twangster

Some takeaways...
1. If a future transpacific has an overnight stop in Hawaii don't plan 3rd party excursions for the morning on the arrival day as you may have to wait to go through CBP clearance like we did.  A number of guests had booked something and were mumbling about missing them or trying to manage being late for their 3rd party excursions.  
2. For these very long cruises the cost of Voom can be prohibitive but if you need to be connected it can't be beat.  GigSky or any other services that leverage the onboard cellular for data connectivity may be a less expensive option on these long cruises but, depending on your cabin relative to the onboard microcell, it may not work all the time.  If you truly want set it and forget internet connectivity, Voom is worth the price.  
3. I had no issues using corporate VPN and staying connected day after day.  Once in awhile my VPN would drop but it does that on land sometimes too.  
4. I've done so many Caribbean cruises.  It was great to venture out to experience a different part of the world.  I really enjoyed this transpacific more than the transatlantics I've done.  I've already booked two more transpacifics.  
5. I probably spent too long trying to figure out which side of the of the ship would be best when I booked this.  I chose port side for the sunsets.  The sun is hot near the equator which meant the afternoon sun was very strong on my balcony.  It was too strong at times and I had to retreat inside and close the curtains to keep the cabin cool.  I'm going to try the sunrise side of the ship for my Australia bound transpacific.  I tend to get up early so that will be a sunrise cruise.  Hopefully the morning sun won't be as hot.   
6. Quantum has a fantastic crew.  I don't recall ever having a negative crew interaction.  Well done.
7. A tidbit from Captain's Corner.  The fuel bill for this repo from Australia to Hawaii was around $1.5M USD.  The headwind we encountered added roughly $10k USD per day to that fuel bill, on the days we had to battle the wind.   
8. I often see questions about the Pacific and how rough the seas may be.  The name of the ocean should itself be a hint to the answer.  Any large body of water can involve swell based on weather systems active at the time.  The Pacific is no more or less prone to rough seas compared to any other large body of water.  I can't recall any days that took any guest out of action during this voyage.  Don't fear the Pacific, as its name suggests it can be quite peaceful.  
9. The non-smoking casino was outstanding. 
My first transpacific was a success and I look forward to returning for another. 
I hope this has been informative and I thank you for viewing,

Kind of how I feel about the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Time to venture further away.

During this voyage I tested an alternative to Voom called GigSky.  It uses the onboard cell towers for data.
Here is my review of GigSky.
 

Some takeaways...
1. If a future transpacific has an overnight stop in Hawaii don't plan 3rd party excursions for the morning on the arrival day as you may have to wait to go through CBP clearance like we did.  A number of guests had booked something and were mumbling about missing them or trying to manage being late for their 3rd party excursions.  
2. For these very long cruises the cost of Voom can be prohibitive but if you need to be connected it can't be beat.  GigSky or any other services that leverage the onboard cellular for data connectivity may be a less expensive option on these long cruises but, depending on your cabin relative to the onboard microcell, it may not work all the time.  If you truly want set it and forget internet connectivity, Voom is worth the price.  
3. I had no issues using corporate VPN and staying connected day after day.  Once in awhile my VPN would drop but it does that on land sometimes too.  
4. I've done so many Caribbean cruises.  It was great to venture out to experience a different part of the world.  I really enjoyed this transpacific more than the transatlantics I've done.  I've already booked two more transpacifics.  
5. I probably spent too long trying to figure out which side of the of the ship would be best when I booked this.  I chose port side for the sunsets.  The sun is hot near the equator which meant the afternoon sun was very strong on my balcony.  It was too strong at times and I had to retreat inside and close the curtains to keep the cabin cool.  I'm going to try the sunrise side of the ship for my Australia bound transpacific.  I tend to get up early so that will be a sunrise cruise.  Hopefully the morning sun won't be as hot.   
6. Quantum has a fantastic crew.  I don't recall ever having a negative crew interaction.  Well done.
7. A tidbit from Captain's Corner.  The fuel bill for this repo from Australia to Hawaii was around $1.5M USD.  The headwind we encountered added roughly $10k USD per day to that fuel bill, on the days we had to battle the wind.   
8. I often see questions about the Pacific and how rough the seas may be.  The name of the ocean should itself be a hint to the answer.  Any large body of water can involve swell based on weather systems active at the time.  The Pacific is no more or less prone to rough seas compared to any other large body of water.  I can't recall any days that took any guest out of action during this voyage.  Don't fear the Pacific, as its name suggests it can be quite peaceful.  
9. The non-smoking casino was outstanding. 
My first transpacific was a success and I look forward to returning for another. 
I hope this has been informative and I thank you for viewing,

On the morning of departure I was originally thinking of scurrying off early to beat the crowds and getting through CBP quickly then I realized we had already done CBP.  This wasn't going to be a normal disembarkation zoo.
I had my final Chops Pinnacle breakfast as I had many mornings on board and then I leisurely made my way off with a handful of other people.  No lines, no waiting to debark.   It was quite pleasant.
Twenty three nights in a carry on sized piece of luggage.  Not bad! I may have finally figured out how not to overpack.


