Boarding. We had splurged for Aqua class tickets and our printout said we could board at 11.30 am .We decided we would go straight from our hotel and find a place to chill out for an hour or so before boarding time .I always like Circular Quay .I am a boat man and I can watch the comings and goings for hours .We were surprised to find a bit of activity at our designated queue line and at about 10.30 it looked like we were going to board.

Processing was quite painless as Celebrity had about 20 stations to take particulars .All went quite smoothly apart for one small exception that my wife discovered and that was that we had been given someone else's onboard passes. The young lady who checked us in was a learner. We went aboard early, why?

On Board .We were given the obligatory glass of sparkling wine as we went on board and sat down to take note of our surroundings .An announcement was made that our cabins would be available at 1.30 pm and that the buffet was open and that we should explore the ship in the meantime .In due course we learnt that the ship has suffered what was suspected to be cases of Norvovirus on its trip from Hawaii and that the ship was having a major cleanup .That is not the announcement that everyone likes to hear but there is very little you can do about it.It was stressed that strict hygiene should be observed at all times .I couldn'thelp noticing that some people were still blase about washing their hands before eating at the buffet .The clean up was evidently successful because I was not aware of any cases of sickness for the trip. Read more