Honolulu Blue

I'm not at the port yet, but getting closer. Close enough to get a read on what is apparently our full schedule. I've reviewed it and here are some quick notes: . Lots of Olympics shown by the pool most days from rough 10 am to 5 pm. . Plenty of music trivia scattered over different days. Will the other passengers allow me to win this time? 😁 . I don't see a basic Medallion and Internet class this time. . Rock Opera on day 2 sounds interesting. Any reviews? . We have guest vocalist Brianna Faulk in the main theater on day 3 doing the Chain of Fools thing? I think? . Day 4 is obviously the 80s themed day as there are a bunch of entertainment items related to that decade. I'd prefer a full cruise dedicated to it, but I'll take what I can get. . Sweet Soul Music is on day 4 also . Horse racing challenge on day 6. Is that what I think ot is???? We'll find out soon. . We have an unhosted Social Media Influencer get together in the afternoon of day 6. I don't think Don, Ilana, or Allison are onboard, so I wonder who will show up this and why. I plan to be there, and I'm kind of influential (mostly in my dreams...). . Farewell variety show is at 8:30 on the final day. I guess I'll take a look. Note that a mention here doesn't guarantee that I'll attend, and I might show up for things that I didn't mention.

I'm in Boston today. In a few hour I will be boarding a regular, non-music-themed cruise. Boston is the hometown of the band of the same name- of whom one of their former members will be performing next year on Rock & Romance. Boston is also home to the second best rock band in the known universe, The Cars. I miss them terribly. ☹️ And Boston is the nearest big city for one of America's biggest rock bands, Aerosmith. You may have heard the news that they will no longer be touring due to Steven Tyler's vocal cord issues. Sad. 😪 The were popular in the 70s, the 80s, and the 90s, and I'll be going on separate music themed cruises for each of those decades next year. 😎 Finally, Boston is near the home of @NinS, fan of music themed cruises of many kinds. I'm sorry I won't be here long enough to get together, but maybe we'll end up on the same cruise together sometime. 🙏

Brief weather forecasts for thus upcoming cruise: Boston - rain in the afternoon, high around 80 Halifax and Sydney - scattered showers both days, highs in the low 70s, lows in the.low 60s Charlottetown and the following sea day - clear, low 70s for highs, low 60s for lows Portland and the return to Boston - more rain, a bit warmer.

For those who don't know, John Heald works for Carnival and posts (mostly) every day on FB. He sometimes posts with questions that are of interest to him and his fans. One of his posts today asked about the kind of themes we wanted Carnival to host. The answers were very interesting. Music theme cruises from the 60s through the 90s were very popular, as was Star Trek, Game of Thrones, Star Trek, adult, and others. The most popular answer was no theme required, just the kind of FUN Carnival provides. Just a quick note as I plan out my non-Carnival theme cruises in 2025.

Hi everyone. Since I pre-purchased the Internet plan and figure to have a little spare time while I'm onboard, I thought I would post live about my experiences onboard. Obviously, I'm not onboard yet, but embarkation day figures to be busy - too busy to set up a thread like this. Let me introduce myself. I've done three Princess cruises the past three calendar years from three different ports on three different ships. This one is different from any of them. Let's go through the firsts for me: First time embarking from Boston. I'm only having a few regrets about this, but moving on... First time visiting all our ports. We'll have a sea day then visit Halifax, NS; Sydney, NS; Charlottetown, PEI; and Portland, ME. There will be a sea day between our stops in Prince Edward Island and Maine. First time cruising in August. We might get a nasty surprise from down south late in this cruise, but we'll worry about that when we get to it. First time using EZAir. It was easy enough to book from my actual hometown instead of driving to the big city airport I usually use. The flights were expensive but might be worth it. We'll see. I did a couple of live threads on my last two cruises on Carnival. You can search around for them if you're really interested. The format figures to be similar - not too formal, one or two posts a day. It's been relatively warm here the past week, so I'm looking forward to some cooler weather. Talk to you soon.

For an ordinary non-music-themed cruise, I can't imagine any entertainer that would make me book a cruise that I wouldn't otherwise be interested in. Then again, we often don't know because the cruise lines don't tell us - which is the point of this thread. On my music themed cruises, it's a different story. I have booked at least two because of one big headline act (though they bod have other musicians of interest). If they were to cancel, I'd scream and cry, but probably not cancel the booking - even if I had CFAR insurance or had only paid a small/refundable deposit.

