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

[Ken the cruiser]

8 minutes ago, juanrod said:

Very excited to follow your adventure, this is the same trip I want to take to celebrate retirement in a few years.  
 

Lisa 

We’re pretty excited about the itinerary plus there’s just something about Celebrity transoceanic cruises and all of the fun things they offer on sea days that makes cruising with them so much fun! 😀

[Ken the cruiser]

Finally! We have made it to packing day after 27 months of waiting! With most of the pre-cruise preparatory stuff done, all that's left is to figure out what to pack and pass our antigen tests tomorrow before heading to the airport after lunch! Yay!! 😊

[DaKahuna]

Safe travel Ken.  I know you are going to have a wonderful time.  Can't wait to read all about it. 

 

[WNCtourist]

Safe travels! I'm looking forward to your reports. What a dream itinerary!

[Ken the cruiser]

For those who would like to find the current location of the Eclipse at any particular time or for that matter any ship in the area, here's a link you can use. Just use the +/- to zoom in and out on the picture.

 

CELEBRITY ECLIPSE Current Location (cruisemapper.com)

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Jim_Iain]

On 4/13/2023 at 6:14 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks for sharing those details! Ever since cruising started back up, Celebrity's Basic Internet speeds have always been 2-3 times slower than Premium. Heck, for a long time I wasn't even able to open CC if we were only using their Basic service. I'd just get an annoying outline of the links to the various areas in the CC database, which BTW is very in-depth to say the least!

I'm posting Starlink Speeds on the thread below for the Caribbean and at least the TA on Apex using Premium Wifi.    Download running about 5 Meg.    I am easily able to steam YouTubeTV

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

On 4/15/2023 at 8:53 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! It won't be an overnight stay, but maybe some folks following the thread may be staying in Sydney the night before (or after) at a nearby hotel and may be interested.

 

Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour | Opera Australia

 

 

Ken if you have a chance they have a really nice tour of the Opera House.    Really interesting.

[Ken the cruiser]

On 4/10/2023 at 7:55 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

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. 😁

 

 

 

10 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Ken if you have a chance they have a really nice tour of the Opera House.    Really interesting.

Cool! We’ve got reservations for their basic tour on the transition day between legs one and two. Hopefully it will be a pretty day to make the walk! 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

15 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I'm posting Starlink Speeds on the thread below for the Caribbean and at least the TA on Apex using Premium Wifi.    Download running about 5 Meg.    I am easily able to steam YouTubeTV

 

 

It will be interesting to see how the Eclipse Starlink Premium service will be at various locations along our cruise, especially when crossing the Pacific, of which I’ll periodically be posting Ookla speed tests. I gave up a long time ago “hoping” Celebrity’s Basic service would be good enough, especially after cruising started back up, to post to a Live From thread.

[Ken the cruiser]

FYI, I just received a notice from my Celebrity app letting me know we could finish checking into our April 19th 3-day cruise. When I opened the app, the ship time was April 17, 12:02 pm (Sydney time), 48 hours before our April 19 embarkation time.
 

The reason I mentioned this is because on prior Celebrity cruises, we were only allowed to complete the health Status questionnaire 24 hours in advance. We subsequently answered the Health questions and we’re now officially checked in. 😁

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[dlh015]

Soooo excited for you folks!!

[Mark.Jules]

@Ken the cruiser we are excited to follow along. Thank you for sharing with us.

[hammo]

Thanks Ken the Cruiser - just checked in and cannot bloody wait to get on that ship again . 

[Ken the cruiser]

4 hours ago, hammo said:

Thanks Ken the Cruiser - just checked in and cannot bloody wait to get on that ship again . 

It's definitely going to be a fun cruise, especially with Eddy Jenkins as the Cruise Director!! 😃

[Ken the cruiser]

The weather is looking great today, and I just checked the Dallas forecast as well as for Sydney tomorrow (April 19) and all is looking good for hopefully an uneventful 24-hour set of flights from here to there. 😱

 

 

All that's left now before we head to the airport after lunch is to take our antigen tests. 🤞

[Ken the cruiser]

We just took our antigen tests with both being negative. Yay!! So without further to do, it's time to get this party started!! 🕺💃

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We’ve made it to the airport, and now we wait. I have to admit it’s nice starting our flight from a small airport where the checkin process and going through security is super quick.
 

But it didn’t take long before a couple folks nearby started coughing and blowing their nose which triggered “my twitch” to move to us a “more secure” location.  😂
 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[DaKahuna]

Ken -  we hope you have a safe and uneventful journey to Down Under. 

Start thinking now of all the things you'll need to do to fight jet lag and make sure you get up frequently and walk laps up and down the aisle.  Don't need anything happening to you on your journey. 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

17 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

Ken -  we hope you have a safe and uneventful journey to Down Under. 

Start thinking now of all the things you'll need to do to fight jet lag and make sure you get up frequently and walk laps up and down the aisle.  Don't need anything happening to you on your journey. 

 

We gave up on that fight a long time ago, most recently on our flight to Athens with an 8-hour time change before our NCL cruise to Africa last November. We’ve already conceded it will take about 4 days and a lot of impromptu short naps on the balcony and during the evening shows before we start waking up again at a normal time. 😂
 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[ecslady]

43 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We’ve made it to the airport, and now we wait. I have to admit it’s nice starting our flight from a small airport where the checkin process and going through security is super quick.
 

But it didn’t take long before a couple folks nearby started coughing and blowing their nose which triggered “my twitch” to move to us a “more secure” location.  😂

 

I haven't flown since when you had to wear a mask, so since you mentioned people coughing, it got me wondering, do some people still mask up for flights? I'd appreciate a report back after your flight.  Safe travels.

[Norwaylady]

Safe travels❤️ 

Fingers crossed all goes well! 
 

In Oslo the weather is cooperating😎 today it was sun and beautiful temperature when you checked the calendar😁 (after warm weather it’s still cold 🥶 for me😝) 

[DaKahuna]

53 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We gave up on that fight a long time ago, most recently on our flight to Athens with an 8-hour time change before our NCL cruise to Africa last November. We’ve already conceded it will take about 4 days and a lot of impromptu short naps on the balcony and during the evening shows before we start waking up again at a normal time. 😂
 

 

I find myself forcing myself to adopt to the local time as quickly as possible.  

 

Most of my travel for the last 10 years has been between the east and west coast.  When I fly West I force myself to stay awake until my normal bed time if at all possible.  It usually takes me only a day or two until I am sleeping until my normal wakeup time. 

 

Our next cruise we will be changing time zones three times, from EST to PDT.  Getting that extra hour of sleep on those days will be nice.   

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, ecslady said:

 

I haven't flown since when you had to wear a mask, so since you mentioned people coughing, it got me wondering, do some people still mask up for flights? I'd appreciate a report back after your flight.  Safe travels.

We did on our first leg which just landed in Dallas. I think maybe one or two others, but that’s about it. Obviously, they’re not going on a B3B where you have to test negative on each transition day.  😂

 

But, on a brighter note, we’ve flown into Dallas before, but we never knew they had so many lakes in the area! This was just a partial photo of one of them. 
 

 
This was just another picture of the area just before we landed. 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Now we are waiting at the gate, after having a tasty barbecue dinner, to board our 10:30 pm flight to Sydney. The main thing, though, is that the plane is sitting here with us and we’re just waiting to board!

 

 
And the Sydney weather radar forecast looks pretty tame between Dallas and Sydney. 😁
 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Silkroad]

Wishing you and your wife safe travels!