Live From the Summit, 8/7 to 8/31, from an Aqua passenger viewpoint

[Ken the cruiser]

My goal with this "Live from" thread is to provide an Aqua passenger viewpoint where my DW and I will be dining in Blu every night, going to the evening shows, attending any interactive game shows designed to make us laugh and, of course, going on some pretty cool cruise-sponsored excursions. However, I promise you will not be seeing any pictures of food or pictures of the evening menus as that's just not my thing.

 

NOTE: As many of you know @Jim_Iainhas opened another "Live from" thread to cover their Greenland/Iceland/Canada B3B and I'm sure it will be wonderful, as usual, and I in no way want to distract from that. I thought about posting periodically to his thread, but as most of you know it can become quite extended, many times over 100 pages.

 

If you would like to follow on, please feel free to do so. Here is our B2B itinerary:

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[jcpc]

I am looking forward to reading your "live from" postings.  Here's wishing you and your wife a happy and healthy trip.  And thank you so much for not posting "food pictures" as any of us who sail on Celebrity frequently pretty much knows what their food presentation looks like.

Edited August 4, 2022 by jcpc

[Ken the cruiser]

Tomorrow is the big day where we once again take our eMed antigen tests. This will be our 7th cruise since last August that we will have had to pass the test, not counting the interim testing requirements on our 3 B2Bs and 2 B3Bs. 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Ken -   Glad you are live posting.    I'll be following along.     It is always fun to see how other experience the same cruise in totally different yet exciting ways.

 

We will also be testing tomorrow morning.    I can't believe how quickly this cruise is approaching in these last couple days.

[Ken the cruiser]

I wonder if we'll be able to see any residual smoke in the sky from the volcano that just erupted, even though we won't be arriving in Reykjavik for another 2 weeks? If we're close enough, hopefully the ship will be positioned in such a way that our aft-facing cabin will be in a good position to see it. Well, one can hope anyway. 🤞

 

 

 

The eruption, classified as a volcanic fissure, is occurring about 10 miles from Keflavik International Airport and about 20 miles from the country’s capital, Reykjavik. As of Thursday morning, the airport — which has flights from Seattle, London and Frankfurt — remained open and operational.

 

Iceland volcano eruption sparks travel fears, risky photo shoots - The Washington Post

Edited August 4, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[phabric]

Following along.  I enjoyed your Princess review.

[Ken the cruiser]

We also finished filling out the ArriveCan itinerary information today, as we have a scheduled stop in Halifax (as well as St John's) on the way to Greenland and Iceland. It wasn't too difficult, but we definitely needed our cruise confirmation paperwork to accurately fill in some of the blanks. 

 

BTW I'm starting to hear Freddie off it the distance. It won't be long now until it's cruising time again! 😂

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[alibabacruisers]

Looking forward to hearing of your experience!

[boxkite]

Ken, looking forward to your Aqua passenger viewpoint through out the B2B cruise for DW and yourself.

 

We will be Aqua passengers for upcoming Alaska cruise and will be interested in your thoughts about Blu.

 

Have a great adventure!

[vickykay]

Hi Ken, 

 

Looking forward to your live review.  We’re doing Aqua for the first time this Oct. (TA).   Try and go to the Blue Lagoon in Ice Land ( was on my husband’s bucket list). 
 

I did follow your recent Princess review.  We’re avid Celebrity cruisers ( did do one cruise a few years ago on the Caribbean Princess).  Woild love to hear your comparison of the two lines.  Thanks

 

Vicky

[Susanb10567]

Have a wonderful cruise…looking forward to following along

[Ken the cruiser]

17 minutes ago, boxkite said:

Ken, looking forward to your Aqua passenger viewpoint through out the B2B cruise for DW and yourself.

 

We will be Aqua passengers for upcoming Alaska cruise and will be interested in your thoughts about Blu.

 

Have a great adventure!

Thanks! We were on a 21 day B2B on the Constellation this past December. The first leg we were in a S1 sky suite on Deck 9 midship, because we were able to cash in on a super Captains Club 2 for 1 deal. The second leg, which we had booked from the beginning, was in an aft-facing Aqua cabin.

 

Point being we were able to compare the various dishes we received, first in Luminae and then in Blu. Bottom line, we seem to always get heartburn after eating dinner in Luminae whereas we never got heartburn after we ate in Blu on that cruise. Why? IMHO Luminae serves much more "rich" food in larger portions than Blu, and that's fine if you like you like that sort of thing. However, for us (I'm 70 and my DW is a few years behind), we like smaller portions with a little less seasoning like the entrees served in Blu. In many ways, the portions served in Blu are the same "smaller" portions that we recently experienced being served in the Princess Regal MDR, and we're good with that.

 

But I'll definitely let you know how our food experience is on this cruise, both in Blu and on port days up in the buffet. 🙂

[Ken the cruiser]

27 minutes ago, vickykay said:

Hi Ken, 

 

Looking forward to your live review.  We’re doing Aqua for the first time this Oct. (TA).   Try and go to the Blue Lagoon in Ice Land ( was on my husband’s bucket list). 
 

I did follow your recent Princess review.  We’re avid Celebrity cruisers ( did do one cruise a few years ago on the Caribbean Princess).  Woild love to hear your comparison of the two lines.  Thanks

 

Vicky

Thanks. Since Reykjavik is a transition day, maybe Celebrity will develop a short 2 hour excursion for the B2B'ers so we can see the "fissure" developments as well as briefly check out the Blue Lagoon. Unfortunately, our time will be limited on that day, but one can hope!

