Honolulu Blue

@NinS: I'm on my way to Miami for some rock and romance, but I found this disturbing message in my email: I hope you got your ticket and that this message to us outsiders doesn't affect you.

I was on the Carnival Dream in January, on which my previous posts were based. It had both the kiosks and access to the app. The Carnival Magic also had a sports betting kiosk when I last sailed on her in November. I don't remember if that ship had access to sports betting via the app. I have not heard about kiosks on any other Carnival ships, which is not to imply that they don't exist.

Your guesses seem to be as good as anyone else's, though I must confess that my interest in when and why weakens by the day.

The one and only fight I've witnessed on a cruise ship (and it was actually more of a verbal skirmish) was also on Princess. It was over mask protocols in the theater back when those were a thing (December 2021).

Thanks for the perspective on the Sixthman cruise waiting lists. And I agree with your conclusions about who the First Available program is most useful for.

Sixthman is trying something a little different with their recently sold out cruises Rock the Bells and Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea. Instead of maintaining a waiting list, they're introducing First Available Cabins. Allow me to try to explain what's going on... Rather than booking a specific cabin (because there are no specific cabins available), you can book a cabin in a category (interior, ocean view, balcony). There's no discount for this, but if they can't find a cabin before sailing, they'll refund your money, give you $1000 in Sixthman credit, and get priority booking for other Sixthman events. It sounds like they're trying to sell a guarantee cabin like regular cruise lines do on some of their regular sailings. But usually the cruise lines will reward those who purchase a guarantee with a discounted price. I guess Sixthman, at least on these sailings, are assuming we're too happy to get on a currently full ship to worry about little things like the cabin. I'm somewhat finicky about cabin location, etc., so this option wouldn't make me happy, but I think this will get some takers.

I finally got a chance to look at the full planned itinerary for The 80s Cruuse. Here it is: Day 1, embark Miami @ 4 pm Day 2, Nassau, 7 am - 4 pm Day 3, sea day Day 4, San Juan, 10 am - 11:59 pm Day 5, sea day Day 6, Labadee, 8 am - 5 pm Day 7, sea day Day 8, return @ 6 am Again, I have my doubts about whether we'll make it to Labadee, but let's go with what they have for now. It looks like our day in San Juan will be the day some of our artists transfer to and from the ship. And from there, there are severalnice islands tostop if they feel a need to replace Labadee for whatever reason.

For the fun of it, let's do a summary of my adventures on The 80s Cruise. I saw four concerts in the main theater - Stephen Pearcy, Debbie Gibson, Air Supply, and 38 Special. I did 6 concerts in Studio B - Animotion, Sheena Easton(!!!), Jessie's Girl, Wang Chung, Ray Parker Jr., and Midnight Star. I didn't see any concerts by the pool or in the Star Lounge. The former were canceled much of the time and I don't think there were any concerts offered in the Star Lounge at all. But they did offer some Behind the Music (aka Q&A sessions) interviews in the Star Lounge. I went to one for Stephen Pearcy. It was a tight squeeze to fit in the audience and Mark and Stephen's egos in that small space. The other Q&As I attended were in Studio B - 38 Special, Sheena Easton, Debbie Gibson, and Ray Parker Jr. I attended some special events in Studio B - the 2025 lineup announcement (immediately before Jessie's Girl's concert), TEC memorabilia auction, and Debbie Gibson's dance class. Last, but certainly not least, I attended two extra cost artist hosted events - a charity breakfast with Stephen Pearcy at Jamie's, and a wine tasting with Sheena Easton in the main dining room. @GeorgeC, remind me to show you my extra special pictures of Stephen Pearcy when we meet onboard. That should take up another 30 seconds. Anyway, I had a most excellent time on The 80s Cruise, and I hope this picture-heavy posted shows much of why I did. Expectations are lower both for next year's edition of TEC and this year's edition of Rock & Romance. I know George (and maybe his lovely wife) will do his best to show me a good time, but I have an independent streak a mile wide, and though his advice, guidance, and preferences have been rock solid so far, some mistakes you've gotta see on your own ("Lez Zeppelin or Don McLean? I'll see you on the stairway! I don't hear any train whistles!!"). Thank you for reading and very soon I'll be reporting on R&R. I won't have Internet for this one, so it'll be more hit and miss.

I started a thread about the 2025 musical adventures I have scheduled at I'll mostly talk about the 2025 cruises and other concerts in that thread, while continuing to discuss my adventures for this year in this thread. Thanks for following along.

