Honolulu Blue

What a small world this is - we're on the same cruise! 😃 I got my bivalent booster about a month ago, so I'm as prepared as I can be. Let's hope the ship isn't too crowded. 🙏

TEC sent me another e-mail yesterday. It seems they've announced another theme - Back to the 80s. Eh, it seems generic, but I'll make something of it. They also announced a new band that will be performing on the cruise - The Knack. Their hit songs are kind of all right, but I doubt I'll see them live.

For all those who reported here: I'm sorry you caught this iteration of the virus and get well soon. 🙏 I am happy the concierge seems to be working well, but distressed that the bivalent booster seems to be less effective than expected against symptomatic disease.

Thanks for sharing. It looks like it will be the old, unimproved Internet for me on my next Celebrity cruises - Millennium in November, Summit in February. ☹️

Yes I did. Thanks to you, and everyone else, for the replies. Keep 'em coming! 🙂

I'll be on the Millennium next month; I'll have to see if I can find the equivalent on that ship. They may not have one, as it seems to make too much sense. 🙃

AFAIK, all cruise lines will give you a FCC (or refund) if you or someone in your party has an active COVID-19 infection at the time of boarding. As for the rules, you should come on my charter cruise in February. They're requiring everyone be vaccinated (no one under 18 allowed) and everyone will have to have negative results from a proctored test taken no more than 3 days prior to boarding. They're not currently mandating masks for anyone, but we can't have everything.

Thank you for your report. I'm sorry this had to happen to you and your husband. I hope you get through this with relatively few scars. #covidstillexists

My mind truly went into the gutter when I saw this. I'll just say that a concierge that is willing to do this has a lot of value, depending... Distraction over. Please carry on.

From the reports I've read here and elsewhere, the vast majority of passengers are thrilled about this news. "I can't wait to see their smiling faces!" seems to be the common sentiment. I'm with the majority.

I've done the horse racing thing on my longer Carnival cruises. I even got to "jockey" once (didn't win). I'm pretty sure they still run them. The details were different in some of these races, and they may be different than the experiences you and others have had. Mine were always in lounges - usually the main theater - and never by the pool.

Well, they've been on 34 cruises and took their first one at the ripe old age of 4. Cruising has certainly changed since then. Thanks everyone for your comments. Keep 'em coming!

Mr. Heald did a post with more details on today's memorabilia auction: I will waddle down the promenade deck to the Blue Sapphire Lounge to host an auction of some of the memorabilia of the life of this ship. I will share more about this later but hopefully we will raise a lot of money for St.Jude. I was asked why we are doing this and the reason is that when the ship arrives in Turkey hoards of people will come on board and take everything, I mean everything. They have paid for the ship, they have every right to of course. But when I decided to be on this voyage I asked the senior beards to please allow me to do this auction. There are some things that belong in good homes of people who have a connection to the ship and to Carnival and that’s why I am doing this. I can’t sadly do this online, it will be just for the people here on the ship but I will share the totals with you and I wish you could be here. In the same post, he also discussed what will happen to the Ecstasy after it leaves Mobile. It's much the same as has been reported elsewhere, and still too much for those sensitive souls out there.

Thanks for sharing. Please keep us updated if you can.

Cruise.blog did an article on stuff that's disappearing on (some) cruises at https://cruise.blog/2022/10/nostalgic-cruise-traditions-being-phased-out . It's a good article, well worth reading and dodging the landmines, IMHO. Here are the items that were mentioned: Midnight buffets Chocolate buffet Intricate ice carvings and demonstrations Cruise recap video Themed menus every night Chocolates on your pillow In-person muster drills Rooms with portholes Printing every photo taken Printed daily cruise schedules No poll this time, I'll just ask straight out: Which of these "traditions" do you miss most? Which ones don't you miss at all? I guess I'll start. I will miss the daily schedules most when they go. I've actually gotten full ones on the cruises I've taken since the pandemic, but I've heard of reductions in this area and I'm sure they will affect me eventually. Much as the Chief doesn't like to hear it, I don't think the in-person muster drills are coming back any time soon, and that's fine with me.

