Dialysis at Sea: South Pacific

For some reason, I can’t get Dialysis at Sea out of my mind. Initially I thought it was crazy to go on a cruise while on dialysis, but there is really no way to travel internationally otherwise. I’m going to plan out one of the more exotic trips to see if it will actually work for me, ignoring the fact I need to go back to work. There is a cruise on Celebrity Solstice from Auckland to Sydney departing on March 10, 2020.

Since Auckland is super far and 21 hours ahead, I would have to leave on March 8th to make it there by March 10th. The cheapest flight option is AA 83, which may be a Quantas flight, on a Boeing 787. It departs at 11:05 pm from LAX and arrives at 8:40 am two days later. The ship departs Auckland at 6:00 pm so plenty of time to get from the airport to the ship terminal. Since I had dialysis on Saturday, March 7th, if I can get a session onboard either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, it should be fine. The cruise is 10-days long which means 4-5 dialysis sessions onboard.

The cruise arrives Sydney at 6:30 am on March 20th. AA 72 departs at 11:15 am and arrives in LAX at 7:05 am the same day due to the time difference. Total airfare in economy is only $916. Upgrading to premium economy will cost $2,928 total. Pretty expensive but may be worth it since the flights (direct) are so long.

Dialysis at Sea has the starting price for the cruise at $1,824 while Celebrity has $899. Assuming the dialysis premium is ~$1,000 and remains constant instead of scaling with Celebrity’s prices, to get a room with a balcony/veranda for either one or two people will cost ~$3,500 or ~$4,500 through Dialysis at Sea. So for two people flying premium economy and staying in a balcony room onboard, it will cost ~$11,000 total including tip and drinks. Very expensive but totally doable.