Honolulu Blue

Good morning! This is day 3 of our journey. Lots more to go. I had a good sleep last night. I thought the seas were considerably less rocky, bumpy, and noisy. It's also warmer this morning. Some of you are celebrating MLK Day. I have my own reason to celebrate - it's bacon day at the trough! There were fewer people around the buffet, and indeed everywhere I decided to go. This is just fine with me. I should note that I saw at least two people wearing Dallas shirts this morning. They didn't look so hot, but I didn't take time to delve into their feelings. It's a busy day for me, as I need to communicate with the outside world, go to the Morning Show, go on my Platinum scavenger hunt, and maybe attend an evening show. Thanks, as always for reading, reacting, and commenting. 👍

I do. We should have beaten them, but those are the breaks. The Cowboys have been a disappointment in the postseason for a very long time. And they did it again this year. P.S. Yay Lions for taking care of business a few minutes ago! They have a very winnable game coming up. We'll see if Carnival puts it up on the big screen.

Quick notes: * The daily rates for Value and Premium are $25 and $35, respectively. * Internet speeds are mostly in the 2-4 mbps range. I miss the Magic. * Had another Guy's burger for dinner because that's what I was in the mood for. Yum yum. 😎 * I feel sorry for the Boys and the fans that root for them - some of whom are on this ship. The Packers were leading 27-0 when I last checked.

So, I did the 90s trivia thing. This was very weird. The theater was closed until 5 minutes before the games began. I hung around elsewhere until I could get in. I found the trophy case on 4. I didn't get a pencil or paper, so I was just playing along for fun. Some of the songs were repeats from the 90s trivia session I attended on the Magic two months ago. But there were some others that stumped me. I ended up with 25 out of 30 (15 songs, 1 point each for title and artist). Not bad, but two people had perfect scores. They had a sudden death playoff. They both blew the first song, then one got the second song right. Tyler gave them both trophies. The competition was fun, if a little sloppy. The best part is Hery and his team made up my cabin while I was out. Peace out.

Spoiler alert: we're not going through the Canal on this cruise either, though Colon is relatively close and there are excursions available to take people through. I've done two partial transits and one full transit, and that's been half of my Journeys cruises so far.

Do you mean you haven't done any Journeys cruises? I'll assume that for now. You can tell me if I'm wrong. The Journeys cruises are a lot of fun, as I've tried to hint at with these posts. This is my 7th since they came up with these in 2015.

I survived the Fun Ashore Fun Aboard show in the main theater. There was a nice crowd for this and I thought Tyler did a good job. Many excursions were talked about and many prizes were given away. I didn't have a ticket and thus didn't win a prize. But he did briefly talk about my Panama City Tour. He also mentioned that there were only 19 kids under 18 on this cruise. That's similar to what we had on the Freedom for a similar Journeys cruise in 2019. Time to rest up for 90s music trivia and who knows what else.

The Wave Morning Show is done. It was all right. It did the basic job of informing its attendees about what's happening onboard today and getting people excited about them. Tyler seems to have a fan club. He got two gifts from fans after the show. I can't say that I've seen that before. I also got today's Fun Times at Guest Services. Soon it well be time for the fun ashore, fun aboard show. Bye for now.

Good morning! I didn't do anything special last night, preferring to hide out in my cabin. I did some recreational reading, surfing, and looking at the calendar for the rest of the cruise. That's one nice thing about the app. Here are some highlights for me that I'll try to get to: * The Wave Morning Show on all sea days. I always have found these fun, even before they added the cutesy name to it. * 90s music trivia this afternoon. I did this when I was on the Magic two months ago and had fun with it. This is in the main theater again, so they're expecting a big crowd. * There are three elegant evenings on this cruise - one tonight, one on the throwback day, and one near the end * There are singles mixers on several days and even a couple of days with meet ups for independent travelers. I'm highly unlikely to attend any of them, but I thought it important to note. There are also 40+ mixers. I won't be going to those either. 💔 * Motor City might be worth a second look; it's one of the Playlist shows * Disco song trivia on Tuesday (Falmouth). Some of my friends would be horrified if I didn't give my best here, so I guess I'll try to make it. * There's lot of trivia on many subjects all cruise long. Chances are if you can think of it, there's a trivia session dedicated to it. * Pop to the Max is on Friday (Curacao). Let's see if I can make time for this. * The throwback Sea Day is on Saturday. There's horse racing, a social media lecture, and 80s trivia. * We're heading to Colon for the Panama Canal on Monday. I will be missing a couple of music trivia sessions because I have an excursion that conflicts. More about that later. * Rock and Roll trivia on Tuesday (Limon) * I might try America Rocks again; that's on Wednesday * Billy and Elton trivia on Thursday (Cozumel) * Oh look - The World Works Here on the last sea day. Will curiosity get the best of my this time? As you can see, there's plenty for all of us to do here onboard. The list of comedians performing this cruise: Macio, John Wesley Austin, Rick Izquieta, Cisco Duran, Kim Harrison, Chris Strait, R.T. Steckel, Aaron Thompson. They're performing all over the place - some matinees, some late night, most nighttime, some PG, some adult, some in the main theater, most in the aft lounge. Here's one of them: I chose to use some of my hefty OBC on ship excursions in Falmouth, Colon, and Limon. I'll talk more about these as they happen. Breakfast was OK. Lots of people around, so I had to search around a long time for a suitable table. The company was good, for once: BTW, no bacon today at the trough. I chose to hang out at The Song, one of the small lounges on 5 aft. It's not too noisy and there's not too much company at this time of day. And now you're up to date. Ill head to the Morning Show soon.

