Honolulu Blue

🙋 👼 ✋ I think the main character is a cutie. Sue me. 💕

Quoting directly from Mr. Heald's page (it's a few days back): I am asked what the IMAX movies will be on the Carnival Vista and Carnival Horizon this coming cruise. I am not allowed to say the movies here because of IMAX copyright, I am sorry. I can only say that before the movie I suggest a good meal at the Pig and Anchor Barbie Cue and make sure your meat isn’t too pink. Then there is a movie about a Nun Too and remember as my Grandfather Malcolm used to say “ you can kiss a Nun once, you can kiss a Nun twice but you you mustn't get into the habit.”

Thanks for your perspective. It's always valuable to me. I hope to have such a good time that I'll make you and your wife green with envy. 👽

I was on the Ruby in April. Good experience. Not a bad ship. I thought she was in good shape. My friend thought so too. Your clarifying comments mostly seem to target your cabin. That's fair. Everyone's experience is different there. My cabin was also in decent shape:

Here's some potential news about a 2025 music themed charter cruise... I heard on one of the FB pages I follow that the UDC is returning! The dates are February 19-24 and StarVista Live is supposed to follow back with past passengers with a refundable deposit offer to put $$$ early. What can I say? Put this guy and these guys onboard, and you've got an excellent start, IMHO. Interesting news. I'll stay on top of it and report if there's something of substance to report. 🤑

A few very quick statements that, believe it or not, are not in conflict with each other: Forecasting hurricane strength, speed, intensity, and location is not an exact science Princess has a lot of factors to juggle - they want to keep everyone safe, yet they want to keep as much of the scheduled itinerary intact as possible I understand everyone's frustration They might be composing communication as I write this

NOTE: I'm from the U.S. I've seen cancellations (not necessarily on Princess) allowed when the changed stop(s) are significant enough to make it a totally different cruise. For example, I've seen refunds offered for cruises that went to ONLY Bermuda that changed their itinerary to somewhere else for some reason. I've also seen refunds for cruises that changed regions (e.g. Europe to Caribbean) - indeed, in that case, most of the time they'll default to a refund, if not actually force it. Also, in the cases of weather, cruises can be changed and sometimes there will be a refund offer if the number of days and/or ports changes. But in the more usual case of where the random port gets dropped for a different port or a sea day... I'm not optimistic about the chances of a refund for a normally nonrefundable deposit. Trip insurance might cover this? The CFAR clause could be used, but that almost always has a cost.

The first thing I thought of was fuel. There might be a significant difference in fuel consumption between 19 and 19.5 knots on the way to Costa Maya/Belize/Cozumel/wherever. I think fog is a bigger problem in Galveston in the winter. My non-Princess ship once was delayed by fog on the way in in January.

Jazz Cruises introduced a new monthly e-newsletter called Soul Mates Cruise Notes covering details about the McDonald LaBelle cruise that I'm booked on. It was an extremely interesting read. Here are the highlights: The ship is about 60% full. That's a little disappointing, considering many other music cruises have sold out or are about to. I expected them to sell out sooner or later, but that's much less likely now. Oh well, more space for me! 😁 The very short story of how the pieces came together for this cruise: The NCL Pearl, Starvista's official music charter ship, had a gap in its schedule due to another charter dropping out. NCL contacted Jazz Cruises to fill it. Mr. McDonald came up as a headliner, and then Ms. LaBelle was suggested as a co-headliner. Comedian Alonzo Bodden lobbied for his mentor, Patti's friend, and fellow comedian George Wallace to jon them. Tentative programming highlights: Day 1 - embarkation day Comedians on the early show @ 5:30 (I'm scheduled for the early show all nights on this cruise), Michael McDonald with the late show @ 8 Day 2 Dock in Nassau about 3 PM Patti LaBelle does the main theater both nights; Mr. McDonald listed as her special guest Day 3 Sail away from Nassau at about 5 PM Michael McDonald does the early show, the comedians do the late show Day 4 - Disembark at 7 AM

