Celebrity Cruises Celebrity Eclipse

In-Room Dining Overview

Room service was available 24 hours a day—almost. The breakfast menu can be delivered between 6:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., by hanging a check-off ticket outside the cabin the night before. The regular menu, inside the room directory, is offered between 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. All meals can be ordered by phone or by using an interactive system on the TV monitor.

Compared to the selection on some ships, the room service menu was not extensive on Celebrity Eclipse, thought the breakfast menu covered the conventional turf well.

Presentation

Meals are brought on a wide plastic tray, covered with metal lids or plastic wrap. The plates are oversized (up to 12½-inch), which means a full meal (soup or salad plus entrée plus dessert, all on separate plates) doesn’t fit on the tray or the coffee table. Salt and pepper came in paper packets.

Food

For breakfast, there were seven choices of juice, and hot beverages included five types of tea plus hot chocolate. Fruits included a fruit plate, half grapefruit, seasonal melon and whole banana. Also available were cold and hot cereals, omelets, French toast and pancakes, and sides of meat and hash browns.

We ordered breakfast one morning using the TV monitor. A call came from the kitchen 14 minutes after ordering to say our breakfast was on the way; and 4 minutes later the cabin steward knocked on the door—18 minutes from order to delivery. The eggs over easy were fine, with nice runny yolks; there was a surfeit of bacon. The English muffin was warm but not toasted, as we prefer, accompanied by packaged butter and marmalade. But the coffee, served in a small metal pitcher, was weak and undrinkable. There were no additional garnishments on the tray.

We ordered lunch by phoning Room Service. After taking the order, the attendant said our order would be delivered within the next 35 minutes—it actually arrived just 16 minutes later. This lunch was just fine with one exception: The chicken noodle soup arrived lukewarm (despite a plastic wrap cover) and the noodles turned out to be full-length spaghetti noodles—farcical when tackled with a soup spoon. Otherwise, the grilled salmon was tasty, and came with a side of caper vinaigrette, a large portion of white rice plus a side of grilled vegetables drenched in basil olive oil. Dessert of warm apple pie was satisfying.

Drinks

Our room had a small fridge stocked with various drinks. Hard liquors included 50 ml “nip” bottles of gin, vodka, bourbon, rum and scotch ($6 each), Remy Martin VSOP ($8.50), splits of white and red wine ($15), beer and water. There was one can each of Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Ginger Ale, Club Soda and Tonic Water, all $2. A 1-liter bottle of Evian water was $4.50.

A small selection of beer and wine was available by the glass through room service.