Honolulu Blue

A consistent 5 mbps down and 3 mbps up is pretty good by cruise ship standards. But I know Starlink can do far better than this, so either someone is throttling speeds, or there's a lot of traffic.

It seems that you've found your forever home. I admire and respect this. 👍

It's possible @CCAubs has already left for the seminar, but I do have one question that was inspired by Carnival Corp's financial report: (for any or all of the CEOs) - Why are you holding so much cash?

I like some of Princess' itineraries and I really like their 80s themed cruises. If I book on Princess in the future, it's a good bet that it will be because of one or the other of those factors.

I wonder about this, and not just on Carnival. I wonder how many are casino offers with comped/deeply discounted cabins (almost certainly heavy gamblers) vs. those who gamble casually vs. those who never gamble at all. We might be surprised by the percentages. It would be a good question to ask the CEOs, except 1) I can't figure out a way to ask the question to get a direct answer, and 2) I'm not sure even they know the complete alchemy behind casino comps corporation-wide.

A couple of small things... first, I found a link to another article with some lineups for upcoming music festivals on land at Music Festival Lineups 2023: Who's Playing Which Music Festival and When - Thrillist . It made me appreciate how good we have it on these ships. For example, I think if I combined my favorites from all of them, I'd have about as good a list as what I had on this year's UDC or TEC/ And second, I'm still deliberating about whether to do the R&R thing next year. It may be out of my hands; if I can't get one of the allocated single cabins, then I'm going to have to pass as it would be hard for me to justify the $1000+ extra for purchasing in any other class. Maybe the waiting list would be an option. We'll see about that.

You've missed some of Carnival's memos about this. People have been complaining about smelling it on Carnival's ships since the restart. Carnival management have written various e-mails and posts on their Web site about this. Fearless Leader Christine Duffy even starred in a video about this. That one explicitly mentioned that they were going to occasionally send some dogs around on the ships. And so they are. I personally am glad they're doing what they said they were going to do.

StarVista Live put up images from the UDC yesterday. It's earlier than last year. I don't know what it means (if anything), though I was happy to review them. They actually got a nice photo of me relatively close up. No, I'm not posting it. I'm much too modest. 😶 All I'll say is that if you go through all 2000 photos, you'll find me. I did want to post a couple of photos of people that improve of images I posted here. First was KC's "stunning" dancer. The second is the neon butterfly lady.

Not to me, but I realize everyone's mileage varies. Often in response to, um, stupid cruise line policies and their implementation of such.

I can imagine, but won't say, for fear of grossing some people out. 😮

I was on the other side of this when I turned platinum a few years ago. I had 62 points and booked a 14-day cruise, so I was platinum at the start of it. BTW, I think platinum is the biggest status jump on Carnival. I doubt I would have considered a short cruise to bridge any gap between gold and platinum. I am certainly not considering one to go from platinum to diamond.

Thank you for sharing your story. As for Rockstar Adventures, if this is what you're talking about at https://trips.rockstaradv.com/t/rockstar-adventures/australia-openingact-rsa , it doesn't look like you have much to worry about. It's a land adventure that's limited to 20 couples.

My suggestion is to download it as soon as you can find the time. You won't be able to do a whole lot with the app at this point. but you can go through what you can do and find out about its quirks, frustrations, and good features. Good luck and have fun!

I had Starlink basic on the Summit in January/February in the Western Caribbean. It was mostly reliable, but throttled so hard I was tempted to call the authorities to report an attempted homicide. This is one of similar speed test screen shots I took from that journey: I tried again with the single speed available with Starlink on the Navigator OTS in the Mexican Riviera. That was better, though not great. Streaming worked, most of the time. Here's a screen shot of one of those speed tests:

Good points. The number of ports that have a limit on cruise ship size is relatively small now, but certainly could grow in the future. This, of course, could be offset by the cruise lines building more private destinations, which will of course take the largest ships. As for overhauling ships, I'm sure there will be some of that. But there's a limit to how far it can go. How much sense does it make to throw $200 million or more at a 30-to-40-year-old ship at the end of the day? I suppose we'll see.

