Jump to content

Honolulu Blue

Members
  • Posts

    5,132
  • Joined

About Me

  • Location
    Michigan
  • Interests
    Music, cruising, the 80s
  • If you have a personal or hobby CRUISE or TRAVEL BLOG, include the url here:
    hbcruising.com

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

Honolulu Blue's Achievements

3,000+ Club

3,000+ Club (3/15)

  • Great Review Rare
  • "Live from...." Rare

Recent Badges

  1. Thank you kindly. 😀 BTW, I was not asked to report today and will not have to report tomorrow. Jury duty for me seems to be done. Who knows when I'll get called again?
  2. I have done some cruises on Princess and monitor the board here. All their ships have Starlink now, which helps. Most of the past complaints were about the Medallion app, which has been replaced. The speed is usually good, by cruise ship standards.
  3. Assembling some perfect experiences on Carnival cruises: Breakfast at the trough that includes bacon. A no bacon day already takes the shine off perfection, IMHO. Arriving into port no earlier than 8 AM. Earlier stops are not good for me, I've found. On sea days, a Morning Show that's filled with prizes and easy-to-answer questions Music trivia with selections that seem to come straight off my playlist. Music trivia from the 80s and 90s seems to be my jam. If you see me approaching, beware. 😈 (Journeys cruises only) Horse racing. I think this is fun to watch, even though I've never laid a bet down. But then, I like horse races on land. (Journeys cruises only) The social media lecture. It's always interesting to see the lecturer's spin on this - from building a better blog, to being an intermediate FB user, to social media security... these always seem to be unique from cruise to cruise Ribs ribs ribs - Short ribs, prime rib, or BBQ ribs for dinner (wherever) is always a winner with me Winning a few bucks on those games of chance Coming back from wherever I've been to find the room perfectly cleaned and made up
  4. I liked reading all these posts. Keep it up! I'll split this into two posts - one with a near perfect experience I had on a charter cruise that WAS NOT on Carnival, and one a combination of perfect experiences I've had on Carnival. OK, about that near perfect day on that charter cruise: Breakfast at the trough that's elevated from Carnival standards Hanging out somewhere quiet doing whatever Watching a concert by the pool stage around 10 More hanging around or retreating to the cabin Watching another concert either in the main theater or by the pool around noon or 1 PM Power nap if I have time Watching yet another concert by the pool either at 2 or 4 PM Sneaking in a simple dinner of a burger and fries. This part would be perfect if it were Guy's, but it's not. This wasn't a Carnival cruise, remember? A final concert in the main theater (or watching the main theater feed from my room) pumping out some more hot tunes from my youth
  5. Two options if your persuasion skills are low (like mine): As @navybankerteacher said, 5g should be available soon after you arrive on disembarkation day, with free WiFi available at the airport. Not free, but on my last Celebrity cruise, I was offered 1 hour of Premium Internet at $25 and 24 hours for $50. An hour seems like plenty to just check in for a flight, but maybe you can find some use for the extra 23 hours.
  6. Nothing to do with music, but I'd like to report on my experience with jury duty this morning. I reported to my appointed building. Yours truly and about 45 others were asked to report to a holding area where we were given instructions and general guidance about what was about to happen. An hour later, our judge, prosecutor, defense lawyer, and defendant (yes, it was a criminal case) showed up on the screen. Fourteen numbers were pulled, which made up the initial jury box. They got to go to the courtroom. Ten more numbers were pulled to be backups. They had separate seating in the courtroom. Many questions were asked by the judge, prosecutor, and defense lawyer. Some of the answers were disqualifying on the spot. Some of the potential jurors were excused by both lawyers based on their answers and other things. They ran out of backups and dug for 10 more. I was in this group of 10, having dodged the first two groups. So I got to go to the courtroom and watch the proceedings live. Still more questions were asked and one more person was picked from the backup pool to sit on the potential jury. It happened to be the guy sitting next to me. More questions and finally the lawyers on both sides decided they had enough jury strikes and found a 14-man lineup they could live with. For me, this ended jury duty for the day. I was told to call them and not to wait for a call from them. A little birdie told me that with what happened today and Friday being an off day for us (Good Friday), that it would be unlikely I would be called for another round of this this week. We shall see. I apologize for telling this story. I promise I'll have some more music and cruise related content soon. In the meantime, how about a picture of Jason Scheff of Generation Radio? I'd sure like to see him and his new band sometime - even if I have to suffer through a few Rascal Flatts songs to do so.
  7. I would choose a full Journeys cruise over a B2B any day of the week. Not that a B2B is bad (I hope to get on one eventually), but they do have some cons - turnaround day(s), same ol' ports, same ol' menus, similar entertainment, more kids, and a possibly rowdier crowd. I've done 7 Journeys cruises since Christine signed off on them several years ago. I generally agree with most of the pros and cons my colleagues have listed. The Journeys cruise @firefly333 described above was my last Journeys cruise, one we shared (though we didn't meet onboard). My story is considerably different than her story. I wrote about what happened to me in my live thread linked below. Give it a look if you've got some hours to spare. 🙂
  8. More small notes: According to an Internet rumor, the UDC is about 80% sold out. I got the news by text, e-mail, and phone message - I have to report for jury duty tomorrow morning. I have the usual mixed emotions on this. We'll see what happens on the morrow.
  9. I was recently on the Summit which had an adults-only sailing. I can't recall if it was 18+ or 21+. This was a charter sailing and the age limit was set by the chartering company. The Summit is a popular ship to be chartered and many, if not most, charters are adults only. I have no opinion on whether Celebrity should designate more routes or entire ships as adults only.
  10. I've done seven of them. They're a lot of fun and offer plenty of everything else I want in a cruise.
  11. To be brief: * As others have mentioned, Carnival is all about FUN. They have lots of fun activities onboard (IMHO) and attract passengers who like to have fun. * The Journeys cruises Carnival offers really are different from what other cruise lines offer and are especially attractive to me.
  12. Quickie notes; apologies for any duplication: San Juan, PR: More Latinos, fewer kids, better behaved kids, somewhat better dressed, more dance classes, nightclub venues more crowded, ship busier late night Galveston, TX: Lots of Texans, friendlier, more open, more country music I haven't found anything notable about any of the Florida ports, San Pedro, or Vancouver.
  13. Take 'em to the brig. If that doesn't scare the kids and set expectations for the parents, then they're both beyond hope.
  14. Early June might be all right, since some school districts are still working until then. Late August is probably safer, for reasons mentioned by other posters.
  15. Sadly, yes. I was recently on a themed cruise that was HUGE into decorated cabin doors (they even had a contest awarding $$$ to the winners). I heard multiple reports on their FB page that the decorations of others had been damaged, vandalized, stolen, or destroyed. 🤬
×
×
  • Create New...