Honolulu Blue

And thank you, always, for following along with my ramblings. Speaking of ramblings, here are some more. I pulled the trigger on those concerts this morning. I bought the Toto/Chris Cross/MAW ticket first. There was quite a bit of drama with this one. First, this was a Citibank offer, so I had to use a Citi card to pay for it. I had to input it. But then it wouldn't take the first time, for whatever reason. Then the transaction timed out, so I had to do it all again. Did I mention that I had to put in a PIN for this transaction? And they had to call my land line to give it to me? And that there was no other option than this? Sorry for the aside. Anyway, got the ticket. It's at Pine Knob on August 11. It cost $156 total and it's in one of the center sections about 10 rows from the stage and near the aisle. Looks good to me. 😎 Less dramatic but more costly was the Styx VIP ticket I scored. Styx, Kevin, and Don each had VIP options, but 1) Styx is my favorite of the bunch, and 2) they had the best seats. Not the best VIP package I've seen (no autographs or photos, but they do have a long sleeve shirt, special lanyard, tote bag, and some other little items), but the seat was pretty nice - a few rows closer to the stage than the ticket I described above. This one was $349 total. And now I pray for good weather on both days. 🙏

Most of the time when I do this, it's based on observation from my (limited) perspective. Sometimes the cruise director will give out stats. And some people will query Guest Services.

Correct. I did not cruise from Australia. I was only on the ship from Hawaii to Australia.

Celebrity has a special occasion cruise listing is at Special Occasion Cruises & Themed Cruises | Celebrity Cruises , though I prefer the link that @patty1955 posted above (which includes charters from other cruise lines).

Considering that my first Princess cruise was scheduled for 2020 and canceled during the pandemic, and my first actual sailing on a Princess cruise was in 2021, I have nothing of substance to contribute and will merely monitor this thread for continued responses. They should be interesting. 🍿

I assume this is for Australian customers, or those who booked through an Aussie TA or through Royal's Australian site. I'm not from that great nation and booked through a US site, and they surely billed my grats every day.

@George C, I don't normally talk about music artist tours on land, but I think you'll be at least mildly interested in these. Toto, Christopher Cross, and Men At Work are going on tour next summer. They're mostly doing amphitheaters. CC and MAW will be on next year's 80s Cruise, and I like Toto as much as those two - if not more. Their Dallas stop is August 18, and they'll be in my neck of the woods in early August. But wait, there's more! Styx, Kevin Cronin (formerly of REO Speedwagon), and Don Felder (formerly of The Eagles) are going on a separate tour this summer. They're doing a lot of amphitheaters also - indeed, many of the same ones as the Toto tour I mentioned above. IIRC, Mr. Felder has been on Rock & Romance in the past. I've never seen him live. Mr. Cronin and his old band have recently split; it remains to be seen if he can live up to their standards. Styx I saw last summer; they put on a good show. They're all worth seeing if I can put things together, IMHO. They'll be where I am in mid-August, but they'll get to Dallas on August 1. Let's see if I can put together a road trip to see all of these fine artists. Stay tuned.

I think they do want people to buy and use Internet access for work (some lines encourage this more than others), but preferably on their terms. Also, has it been confirmed that Celebrity is going to follow this change by Royal? I know they did not and have not with the policy of bringing on AC outlet expanders.

One music cruise I haven't talked about is The SuperCruise. Something in today's email from them gave me something to talk about. The 17th edition runs February 16-23, 2025 on the Nieuw Amsterdam. It sails from Port Everglades. I forgot the ports. 😆 This cruise will have Sheila E., whom I have appointments with on The 80s Cruise and the Super Legends Cruise next year. It will also have Karyn White, whom I like and think would be a good choice for any of my music cruises. Both have sailed on this particular cruise in the past.

Thank you for the details. I may get to MSC and its Yacht Club sometime - perhaps when they get the charter contract for one of the music cruises I'm interested in. P.S. Elvis, Muddy, and Bob aren't of my preferred generation, but I bet that blues singer/guitar player could play some old Rolling Stones tunes given some inclination and perhaps a little practice. That would be up my alley. 😈

Thanks for the quick response. Yeah, I know how customer service away from the ship goes. I thought they might have put a reason in the e-mail response. But apparently they didn't.

A few tiny bits of news in my world of music cruises: The 90s Cruise and Paramount announced a partnership on that cruise based on the 30th anniversary of the movie Clueless. They'll have a movie themed lounge onboard, a special movie screening, trivia, and even special photo-ops (whatever that means 🙃). It all sounds like fun. I'm looking forward to it. TNC also announced some more details about the costume competition on 1990s Icon Night. There will be three main categories - movies and TV, music, and "whatever". This could also be fun. I wish the participants the best of luck. The Old School Cruise '26 is down to under 200 cabins - which by my calculations means they're about 90% booked. I still think they're going to launch a 2.0 edition sooner or later.

