| IMO | 9404314 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 121,878 GT |
| Length | 317.2 m |
| Beam | 36.8 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 2852 |
| Service speed | 24.0 knots |
| Builder | Meyer Werft |
| Hull number | 677 |
| Launched | 2010 |
| Maiden voyage | 2010 |
| Class | Solstice-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Celebrity Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Celebrity Eclipse is a Solstice-class cruise ship operated by Celebrity Cruises, the premium brand of Royal Caribbean Group. Delivered by Meyer Werft of Papenburg, Germany, in April 2010, she was the third of the five Solstice-class ships — the class that redefined Celebrity's identity in the late 2000s with a half-acre of real grass on the top deck, a high proportion of balcony cabins, and an emphasis on design-led, adult-oriented public spaces rather than the water-slide resort formula of the mass-market lines.
She made headlines before she had carried a single paying passenger, when her pre-inaugural positioning voyage became a rescue sailing for travellers stranded by the Icelandic volcanic ash crisis. She has carried one name and one operator throughout her career.
Key specifications
The dataset records Celebrity Eclipse at 121,878 GT, 317.2 m long and 36.8 m in beam, with a maximum capacity of 2,852 passengers (her article's general characteristics give 2,850) and a speed of 24.0 knots. She has 17 decks. Power comes from four Wärtsilä 16V46 engines with a combined output of 67,200 kW, driving two ABB Azipod units, assisted by three Wärtsilä bow thrusters. Her reported build cost was about US$750 million. The Solstice class was designed for efficiency as well as comfort, with a photovoltaic installation, an optimised hull form, efficient hull coatings and LED lighting contributing to energy savings the builder put at around 30 per cent against comparable ships of the time.
Design and construction
Eclipse was ordered from Meyer Werft on 14 July 2006 and built at Papenburg as hull number 677. Her article gives conflicting keel-laying dates — 23 January 2009 in its infobox, 14 February 2007 in its text — but the later milestones are firm: she was floated out of the building dock on 28 February 2010 and delivered to Celebrity at Eemshaven on 15 April 2010.
Construction at Papenburg follows the yard's established pattern for large cruise ships: the vessel is assembled inside one of the world's largest covered building docks, floated out, and then conveyed down the River Ems to the North Sea for trials and delivery.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The ship was christened at Southampton on 24 April 2010 by her godmother, British ocean-racing yachtswoman Emma Pontin. Her maiden voyage followed on 29 April 2010 — the dataset records only the year. Her name fits the class's celestial naming scheme begun by Celebrity Solstice and Celebrity Equinox, and it is shared, coincidentally, with the unrelated Scenic Eclipse yachts that appeared later in the decade.
Career by operator
| Years | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2010–present | Celebrity Eclipse | Celebrity Cruises |
Her registry moved almost immediately: briefly Nassau, Bahamas, in 2010, then Valletta, Malta, from 2010 onward. Her career opened with an episode no maiden-season programme could have planned. With UK airspace closed by the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, the brand-new ship sailed from Southampton to Bilbao on 21 April 2010 and returned on 23 April carrying some 2,000–2,200 British tourists stranded in Spain, described by her owners as an act of goodwill — a working debut before her commercial one. Thereafter she settled into the class's established pattern of seasonal deployment between Europe and the Caribbean, and later wider deployment including Australia and the Pacific.
Onboard character
The Solstice class's signature is the Lawn Club: half an acre of real, living grass on the top deck, used for picnics, boules and croquet — on Eclipse, as on her two elder sisters, paired with the Hot Glass Show, a working glassblowing studio developed with the Corning Museum of Glass, a feature the later sisters did not receive. Below that headline, the class character is consistent: around 85 per cent of staterooms with private balconies, spa-oriented AquaClass cabins, a glass-enclosed adults-only Solarium, panoramic glass lifts in the Grand Foyer, and a collection of speciality restaurants that made dining, rather than rides, the ship's headline entertainment.
Major refits and incidents
In October 2012 the Channel 4 documentary series Dispatches broadcast undercover allegations of poor working conditions aboard Eclipse, including long periods without rest days; Celebrity denied the allegations, and the episode remains the ship's most prominent non-operational controversy. Her COVID-19 experience came in March 2020: passengers disembarked at San Diego on 30 March after her final sailing of the season, cases were confirmed among passengers and crew despite initial denials, and deaths were reported among former passengers in the United States and Australia in the following weeks. The ship then lay at anchor off San Diego under a no-sail order, with several hundred crew still aboard into May 2020. She returned to service in the industry's phased restart, resuming cruising in April 2022.
Sister ships and class
The Solstice class comprises five Meyer Werft ships: Celebrity Solstice (2008), Celebrity Equinox (2009), Celebrity Eclipse (2010), Celebrity Silhouette (2011) and Celebrity Reflection (2012). The last two are slightly enlarged developments of the first three's design. All five remain Celebrity ships.
Fate and where she is now
Celebrity Eclipse remains in active service with Celebrity Cruises under her original name, a mid-life member of the class that set the template for the brand's modern fleet.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Eclipse