We took this cruise with high expectations. We had cruised with Carnival, Holland America, and Princess--and enjoyed them all--but never before with Celebrity. Having noticed that it was 5.5, and having heard that it was a cut above those mentioned, we were expecting a premier cruise. Celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary, we even took a concierge class balcony. Supposedly, we had certain privileges beyond the ordinary cruise customer.

Boarding at Miami was about the same as our previous cruises from that port--no better, no worse. We decided to eat at the Bistro on 5 when we boarded (a $7 p.p. surcharge). The steak crepe we had was very good. Shortly after we finished eating, we were in our stateroom (#1200 on the stern of deck 10). Eclipse is not ageing-friendly. The elevators were at midships and it was a long walk to our room. We found that we had been put in a late eating time, even though we had been assured that we had an early placement and supposedly had priority in such things. It took a couple days and a friendly assistant maitre d' to get us into "anytime dining" (or whatever Celebrity calls it).

One interesting note: upon our arrival in our stateroom, a young lady appeared offering us champagne. We told her we did not consume spirits and asked if we could have either fruit punch or water instead. She had no idea how to handle such a request, and told us we would have to ask our room steward about that! Read more