Moonlight Sonata restaurant

Last week, I joined Celebrity Cruises in Southampton for a two-night Taste of Modern Luxury sailing to Paris onboard the recently refurbished Celebrity Eclipse.

I first experienced Celebrity Cruises with a 7-night Eastern Caribbean Getaway onboard the Celebrity Reflection late last year and was excited to see how the two ships would compare. As well as a fresh new look, the Eclipse has a number of new features and partnerships.

The Room

My mum accompanied me as my cruise companion and we were assigned to a lovely Ocean View Balcony Room on deck seven. The spacious, brand new room was designed in a similar style to the Reflection and was the perfect base for our two-night onboard adventure.

Sail Away Drinks

We watched the ship sail away from Southampton over drinks in the Sky Observation Lounge with panoramic, floor to ceiling views of the port. Late afternoon was spent exploring the ship’s new features such as the Slush poolside bar and the new Gastrobar, offering over 40 craft beers.

World Class Bar

Our evening began with an exclusive media cocktail party at the world’s first permanent World Class Bar. Launched in partnership with leading drinks group Diageo, the bar is an extension of the prestigious competition that annually names a bartender the best in the world.

Mixologists from around the world are rigorously put through their paces with a number of challenges, including creating new cocktails that are set to impress.

Spike Marchant, pioneer of the World Class competition, demonstrated some cool cocktail tricks such as how to make a smoking drink. Diageo ambassadors introduced some of the premium spirit brands that are used at the bar and best of all, we had the chance to sample some of the cocktails on the menu, served in cute mini martini glasses.

Our favourite cocktail was the refreshing Celebrity No. Ten made with Tanqueray No. TEN, raspberries and crème de violette. World Class Bar is currently debuting on the Celebrity Eclipse but will soon be followed by bars onboard the remaining four Solstice Class ships.

Dinner in the Moonlight Sonata Restaurant

The boozy event was followed by dinner in the Moonlight Sonata Restaurant – the ship’s elegant main dining room. We enjoyed an international four-course menu of Thai Beef Spring Roll with Ginger Glass Noodle Salad, Baked Onion Soup, Grilled Pork Chop with Marshmallow Sweet Potatoes and String Beans and Apple Pie à la Mode.

Menu Tasting in Luminae

The next morning, our foodie adventure started with a delicious breakfast of banana and blueberry pancakes and Eggs Benedict in the Ocean View Cafe. This was followed by a late-morning menu tasting in new Suite Class restaurant Luminae.

The bright, shimmering restaurant is the epitome of modern luxury with stylish interiors and a bespoke menu.

The chefs source market-fresh ingredients for the daily-changing menu, so they can cook with the best that the destination has to offer.

We started with a glass of Champagne and were served a tasting plate of beautifully-cooked Poached Lobster with pineapple and radish, Iberico Ham Croquette, Steak Tartare and Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Iberico ham, sourdough croutons, black trompette mushrooms and mascarpone.

We were also treated to petite handcrafted desserts including a Layered Chocolate Mousse, Blackcurrant Marshmallow, Nougat and Chocolate Truffle. Lucky Suite guests can then round off their meal with a few sweet bites from the exquisite sweet trolley.

Wine Tasting with Oz Clarke

As if that wasn’t indulgent enough for midday, we continued with a special wine tasting with wine expert Oz Clarke in the Moonlight Sonata Restaurant. I thought I knew which wines I like and the ones to avoid, but Oz completely changed my perceptions.

Oz took us through the fascinating history of wine, from New Zealand to the rugged coasts of California, ending in Shiraz in ancient Persia, where wine-producing dates back almost 7000 years.

We sampled two delicious, top notch white wines including Wairau River Sauvignon from New Zealand and St. Francis Chardonnay from the US – all paired with suitable cheeses. Then it was on to the reds – Montgras Carménère Reserva from Chile and Ross Estate Lights Out Shiraz from Australia.

Oz also dispelled a few wine myths – apparently cheese isn’t really a heavenly match for wine, as the cheese takes away the tanin and makes it harder to detect flaws in a wine.

He really made us laugh when musing on why Chardonnay has been hijacked by Bridget Jones and the Footballers’ Wives character who managed to set fire to her own breasts. While Chardonnay has fallen out of fashion, Oz told us that in fact, the seemingly more refined Chablis is in fact made from Chardonnay grapes.

Cookery Demonstration with Chef Robert Thompson

After my favourite cruising lunch of Chicken Caesar Salad followed by a selection of cakes, we headed to the Eclipse Theatre for a Great British Chefs event – a cookery demonstration by Robert Thompson, one of the youngest chefs in the UK to receive a Michelin star. He whipped up a tempting pasta dish and talked about the imminent opening of his first Isle of Wight restaurant, Thompson’s.

A Travel Talk with Ben Fogle

One of the highlights of the sailing for me was hearing Ben Fogle talk about adventure travel. His stories were simply captivating and had everyone on the edge of their seats as he talked about competing in the Atlantic Rowing Race with James Cracknell, the perils of swimming with crocodiles and running the six-day Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert.

Dinner at Tuscan Grille

That evening, I joined the other Celebrity Cruises Destination Bloggers – Suzanne of The Travelbunny and Lucy of On The Luce – in Tuscan Grille for a four-course dinner prepared by Adam Simmonds, winner of Great British Chef Menu 2014.

I’d already sampled Adam Simmonds’ cooking at the opening of his Kensington restaurant Pavilion, so I knew we were in for a real treat.

Tuscan Grille is the perfect sailing away restaurant with its location at the back of the ship and panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows. We started with a light and tasty Pan-Fried Breast of Quail with confit leg, broad beans, asparagus, Spring truffle and crispy sourdough.

This was followed by a flavoursome Flame Grilled Mackerel with English wasabi, compressed cucumber, avocado and ponzu. The main course of succulent Roasted Loin of Lamb with belly, goats curd and onion ash was a real crowd-pleaser on our table, so much so that we fell into momentary silence to really enjoy it.

Dessert was a refreshing Dark Chocolate Delice with peppermint granita and peppermint gel. The dark chocolate mousse was velvety and not overly sweet and I loved the intense yet natural flavour of the peppermint.

With our newly-acquired wine knowledge, we appreciated the wines paired with each course – Pouilly Fussie, Riesling, Côtes du Rhône and Douro Port (Oz Clarke would certainly approve).

Ovations at the Eclipse Theatre

After dinner, we headed over to the Eclipse Theatre to see the Ovations show with live performances of musical numbers by Andrew Lloyd-Webber. The night ended with drinks at the lively Martini Bar and we took a couple of mini pastel iced eclairs and choux from the pretty Marie-Antoinette-inspired dessert counter in the Ocean View Cafe to graze on in bed.

With some much happening onboard, we didn’t quite have time to get off the ship and explore Le Havre. However, if you want a full day of sightseeing in the City of Lights, there are a number of shore excursions to Paris.

We managed to pack a lot into our short time onboard the Celebrity Eclipse and were really impressed with the ship’s new features, particularly the World Class Bar and Luminae.

If you’re sailing on the Eclipse this summer, look out for eco-awareness centre Team Earth on deck seven, where you can view shortlisted and winning entries to the World Photography Organisation’s Global Encounters Stories, in partnership with Celebrity Cruises.

Chérie City was a guest of Celebrity Cruises

Photos by Chérie City (Luminae and Tuscan Grille by Celebrity Cruises)

For more Celebrity Cruises travel inspiration, read my reviews of:

Celebrity Eclipse: A Taste of Modern Luxury