81Zoomie

We were in the aft/corner MC SS on Edge (10176) for 21 days. Very quiet in calm seas. Average in moderate seas. In rough seas, with wind blowing directly toward the cabin it was a creaking, clicking, noisy mess. We had at least 4 bad sleep nights. The greasing of the slider helped a bit, but the popping noises did not cease. We sailed in a same location on deck 8 on Apex in the Caribbean with zero noise issues.

Not quite home yet, but back to reality 😁. Economy class it is! Holding our precious new grand for the first time 💙!

The flight from HNL to LAX was only 4.5 hours. Easy peasy! OK, so reality was postponed for a few hours😊. The wine and nuts were so good, as was dinner. I had the pumpkin and cauliflower. DH had the ribs. Both were surprisingly good. Loved the taro rolls 😋 When we arrived at LAX the workers were shutting down the gate area. At one point an automatic shutter closed off the corridor we were exiting through 😳. Our bags came quickly❤️👍❤️👍. Then it was somewhat like rats 🐀🐀 in a maze finding the exit and the shuttles. Our heads hit the pillow at 2:30am. We finally made it to Apr 15!!! It took 27 hours from hotel checkout in Sydney to checkin in LA. Today feels a bit like Groundhog Day 🤪. It’s 9:30 am and we are back at the airport for our flight to SLC. I think it’s Monday 😂😂😂. Admittedly , I am tired 😴😣 and a little cranky after less than 5 hours of sleep. LAX and Drlta have digital ID. It’s awesome 👏 👍👏. TSA takes your pic 📷, and through you go. No ID or boarding pass required! Our pampering is over as we will be back in the cheap seats 💺💺. I’m hoping to be asleep before we take off 🛫!

We thought the ability to stretch our legs in HNL would be a good thing. Hindsight being 20/20, maybe the long skyhook flight from SYD to LAX isn’t such a bad thing. Our inbound aircraft has gone around twice 🛫🛫. Thankfully, it is finally on the ground! Our departure is delayed again 🕰️. Arrival in LAX now projected at 1:20 am 🤪. I suppose it’s good that our body clocks ⏰ are in a confused state 🤔🤔. Analyzing the times, we expect to have about 7 hours at the hotel before we have to leave for the airport again 🛄🛫🛄. We may be napping as much as our new grandson when we finally get there 💤👶💤. 20 hours in compression socks 🧦 is not doable for me. Off with the tight socks and on with my tropical travel socks 🌺🌺. They make me happy 😁. Plenty of time to get all charged up for the flight. There is a USB port in the A330 business class. No wifi though 😢. A cocktail🍹and macadamia nuts 🌰🌰 once we board are sounding better and better….

🎶…does anyone really know what day it is?…🎶. After a 10 hour flight we arrived in Honolulu earlier than we took off in Sydney! April 14 will be about 37 hours for us 🕚🕐🕥🕣. Our flight from Sydney on Hawaiian 🌺 was lovely. DH was nearly asleep before takeoff. And, he actually slept 😳😳😳. Shocker as he never sleeps on planes except for a few cat naps. So glad we sprung for the lay flats. It cost about as much as the 12 night cruise, but I slept about 7 hours 😴😴😴. So the early dinner and skipping the first airline meal was a good strategy this time! Our breakfast was actually pretty good. We had the French toast. We were very happy with our on time arrival and the service on this flight. However… my contentment took a detour after that. We walked for a mile after getting off the jet to get to immigration. Immigration, however, was an exception at HNL. It was quick and easy with facial recognition 👍👍👍. Baggage… we waited and waited for our 4 bags. All tagged priority and we checked in very early at Sydney. Our final bags were among the last off the carousel 🧳🧳🧳🧳. “Aloha, recheck your bags at the transit counter.” This is normal protocol for flights back to the US. In a FAIL 👎😠👎 for Hawaiian, we were greeted at the transit bagger counter with, “It is closed. Take your bags to Terminal 1.” 😖. “Why?” I ask nicely. “It closes everyday about this time.” 😳😱😳😱 Well, if you like the kabuki luggage transfer dance at JFK, you would be right at home in HNL on Hawaiian. So, out we trekked in the rain 💦 to walk to terminal 1. 🧳🧳🚶🏼‍♀️‍➡️🚶🏼‍♂️‍➡️🧳🧳. I am not certain how this would go if you are mobility impaired. We saw no porters, wheel chairs, or transport vehicles. We finally located a mainland baggage check line we then had the pleasure of waiting in. Off to TSA where there was one agent to process everyone 🫣. My daughter used to live in HI, and I know some things don’t work as smoothly here as on the mainland. This transit through HNL was tedious for us, but I kept wondering about the first impressions foreign visitors might have of the U.S 🇺🇸. Off to our gate. On a positive note, the new domestic portion of the terminal 2 is very nice, big, open, and airy 🥰. It is a huge improvement over the older spaces! It’s a good think we have room to spread out because our flight to LAX is delayed by ~2.5 hours. 🕰️ This is due to the cascading affect of weather and air traffic delays on the east coast. Our aircraft is arriving from JFK has not landed yet. While we slept well for an airplane, I am a little foggy. I did walk into the men’s room instead of the ladies 😳🤪😳. And, I walked right by my go to Dunkin and missed it. Off to Starbucks for an $8 coffee. I’ve been so conditioned about the .6 A$, it took a while to sink in it was an $8 USD coffee ☕️. We are comfy in an empty gate watching the rain ☔️. Our devices are all finally on the correct day and time. The late departure from HNL will insure we get to experience all 37 hours of Apr 14!!! Dinner will be on the plane. It will be our second day of two meals 🍱🍱 😂😂. Calorie reduction in progress!! We will watch the calendar flip to Apr 15 as we expect to arrive at LAX on Apr 15 at 1am 💤🥱💤.

I suspect it a combination of amount of $ played and time playing, but that is a guess on my part. The Blue Chip experts will have to weigh in.

Thanks so much for your review. We certainly enjoy following your travels and experiences. Glad you got home safely!

We had dinner on The Rocks at Caminetto. Our vegetarian pizza, seafood pasta, and Aussie Shiraz wine were ideal for dinner. Yes, we skipped lunch 🤣. Reality is setting in. Dinner with no dessert 😱. As luck would have it, we had a view of Edge from our table. Our day room worked out very well. We were able to shower and change after dinner. Then it was a quick Uber ride to the International Airport. As I am washing my hands in the ladies restroom, a lady approached me saying, “Oh my God, I don’t believe it.” It was our assistant waiter whose contract ended today. It was such a surprise to see her! If you are lucky enough to be served by Alina in the future you will be in for a treat! We are waiting for our aircraft ✈️ to arrive. It’s funny crossing the dateline 📅. It’s 8 pm in Sydney and we will arrive at 11pm in LAX on the same day after flying for 14ish hours! On Monday we will travel on to Utah. I hope to have some final thought and a recap sometime this week! For starters… we certainly had a wonderful vacation ❤️👍❤️👍❤️.

Before I forget…. I did spend some time in the Casino last night 🎰🎰🎰. The game @Jim_Iain wrote about looked interesting and I gave it (or one similiar) a few pulls. I didn’t have the same luck as he did and was down a little. It was entertaining 😉! When cashing out I noticed new casino offers and thought some of you might be interested. Sorry they are a bit fuzzy. They were on one of the rotating screens at the cashier. No rewards for me, but others might get lucky 🍀🍀🍀. The instant cruise rewards began a couple of weeks ago.

I never sleep well the night before disembarking. We were up early as well. Being on the starboard side we were adjacent to the pier. The beep beep beep of the forklifts backing up and the banging of the luggage bins were a natural alarm clock. We had our last breakfast in Laminae. No pics, but we each savored one last frosted caramel croissant 🥐. These are just sooo good 👍👍👍. We picked up our last few items and waited near Cafe Al Bacio until it was after 8. Our luggage was waiting and we called an Uber XL. We have a day room at the Rydges in the CBD. It’s not the Ritz, but perfectly suited for our needs. Our flight out isn’t till almost 10 pm tonight 🙄. We decided naps are not an option, so we walked down to Circular Quay. The ANZAC Memorial was quite moving and very well done. Then we walked through Hyde Park to the Botanical Gardens. We ended up at the Opera House and spent some time sitting on the steps and exploring the architecture. We couldn’t miss the bridge, and of course Edge! It is a stunning day in Sydney and lots of people are out and about! We walked through the market at The Rocks. It was quite lively as well. We walked over 6 miles, so we didn’t feel bad about taking the train back to the hotel! Our plan is to eat “dinner” about 4 pm to try and begin to get our body clocks in the change mode. If all goes well, we hope to be tired on the way to HNL. We don’t get to LAX until 11 pm 😬🥱😴.

We opted for a final cruise cocktail in the Retreat lounge. It was quite busy up there! Will Martin was making the rounds and chatting with guests. I highly recommend the spicy Margarita if you want to add a bit of kick to your drink 🌶️! Then it was time for our final Luminae dinner for the foreseeable future. DH had the tuna tartare and linguine vongole 🦪🦪. I had the pear and radicchio salad and the mushroom cafreal. All were tasty. My favorite was the salad 🥗. It is a must try. The blend of flavors was very tasty! I have to say, we are quite “fooded” out at this point. If we were continuing on, we would probably decrease to 2 meals a day or one course at each meal. Same for the alcohol. We will definitely be practicing moderation when we go home! We didn’t need any menus for dessert. Who could resist the chocolate sphere??? 😍😍😋😋😍😍🔥🔥🔥 We will be off the ship 🛳️ in the morning. I will add a few more details and recap as time allows. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day as we make our way back to the west coast of the US. We wish all those going home safe travels ✈️🚂🚙! Normally we would be a bit sad at this point. Walking of the ship is never as joyful as boarding. However, we have a brand new grand baby 👶 we can’t wait to meet and hold! So while our cruise is ending, we have something very exciting to look forward to 💙!’’ IMG_7393.mov

Packing goes a lot smoother with a cocktail on hand 🥃👍😎. We are both done except for the few final dinner and gym clothes. I hope we are under 50 lbs! I brought an extra backpack for our family gifts. HAL actually places step on scales in the elevator foyers on each deck the last day. It is a really nice gesture, I wish X would pick up on this best practice. It takes the guess work out of packing and helps avoid hassles at the airport. I laid out clothes for the morning. I do this very carefully. As I said before, my Dad once packed his pants and had to wear a pair of my Mom’s off the boat 😂😳😂. We booked a dayroom at a hotel for tomorrow, so we can shower and change before our late night flight. We can also rearrange and swap between suitcases 🧳🧳🧳🧳 if needed. With packing behind us we enjoyed a nice lunch in Luminae. DH had the burger and I had the flatbread. Both were just the right size and tasted great. DH then selected the chocolate lava cake for dessert. As usual, I held out for ice cream at the OV. The line was really long, but it was worth it! Coconut sorbet and guava lime frozen yougart drizzled with chocolate sauce! It was soooo good 😍😍😍😋. We enjoyed watching the passengers versus officers volleyball game. It’s a bit windy and there is a hint of chill. There were more people watching with clothes 👚👕🧢 rather than bathing suits 👙🩱👙on. Everyone who was wet ran pretty quickly for the towels!

Safe travels to HI! I know some are staying on until Vancouver. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on so many sea days and time changes 😀

Day 9 - At Sea - Tasman Sea Well, they saved the best for last on our final day #21. Wow, it’s a beauty! We had a light breakfast at the CC buffet in Tuscan. I have an interesting coffee observation. For me, the Cafe Mocha in Tuscan is the best! It is not overpowered by STRONG coffee like in Luminae. So, depending on your tastes, you can find what suites your liking! We decided to divide and conquer this morning. Each of us would pack in solitude. 🧳🧳🧳🧳 It’s much easier since the cabin is not that large. And, the closet arrangement in the MC SS’s is strictly one person at a time. We have 2 more stops before we get home, so it’s not as easy as throwing everything into the suitcases 🛍️🎒👝 and sorting it out later. We have all day in Sydney 🦘 tomorrow, followed by 14 hours of flying 🫣. We RON at LAX. On Monday we are off to Utah for a bit. Then, finally back to home 🏠🌴🏠😎. I came up to the retreat to grab one of my favorite caramel filled frosted croissants. They have become my new favorites ❤️❤️. The sundeck is lovely this morning. It has a little breeze, bright sun, and cool temps. I have not seen anyone in swimsuits up here, yet! All the same, my favorite pose ❤️❤️ Hopefully DH will be finished packing soon. I would like to be finished packing before lunch so that the pressure is off. Perhaps I will swing by the Retreat bar before I head downstairs. A little libation may make packing a somewhat easier 🍹. After all, I am still on vacation 😀😎😀

Tonight was a causal dinner for us. We had had a long day. No table by the water tonight, but we had our usual waiter who has been great!👍👍👍. DH ordered the salmon appetizer and I had the asparagus. We were chatting with our Kiwi neighbors, so I didn’t grab a pic. None of the entrees grabbed our attention, so we both ordered filets with vegetables.🥕🥦🫛 The amuse bouche was a crab ball. It must have had soy, so I received raspberries. The streaks were very good and we were happy to have veggies! DH commented it was one of the smallest baked potatoes he has ever seen 😅 We had already sampled most of the dessert menu, so went with our go to crème brûlée ❤️❤️. We had already seen the magician, so we zeroed in on the casino. The daily said there was a Couples Slot Tournament at 8pm and it was 8:15. We wandered into the casino and it was not open. There were a couple of dealers and we asked when it would open. The answer,10:30 or 11 ish. Really??? 😣😢😣. There was no change in our itinerary and we sailed on time. Just an observation, but it appears they just repeat the agenda, update the shows and all aboard times, but don’t change anything else to reflect weather conditions or local regulations. It has been a bit frustrating at times. We popped up to the Retreat where the silent disco was in full swing, but it was poorly attended. While we were there we picked up our previous cruise card. As @Norwaylady reported, this can be a bit like a scavenger hunt. We were on attempt #4 to get our card back. Yea, success… we got the cards 👏👏. When we got back to our room we noticed the Retreat just made us new cards because I do was wither missing or wrong. At least we have something with the correct dates to put on our circle of old cruise cards 💳🛳️💳🛳️. I know this may sound trivial to some, but for us it’s a souvenir that is easily packed 😁🧳😁.