

This was our first cruise with Celebrity having sailed mostly with HAL, it's interesting to wonder whether this means you become used to how a certain provider does things but our overall experience could have been better. The ship was lovely, well maintained, comfortable, everything worked, always a bonus. We had a standard balcony room and it was fine, big enough, plenty of storage and we were well served by our steward, friendly guy. Embarkation was fine, we followed the guidance issued about arrival times for each deck and breezed through. Similarly disembarkation was well organised, we were allowed an earlier time to fit our transfer/tour to Santiago and were off even earlier. Service was good, the staff to guest ratio was higher than we were used to and most friendly/welcoming. Our experiences with Guest Relations, Shore Excursions and Cruise Director and staff was mixed, some were too officious / bureacratic and inflexible, they didn't respond very well to mini crises and seemed impersonal. One of the main reasons we booked the cruise was to stop in Costa Rica and this was cancelled at very short notice for a reason (a silted up port, both of them I presume) which seemed odd. It was replaced with Puerto Quetzal Guatamala which compared poorly, only one attraction (Antigua) a two hour drive away. The tendering process in Cabo San Lucas was shambolic, we arrived late, took ages to get people off such that we got on shore at 2.45pm with just over 90 minutes to poke around. We witnessed complaints handled very poorly in Cabo, very uncaring. It did make you wonder how a real crisis requiring tenders would be managed. We arrived late in other ports too and then seemingly took a long time to gain "clearance" from port authorities, people with private tours were badly inconvenienced. Information on ports in the daily newsletters was very brief and rarely contained maps or noted places of interest. Huatulco was gorgeous, Manta and Arica were interesting stops and Lima deserved an overnight as there was so much to see and do there. We did an "Atacama Coastal Walk" in Arica which frankly was dangerous with an eroded pathway and sheer drop to rocks below. We really did not take to the Oceanview Cafe, a cold functional place, a bit like a staff canteen. Food was generally presented in an unappetising manner in the Oceanview, not a great experience. The Moonlight Sonata dining room was fine, roomy, well organised and very attentive staff. Breakfast was particularly good there, a nice cheerful start to the day. Overall the evening menu was not particularly comprehensive and portion sizes seemed to get smaller as the Cruise went on. Some of the Appetisers were pitifully small and a number of guests we shared with commented how some of the dishes were named differently but essentially seemed identical to dishes from a few nights previous. We've had much better food with other cruise lines, disappointing. Entertainment was distinctly average and often would be found in the strangest of places and the strangest of times. The Silent Disco was great though, the fact that it kept on being brought back due to demand should show Celebrity that a more modern and energetic programme should be their direction of travel. The daily programme was similarly average particularly on days "At Sea". Laundry prices were outrageously expensive including the usual mid cruise special offer, travel irons are strictly off limits due to safety concerns and yet hair straighteners are not a problem, so little to do with safety and more to do with driving business to the Laundry would be my conclusion. We met some lovely people on this cruise, very chatty and very friendly, more than usual I thought, a younger crowd than HAL generally. This included a number of guests who had English as a second language which was less of a barrier than you would think. Read Less

The Celebrity Reflection Transatlantic 2014 cruise spoiled me. The Eclipse in 2019 woke me up. Food poisoning does that. I ate in the Celebrity cafe on the 14th floor. I was treated by the medical staff and once the ship docked in Santiago South America I received further treatment. My cabin 6212 creaked incessantly. This ship does need to be overhauled. The dining room experience was enjoyable. The food, delicious. The Celebrity ships are not known for quality entertainment. This cruise was no different. I didn’t use the ship to book excursions. Third party excursions were much cheaper, very informative and enjoyable. Kristian, our cabin staff was excellent. All the staff I encountered rated five stars. The ship had a bad odor. The maintenance staff cleaned but the ship is old and in need of refurbishment. The upholstered chairs on the fourth floor, overlooking the grand foyer were filthy. I used a towel while sitting in these chairs. The cruise was geared towards seniors. Boring entertainment. Read Less