Since not too many people are likely to read this (there's more interest in trashing Carnival's food offerings; I get it), I'll add a few personal Family Feud stories here. I haven't sailed on either of Carnival's newest ships, so I haven't had a chance to see or play this edition. I'll be on both the Magic and the Dream in a few months, but they won't have installed FF by the time I sail on them. The family likes FF and if I could somehow drag a bunch of them on a cruise ship with me, they might do something like this. We have at least two home versions of FF from 40+ years ago. I in particular loved the Richard Dawson years. My interest started to wane when Ray Combs took over (not because he was bad or anything; just moving on to other interests). I've only followed the show intermittently since the 90s.

Press release at https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/carnival-cruise-line-expand-popular-family-feud-live-game-show . Here's the TL,DR: Already on the Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration Coming to the Vista on September 16, Legend on Sept. 30, Pride November 19, Miracle December 14, and the Jubilee on its inaugural on the 23rd 2024 announced launches: Panorama - March 2; Horizon - March 30; Liberty - May 26; Luminosa - June 20; Spirit - July 23; Magic - August 18; and Dream - October 5.

I've cruised on several other lines since the restart, but not Carnival (long story). I do have a Carnival cruises coming up in November and January, so I'm noting all this commentary about the food. I'm far from a gourmand, but I know what I like. You're an expert market timer. I'm sure you could do wonders with my portfolio. Here it is: 🤑. Make me rich. You have 10 years. 😁 Interesting. When I was last on Carnival, I hardly ever dined in the MDR, which I did the burger thing several times. It's what I prefer, and if there's still good food to be had there, it's not a big deal to me if the MDR is not up to snuff. Although there are those new menus that Emeril had a hand in updating...

Which one if you don't mind me asking? Thanks. P.S. For a few weeks during the height of the pandemic I didn't have any cruises booked on any cruise line. And I kept booking and canceling Carnival cruises in '21 and '22 - three in total. My next cruise on Carnival in November will be my first in over 3 1/2 years. In between I will have had 9 cruises on 4 different cruise lines.

Malt Shop Memories has updated their Web site for the 2024 edition of its cruise (the 2023 cruise is sailing in late October) and has also announced their initial lineup. It's at https://maltshopcruise.com/ . The Beach Boys, The Four Tops, and Chubby Checker are the obvious headliners, but there are a few others that are familiar to me. Since I'm not on this cruise, I don't know when they get access to the new year's bookings, but I assume it will be soon. Us peasants in the cheap seats have to wait a while until everything gets picked over. Malt shops were mostly a memory when I was a kid, so I think I'll skip this one. But don't let me stop anyone from signing up. 😃

Thanks for the replies so far. It seems like I answered in a similar thread a few months ago. Never mind, I'm too lazy to go looking for it. I like the crew - efficient and friendly almost always. I like the relative lack of announcements. I like the OVC - good food, good variety, nice and open seating area, easy drink access. I like the room decor. I like the decor around the ship. I like some of the entertainment I've been motivated to sample. I like the hangouts on the Summit and the Millie. And I like the fact that the charter companies I choose like the Summit.

I understand what you're saying and agree with your general principles. I want to go in three directions with this: All my regular cruises as a singleton have been considerably less than $400pppd (including the base fare and port fees but nothing else). I struggle to find a scenario in which I would pay more than that, inflation adjusted. I don't value the amenities of higher class accommodations that highly as of now (sorry George). And there's no place that I really, really want to get to by cruise ship badly enough to pay that kind of price. I also struggle to find a scenario in which I would pay a huge premium for a luxury line. I've tried. I read threads on here from those who sail those kinds of ships. But again, it mostly seems that the price is justified by others for things I don't value very highly or at all. Maybe things will be different in 1, 2, 5, 10, or 30 years. I have paid at or above $400pppd for each of my beloved music charters (4 prior, 3 pending). As I've mentioned in other posts, I think they're great because they add a whole lot of value to me in addition to the regular value I receive from regular cruises. If I had to choose between giving up these, or giving up regular cruises, it seems obvious the choice I would make. It actually seems to be the direction I'm going in, with the way things are going on the mainstream lines.

