Honolulu Blue

Thanks everyone. Keep those opinions coming! It's all helpful. I'll sift through what's most relevant for me. Trust me, I do a lot of reading of this forum - though not every post. I think it's good for me to have a focused post than having to remember what people said in 100+ different threads and 1000+ different posts.

I looked at the McDonald LaBelle Cruise bookings a few minutes ago and saw this: @George C: Did you guys sneak in a booking on me? 😁 Just kidding.

Hi everyone. I've sailed on Carnival over a dozen times, but the last time was just before the shutdown. My next Carnival cruise is in November, and I'd like some opinions of what I have to look forward to. There are no wrong answers, and opinions are fine. Just be decent to each other. Thanks in advance for your help!

There will be two "elegant evenings" and one formal-ish "throwback sea day". I'll defer to others about how formal they are. My initial answer would be "not very", but I'm sure it varies some by ship and its crew.

TL,DR: I had a great trip mostly BECAUSE of the bands. I don't want to threadjack any more than I have to, but I wrote a post about my trip at

I think the Princess cheerleading squad is full, and I'd have a hard time even making the JV or the "C" squad. Though if you want to talk about 80s themed cruises...

@talkorpi: Thanks for the update. Sorry you had to get sick. Get well soon, and we'll be happy for your thoughts when you choose to give them to us. 🙏

I won't put words in anyone's mouth, but as a Carnival Corp. shareholder, I like this move for a few reasons. First, it guarantees a pool of cabins for the guarantee fares. This makes it less likely there will be an accidental overbooking and less likely that someone could end up with a huge upgrade. Second, most of the other cruise lines already have nonrefundable fares and I don't mind Princess joining the club to this limited extent. Third, as mentioned above, it does keep advertised bottom-line fares as low as possible. I'm ready for my stoning now. Or is the chosen punishment tarring and feathering? Or burning at the stake? 😆

I did this for The 80s Cruise last year. They had two suggested nearby hotels and I picked the better of the two (Crowne Plaza). There were some fans and decorations there, but I didn't get to interact too much with them at the time. I don't know what they're going to do next year yet. For Rock & Romance, I'm considering staying in their recommended hotel (Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon), but I heard a fair number of bad reviews on R&R's FB page. It's hard to justify a mediocre $250+ hotel room even if I could get close to the stars. I haven't heard of a recommended hotel for the McDonald LaBelle Cruise. There might not ever be one.

Which show? The original has been off for that long, but there was a revival in the late 1990s, and a reality version that aired last year. The last version was at least partially filmed on a real Princess ship and occasionally used real Princess staff (including the Captain).

A small exception to the above is the themed cruises that Princess recently ran (and I hope will return). In the case of the 80s themed cruises, the tribute bands were announced months in advance and they all (I think) made their respective cruises - despite a scare on our roll call. They mostly took up the spots in the main theater that would have been taken by Princess' regular entertainment. About that roll call scare... these folks were supposed to be replaced by a tribute to a female act. Does the lead singer look female to you?!?! Don't answer that! 😄

I was recently on the Ruby Princess. The comedian had a total of four shows on our cruise, all in the main theater. One day had both PG shows and the other day had both R rated shows.

I'd call that an interior cabin.

My first cruise on Celebrity was about 6 years ago. Our muster drill was held outside but Captain Kate didn't make me put on my life jacket to attend. In fact, I've never had to bring my life jacket to any of the muster drills I've had on any cruise, and I've been doing this since 2014. My memory is fuzzy about whether there was a Celebrity Cruises app 6 years ago. Maybe, maybe not - but it's much more integrated into the cruise experience now.

I've never used CC's mobile app. I've always used the default browser on my phone and Silk, the default browser on my tablet, when posting here. Most of the time it's worked all right for me.

Last February on the Summit I had problems posting to CC with Basic Internet (no Starlink at that time), but no problems this time around, other than the problems with posting anywhere with 200+ ms pings and sub-1 mbps speeds. I won't try to explain what happened to us and it's probably not worth the effort to try. It's probably just a YMMV sort of thing.

April 6 was the official announcement. Here's the press release from that date: Celebrity Cruises’ President and CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo Transitions to Vice Chair, External Affairs; Laura Hodges Bethge Named to Succeed Her | Celebrity Cruises Press Center

If I do post a trip report on the McDonald LaBelle cruise, it likely won't be here (though I have no intention of cancelling my follow for this thread). I started the roll call thread for this cruise at and I also have my thread dedicated to my 2024 musical adventures (of which this cruise is just a small part) at

