Honolulu Blue

Quickie comments: My one overnight on Carnival was in Honolulu on a cruise from Vancouver to the islands several years ago I recently had an overnight in Nassau that wasn't on Carnival It's tricky to find overnight stays on Carnival cruises, but I think they still exist I've had some late stays (10 PM or later) in Aruba and Curacao When Carnival sailed out of sunny San Juan, some of their departures from that port weren't until 10 PM, since the first port was nearby St. Thomas.

I'm updating this to note that CC itself has done an article on one of the TS themed cruises (In My Cruise Era). It's at In My Cruise Era: What You Need to Know About the Taylor Swift Cruise (cruisecritic.com) . It adds a little more info about that particular cruise and also the fact that that particular one is sold out.

Let me briefly tell you all about my experiences with the medallion: Regal, November '21 - Fort Lauderdale. Medallion was mailed to me (it was before Princess decided to charge for this privilege). Majestic, April '22 - San Pedro. I picked up the medallion. Delay was a minute or two. Ruby, April '23 - Galveston. I tried to pick it up. Big mistake! Because almost everyone else needed to pick up their medallions also, I had to go in a separate (long) line to do that. It delayed me about half an hour, which I didn't like very much. 🤬 The lesson I took from this is to not bother with delivery for cruises except for those out of Galveston. My next Princess cruise is in August out of Boston, so we'll see what happens. My medallion is currently set to be picked up.

Some personal notes that may be useful to you or others: I keep track of almost all my e-mails related to all my cruises I've kept almost all the papers related to all my cruises - even the ads (mostly). I keep all of them in an individual envelope. I've kept all my key cards and medallions I found a neat binder that holds my key cards and has room for plenty more. The medallions are an awkward fit here, so they're separate. I've kept all the prizes I've won on my various cruises Going on all the ships of a cruise line doesn't interest me personally, but it does sound like fun. I have done 13 different Carnival ships. And I take lots and lots and lots of photos on my cruises. Let's close this with a photo from one of my most recent cruises, because why not? 🙂

@Sarnia 432: Thanks for sharing.

True and true. Good points. 👍

Yeah, Polaroid pictures had their heyday in the late 70s and early 80s and slowly fizzled as film cameras became better and film processing became more available to the masses. 35mm film was most common. Digital wasn't a thing in the late 80s or early 90s. Thanks for both of those links. The two country cruises out of Galveston that were mentioned in the latter link are partial charters, unlike our favorites. That's great for those that are with the charter, not so great for the rest if the passengers who have no access to all the cool shows. ☹️

I want to spotlight a couple of articles I read while randomly surfing the internet. First is a list of summer music tours at https://ultimateclassicrock.com/2024-summer-tours/ . Chicago is listed, as is Pat Benatar, Sebastian Bach, Styx/Foreigner and Doobies/Steve Winwood. I'll be attending Chicago's show in May. I saw PB last year and will probably skip her this year. Mr. Bach was on TEC earlier this year. He got generally good reviews for his appearances, but I still don't want to buy whatever he's selling. I saw Styx last year and Foreigner this year. I'll probably skip their show this year, even though I know I'll enjoy them both. And, of course, I just saw Michael McDonald last week on the cruise with his name on it. I'm still toying with the idea of heading over to see him and the Brothers and Stevie. It should be a good time. Left off the list was the NKOTB thingie. ☹️ But that's OK. The other article is about some music cruises that will be sailing later in 2024 and early in 2025 at Music cruises set sail on the high seas in 2024 and 2025 - The Points Guy. Jamrock, OCC, UDC, and R&R were listed, among others. TEC was NOT listed. ☹️ Again, it's all right.

