Honolulu Blue

I am thankful for those that came here, because I would not have heard about this situation had it not been mentioned here. 👍

While certain people here are getting excited about the Love Boat themed cruise that will be embarking and sailing tomorrow, I was tipped off by one of those YouTube vloggers, who was tipped off by a local talk show appearance by Jill Whelan, that there will be another Love Boat themed sailing on November 16, 2025 out of Galveston on the Regal Princess. It will be a 7-day sailing that visits Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Mahogany Bay. I didn't see a press release on this yet, but the cruise now features "Love Boat" prominently in its description: Cruise Details - 7-Day Western Caribbean - The Love Boat Celebration at Sea - Princess Cruises You can see the details at Themed Cruises – On Board Special Events - Princess Cruises . It looks similar to what's on offer for this upcoming LB cruise, though I don't see the mention of a VIP package here. They do mention "other surprise guests to be announced". Tomorrow's cruise will have Air Supply. Will this cruise get... Charo?? Thank you for reading. You Love Boat superfans (the ones that aren't busy traveling) know what to do. Now to find that roll call to tell them the good news...

My one and only trip on the Millie was in November 2022. I thought she was a nice ship and well kept - almost as nice as the Summit.

Because I have a few spare moments, I want to take this time to take an inventory of my currently scheduled 2025 music themed cruises: The 90s Cruise (January-February) - I haven't received any occupancy bulletins for this one, which seems to imply that it's less than 80% sold. That has to be a little disappointing to ECP, since TEC and STTC both at 90%+ occupied. We'll see how full it is in a few months. Ultimate Disco Cruise (February) - Sold out The 80s Cruise (March) - 90% full Super Legends Cruise (September) - The edition that I'm on is sold out; they're currently taking buyers for a simultaneous cruise with most of the same acts scheduled to appear. I continue to waste time about how this is all going to work out. I should just have faith things are going to work out, right? Unless someone puts out a killer lineup, that's probably it for 2025 and I should concentrate on making room for 2026.

I'm sorry you had to deal with this. I'll file this as reason #18 that I pack as little as I can and avoid such messes. I will also add this to Elevator Horror Stories Digest #44. Thanks again for giving us the ending to your story.

I suppose you can interpret it that way, if you really want an upgrade.

Sixthman snuck in a couple of pre-bookings for music themed cruises that haven't been previously announced. Both are heading to Alaska from Seattle. There's the SeaBisco featuring the Disco Biscuits. Yeah, I never heard of them either. 😦 They'll be heading to Juneau, Sitka, and Victoria on the Norwegian Jade on September 9-15, 2025. No other artists have been announced yet, but they promise an "all-star lineup". Don't they all? And there's Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea Alaska on September 15-21, 2025. They didn't mention their stops or their ship, but considering it's right behind the SeaBisco cruise and the same length, I would assume that it will be the same. But I could be wrong and they could use another NCL ship and/or make different stops. Anyway, the previous edition in the Caribbean in March has already booked solid, so that bodes well for this edition.

Thank you for committing to sharing your adventures on this cruise live. I did a live a few weeks ago on a similar cruise, though we only share one stop (Halifax). Congrats on the graduation cruise! Be sure to say hi to Allison and Ilana and their respective groups if you happen to see them.

I received an e-mail from the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise with an announcement for their January 24-31, 2026 cruise. They didn't announce any scheduled artists with this, but there were some other details that I found of interest: It goes to Half Moon Cay (HMC). They may or may not have a dock by then, not that it matters to the Nieuw Statendam. The second stop is St. John in the USVI. I wasn't aware that any but the smallest cruise ships were able to dock in St. John. I went there once, as part of a shore excursion from St. Thomas. That was about 10 years ago. There wasn't room for a dock then, and I don't think they've added one since. So this might be another tender port. It also goes to Sint Maarten, one of my favorite stops. I'll get there next year, though not one one of my music themed cruises. Prebooking starts on September 24, but... There are very limited spaces on their upcoming cruise in October There's almost zero chance that I'll be on this cruise (their past lineups don't appeal and it's likely to interfere with second sailing of The 90s Cruise), but I just wanted to get my notes down about this. Perhaps other music themed cruises that I'm more interested in will start announcing earlier? This would be a nice development, IMHO.

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you got a consolation prize and some information. My opinion is they should put a sign out front of the Sky Lounge with this information AND a note about the Sky Lounge's open hours on each cruise given to each passenger OR a note in the newsletter for each day.