Hi everyone. Thank you for coming to my new thread based on the 2025 musical adventures (mostly cruises) that I will have in 2025. This will supplement the thread of my musical adventures for this year (2024) that I have here: To establish my background, in case you're not familiar with it, I took 2 music charter cruises in 2022 (Ultimate Disco Cruise and The 80s Cruise) and 2023 (same two). So far in 2024 I have taken one (The 80s Cruise), but I will be embarking on one later this week (70s Rock and Romance Cruise) and another next month (McDonald LaBelle Cruise). Details about those cruises are in the thread I linked above. In addition, I took a couple of 80s themed cruises on Princess in 2021 and 2023 that had plenty of music from that decade, much of it from tribute bands - but really good ones, IMHO. OK, now for 2025. The first cruise I have scheduled sails at the end of January - The 90s Cruise. Here's the lineup so far: It's a short cruise (5 days) out of Tampa on Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas that goes to Cozumel and Costa Maya. Moving along, two weeks after I disembark from that cruise, I'll be shuffling along to Miami for the return of the Ultimate Disco Cruise. It's another short, 5-day cruise that goes to Cozumel and Costa Maya on the Norwegian Pearl. Here's that lineup: And 6 days later, guess what? It's time to change eras again - back to the 80s for the latest edition of The 80s Cruise. This one goes from Miami to Nassau, San Juan, and Labadee (yes, we all have doubts about that latter stop - but a year is a long time). And here's that lineup: Also under consideration is a repeat journey on Rock and Romance in 2025. I won't detail the lineup for that one, since I'm so uncertain about going on that cruise. There will be much more to say about these cruises and their lineups at a later time. For now, I just wanted to establish this thread before I get too busy with other things.

Thanks for the link to the McDonald LaBelle Cruise schedule. I knew most of what was going on, but it's nice to see it in black and white. I'm happy you found something to like about the OCC lineup. Don't worry about us on the UDC. Of course there may not be a UDC in 2026, but we'll worry about it much later. And thank you for your summary of the Cayamo trip.

Interesting discussion. I'll tell my story and get out. One of the charters I have scheduled for next year has a stop in Labadee. At this point, I'm not too worried about it. If Royal doesn't think it's safe to go there, we won't go there and we'll go somewhere else instead. Or maybe nowhere; the charters stops aren't very important.

Yes they did. Let's see if they keep this date. 🙏

The WiFi on the Dream was very good most of the time on this cruise. We had Starlink.

38 Special was in concert for us blue card holders. It was a challenge at times to get good pictures due to the activities of the people in the rows on front of me, but I won't judge how people have their fun. JT and the three former MTV VJs introduced them. We actually got a brief mention of The 90s Cruise, which Julie will be co hosting. A few people in the crowd reacted, including me. This was another very good show. They played just about all their hits, including Teacher Teacher, plus a few songs I wasn't as familiar with. On the way out, the song in the background was War's Low Rider. We'll hear that for sure from them on the Rock and Romance Cruise next week. We're on our way back to Pirt Canaveral. We should be there in 9 to 10 hours. I might have an adventure or two before we have to disembark. Stay tuned.

According to the latest Jazz Cruises newsletter I just received, the Journey of Jazz Cruise will have its details announced on or about March 22.

The folks at Rock and Romance are busy adding to their 2025 lineup already. Notable names include Air Supply (50th anniversary), Queen Nation, and Boogie Wonder Band. I just saw Air Supply last night. I'll reiterate that they were very, very good. This DOES move the needle for me in the obvious direction. QN I saw on the 2023 UDC and I will likely make room for them on the upcoming Rock and Romance Cruise. Seeing them on the list for next year makes me happy. 😀 BWB I also saw on last year's UDC. I can't remember if they're on R and R next week. It's good to see them avain, whenever.

I went to Debbie Gibson's dance class this morning. No, I'm not a good dance and thus wouldn't have helped me. But it was interesting to watch others around me dance. The moves they were taught were the last 40 seconds of Electric Youth. It seemed rather complicated from the cheap seats, but most everyone on the floor seemed to pick it up well. I also received my disembarkation instructions via flyer and app. I can leave the ship at 7:30, provided we make it to port by then and are cleared. i slso received this item. This is a reminder of the bad old days of cruising, before I started hitting the high seas. Trust me, the cabin attendants are getting taken care of from all of us through part of the extra fees they took out. I'll handle it, just don't look for a post about it. BTW, I've stayed away from the casino, so my room service charges look to be the only charges on my account.