This second post covers Mr. Heald's posts from the past few days. He's continued to post short videos from his trip around the ship, and also made this post detailing today's memorabilia auction: Some of the things I will be auctioning off tomorrow. Some very special memorabilia including the remains of the bottle used by Kathie Lee Gifford to christen the ship, one of the original wheels, plaques, assigned flag which has been flying on the bow up until this morning and so much more. All will go to Saint Jude children’s research Hospital. I'm sorry I don't have time to attach the pictures he shared of the memorabilia items. I recommend going to look at them (you'll have to scroll down a bit to find this post). It looks like there are a bunch of "first visit to" plaques are going to be auctioned off. I saw the Cayman Islands, among many others. I didn't see the signage that @mz-sand @BasicSailordesired in an earlier post, but that doesn't mean any or all of them aren't on the list.

I'll split this into two posts to not be so cluttered. First is a YouTube video from vlogger Derek of Island Time. In this video is clips that were sent to him from a couple of the Ecstasy's Q&A sessions - one shows the Captain explaining what's going to happen to the Ecstasy (which is as Mr. Parker explained in yesterday's video, and remains unsettling for sensitive fans), and the other is about... other interesting things:

I got an email from TEC this afternoon. They announced another theme night - slumber party. Oh boy. 😒 I last wore pajamas when I was a little kid back in the 80s, so I guess the time period fits. Then as an afterthought, they dropped a bomb that was bigger than the Gap Band - Jody Watley is canceling on us. 😭 Nooooooo! Life is so unfair! I was so looking forward to seeing her. Oh well. Maybe they'll find someone decent to replace her.

I'm trying to imagine what shows would be broadcast live from there. Its seating capacity is much too small for a main theater show, and it's a bit snug for a comedy lounge. Live trivia would be much too boring to broadcast.

I've been to Princess Live on the Regal and Majestic. They host some trivia here and some groups use it to stage their disembarkations. I'm pretty sure the Wake Show is filmed there, though I'm equally sure there's no "live studio audience" when they do that. They do other shows and activities there. I'm too lazy to look at my newsletters to see which ones. I hope you get a more thorough answer from others.

Blogger/vlogger Doug Parker of cruiseradio.net did a quick summary of what's going to happen to the Ecstasy after this cruise returns to Mobile, according to a Q&A session with Mr. Heald, the captain, and some other officers. The report starts about 1 minute in. WARNING: Not suitable for sensitive audiences. 😪 TL,DW: 3 day sail to Miami, offload some equipment (slot machines, computers, etc.), then sail 17 days to Turkey (Aliaga), captain and pilot scheduled to do the dirty deed on November 8. ☠️

I just wanted to note that the OP's wishes were answered and Mr. Heald addressed the Bermuda testing situation in one of his posts yesterday. Here's a link to his post: John Heald - So with the Bermuda and the continuing... | Facebook . The relevant info is the same as was posted above.

Here are some local TV stations that reported on Ecstasy's last revenue cruise. They're all around 2 minutes long. The first two have soundbites from Mr. Heald:

I received an e-mail with the planned COVID-19 protocols for all of StarVista's cruises through the spring of 2023, of which the UDC is one. They're mostly sticking to what they did last year - vaccine required (but no booster), proctored test required 3 days before sailing. This is quite a contrast to some other music charters I have heard about that are thrilled to get rid of testing and vaccine requirements as fast as the cruise lines would allow them. Enhanced requirements do make sense for StarVista's cruises because they skew older than many other cruises, both in terms of their passenger and performer ages. It will be interesting to see what TEC does. I don't expect them to do anything, but we'll see.

For those who can't see the poll choices, they are - fewer than 4 days, 4-6 days, 7 days exactly, 8-12 days, 13-16 days, more than 16 days, and can't remember. By the way, count all legs of a back-to-back, if any of you were ambitious enough to schedule one off the bat. I'm curious about this, and I THINK I know what's going to come out on top even in this veteran group, but I'm willing to be surprised. As always, thank you for replying.