Celebrity Eclipse

 I loved the ship we were on.  Someone said, "If you have to be on a ship for 8 days at sea, you want it to be this ship."  I loved how the bathroom had "night lights" on when the lights were turned off.

I wasn't the only one seen photographing the public bathrooms---the sink drains were all across the back of the sink.

 They had an iLounge with iPad help, Apple TV and even sold Apple products (reseller)

 The center elevator showed all of the beautiful lounges on each floor including a tree hanging in a ball which I did not get a photo of. Speaking of elevators, they were fast, quiet and the whole canopy lit up when one arrived---we never had to guess which elevator was for us.

 The dining room was elegant, and the Martini Bar was almost magical with ice everywhere.

 It was a very popular gathering place for many before and after dinner.

 The indoor swimming area had dancing water and solar panels.

 We had a wonderful waiter and fun dinner companions.

 Rhoda and Gary made us laugh every night when they put on their reading glasses with head lights. And, we had a beautiful table right near a window.

 There was  some very nice art in the hallways. And a Cirque d' Soleil-type show which was as amazing as the ice show we saw on the Royal Caribbean Navigator.

 The icing on the cake was the ship celebrating my birthday a day early (my birthday was disembarkation day).

Would we go on another trans-Atlantic---sure, if the ship and people were as nice as the Celebrity Eclipse!

Ship Activities

 In addition to our Cruise Critic events, the ship had a lot of activities.  Some I have seen on other ships but some were unique.

 I saw a program on fruit and vegetable carving.

 I'm thinking carrot curls are about as fancy as I get, but. . .

 I took several pilates classes and had a pedicure.

 We ate in the dining room as often as possible. . .

 Dave read on the verandah regardless of weather and I watched the navigation channel to see where we were.

 But, there were painting classes, dance classes, computer classes, trivia, card tournaments, hot glass shows, paper plane building. . . so much, but. . .

 I still found time to have coffee, watch the waves and write in my journal.

 Sometimes we missed lectures, but could always catch them "On Demand" on the TV.

 There were several afternoon and morning shows including the crew talent show.

 The entertainers got on the ship in Spain and couldn't get off until Miami---so some of them gave matinees or lessons in juggling (above).

 Did I mention, I like just sitting and watching the waves?

We even had several opportunities to honor those who fought in World War I on 11/11/11 at 11:11.  All in all, we found plenty to do in the 8 days we were at sea.  Actually, if it hadn't been so rough, we would have done even more.

Cruise Critic

 Almost a year ago, many of us on the cruise started "talking"about various aspects of the cruise on cruisecritic.com This is a forum in which you find your ship, the date of your cruise and can "chat" with others that will be on the ship about arranging private tours, sharing a ride from the airport to the hotel or ship, discussing what clothes to take.  Since this was a Trans-Atlantic cruise, we also arranged activities.  Marvin had to seminars on Kindles giving us each books to upload.  We also arranged for the slot pull, our Qsine dinner partners and these photos are of the Poker/Cabin Crawl.
 
We were given a map and assigned a group. We had one surprise on the crawl---one of the cruise critic people had a penthouse suite (1900 sq. ft.) with a grand piano, dining room for 8 and a hot tub on the balcony.

Another component was the poker crawl.  In most of the rooms, we drew a card, the host initialed it and marked in on our paper (we each paid $5).  Because each room had its own deck of cards I had two Jacks of diamonds and 2 Kings of diamonds---I was forced to re-draw, though so didn't win the poker crawl.

Other activities were Cruise Critic get-togethers with coffee, cookies.  But there was also a wine-tasting (each person brought a bottle of wine to share) and a gift exchange.  Each person brought a gift from their country or part of the country for about $15.  I didn't participate in that or the wine-tasting, but I went to observe.
 The best was pre-arranging our dinner companions each night.

Rhoda and Gary from Florida just asked on Cruise critic if anyone with early seating wanted to dine with them.

Trish and Pat (California), Dave and I stepped forward.  We had a great time and enjoyed their company more than most tables consisting of people we didn't know before the cruise.   I highly recommend cruisecritic.com.  One person had a web site with all sorts of information and another had put together a photo gallery ahead of time.  Although cruisecritic.com is  a little difficult to manage sometimes, the information, activities and friendships are well-worth it.

Qsine

 We had heard that Qsine was an interesting dining experience, so we arranged to meet Dorothy and Bill for an evening at this specialty restaurant which was just named the #1 Specialty Restaurant on a cruise ship.

 The menu was an iPad.  Click here to see how it worked.  The waiter looked at our favorites and created the meal.

 This was the Painter's Filet Mignon

 Here was the salad with, shrimp.  In the back are rolls on a skewer--we'd already eaten the garlic doughnuts!

 Kobe Beef burgers with lemon salted french fries.

 These were cones of crispy vegetables!

 Chicken Kabobs.

 And for a dessert menu, we had a Rubic's cube?

 Bill ordered cupcakes---which came unassembled!  Tubes of frosting and sprinkles with 4 different kinds of cupcakes.

 Dave and I ordered this chocolate dessert which we could not finish and then. ..our waiter brought chocolate covered strawberries on skewers in pots of grass!  This was such a fun restaurant! I recommend it for something very different.

To see a video on the restaurant, click here.