Honolulu Blue

To me it's amusing, humbling, and reassuring (yes, all at the same time 🙃) to imagine Mr. Lange at the trough of some random Princess ship, surrounded by fans and no-so-fans. Congratulations on getting a picture with him! I'm sure you'll treasure it forever.

I'll define a "long period" as the closing of the same venue by the same group multiple hours per day multiple times on a cruise. I can't say that I have seen it happen on any of my cruises. This takeover by Park West is as extreme as I have seen, which is why I'm still here.

The 80s Cruise announced their last theme for 2025 - Video Killed the Radio Star, covering all those cute videos from the decade. ECP also announced that Adam Ant will be performing at least one of the main theater shows on that day. Hmmm... I can start to piece out a calendar now: Day 1, embarkation in Miami - Back to the 80s Night Day 2, Nassau - theme TBD Day 3, at sea - Fat Tuesday Prom Day 4, San Juan - Video Killed the Radio Star, Main theater - Adam Ant for both shows? Day 5, at sea - theme TBD Day 6, Puerto Plata - Pop Icon Night Day 7, at sea - no theme Christopher Cross seems to be a natural for one of the slots on Yacht Rock night, whenever it is. The other performers aren't obvious matches for any of the themes.

Thanks for sharing all of this! I'm sorry it took me so long to reply. I'm glad you enjoyed my report, but I'll take my hugs from Paula in lieu of anyone's report. 🙂 More about her later in this post. Yeah, New Kids have still got it - The Right Stuff, as they would say. How about another photo because why not? I don't see a lot of room for a band the way this stage was designed, but I'm sure they could have had one if they really wanted one. I'm hoping against hope for En Vogue to come to one of my chosen music themed cruises sometimes. They're actually coming to one of our local Native American casino-hotels next month. Ticket prices are affordable. I wouldn't have to stay overnight. I don't know if they have VIP opportunities and I don't know if I'd be interested if they had one. I might pull the trigger on this; stay tuned for details. And now, back to Paula. I found an article on Deadline.com (Paula Abdul Cancels Canada Tour Over Recent Injuries (deadline.com) ) about her upcoming tour to Canada. It's now not going to happen due to some injuries and the surgery and recovery time to follow. ☹️ Get well soon. I swear! It wasn't my hugs that caused her to get hurt!! 😁

I've been on charter cruises where there were prizes for best decorated cabin doors. Oh, and thanks everyone for your replies in this thread and in the poll. Keep 'em coming!

I was on the Emerald last month. I pre purchased the Internet plan. Streaming and general surfing was OK wherever I did it, including my interior cabin on Baja.

@geoherb: I'm glad you enjoyed your dinner at the Gastropub. I remain a big fan of the lemon posset. Interesting numbers from your cruise. Thank you for sharing them. I wonder what they were on mine a few weeks ago. I missed our Captain's Circle party. It's been a good read so far. Keep on keeping on. 👍

I got my folio from last month's cruise on the Emerald before I disembarked.

Congratulations on the casino win! On simulcasting the Air Supply concert, I have been on several music charters where they simulcast the main theater concerts to the cabins but not to the public areas (which had other events going on).

Thanks for sharing this. "You will come to a place where the only thing you feel are loaded guns to your face, and you'll have to deal with PRESSURE" - Billy Joel

True, but Enchanted doesn't have the Gastropub.

I've thought about this some in recent days. I have done quite a few cruises over the past decade. I like to think I've chosen my experiences with care. The regrets I have are few. Let's take a brief look at mine: That one time I let the ship sail without me. I once gambled on a flight that got in late to the cruise port on embarkation day and lost. ☹️ The cruise line actually gave me FCC for my no-show, which minimized my losses. This experience saw me tweak my future flight experiences. I wish I could have taken more cruises between the restart and mid-2023. I especially would like to have done more of the Princess 80s themed cruises they had during that time period. They offered 9 or 10 and I could only take two. The first music themed cruise I booked I thought I had to cancel because I wasn't sure the chartering company would cancel soon enough. They canceled a week later. I had CFAR insurance, which refunded me about as much as I paid in. I ended up getting back on this cruise (delayed by a year) in a similar cabin and having the time of my life. Those are my boring, convoluted tales about my cruising regrets. I'm sure yours are more interesting. Please share them! Maybe I can learn something from them. Thank you very much!!

For those of you who can't see the poll question, it's how often do you decorate your cabin door on a cruise? And the choices are always or almost always, sometimes (as often as not), rarely, and never. I think I know how the results from this grizzled veteran group are going to go, but there's always the chance for a surprise. BTW, be sure to count all forms of decorations - from magnets to a full door covering, cruise line provided or brought from home. Anyway, I was inspired by a nice article on door decorating by Megan duBois at The Points Guy, which has door decorating rules by cruise line and general tips. You can find it at this link: Door decorations on cruises: How to get creative in your cabin corridor - The Points Guy . Thank you in advance for satisfying my curiosity!

