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Honolulu Blue

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  1. None of the round-trip sailings from San Juan go to Bonaire.
  2. Bookings look to be available for these cruises out of San Juan. The rest of this post is probably of more use to me than anyone else: The 14-day cruise that's of most interest to me has the following itinerary (December 7-21): Day 1 - depart SJ at 7 pm Day 2 - St. Croix, 8-6 Day 3 - St. Kitts, 7-5 Day 4 - St. Lucia, 9-7 Day 5 - St. Vincent, 8-6 Day 6 - Barbados, 7-7 Day 7 - at sea Day 8 - San Juan, 6-7 Day 9 - St. Thomas, 8-6 Day 10 - Sint Maarten, 8-6 Day 11 - Antigua, 8-6 Day 12 - Dominica, 8-6 Day 13 - Barbados, 7-7 Day 14 - at sea Day 15 - arrive SJ at 6 am I've been to all these islands except St. Vincent. One of the reasons why I highlighted this route is that it goes there. Guadeloupe and Martinique shows up on other itineraries. I've been to Martinique before; it's all right, but I don't want to hurry back. I haven't been to Guadeloupe. I'd rather go to St. Vincent. A notable island that's skipped on this journey is Grenada. I'm pretty sure it's picked up on other cruises from Princess. As expected, only Barbados is a repeat port on this cruise - not counting San Juan. The 7 PM departure time is interesting. They could leave even later if they wanted, but perhaps they want to keep us on schedule as much as possible. Carnival (10 PM) and Celebrity (8:30) left later on their ships out of SJ. This is not a cruise for people who love sea days, nor for those who dislike the charms of the Eastern Caribbean. I don't expect this group of cruises to sell to quickly, so I have lots of time to do my due diligence and figure out exactly what I want to do.
  3. I don't know about Royal, but Carnival had special concerts in their main theaters under the Carnival LIVE banner. Those were extra cost for all shows (with ticket costs that varied similar to concerts on land), but they had more mainstream acts and presumably put on a better and more professional show.
  4. I have not, but I've heard of such. Also, I have contacted cruise lines (not Celebrity) via letter not related to any survey and received responses by letter, e-mail, and phone.
  5. A couple of years ago I went cruising on my birthday, not on Carnival, and their loyalty club gave me a card and a magnet. That was a nice touch. I've outgrown parties and don't think I'd like to be picked on in any way on my B-day. I can always pick out an extra slice of cake at the trough if I had a taste for such. But everyone should celebrate their special days in ways that make them the happiest. 🥳
  6. I've done almost 30 cruises on several cruise lines over the past decade, including several on Celebrity. The one and only time I received an envelope in the cabin was this year on Royal Caribbean. It was a charter cruise, with slightly different "mandatory" gratuity rules, but still... To me it was a reminder of the not-so-good old days of the cruising when the gratuity rules were much murkier - part of the reason why I wasn't cruising then. Sorry for the distraction. I'm sure you have some more stories to tell about this trip. Please tell them! I've found it all to be a very fun ride.
  7. They used to have a midnight buffet on Journeys cruises. I know because I tried to attend one way back in 2016. It was jammed with passengers. Not a good experience. I haven't tried to go there since then. They may have gotten rid of it. They don't advertise it anymore. P.S. I'm a big fan of the horse races!
  8. I've found that it's not unusual for terminals at ports of call to look like warehouses. ALL the ones in Hawaii when I went there in 2018 looked like that, even Honolulu. They may or may not have improved things these days. And some of the terminals in embarkation ports are nicer than others. San Pedro always struck me as being sparse and out of date. Galveston isn't much better - at least the terminal that Princess and Carnival use. I'm sure Royal's new terminal is far nicer. Probably not, but I DO select itineraries (and their cruise ships, and cruise lines) based on where they sail from. All else equal, I prefer to sail from ports with better terminals.
