Honolulu Blue

Yeah. 😂 It could be very new, or maybe it's a trial that's used for some passengers and not others. Who knows? I do appreciate the OP and others notifying us about this.

General preference of what I read on the toilet: Newspapers Junk mail Magazines Books Tablets Cell phones

I had a cruise to pay off a few weeks ago that hit the two week mark. I got a reminder by e-mail and paid it off soon after that. I didn't receive a mailed reminder and never have.

I just added another musical adventure. With a helpful post from the main TEC site on FB, I looked up the Abducted by the 80s tour and liked what I saw. They featured a rotating cast of which I will go to see Wang Chung, Men Without Hats, The Motels, and Naked Eyes. MWH never did much for me, but the others I like to a greater or lesser degree. Of course, I just saw Wang Chung on TEC three months ago: I'll be catching these guys on June 8 in Decatur, Illinois. The amphitheater they have there looks and sounds nice, from the info I was able to gather on it from the Web. And they're offering a VIP session after the show, where I get to meet a couple of Chungers and Martha Davis from The Motels. The VIP package offers autographs, pictures, a laminate, and a poster. Not bad. It was $62 for the tickets (either front row or 4th row...surprisingly hard to tell) and $125 for the separate VIP package. The hotel and fuel will be extra. I'll have to decide whether I want to go around Chicago or around Indianapolis on the way there.

While listening to the radio, within a 30 minute period, I heard three very familiar songs that all started with the letter H - "Hold On Loosely" by 38 Special, "Heaven Is a Place On Earth" by Belinda Carlsile, and "Hotel California" by The Eagles. By now I think you know where I'm going with this... I saw 38 Special about 3 months ago on The 80s Cruise and they played it. I fondly remember Belinda from the 2022 edition of The 80s Cruise. She had to play this one, and she did. Tribute band Hotel California closed with this song on Rock & Romance a couple of months ago.

Botti at Sea sent out a special e-mail a few hours ago. I assume all of you who are interested got it, so I'll just quickly summarize what's there: Chris Botti himself will be hosting a webinar called "Botti 250" on June 4 at 3 PM EDT. It will include news about the lineup, special programming on the cruise, and more. Jazz Cruises staff will also be there. On Mr. Botti's summer touring schedule, I notice three stops in our little state. There's also a stop in Shipshewana, IN, which is also close to me. I'm still not interested. Sorry Chris. ☹️

This reminded me of a couple of things... 1) I watched the TV show "Soul Train" in the late 70s when in between songs they had some contestants were called down to find a bunch of scrambled letters and they were supposed to spell out a song and/or musical artist. They always did it so quickly they had time to dance to the next song. I wonder if they had help. 😛 2) It must have been a long time since you've done this with your kids. I think it's a different world now. I can imagine what you'd come back to if you tried this today. 😈

I've been on a few turboprops and (I think) at least one regional jet where some passengers had to move for weight balance reasons, so I understand what you're saying and also the concerns of the excursion company, the cruise line, and their insurers on trips that use flying equipment.

On your latter point, lobster is the one thing I haven't seen in the buffet on any cruise line on any day. So I guess if you want it, you'll have to go to the MDR to get it - and be subject to their dress code. As you've found, it probably won't be that bad. On your first point, I'm a guy who does mostly Caribbean cruises that doesn't pack ANY shoes for them - not even sandals or flip flops. I wear a pair of walking shoes and that's it. I initially didn't think it was unusual, but apparently I'm VERY unusual. 😜 Anyway, good luck with your traveling adventures.

I'm not sure, since this plan is new for Carnival. Here is how I have heard it works on other lines: Devices can be shared among those who have the code of the person ordering the plan, no matter what cabin they're in. One gotcha is that if all four devices are in use and a fifth one tries to log in, this new device gets on and you have no control over what device gets logged off, unless it's done manually just prior.

Thanks for the report on the Berlin concert. It's good to know that they've still got it. I saw them on TEC 2022. I don't think they played Blowin Sky High at our show, which was, IIRC, about an hour and 10 minutes. I was tempted by the Totally Tubular tour, but I decided to pass. I liked the Twins back in the day and I really like The Romantics. Tommy Tutone was on this year's TEC. I didn't go see him. The only concert in recent years I've stood up for is Sheena Easton. I tolerated it because she's Sheena Freaking Easton. I generally prefer a seat when I can get one.

Thank you for the notes on your past and future experiences. I like the VIP experience personally, what I've had of it. It makes it easier to justify a ticket to an artist that I would have to travel some distance for. Have fun with Todd and Chris. Please don't wear out Mr. Cross. He's due on our 80s Cruise next year. 🤪

