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That's why I saved the promo information. Didn't need it though.

You might be pleasantly surprised. Our bonus points for our Nov Galapagos trip posted the first time around. No correcting calls needed. I also noted that the words "bonus points" appeared next to the sailing when I looked at Points History.

Thanks for your review. My wife and I will be booking our first E class sailing some day soon.

I was favorably impressed with Ethiopian Airlines. They appear to be a very professionally run company. It's my first time that I have flown on them, and I admit that I was apprehensive when I first booked our return flights with them about a year ago. Also in the back of my mind was the 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 outside of Addis Ababa which, along with a previous Lion Air crash, ended up famously grounding all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft for a couple of years. The well known root cause was the aircraft's faulty stabilization software but Ethiopian Airline's flight crew performance was also faulted by investigative parties outside of the airline. So there's that. But I can only judge based on what I have seen. The whole customer experience was excellent. At no point did I feel like I was flying in a 3rd world country's airline, which I actually was. Nothing weird like seeing live caged chickens in the aircraft or tents being used as terminals. We were in a Boeing 787 aircraft with nothing broken in it that make you question their maintenance. The airport and terminal was bright and new-ish. Flight attendants were very professional. Ethiopian Airlines has an app although it could not display your boarding pass (so there's one inadequacy). Flights pretty much took off on time and arrived on time. The only significant thing that I thought was sub-par was the length of time it took to get our bags from baggage claim--about 2 hours. If you stripped all of the Ethiopian Airline's logos and hid the ethnicity of the passengers and crew, I would have mistaken the whole experience for a USA flagged airline. I realize that there are better airlines in the world than the USA carriers, but that is the standard to which I am accustomed. One measurement of an airline's quality is how they handle problems. Well, they left one of our bags back in Africa when we took off for Chicago. I filed a missing bag report at O'Hare Airport and 30 hrs later I received a telephone call from Ethiopian Airlines asking me to confirm my home address because the bag was sent to Chicago and they were going to deliver it to our house. That's pretty good (as an unnecessary side story, the most impressive lost bag experience I had was with Delta in 2016--the previous time we had a lost bag. They had a Delta agent looking for us at baggage claim in Santiago, Chile to tell me that one of our bags didn't make it on the plane--this was before I could even figure out on my own that it was lost). So I would fly with Ethiopian Airlines again, but I wouldn't necessarily seek them out first. If we were flying to Africa again, it is likely I would have to fly an African carrier if a connection was required, I would be fine with Ethiopian Airlines. On the other hand the airline you flew, Singapore Airlines, is well known for years as being one of the best run airlines in the world and they are famous for providing an awesome flying experience That is an airline that I would seek out preferentially over any USA carrier if given the opportunity.

I agree although I didn't see as much of the airport as I would have liked because we were flying in and wanted to get to our hotel. Singapore's Changi Airport (SIN) consistently ranks very high and was judged to be the #1 airport in the world according to Skytrax (link). The Jewel waterfall is something you don't see every day. The shopping center attached to the airport is pretty good, too. However it was this place that really caught her eye: I am shocked that we didn't buy a dozen of their donuts. We will have to catch the butterflies next time.

The fee is per order (or per delivery as you put it), not per person. We ordered room service with a fee twice during our recently completed Solstice cruise.

We just completed a 12 night cruise on Solstice over Christmas and NYE. We had two uses for our Captains Club benefits: Free laundry (my wife and I used it 3-4 times) and the three $5 casino match plays per person (won four Blackjack hands and lost two for a gain of $20 on the coupons and a net gain of $50 on the bet itself—this time). We didn’t use our priority tendering benefit this time because we were with a larger group. And we always forget to get our free tiny scoop of gelato…

Room service is complimentary for continental breakfast. Everything else incurs a $9.95 fee for non-suite passengers. This is true across the fleet.

We had an extension cord confiscated at Sydney when we boarded Solstice for our Great Barrier Reef sailing in Jan 2018. We were given this paper receipt in the process and got our cord back At the end of the cruise at the cruise terminal.

