Our sailaway was delayed by around 20 minutes but eventually we were on our way to Aruba and although the sun wasn’t shining it was still lovely and warm out on deck.
We were super efficient with the unpacking and so found ourselves with a couple of hours free before dinner so we went to the show which was a standup comedian called Rich Aronovitch. We strategically positioned ourselves just in case he wasn’t to our liking and I have to say that was a smart move. We endured a good 20 minutes of what I would call poor humour which was more aimed at our fellow American passengers before we made our escape with quite a few others.
So having then found ourselves with yet more free time we made our way to what was the old Passport bar now renamed the Gastrobar which is one of the areas which was changed in last year’s refit. We have always used that bar on all the Solstice class ships for pre dinner drinks as it is always a lively place with a live band playing in the atrium and people dancing. Not a great deal seems have been altered, just a few added screens and the beer fridges which I understand have been moved from Michael’s Bar and perhaps the seating is now different.
So what about our first nights dining experience? Well we are on table 225 which is a table for eight and last night we had two empty spaces and two couples both as it would happen from Atlanta, Georgia. We had a great first night with them and all bodes well for the rest of the cruise. Our two waiters (Jesus & Oomesh) and sommelier (Enricke) were also very good and great fun as well as being very attentive.
We also bumped into Alfred the waiter from our last Celebrity cruise on the Reflection who was really pleased to see us again. We also spotted but didn’t get to speak with the assistant waitress from our first Silhouette cruise so will be keeping an eye out for her so we can say hello at some point. I wonder if she will remember us too?
And so to today, during the night we had another time change and have moved yet another hour away from UK time and are now 6 hours behind. I was awake early again at around 5:30 which wasn’t too bad considering the extra hour. Being up early does sort of work in our favour at the moment as the ship was relatively quiet and it makes the buffet a dream to use.
Following breakfast we went back to the cabin and applied our sun cream and then made our way up to our favoured haunt, the Solstice Deck for a spot of lying in the sun. The weather today was scattered cloud interspersed with some lovely warm sunshine. It feels fantastic to get away from the miserable damp UK.
We stayed there until just after 2:30 before popping into the Oceanview Cafe for a quick bite to eat, from there being as the sun was on our side of the ship we headed back to our cabin and its balcony. What clouds there were have now gone and it is glorious sunshine and as you can imagine the upper decks are extremely busy.
That is pretty much it for day one on board Celebrity Eclipse. Tonight we are giving the theatre another go as it’s a production show called Topper which is about Sir Richard Peabody and his collection of eccentric friends who live in a giant hat! The mind boggles!!!!! I might need some wine to help me through it.