Honolulu Blue

I got an interesting survey a few hours ago. Sixthman and their Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea cruises are apparently looking at adding a cruise to Alaska in 2025 and beyond. They asked a few questions related to this, like whether I was willing to sail to Alaska in September, and if I preferred more sea days or more days in port. I'm only minimally interested in the blues or cruising to Alaska, so I'm not sure how I got put on a survey list like this. But it should be interesting to see the results of this.

@BlerkOne: I'm glad you're enjoying your stay on the Discovery. I am enjoying reading about your cruise. The reason I highlighted this scan or picture is that I did a California Coastal with these stops (plus Santa Barbara) a year and a half ago and I'm pretty sure we didn't get anything like this. It would have been helpful.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this. When this subject came up a few months ago, I wondered how they could distinguish between different employees with the same name when one doesn't know their employee #. Now I know they can, at least for this purpose.

In my email box appeared the second edition of SoulMates, a newsletter covering the McDonald LaBelle cruise. This one mostly covered the comedians Alonzo Bodden and George Wallace. That part was very interesting, and I think I'm going to have a good time with both of them onboard. They also mentioned the dining situation onboard - both complimentary and extra cost, and the fact that they're about 70% booked.

You're right about the Big Easy Cruise. I apologize. The Tedeschi Trucks concert looks like it will be at 11:30 PM, which by itself will thin out a good portion of the crowd. The last booking estimates I saw for Big Easy was about 70% booked. That was a couple of months ago. I hope they did better between then and now. I assume they did.

I actually took the time to look this up. This iteration of Chicago has three founding members - Robert Lamm, Lee Loughnane, and James Pankow. It will, of course, be interesting to compare and contrast Chicago with Jason Scheff, who was a former lead singer for Chicago and now heads Generation Radio.

In a weak moment I decided to go for one of the VIP tickets for the Chicago concert I mentioned a few posts above this one. I went for VIP package #2 and here's what I got with it: The actual seat I chose was in row 6, center, and on the aisle. Even my old, long-forgotten disc camera could take good photos from that distance. 😁 The final price with fees was $377. I'll add a hotel later if I decide I need or want it.

Nathan Diller of USA Today did a review of Princess' recent Magic Castle Conjurer's Cruise. TL,DR: He liked it, and other magic fans would probably have liked it. The review is at https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2023/10/23/princess-cruises-magic-castle-cruise/71218927007/ .

I'm with you, but I imagine most ships - even charters - would find it hard to sustain that theme for longer than a week. Even I need some time to detox with grunge or disco after my 80s Cruise sailings.

I could look up and see how many original members are left, but not now. Thank you for the additional food for thought. It sounds like you had fun with your premium seats and VIP experiences. I want some of that.

Not my style, but this hint could be helpful for others here, so thank you for it. 👍

They're out there. Have fun finding them. 🙂. Maybe I'll see you onboard sometime.

I didn't take it as criticism. I just wanted to clarify that I did have some good times in school and that even the people I don't follow now are (mostly) good people and the fact that I don't want to go to reunions to see them mostly tells a story about me and not them.

@startedwithamouse: Thank you for your report. I'm planning on doing a similar transpacific cruise net year, though not on Princess. This gives me an idea of what to expect. It's especially good to hear that you're getting consistently good Internet access.

Just to be clear, I've had experiences both good and bad at all the schools I've ever attended. But my current desire to relive them with those I'm not currently friends with is weak. Things may change as I grow older.

I'm sure we all do. But everyone has a different tolerance for A/C. And it can feel a little chilly on the top decks - especially at night or early in the morning, and/or when a breeze is added to the ship's motion.

I've found that the music charters I've taken were a lot of fun. If you can pay the price and you like a number of the acts involved, I recommend taking one, or two... or as many as you can afford. 🤑 Here's a list of full ship charters, keeping in mind that not all charters are music themed - but a lot are: https://www.cruisetimetables.com/full-cruise-ship-charters.html

I'd like to say a few things about the Big Easy Cruise, which is sailing off on November 4: Booking have been closed. I rather doubt that they sold the ship out before they did this. The performance schedule is up. It's always interesting looking at these, even though I don't know who any of these acts are Believe it or not, this cruise and the Rock & Romance cruise next year share a performer - The Newbees The site hasn't flipped over to the 2024 edition, which IMHO means there probably won't be a 2024 edition

One consideration is that, unless you have a rare late evening stop or an overnight, you're going to be on the ship in the evenings. Ship air conditioning can be cool in places at times, and the open upper decks can be windy and a little chilly (but either will feel AWESOME by Michigan outdoor standards in December). Pack accordingly and have fun on your cruise!