I found the time to sign up and pay for VIP access to Paula Abdul at her concert in Columbus on August 23. It cost $333 and includes a little more than I thought it did. Taking it directly from the Ticketmaster site: "FOREVER YOUR GIRL" MEET & GREET UPGRADE - Official Meet & Greet with Paula Abdul! - Strike a pose with Paula - receive one Polaroid photo AND one professional individual photo with Paula Abdul. Your favorite dance move is welcome!* - Autograph session - bring your favorite memorabilia to be signed by Paula Abdul** - One special Paula Abdul jewelry charm - Commemorative VIP laminate & lanyard - Dedicated VIP road crew available on-site to ensure a smooth concert experience - On-site perks such as priority check-in, VIP priority lane into the venue for ease of entry, and an on-site customer service mobile number *One Polaroid and one professional photo per transaction **Limit of one item signed per guest. All items are subject to review. Any prohibited items will not be allowed into the venue or meet & greet area, in accordance with venue policies. Please check your venue policy for more information on prohibited items. Some comments: I assume the meet & greet, photos, etc. are after the concert, though they could schedule it before. I'll let you know for sure when I find out. Polaroid? Really?? Polaroids were out of fashion when Paula was hot, and I don't think they've gotten any more popular in the 30+ years since then. I'd rather have a selfie; it would save a step. The autograph session was not mentioned in previous notices about this VIP session. It's nice. I'll have to find something for her to sign. I have the "Forever Your Girl" CD; I'm sure she'll see A LOT of those. 🙃 It's nice that I get VIP access for the venue through this. I'm not sure how many of its services I'll need to use. I'm not a big lanyard wearer, but on this occasion it's appropriate to have one. I might even wear it. The charm... whatever. I'll probably give it away as a gift. Overall I'm very happy to be able to add to my concert experience with this VIP package. Thanks Paula! Don't underestimate how much I like and have liked Ms. Abdul and her music. I like her more than Sheena Easton, and I'm sure you're sick of me talking about her. 😄

We all have different definitions of luxury, though in the examples you gave, we aren't as different as you might think. Balconies I don't see as especially luxurious. I'm sure there are others here that see them more as "necessities" than "luxuries". I do see suites as luxuries, and also butlers. But butlers are a prime example of a luxury that's wasted on me, for some of the reasons you listed, among others.

I agree with this. I assume this data is kept internally by the cruise lines. I'm not sure how to monetize this, but I'm surprised no one has tried. It would be interesting data to see. I'm at exactly 30 cruises and have missed only one port, Nassau.

Not me. Comfort is more important to me than luxury. Most luxurious touches are wasted on me, and this is true on a cruise as on any other vacation - or indeed real life. To each his own.

Thank you! I indeed had a great time on the McDonald LaBelle Cruise. And I apologize - I said I'd link my posts in the other thread. I should do that now. My report is in the linked post and the one after it:

Here's a picture from the Sheena Easton concert on The 80s Cruise that ECP took. I'm somewhere in this crowd. Good luck finding me! 🙃

Oh happy day - The 80s Cruise released their photos on the heels of Rock & Romance. In going through them (they're generally more organized than the R&R group - not only grouped by day, but by activity), I'm featured in one and in the background of 5 more. Covering the background first - I'm in three of the Sheena Easton concert photos on day 1. Since I was standing in the second row, I guess I was hard to miss. I'm also in two of the photos at Sheena's interview on day 3. I was pretty close to being up front there also. The one where I'm featured is in the Stephen Pearcy breakfast group on day 2. It's not a large group (less than 50), so @NinS, that's probably the one you want to sift through if you want to know what I look like. Also, there weren't any pictures of the Animotion concert on day 1, or any of the early show concerts, which was slightly disappointing. ☹️

I'm not in any of the featured photos.

