Beautiful Ship & Wonderful Itinerary
Celebrity Eclipse Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 5
Helpful Votes: 197
12 Night Italy & Greek Isles (Barcelona Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 23, 2018
Ship: Celebrity Eclipse
Cabin type: Suite
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
Our 12-night cruise from Barcelona on the Celebrity Eclipse was a great itinerary which included Mallorca, Sicily, Mykonos, Athens (Piraeus), Rhodes, Santorini and Malta. This was our third cruise on the Eclipse and she is our favorite! The staff are the most helpful and friendly that we've encountered on any of the Celebrity ships. The ship has a lot of great places to enjoy on a sea day whether you prefer a quiet place to read or a relaxing bar to hang out with friends, and plenty of activities and entertainment around the ship in the evenings.Embarkation
We arrived at the pier in Barcelona at 10:45am and all of the lines were small. We were on the ship 10 minutes after arriving.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Children's Programs
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Enjoy a quiet breakfast at the Aqua Spa Cafe in the Solarium.
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
We arrived the day before the cruise at 8:30am. The customs lines at BCN were awful. They took over an hour. So, be prepared for this once you arrive. We spent one night at the Cotton House Hotel. It was a beautiful place that I wish we'd had longer to enjoy. I had pre booked our transportation to the ship with SunTransfers.com and the driver was waiting for us at our arranged time when we checked out of the hotel. The port was very busy on this particular Sunday morning, so it took about 25 min. to get from the hotel to the ship. We had spent a few days touring Barcelona on a previous trip. I recommend adding a few days to tour this beautiful city.
Palma De Mallorca, Balearic Islands
Mallorca is a beautiful, history filled Spanish island off the southern coast of Spain. We toured with a small private group from our ship with Mallorca Private Tour Guides. The tour included a stop at Bellver Castle and then to Valldemossa, a beautiful old village in the hills, next was a scenic drive to Soller with a stop at the beach. Upon our return to Palma the tour visited the interior of the Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma.
We chose a Celebrity ship tour called Exclusive Sicily: Mt. Etna & Taormina. It was a very nice small group tour of 12 persons. Our visit to Mt. Etna was foggy, wet and cold at the 6,000 foot visitors station. We stopped and had coffee and sweet treats and then a quick visit on the side of a lava flow. It made us wish that we had chose to do a tour that included the lift/tram to the summit because it was reported that it was clear at that altitude.
Once we descended Mt. Etna the tour headed to Taromina, a picture perfect old village on the cliffs overlooking the sea. Our tour then included a lovely Sicilian lunch with a spectacular view. After lunch, we walked to the coliseum/theater of Taromina and then had some shopping time in this awesome, ancient village.
Mykonos is beautiful with it's all white buildings, meandering narrow streets and lovely windmills. There are lots of places to shop and have a wonderful Greek lunch and just have fun getting lost in the maze of Mykonos Town. Our ship docked at the new port and offered free shuttle buses to the main town. We took a morning ship tour to the neighboring island of Delos to see the ruins. I highly recommend the ship tour for this as it leaves right from the cruise ship dock. The weather was forecasted to be windy and wet and the Celebrity Shore Excursion Team made arrangements for our tours to start early so that we could make the short ferry ride before the weather worsened. The Delos ruins were fascinating and our guide was very informative. The museum on the island houses some of the original items found when unearthing these ruins. Very interesting!
When you think of ancient Greece, you think of Athens! We toured with with a small group of 12 from our ship with Hellenic Private Tours and did their Full Day Athens and Sounion Tour. We were among the first off the ship that day and so glad for it. We arrived at the Acropolis at 8:00am when they first open. So, our tour group was among the first to enter for the day. I recommend getting there early ahead of the crowds. We toured here for 1.5 hours and then moved on to the Temple of Zeus, a stop at the Olympic Stadium and then a stop to watch the changing of the guards. The tour then continued on to Sounion. We stopped at a seaside Greek restaurant for lunch and then visited the Temple of Poseidon before returning to the ship. The one thing that this tour company didn't offer was a certified guide to enter the ruins with our group. Our guide was very informative but wasn't allowed to enter the ruins with our group. I would recommend that you find a company that has a certified guide, particularly for the Acropolis.
Santorini is Greece! The famous white cliffs of houses and blue domed churches are just as they appear in the photos. We toured with Santorini Unique Experiences Tours and did their 5-Hour Sightseeing Tour with a small group of 8 persons in a very spacious Mercedes Mini Bus. The tour included a visit to Oia to see the famous blue domes and then on to another beautiful, uncrowded village of Megalochori. The next stop was a winery, Estate Argyros, for a wine tasting. Then on to the beach community of Kamari for a stroll along their beach walk. This was a lovely black pebble beach with lots of restaurants and small hotels. We found that we would have rather spent more time at this beach and skipped the winery.
Santorini is a tendering port. We rode the cable car up to Fira. It cost 6 Euros each one way and takes about three minutes. There were no lines for the trip up and our ship was the only one visiting this day. On the other hand, the lines to return to the ship via the cable care were over an hour wait at 3pm. We decided to walk down the donkey trail which is a long, winding cobblestone staircase from Fira to the tender dock. It took us about 30 minutes and was better that standing in line and very scenic.
We took a private excursion of Rhodes with one other couple from the ship. It was called Full Day Tour of Rhodes and Lindos with Rhodes Taxi & Limos Rhodes Private Tours. We got to see the Acropolis of Rhodes and the incredible Acropolis of Lindos. We walked to the top at Lindos which is quite a hike, but worth the sights and view. Rhodes has many beautiful beach coves and our tour stopped a three of these. Lunch was seaside at the lovely Seafood Greek Restaurant. The end of the day was left for us to explore the old, walled city of Rhodes on our own.
Wow! What a fortress Malta is! Our guide best described it a being a "War Machine". It is beautiful with fortifications everywhere. We toured with our guide, Vincent, which was arranged through Amy's Private Tours of Malta and Gozo. Our group of 8 was met at the arranged time and headed out to our first stop, Mdina. The oldest walled city/fort on Malta. Our guide was extremely knowlegegeable and gave us a wonderful walking tour. The tour then headed back to Valletta to tour that walled capital and visit the St. John's Cathedral. What a sight that was. Not to be missed. At the end of our tour, our guide instructed us on how to walk back to the ship and left us to shop and explore on our own. It was easy to find our way back to the port taking the elevator from the gardens down to the sea level and then walking to the port entrance.
Disembarkation
Disembarkation was quick and easy. There are no customs to go through at the port. You simply pick up your luggage and walk to your transportation. We had prearranged our transfer with Sun Transers to the airport. Our driver was on time and holding an easy to spot sign with our name on it. It took about 25 minutes to reach the airport.