My wife has been using a CPAP during our last 12 Celebrity cruise including on Xpedition to the Galapagos. We’ve always received our Celebrity supplied extension cord and distilled water without fail.

Talk to the Captains Club/Concierge on board your ship and they will make sure that your loyalty status is set correctly for the second leg of your B2B

One other thing about Virginia, her specialty is food tours, but she is quite capable of giving tours that cover Hong Kong's tourist attractions. For our private tour, I asked for a mix of both.

Virginia has her own company whimsically named, "Humid With A Chance of Fishballs". Here is her website: https://humidwithachanceoffishballs.com/ While we were in Hong Kong (and after we were finished with our tour with her), I was looking through Lonely Planet's Hong Kong guide book and found that her tours were mentioned twice. My wife and I were extremely impressed with her both as a person and as a guide. She is highly intelligent and has excellent communication skills.

I do not understand your comment (the word, "between"). I believe your sailing does this: Thailand - Vietnam (4 ports) - Hong Kong.

We actually made a trip back to SIN to see the Jewel (I have that posted later in the thread). While there, we saw signs advertising luggage storage. There was a fee associated with it, but it was very cheap for the first 3 hours (I think that was the length) to encourage you to drop off your luggage and and to shop at the land side of the airport. If you look at the airport website, you will find this: https://www.changiairport.com/en/airport-guide/facilities-and-services/baggage-storage.html It appears that there are multiple locations to store your bags both on the secure-side and land-side of the airport.

Well, our bag that was left behind in Africa by the airline has just been delivered to us and Daisy approves. The only problem is that they severely bent up our Captain's Club luggage tag! Oh well. The important thing is that all the bags are home.

Here are the menus used for our two business class flights 1. HKG-ADD (brief stop at BKK) 2, ADD-ORD (brief stop at FCO)

I am pointless.