Carnival has never had regular super low deposits since I've been sailing on them - mostly around $250 to $500 per cabin depending on the cruise length. Some years back, half off deposits were introduced and then became more commonplace. And a few years ago, they introduced special $99 and $50 deposits at certain times and for certain fare codes.

On my previous Carnival cruises pre-pandemic, when I got Internet, all but once I got the Value plan. I thought it was a good value then. The Social plan didn't cover enough sites for me (and still doesn't, but YMMV), streaming was only feasible on a few ships then, there was a $5-$10 difference per day between Value and Premium, and there wasn't that much difference in speed that I could perceive. It's good to hear that a lot of this has changed, and so I've pre-ordered the Premium plan for my return to Carnival on the Magic in November. If you ask nicely, I'll tell you guys how it went. 🙂

Cruiseplum.com can search on specific days, like Friday, September 15, 2023. In order to search all Fridays with it, you'd have to find them all and click manually on them. It might be worth it for you.

That sounds like quite the experience! Good luck and have fun!

I think this is very true, and especially true for me. The music charters I've taken (and will take) are far more expensive per day than any of my more "ordinary" cruises, but so is the value I expect them to provide for me. Let's just say I haven't had a cruise yet where I regret paying too much.

As I grow older, I find more and more value in paying a fair amount to get the experience I want with a minimum of stuff I DON'T want.

The 80s Cruise announced its plans for allocating assigned seating on the 2024 cruise. It's a little complex, so let me try to get this right... We were assigned to seating selection windows based on when we booked and also which main show we picked - early or late. Since I, wise person, booked this cruise totally on spec within an hour of it going on sale, it was not a surprise to me that I got the first window for the first main show. This allows me to pick my seats on Tuesday, September 26, at 11 AM ET. The other windows for the first show are on the following days - Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Only 100 people in each group each day can book their seats. There's a special group seating program this year where people who would otherwise have an assigned seating window can sit together. These seats will be in the upper orchestra or balcony and the attendees all have to tell ECP who they are and that they want to sit together. It sounds like fun, but I don't have a group that's interested in me, so I'll let them all have their good times. The first main show group seating is assigned starting October 3, and the second main show group seating is assigned starting October 10. Speaking of the second main show, let's come back to them and their assigned seats. Those are assigned October 3-6 in the same fashion as I described two paragraphs above. That's it. Clear as mud, huh? 🙃 Actually, I think I'm following along quite well. I'm in the very first group to pick, so I have to concentrate on being in a position to be ready to pick my seat. Which seat do I want? As a bit of a shutterbug, I'm inclined to go with something front and center - though there are few truly bad seats in the Mariner's main theater. We'll see how it goes in a couple of weeks.

Reason #4032 to prefer festivals on ships to festivals at sea: The Blue Ridge Rock Festival suffers from a rain-soaked weekend and decided to throw in the towel on the final two days after bad weather causes issues the first two days. You can read part of the story at https://wset.com/news/local/blue-ridge-rock-festival-cancels-weekend-events-due-to-severe-weather-concert-shows-alton-halifax-county-virginia-international-raceway-september-2023 Stephen Pearcy was there. He performed early, so assume he got his set off. There were some other familiar and interesting musicians there. Too bad for them, the fans, and the organizers.

I'm not so sure that it would be an overall money savings to switch to guest performers. I suspect the in-house entertainers are cheaper because they use crew cabins and get paid a salary that's a lot less than a guest performer would get for their 1 or 2 performances per week. But I could be wrong on this. It wouldn't be the first time. 🙃 On the original subject, I confess that I don't pay much attention to cruise ship entertainment - UNLESS it's a music themed cruise, and then ENTERTAINMENT IS EVERYTHING. Having some of my favorite artists perform set after set for day after day is great - at least I think so. Well worth the premium most of them demand over regular cruises with their regular entertainment.