This is the format of the old Fun Times they printed just before the pandemic. Before that they were larger. I never got the small, black and white versions they did just after the restart. I thought those were extinct. I didn't get one in the mailbox this evening, so I guess I'll have to hunt around for one. P.S. Thank you, everyone, for the kind words!

Thanks for the hugs. I can really feel them now. And yes, we're moving. We actually left early.

These are the embarkation day newsletters. I haven't read them yet, so don't spoil the surprises. 🙃

I wrote a lot, but I foolishly deleted it. Let's try to recreate it. Our shuttle didn't leave the airport until 1. We stopped by the Jubilee first. We finally got to the Dream about 2:30. It was smooth and fast except for a couple of hiccups. I passed by the security dog with no issues. The cabin is a standard 1A porthole. The TV is looking a little tiny and out of date these days. I went to my muster station for the briefing. Standard stuff. Then I went to Guy's for a late lunch. It was good, better than the one I had on the Magic. It took me a very long time to find a seat in the buffet. After that, Captain Francesco and CD Tyler made their speeches. The engines have been turned on and we are about ready to go. I met my cabin steward Hery and was offered a choice of early morning (9 or so) or late morning service. I took early morning, as is my preference.

I made it to the shuttle meet point. Breakfast wasn't quite as good as it was yesterday- busier, had an inferior seat, and less selection. Still more than acceptable. Shuttle came on time and dropped me off in less than 10 minutes. Bus to Galveston should come eventually. No good place fir photos, sorry.

Now that I have a little time, let me post my feelings on the R&R 25 thing. The date is close to this year's cruise, which was as I expected. Saturday-Saturday cruises are nice. I prefer Miami, but Port Everglades is all right. I like the Summit. On the other hand, I already have two music themed charter cruises scheduled for 2025, with one (TEC) that I'm extremely likely to book. That doesn't leave a lot of room for Rock and Romance, which I think has had a hot and cold lineup through the years. Obviously I like this year's list, but who knows about next year? At this point, I'm about 50-50 to book. Most of the fog will lift by the time I pull the trigger or don't - including the lineups for this and TEC and whether @George C can successfully twist my arm onboard.

I mean online, directly from the cruise line. I have always seen an option for one person, though it's not always the easiest thing to find.

Cruise lines, not just Princess, often don't tell us peasants why they change ports around - especially when it's done a long way in advance. You could try asking Princess directly, but don't expect to get anywhere. I'm sorry this happened and I'm sorry you feel the need to cancel.

I've mostly booked directly, though I have done the TA thing a few times. I generally suggest an agency for potential cruisers who have a broad range of options and need expertise to sift through them.

Thanks for your comments. It was sunny in Houston, but the temperature has been dropping all day. It was 70 at midnight and about 40 now. It should be around 60 by sailaway. Then we get to 85 in Jamaica. I'm looking forward to it. 👍

I think I overestimated DTW's ability to handle this snowstorm. It is one of today's leaders in cancellations and delays, along with ORD. I think I made the right call by getting out of town when I did. I also found that as the Max 9 investigation goes on, the window for me to switch my return flight gets closer. I'm starting to worry a bit more about this, but I'll be cruising (and posting), so I can't do much about it. Good night all. Tomorrow is the big day!

I had a flight into Houston on Saturday. Bad weather was due at my home airport on Friday. United offered a window to change my flight for free to one on Thursday (yesterday). I changed it to that and got everything to line up along with it. DTW turned out to be one of the hardest hit airports with cancellations and delays today, with tomorrow not looking good either, so I think I did the right thing for once. 😀 Your mileage may vary.

Two things: 1) The unfair rates will continue through next week. Why not dump them immediately or at least ASAP? I think I know the answer to this. 2) By my reading, 25% of fares will continue to have extortionate pricing. Why not get rid of it entirely? I think I know the answer to this one too. The devil is in the details, but color me unimpressed. 😠

I had breakfast and walked around the hotel for a bit to help work off the calories. The breakfast was decent, not much different than I expect from the trough on the Dream. I don't have any special plans today, so I'll sign off with a few pictures. P.S. I said no food photos, but this one was too cute to resist.

@Crookshanks: Following. I'll be on the Carnival Dream that leaves a day before you. It doesn't look like we'll be in port together. We share Cozumel, but we won't dock there for almost two weeks. I also flew to IAH yesterday to beat the weather. Have a great cruise!

One note is that Platinum and Elite cruisers pay half these rates. Rank does have its privileges, sometimes.