LIVE South Pacific (Fiji, Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga) - Eclipse, twelve nights 14 January

[raudacruise]

I want the cocktails.  And the glassware.🍸 And I miss my little wiener dog mix.♥️

[lexmiller]

Love your style, looking forward to following along as I mentioned to you on another topic, we join the Eclipse at the end of March in Sydney and stay on until Vancouver - so we are keen to hear about the B2B monitored testing and hope it stops, but probably a futile hope!  We are big Celebrity cruisers, 30 under our belt so far, but it's this monitored B2B testing that has us in a kerfuggle as we are coming from half way across the world for this amazing itinerary (in your backyard, you lucky person you) and don't want to miss a single moment of it!  Looks like you are off to a fantastic start to your adventure, enjoy!  And I loved your post about your pet sitter - we have two cats who are VERY social, and leaving them behind is so hard as finding the perfect pet sitter arrangement can be very tricky.  Bon Voyage!

[nz1]

She’s looking gorgeous this morning!

 

[nz1]

 

[SEAGURRL]

We'll also be boarding Eclipse on Feb. 3 so looking forward to hearing about the ship!

[Redking]

6 hours ago, nz1 said:

 

Great shots Brendan. 

 

 

[lexmiller]

Hello, @Redking- can you please let us know how things went regarding this insurance issue with Fiji  - were you checked on boarding, is it actually an issue at all or are cooler minds prevailing?  What exactly is the procedure?  I believe Fiji is your first port of call......? Definitely want to hear about it, thank you!  I mean, it's absurd to think that Fijian government officials are going to sit around and evaluate every passenger's personal insurance policies!  And again as we've stated, we are in Fiji for a day, as cruise passengers - under no circumstance would covid insurance ever come into play in this actual situation.  If a passenger has covid, they wouldn't be allowed off the ship!  And no one is going to be like, oh wow, it's noon now on my one day in Fiji, I'm just got off the ship a few hours ago, I need to be back on board in a few more hours, but gosh I think all of a sudden I feel ill and will go for a covid test!  Never gonna happen.  I concur with you, that this is yet one more anti-cruise move designed to discourage cruise ships from coming.  The government says it's open to cruise passengers but naaaaahhh, not really.  Thanks in advance!

[Jim_Iain]

No fair posting the Doggy pictures.     I would have volunteered to come over and take care of the cutie.

 

Bon Voyage.      Excited to read the next installment.

[nz1]

Hope you’re having a lovely cruise so far, Kim! I must say I’ve been very impressed with the service and food.

 

I didn’t want to hijack your thread with my many many food photos I was going to post so I’ve set up a separate thread just for those 😊

 

Hopefully meet you in Michael’s at some stage during the voyage! 🥂

[Redking]

32 minutes ago, nz1 said:

Hope you’re having a lovely cruise so far, Kim! I must say I’ve been very impressed with the service and food.

 

I didn’t want to hijack your thread with my many many food photos I was going to post so I’ve set up a separate thread just for those 😊

 

Hopefully meet you in Michael’s at some stage during the voyage! 🥂

It's been excellent. They can't do enough for you in Luminae and SO5 last night was wonderfull, I could have grazed all night and the Saki was 👌

 

Great you're leading the charge on the food front!

 

Hope to meet up soon.

[Redking]

4 hours ago, lexmiller said:

Hello, @Redking- can you please let us know how things went regarding this insurance issue with Fiji  - were you checked on boarding, is it actually an issue at all or are cooler minds prevailing?  What exactly is the procedure?  I believe Fiji is your first port of call......? Definitely want to hear about it, thank you!  I mean, it's absurd to think that Fijian government officials are going to sit around and evaluate every passenger's personal insurance policies!  And again as we've stated, we are in Fiji for a day, as cruise passengers - under no circumstance would covid insurance ever come into play in this actual situation.  If a passenger has covid, they wouldn't be allowed off the ship!  And no one is going to be like, oh wow, it's noon now on my one day in Fiji, I'm just got off the ship a few hours ago, I need to be back on board in a few more hours, but gosh I think all of a sudden I feel ill and will go for a covid test!  Never gonna happen.  I concur with you, that this is yet one more anti-cruise move designed to discourage cruise ships from coming.  The government says it's open to cruise passengers but naaaaahhh, not really.  Thanks in advance!

We weren't even asked about our insurance or covid tests on boarding. I'll let you know if we are asked prior to our arrival in Lautoka.

[nz1]

1 minute ago, Redking said:

It's been excellent. They can't do enough for you in Luminae and SO5 last night was wonderfull, I could have grazed all night and the Saki was 👌

 

Great you're leading the charge on the food front!

 

Hope to meet up soon.

That is great to hear! It’s certainly a lovely spot on SO5 with those sea views 😍

 

I think I’ve worked out the easiest way to post photos so when we meet I can show you 😊

[Redking]

It seems I've  managed to post my embarkation day review on @nz1 live food review for our cruise. Thanks for letting me know Brendan.

 

 

Absolutely nothing to do with hitting the cocktails too early on a sea day 🤣🍸🍹

[Redking]

After years of coveting, I finally pulled the trigger on a Mary Frances bag.

 

 

I may have agreed it was the bag OR spa treatments. We'll see!

[lexmiller]

11 hours ago, Redking said:

We weren't even asked about our insurance or covid tests on boarding. I'll let you know if we are asked prior to our arrival in Lautoka.

