This was our first trip on Celebrity and it certainly wont be the last , the Eclipse is a lovely ship , all areas very stylish .Efficient , good size lifts , beautiful main dining room , great speciality restaurants , comfortable seating areas , with plenty of space all around the ship.
Embarkation day was delayed due to an outbreak of Norovirus on the previous cruise , the staff dealt with this magnificently , all crew leave was cancelled that day as they were ALL cleaning the ship , which was tough on them as they get so little time off and Southampton is where they get to do their essentials. But we were reliably informed that despite the challenges everybody went about the task in hand cheerfully . This is a great credit to the leadership of Captain Leo , who I understand was alongside his team every step of the way. It did take longer than usual to get to our cabin , but understandably so , when we did I was not disappointed , cabin was spacious ( 9127 on deck 9) , with the bathroom being particularly well set out , probably the best bathroom design I have ever seen. ( had to have been designed by a woman !!) Luggage arrived quickly and we had unpacked well before we were called to the obligatory life boat drill.
only small criticism of the cabin was there was a lack of drawer space , one suggestion is that they could adapt under the sofa into drawers , that would solve the problem.
Left the ship , walked a few minutes along the road , heading for the tram stop as had info from trip advisor , found an independent shuttle bus for 20 euro round trip , which was well worth it , ship was more expensive.
used the hop on hop off bus , which was useful to see the city , found our way back to Abba & Vassa museum ( few minutes walk apart) got a taxi back to the ship as buses were very busy.
Used the hop on hop off boat and bus tour was a great way to see the sights , had lunch in the Italian restaurant in the Tivoli gardens which was excellant