Ah, but there's the rub. Much as you and I (and others) might wish it so, I don't see any of the mainstream lines building any more ships smaller than NCL's Prima class ever again, except as expedition ships. New build ships of that size will probably be luxury liners in 20 years, with prices to match. The older, smaller ships that are currently running around will mostly be 30+ years old by then. 30 is the traditional retirement age for cruise ships. I think a lot of them will be heading for the scrapyard in 20 years, and some of those that aren't will be used by... less prestigious lines that are out of the mainstream. The rest will split, I predict - some will go on short runs to/from the Bahamas or the equivalent in other regions, and some will be held for long and exotic runs around the world until the end comes for them.

I know most cruise lines now bend over backwards for cruisers with all kinds of maladies; I think that's going to continue or even be enhanced unless the age of the average cruise plummets for some reason(s) that I can't think of. A personal jet pack would be really nice - especially if it can propel me at anywhere close to the speed of sound. Who needs airlines and their hassles when I can zip over to POM in a few hours? 🙂

Thanks for sharing your stories about Mr. Sheehan and Mr. Donald. He left Carnival a few months ago. Sometime in the near future, I imagine Mr. Del Rio, Mr. Donald, and Mr. Fain on some random big cruise ship that they used to control, sitting around swapping war stories about leading big cruise lines through some sometimes terrifying times, and surviving. THAT would be a fun conversation to eavesdrop on. P.S. When was your encounter with Mr. Donald? Just curious.

This was inspired by a discussion I had in another thread. We all know cruising, its ships, and its passengers, are changing constantly. I ask you to put on your wizard cap and look 20 years in the future. I'm fairly certain there will be cruising in the future; the question is will you be one of the ones cruising? (BTW, the poll option for those who can't see them are Yes, No (due to health), No (due to industry changes), No (due to preferring other travel options), and no cruises yet. Since I don't think I'll have any influence, I'll tell you my story. I'm middle aged and in relatively good health. I like cruising. I'm neutral on where cruising is heading - some changes look good, some not so good. In 20 years, I'll probably be cruising somewhere, somehow. Your story is not like mine. Kindly tell us yours through the poll or a direct reply, or both. Thank you!

I'm an introvert too and on the music charters I've done (StarVista Live's Ultimate Disco Cruise and ECP's 80s Cruise), I didn't have too much difficulty finding quiet spaces when I wanted them. I'm also a music lover who's starting to get into concerts. But unlike you, I live in a live performance desert - everyone comes to Metro Detroit or Grand Rapids or the casinos and almost no one comes to my neck of the woods. The pain of getting out of a packed concert arena area means that most concerts (for me) would be overnights, which adds considerably to the costs to go to them. That means that, for me, the music charters I've been on have been worth the money over a regular cruise (double seems about right - I WISH they were only $1700 each. 🤑) I've gotten lots of gifts on the music charters I've been on also - mostly logo items of limited practical value, but I do appreciate the thought behind them. I've never knowingly gotten sponsor gifts; I don't think any of our cruises had sponsors other than the charter company and the cruise line. BTW, I haven't taken a Sixthman cruise yet, though I've been tempted a couple of times (Melissa, Beach Boys - looking at you). I think eventually our paths will intersect.

Thanks. I'm happy they're improved from the one-page newsletters from the recent past. I remember these from just before the pandemic.

Too much rock and romance, and too little time for degeneracy, I suppose. 😛

My mail-in "Comedian 101" course from a few decades ago has the answer to that. Let's see, flick through some yellowed, faded pages... ah yes, here it is - To get to the other side. Key West has a lot of chickens roaming around. You should go there sometime. It will make you happy. I'm jealous! I took this exact cruise in November and we had pretty bad weather - mostly from the long tail of a a tropical system. I had two excursions canceled due to rain or previous rain. Despite that, I had a great time. I'm glad to see Boogie Wonderland is still there; I liked that show also. Great job with your trip report, OP!

I go a step farther for my cell phone - I don't answer unless I'm expecting a call. Period. The people that know me understand and will leave a message or text. Legit businesses with legit business will leave a message. The rest rarely bother with messages, so their call was obviously unimportant. 😊

Actually, two of my music charters on Celebrity and the two sailings I've had on Celebrity out of SJ were quite ethnically diverse. I agree with your main point that X is not ignoring older cruisers in making their push toward youngsters. But I did a little calculation, and this is, according to the calendar, my seventh decade of life. Two decades from now, I won't be THAT old (mid-70s), and I think I'll still be cruising - though maybe not on Celebrity or whomever buys it in the future.