Honolulu Blue

I'm sitting at the Long Beach airport. I've disembarked and the cruise is over. But I still have some notes about yesterday and today. So let's get to that. I got a cute faux license plate and some luggage tags as gifts. I did the charity walk for the Wounded Warrior fund and I got some more gifts for that. The big one was a t shirt: BTW, it was originally advertised as a mile walk. There's no way I was doing a 5k walk or run with the incentives they offered. Physically I could have probably done it, but there's always a risk there. The mile walk went reasonably well for me. I felt good for the most part and jogged the last half lap for the fun of it. My unofficial time was 15 minutes. It was 8 laps around a specific course on deck 12. There were a fair number of photos taken of my walk, so you might see me in a few months either in the highlight reel or the random photos that are made available after the cruise. If you look carefully at this picture, you can see people who took this a lot more seriously than I did. Later on we docked in Ensenada first few hours. I didn't get off the ship. Then, in the evening, was the Lou Gramm concert. I had been looking forward to this since he announced he was coming. I thought he did a good job and so did much of the audience. He played most of his big hits with Foreigner and a couple of solo songs. He also played some songs that weren't such big hits for Foreigner. The one big absence from the set list was "Waiting For a Girl Like You". That was a very big hit back in 1981-82, but it was a ballad. I inferred from his autobiography that he wasn't a big fan of Foreigner's ballads and that he was a rock and roller at heart. So its absence wasn't a complete surprise. But it raised my eyebrows. There may have been some other reason for skipping it - perhaps as simple as he's played it a million times and didn't want to play it that day. My guess is Foreigner will not miss playing it at next year's Rock and Romance cruise. @George Cwill have to confirm this if I don't make it. BTW, most of the VJs and interviewers stopped by to introduce him. I was reminded of an old joke about light bulbs. After the concert I had dinner and went to sleep. I had a long day ahead that would start early. I went to breakfast in the Jammer right at 6, as it was opening. I ate, then finished packing. There were some challenges, but I took everything I wanted to take. I started the long walk to disembark about 7:30 and made it outside by 8. I like that my pretty face keeps getting me back on shore with minimum hassle. I ordered another Lyft and made it to LGB by 8:40. It was $48 for this ride. That's all that I currently have to say about this trip and The 80s Cruise. It was a wonderful time and I'm already looking forward to next year's edition. Truly I'd rather think about that than thinking about all the stuff that I have to take care of both in my personal and work life. 🤪 Thanks for reading.

I'll hold you to that! 🤑😎 If I book, I'll give you a gratis tour of my solo interior cabin down in steerage if you want. 🐁🐀 It'll take about 10 seconds.

Awesome! I'm monitoring this too. My booking window comes just before the general public in a few weeks. I'm uncertain if I can make all the pieces work, but I'd like to. The current lineup sounds good to me already.

A couple of notices I found while flipping through the app. The first doesn't affect this cruise, but I do have a cruise that stops in Colon, Panama next year. This second one I'm sure most of you have heard about. I didn't see anyone smoke or try to smoke in public while I was out and about in that country. I have several more stops in Mexico on cruises over the next year. We'll see how it goes.

Thank you for sharing. I love my share of sugary snacks, but these calorie bombs are not for me. I gained two pounds just looking at the pictures. 😮

Today we continue on our way to Ensenada. We're a few hours away. Now it's time for me to chronicle what happened yesterday. I skipped out on the Autograph Q and A session to stand in line for Lou Gramm's autograph. And quite a line it was. It moved and I eventually got my signature. His siggy is actually clearer than mine, and I'm sure he's done many more than I have. I bought a t shirt because I didn't really have anything suitable for him to sign. Mr. Gramm is a very nice man. He was nice to me and nice to others I overheard in line. BTW, no pictures were allowed anywhere in the autograph area. It was held on deck 5 in the MDR. As for Vixen and Lori Majewski, well, they weren't Maytag repairmen lonely, but their lines were a lot shorter. I wasn't interested in their autographs. Living Colour had an autograph session in a different location that was so last minute that it wasn't even on the newsletter. JT had to announce it. After doing that, I had some time to watch the nearby auction. I saw auctions for paintings of famous album covers for Guns and Roses, the J. Geils Band, and Duran Duran. This latter painting sparked some lively bidding between two people. One surrendered to the other after a bid of $3300. Far too rich for my blood, but I don't judge others on what they decide to do for fun. Later on I went to the Lou Gramm Q and A session. It was held in their smallest theater and it was PACKED. I got there 10 minutes early and I could barely find a seat. It was standing room only by the time things started. Mark Goodman hosted and put poor Mr. Gramm on the defensive right away with a discussion about the Foreigner that's on their farewell tour with no original members left. Then he kept up the pressure by talking about Mick Jones, his former writing partner and Foreigner bandmate. On Mr. Jones, I have some bad news. They haven't talked to each other in a decade. His desire to talk to him ever again is weak. Even Mick's manager is discouraging contact, so a reunion of any kind is unlikely. He also didn't think much of the idea of joining the current Foreigner in any capacity - as a guest or anything more permanent. In more positive news, we should have some new Lou Gramm songs released this year. Most were based on solo material that was shelved for various reasons back in the 80s and 90s. This Q and A was very informative and I'm glad I went. I didn't do anything else if note yesterday. No concerts for the first time since I left town! Can you believe it? Today I definitely have a concert. Guess who I'm going to see? 🤩

