2016-09-04

Thinking of booking a late fall cruise. Considering Eclipse 14-night Caribbean or Anthem of the Seas 12-night Caribbean - admittedly, two entirely different cruise experiences. The advantage of Anthem is the convenience of leaving from Cape Liberty and avoiding the hassle of flying. The advantage of Eclipse is 14 vs. 12 nights, Celebrity is our favorite cruise line and we love the S-class ships. Comparing apples to apples and factoring in OBC, tips and all other expenses including airfare, hotel, and purchasing a 5-night specialty restaurant package on either ship, 14 nights on Eclipse in an ocean view cabin comes in about $1600 more than 12 nights on Anthem in a balcony guarantee cabin. This will be our 53 cruise, 37 on Celebrity, 5 on RCCL. Most of our RCCL cruises were many years ago but we sailed on Allure of the Seas when it first came out and enjoyed more than we had anticipated. It was, however, was very different from X - not better or worse, just different which is fine. Other than the specialty dining package we bought (restaurants were excellent), we found food in the main dining room to be fair at best and food in the Windjammer to be nondescript. We were leaning toward booking on Anthem but some serious negative reviews and posts leave us skittish - and that's taking into consideration being a Cruise Critic member for more years than I care to count and knowing to discount both the best and the worst of posts about any cruise. Any advice you can offer will be much appreciated. Thanks.

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