My husband and I have cruised over a dozen times onboard Celebrity ships. This was our first time on Eclipse. We were in Concierge class and selected the cruise because of the unusual itinerary from Los Angeles along the west coast of Central and South America. To get my primary complaint out of the way . . . from embarkation through the entire cruise, queue management was a problem. I do not know what department is in charge of that, but they were hopelessly befuddled. At embarkation concierge class is supposed to have priority boarding. We boarded after people who rode in the bus with us from our hotel. Most people gave up trying to go to Cabo because the queues for tenders were hours long. When we had to turn in our passports prior to arriving in Guatemala, they called everyone to turn them in at the same time. Ridiculous! The queue for shore excursion to Guatemala was the length of the ship and then some. The passengers were frustrated and so were the crew. I've never seen anything like it. It was as though Eclipse had never done this before. Prior to embarkation: We arrived in Los Angeles about 1am and slept in a cheap motel until it was time to go to the ship. Drop-off at the ship was uneventful. Common Areas: The ship appears well-worn. It is clean, but is definitely ready for refurbishment. Furniture in the common areas needs re-upholstery. I didn't see anything torn or broken, just worn. Cabin: I do like all the storage space on Celebrity ships. We participated in the Cruise Critic organized cabin crawl and that was really a lot of fun. Our cabin steward was very helpful and friendly. Dining: We had dinner in the main dining room, late seating. The food is wonderful and plentiful. We were well cared for by our waiter. The sommelier left a little to be desired. I wish I understood how they assign duties because it seems like on all our cruises we are served last on late seating, well into the dinner. So, I'm not sure how that works, maybe just bad luck. There was inconsistency at our table of eight, too, with the somm. Some were served before others on a regular basis. It was just weird. Perhaps the time has come for a Guide to Fine Dining. The bar man wants your cocktail order, the somm wants your wine order, the waiter wants your dinner order, the assistant wants the food accompaniment orders. If you don't want one of those things, wait for the proper person, don't ask the bar man for wine, etc. That may be where our table mates went awry. We had dinner one night at Murano and it was fabulous. Entertainment: We really enjoyed the Beatles cover band. Most of the other acts, we left before they were over. The Buddy Holly show should have been great, but it was lackluster at best. Overall, really disappointing shows. We did not go to the lectures. Dog-sledding in Greenland seemed a poor topic choice for a cruise to South America. We were the only ones to show up for the scavenger hunt. We used the spa pool a few times and took a day in the Persian Garden. Very nice. We spent a little time in the casino. That's another place some lessons would come in handy. I would probably lose more money in the casino if I understood how to play or what to do. That was the extent of our activities participation. Service: The service was top-notch as always. Couldn't ask for better. Guest services interactions were better than we've had on previous cruises. Ports: This itinerary was awesome! We basically were ashore and then asea every other day. Cabo I was planning to skip anyway, my husband tried to catch a tender, but people in the queue had been waiting 2 hours. Nope, not doing it. Puerto Vallarta we went to the beach on our own. Huatulco we went to the beach on our own. Guatemala we took the ship shore excursion to Antigua. Again, queue management was the primary problem. They said Yes to too many people and it was not fun. We arrived back at the ship after dinner and the ship left late, I think because they were waiting for people to return from that shore excursion. It was just badly managed. Manta, Ecuador we walked around the port area on our own. Interesting. Lima, Peru we took an independent tour with ten Cruise Critics. Fabulous time. I would go to Lima again. Arica, Chile we walked around on our own. That was our first glimpse of the civil unrest plaguing Chile right now. Graffiti on all building and statues, everything. On the first sea day following Arica, Celebrity canceled all their shore excursions in our final destination of San Antonio, except for transfers to the airport in Santiago. We were booked on a transfer tour to our hotel in Santiago independently with other Cruise Critic members. Of that I am very grateful. We had no issues with our transfer tour. I understand now what Celebrity's issue was in canceling, but I think they could have done this much earlier. Their concern was traffic and getting people stuck in traffic on tours to or from the airport or in Santiago. Several of the metro stations had been damaged in the riots, so the roads had an overabundance of traffic on them. Street signs and signals had been torn down in the riots, also. The ship arrived in San Antonio on a Friday which is when demonstrators came into central Santiago for the demonstrations over the weekend. It was just a bad combination of timing and infrastructure for the cruiseline. A little more than two days notice would have gone a long way, though. Plus they were offering to let people stay on the ship until late in the day to catch their transfers to the airport, for an additional fee. Really poor optics, that. Cancel the tours and then charge people to stay on the ship. Most flights depart Santiago for the US and Canada at 10:00 pm. I'm so, so glad we didn't get involved in that. Our transfer tour was delightful and we used the same company to take a tour into the Andes from our hotel a couple days later. Our hotel in Santiago was simple, but it was far enough away from the troubled area, but close enough to walk to historical sites. Our room was on ground level so no stairs, and we had air conditioning! The owner/operators were salt of the earth people who we could not help but love. We had a lot of fun in Santiago over the four days we were there. Our taxi to the airport had to be arranged in advance and took about an hour to get there from the hotel. I think it's normally a 30-40 minute trip, but again traffic, because of the metro stations damage, was considerable. We would do this trip again, but I'm not too keen on sailing on Eclipse again. It felt like a shakedown cruise instead of a repositioning cruise. Read Less

