Honolulu Blue

I found the time to sign up and pay for VIP access to Paula Abdul at her concert in Columbus on August 23. It cost $333 and includes a little more than I thought it did. Taking it directly from the Ticketmaster site: "FOREVER YOUR GIRL" MEET & GREET UPGRADE - Official Meet & Greet with Paula Abdul! - Strike a pose with Paula - receive one Polaroid photo AND one professional individual photo with Paula Abdul. Your favorite dance move is welcome!* - Autograph session - bring your favorite memorabilia to be signed by Paula Abdul** - One special Paula Abdul jewelry charm - Commemorative VIP laminate & lanyard - Dedicated VIP road crew available on-site to ensure a smooth concert experience - On-site perks such as priority check-in, VIP priority lane into the venue for ease of entry, and an on-site customer service mobile number *One Polaroid and one professional photo per transaction **Limit of one item signed per guest. All items are subject to review. Any prohibited items will not be allowed into the venue or meet & greet area, in accordance with venue policies. Please check your venue policy for more information on prohibited items. Some comments: I assume the meet & greet, photos, etc. are after the concert, though they could schedule it before. I'll let you know for sure when I find out. Polaroid? Really?? Polaroids were out of fashion when Paula was hot, and I don't think they've gotten any more popular in the 30+ years since then. I'd rather have a selfie; it would save a step. The autograph session was not mentioned in previous notices about this VIP session. It's nice. I'll have to find something for her to sign. I have the "Forever Your Girl" CD; I'm sure she'll see A LOT of those. 🙃 It's nice that I get VIP access for the venue through this. I'm not sure how many of its services I'll need to use. I'm not a big lanyard wearer, but on this occasion it's appropriate to have one. I might even wear it. The charm... whatever. I'll probably give it away as a gift. Overall I'm very happy to be able to add to my concert experience with this VIP package. Thanks Paula! Don't underestimate how much I like and have liked Ms. Abdul and her music. I like her more than Sheena Easton, and I'm sure you're sick of me talking about her. 😄

We all have different definitions of luxury, though in the examples you gave, we aren't as different as you might think. Balconies I don't see as especially luxurious. I'm sure there are others here that see them more as "necessities" than "luxuries". I do see suites as luxuries, and also butlers. But butlers are a prime example of a luxury that's wasted on me, for some of the reasons you listed, among others.

I agree with this. I assume this data is kept internally by the cruise lines. I'm not sure how to monetize this, but I'm surprised no one has tried. It would be interesting data to see. I'm at exactly 30 cruises and have missed only one port, Nassau.

Not me. Comfort is more important to me than luxury. Most luxurious touches are wasted on me, and this is true on a cruise as on any other vacation - or indeed real life. To each his own.

Thank you both!

Thank you! I indeed had a great time on the McDonald LaBelle Cruise. And I apologize - I said I'd link my posts in the other thread. I should do that now. My report is in the linked post and the one after it:

Thanks for the detail. It could be the fact that Bug is hairless that makes them OK. It's possible that there's an exception for officers, or maybe just captains. If so, I'm certain that wouldn't be the only rule that doesn't apply to them. Thank you. Parrots have a long history of accompanying crew on ships, at least in the media. Did Robert Louis Stevenson start this? I'm too lazy to look it up.

I find it quite interesting that there's at least one eyewitness saying that Captain Kate says Celebrity captains CAN drink if they want, but other eyewitnesses saying that they were told the policy is that Celebrity captains CANNOT drink at all when onboard. I don't care if they do or not, but I am curious about the answer. Also, Kate seems to be one of the few captains that have a pet onboard. The vast majority of crew don't have pets (thank goodness) and even the passengers can't have pets (though, of course, service animals are allowed). I wonder what exception to the rule book this falls under - the "only for Kate" subsection, or the "only for captains" subsection.

Here's a picture from the Sheena Easton concert on The 80s Cruise that ECP took. I'm somewhere in this crowd. Good luck finding me! 🙃

Oh happy day - The 80s Cruise released their photos on the heels of Rock & Romance. In going through them (they're generally more organized than the R&R group - not only grouped by day, but by activity), I'm featured in one and in the background of 5 more. Covering the background first - I'm in three of the Sheena Easton concert photos on day 1. Since I was standing in the second row, I guess I was hard to miss. I'm also in two of the photos at Sheena's interview on day 3. I was pretty close to being up front there also. The one where I'm featured is in the Stephen Pearcy breakfast group on day 2. It's not a large group (less than 50), so @NinS, that's probably the one you want to sift through if you want to know what I look like. Also, there weren't any pictures of the Animotion concert on day 1, or any of the early show concerts, which was slightly disappointing. ☹️

I'm not in any of the featured photos.

A couple of items caught my eye. First, the 70s Rock and Romance Cruise released their official photos from this year's edition at 2024 Cruise Photos | Rock and Romance Cruise. I didn't see @George C or his lovely wife, though I could have missed them. I saw one of me. I'm in the foreground of one of the photos in the day 7 group. I'm not sure what concert I was at; probably Creedence Revived, but I'm not certain. The other is that I received an official (group) e-mail from Jazz Cruises thanking me for attending the McDonald LaBelle Cruise. Unlike ECP and possibly others, they don't do surveys, instead preferring to have us e-mail Michael Lazaroff directly. Interesting. Another interesting thing is that we, as guests of the MLC, get some perks for booking one of the 2025 cruises: The Jazz Cruise - invitation to the Big Band and Hall of Fame Show rehearsals Botti At Sea and Journey of Jazz - reserved seats In addition, those who choose to sign up for the Smooth Jazz Cruise 2026 pre-sale will have the highest priority for reserving a cabin on one of those cruises. They're for new bookings only and can't be combined with any other offer.

Thanks for the food details! I imagine the MDR was busier on the McDonald LaBelle Cruise and most of my other cruises. You can probably figure out why. There was a lot of meat on the O'Sheehan's lunch and dinner menus. I'm a big meat eater, but don't eat fish or shellfish at all. That must be why I liked it. I haven't done any specialty dining on any of these music charters. I keep saying I'm going to try it, but scheduling is a problem - my evening concerts are usually around 6, which is about when the better restaurants open. I've heard it's best to reserve early for the maximum selection of times, but those schedules come out only a few weeks beforehand. I might surprise everyone and do it sometime. One never knows. I mostly dine at the trough on these music cruises with occasional dabbles with room service and my adventures with O'Sheehan's. I've only done one regular cruise on HAL, and I didn't think the food was notably good. I think Celebrity has the best food. NCL, Royal, and Princess are in a group behind Celebrity, IMHO.

Sorry for the late follow up. I've been busy with other things. Thank you for your input, as always. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy most of the NCL food when you sailed on the Pearl. Where did you eat? Buffet? MDR? Specialty restaurants?? I think I found a good thing in O'Sheehans and I hope it stays good for my cruise on the UDC in February. 🙏 I'm still not sure if I want to head out for the Doobie Brothers in concert. There do seem to be some good tickets in the places I might go. I read about the Guess Who mess on the CBN or CBC site. It's a cluster and I feel sorry for everyone involved. Randy Bachman was pretty good. Let's close this with another picture of him.

No, I don't live in Hawaii. I'm from Michigan. Some of us have a desire to get away from the cold this time of year (though it's not cold today), given any little excuse.