More theme night announcements from ECP! The 90s Cruise announced their last theme, called 1990s Icon Night. Well, OK. And The 80s Cruise announced two more classic themes - Back to the 80s Night and Pop Ion Night. That cruise has one more theme left to announce.

I find the concept of waiting until mid-cruise to announce an entertainer very strange. I've done some relatively long cruises on Carnival, and they have a lot of guest comedians. They were all announced on the in the app and the newsletters on their proper days. There were one or two that didn't board and had to cancel, but they were announced as soon as they knew.

IIRC, the entertainment schedule will be available on the app for ordinary cruises once you're onboard, but not before. I wish Celebrity did a better job of notifying us about the entertainment prior to the cruise like other cruise lines and my music charter cruises. The latter release separate schedules a week to a month prior to the cruise, which I find especially helpful.

I'm sorry you're not cruising anymore - especially since you can have just about everything you listed on a modern mainstream cruise. HAL might have a ship or two that squeeze just under 2500 total onboard. If you're willing to bump the limit to 3500, the number of ships goes way up... for now. Most mainstream cruise lines and ships have an option for set dinner times You can dress formally on any ship at any time... but I guess part of the appeal is watching others do the same. In that case, I can't help, but will note that some mainstream cruise lines have tighter enforcement of their dress codes than others. Some surviving ships have wraparound decks You can watch the ocean go by on any ship these days, especially now that most ships are stocked with plenty of balconies. A few ships even have virtual balconies, though I'm sure you're not interested in those. I do like reading responses to threads like this, so please keep them coming!

I found an article on Cruise Industry News that mentions the fact that Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas will be homeporting in Cartagena, Colombia and Colon, Panama from October 2025 to April 2026. Why am I mentioning this? I'll be on Serenade in January 2025 on The 90s Cruise. It looks like ECP will have to find a different ship for the 2026 edition. Or do they? These are their options as I see them: Follow the ship to Panama or Colombia and make us embark from there Do a special charter that moves the ship from there to the US and back Use whatever ship ends up in Tampa for the next edition Choose another Royal ship and port Choose another cruise line, ship, and port Declare TNC and ComicCon "one and done" and forget they ever happened. ☹️ Some of these options are more likely than others, but I truly have no idea what they're going to do. I'll have to quiz them about it if the answers don't become obvious by the time we board.

The Celebration is a new ship with the same name as the old Celebration, but you probably knew that. 🙂

The 80s Cruise finally decided to move on from their stop at Labadee, instead heading to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. I haven't been to this particular port, but I have been to Amber Cove, which is nearby. Mostly for my benefit, this is the completed updated itinerary; I don't think anything changed other than Labadee/Puerto Plata:

In today's newsletter, the dates for the 2026 Smooth Jazz cruises were revealed, so plan accordingly: #1 will be February 3-10 #2 will be February 10-17

As a counterpoint, I have occasionally seen and heard people talking on their cell phones on cruises - mostly while we were docked in port. I have rarely seen or heard walkie talkies, and then mostly by crew (or people who look like crew).

I'm in exactly this position as I'll be boarding the Emerald on Sunday and we have a late-in-cruise stop in Portland. Princess warned us about extra immigration scrutiny there in a letter last week that announced a change in itinerary to announce that we will be leaving the stop before Portland an hour early and arriving to Portland at 9 AM, which will be an hour earlier than we were originally scheduled. Your comments are noted. I don't have an excursion currently scheduled in Portland and probably won't schedule one now. Thank you for the rest of your post, though I didn't quote it above. It was very helpful and part of the reason why I keep coming back here.

A few random bits of news around and about the cruises I chose for 2025: First, according to StarVista Live, the Ultimate Disco Cruise and Beyond has officially sold out! I think this is the first time they've sold out, as neither of the sailings I was on sold out (blame the pandemic) and there were only two before then. They had to take a year off and change cruise lines in order to get it. Maybe they'll go for an every-other-year strategy? We'll see. Second, I kind of thought the UDC was done adding artists, but they weren't. On their list I spotted Robin S. and Jourdan Carroll (Barry White tribute). Robin isn't really a disco act, as her One Big Hit was actually during the 90s. I guess she's a "beyond" artist. I think I'll give her a pass. I don't consider Barry White disco either, though his era of biggest success was during the disco era. Mr. Carroll I'll give a "maybe" to. I expect him to appear in one of the B or C theaters inside, where he'd be a good fit. BTW, one of Taylor Dayne's last hits was a remake of Mr. White's "Can't Get Enough of Your Love". She performed it on the last edition of the UDC in 2023. Last on the list is the announcement of two artists that will be performing locally in the next couple of weeks - The O'Jays and Sheila E. The O'Jays are the lead act on next year's UDC. And I get a twofer for the Prince protege, as she'll be on The 80s Cruise in March and the Super Legends Cruise in September. This would represent an excellent opportunity to see what we're in for on those cruises, but I think I'll pass. On a couple of stops on this mini tour (not Detroit, sadly), she'll be performing with Morris Day and The Time. MD was on The 80s Cruise last year.

