Celebrity Eclipse Baltic Cruise Review June 2016

[towny44]

This was our 6th cruise on Eclipse out of Southampton and, unless they add some different itineraries, it might well be our last for a few years. This will be a big disappointment to us since Eclipse is still our favourite ship, and cruises from Southampton are essential for us as my wife uses a wheelchair.

We had done almost the same itinerary 3 years ago, but this time Helsinki was missing and we had a rather pointless overnight in Copenhagen, arriving at 11:00am and departing 12 noon the following day. Apparently cruise passengers want to have more overnights according to head office, this seems a rather similar story to P&O changing their boarding procedure because passengers want their cabins ready when they board.

Anyway we swapped a full day at Helsinki for an extra 2/3 hours in Copenhagen, or in our case 1 hour extra after breakfast; and we were miles out of town at Oceankaj pier because of the overnight, instead of being 10 minutes walk from the little mermaid if we had been berthed at Langelinie pier, that’s progress for you.

Food and service were still outstanding, in our opinion, the ship still looks brand new, although I did feel that cleaning standards had slipped a little, and other than the MDR we did notice finger marks on some of the drink glasses, not something we have seen before.

Entertainment is somewhat personal, we only saw one of the production shows which have come in for quite a lot of criticism on some forums, and indeed most comments on board were critical of them, the one we saw, Rock city, was passable but not up to previous standards.

We only watched a few of the guest entertainers, the stars of St Petersburg were enjoyable, good singing but of course in Russian so few understood it, however the actions did convey some meaning, the dancing was also enjoyable.
The top entertainer for us was Jon Courtney, extremely funny, a good pianist and not a bad singer, we also watched Aimee Atkinson, a capable young West End singer and Andante four male singers mainly doing pop standards and Il Divo style songs, these were all perfectly acceptable but we did hear quite a few negative comments about some that we did not see.
Euro 2016 was on the room TV and in a number of venues whilst we were cruising, so that reduced our demand for other entertainment.

As I commented earlier we had done this cruise 3 years ago and, as we need accessible tours which are limited as well as being 3 or 4 times more expensive than standard ones, we did not book any tours, either ship’s ones or private; so here are our thoughts on just going ashore on your own with a wheelchair.

Zeebrugge – this was about our 4th or 5th stop in Zeebrugge and so far the weather has stopped us from going ashore, this time was no different it rained all day. We were intending to take the shuttle to Blankenberge and stroll along the sea front, but stayed on board instead.

Warnemunde – This is a pleasant German seaside town and well worth a wander around, the last time we were here it was cool, cloudy and windy, but this time it was sunny and quite hot. The main access to the town is via the rail underpass which does not have a lift, but a short detour along the river promenade and you can cross a car park beyond the railway lines.

St Petersburg – After studying the ships accessible tours and quite a number of private accessible tours, most of which included the same things we had done before, we decided to stay on board here and hope for reasonable weather, as it turned out these 2 days were the hottest and sunniest of the holiday, and we were happy there was some intermittent cloud to cool us down.

Tallin – After St. P the weather here was disappointing, low cloudy fog and quite a few heavy showers. Since our last visit the port has seen quite a bit of redevelopment and it seemed we had to go much further to exit the port area and in some parts the pavement was unmade and I had to pull my wife’s wheelchair backwards over rough hardcore, we assume this will be improved in time. We followed the map route towards the old town, but a combination of distance and deteriorating weather made us turn back; however there is a fairly large craft market behind the cruise terminal in which we spent quite a bit of time and money as well.

Stockholm – Again the pier is way out of town necessitating using the expensive shuttle, the even more expensive HoHo bus, or the exorbitant taxis. Since we had been to Stockholm before, and really only want to wander around for a couple of hours then grab a coffer or beer, we opted just to take a walk out of the dock area and get a bit of exercise.

Copenhagen – As I commented above the pier at Oceankaj is quite a distance out of town, and again you need the ship’s shuttle or HoHo bus, or in this case there is a local service bus which runs to the little mermaid or the town centre from just opposite the ship. You need local currency for this or I believe you can buy tickets from a kiosk, but not sure if they accept cards or foreign currency, and I did not check the prices but I imagine this would be by far the cheapest option.
We decided to walk, really to see what might be available locally, the answer is absolutely nothing, we walked in the direction of town for about 45 minutes, saw a couple of greasy spoon truckers stops but little else, not even any benches to relax on, so we came straight back and fortunately arrived just before it started raining.

In summary – If you have any walking difficulties or, as in our case, need accessible transport, then this cruise itinerary will necessitate taking as many tours as finances permit; maybe smaller ships would berth in better locations, but if you need a wheelchair it will need to be fairly modern to ensure you have the best possible facilities on board, which, after all, is where you will spend most of your time.

[gfwgfw]

Thank you dear Friend for your interesting post

Our favorite itinerary by far x three times with Saga Cruises

btw Probably the most caring cruise operator for the unfortunate mobility impaired passengers

[GillD46]

We have only done a two nighter on Celebrity. We liked them, we didn't love them. If the price was really low and the itinerary excellent, then maybe - but probably not.

[Manoverboard]

We had an ok experience with Celebrity recently, until the bug struck, regarding food but our thoughts certainly mirrored yours re entertainment.

The Baltic itinerary is a nice one but we would probably opt for a smaller ship to take advantage of the lesser frequented Ports unlike wot yours did do. The overnight in Copenhagen would suit those passengers, including us, who fancy an evening at the Tivoli Gardens ... a must at Christmas time of course.

[qbman1]

Standards slipping on Calamity? Shock Horror. Nothing's been the same since Brexit.....

[Mervyn and Trish]

We'll see Towny converted to a Ten Bob Millionaire yet.

[Mervyn and Trish]

We'll see Towny converted to a Ten Bob Millionaire yet.

I suspect the overnight in Copenhagen is a variation on the travel-a-bit-slower-to-save-fuel-theme rather than customer demand

[Mervyn and Trish]

Not sure what hàppened above! Tablet went bonkers

[towny44]

We'll see Towny converted to a Ten Bob Millionaire yet.

Maybe Merv, my next 2 cruises are with P&O, then we are going to try RCI although I doubt I will be sampling the flowrider or the climbing wall.

[Mervyn and Trish]

No, we skipped those too when we tried IOTS

[Dark Knight]

this was the one we were going to do with Celeb but cancelled as we found the same itinerary for less than half the price
we found it a very busy cruise with lots of touring and walking at all the ports and all the tours were 5 hrs or longer
St Petersburg was a gallon shoved in a pint glass and was too much, as the guides tried to get every single site in on a 9 hr tour, we were very glad we didn't do the full 2 day one.
I cant think of any port that disappointed and we would happily do this itinerary again in a few years time