I found a site that has a few more details on this McDonald LaBelle cruise -> Michael McDonald & Patti LaBelle to Host Cruise Getaway in 2024 (broadwayworld.com) It smells like a press release, but it's interesting nevertheless and worth the (relatively) short read. Here are my chosen highlights: "Patti LaBelle's influence on popular music for decades would be hard to measure because of its enormity; likewise, her influence on my career as an artist is equally difficult to measure," notes McDonald. "Not just from a music industry perspective, but for its spiritual rejuvenation for me as an artist as well. I look so forward to this chance to perform with her again!" ----------------- LaBelle says, "I'm looking forward to joining my dear friend Michael for such a special event! It's sure to be an unforgettable time and in a beautiful setting! I can't wait to see everyone there!" ----------------- "Being able to present two of the most iconic voices of my lifetime is an honor for me and everyone at Jazz Cruises," says Michael Lazaroff, Executive Director of Jazz Cruises. "It will be a getaway not to miss." ------------------ [T]his very special event will be hosted by noted bassist/producer Marcus Miller who, along with saxophonist Eric Marienthal, will be part of McDonald's band. Miller will also host a full afternoon of classic R&B music in a tribute to the stars of the genre, highlighted by a celebration of Luther Vandross, who Miller worked with for many years as a composer, arranger and producer. ------------------ Comedian Alonzo Bodden, known for his appearances on NPR's popular "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" radio show, will lead a two-hour comedy show onboard with comic legend George Wallace as well as Leslie Mendelson. ----------------------- TL,DR - Everyone says nice things about each other, we'll get an afternoon salute to classic R&B - with an emphasis on Luther Vandross, and we'll get a two-hour comedy show. Sounds like fun.

Yeah, you're too far out for an accurate read of the onboard entertainment - especially in the main theater. In my experience, the app won't be able to tell you who and when the main performers will be until you get onboard. Enjoy the ride 🙂, and enjoy your cruise.

I did a 14-day cruise on the Carnival Freedom in 2019 out of Galveston that went from Galveston deep into the Western Caribbean to the Panama Canal from the end of October until mid-November. We didn't have any weather issues at all on that cruise, except for an all-day soaker in one of our ports. Obviously, it's still hurricane season and I was concerned about it, until it was obvious we weren't going to have one bother us on our cruise. BTW, the hurricane risk is higher in the Western Caribbean at that point in the calendar than the Eastern Caribbean you're going to be spending most of your time in. My advice is if you're going to worry yourself silly about hurricanes in the area, you should cancel now. Nobody can assure you that they won't happen in that area at that time of year. The odds are with you however, and Princess will do everything they can to keep you safe and comfortable if the worst happens.

I'm going to go in two directions on this. First, I've done some one 6-day cruise with no sea days and several 7-day cruises with just one sea day. Those were relatively port-intensive and the cruise did change some. Whenever we're in port - not just on these cruises - the ship is quieter and relatively few people are around. But the ship will have activities all around (not as many as on sea days) and there will be some people in the pool area. Second, I just did something I said I would never do. My previous shortest cruise was 5 days - which made sense because I have to fly from Michigan for every one, and that makes for some very long embarkation and disembarkation days. But I saw and booked a 3-day charter cruise out of Miami that is highlighted by two performers of interest to me. I think it's overnighting in Nassau, but truly it wouldn't make any difference if we did a dozen loops around the Bahamas and returned home. This seems to be an experiment all around - the charter company doesn't normally do such short cruises with such a focus on few performers. And as mentioned above, I don't do 3-day cruises and I don't normally cruise for just two people. I hope it goes well. I THINK it will, but there's always a chance it won't. I'm willing to take the risk here. It's hard for me to imagine doing another 3 or 4 day cruise, but then again, I didn't imagine a month ago I would book this one.

That wasn't true for me on my last Celebrity cruise on the Summit in February and March. Starlink was onboard then. I had the basic package and was able to post here all I wanted - even with pretty photos. I did several speed tests, mostly from my interior cabin in steerage class. I only used the basic test from Speedtest's Web site. The good news is that the speeds I received were very consistent. The bad news is they were consistently... not so hot - all readings were between 0.87 mbps and 0.95 mbps. Pings were all over the place - from under 100 ms to over 700 ms. Here's a typical screen capture from that cruise: I may or may not have had this in my cabin. If I did, I would have completely dismissed it, because it looks like a smoke detector. I'll have to pay better attention on my next Celebrity cruises (I currently have one scheduled for next March).

I just want to note that I passed two significant milestones (for me) on this cruise: This was my 25th cruise (all solo), and I spent my 200th day at sea. I'm up to 201 total. This is on all cruise lines, not just Princess. Let's throw a random picture here. Why not? This is some of the many plaques the Ruby has picked up through the years. I've actually been to two of these POCs, one on Princess (though not on the Ruby).

Thanks for sharing. Back in 2018 when I visited Hawaii by cruise ship (not on Princess), we went to Kahului, Maui and used the dock there.