I checked my bag both ways simply so I wouldn't have to deal with it when I had multiple layovers and connections.
On the day of departure they had moved a walkway over to deck 5.  I guess so boarding passengers could get the best welcome aboard treatment?  The day before we used deck 2 and a simple gangway.

The cruise terminal in Honolulu was making ready for the soon to be arriving guests boarding for the ship on the way up to Vancouver.


I forgot HNL was an open air airport.

I had made it to the airport in record time and with nearly five hours to my departure it was already getting a little warm.  I didn't want to be covered in sweat for the long flights and multiple connections to reach Florida so I sought a lounge in the center court for the air conditioning.


My chariot.

Departure time lapse:

HNLTL.mp4.e047b76d980147ce9c1ec55c2fcf161c.mp4 The other side, the left side of the plane, probably got the better view on this day.
 

Cruise booked as they say things get better as they age. At least that’s what my wife says about her😂😂😂

Cabin decor remains the same as does the decor in areas like elevator lobbies.
The amplification in 2019 was pretty amazing.  It focused on guests venues as opposed inside guests cabins.  Caribbean pool, slides, Playmakers, PortSide BBQ etc.
If you don't mind the cabins being pretty much the same as they have always been, Oasis is in great shape with many modern or current venues.    The new Aqua show is one of the best.

Fabulous! Thank you for taking the time to do this and all the wonderful photos. 

Thank you very much for your blog. It was very insightful, informative and full of wonderful pictures. Love the food pictures, too.

During this voyage I tested an alternative to Voom called GigSky.  It uses the onboard cell towers for data.
Here is my review of GigSky.
 

Some takeaways...
1. If a future transpacific has an overnight stop in Hawaii don't plan 3rd party excursions for the morning on the arrival day as you may have to wait to go through CBP clearance like we did.  A number of guests had booked something and were mumbling about missing them or trying to manage being late for their 3rd party excursions.  
2. For these very long cruises the cost of Voom can be prohibitive but if you need to be connected it can't be beat.  GigSky or any other services that leverage the onboard cellular for data connectivity may be a less expensive option on these long cruises but, depending on your cabin relative to the onboard microcell, it may not work all the time.  If you truly want set it and forget internet connectivity, Voom is worth the price.  
3. I had no issues using corporate VPN and staying connected day after day.  Once in awhile my VPN would drop but it does that on land sometimes too.  
4. I've done so many Caribbean cruises.  It was great to venture out to experience a different part of the world.  I really enjoyed this transpacific more than the transatlantics I've done.  I've already booked two more transpacifics.  
5. I probably spent too long trying to figure out which side of the of the ship would be best when I booked this.  I chose port side for the sunsets.  The sun is hot near the equator which meant the afternoon sun was very strong on my balcony.  It was too strong at times and I had to retreat inside and close the curtains to keep the cabin cool.  I'm going to try the sunrise side of the ship for my Australia bound transpacific.  I tend to get up early so that will be a sunrise cruise.  Hopefully the morning sun won't be as hot.   
6. Quantum has a fantastic crew.  I don't recall ever having a negative crew interaction.  Well done.
7. A tidbit from Captain's Corner.  The fuel bill for this repo from Australia to Hawaii was around $1.5M USD.  The headwind we encountered added roughly $10k USD per day to that fuel bill, on the days we had to battle the wind.   
8. I often see questions about the Pacific and how rough the seas may be.  The name of the ocean should itself be a hint to the answer.  Any large body of water can involve swell based on weather systems active at the time.  The Pacific is no more or less prone to rough seas compared to any other large body of water.  I can't recall any days that took any guest out of action during this voyage.  Don't fear the Pacific, as its name suggests it can be quite peaceful.  
9. The non-smoking casino was outstanding. 
My first transpacific was a success and I look forward to returning for another. 
I hope this has been informative and I thank you for viewing,

Airport Transfer in Honolulu.
I used Lyft as my airport transfer.
I had checked out the rates after clearing CBP on day 20 and as expected Lyft was cheaper than Uber.
On the morning of departure it was even cheaper than the day before.

Let's talk about Voom.
In summary, it was great the whole cruise.
Royal Caribbean's marketing name for the internet access they offer on board their ships is Voom.  It is purely a marketing name. 
These days Voom is powered by Starlink and that has been a game changer.
For the entirety of this cruise it worked flawlessly and consistently.   
Royal caps the per user speed.  That defies modern thinking on preventing wireless congestion but it is what it is.  I do this sort of thing for living, we've done the tests and we know the outcome.  Nonetheless, Royal caps per users speeds.  This is a Voom limitation, not a Starlink limitation.  I have Starlink as my backup home internet to my primary fiber internet service.  
Here is a typical Voom speed test from many different ships including Quantum.