  9. You bring up some good, interesting points. The responses have been interesting also. I'll put my two cents in and apologize in advance for not acknowledging those who commented earlier with similar notes: It's much less expensive to provide Internet access on land than at sea I rely less on Wi-Fi access on land these days with very fast 5G access almost everywhere All cruise lines that I'm aware of DO provide free WiFi access these days - mostly to power their apps. Some offer very limited access to the Net for free (mostly their own sites). Virgin Voyages provides free Internet on their cruises. Yes, I know they're small compared to other mainstream lines, but they're part of the scene. Some cruise lines offer packages that include Internet, among other things I'm sure corporate headquarters at all the cruise lines are monitoring Internet use, costs, and revenue closely. At the point where they think they can make more $$$ by providing Internet access for free to all customers than by doing what they do now, they will make the switch. It might be different at different cruise lines.
  10. Welcome to Cruise Critic! I've done some music themed cruises in the past and have more scheduled. None are electronic music themed, but some of them have an artist or two that favor the synthesizers. They were great! Lots of the music that I like and enough of everything else to make it all worthwhile. I hope you can find a cruise or two that suits your interests so you can have as much fun as I did.
  11. Thanks everyone! There's a lot of good information here. I'll study it in more detail later, when I'm ready to book my B2B.
  12. Only when the cashier is open. Unless... I know Carnival and NCL have kiosks where you can break bills. I don't remember any on Princess that perform this function. Do they have them? I didn't spend much time in the casinos on any Princess ship I've been on, so I certainly could have missed them.
  13. It's OK. I apologize for confusing Elite with Diamond.
  14. I'm considering taking a B2B on Princess and have a few questions about the experience: 1. The B2Bs I'm considering consist of two cruises of seven days each. They are (will be) listed both separately and as single cruises. Can some of you summarize the advantages and disadvantages of booking both as a single cruise booking # and as two separate cruises? 2. Let's say that I'll have 12 cruise credits by the time I sail on this B2B. I'll be sailing solo, so that means I'll get 2 credits for each cruise - if I book them separately. Or will I get all 4 credits if I book the B2B as one cruise?? 3. Assuming that I will have 16 credits at the end of the second cruise, when will I get my Diamond status? On my next Princess cruise? On the second cruise? Or on boarding the first cruise? 4. How easy is it to link these cruises if I book them online separately? 5. As a CCL shareholder, I would get $100 in OBC for each of the 7-day cruises, but $250 for a 14-day cruise. Can I tell whoever handles the OBC shareholder credit these days that I'm really on a 14-day cruise when I have these two 7-day cruises? 6. What perks and bennies is Princess offering to B2B sailors these days? Thanks in advance for your kind and informative responses.
  15. First of all, @jimb cruisin, I'm sorry for the loss of your spouse. I hope things get better for you in the future. 🙏 Second, unless there's a life insurance component to your travel insurance, I struggle to see much that you'd be covered for. Since you're going to go on the cruise anyway, Celebrity won't reprice the cabin for one occupant. Port fees will be refunded no matter what (though they might need some nagging and reminding). And excursions can be refunded right now regardless of reason. Perhaps insurance can cover any nonrefundable airfare, if applicable?
  16. I got an e-mail from the Super Legends Cruise saying that they're almost 70% booked already, after being (unofficially) available to the public for just one day. It sounds like they're on schedule to sell out eventually.
  17. A couple of interesting items in the UDC's latest FB post. First, they disclosed that cabins are over 90% sold out. I don't think the UDC has EVER sold out in their history, so that would be a nice feather in their cap when they're able to do it. And second, they said in a P.S. that "We have some exciting things in the works that we hope to share VERY SOON!". Hmmmm, I wonder what they mean? 🧐 Whenever I think of BIG news and the UDC, my mind immediately goes to KC and the Sunshine Band. They'd be great to get, of course. But it's probably not that. We'll see soon enough what they have in mind.