After that, we were taken back to our hotel where my wife and I tried to sleep some. We also turned in one of our vouchers for a meal. The restaurant was located in the older hotel building which required us to walk a little bit (and pass through security to get into the hotel itself). Then it was time to get back to ADD to catch our late evening flight to ORD. Addis Ababa Bole International Airport is a nice facility. The airport is modern, bright, and clean. Our gate was in Terminal 2 which was built in 2019. Terminal 1 takes care of the regional and domestic flights. It turns out that getting to our gate requires going through 3 security checkpoints: 1. A bag scan in order to get into the public side of the terminal (new to me). 2. A bag and body scan to get to the secured side of the terminal (like in the USA). 3. A bag and body scan to get from the secured side of the airport to our actual gate (new to me). When you get through that to the gate (A16, next two photos), you find yourself sitting in area devoid of shops and restaurants. I can't even remember if restrooms were accessible there. We were told that the first security checkpoint is to protect against terrorism at the airport itself. We were also told that the 3rd checkpoint is done for flights to the USA. In fact when I think about it, a security officer at the 2nd checkpoint was looking at my camera bag and asked me where I was flying to. When I said "USA", he immediately summoned his supervisor to look at my bag. So it looks like USA bound flights get extra attention. When I described the 3rd checkpoint to our Jordanian driver who took us home from O'Hare, he told me that the extra checkpoint at the gate for USA bound flights is common in foreign airports. I guess I haven't been in the right foreign airports until now. Even though ADD has a total of 11 gates spread out between two terminals, our flight was assigned to Gate 16. I don't understand that. Maybe the gate numbers are assigned by distance like the exit numbers are with the US interstate system (because we did walk a long way to get there, it seemed). The custom for waiting your turn to enter the body scanning machine (the one where you have to hold your hands over your head) is very different in Ethiopia. In the USA, you usually have to stand a few feet back from the scanner entrance and wait for the scanner chamber to empty and then to be summoned by the security officer to enter. Not in Ethiopia. I had several women rush right past me when it was my turn to go next. My wife who was in a different line said that she had the same thing happen to her. In fact in one instance I had two women (one in a burka) rush past me and both tried to go into the same body scanner booth at the same time. Maybe they never flown before. Another oddity to me was with the 3rd security checkpoint to enter the gate area. They split us up. One security line was for men and the other for women & children. It took me a while to realize that it was probably for cases where pat down searches and closer inspections might be required. Before we went to our gate, we spent some time at Ethiopian Airline's Cloud 9 Lounge. Nice name and it was very large although there were quite a lot of passengers there because Ethiopian Airlines has a heavy redeye flight schedule to international destinations. This lounge also had an area set aside to serve traditional Ethiopian coffee which was free but devoid of passengers. During the past four months we have been on two cruise trips that resulted in us visiting Ecuador, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. Each of those countries have unequivocally asserted that they grow the best coffee beans in the world (and why) and hence make the best coffee. We will be sailing on Summit in three months and I am sure we will hear the same claim when she calls on Cartagena, Columbia. Who's right? Boarding was pretty simple although Ethiopian Airlines has a paper boarding pass system (no smartphone option) and I was paranoid that I would lose the physical boarding pass or not be able to find it when it was time to pull it out (all those security checkpoints tend to scramble things for me). The Boeing 787 that was assigned to our flight had true lay flat seats in the Business Class section which was great although I actually didn't spend much time sleeping because I was binge watching an Amazon Prime Video series (The Terminal List) and managed to watch all eight shows comprising Season One before we landed. It is always amazing to see how the bad guys on TV and movies are such bad shots. That would be cool if it were true in real life. I think three meals were served to us on each of the two flights (at least in Business Class). It gets to the point where I really can't eat all that food and I found myself skipping courses. I know flight attendants work hard. Sitting at the front of the plane allowed me to watch the large army of flight attendants serving Business Class. They were very competent, efficient, and incredibly polite. It is impressive how they smile at each passenger and serve us like we are the most important passenger on the plane. It takes some real skill and character to do that in the middle of the night. There were a few times when I had to go to the restroom which was at the front of the plane--the same area where the flight attendants are seated. Each time I came bursting through the curtain, they would quickly stop talking which made me wonder what conversation I interrupted. The only thing that I didn't like was the option to eat the Ethiopian food. I didn't want to be impolite and decline the option, so I asked them to serve me some. The food is actually plated for you by the flight attendants (above photo). It turned out that I didn't like the food that much but I felt a lot of self imposed pressure to eat as much of it as I could so that when they retrieved my plate, it would look respectable. I haven't felt that kind of pressure since my first girl friend in high school baked a cake for me (because I don't like cakes either). We will save that story for another cruise.

Our final stop of the tour was the Addis Mercato--we were told that it is Africa's largest open air market. It is absolutely humongous--taking up several city blocks and it would be easy to get lost in it. We were hoping to stop and walk through the market but our tour guide seriously advised against it, citing security concerns. It didn't matter anyway because we were running behind schedule and needed to get back to our hotel to rest anyway. Our guide said that a few years ago, the market was truly an open air market. However the government insisted that building be erected, which made some of the market look very slum-like. While he was driving us slowly through the congested streets of the market, Teddy advised me to move my iPhone from sitting on my lap to a place in the center console--obviously concerned that someone would reach into our car and take it.

Our next stop was St George's Cathedral which has a very distinctive octagon shaped building. It is an Ethiopian Orthodox church. A deacon of the church was on hand to give us a tour of the church and its museum. The church has a lot of connection with Ethiopia's resistance to foreign colonization. Hence the church's museum ironically contains war artifacts.