Starlink uses regional gateway cities as a means to get the signal back down to earth from the satellites flying in a constellation overhead.  Where you as a Starlink connected user will connect to the internet on land varies depending where you are located.  
At my home in Florida I tend to connect VIA Miami.  If I moved my Starlink gear to Georgia, I would probably connect through Atlanta.  
When a ship uses Starlink a similar concept occurs.  Starlink will connect the ship to the internet at the nearest Starlink gateway city that is optimal for that moment in time usually based on where the ship is positioned.  For ships sailing short Florida routes they often use Miami.  For ships in Europe, they may use a Starlink gateway in Germany or the UK depending where they are located.
On this journey I first boarded the ship in Brisbane.   We were using Sydney as our Starlink gateway city.  This continued until we were crossing the Tasman Sea.  At some point the algorithm decided that Auckland would be the best Starlink gateway city.  
We remained using Auckland as our Starlink gateway city as we sailed through French Polynesia to the Equator.   I was not awake at 4AM when we crossed the Equator but when I did wake up a few hours later we were now using Los Angeles as our Starlink gateway city.
At this moment in time we were nearly equidistant between Auckland and Los Angeles.   


Despite being over 3,000 statute miles away from Auckland or Los Angeles, Voom continued to work flawlessly.  
On the morning of Raiatea we encountered heavy rain.  Starlink powered Voom continued to work flawlessly. In the olden days before Starlink, Voom on many Royal ships was powered by O3B using a legacy satellite connection.  I have been in less rain than we encountered in Raiatea and observed the old O3B Voom completely fail.  That was due to a concept called rain fade.  Happily Starlink was never impacted by rain fade at any point during this cruise even when it did rain, heavy at times.  

The ship had special presenters on board for a series of enrichment talks and events specific to the nature of this transpacific.  I missed these due to working remotely but here are some of the events as captured in the Royal app.







Sailing from Australia also saw the Anzac Dawn Ceremony on Anzac day.

Lastly, here is an activity you just don't see in the Caribbean and I fear we are the lesser for that.

The last night on the ship I had another burger in the pub to use up a $25 Pinnacle food credit.


 

There was some liquid sunshine briefly so I waited a bit before heading out.



I've done the standard Oahu touristy things before so I had no distinct plans today.  I walked over to a park I had seen during our sail in.







It was getting hot.  Really hot.  Being a Sunday morning not a lot was open.  So I headed back to the ship.
Upon my return I found some bird brain was using my balcony!

CBP processing was ongoing with announcements for new groups to make their way to the SeaPlex past noon.  It's a long process for this many people.

This morning everyone needs to be processed by Customs and Border Protection before they can get off the ship.  On this day CBP came on board the ship, we didn't go into the terminal to be processed.  A letter sent to each cabin provided a time slot and these were enforced.  
There was time for a leisurely breakfast and then we waited for the announcements to commence. 
On this occasion CBP was set up in the SeaPlex.  I was in group 4, or that was my designated group.  Slightly early groups 1 & 2 were announced over the PA.  Elevators stopped at deck 14 and everyone needed to walk up one flight of stairs to deck 15.  For anyone who couldn't use stairs there was a crewed elevator to get you to deck 15.
To walk up to deck 15 you had to show the letter with appropriate group number, sea pass card and passport.  We entered the SeaPlex having had our letter inspected for the proper group numbers and we snaked around to the far corner where we entered the floor of the SeaPlex.  We scanned our Seapass cards as if were getting on or off and at this point US citizens and green card holders were directed into one queue, everyone else into another.
Not long after I walked up to an agent, provided my US passport and was processed.  Simple and painless.  
On the way out my SeaPass card was marked so it was clear I had been processed by CBP and now I was free to leave the ship.  

As the sun continued to lift itself up in the sky we continued towards our berth at the cruise ship terminal.

Day Twenty
Honolulu, Hawaii
Up early to catch our arrival before the break of dawn.

I've run out of things to take pictures of so it will have to be sunsets since sunrises occur on the starboard side.








I saw the green flash.

Day Something.
At Sea.  Still.
Thought I'd take North Star for a spin at sea for the extended version at a cost of $32.



The extended version swings out over the sides of the ship.

Sonic Odyssey
I actually enjoyed this show.  If you are they type of person who seeks a plot and a storyline, like a Hallmark movie, where you can predict nearly every scene, and you know the ending before the movie starts, that isn't Royal Caribbean Entertainment.   





I love live string music so I liked a lot about this show.

From my balcony:



I started to see some stars being turned on.




Time for bed.

Another sea day, another beautiful sunset.

Day Sixteen
The Crossing Ceremony
Technically we haven't crossed the Equator yet and won't until around 4 AM the next morning, but who wants to get up at 4 AM to look out at a dark sea?

This is the busiest I ever saw the pool deck get on this cruise.


In maritime folklore, a Pollywog is a sailor who has never crossed the Equator on a ship while a Shellback is a sailor who has.  This ceremony is to graduate Pollywogs into Shellbacks.  

First some guest Pollywogs are initiated.  They caught anyone cutting the line in the Windjammer and forced them to participate.  Just kidding.  Participation voluntary.

King Neptune required they kissed the fish.  Some cruisers embraced this, a little too much.   You can stop now.

Next crew Pollywogs would get much it worse than, but including kissing the fish.

Eggs on the head.


Followed by pasta.


Then sauce and flour.

For the crew it's as much a team building exercise as it is anything else.


Proof of life:

CrossingCeremony.mp4.87e8c1c644adc4994a94471378e11ec1.mp4