We pretty much do all our cruising on Celebrity ships. We're at the point in our lives where we don't particularly want to go through the hassles of flying so when we found that we could go round trip out of Los Angeles we were delighted. Embarkation was a breeze. Celebrity has everything very well organized. We had an accessible Sky Suite. For some reason or other the accessible Sky Suites are below the Ocean View Cafe. We rarely got more than 4 hours sleep due to the carts being wheeled from 2:30 am to around 6:30 am above us. I knew we were under the Ocean View but the deck plan indicated we were under tables. Even though we complained every day, begging them to find some way to not make so much noise, no relief. We were offered a verandah and when we refused we were offered a concierge. Why would we give up the suite perks after we paid for them? Captain Michael was wonderful. He was very visible and approachable as were many of the officers. Unfortunately the selection of activities was very poor. There literally was nothing to do. The shows weren't particularly good - mostly comedians. Since we were in Luminae the food was quite good so I can't comment on the Main Dining Room food. The crew, as is standard on a Celebrity ship, is outstanding. They are always smiling, always helpful and the service is impeccable. I will continue sailing on Celebrity. My next cruise is on the Equinox, my favorite ship. Read Less

Recently I've mainly cruised Princess because they sail from L.A. so often, so I don't have to fly as I live nearby, and Princess is more "upscale" than the other choices from L.A. I chose Celebrity because I had heard and read positive things about them and they had a rare round trip sailing from L.A. available. I was very impressed overall. The Eclipse is a beautiful ship. I didn't much care for the cabin layout but loved the elevator design and operation, especially the glass at the back for great views of the various decks. The shows were high quality and there was always a seat available, unlike Princess where for production shows especially you need to get a seat 30-45 minutes ahead. Also Princess shows are now 30 minutes while Celebrity is 45-55 minutes and all were great except for one comedian I didn't care for. The food and service are definitely a cut above Princess. I was never served a bad dish though some of my tablemates were not always happy. I loved the two-story dining room and enjoyed dining on the upper story, which felt more intimate as it was open to the main area below. The public restrooms are spacious and well-designed with real mini-towels. The crew were all very friendly and helpful. Embarkation was VERY slow and it was very hot in line. Princess does a better job there. I always use bottled water but on Celebrity you can only get small bottles from the bars, which was an ongoing annoyance for me. On Princess you can order large bottles from room service and the steward brings it to your room. Another annoyance on Celebrity was the slow bar service and the fact that I could only order my favorite martini from the Martini Bar, which was always too crowded. I don't understand that restriction at all. The coffee bar was far superior to Princess. They didn't have enough treadmills in the gym while the stairsteppers went mostly unused but at least the music wasn't blasting like on Princess. The covered pool was beautiful and a great place for chilly weather. The spa ladies were low key, unlike Princess where they "assault" you in every public elevator area. The Eclipse had intimate two-person sitting areas on each stateroom deck, which I thought was a great idea. The internet cafe was great, as was the most gorgeous, two-story library I've seen on a ship. The shore excursions were fine as was the tender service. There were plenty of activities and I loved the ballroom dancing in the atrium. There were a fair number of children on board but they caused no problems. Disembarkation went well. With the exception of embarkation, bar service and my stateroom (see cabin review) my complaints were minor. Overall I liked Celebrity enough to cancel two Princess bookings and book two Celebrity cruises even though I will have to fly. Read Less