Honolulu Blue

Living Colour was a last-minute replacement on The 80s Cruise last year and they're a featured act this year. Ask me how I know. 🙂 Yeah, these music charters are very expensive, but you can get premium seats and possible extra access ("Oh look! That's Greasyhaired Rockstar grabbing some lasagna at the trough! Let me go get his autograph!!) When you account for that, the value evens out a bit. In my neck of the woods, we have one festival of note which mostly has artists that aren't of interest to me. And we get the odd performer at the nearest Native American casinos. So, to see several musicians of interest to me in the same place is quite appealing.

Noted. Thanks. Also, some interesting articles I found: The Travel site listed 10 80s themed cruises (includes UDC, TEC, and the Princess cruises) - https://www.thetravel.com/80s-cruises-to-book-in-2023/ Reader's Digest has 38 of the best themed cruises (includes UDC) - Best Themed Cruises: 38 Theme Cruises to Book Right Now (rd.com) Fearless leader Chris Gay Faust discussed 10 ways TEC 2023 will help you relive your youth - Why You Should Book the 2023 80s Cruise -- Cruise Critic

@Tom-n-Cheryl: I finally got through your thread about your trip experience back in the day. I have so much to say to you and the other posters there about your experience and how it's changed from then to now, and from Sixthman to other charter companies. But that thread is archived and locked, and I don't want to annoy the other posters/lurkers here, so I'll drop it and say that I enjoyed your report very much.

Thanks for sharing your experience. The only name I recognize from your cruise was Train. They've moving up to hosting their own charter cruise.

I got an e-mail from The 80s Cruise with some fluff and news. In the news department, John Parr canceled on us again. That's the second time in two years. Naughty naughty, John. 🙁 They did say they were going to replace him, but no word yet on who.

This is a good day after all. The UDC released their schedule! I've done a preliminary scan and here are the highlights: My Gold card (early show) has the following headliners in the main theater: Saturday - Taylor Dayne Sunday - KC and the Sunshine Band (matinee, 1-3, on land), Sister Sledge Monday - Double Exposure and Tavares (matinee, 2-3), Al McKay Allstars Tuesday - Billy Ocean Wednesday - Kool & the Gang Heatwave's shows are by the pool Queen Nation's shows are in the afternoons, also by the pool Cara Lee's shows are in Rendezvous; I'll have to catch at least one

I'm quoting this mostly as a record to see what was said before the IMO makes their move. We'll see what they do, when they decide to do it.

Ditto. I used them four times in the past year and they've always been as advertised. In fact, I bought another two tests (from Optum) because I need to test for a charter that I'll be on (not on Princess). I'm not sure when or if I'll need the other one, but it'll be nice to have in case something bad happens.

Thanks for sharing the (relatively) good news about breakfast and lunch. I'm tired of all the doom & gloom too. I appreciate all the true and honest reports from X's fleet. I wish Celebrity gives us nothing but good things to talk about from now on.

A couple of quick questions if you have the time & inclination: 1) No choice of morning or evening service given to you, right? 2) Pullman remains down all day every day, right? Thanks! And have fun!!

I purchased a 2-pack of proctored tests from the Optum Store. They've served me well in the past, and StarVista doesn't seem to want to budge from their requirement for negative COVID-19 results before boarding certain of their charters. The local options other than these have mostly dried up. I might find a use for the second test if things spike again, or the expiration date is farther out than I expect it to be, or I take another StarVista cruise by the end of the year. Now I'm in wait mode for the UDC and TEC to publish their preliminary schedules.

I don't know about CCL, but I've heard of reports of cruisers receiving Paxlovid on Princess (another cruise line owned by Carnival Corp.).