Have a wonderful time on your MSC cruise! Yacht Club, I assume? That seems to be the best way to go to sample that line. I had a good cry over missing Sheena and the rest, but I somewhat consoled myself by the fact that my early '25 cruises will all be before this one - The 90s Cruise is actually below 60 days. 😁

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Did Royal give a reason for these cancellations, any of them? TIA.

I've skipped a few ports in my time and at least twice I haven't gotten off the ship in any port. Those days are fine. I keep myself busy in much the same ways as a sea day. I do appreciate the thinned out crowds. As for like minded people, I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean people who like staying onboard in port? If so, then you've heard from plenty in this thread, and you'll meet more once you do it. Or do you have another group in mind? I have good and bad news. The good news is there are several groups that have planned meet ups. I've seen groups for solo cruisers (yes, like you!), LGBTQ, and Friends of Bill on all my cruises. The bad news that you may or may not see group meetings on other cruises for your particular group.

On my recent cruise that wasn't on Princess, we did go across the international date line. Unlike the equator crossing, there was no ceremony and no certificate. We did, however, get a mention from the captain and this business card sized reminder:

Something caught my eye in the latest issue of Jazz Notes. I'll quote it (emphasis mine): Years ago, The Jazz Cruise docked overnight in New Orleans, and we curated on land concerts, tours, dinners, brunches and more. Though arduous to produce, the experience for our guests is talked about even today. They loved it. Journey of Jazz ’25, with an overnight stay in San Francisco and a full day and evening in Victoria, BC gives us the opportunity to reprise those wonderful on land experiences. I didn't realize they had done something like this, but I should have known, because another charter company is running some charter cruises featuring the non jazz portion of New Orleans music. Combining concerts and other experiences on land with a music cruise sounds like the best of all worlds. Those of you heading on JoJ are going to habe a good time, I'm sure of it. 😀

In 2018, I took a full Panama Canal transit on a non-Princess ship. No vaccines were required of me then, and I don't think it's changed (ignoring temporary pandemic policies). Fun fact #1 - we went to the first three of your ports, but not the others. We went to Cabo San Lucas and had some extra sea days instead. Fun fact #2 - I'm going on a similar cruise going the other way in late 2025, also not on Princess.

Now the Old School Cruise is saying they're over 85% booked. It seems all but inevitable that they're going to run a 2.0 version. Burning questions with that one: Will they have the same artists? Will it also be on the Panorama or will they choose another Carnival or Royal ship? Will there be a third cruise added at this time? BTW, here's the latest talent list. I've heard that our performer at sailaway will be Mr. Sweat. Also, in more personal news, I made my last payment on The 90s Cruise and the UDC. And there's one more payment until TEC will be done. So that's three car payments that I won't have to worry about. 🚓🚗🏎️ Unless... I make a repeat booking on one or the other of these cruises. I'll try not to think about it until I have to. 🤑

I can relate to your concerns. It sure is annoying when a cruise is canceled or changed, even with a lot of notice. I think in the case of the cruises I just booked that I am covered. In the case of the charter, I don't care about the ports and wouldn't care if they changed them. For the Princess cruise, the deposit was small and refundable, so it's easy to get away from if they pull some shenanigans.

UPDATE: At the start of this week, I still had zero cruises booked for 2026. I now have two. Both were Black Friday related deals. One was a music themed charter cruise that was just announced. I found many of the announced performers appealing and the price acceptable, so I booked it. This one is on Carnival and lasts for 5 days. It sails from Long Beach. The other one is a marathon on a cruise that sails round trip from LA through a good portion of the Pacific - including Hawaii, Samoa, and French Polynesia. Princess offered a decent price, some OBC, and a low and refundable deposit, so I decided to pull the trigger. I am sure more offers will come in the next few months, until it's time to plan for my 2027 cruises. Apparently it never ends. 🙃

I got two offers a few days ago - one for 30% off each excursion when buying two or more at the same time, and one for 15% off WiFi when purchasing a package and an excursion. I used the latter for my upcoming trip in October, and I used a similar offer last year for a cruise earlier this year. I have found that discounts like these are very rare on Carnival.

The answer depends on your cruise line and how you booked. If you booked through a TA, you'll have to go through them. If you booked direct, you can try going through their customer service line, using the cancel and rebook option as a backup. I've done both on past cruises. In addition, on a few of my cruises on Carnival pre-pandemic, they had an online form available to be filled out that could be used when there was a price drop on cabins booked a certain way. I liked it and miss it. 🙁 Anyway, good luck getting your windfall. 🤑

I think maybe you'd like the environment on some of my music themed cruises, where people sometimes wear some wild and wacky things. 🙃 Then again, maybe you wouldn't, as those themes are widely publicized and released months in advance. Me, I appreciate a good costume on others wherever and whenever. It's all good. 🤴

I did an upgrade bid on my last cruise. I have to say it worked out very well. I was able to choose a sub category that had all of its cabins acceptable to me. YMMV, of course.