Last night I attended the Chicago concert at one of our state's Native mega casinos. I went for the VIP experience, which meant great seats, a goodie bag, and a photo with the band. Let's go over the goodie bag. I got a regular poster, a photo/poster, a towel or blanket, a souvenir book, and a tote bag to put everything in. I didn't unwrap the poster or the blanket. The photo was kind of neat. Remember those Cracker Jack prizes with photos with the funny reflective like surface? Or those Kelloggs baseball cards? This photo is similar. The photo book looks nice. I'll have to review it later. The tote bag seemed a little small and a little flimsy. I'm sure it's suitable for ordinary use. The photo experience was interesting. It was basically go in, wait in line, go up on stage, pose with the band, and sit down (or whatever). That was fun. This photo isn't of me, but mine were similar (but much better, even the ones taken on my phone). There was a wait while the arena filled, not completely, and the show began! They had a lot of members playing. I counted nine on stage including three wind instrument players and dual percussionists. It was all very impressive, but I couldn't help being a little underwhelmed. For some reason, the singers weren't very loud. Normally the singers are considerably louder than the instruments. That wasn't the case here. Also, they seemed to reach deep into their catalog of songs. Or maybe they played some of their newer stuff. Either way, it took them a little while to get to the songs I knew and loved. Which they did, though not all of them. Don't tell anyone, but I liked Generation Radio better. 😲 This ends my report on Chicago. My next concert looks to by the NKOTB and friends show in August in Columbus. I'm looking forward to that. I also have a VIP experience there with Paula Abdul. I want that Polaroid!! 😁

Thanks for your comments. As you're aware, I saw the man himself on his cruise last month. I missed almost all of his interview onboard. I'm sure he covered a lot of the same stuff that he'll cover in his book. Speaking of his book, a hardback copy of it came in the mail today. I bought it through PBS. It came autographed, which was nice. It cost a lot less than that cruise. 🤑 The book actually has TWO autographs as Paul Reiser also autographed it. The plan is to put this book into storage with my Stephen Pearcy autographed book and Lou Gramm autographed T-shirt. I'll get another copy on Kindle and read it sometime this summer. P.S. I don't know if his wife accompanied him at this concert. He did have a lot of professional help. @George C, do you happen to see her in this photo?

I was surfing over to the Super Legends Cruise site this morning and got this message: Three weeks, eh? That's pretty good, IMHO. They must be doing something right - besides the lineup, of course. Navigator is a pretty big ship by charter standards.

Sorry for not posting much here lately. I'll have some news to report in a few days. Please be patient. Thank you.

I was on the Magic in November. I thought she was in good shape inside and out. The food was just fine (by Carnival standards). I have a LIVE thread from that cruise, which anyone is welcome to look up if they're interested in more details. But the TL,DR is that I liked the Magic and wouldn't mind booking her again if she was running a route I was interested in sailing.

Correct, but I recommend NOT opening the container until you get back onboard. YMMV with bringing on open containers of food - even pseudo food like chips.

I decided not to choose and booked a back-to-back with both voyages. Here's a thread with a long story of my reasoning: TL,DR: I'm heading to St. Vincent instead of Dominica. I haven't been to St. Vincent before and am somewhat looking forward to visiting for the first time. I've been to all of the other islands before. They each have their charms and places worth visiting. I'd lean a tiny bit toward your option 1, but you really can't go wrong with either. Enjoy your cruise.

I found this in the newsletter from day 3 of my cruise on the Millie about a year and a half ago: '' So Celebrity DID solicit comments mid-cruise as others have told me they routinely do. I missed it and I apologize for that. I still feel that mid-cruise is far too early to leave comments of any kind, unless it's an immediate action item. If something or someone is exceptional, I'm not likely to forget. And then I'll note it in the post-cruise survey. Also, I'm not a big fill-out-surveys kind of person and on vacation besides that, so something would really have to be extraordinary for me to bother doing something like this. Never say never, but I can't see doing too much of this in the future. Sorry. 🙃☹️

Interesting. Thanks. I'll have to go through my old newsletters to see if they solicited me. It's very possible I missed these.

It's extraordinary to me because I've never, ever received a mid-cruise survey on any of my cruises. Though, in thinking about things more thoroughly, I've only done two "regular" cruises on Celebrity and three charters. Perhaps the survey request process is different on the charters. Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps if and when I get back on a Celebrity ship, I'll be deemed worthy of giving my views mid-cruise. 🤷‍♀️

I'm curious... how do you do this? I've never received a cruise line survey any earlier than the morning of disembarkation. Do you go down to Guest Services or the Hotel Director's office and demand a review be given or sent to you then and there, or do you verbally give your compliments to someone in charge? Either way it seems extraordinary and I can't think of too many cruise ship crew members who would have deserved that sort of effort from me. Thanks in advance for the enlightenment. 👍

I can confirm this. Source: Someone who has done several of these. 🙂

I booked this exact B2B yesterday as separate cruises. Again, this is of more use to me than anyone else, but I didn't want to establish a new thread here or in the roll call. I'll do the roll call thing later, if I have to. I looked through a few different cabin classes on a few different decks. Hardly any were booked. This apparently is far different than that solar eclipse cruise that went on sale at about the same time. No one had booked any of the obstructed OVs I decided to favor for this trip. So, I booked a couple - the same one for both cruises. This is another solo trip for me, so I paid the full single tax For some reason, I didn't get the $99 deposit. My deposit was $250 for each cruise. Not a big deal. They're fully refundable and I figure I'll have to pay up eventually anyway if things go well. I didn't buy any add-ons at this time. I'll evaluate them later. Don't expect me to add a full package. So far I'm not seeing any of these cruises it in the two online agencies that I know about