Removing the service charge? You can try. Good luck with that. Beverage servers and room service do delivery personnel are NOT part of the gratuity pool that's covered by the per day "mandatory" gratuities the cruise line charges.

I've gotten refunds as OBC several times on my Carnival sailings as I embarked. The amounts were usually small and odd (like $7.42). This was pre-pandemic, so I'm not sure if they still do this. I don't recall any other cruise lines doing this for me. The one time I did have a port skipped without replacement was on Royal last year (Nassau). I got a $30 refund as OBC for that

Today is a sea day as we make our way to Ensenada. Yesterday we were in Cabo San Lucas and it's time to tell you how that day went. This is, of course, a tender port. We had to take them to the port and back. On the way there, I saw something that I hadn't seen before. While we were sailing along, there was a crew member walking around with a tip jar. While I appreciate service personnel and the opportunity to make as much as possible, I thought this was too aggressive for my tastes and was turned off by it. I had an excursion to see the sights in and on the way to San Jose del Cabo, about a 40 minute drive away. We stayed in the bus the whole way there. We stopped in the central plaza and we were on our own for roughly an hour and a half. There were several places to shop and eat, and of course much to see: I bought a few souvenirs here and eventually we left and headed back to the tender boats.BTW, this is a much more common, subtle, and all around better way to ask for what you want: In the evening I went to one of the side arenas to see 80s tribute band Jessie's Girl. The crowd was roughly the same as watched Autograph in the same arena last night, which is to say not too many. They did get more people on the dance floor. No surprise, since they played many of the big hits of the 80s and played them well. The only act they played two songs from was Journey. I'll see a dedicated Journey tribute band on the Ruby Princess in a month. Anyway, good job guys and gals! That ended the exciting events from yesterday. Before I go, I want to talk about something that sometimes happens on these cruises. Here's a sliver of today's newsletter: I originally had the interview session with Autograph on my personal calendar. But they snuck in the autograph session with Lou Gramm and the auction at the very last minute. I'm interested in those too and now I'm torn. There's less than an hour to go, so I have to choose something soon. I should note that most of the rest of the time onboard doesn't stack events like this. Time to go. I'll report later on today's events.

While I have some extra time and space, let me discuss what has happened so far this morning. We're at our anchor point for Cabo San Lucas. They just started calling tender numbers. My excursion is later. I went to the ECP Q and A session way up on deck 14 in the Cosmopolitan Lounge. This was very interesting, very informative, and better than I expected. JT the cruise director hosted and passed around the Mike so they could ask the senior available staff some questions. From left to right we had Brett (hotel director), Chris (executive director), and Joey (production director). They had very interesting stories. All, including JT, had backgrounds in the cruise and/or charter business, and have been with ECP for a while. Yes, JT does work for the charter. Keep that in the back of your mind; I'll come back to it later. Two questions were asked by JT first as they had been asked multiple times over the cruise. First was how they pick the ship and the itinerary. No surprise here - everything counts and it gets worked on quite a bit in advance. The second question was what they do the rest of the year. They mentioned decompression immediately after this cruise, then on to work on other cruises - either planning or operating them. Then came my questions, two of them. I started with the Mariner moving to Galveston next year. Chris said the 2025 cruise would probably stay in the Caribbean, but didn't commit to anything beyond that. Everything is in the cards and I was asked to stay tuned. My second question was about solo pricing. They offered only a 50% single tax when I booked. It's also available for those who booked here, but there's an overall limit on how many cabins they will sell to single travelers. Interesting. We had about 50 people in the lounge, and a good portion of them asked other questions on various subjects or gave the ECP staffers compliments. * They're probably not going to do outside excursions with artists again. Too much can go wrong with outside vendors, and they're happy with the on ship opportunities provided. * There are more cruisers here from the east coast as compared to the west coast. The shift between last year and this year didn't change things much. * This cruise didn't sell out, but last year's did. That surprised me, because it seems more crowded this year. * The survey from ECP is very important to them and was mentioned multiple times. One of the acts on next year's cruise, Air Supply, was mentioned many times and they finally got them. * They tried multiple times in the past to get Devo and they finally got them this year. They're performing tonight. No, I'm not going. * I found a fellow passenger in a Weird Al shirt. He was nice enough for me to take a photo of him. I'm not sharing it, sorry. Ok, now back to the UDC, Jason, and StarVista Live. Jason is not employed by StarVista; he is one of their contractors. StarVista didn't have a Q and A like this on the UDC. I think the executives and Jason would probably have been SHREDDED for reasons I've already covered. It would have been fun to see. It's nearing time for my excursion, so I ll just leave you with a picture from the Cosmopolitan Lounge:

