My first cruise ever on board the Celebrity Eclipse

I have worked in travel for the last 10 years now but i have never been on a cruise, i have done ship visits and stayed on board for 1 night at the most.

Last weekend i had the pleasure of sailing on-board the Celebrity Eclipse mini cruise for 2 night from Southampton to Le Havre  …. WOW WOW WOW

My flight was early AM from Glasgow so i arrived at the port a little earlier than needed. We parked on-site and our luggage was taken from us. The staff at the port were so friendly on arrival, check-in was a very quick and smooth process.

I was lucky enough to be spending my 2 nights in a Aqua Class Cabin which meant I had priority boarding so I was one of the first on board and they even had champagne on arrival.

I headed to my cabin which was on Deck 11 Aqua Class cabin number 5125. The cabin was modern with plenty of room and plenty of wardrobe space. I was also really surprised at the size of the bathroom, plenty or room and a full size shower with Spa head, complimentary soaps etc. The room was stocked with complimentary ice tea and champagne which was chilling the mini fridge, everything else in the mini fridge was chargeable. I also had some lovely canapes and fresh fruit delivered later on in the afternoon. My cabin steward was really helpful and friendly and even knocked on the door in the evening to make sure everything was ok. With Aqua Class you also have complimentary entry into the Persian Garden which is a relaxation room with Sauna and Steam room which i visited this on the second day. Aqua Class cabins also have there own restaurant which is called BLU.

When i arrived i had a drink up on deck, but only to find out that the drinks package wasn’t added to my account so i headed down to guest relations to sort this out to find a long Que of people having the same issue, apparently the whole ship was affected and the poor staff on guest relations must have had a very busy afternoon. The packaged which was included was only a standard packaged and this didn’t offer very many drinks on the Bar Menu so i upgraded to the classic package which was approx $25 as the wine and cocktails i liked wasn’t included on the classic package so worth it for me.

On the first night i had with a drink which some colleagues and our Forum group in the Sky Observation Lounge, this is located on deck 14 at the very front of the ship, it was stunning and the views were amazing. I must admit due to the position you could feel the movement which i didn’t really like but then that’s just due to the bars location. my colleagues and i headed down for dinner around 8.15pm, we were on select dining and had to wait around 50 Minutes to be seated, at this point we were given a buzzer and we headed to the Wine bar to wait. We were seated around 9pm and the dining room was still full at this point, the waiters were working so hard and all 2 courses came out pretty quick. I can be a fussy eater so i was worried that i may no like anything on the Menu but i was wrong as their is a few different options for each course and the food was delicious.

After dinner we headed back up to the Sky Observation lounge where there was music and dancing. The bar was jam packed and it took such a long time to get a drink, i actually gave up at one point and headed to another bar but it was just the same. so headed back to my cabin for a good nights sleep.

Day 2 i woke up and stepped out onto my balcony to take a look at Le Havre, i had a port view so i went and grabbed some breakfast in the main dining and headed up to the top deck to relax for the day. The weather was really nice and i even got burnt. For lunch i went to the Main dining room and had some pizza which was really nice.

On the second evening I dined in the main restaurant and we managed to get a table for 8 straight away which was a nice surprise as i was expecting a long wait again. After dinner we headed up to the Martini bar which had a really chilled out atmosphere and the bar was surrounded by ice. The waiters at this bar were really fun and cheerful.

People have told me that a mini cruise has a completely different atmosphere from your usual 7 day + cruise. The age range on this cruise was very mixed and there was even stags and hens on board which i wasn’t expecting at all. from my experience i love cruising already and i cant wait to take my next proper cruise when ever that may be.