  18. This was brought up briefly at the Q&A Mr. Lazaroff had on the McDonald LaBelle Cruise. He did mention the difficulty in having the same artists on for three consecutive weeks. I don't know how best to resolve it, but obviously the demand is there for additional cruises.
  19. Thanks for the article link. The article mentions Ovation OTS in addition to the Edge. This situation worries me a little because I have a transpacific sailing on Ovation in a few months. If Hawaii is angry enough and fast enough and has enough enforcement power to force a ban on RCI from Hawaii or its waters, then that cruise could be in jeopardy. Yes, I know, it's a series of unlikely events, but you never know. I'll keep monitoring this in lurk mode.
  20. The 80s Cruise provided us with an update on its performers. There's good news and bad news. The good news is that Warrant, Dokken, and Firehouse will be joining us on this cruise. I think Firehouse is the best band of this group - though I have heard of all three. "Don't Treat Me Bad" is my favorite Firehouse song. I assume they'll play it. More good news is that we have an awesome band for 2026 - Quiet Riot! You can probably guess what the bad news is... Quiet Riot is now OUT for this upcoming cruise. They cited a "scheduling conflict", which the cynic in me interprets as they got a better 🤑 offer somewhere else. OK, maybe not that. Maybe when I get a free moment, I'll figure out where they plan to be while we're cruising. In the meantime, I'm banging my head. I'll do a metal health check when I'm finished.
  21. Well, well. Another day, another music themed cruise for me to look at. The Monsters of Rock Cruise will be sailing March 10-15, 2025 on the Norwegian Joy. This is a bigger ships than most charters on Norwegian, which favor the Pearl or Gem these days. It will head to Great Stirrup Cay, NCL's private island; and Nassau for an overnight visit. The initial lineup features 27 acts, including LA Guns (who were on the TEC '23 and I didn't see) and Stephen Pearcy, from the TEC that sailed earlier this year, whom I did not miss: You guys know I love me some RATT action, but the others I either don't know or don't impress me. And it's expensive - they're charging as much for me for 5 days as The 80s Cruise is charging for 7. So it looks like this one is a pass. ☹️
  22. I'm in receipt of Jazz Cruises' latest biweekly newsletter Jazz Notes. They had a lot of little details about their upcoming cruises and jazz show in St. Louis. Here are the ones that were of most interest to this amateur jazzer: The Jazz Cruise is over 86% reserved Botti At Sea is 65% reserved Journey of Jazz is nearly 65% reserved As for the Smooth Jazz cruise story, I'll quote Mr. Lazaroff directly (emphasis mine): Both sailings of The Smooth Jazz Cruise ’25 are fully reserved and have been since February. The current Waitlist has nearly 2,500 names. Realistically, joining the Waitlist at this time will not result in a stateroom for ’25. It will, however, move you up the ladder for ’26. There will be a webinar for Botti At Sea that will cover what's going on with this cruise in detail that will be scheduled for some time around June 1 (250 days before the cruise). On the Journey of Jazz Cruise, there will be a live performance at the SFJAZZ Center on Tuesday, September 15 with Ron Carter and his quartet (Renee Rosnes, Jimmy Greene, and Payton Crossley). The next day there will be another performance at the SFJAZZ Center by the SFJAZZ Collective. I'll quote Mr. Lazaroff to give the highlights of that lineup (emphasis mine again): The 2024/2025 edition that will perform for our guests features Michael Rodriguez (trumpet), David Sanchez (saxophone), Chris Potter (saxophone), Warren Wolf (vibraphone), Ed Simon (piano), Matt Brewer (bass) and Kendrick Scott (drums), all of whom have sailed on a past edition of The Jazz Cruise. There was no mention of an additional charge for either of these concerts for passengers on this cruise There will be an "exciting jazz excursion in Victoria on Saturday, September 13" with details TBA. This implies to me that it will be "optional" and "extra cost", but as an outsider, I can't confirm this. Well, I suppose I could, but my interest level isn't that high.
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