Celebrity Eclipse

Celebrity Eclipse is the third of Celebrity's five Solstice class ships, built by Meyer Werft and delivered in April 2010 at around 121,878 gross tons and roughly 2,850 guests at lower berths. The design decision that still defines her is the Lawn Club on deck 15, a stretch of real, growing grass laid across the top of the ship in place of the water park or ropes course a rival would have fitted. Her story, though, is written before she ever carried a paying passenger. With the Eyjafjallajokull ash cloud grounding European aviation in April 2010, she was sent to Bilbao and brought roughly 2,000 stranded British travellers home to Southampton on 23 April, six days before her official maiden voyage. Verify the homeport before you book: Southampton was hers only until October 2017, and she now works Amsterdam in the northern summer and Fort Lauderdale in winter.

What she does well is a settled, grown up kind of comfort. Murano remains one of the better French rooms afloat, Tuscan Grille has a proper view over the wake, and Le Petit Chef has replaced Qsine with a lighter touch. Blu, reserved for AquaClass, is the quiet workhorse of the ship, and suite guests get Luminae and a Retreat that grew again in the 2025 drydock, gaining a lounge on deck five and a private solarium on deck 16. The Solarium, Persian Garden, Cafe al Bacio and the Sunset Bar do the unglamorous work of giving adults somewhere to sit down.

The criticism is fair and mostly about age. She is sixteen years old, and while carpets, upholstery and furniture were refreshed in the spring 2025 drydock at Brest, the bones are 2010: smaller cabin bathrooms than newer tonnage, fewer venues than an Edge class ship, and technology that has been patched rather than rethought. Cruise Critic's editors still rate her 4.5 out of 5, which is about right, but their review is blunt that she lacks some of the amenities found on newer Celebrity ships.

She suits couples, solo travellers and older families who want good food and quiet corners. Celebrity is a premium line, priced plainly above Royal Caribbean for a comparable week, and the crowd skews adult. Families with young children who want slides, karting and constant noise should look elsewhere.

Cabins matter more here than on most ships, because Eclipse has conventional open balconies with sliding doors rather than the enclosed Infinite Verandas of the Edge class, so a balcony is genuinely outdoors. Avoid the cabins immediately beneath the pool and spa complex on deck 12, where stacked loungers dragged across decking carry through the ceiling at dawn, and treat the deck 14 accommodation under the Lawn Club with the same caution. Aft Sunset Verandas have the best views on the ship but are a long walk from the lifts, and, contrary to expectation, their balconies are no larger than a standard one. Our per cabin quiet and convenience scores are not yet published for this ship.

Read the deck plan first, then choose.