Random Phil Collins songs happen to be my specialty. Too bad we didn't team up. ☹️ Keep up the good work!

That's how they enjoy themselves, showing their superiority and informing others of the same.

I am thankful for those that came here, because I would not have heard about this situation had it not been mentioned here. 👍

While certain people here are getting excited about the Love Boat themed cruise that will be embarking and sailing tomorrow, I was tipped off by one of those YouTube vloggers, who was tipped off by a local talk show appearance by Jill Whelan, that there will be another Love Boat themed sailing on November 16, 2025 out of Galveston on the Regal Princess. It will be a 7-day sailing that visits Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Mahogany Bay. I didn't see a press release on this yet, but the cruise now features "Love Boat" prominently in its description: Cruise Details - 7-Day Western Caribbean - The Love Boat Celebration at Sea - Princess Cruises You can see the details at Themed Cruises – On Board Special Events - Princess Cruises . It looks similar to what's on offer for this upcoming LB cruise, though I don't see the mention of a VIP package here. They do mention "other surprise guests to be announced". Tomorrow's cruise will have Air Supply. Will this cruise get... Charo?? Thank you for reading. You Love Boat superfans (the ones that aren't busy traveling) know what to do. Now to find that roll call to tell them the good news...

My one and only trip on the Millie was in November 2022. I thought she was a nice ship and well kept - almost as nice as the Summit.

Because I have a few spare moments, I want to take this time to take an inventory of my currently scheduled 2025 music themed cruises: The 90s Cruise (January-February) - I haven't received any occupancy bulletins for this one, which seems to imply that it's less than 80% sold. That has to be a little disappointing to ECP, since TEC and STTC both at 90%+ occupied. We'll see how full it is in a few months. Ultimate Disco Cruise (February) - Sold out The 80s Cruise (March) - 90% full Super Legends Cruise (September) - The edition that I'm on is sold out; they're currently taking buyers for a simultaneous cruise with most of the same acts scheduled to appear. I continue to waste time about how this is all going to work out. I should just have faith things are going to work out, right? Unless someone puts out a killer lineup, that's probably it for 2025 and I should concentrate on making room for 2026.

I'm sorry you had to deal with this. I'll file this as reason #18 that I pack as little as I can and avoid such messes. I will also add this to Elevator Horror Stories Digest #44. Thanks again for giving us the ending to your story.

I suppose you can interpret it that way, if you really want an upgrade.

Sixthman snuck in a couple of pre-bookings for music themed cruises that haven't been previously announced. Both are heading to Alaska from Seattle. There's the SeaBisco featuring the Disco Biscuits. Yeah, I never heard of them either. 😦 They'll be heading to Juneau, Sitka, and Victoria on the Norwegian Jade on September 9-15, 2025. No other artists have been announced yet, but they promise an "all-star lineup". Don't they all? And there's Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea Alaska on September 15-21, 2025. They didn't mention their stops or their ship, but considering it's right behind the SeaBisco cruise and the same length, I would assume that it will be the same. But I could be wrong and they could use another NCL ship and/or make different stops. Anyway, the previous edition in the Caribbean in March has already booked solid, so that bodes well for this edition.

Thank you for committing to sharing your adventures on this cruise live. I did a live a few weeks ago on a similar cruise, though we only share one stop (Halifax). Congrats on the graduation cruise! Be sure to say hi to Allison and Ilana and their respective groups if you happen to see them.

I received an e-mail from the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise with an announcement for their January 24-31, 2026 cruise. They didn't announce any scheduled artists with this, but there were some other details that I found of interest: It goes to Half Moon Cay (HMC). They may or may not have a dock by then, not that it matters to the Nieuw Statendam. The second stop is St. John in the USVI. I wasn't aware that any but the smallest cruise ships were able to dock in St. John. I went there once, as part of a shore excursion from St. Thomas. That was about 10 years ago. There wasn't room for a dock then, and I don't think they've added one since. So this might be another tender port. It also goes to Sint Maarten, one of my favorite stops. I'll get there next year, though not one one of my music themed cruises. Prebooking starts on September 24, but... There are very limited spaces on their upcoming cruise in October There's almost zero chance that I'll be on this cruise (their past lineups don't appeal and it's likely to interfere with second sailing of The 90s Cruise), but I just wanted to get my notes down about this. Perhaps other music themed cruises that I'm more interested in will start announcing earlier? This would be a nice development, IMHO.

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you got a consolation prize and some information. My opinion is they should put a sign out front of the Sky Lounge with this information AND a note about the Sky Lounge's open hours on each cruise given to each passenger OR a note in the newsletter for each day.