Thank you, Kim, as always.  Very much appreciated, looking forward to hearing what does or does not happen.  

[mchell810]

14 hours ago, Redking said:

It seems I've  managed to post my embarkation day review on @nz1 live food review for our cruise. Thanks for letting me know Brendan.

 

 

Absolutely nothing to do with hitting the cocktails too early on a sea day 🤣🍸🍹

 

Glad you made it safely on the ship .... I wouldn't have left my bags at that "dodgy truck" either ! 😜

 

Looking forward to reading more about your cruise.

 

[tcmagnum]

On 1/10/2023 at 8:41 PM, Redking said:

Itinerary

I’ll add more on this as we go.

The cruise is a 12-night round trip from Auckland calling at 2 ports in Fiji (both on the main island of Viti Levu), Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga. This will be our restart cruise (our last pre-Rona was the Tahitian Treasures on the Solstice) and doing a local cruise without the hassle of long-haul flights really appealed to us.

 

I am following this live feed closely.  My husband took me to the Cook Islands for our 25 anniversary.  Very interested in seeing more of the South Pacific!!
Can’t wait to see what your cruise brings you…

[Redking]

Sea Days One and Two

As I sit here enjoying our afternoon cheese and charcuterie plate, I can’t help but reflect on just how outstanding the service has been thus far.

Luminae

The staff in Luminae cannot do enough for us. Findlay could quite easily have nothing but the soups for lunch for the entire cruise. Bingo, Roberto our waiter was onto it. The past two days Findlay has been served “upsized” versions of the soup. In fact, today he had two bowls of upsized chicken consommé, the prefect remedy for a slight hangover after a fabulous night in Murano last night. I’m gluten intolerant though not coeliac and have always been well looked after on previous cruises. Roberto has taken it to a whole new level, planning ahead with me for our dinner plans in the coming days and arranging for gluten free versions of menu items on days we plan to dine in Luminae. This morning at breakfast I made my standard off menu request for some avocado to have on my toast. Roberto explained that he thought the fresh avocados onboard might not be ripe enough, but he’d go and check. As expected, the little green pears were not yet playing ball and he instead offered me some Guacamole as an alternative which I accepted. Guac on my toast with bacon might become my new normal! When I thanked him for going to so much effort, he said we never want to say no!

Sea Day One

We had a very relaxing day yesterday starting with breakfast in Luminae. We planned to skip lunch after having a big breakfast, but you know ……………………………. The compromise was that we selected soup and salads from the appetisers and we may have somehow slipped a dessert in there.

We then enjoyed a lazy afternoon chez nous which found me mixing a French Mule from our now completed bar set-up. Thank you to @groryjim for your cocktail tips. I’m loving the Difford’s website and am now the proud owner of the latest edition of the Difford’s tome. Cruise Critic is the source of so much information. Gordon our butler par excellence even delivered a proper cocktail shaker, no doubt after spying my pathetic plastic effort. He also dropped off a couple of martini glasses. Once again exceptional attention to detail.

Officers’ Soiree and Dinner at Murano

Five thirty swung around and it was time to head off to Michael’s Club for the Officers’ Soiree. We were greeted on arrival by Captain Theo or should I say, I knew it was Captain Theo. Findlay, not being diligent in reading his embarkation day reading material, reached out to shake his hand and promptly asked “and you are?” whilst checking out the Captain’s badge. I guess it could have been worse, he didn’t ask if he was the bloke that drives the boat! Drinks and canapes were wonderful and the Appletinis flowed per @NZ1 wonderful review. We caught up with a fun couple from Sydney that we met at lunch on the first day. We both had reservations at Murano, with ours being half an hour earlier than theirs. We’d not long sat down at our table when we saw them come in and we decided to dine together. A wonderful dinner was paired firstly with a Chateau Neuf La Bernadine (one we enjoy at home) and then with a Penfolds Bin 389. Fin had the goat’s cheese souffle, the lamb and Grand Marnier souffle. I had the crab parfait followed by the venison and the GM souffle. I’m hoping @NZ1 will do the honours on food pics from Murano. If not, do not despair we have another three reservations to come at Murano. We were the last to leave the restaurant and decided to head up to our suite with our new chums to give the Grand Marnier a further nudge. Hence the slight hangovers this morning.

Wrap up for today

I’m struggling a bit with wi-fi, so much for Starlink, so I’ll post this for now without the photos and then post some snaps separately. Brendan, looking forward to your tips on the photo situation. Some sleuthing from your post on last night means I likely have an ID on you!

Having had a wee snooze we’re ready to get our party game on again and head off to Tuscan tonight. I’ve not been that impressed with Tuscan on our last couple of cruises, so will report back on our thoughts tomorrow.

Cheers for now!

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Enjoying your posts and really appreciate the time you take to write them. Thank you so much!

[mchell810]

Your Murano dinner (and wine) sounds lovely.  Thanks for taking us along on you trip.

[NutsAboutGolf]

Wow, thanks for sharing!

[Redking]

Gliding past Viti Levu, Fiji.

 

First stop Lautoka 

 

[Redking]

Loving the colours in the sky.

 

[Redking]

Excited for Evening Chic night. Love a good dress up.

 

[Redking]

Love having a coffee machine and kettle in our suite. Enjoying our selection of Forte Teas.