Celebrity Eclipse: Day 3 of Our Cruise – We started the day today with breakfast for Captain’s Club members in the Tuscan Grill on deck 5. This Italian steakhouse becomes an intimate breakfast spot for Captain’s Clubmembers and the view out of the back of the ship is amazing. For breakfast we chose items off the continental breakfast buffet, which included meats, cheeses, breads (croissants, muffins, etc.), yogurt, including drinkable Activia, and beignets. For beverages, we ordered off the special menu our drinks and what a great way to start the morning. I had a cappuccino and a bellini, my husband had an espresso and a bellini, and my son had a cappuccino and a berry smoothie. I absolutely prefer a smaller, intimate place to eat than the hustle and bustle of the Oceanview Café, so it worked out well for all of us.
After breakfast, we went our separate ways as our son had made a few friends on board, including a few from where we live back home. Small world! My husband and I decided to check out the Galleria Boutiques on deck 5, which have fine jewelry, makeup, perfumes, clothing, and more. We eventually ended up at the Future Cruise Sales office as we wanted to check out their current promotions. Chris Woodcock spent a few minutes with us talking about some of the upcoming exciting cruises including one that starts in Dubai and ends in Singapore. How cool is that? Did you know that if you book a cruise onboard, the deposit is usually far less and you can get onboard credit that will make it worthwhile? There are some great cruise offerings including Mediterranean, Transatlantic, and Northern Europe cruises where if you put a $100 deposit per person, you can get up to a 3 category upgrade and onboard credit from between $200-$900. If you like your cruise, why not take advantage of this? If you’re not sure which cruise you might want to take, you can instead opt for the Open Passages option, which allows you to place a deposit on a cruise without picking a specific cruise. Same $100 deposit per person, up to $300 onboard credit per stateroom, and best of all, Open Passages never expire!
After feeling excited about the thought of taking another cruise, we went up to the Sunset Bar where I tried the signature drink, the Eureka, while my husband had a Boddington’s. We ran into our son who was feasting once again on pizza from the Oceanview Café. Apparently, he had participated poolside in the Olympic Games, men vs. women, and the men had won. He was sporting a Celebrity medal and excited about what he was off to do next. We decided to stop off in the casino and then we went to the Sky Lounge for trivia. There were only two other people there and not really feeling it at the moment and feeling hungry, we went off in search of lunch.
Having wanted to eat at Bistro on Five at least once while on our cruise, we decided it was time to try the crepes. Although there is a $5 per person cover charge, all food is included and it was an opportunity to try something different. The food includes crepes, paninis, soup, and dessert.
My husband decided on the Hot and Spicy crepe, which traditionally has shredded steak, peppers, jalapeños, cheddar cheese, and cumin dressing, but asked our waiter, Kevis, to substitute corn for the steak, which he could do. He also ordered the Vegetable Panini, which had grilled eggplant, zucchini, roasted bell pepper, artichoke, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella. Meanwhile, I wanted to try the Indian Summer crepe with grilled zucchini, eggplant, peppers, provolone, and herb dressing. The food came relatively fast after Kevis brought my husband his beer from the bar and we dove right into the meal. My husband loved the Panini, but it isn’t a traditional Panini as it isn’t pressed. Instead, the bread is grilled on both sides and the sandwich filling is placed between the two pieces of bread. The crepes were thin and tasty as was the filling, but I found the food to be more room temperature than hot.
We both decided to try another crepe for dessert so he got the Italian, which was Nutella, banana, and pistachio and I tried the Spanish, which was Dulce de Leche. Again, the crepes were good, but not hot and although satisfying, I would have preferred to the food to be slightly hotter than it was served. Other than that, both the food and the service was good and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Bistro on Five to anyone sailing on the Celebrity Eclipse.
Our captain announced the day before that we would be arriving slightly later into San Juan, but we weren’t too concerned as we had a special treat waiting for us. We had received a VIP invitation for the “VIP Sail-In Experience in San Juan.” We were invited to the helipad on deck 6 forward to be at the front of the ship as we sailed into San Juan harbor. We arrived for our 2:45 pm invitation and were greeted with champagne and the Senior Officers and a view of San Juan like no other. The wind was oppressive, but we were advised to stand more central on the deck where it immediately died down. We passed El Morro, one of the city’s former defensive forts, where everyone looked like tiny little ants and watched as the airplanes descended from overhead to make their approach to the airport runway nearby.
We left the helipad to return to our cabin so we could leave the ship and wander in town. I had originally wanted us to try the bioluminescent kayaking tour, but the tour operator said they couldn’t guarantee they could get us back in time since it is over an hour each way from San Juan. We decided to walk through Old San Juan and somehow ended up at Señor Frogs. Not a traditional place by any means, Señor Frogs is just somewhere I like to go with my husband when I want to grab a quick drink and relax before getting back on the ship, which is what we did. It always surprises me that you can buy a yard of whiskey, tequila, etc. and I even asked our server if people bought them and she said they did. Crazy!
We made our way back on board and skipped dinner due to Señor Frogs and our son went off in search of his friends onboard. Always needing to get work done, I spent some time trying to update my day for the blog and the Internet only made me slightly crazy – wish there was a way to get a faster connection while on a cruise ship. We ended our day by playing a game of Friendly Feud in Celebrity Central on deck four and we were on the winning team! We walked away with our own medals and so you might have seen us onboard as we refused to take them off. Ok, well maybe that wasn’t true, but I wore mine to bed and that is the truth!
Next up is our day in port in St. Thomas!
So excited to be visiting SJ myself in a couple of weeks. 🙂