Thank you for the notes. I used to be more of a gambler when I was younger, but these days I mostly get my thrills in other ways. While I'm here, I'll talk about a couple of items I found on the Web site for one of Michigan's megacasinos. First was something called an "80's Rewind New Year's Eve Party" on New Year's Eve (duh). They've got a band (Your Generation In Concert, know nothing about them, Web site looks all right), they've got a couple of free drink tickets with purchase of entry tickets ($75 for one, $140 for two), they've got food, and they've got a complimentary champagne toast to ring in the new year. This isn't my thing, but it's nice to know that there are other celebrations of the best decade ever. 😁 The other item was a concert by Chicago. There's a very long lead time here - the concert isn't until May 25, 2024. There are three levels of VIP access that mostly differ in the ticket location and the type of swag given out. The regular ticket prices are $63 to $97. VIP package #3, which offers the least, ranges from $230 to $237. VIP package #2 is $347. And VIP package #1, with its offer of FRONT ROW SEATS! is $472. I like Chicago, but I'm not sure if I like them that much. This one might also involve an overnight stay, though not necessarily at this megacasino. I'll put this in the "consider" pile and promise to let you know if I do something with this.

Thank you very much. 👍

Sorry for the diversion, but I wanted to comment on this. I don't like public laundromats either, and I find the behavior you described in the ones on cruise ships horrifying. I haven't used them on cruise ships, but as much as I don't like them, I've also never hand washed anything on a cruise. I find that activity too much like work/chores to fool around with when I'm on vacation. I do get free bags of laundry on one of the cruise lines that I sail on, and that's nice. Enough about that. Please continue with the discussion at hand.

You've received some good answers already from some respected posters. My one main suggestion is to ask some questions on the Solo Cruisers board on here at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/279-solo-cruisers/ . That said, because I have a huge ego, I'll take a shot at your questions. Not because I think my answers are better than anyone else's, but you touch on some things that are good for me to think about. Deals for solos are fairly rare on mainstream lines, but they do exist. Cruiseplum.com can help you find them. NCL has the most and they'll soon add more to their inventory. Most other cruise lines have a few scattered here and there on some of their ships. Solo cabins tend to be small - maybe too small for your needs? I don't focus on whether a cabin is designed for a solo or not; in 25 cruises, I've never had a dedicated solo cabin. By most reports and personal experience, the Internet on cruise ships is getting better. Starlink seems to help a lot. If your work needs constant streaming or high-quality video, expect to be disappointed. But for jumping in and out to check e-mails and such... it should be all right on most ships. Last minute deals were very good before the pandemic and immediately after the restart. They're probably not going to be as good going forward. But good luck looking! I'm not an expert on cruise ship loyalty programs. Even the highest levels aren't enough to move the needle for me more than a little. Most of the Carnival Corporation ships have self-service laundries - though they're moving away from them on their newer ships. If you really want to meet other cruisers (not a priority for me most times, I confess), I think they're pretty easy to meet in many places. Other than mentioning roll calls here, I defer to others on exactly how. Cruise lines haven't phased out their phones yet, but their per-minute rates are painfully expensive. The cell phone plans I've seen for onboard calls aren't much better. The cruise lines have an emergency number where people back at home can call the ship and leave a message for you; that may help. The best way to communicate with me, if I have an Internet plan, is to use e-mail. It might be different for you.

I've been to zero school reunions and that's more than enough for me. 😁 As one of my favorite philosophers said, "The high point of low school was getting out of there."

As mentioned by others, there's the full retail price that some cruise lines and TAs advertise, always with a slash or X through it. If you see a 50% or more discount "sale", it's probably off of this rate. It's hard for me to imagine anyone actually being foolish enough to pay full retail for any cruise (I certainly have not), but I'm sure it's happened to someone, somewhere, sometime. One exception to the above is charter cruises. They usually don't fool around with BS retail rates. The price they ask for (which is normally quite expensive) is what they expect to get. There can some, mostly small, discounts available, along with perhaps some extra OBC thrown in. About your last sentence... how do you know when you get the best price? You really don't. There are apps out there that constantly check prices of routes you're interested in, and that can help. Booking early or very late probably yields the best prices - but no one can really tell which is really true, except after the fact. Some cruise lines have advertised or unadvertised guarantees where if you find a better price for the same cabin class, they'll either give you a credit to the amount you have to pay, OBC for the voyage, or a cabin upgrade. The main message here is if you want the very best price, you're going to have to do your research.