Morning in Sydney
Our first task for the morning was completing our COVID tests. J. R. was up early and completed his, testing negative, which relaxed Janie. She took hers and passed so we were cleared for the cruise. We walked to a corner cafe for breakfast and it was disappointing as compared to the Pancakes on the Rocks. Most of the waffles and pancakes were loaded with ice cream and the omelette was overcooked. We returned to the hotel and moved some items we wanted into our carry-on bag and went down at 11 to wait to board the Celebrity Eclipse at 12:30. We talked to a man sitting in the lobby and his wife came back from dropping off their luggage and said they were already boarding the ship, so we dragged our bags down to the passenger terminal. First we had to drop off our bags with the porter and then headed into the terminal. Next we had to show our New Zealand ESTA and our negative COVID tests. Then there was another line for immigration and then one for security and then another to check in and then we were aboard the Eclipse.
Afternoon on the Eclipse
We tried to go to our muster station but they were not ready so we went to the room and dropped off our carry-on, got our SeaPass cards and logged into Wi-Fi before going up to the Oceanview Cafe for lunch. We walked around the ship for awhile after lunch, finished our muster drill, then returned to our room. Our bags were late in coming but our stateroom host said he would go find them and he came back with them pretty quickly. We unpacked everything and changed for dinner and went to the martini bar to get a drink.
Sailing away from Australia
We headed upstairs to watch the sailaway from the upper deck as we left Australia behind and began our 18-night cruise across the Pacific.
Dinner in Blu
We chose to skip the show with Chantelle Delaney tonight in favor of heading to dinner after the sailaway since a 7:30 show would put us at dinner at 8:30 with Blu closing at 9. Since they delayed the show to 7:30 to allow for the sailaway, then should have kept the restaurant open a half hour later since they could have opened it a half-hour later as well since it was boarding day. Our first night in Blu was a little rocky. The hostess couldn't find our names on the list. We later learned there was another party with the same last name in Aqua Class as well and that was what messed her up as they had already eaten.
After dinner, we considered going to the late show or to the Silent Disco, but we were both pretty tired so we opted to get a nightcap and go to our room and have a drink on our balcony.