A couple of items caught my eye. First, the 70s Rock and Romance Cruise released their official photos from this year's edition at 2024 Cruise Photos | Rock and Romance Cruise. I didn't see @George C or his lovely wife, though I could have missed them. I saw one of me. I'm in the foreground of one of the photos in the day 7 group. I'm not sure what concert I was at; probably Creedence Revived, but I'm not certain. The other is that I received an official (group) e-mail from Jazz Cruises thanking me for attending the McDonald LaBelle Cruise. Unlike ECP and possibly others, they don't do surveys, instead preferring to have us e-mail Michael Lazaroff directly. Interesting. Another interesting thing is that we, as guests of the MLC, get some perks for booking one of the 2025 cruises: The Jazz Cruise - invitation to the Big Band and Hall of Fame Show rehearsals Botti At Sea and Journey of Jazz - reserved seats In addition, those who choose to sign up for the Smooth Jazz Cruise 2026 pre-sale will have the highest priority for reserving a cabin on one of those cruises. They're for new bookings only and can't be combined with any other offer.

Thanks for the food details! I imagine the MDR was busier on the McDonald LaBelle Cruise and most of my other cruises. You can probably figure out why. There was a lot of meat on the O'Sheehan's lunch and dinner menus. I'm a big meat eater, but don't eat fish or shellfish at all. That must be why I liked it. I haven't done any specialty dining on any of these music charters. I keep saying I'm going to try it, but scheduling is a problem - my evening concerts are usually around 6, which is about when the better restaurants open. I've heard it's best to reserve early for the maximum selection of times, but those schedules come out only a few weeks beforehand. I might surprise everyone and do it sometime. One never knows. I mostly dine at the trough on these music cruises with occasional dabbles with room service and my adventures with O'Sheehan's. I've only done one regular cruise on HAL, and I didn't think the food was notably good. I think Celebrity has the best food. NCL, Royal, and Princess are in a group behind Celebrity, IMHO.

Sorry for the late follow up. I've been busy with other things. Thank you for your input, as always. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy most of the NCL food when you sailed on the Pearl. Where did you eat? Buffet? MDR? Specialty restaurants?? I think I found a good thing in O'Sheehans and I hope it stays good for my cruise on the UDC in February. 🙏 I'm still not sure if I want to head out for the Doobie Brothers in concert. There do seem to be some good tickets in the places I might go. I read about the Guess Who mess on the CBN or CBC site. It's a cluster and I feel sorry for everyone involved. Randy Bachman was pretty good. Let's close this with another picture of him.

No, I don't live in Hawaii. I'm from Michigan. Some of us have a desire to get away from the cold this time of year (though it's not cold today), given any little excuse.

Strictly speaking, they HAVE canceled cruises because of hurricanes - sometimes because that's where the path is heading, sometimes because of damage that has already occurred. But cancellations are rare and should not be relied upon to get out of sailing out of a cruise that looks risky. Altering the itinerary is a much more likely reaction to a possible hurricane, but each event is dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Agreed, but a couple of cruise lines are doing something about this: * Carnival (the cruise line) has non smoking casinos on some of their ships * Celebrity doesn't allow smoking in any indoor areas - including the casino

What groups travel on cruises is can interesting question that I should ask a CLIA rep sometime. My suspicion is that the majority of cruisers travel as a single couple. The rest of the rankings I suspect would be: Family groups Friends and unrelated cruisers traveling together Solo travelers I'm in the latter group, mostly by design. I've handed out a few soft invitations for others to join me - soft as in, I'm going on this cruise at this date and you can join me or not. No takers so far, but if I do get someone to join me like this, I suspect the arrangements would be very loose. I just finished a group of four in three months, all on different cruise lines. And next year I will have a cluster of three cruises in six weeks.

I'm surprised by the disagreement here. I had to check to see if I was at the right site. I happen to agree with the principle that cruising isn't for everyone all the time. But for me, at this phase in my life, cruising sucks up most of my vacation time.

I basically agree with both of the posts I quoted above. In addition, for me at least there's the financial factor. For my regular cruises, they cost less than a hotel stay in any place decent. And for my beloved music charter cruises, the combination of concerts and music related stuff makes up for its extra cost.