Here are a couple more photos from our trip to Entoto Park. Entoto Park This guy was staring at me as we were driving away from Entoto Park. My wife and I knew nothing about Ethiopia before this trip. Our guide, Teddy, tried to correct that. He was very proud of his country. He proudly informed us that Ethiopia is Africa's oldest independent country and that it has a population of 125 million people making it the second most populous country on the continent (Nigeria has more people). He pointed out that Ethiopia was one of the very few African countries that was able to resist and avoid European colonization during the late 1800's. Teddy mentioned that Ethiopian Airlines is Africa's largest airline and that it is run without government subsidy. He also pointed out that Addis Ababa is the headquarters for the African Union which was formed in 1999. Finally, he mentioned that China has been heavily investing in the country and funding many construction projects. Our guide also said that Ethiopia has many issues and challenges. For starters Ethiopia is a very poor country. The average income is a paltry $1,000-$2,000 USD which means most Ethiopians live in poverty. The literacy rate is very low--I think he said 50%. And finally Ethiopia has had civil unrest and armed conflict with neighboring countries. There has been a large civil war that ended most recently in Nov 2022, however there are still areas of the country that he cannot take tourists because of civil unrest. The civil war has been very bad for Ethiopia's economy and population. Teddy told me that in 2018 (before the civil war and maybe COVID) he was booked for tours for every day in January. This time he only has 2 days booked for the month (Jan 2024) and my wife and I were one of them. Wow. Ethiopia also has neighboring country problems. There have been hostilities with the country of Eritrea (shares a border with northern Ethiopia) who broke away from Ethiopia in 1993. There also have been constant conflicts with Somalia who share a border with Ethiopia to the east. Ethiopia is also under threat from terrorists from neighboring countries which explains the security measures that we saw (e.g. we had to pass through a security check to gain access to our hotel). I guess that explains the travel advisory that the US Department of State has issued for Ethiopia: link So now, I know a little more about the country than I did before we arrived.

It's too late, I have already stolen their PUPs.......

We got into our room at about 7:45 am. We had our city tour set to start at 9 am. The tour was set to be 3 hours long and we secured our guide via Tours by Locals although there were numerous opportunities to book a tour on the spot through the hotel. Our guide, Teddy, met us at our hotel lobby promptly at 9 am. Our first stop was at the National Museum of Ethiopia. While walking on the outdoor grounds of the museum, my wife almost got obliterated by some dead branches that suddenly broke off a palm tree and fell straight down onto the ground where she and our guide were standing. She was standing directly under the canopy of the palm tree when the branches fell. I was standing further away and saw the whole thing--including looking up at the palm tree when I heard the crackling noises before the branches let loose. Fortunately she only received a glancing blow off her shoulder and not a direct hit on the head which would have been bad. The museum's claim to fame is that it houses the archeological remains of the world famous "Lucy" although only the casts are on public display. Lucy was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia and her remains are estimated to be 3.2 million years old. The national museum itself was small. Moreover, the quality of the building and rooms were generally poor. The exhibits were very simple and dated. Many times were were simply reading posters that were attached to the walls. Our guide then drove us up to Entoto Park which is on the northern outskirts of the city. The park was around 9,800 ft above sea level. The park is elevated above Addis Ababa which gave us nice views of the city.

To answer your question directly: the1st batch of passengers (self walk off) were scheduled to disembark at 6:45 am. I am pretty sure that they got off on schedule. We walked by the debarkation "door" at 6:54 am and passengers were walking off. Ship's starboard exit point on Deck 5. Photo taken at 6:54 am. Here are the disembarkation instructions/schedule that was issued to us: link It is probably feasible to leave at 8am to catch an 11:30 am flight out of Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). However if it were me, I would be doing the self-walk off which requires you to take all your bags off the ship with you. The big advantage is that you will be first in line to get off the ship--6:45 am which allows you to beat the crowd and avoid lines at customs/immigration and getting a taxi (unless you decide on an Uber). You also get to skip the baggage claim area and the possible snafus of not being able to find all your bags. The ride from the pier to the airport is 25 miles long and will take at least 35 minutes and worse if there is heavy traffic (map). You also have to get through airport security. I remember HKG being fairly large and it involved having to catch a tram to get to our gate. But that is me, I am fairly risk intolerant when it comes to catching a plane. Hong Kong Airport is on the left, cruise ship pier is on the right.