Off-topic (yes, again!): Scenic Eclipse tour

[ChuckElias]

The brand new Scenic Eclipse is an expedition mega yacht designed for arctic itineraries. I got to tour it yesterday in Boston. Here are a few pictures. If you'd like to see the full album (130 pictures or so, including 3 suite categories), just let me know and I'll send you the link.

This is an indoor/outdoor casual dining venue. It's hard to see in this picture, but there's also a small pool in here (next to the blue-cushioned lounge chairs. The window at the far end, above the pool, can be lowered to make it an open-air venue.

The Eclipse carries two -- not one, but TWO -- helicopters and a submarine for expedition excursions. Everything on the ship is included in the cruise fare except the helicopter, the submarine, and spa treatments.

This is part of the seating area in the French-cuisine restaurant, Lumiere. (How dare they!?!?!?!) There's a window at one end of the restaurant that allows you to look into the galley to see your meal being prepared.

This is where cooking classes are held. If you can't attend in person, the classes are broadcast to the staterooms.

Teppanyaki-style dining.

Main theater with individual leather seats that swivel. The seats on the bottom level also recline.

 

[Surfin' Tuna]

What were your overall impressions of the vessel? From the pictures the restaurant seating seemed a bit underwhelming, but it's hard to see much else except maybe dollar signs.

 

[ChuckElias]

What were your overall impressions of the vessel? From the pictures the restaurant seating seemed a bit underwhelming, but it's hard to see much else except maybe dollar signs.

I'm sorry to be slow on the uptake, but I'm not quite sure you mean by that. Do you mean that you're not crazy about the design, or. . . that there just wasn't very much seating?

If it's the design, I'm not much of an expert. I can tell you that much of the ship has a yin/yang feel. All the Men's public restrooms have black doors, all the Women's restrooms have tan doors. Half the ship has black carpeting (when's the last time you saw BLACK CARPET on a cruise ship?) and the other half has tan carpeting. You can also see it in the tile work of Lumiere -- black and tan.

If you mean that there's not a lot of seating, that's because the ship only holds 226 passengers. And on arctic expeditions, that's reduced to 200.

My overall impression was that I was very impressed with what I saw. My tour was very rushed, only about 50 minutes. But the staterooms are fantastic (all suites with balconies), the restaurants looked very nice with a nice variety, and of course the helicopters and the submarine were amazing. They didn't feed us, so unfortunately, I can't comment on the food. The captain did speak to us and gave us some really interesting techie information.

It's an expensive proposition, but not as expensive as I thought. They have some 9-night sailings next year for $7800 pp. That's obviously a lot, but honestly doesn't seem outrageous to me for the type of experience that you expect to get. And that's probably the cheapest sailing of the whole year. So I personally wouldn't spend time looking for bargains from Scenic

 

[Surfin' Tuna]

That price doesn't seem bad at all for that type of voyage.

The chairs just seemed rather plain and uncomfortable looking for dinner chairs to me.