Honolulu Blue

I've heard of Mr. Christopher. I've even watched some of his videos. I like watching slot play videos sometimes, for reasons that I don't have time to mention.

So many memories on Carnival cruises... let's go with this one: the last ship on a stick I won was at one of the Morning Shows. The world's easiest trivia question was asked and no one was faster on the draw than I was. It's always nice to win these things:

While I have a few minutes, I'll play off a couple of your comments. First, I was surprised by how many photos I've taken over the past couple of years of cruising. I like going to concerts, and those take up a lot of pictures. I'm averaging close to 1000 per cruise these days. And second, no, I'm sure my collection of photos and videos will not be treasured by my heirs (if they can find them). But I value them in the here and now to remind me of where I've been and what I've experienced. Here's a super random picture I took on a cruise I did in early 2020, before the pandemic, that wasn't on Princess:

It seems like an all right deal for most of the NCL fleet - better for Pride of America, which has only a few solo cabins and tends to run expensive anyway. I was pricing out solo cabins on the Viva in early '24 and I couldn't find it lower than about $250 per night for the itinerary that I wanted. I should note that I haven't sailed on NCL yet, but I do have one scheduled next year on one of their older ships which doesn't have any solo cabins. I have an ordinary OV. I'm sure I'll squeeze into one of their solo cabins at some point, but it's not a high priority for me, so who knows when I'll get around to it. Good luck to you and please report on your experiences!

This is another question that was inspired by a post on another board. I'm curious about the size of the fan club for fans on cruises. Do you bring one when you're cruising? Don't count the paper/wood handheld ones, only the ones that run off batteries or AC current. Thanks in advance for the replies! P.S. I'm in the "no" department

I know my buddy @George C likes music charters and top-end cabins on Celebrity ships - though not this particular charter company. I'll ping him and see if he can give you a proper answer.

I don't personally travel with a fan, but I've heard of many cruisers that do, so I don't think it's all that unusual. Pillows are more unusual, I think, but you're certainly not alone. I find myself inundated with TOO MANY pillows when I travel - both hotels and cruises. Anything more than two is overkill, IMHO. That's probably more rare than people who bring pillows along. Anyway, my newest friend insisted I bring him along on my last cruise (Ruby in April). That's a little unusual:

I've had some success writing real letters to the big guy in Santa Clarita, though my issues were less important and less urgent than yours.

Thanks for sharing. TL,DR: Typical corporation games. Nothing to get excited about as either a shareholder or passenger.

Congratulations! I hope she wins! 🤩🙏 My story on the Voice of the Ocean... I took a cruise in April on the Ruby. This was an 80s themed cruise, which I hoped meant that we didn't have time for diversions like the Voice of the Ocean. But initially VOO was on the schedule for two nights. 🤬 But it got straightened out by the time we embarked and we didn't have anything for Voice of the Ocean AFAIK.

I didn't know PD@CC had its own theme song. Thanks for sharing! You learn something new every day. And now, to take this thread on another tangent, here are my modest suggestions for theme songs for some destinations I've been to: Grand Turk - "Young Turks" by Rod Stewart (you can rework the lyrics here) Amber Cove - "China Grove" by the Doobie Brothers (lyrics definitely need a rework) San Juan - "Jenny From the Block" by Jennifer Lopez Mahogany Bay - "Theme From Mahogany" by Diana Ross Ensenada - "Mexican Radio" by Wall of Voodoo As for Coco Cay's theme song, does it perhaps sound something like this? 😁

Another week, another e-mail from TEC. The good news is no one has dropped out yet. The bad news is they've added a couple of bands that just don't do anything for me - Tommy Tutone and My Posse In Effect. The latter band is interesting in that it's a band-specific tribute act (in this case the Beastie Boys) and TEC hasn't had a lot of those in the past. I wish I knew TEC were interested in tribute acts - I can name five from my Princess adventures that I would prefer seeing to this one.

I can see it being another option for their blind passengers, though I assume they did and do have newsletters in Braille.

To bend this point around a bit, I remember a few years ago, Carnival had a TV channel that was dedicated to reading the daily schedule verbatim (more or less). I kind of miss it; some of the voices were kind of cute. 🙂

A couple of opinions/notes on communication: I've had cruises, mostly on Carnival, where much of what the Captain said was immediately recapped by the cruise director. This may or may not have been a factor here, since they both would have to be available to communicate. I'm not as sure I would have been comforted by the lack of communication from the bridge as some posters here have noted. One reason I can imagine that the Captain wasn't saying anything is that he was so busy trying to get out of this mess that he had no time or energy to hit the call button. Again, I don't know that this is what happened, but it certainly would have been on my mind had I been there.

I'm pretty sure you're tipping extra. 🤑 But that may be OK with you. 😍 It's certainly OK with others. 🤩 Let's walk through this: Every cruise I've taken since 2014 (some on Celebrity) have either billed me in advance for gratuities or have done so while I've been onboard. This is to cover the gratuities that would have, in the past, been given to the stewards, MDR staff, and a few others through envelopes, handshakes, and whatever. I'm happy not to have to go through this rigmarole, but others feel differently. Some packages, like Celebrity's "All Inclusive" include the gratuities I mentioned above The crew seem to like this system - or at least they're willing to put up with it in order to get paid. I choose not to worry too much about the ins and outs of it; I just hope that the people that served me well on my cruises got their fair share from me and everyone else. I don't know the ins and outs of Celebrity's drink package or the provided Elite drinks, so I'll defer to others as to whether gratuities are included, how much, and where I sometimes choose to tip others based on extraordinary service provided to me. It's easy enough to do if you're so motivated Some people choose to reduce or remove the gratuities I mentioned in my first bullet point. I recommend not doing it, and that's all I have to say about that.

Thank you! And thank you, and everyone, for replying with such wonderful stories. I've heard about one each from those who started with Princess, Celebrity, and Disney. Those are a bit upscale from the usual starting places. I'm still waiting for those who started even more upscale - are there that few who do? Or do they not hang out in places like this?

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm glad you survived it.🙂 I have questions about what happened which may or may not ever be answered, but your eyewitness account has done its part. Thanks again. 👍

To quote one of my favorite songs, "Ah leave it". 🙂

@Aplmac: Your reference to Ocean Village threw me for a bit. But then I did an online search. It's a very interesting story. Thank you for the diversion. 👍

I'm curious about what you didn't like about it. I'm considering a sailing on the Luminosa next year, though as far away from Alaska as possible. You can link to a thread describing your thoughts and opinions if that's better for you. Thanks in advance. 👍

I'm pretty sure you're going to win that bet. 🤑

True, and maybe both the Mardi Gras and Celebration had a similarly excited bunch, but both those ships cost around $1 billion to build. I'm sure the Venezia cost much less to renovate/remodel. Lots of buzz, not too much $$$. I call that good ROI!

Hi everyone. I'm curious about on what cruise line you made your cruising start. I'll go first. My first cruise was on Carnival. I have tried other lines since then, but my next scheduled cruise is on Carnival. As always, please be considerate of others. Not everyone can or want to start at the very top. Thanks in advance for your responses!

Out of 25 topics on the front page as of this writing (it will change constantly), eight are about the Costa Venezia. I admit that I was skeptical at first, but it seems that bringing Costa ships into the fleet is bringing some needed buzz to Carnival. Nice job, Christine and Carnival! 👍