Roll call of gifts I've received so far from The 80s Cruise: Fanny pack Sun visor Sunglasses T shirt Latest speed test

Maybe not so obvious... I've heard from NCL cruisers where the bed was set up on arrival and not moved for the entire cruise. They might try this on Royal.

The big event of yesterday evening was the concert by Autograph. First, some background (mostly for me). Autograph was part of the Los Angeles hard rock/metal scene that emerged in the 1980s. Some I'm a big fan of (RATT and Quiet Riot), some I can't stand (Poison and Motley Crue). Autograph was one of the good ones, IMHO. I have their first album, "Sign In Please" and enjoyed it. Their one big hit on the pop charts was from this album. I'll talk about it more later. They played three other songs from this album. Random notes: 1) They didn't get much of a reaction from the crowd - no bigger than the songs from their later albums 2) It took them 5 songs to get to their first one from this album. I was starting to wonder if I was in the right place. 3) I practiced recording video with these songs. This was not prohibited; only in the main theater is filming not allowed. Don't expect it to appear on social media now or ever. As a videographer, I'm very glad I have a day job. 😁 4) On one, "Send Her To Me", the lead singer straight out asked who had heard of it. I screamed as loud as I could (it's a good song). There were maybe two others who did the same. Sometimes I wonder who comes to these concerts and why. 5) Which leads me to two other points. First, attendance was lower than I expected - only about 150 people in an arena that fit about 500. A considerable number were by the stage (no seats out front this time; I sat in the bleachers) 6) The lead singer also asked how many were born in each decade by voice vote. As you'd expect, the 60s and 70s were near even. But I'd say about 10% we're from the 80s and 5% from the 90s. 😮 I assume they're children of the true fans and were dragged kicking and screaming. A couple of people confessed to being born in the 50s - like Sting confessed in one of his more obscure songs. Let's see... What else... The singer did his best to try to engage us by singing along, swaying our hands, etc. Sometimes the results seemed weak, but that's partly because there were so few people around. And they were introduced by former MTV VJ "Downtown" Julie Brown. My favorite song from them is their big hit from 1985, "Turn Up the Radio". They closed the show with it. Overall I thought the newer songs they played were pretty good. I'll have to research them more. The band was good and they played well. This was a good concert and I'm glad I went. Here are some random photos: Today we'll be in Cabo San Lucas. It's a surprisingly busy day for me. I plan to chronicle it tomorrow.

I was in an M-class ship (Summit) last week. Cabin service was twice daily. This week I'm on Royal's Navigator OTS and there is also twice daily service. It's either the policy is being phased in or because this is a charter.

During the morning hours, the piano bar is quiet. You'll have to dodge the occasional cleaner and the tables aren't great for game playing. Between 3 and 6 PM and after 7 PM, the buffet will be relatively quiet. It's even quieter on the second level (I can't remember if the Ho has a second level; I think it does).

I've never seen a casino on a cruise ship with closed and locked doors. They tend to be built in places where they're critical thoroughfares to other high traffic parts of the ship.

