In 2016 we have a milestone birthday to celebrate and after some very short consideration we came to the conclusion that there can be no better way for us to commemorate the occasion with than with a Caribbean cruise and one on Celebrity. It will be a fantastic treat to get away from a miserable and damp Britain and enjoy the tropical climate of the Caribbean for 14 nights on Celebrity Eclipse. The cruise will be all about sunshine and beaches and we fully intend to seek out some of the favourites we have visited on previous Caribbean cruises.
We booked this as cruise only with our US agent and then purchased our flights to Miami by using up some of our Avios points which provided a very healthy discount, so what this means is that we will leave the UK on the 9 January and fly to Miami with BA where we will overnight in the InterContinental Hotel which is nice and close to the port. We have booked a King Bay View room and if everything goes to plan we should have a nice view of the ships coming in early morning as we are bound to be awake due to the 5 hour time difference.
One disappointing thing that has happened was that the port of Bonaire was dropped from the original itinerary and substituted with an overnight stop in Curacao. The reason hasn’t been revealed by Celebrity and I know there were quite a few disgruntled passengers making their feelings known on the Cruise Critic roll call.
As for accommodation on the ship, we have once again managed to get a cabin in our favoured location on the hump which was a real bonus because from what I can tell this cruise has been pretty much all booked up for months and the roll call on Cruise Critic has certainly been very active.
As always I have taken a look to see what other ships we might encounter and several of the ports look to be quite busy. The busiest one being Philipsburg, St. Maarten so I hope we are one of the first of the 8:00 arrivals so we can get across the bay to get a pair of sunbeds in one of our favourite beach locations.
| Date | Port | Ships in Port |
| Sunday, January 10, 2016 | Miami, Florida | Norwegian Getaway 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM (Dock) Seven Seas Navigator 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM Disney Magic 7:30 AM – 4:00 PM Carnival Splendor 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM Carnival Breeze 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM Celebrity Eclipse Depart: 04:30 PM |
| Monday, January 11, 2016 | At Sea | |
| Tuesday, January 12, 2016 | At Sea | |
| Wednesday, January 13, 2016 | Oranjestad, Aruba | Monarch 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Dock) Celebrity Eclipse 08:00 AM – 08:00 PM |
| Thursday, January 14, 2016 | Willemstad, Curacao | Celebrity Eclipse Arrive: 07:00 AM Norwegian Pearl 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM (Dock) Oosterdam 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM |
| Friday, January 15, 2016 | Willemstad, Curacao | Celebrity Eclipse Depart: 05:00 PM Vision Of The Seas 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM (Dock) |
| Saturday, January 16, 2016 | At Sea | |
| Sunday, January 17, 2016 | Bridgetown, Barbados | Celebrity Eclipse 08:00 AM – 11:59 PM Oriana Arrive: 7:00 AM |
| Monday, January 18, 2016 | Castries, St. Lucia | Celebrity Eclipse 08:00 AM – 05:00 PM |
| Tuesday, January 19, 2016 | St. Johns, Antigua | Celebrity Eclipse 09:00 AM – 06:00 PM Oriana 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| Wednesday, January 20, 2016 | Basse-Terre, St. Kitts | Celebrity Eclipse 08:00 AM – 05:00 PM Costa Favolosa 1:00 PM – 9:00 PM Celebrity Silhouette 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Dock) |
| Thursday, January 21, 2016 | Philipsburg, St. Maarten | Celebrity Eclipse 08:00 AM – 05:00 PM Oosterdam 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM Costa Magica 1:00 PM – 9:00 PM Celebrity Silhouette 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Dock) Allure Of The Seas 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Dock) Carnival Splendor 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| Friday, January 22, 2016 | At Sea | |
| Saturday, January 23, 2016 | At Sea | |
| Sunday, January 24, 2016 | Miami, Florida | Celebrity Eclipse Arrive: 07:00 AM Norwegian Getaway 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM (Dock) Disney Magic 7:30 AM – 4:00 PM Carnival Splendor 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM Carnival Breeze 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM |