Live from the Eclipse, Apr 19 - May 21, Sydney to Honolulu to Vancouver B3B in an Aqua Cabin

[Ken the cruiser]

We booked this cruise onboard back in Jan 2021 as a “place holder” B2B cruise. But as time went on, we found we really liked the itinerary, so here we are. We later added a short "Cruise to Nowhere" preceding the B2B to act as a "floating hotel" option. So in a worst-case scenario if our flight to Sydney gets delayed and miss the 3-night cruise, we’ll just stay in a Sydney hotel until the transpacific leg departs a few days later.

 

 

Here are the itineraries for the 3 legs:

 

3-night "Cruise to Nowhere" RT Sydney

 

  

18-night Transpacific from Sydney to Honolulu

 

 

12-night Transpacific from Honolulu to Vancouver

 

 

My plan with this Live From thread is to share some of our experiences on our 33-day cruise, with one exception. As with my other Live From threads, I have no plans to post pictures of food. Sorry. But if you would enjoy seeing photos taken on the ship as well as those of the wildlife and scenery we will be seeing along the way, please come along and I'll try my best. Of course, if you have any questions about the cruise or the ship, please feel free to ask and I'll try my best to find the answer.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

As far as any lingering COVID rules go, it looks like we will still have to deal with them, both when we initially board the ship as well as on transition day before leaving on the 18-night transpacific leg.

 

All guests ages 2 and older will be asked to present proof of a negative test result. Test results may be presented as a printout, screenshot, or photo of the test result or the actual test. For guests traveling internationally and selecting the RAT testing option, we strongly recommend purchasing a test kit in your home country and traveling with it in order to meet the one-day prior-to-boarding testing requirement. 

 

Australia New Zealand Travel Requirements (celebritycruises.com)

 

The same holds true right now for those boarding the transpacific cruise on April 22, with one exception. They have a "2-day" prior to boarding testing requirement. But on the bright side, those staying on the Honolulu to Vancouver leg, they right now are only requiring proof of vaccination, which is no big deal as it was also required when we all originally boarded in Sydney.

 

Transatlantic Travel Requirements (celebritycruises.com)

  

Our "Antigen Testing" Plan for our April 19 embarkation: The way we understand this "1-day" timing issue is that if we take the pre-cruise antigen test any time on April 18 (Sydney time), the tests should be valid. Therefore, since our flight is scheduled to leave Alabama on April 17 at 15:44 pm (local time), or more precisely April 18 at 6:44 am (Sydney time), we can take the test any time up to 6 hours before our flight leaves and should be valid for boarding the Eclipse on April 19. We will of course change our iPhones to Sydney time before taking pictures of the results to verify the time. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Here is a list of the Celebrity excursions we will be going on, except for Victoria where we will be on a private excursion with family. On the day prior to each excursion, I will be posting more details to give a better understanding of what we will hopefully encounter.

 

 

 

 

 

[phabric]

I have interested reading your other reviews.

 

I will be following along on your Celebrity cruises.

[vegas4ever]

Happy to follow again. Been on the Jade B2B with you and looking at your signature, it seems we'll sail on the Dawn together again.

[Ken the cruiser]

56 minutes ago, vegas4ever said:

Happy to follow again. Been on the Jade B2B with you and looking at your signature, it seems we'll sail on the Dawn together again.

Cool. However, our next NCL cruise won't be until Oct 2024 when we'll be on the Getaway for 30 days cruising around the eastern Mediterranean to include going to the Egyptian pyramids. 

[ACaparzo]

Hi Ken! I’ll be with you in on the Sydney to Honolulu stretch. Also in Aqua so I’ll see you in Blu! This is a long-awaited (and hard-earned) sabbatical trip for me so I’m greatly looking forward to it. 

[vegas4ever]

44 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Cool. However, our next NCL cruise won't be until Oct 2024 when we'll be on the Getaway for 30 days cruising around the eastern Mediterranean to include going to the Egyptian pyramids. 

Oh..ok. It says Africa/Med.. though it's the 21days Capetown to Barcelona. Been on the Getaway twice, one of our favorite ships even though it's larger than the Jade. 

Enjoy the Eclipse!

[dlh015]

I'll be following this closely, Ken. I'll be doing this itinerary April next year only ending in San Francisco.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

40 minutes ago, vegas4ever said:

Oh..ok. It says Africa/Med.. though it's the 21days Capetown to Barcelona. Been on the Getaway twice, one of our favorite ships even though it's larger than the Jade. 

Enjoy the Eclipse!

No problem. Here's the link to our first leg which goes to both Alexandria and Port Said, Egypt, which will allow us to go see the pyramids as well as see other sites near Cairo! On our Jade cruise, our stop at Luxor definitely got us excited about seeing ancient Egyptian sites and cruising down the Nile. So, when we found this itinerary followed by going from Istanbul to Venice to see ancient Greek and Turkish sites, it was just too good to pass up, especially when we could book a Club Balcony cabin for such a reasonable price. We also liked that it was on the Getaway, a much larger ship with more fun things to do. 😃

 

9-day Cruise to Mediterranean: Greece, Turkey & Egypt from Athens (Piraeus), Greece on Norwegian Getaway (ncl.com)

 

[Ken the cruiser]

3 hours ago, vegas4ever said:

Happy to follow again. Been on the Jade B2B with you and looking at your signature, it seems we'll sail on the Dawn together again.

BTW we were on the Dawn for the first time in late January for an 11-day Caribbean cruise. I've got to say being on that "older" class of ship after being on the Jade, a Jewel-class ship, for 38-days, we were not impressed. There's nothing wrong with it, so to speak. We were just totally wowed by the Jade, which is about the same size with a similar feel, but with a better design, to include adding Spinnakers up top, moving the retail stores to the back of the ship, and moving the Bliss Lounge to a more central location (where the shops used to be).

 

We're hoping one day a Jewel-class ship will replace the Star with regards to its Longyearbyen itineraries. If and when that ever happens, we will definitely be booking that cruise! 😃

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Norwaylady]

🙌🏻🥰🙌🏻😎🙌🏻⚓️🙌🏻

Ready to take a seat and enjoy the trip❤️

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, Norwaylady said:

🙌🏻🥰🙌🏻😎🙌🏻⚓️🙌🏻

Ready to take a seat and enjoy the trip❤️

It looks like you two are having a great time and staying warm on your Caribbean cruise on the Silhouette! 😃

[Norwaylady]

10 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

It looks like you two are having a great time and staying warm on your Caribbean cruise on the Silhouette! 😃

The weather has really cooperated on Silhouette. 
Miami greeted us by drizzle in the morning and we just had a really good shower☔️☔️☔️

but it’s still shorts wear for our temperature😂😂🙌🏻😎 

 

[vickykay]

Looking forward to another review.  We’re on the Honolulu to Vancouver leg and hopefully will meet up.  Enjoy Sydney.  We loved it!

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, vickykay said:

Looking forward to another review.  We’re on the Honolulu to Vancouver leg and hopefully will meet up.  Enjoy Sydney.  We loved it!

Thanks! On transition day between the first and second leg, we have booked a tour of the Sydney Opera House. Luckily, the Eclipse should be docked directly across from it! Hopefully it will be a pretty day for a walk over there and back. 😁

 

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

Wow!  What an awesome itinerary. I’m not sure I’d know how to act on a 33 night cruise but I’m prepared to follow along and find out!

[DaKahuna]

@Ken the cruiser Looking forward to following along on your journey. 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Wow!  What an awesome itinerary. I’m not sure I’d know how to act on a 33 night cruise but I’m prepared to follow along and find out!

We used to like a lot of port days when we first started cruising over 10 years ago, with most of our cruises averaging 1-2 weeks. Then we took our first 3 week cruise about 5 years ago and discovered a whole different experience along with a new set of itineraries offered by various cruise lines that we never even considered before.

 

Now, we enjoy 3-5 week cruises with a unique itinerary to areas where there is a lot of wildlife, beautiful scenery, and/or ancient ruins AND with plenty of “fun and entertaining” sea days scattered throughout the cruise! 😀

 

As far as finding entertaining things to do on sea days, that’s where picking the right cruise line comes into play. For us, we like going to lectures to learn about stuff, playing trivia to remind us about things we have all but forgotten about, go to evening shows to be entertained, and during the downtimes sit out on a covered balcony to play on our computers and watch the world go by while all along looking for whatever wildlife or weather-related scenery there is to see. On this cruise while we’re crossing the Pacific maybe we’ll even see the elusive Green Flash!  😂

 

 

[FeebeeH]

Hi Ken the Cruiser, you mentioned you enjoy seeing the scenery & wildlife of areas you visit.  There's a brand new area at Taronga Zoo showing Australian animals eg koalas, dingoes, kangaroos where you can get up clise to them.  I haven't seen this yet, but have stayed twice at Tarongas Retreat experience & thoroughly enjoyed it.To get to the zoo it's easy to catch a ferry from Circular Quay where the cruise ship docks across to Taronga.  See link on info on the new animal area - https://taronga.org.au/sydney-zoo/whats-on/nura-diya-australia

[Ken the cruiser]

9 minutes ago, FeebeeH said:

Hi Ken the Cruiser, you mentioned you enjoy seeing the scenery & wildlife of areas you visit.  There's a brand new area at Taronga Zoo showing Australian animals eg koalas, dingoes, kangaroos where you can get up clise to them.  I haven't seen this yet, but have stayed twice at Tarongas Retreat experience & thoroughly enjoyed it.To get to the zoo it's easy to catch a ferry from Circular Quay where the cruise ship docks across to Taronga.  See link on info on the new animal area - https://taronga.org.au/sydney-zoo/whats-on/nura-diya-australia

Thanks for the info. If we have time, we'll definitely check it out!

 

 

[Azulann]

Looking forward to your trip report  and photos! Love the pictures of the green flash of the setting sun.

I have seen it  a couple of times at Mexico resorts overlooking  the Pacific Ocean. 

[Jim_Iain]

Looking forward to following your cruise, we will be taking the same cruise next year.

 

Hope your flights all are on time.

[Barwick Cruiser]

We have family in NZ and while the flights aren’t too bad the huge time difference really gets to me, so I’m very interested in this cruise and the incremental time changes that hopefully help the body to adjust more easily? Your itinerary also looks really good…do you do any snorkeling on your excursions or are they more land based? Hope you have a great time and thanks for doing this report. 

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Looking forward to following your cruise, we will be taking the same cruise next year.

 

Hope your flights all are on time.

Thanks! Hopefully if all goes according to plan, we will arrive in Sydney at 6:15 am on April 19th after a 4+ hour layover in Dallas Monday evening. Celebrity Air definitely did a good job spacing our flights with plenty of "cushion" added just in case. Of course, you never know about the weather, but so far it's looking good for both Dallas and Sydney. 🙂