I'm surprised you haven't gotten an answer to this... let me throw my two cents in. I am going to guess that either your excursion is small or it's not very time sensitive. They probably also did this for similar excursions back in the old, old days when they called them tenders. My experience with excursions at tender ports was the same as yours - we met somewhere inside the ship and were guided directly to the tender/water shuttle/whatever. I don't recall using my Platinum card for water shuttle priority, but I THINK the way it worked was that excursion groups had first priority, then it's Diamond/Platinum/FTTP - depending on the exact mix, they might be called separately. I hope this has been of some help. I assume if I'm completely out to lunch, I'll get called out quickly.

Thanks for sharing. This will go especially well on the Pearl, which is in the middle of a gazillion consecutive charters. 🙃

@SundsgnThank you for sharing these old Capers with us. It took me a minute to figure out that "motor launch" is the same as what we call "tenders" or "water shuttles" now.

I'm interested too, but the crowd that hangs out here isn't much interested in music themed cruises, I've found. Perhaps there's a roll call? I'm too lazy to look, sorry. Other notes on music themed cruises: Carnival isn't much of a player in the charter cruise market anymore for whatever reason; they don't even list their charters anymore at their site. NCL, Celebrity, HAL, and Royal all have much bigger pieces of this pie. Princess has some 80s themed cruises over the next few months where 80s tribute bands are featured. They've had some in the past couple of years. I was on one in late '21 and will be on one in a few months. I think they're a lot of fun. I will be on two music themed charters in the next two months. I like the themes on both. I actually sailed the same two last year and wrote some reports on them; search around and maybe you'll find them. I'll probably write up this year's cruises in some form. Music themed charters are great but @Saint Greghit on a key point - they can be very expensive, even for the cheapest cabins. $600 ppdo per day isn't out of line for these. I'm paying about that for one of my upcoming cruises.

Thanks for sharing. I'm highlighting this bombshell. I struggle to understand how 5 mbps down can be considered "premium" - especially for as much as Celebrity charges for it.

Thanks for sharing. This seems definitive, but look what I found on the peasants' MDR menu for my upcoming cruise on the Summit in February (day 3 of a 5-day charter out of Miami, FYI):

My interpretation of what we've heard of those who have contacted LLP's office about the OVC dinner changes is a little different. I think they're surprised by all the feedback and are truly not sure what to do from here. This I view as a positive in that they're open to making favorable changes or go back to where they were.

This made my day too. Thanks! 👍 I'll be on the Summit in 5 weeks. It's a shortie where I could do without the Net, but maybe if it's actually good, it might be worth hooking up for a day or two.

Same as above for me - except that I never bought the slot play or chips because they were never offered to me. The poker and BJ tourneys were offered, but I checked this morning and they no longer are. I'm on the Summit February 25. It's a charter, in case that matters.

This topic has mostly played itself out, it seems, but I still come here hoping to find posts of value, such as... "I'm on/recently disembarked from (XXX) and ate at the OVC. This is what I found..." "The fish fingers/pizza/whatever in the OVC on (XXX) is really good, the best I've ever had!" "I talked to someone from LLP's office/random corporate VP, and this is how they spun these changes/what they hope to accomplish by doing this/when they plan to make these changes final fleetwide" "I talked to (random officer in charge of the food in the OVC) on (XXX), and this is how they spun these changes..." "Looky what I found in the OVC - fresh from the MDR - PORK AND BEANS!!!!" 🤮 Other than these categories, it's just noise to me at this point.

Noted. I'm happy for you. 👍 TEC still includes a drink package for its passengers, even the ones in the cheapest cabins. But that's on Royal Caribbean, so I don't know how much of the good stuff it includes. For the UDC, of course, drink packages are extra, and likely to be popular. 🍺🍷🍹

My last hotel experience longer than overnight was at an AI a bit over a year ago. That had once daily service. But I've certainly heard of service cuts by hotels during the pandemic and that some are being kept as we transition away from it. See above. Also, I tend to hang out in my cabin more when I'm cruising than I stay in my room on land.

Thanks for sharing this. It sounds that, unlike Carnival, there's no choice of morning or evening service; they'll get to it when they get to it. I admit that I'm not thrilled about this, but it's not too much different than my land hotel experiences.