[doodlefan]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks. Since Reykjavik is a transition day, maybe Celebrity will develop a short 2 hour excursion for the B2B'ers so we can see the "fissure" developments as well as briefly check out the Blue Lagoon. Unfortunately, our time will be limited on that day, but one can hope!

We were supposed to do a B2B on the Jewel of the Seas to Norway then Iceland/Ireland in June but had to switch for work timing reasons but I set up alot of tours for the group, there are a few private operators and if you could get a group interested I bet you could get someone to take you.

 

Saga tours is a great tour operator out of Reykjavik.

 

I'll be following along and living vicariously through you since we had to cancel and put Iceland back on our bucket list.  🙂

[jwlane]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

develop a short 2 hour excursion 

It's almost an hour to drive to Blue Lagoon.  The hike to the fissures from a parking area is about 2 hours---each way.

[Ken the cruiser]

14 minutes ago, jwlane said:

It's almost an hour to drive to Blue Lagoon.  The hike to the fissures from a parking area is about 2 hours---each way.

Thanks! Since the ship leaves at 4 pm, that pretty much nixes that idea as a 6-7 hour excursion wouldn’t seem to fit in the time we have in port. But we’ll still be heading to the Excursion Desk when we board to see if X has any transition day excursions in the queue.

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[takemewithyou]

3 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! We were on a 21 day B2B on the Constellation this past December. The first leg we were in a S1 sky suite on Deck 9 midship, because we were able to cash in on a super Captains Club 2 for 1 deal. The second leg, which we had booked from the beginning, was in an aft-facing Aqua cabin.

 

Point being we were able to compare the various dishes we received, first in Luminae and then in Blu. Bottom line, we seem to always get heartburn after eating dinner in Luminae whereas we never got heartburn after we ate in Blu on that cruise. Why? IMHO Luminae serves much more "rich" food in larger portions than Blu, and that's fine if you like you like that sort of thing. However, for us (I'm 70 and my DW is a few years behind), we like smaller portions with a little less seasoning like the entrees served in Blu. In many ways, the portions served in Blu are the same "smaller" portions that we recently experienced being served in the Princess Regal MDR, and we're good with that.

 

But I'll definitely let you know how our food experience is on this cruise, both in Blu and on port days up in the buffet. 🙂

Totally agree!  We found the same issues.  We much prefer Blu.  
would love to see pics of your aft cabin because we have one booked, too!

[vickykay]

We actually did the excursion to The Blue Lagoon thru Celebrity.  It was a shot day as we had an overnight in Reykjavik and the ship was leaving early afternoon but a turn around day of course is on a different time schedule.  

[Ken the cruiser]

49 minutes ago, vickykay said:

We actually did the excursion to The Blue Lagoon thru Celebrity.  It was a shot day as we had an overnight in Reykjavik and the ship was leaving early afternoon but a turn around day of course is on a different time schedule.  

You never know, but we will definitely see what's made available to us once we get onboard. The last time we cruised there was in 2018 with Oceania and we did the amazing Golden Circle tour. However, we had a lot more time in port than we do this time. 

[Ken the cruiser]

We both just tested negative. Yay!! So it’s time to really start getting excited and unleash Freddie once again!! 😁

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgzGwKwLmgM

[Ken the cruiser]

Our plan is to finish packing today, as we fly out of our local Alabama airport at 6 am tomorrow with a final arrival in Newark NJ scheduled for early afternoon. Then we'll stay overnight at the airport hotel and take the Celebrity airport transfer to the ship Sunday morning. 

 

I know, we could have just taken a taxi or Uber to the port. But for us, it was much easier just to book the Celebrity airport transfer in advance and leave the details to them to get us to the right terminal. 🙂

[Jim_Iain]

14 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! Since the ship leaves at 4 pm, that pretty much nixes that idea as a 6-7 hour excursion wouldn’t seem to fit in the time we have in port. But we’ll still be heading to the Excursion Desk when we board to see if X has any transition day excursions in the queue.

 

The ship may put on a B2B tour and expand the window by taking you off the ship early and get you back on time.   When in Southampton with a 4PM departure we did a tour to Windsor Castle.   It was a good 1+ hour bus each way and we had plenty of time to even have lunch on our own.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, Jim_Iain said:

The ship may put on a B2B tour and expand the window by taking you off the ship early and get you back on time.   When in Southampton with a 4PM departure we did a tour to Windsor Castle.   It was a good 1+ hour bus each way and we had plenty of time to even have lunch on our own.

That's our hope as they usually do come up with some type of "transition day" excursion, especially if there is enough demand. But, at the same time, the price has to be reasonable. Right now, there are two airport drop-off tours, one to the Blue Lagoon. However, $816 for the both of us for a 5-hour tour is a little steep for our taste. 

 

[tml1230]

Ken, we followed your recent  cruise on the Regal Princess and enjoyed every minute of your trip! Very much looking forward to this journey!

travel  Safe and best regards! 

 

also... GO GATORS!

[Ken the cruiser]

25 minutes ago, tml1230 said:

Ken, we followed your recent  cruise on the Regal Princess and enjoyed every minute of your trip! Very much looking forward to this journey!

travel  Safe and best regards! 

 

also... GO GATORS!

That was a fun trip, but very port intensive unlike this one which has 10 sea days. But hopefully, we'll be able to see a lot more wildlife on this cruise. That's one reason we're so excited about being able to book an aft-facing cabin! I remember seeing a whale breaching multiple times off the Greenland coast on our last cruise here in 2018!

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by Ken the cruiser