Exploring the Southern Caribbean on board the Celebrity Eclipse, January 21, 2018

We boarded the Eclipse on Sunday, January 21, 2018, just around the noon hour.  It is destined to be our cruising home as we travel to St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados, Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba.  What a warm break from our frigid New Jersey winter.  Here’s a picture, from our hotel room, of the port with the Eclipse and its brethren docked and waiting to take on their next excited passengers.

The early part of the day was gloomy, overcast and blustery, but by cast off the sun was shining and the sky was blue with billowy white clouds.  The Miami skyline is very dramatic and interesting.

The boarding process was somewhat painful; kind of like having a splinter pulled with tweezers from your finger.  We survived the process and eventually made our way onto the ship.  Our first stop was lunch at Sushi on Five.  This pleasant Japanese sushi restaurant replaced Bistro on Five.  Lunch was very good, the sushi being the equal of any good restaurant at home.

By the time lunch was over the cabins were open and we made our way up from deck 5 to cabin 8235.  It is an ocean view stateroom with balcony, category 1C.  Our cabin is well situated, not too far from the main staircase, and fairly midship.  It could use a little more storage space.  There is a lack of drawer space and the closet is not very spacious.  The tradeoff, if there is one, is that we have a very nice cabin steward, Sijas, who is doing a great job of keeping everything ship shape.

Cabin 8235

Cabin 8235

We enjoyed sailing from the port of Miami, easterly down Government Cut, into the Atlantic Ocean.

View easterly down Government Cut

Miami area skyline

Port of Miami

Miami area skyline

We were sitting in the Sky Lounge taking in the view and thinking about the next 14 days.

Sky Lounge

Sky Lounge

Sky Lounge

The Eclipse was launched in 2010 when Godmother Emma Pontin, an English yatchswoman and cancer survivor, christened her.  She is under the command of Captain Leonardos Palaiokrassas from Ithaca, Greece.  He has been with Celebrity Cruises since 1997.  We had a chance to meet him and he is an engaging, humorous individual who is appreciated by passengers and crew alike.  The Eclipse is a beautiful ship with lots of artwork which I will enjoy photographing over the next 14 days and nights.

Dinner the first night was a buffet in our cabin.  I wanted to, no had to, watch the Philadelphia Eagles play the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC conference championship game.  We are from the Philadelphia area and I am an ardent Eagles rooter.  Good game if you’re an Eagles’ fan and now its on to the Super Bowl; third time in team history.