81Zoomie

We love Cellar Masters where it still exists on S Class ❤️! Just off Edge. Unfortunately there is no wine bar 😔 similar to Cellar Masters. You can pay for an upgraded wine by the glass in the dining rooms and specialty restaurants. For cocktails we gave up and ordered liquor/mixed drinks. We drank “nice” wine on shore 🍷🍷🍷🍷 where the selection and price was better.

Well, we are finally on the last legs of our journey home 🏡, SLC-AUS-MCO on Southwest. We had a wonderful time meeting our newest grandson 💙. It is a crystal clear day in SLC, but a chilly 43 deg this morning. I wanted to provide a quick final review of our cruises and adventures in Australia and New Zealand. Everything is subjective and these are our takeaways. Others may have a different opinion. Sydney - It is an awesome world city 🌆👍🌆!!! We spent 6.5 days there and loved every minute. It is clean, easy to navigate, has a ton of things to see and do, and wonderful open spaces and walkways. We would love to return! The people are friendly and helpful 😀. We enjoyed seeing the more diverse southern coast and Tasmania. New Zealand - While Australia is big and bold, NZ is quieter and more understated. It was more green and lush than we expected. Agriculture is big business. Kiwis live with the constant threat of earthquakes and volcanoes 🫨. They have proven to be a very resilient people. Like their Aussie neighbors, they are so very friendly and helpful. 😃 Edge - The ship was in very good condition. Appearance inside and out was commendable. We were quite impressed with her upkeep 👍. Food - This is subjective and YMMV. We found the best food, presentation, and quality to be in Eden. Hands down, it was a premium experience. Luminae was good to very good, but not on the same level as Eden. Le Petite Chef was fine for what it was. For us, one and done. Raw on 5 was a nice experience. Food was as expected, and the staff was great. The Oceanview had a good selection. Perfect to grab breakfast or a quick lunch. As usual, it could be very congested at peak times. Spa Cafe is a nice place to grab a quick bite, but hours are limited. Same goes for the Eden cafe. We did grab hot dogs and burgers at the Mast Grill a few times. The Retreat snacks were handy, but hours are limited and the offerings are pretty much the same everyday. We did not eat in Blu, main dining, Chef’s table, Fine Cut, Rooftop Grill, or dinner on the Edge. Waiters were selling specialty dining up to the last day at every entrance and inside the Oceanview. We found specialty dining venues to have lots of empty tables. Wine - There is so much written about this. In summary, Celebrity should be embarrassed by the low end, poorly rated, cheap wines they serve as “premium”. We either brought our own or paid $3 to $10 extra a glass to drink reasonable quality wine to complement our meals. We were never asked to sign a slip in Luminae. Our second cruise was billed as a “Wine Cruise”, but there were no special lectures, wines, or events to make the title a reality. Bars - We found bar service to be good. The outdoor bars were closed on several days due to poor weather. On other days it was quite chilly out. So Magic Carpet, Skyview, and Pool Bar did little to relieve congestion inside. The Martini bar area was normally packed. It was next to impossible to get a seat at the Martini Bar. The Casino bar is a little known option. Cafe Al Bacio seating was very full most times of the day. It was a popular spot. The Club is a bit like a dark box. There was little atmosphere in that bar. Our favorite bar was Eden. It was bright, open, and had a view of the water! We were always able to find a seat at the bar in Eden. With few exceptions, drinks were liberally poured and bar tenders were happy to accommodate requests. NOTE: If you do not specify what brand of wine or spirits you want, you will most likely be served the classic package selections. Gym - The best indoor public forward view of the ship is in the gym! We frequented the gym about every other day. It was more crowded on sea days and mornings which is to be expected. The cardio equipment was plentiful and included treadmills, ellipticals, bikes (including Peleton), and rowers. Some of the weight machines were odd pulley types. There were 3 benches and the full range of free weights plus a rack. The weight bench area got congested at times. Casino - Yea, three cheers for a smoke free Casino experience 🎉🥳🎊. The Casino 🎰🎰🎰 was closed a considerable amount of time while we were at sea. Twice it was closed for 48 hours when the route selected remained within 12 miles of the coast. This is very different from Caribbean cruises where the ships zip out to sea to get the casinos open. Other times it opened an hour or two later than what was printed in the schedule. There was never an explanation. This detracted from activity options during poor outside weather conditions. Spa - We did not use the spa. The spa attendants were all around the ship offering free 5 minute teaser treatments. Entertainment - Loved our cruise director Giuseppe 🇮🇹. He was great!!! He seemed more genuine than others and had a great sense of humor. Apparently he saves room in his luggage by leaving socks at home 🧦🧦🧦🧦😂. The main act singers were pretty good. Perhaps, not as high a caliber as in the past. Musicians were quite good. Production shows were fine. They don’t change much throughout the year on all the ships. We really liked the live music in the bars. The game shows were fun, but were mostly in The Club which has limited seating and poor sight lines. Crew - As always, the crew worked so hard and were eager to please. The cabin and wait staff did appear to be at their limit with workload. The bridge officers were not very visible, or at least not when we were out and about. We felt uninformed about expected weather conditions, which were quite bad at times. The Captain only briefed at 10 am when at sea. There were no announcements or postings on the TV when we sailed away from port. So, we had no idea about what to expect unless we looked up the sea state and weather online. Itinerary - The 12 night NZ itinerary provided a quick overview of the country. I would liken it to speed dating. The weather was very good on this sailing. We would have appreciated a few less ports and more time in port. For example, only had 4.5 hours in Napier. We would have loved an overnight in Auckland or Christchurch. The scenic cruising in the sounds was breathtaking! The 9 night South Australian itinerary provided more sea days. The