On Celebrity, I know the safety briefing procedure is a little different than what's on Carnival. On Celebrity, you need to watch the video on the app (preferred) or on the cabin TV in order to be fully checked in. That's not required on Carnival, though they do recommend it. Also, on Celebrity, you may or may not get a lifejacket demo, as the primary point is to get you to figure out where your muster station is and how to get there. And thank you for the additional details on Virgin's dining tables.

Unless it's changed in the last six months, Carnival doesn't have a room service charge. Everything has a price tag attached, except for the continental breakfast. This is something I didn't know about VV. I know they have a bunch of dining outlets and a food court, but didn't know they had what they thought of as a MDR. And no tablecloths anywhere, eh? Useless info that I'll file away somewhere. One recent change that I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet is the safety briefing procedure. There's no mass.briefing at a set time anymore. Just go to your muster station prior to sailaway, watch a member of the crew put on a lifejacket, and listen to the instructions. Oh, and listen to the 16 times the CD will nag others to get down and do it. 🙂 I spent over 3 years away from Carnival around the pandemic (long story) and found surprisingly little had changed. Your gap is longer, but I think if you liked Carnival back then, you'll like them now. Enjoy your upcoming cruise. 😎

The 80s Cruise announced that 80s-era tribute bands Sunset Blvd and The Reflexx will be on the 2025 edition. I approve of this development and look forward to seeing them onboard in March. I'll miss Jessie's Girl a bit; they were on my other three editions of TEC. Here they are: This takes the number of artists onboard to 20, which is about the number my other cruises have had. I assume this means that the only way we'll get a new act is if someone has to drop out. I'm definitely not rooting for that, at least not publicly...

I kind of hoped you were talking about Key West. 🐓 More directly, I get off in some ports and stay on the ship in others. Getting off is nice when I choose to do it, but so is staying onboard. In the future, as I run out of interesting things to do in the ports i choose to go to, I figure I'll stay onboard more often.

There was a lot of detail about future cruises in this week's edition of The Weekender: Details for the 2026 editions of the Smooth Jazz Cruise (SJC) will be announced on August 14 This includes some of the performers Rebooking 2025 guests on the SJC for the '26 editions will begin on that date Pre-sale reservations for '26 will begin the next day, August 15 There are now over 4000 people on the waiting list for one or the other of the SJCs A lot of detail was given about booking on SJC '26. I won't repeat that here because I don't want to cramp out my hands. ☹️ Peter Cincotti will be joining Botti at Sea '25 Journey of Jazz land-based excursions will be announced "soon after Labor Day".

In addition to the NCL routes out of sunny San Juan mentioned by others, I had the following itinerary on a cruise that I sailed on in 2015 that wasn't on NCL:

First of all, I'm sorry you missed your ports on your past cruise and had ports switched around on your upcoming cruise. Second, you have my admiration for choosing such an ambitious cruise for your first! Cruises to Greenland are either very long for a first cruise or sail from Iceland, which is quite expensive to get to. Third, I love the ports of the Eastern Caribbean. I have a couple of cruises there in late 2025 that hit both St. Lucia and St. Vincent. I haven't heard about any itinerary changes yet. 🙏 As for your question about why your ports changed, it might have something to do with that hurricane that passed by last month, or maybe not. The initial communication about the change, if any, will tell the reason. It can be tough to find out the real reason for a cancellation. Don't expect much help from Costa. About booking time vs. cost vs. itinerary changes, we're in an era when it's almost always less expensive to book early. But itinerary changes can happen any time, as you've found out. There are fewer changes very late, simply because of time. Try to enjoy your upcoming cruises, wherever they end up going.

I disagree. I appreciate LHB taking time out of her busy schedule to answer some of our questions. And what she answered and how were telling to me, if no one else.