The beautiful Celebrity Eclipse
The route we took
So where shall I start.
Let me go back a couple of years. Lots of our friends have cruised
and said that we should do it. Neither Richard nor I like it when it is
hot so that ruled out quite a few destinations so we decided that one day we
would do a Baltic cruise. Oh yes, and Richard was worried he would be
bored!
Forward to 12 months ago
when Penny and Jim said that they had booked a cruise to the Baltic. Of
course, I jumped in and said can we come! We gave them thinking time and
they came back that on the proviso that I didn't spend all my time blogging
they would love us to join them.
We booked the cruise through
The Cruise Specialists and even managed to get a cabin right next door to P
& J - result!
Fast forward to May this
year. I started to panic that I wouldn't have the right clothes blah,
blah, blah!! This was our first cruise and even though we had gone
through everything with a friend who had done the same cruise on the same ship
last year, I was still anxious. However, all the tours were booked, the taxis
were booked, all our paperwork was in order and I had got a long list of useful
things to take which I had got from the Celebrity Cruise Addicts Facebook page.
It even had cable ties on it! I had also joined Cruise Critics.
So the great day dawned and
after a fiasco with the taxi company we arrived at Southampton. My first
view of Eclipse actually made me gasp! We were going on that??? I
had seen cruise ships from a distance but not that close.
The queue was very long for check-in
but eventually we were at the desk and getting our sea passes. Through
security and then the long haul up to the ship. Champagne on arrival and
then to our cabins (or state rooms as Celebrity like to call them). I had
seen photos of the cabins and certainly wasn't disappointed at all but the
bathroom was much better than I expected. We did a half unpack and then
went exploring.
I can't say enough how
amazing Eclipse is. The Atrium is magnificent and definitely a wow
factor. At each turn there seemed to be another bar - could we sample
them all??
Our first dinner in the main
dining room, the Moonlight Sonata Dining Room, was excellent. We shared
our table with four ladies - one of whom is a widow but the others had husbands
which, for one reason or another, couldn't or wouldn’t travel. This
cruising is a regular occurrence. Our waiter, Magzie, soon learnt our
names and our fads!
We had planned to go to
Brugges from Zeebrugge but I was having problems with my right knee and it had
got worse over the weekend so I went to the ship's doctor who gave me some
anti-inflammatories and told me to rest for a few days. I was rather
disappointed not to be getting off the ship but it was for the best.
We then had two days at sea
to really get our bearings and wind down a bit. One day would have been
better as I wanted to get on with the sightseeing!
Stockholm It was the sail in to the city that was so amazing through
the 30,000 islands and islets of the Stockholm Archipelago.
Stockholm itself was lovely.
Our first port of call was the Vasa Museum where we saw the remarkable
ship Vasa who had sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628. To see this complete ship that had sunk
almost 400 years ago in one piece was awe inspiring.
Stockholm
city on the island of Gamla Stan was founded in 1252 so parts of it are very
old. Lovely cobbled narrow streets with
lots of alleyways. The main square was
typically European if I dare say it! However,
each city that we visited has its own very unique square.
The
guide we had in Stockholm wasn’t the best but we got to see everything that was
on the list. I would have liked to go
into the Royal Palace but there just wasn’t time.
We
watched the sail away from Stockholm in the Oceanview restaurant on the port side
so that we could see the other side of the waterway.
Memories - The amazing sail in and sail out through the archipelago.
Vasa. Big ice creams in the square!
Tallin. Tallin had been on my
bucket list for many years so I was really looking forward to seeing it and I
wasn’t disappointed 😊 It
is a city but very small. 1.3 million
people compared with 2.2 million in Stockholm.
The residents of Tallin had it hard under the USSR and are now so happy
to have their country back. I felt that
there was a certain bounce about the city!
Again, there wasn’t enough time as I would have liked to mooch a
bit. 20 minutes free time wasn’t enough.
Memories - Seeing the roofs from the vantage point. The old walls.
The Town Square. Catherine's Passage. The fact that you can
get so close to the President's Palace!
Our
guide in Tallin was very good and obviously loved her home.
St.
Petersburg! I’m going to cover that in
another blog.
We
needed our sea day after five days of sightseeing and took the opportunity to
stoke up our energy banks.
Warnemunde and Rostok. We had decided not to
go to Berlin from Warnemunde – 2 hours in a coach and then a whistle stop tour
didn’t appeal to any of us. However, I
would like to visit Berlin one day. The
ferry ride up to Rostok was interesting and I’m glad we did it. The town itself had been badly damaged in
WWII but has been sympathetically restored.
The main square was much bigger than Stockholm and had a small market in
it which we didn’t look at. Our
exploration of the tram and railway system back to Warnemunde worked well – we
cheated a bit as the instructions on the ticket machines could be read in
English!
I
loved Warnemunde, it is a real seaside town (not a fish and chips and kiss me
quick hat kind of place though!) My knee
was hurting again so I didn’t want to walk too much but would have loved to
explore further.
Copenhagen. Copenhagen – what does the
song say? Wonderful, wonderful
Copenhagen and it was. Our tour really
only scraped the tip of the iceberg – there looked to be so many places that we
didn’t get to see. I would have loved to
have gone into the Tivoli Gardens and spend more time on the waterfront. Also, there were alleyways which was
screaming out to be explored.
Memories - Seeing the Little Mermaid though I did originally think she
was further out from the shore. The four palaces that you can get so
close to. The Christiansborg Palace - really nice after the opulence of
St. Petersburg
Two days at sea. Originally I thought that two days would be too
much but in the end it worked out well. The trip to the Bridge was a real
surprise and fascinating.
Richard
is not really a city sort of person and St. Petersburg was really too much for
him! He did like the other destinations
though. On the other hand, I love
travelling and visiting places and to do it on a cruise is wonderful. I know I have said that we didn’t have enough
time in some places but at least I got to see them as I doubt if I would have
got to some of them in my lifetime. A
good night’s sleep on a lovely, big, comfy bed and then to wake up in another
city – what could be better?
Where would I go back to? Definitely Copenhagen - there is still
so much more to explore. Tallin is small so I think we got to see most of
it though one more day would be nice to wander around at our own pace.
Stockholm - maybe as I would have liked to see the Royal Palace. I
think we exhausted St. Petersburg
Eclipse
– well what can I say about her. She is
a beautiful ship and her crew all seem proud to serve on her and to serve her
passengers. I spoke to quite a few
people who have cruised with other cruise lines and 99% said that they thought
Celebrity is the best and that Eclipse is the best ship. Eclipse is one of four Solstice-class
ships. Solstice who entered service in
2008, Equinox in 2009, Eclipse in 2010 and Silhouette in 2011.
We
covered a total of 3438 miles which equates to 3956 land miles - 4½ times the
distance between Land’s End and John O Groats!
Cruising
again – oh yes please! In fact we have
already booked our next one – Canada and North America in September 2018 on
Celebrity Summit. I can’t wait 😊
On our first chic night we had official photos taken - well you have to
don't you? Here they are.