I apologize for being a little late with this post. Busy day, tried to work everything in. I'll cover day 3 of the cruise - yesterday - and get to day 4 on the morrow. This was our second day at sea on our way to Puerto Vallarta. We traveled at around 19 knots the whole day. I didn't feel much of it. Breakfast in the Jammer was quite good. Later on I picked up my daily gift from ECP guest services. Here it is: I went through the rest of the day until the Morris Day concert. This was purple night and formal night. I would say most guests were either one or the other. Some combined both, which impressed me. Also impressive we're Morris Day and the Time. They got the crowd out of their seats early and kept them out with their music and showmanship. They did a great job. I expect this will be the best concert I see onboard this week. They didn't play "The Latest Fashion", my favorite song from me. I didn't expect them to. They also didn't play "Donald Trump (Black Version)". Tii siin for that one, but they did play several other songs from their back catalog that I didn't expect them to get to. It all worked very well. I had dinner and retreated to the cabin after the show. This morning, like magic, we were docked in Puerto Vallarta. Nice city, more impressive than I expected. I had an excursion here to see various sights in town. I was part of one of several groups that met in the main theater so we could get off the ship in an organized fashion. Sebastian was our tour guide. He was a young one. Javier was our driver who expertly guided our big yellow bus through some sometimes twisty, narrow, and cobblestoned streets. We made some stops in the downtown area. This was supposed to be a 4 hour excursion, but we were out well over 5 hours. I was surprisingly exhausted when I got back and immediately took a power nap. When I woke up, we were about ready to leave town. Goodbye PV. Maybe I'll be back. My next post will cover the rest of today, including my next concert experience.

True, but one of the major reasons why is that the ships from many of the mainstream cruise lines have gotten so big that it's impractical for them to run a tendering operation.

I'm sorry for the issues on your sailing. I was on the Summit for the sailing before yours. The dinner buffet in the OVC was well stocked and tasty. It was a charter, so maybe we paid extra for the extra spread??

Like a few others here have said, I think everything is important to me when enjoying a cruise - but some things are more important than others, and it's different things at different times. Lately music themed cruises have taken up an increasing share of my vacation time. This year it will be three of four cruises. For those, ENTERTAINMENT (mainly who's playing) is by far the most important thing, and I hope everything else is good enough. I like the way you travel. 🙂 I'm some years behind you in that I'd rather be on three music charters in interior cabins than one in a suite. In the funny coincidence department, one of the charter cruises I'm eyeing for next year goes to both Curacao and Aruba and they'll be using a Royal Caribbean ship (Mariner OTS).

No

I bought some slot cash for my trip on the Millie in November and, unlike @Jim_Iain's experience, mine was straightforward with just a couple of extra buttons to press and a trip to the cashier. But on my cruise on the Summit that I recently disembarked from, this was never offered. They seem to have discontinued it. ☹️

This looks like a partial charter, where a group controls some of the cabins and takes control of some of the cruise's rooms (like the dining rooms and/or theaters) for some of the time. I've heard that cruise lines (not just Princess) are very poor at disclosing these. I'm sympathetic to your point that they should. I find this point funny, because I think I could teach any 3-year-old how to play the slots. It's basically 1. Insert money, 2. Hit the big button on the right, 3. Repeat #2 above until out of money

The first Princess cruise I chose for the itinerary. I wanted to sail along the California coast and no one had a better choice than Princess. The second Princess cruise I chose for the theme. Yes, it was the 80s. The third one (sailing this month, I hope 🙏) I chose for the same theme. I think you see the pattern here. Unless it's an itinerary they do particularly well, or it's one of those 80s themed things, it's likely I'll chose someone other than Princess. Nothing wrong with them, but I think they're just OK, and there are other cruise lines that can give me better experiences in the things I value at the time.

On Saturday, day 2 of this cruise, we sailed along Baja California at around 19 knots. I visited the Behind the Music interview with Morris Day. It was revealed that he had some new music out now. I'll have to check it out. There were other tidbits revealed during the show. Mr. Day signed autographs for a few minutes after the interview, but I was too far back in line and didn't get anything. Oh well. ☹️ Later on I saw the special heavy metal show by tribute band Trial By Fire. I liked this more than I thought I would, considering most metal bands aren't of interest to me. They played RATT'S "Round and Round", among many others. In an executive decision, I skipped out on the Cutting Crew show that evening. I felt fine, just didn't want to go. Maybe I'll see them again on some other cruise. I didn't allow my cabin steward to turn down the cabin last night. He left more paperwork for me in the mail slot, along with a note to pick up my daily gift at ECP guest services. BTW, I did meet him the first day and saw him in the corridor one other time. I broke down this morning and bought Internet access for the rest of this cruise. It cost $120. The good news is we have Starlink access onboard. The bad news is speeds are erratic. These are two tests I took within a few minutes of each other: I also purchased two excursions - one each for Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas. This cost me $74 in total. I'll tell you about those as I do them. This concludes my early report. Eventually I'll cover the Morris Day and the Time concert.