weather was awful on all our sea days. We all had to be flexible and enjoy the roller coaster conditions with wind and rain. Fortunately, port days were nice. Tasmania was very interesting. We would have loved an overnight in Adelaide to explore more of the wine regions. We didn’t love Melbourne as much as Sydney, but still found it interesting. Cabin - We were in an aft MC SS on deck 10. We loved the cabin layout, large balcony, and the big bathroom! We did not enjoy the clicking, snapping, creaking in rough seas and windy conditions. Yes, we did lose some sleep over this and reported it. There were no vacant suites to move us to. Our cabin attendant was awesome! Most comfortable bed we have had on any cruise 👍👍👍. We attribute this to the memory foam mattress topper. They only complaint other than the noise was that our windows and sliding door, balcony railing, and chairs were not cleaned by anyone but me for the entire 3 weeks. They were frequently coated with salt spray and water 💦 (up on deck 10). Butler - 😂😂😂 There was so much written about “butlergate” we didn’t know what to expect. We did have a butler we shared with 22 other suites. He was not a head butler. Our butler had zero initiative. He did bring us our requested water bottles and Red Bulls. When we saw him in the hall he would ask if we needed anything. Beyond that nothing. No fruit, snacks, chocolate, nothing. We had to gather our own water on several occasions. He never went above or beyond the few things we asked of him. Then again, we were in a lowly sky suite 😉. Retreat Sundeck - When the weather permitted and in the NZ Sounds, this was a very nice amenity. The outdoor bar was a nice feature. Retreat Lounge - This was a nice place to go especially in poor weather or when DH was sleeping. However, the layout is a bit odd with the seating lined up against the wall and low hanging lights. The floor to ceiling windows at the sides allowed for unrestricted views 👍. We found the Retreat Concierges tended to huddle around their table and podium wad were not very social. We made a couple of requests which were met with minimal success. The bar servers were just the opposite. They were social and engaging. However, when it was crowded drink service was very slow. We wish E class had a bar you could sit at in the Retreat with live music. Luminae - By the numbers according to our waiter; seating for 180 with full suite passenger capacity of 400. Not certain how accurate his #s are. Our wait staff was excellent. They were helpful, accommodating, and looked after my food allergy. The food for the most part was good to very good. The lamb chops and the filets were excellent. The chocolate sphere was our favorite dessert. Capacity was an issue. The more crowded it was, the slower the service. Luminae did not appear to be adequately staffed to handle a full restaurant. We were handed a buzzer on several occasions, it worked once. Of all the meals, breakfast was the most mediocre with inconsistent service. They need more wine stewards and assistant waiters. We frequently had to wait for water, wine, bread, coffee, etc. While the Luminae experience was good, it is not up to the same standard as pre CV. Shoreside Concierge - This can be summed up in one word, FAIL. I am not certain why Celebrity sends out the emails and/or calls asking for your requests. I filled it out for both our cruises and not one of the requests was met. Special event - Ignored. Extra Hangers - Nope. We finally received a handful of wire hangers. Choice of wine - Nope. Additionally, I requested a mattress topper - Nope. The cabin attendant did bring one upon request. Thermostat - Seems silly as you can adjust on your own. E Class - Pros - Magic Carpet as a tender platform - Retreat Sun Deck - Walking track - Eden (all the old creepy aspects are gone!) - Sky Suite bathrooms - High ceilings in Oceanview Cafe - Motion activated touchless doors in public areas - Clean contemporary decor. Some of the uncomfortable Hoppen seating has been replaced. - Cons - No open atrium - Tends to be priced higher than M and S Class voyages - Higher number of suites - Slow tendering and disembarkation in ports of call - No views in Martini Bar and The Club Bar - IV Verandahs. Not to our liking. More like a panoramic oceanview. - Undisclosed noise issues in many cabins in rough seas. - Lack of shade outside - Lack for forward view public spaces. No forward view lounge. No forward view except for Retreat Sundeck, Thermal Spa Sundeck, and the gym 🏋️‍. - Lack of overhead space heaters and protection from rain in outdoor bars and restaurants. In summary, we had a great experience down under 🦘🥝🍷. Thank you for following along 😊. We loved our time in Australia and NZ. It was a long way to go, but so worth it ❤️. We learned so much about the history, culture, and geography. Our cruise experience was very nice and we wouldn’t hesitate to sail with Celebrity again if the itinerary, timing, and price make the voyage appealing. For our third Celebrity cruise in a row, however, we did not book another cruise on board. While there are positive things about the E class, our sweet spot is S class. We have also found that rotating cruise lines helps to keep the experiences from becoming too repetitive. For the moment, no cruise on any line is shouting book me 📣. After 35 days, we are finally home ❤️. This was twice as long as we have ever vacationed. Our bodies still are not sure what time or day it is, or when to sleep. The scale tipped in at a 2 pound gain for me. Not too bad. My watch reported health gains with a lower respiration rate and increase in flights of stairs! I’ll take that as a positive 👍. Should be easy to burn off those pounds pulling weeds in the garden 😎. Our little princess kitty greeted us with multiple serenades… all night 😽. Not sure if she was rejoicing we were home, or scolding us for being gone! Our spring and summer will be filled with domestic 🇺🇸 trips to see family and friends. Our next cruise is port intensive in the Adriatic/Mediterranean in September 2024. We will be sailing on the Connie in an Oceanview cabin. It will be our first time on the Connie. We will mix in a few days in Venice 🚤 before and a few days in Rome 🏛️ after. Then for a large side step up to the Netherlands 🇳🇱 to catch a TA back home on HAL’s Rotterdam. One thing for certain, we will skinny down our packing by half 🧳🧳! We are looking forward to our first TA and not having to fly ✈️ home! Let the countdown begin 🕰️😁🛳️💶🛫.

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 😀