Overall summary:

The cruise was great although both my wife and I picked up bad colds while on board - so we were both laid low for a couple of days during the cruise. Nevertheless, we still had a wonderful and memorable experience on the beautiful Celebrity Eclipse. She is really a beautiful ship - well planned, spacious, furnished with understated elegance (unlike the vulgar garishness of some other vessels we have sailed on!), exceptionally clean, well maintained and managed. However, the jury is still out as to whether we really like the big ship experience. The Solstice class ships are just too big for our liking. On our voyage the Eclipse was fully booked with almost 3000 passengers and although we never really felt crowded, one always gets the feeling there are just too many people around particularly when de-boarding and re-boarding at ports of call. On the one occasion in Gibraltar we had to tender because the docking area was under repair after being damaged by severe storms a few weeks earlier, and the tendering process for a ship of the Eclipse's size was something of a nightmare.

Largely because they are so big, Solstice class ships obviously lack the intimacy and personal touch one tends to experience in smaller vessels, especially ones of the size operated by Azamara and Oceania. But I guess they compensate for this by their sheer efficiency, slick organisation and high standards of staff training. Indeed one stands in awe at how efficiently the ship is run. Everything seems to work like clockwork, all requests are attended to promptly, staff are invariably knowledgeable and courteous, and frankly, one would be hard pressed to find anything to really complain about - although some inveterate whingers that we came across did manage to do so to our constant irritation! Read more