I don't drink alcohol and I've been on 16 Carnival cruises. I like Carnival, but the thing you need to understand is they're all about FUN. They have lots of fun activities and funny comedians, both of which attract people who like to have fun. If you don't know how to have fun, don't want to have fun, or are annoyed by people having fun, you're unlikely to enjoy your Carnival cruise. I assume none of these apply to the OP, so I would like to wish them well on their upcoming Carnival cruises. 👍

I just got back from the Air Supply concert. It was very good hearing all those catchy songs from that era. Russell, Graham, and company did a masterful job. JT, Mark Goodman, and Lori Majewski did the introduction. BTW, this is Lori's favorite band. Today's gift is a wallet. This one might be too good for my friends and worth keeping. And this is tomorrow's newsletter. I can't believe tomorrow is the last full day onboard! I guess all things really do come to an end. ☹️ Stay tuned for tomorrow's report.

I attended the Ray Parker Jr interview. This was a wild one. Ray and Mark had so much fun with this one, and Ray has done so much. As his songs, Ray picked Inner City Blues from Marvin Gaye, Superstition from Stevie Wonder, and For the Love of You from the Isley Brothers. Ray also mentioned that his favorite album was Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. Fun stuff. I'm glad I went. I didn't get anything signed because I forgot and left it in the room. Before this, also in Studio B, was a memorabilia auction for the Wounded Warriors charity. JT hosted. Some of the bidding got wild. Would you pay over a grand fir this drum head autographed by 38 Special? Someone did. Now it's time to get ready for the Air Supply concert. Would you believe that there were about 20 people in line already, an hour and a half before showtime?

I got back from the Ask ECP session about an hour ago. This is always a highlight of mine, as much as the concerts and Q and A sessions with the artists. I appreciate the top management at ECP taking time to answer our questions and occasionally getting some well deserved praise. From top to bottom are cruise director JT, Executive Director Chris Hearing, and Production Manager Joey Fairchild. Here are the items that I'm choosing to highlight: * The 80s Cruise is not exclusively a rock cruise. Its artist mix has a fair mix of many different genres that were popular in that decade. * They acknowledge there are a couple of performer spots for 2025 that they plan to fill later * They're already working on the 2026 lineup * There's little interest in choosing an embarkation port outside of Florida * I asked two questions about The 90s Cruise, which I will be on next January. First was if they were going to have reserved seating. The answer is no. Second was long term plans to pair TEC and TNC. The answer was less clear, so I guess not in the next few years and possibly not ever. * One problem noted with switching to an Oasis class ship is that the main theater isn't big enough to split the passengers in half * Getting a suitable ship at the times required is more important than I thought. Only about 14 meet their standards for stages, theater size, etc. * Miami Sound Machine was mentioned as a possible addition. It was all I could do to control myself from causing an incident. 🤬 MSM is NOT a favorite of mine, though Expose is, go figure. * The point was made to fill out the survey with any suggestions - especially performers * There used to be actors from the 80s onboard, but us passengers told them we'd rather ECP spent its money on more and better performers

I'm almost certain you'll get a refund by check for your refundable OBC. I haven't heard of anyone receiving refundable OBC on their credit card.

You can use cash (not coins) in the machines. Be sure to use your card to set up a casino account, because any amounts that you cash out from an all cash session will go there. In future sessions, you can use that balance and/or add more cash. I've been on the Summit four times, which is more than I've been on any other cruise ship. I will be sailing on her again next week. Though it's now over 20 years old, I have always seen it as well maintained. It also got a big update about 5 years ago. I think you'll enjoy the ship. Celebrity is a good cruise line once you get onboard. You'll have to ignore some of their decisions at the top.

Back to The 80s Cruise. I didn't do much today. We were in Curacao. I didn't get off the ship, but I did capture a few pictures of the town. I hung out on the outside of deck 4 Starboard side forward. The temperature was nice here and the sun was beaming in the other direction. Best of all, no crowds! We left right at 3 and quickly got up to speed. We're currently going at 22 knots, which makes things a little bumpy around here. I skipped the afternoon Q and A with Air Supply. I just wasn't feeling it. For dinner I called room service and ordered a Philly cheesesteak sandwich, some chicken tenders, fries, a fruit plate, and chocolate cake. It was all good and delivered in 35 minutes. After dinner I got today's gift (drum sticks) and tomorrow's newsletter. There have been a few changes from the tentative schedule. The Ask ECP session was moved to tomorrow at 10 from the last day. Separate autograph sessions were added for Lori Majewski and Sebastian Bach. Other items that I'm interested in for tomorrow haven't changed and I'm sure I'll report on them then.