Thanks for sharing this. In this case, I'm going to believe Jacinta unless and until I hear of reports from others about the end of Quest.

To make a long story short, the reasons why I declined THIS balcony on THIS cruise: I really liked the location of my OV I wouldn't have had a choice in the location of the new cabin I had already unpacked, so I would have had to pack up, re-pack, and move

Yes, Carnival agents are called PVPs.

You or your travel agent should have received some correspondence from Carnival about this canceled port. They might have disclosed their reasons in there, perhaps using some vague language as "port congestion". If they didn't, and you're still curious about the true answer, you can try any of the following, though I'm not very optimistic about any of them: Carnival's general customer service line A letter to corporate HQ in Miami Your PVP (if you have one) Any crew contacts you have that are scheduled to be onboard the Spirit at this time The daily question section on Brand Ambassador John Heald's FB page

On the first cruise I had after the restart (not on Carnival), after embarking but prior to sailaway, I was offered a complimentary upgrade to a balcony from an OV. I declined.

I must have missed the LB themed cruise from earlier this year. I know there's one that's sailing this year, and there was one two years ago. As for the poster that sniffed that any old themed cruise can attract thousands of people to it, I have a couple of stories about that. First, I did two of the 80s themed cruises when Princess was doing that sort of thing. One was late in 2021, just a few months into the restart. That ship didn't draw 1000 passengers total. And the theme was revealed so late (about 2 months before sailing) that not many had an opportunity to booked for it even if they wanted to. I think far more passengers there either didn't know or didn't care about the theme. And second, on the other 80s cruise I did back in April 2023, that one sailed full, and the theme was announced sooner - about 8 months before sailing. But again, I found most passengers onboard either didn't know or care about the theme. For some, the main theme was "short Princess sailing out of Galveston in April" and it was enough for them.

No problem. Do what you can, when you can. I appreciate the update.

That's a very interesting picture as those are the EXACT cruise lines I've been on in my cruising career. And another interesting picture... I recognize that name! Mr. Soacat was the HD on my cruise on the Millie back in late 2022. My stories about the Sky Lounge... I don't visit there on my cruises (it's too far out of the way for my liking), but sometimes the performers on my music charter cruises will tempt me to go there with a Q&A or a concert. This is from the last time I was in the Sky Lounge on the Summit for one of my music charters:

I'm following along, because you're likely to get some interesting replies. My two cents: Any of the cruise lines and ships you chose are likely to most of your criteria and make your group happy In addition, I'd add Carnival and Virgin Voyages, but you might have had reasons that they didn't make the final list. It's not a big deal; they'll be fine without you, and you'll be fine without them. I'm not sure you need a drink package. Generally, they're priced such that the breakeven point is between 5 and 7 alcoholic drinks per person. But it seems that not having to worry about the a la carte charges has value to you and your group. That's OK. Perhaps a non-alcoholic package is in order, especially if it covers coffee? On Disney, the soft drinks are free. I'm not sure about coffee. I think all the ships you mentioned have steakhouses I find the cabins on ships more similar to dorm rooms than you might think Four ladies in the same non-suite cabin... good luck with that. 🙃 My initial inclination is that Disney would give you the best shot at a wonderful, OMG experience and be worth the extra cost. But... I think your group could use the help and expertise of a travel agent. They're experts at helping people/groups who have several options that look good at first glance. Again, good luck finding one

Here's a trip report of sorts for my trip down to Columbus, Ohio to see DJ Jazzy Jeff, Paula Abdul, and New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) in concert last night. I left town about 11 and got to the hotel about 3:30. There was one fuel stop in there. I averaged about 35 MPG both ways, which I suppose is telling of what kind of car I ended up with. The Courtyard by Marriott I chose was very centrally located. It was about a quarter to half a mile away from the Nationwide Center, depending on which entrance I used. It was also near the Nationwide Building, which I assume is the corporate headquarters for the insurance company. I haven't heard much from them lately; I assume they're still doing well. I arrived at my VIP meetup point right at 4:30. I was near the back of the line. After I went inside, I was given my items and instructions to go into the meet & greet area. No photographs were allowed of this area. Indeed, we were asked to drop off our personal items onto one of two tables. This was more secure than it sounds since there was security nearby.\\ Just before we dropped off our personal items, our VIP leader Mitch collected the personal items that we wanted signed from Paula. As I announced here a couple of days ago, I offered my CD cover of "Forever Your Girl" for signing. No personalization was available, but I was happy with what she did to it. Thanks Paula. Curiously, none of my fellow VIPs brought this to be autographed. They all had other items autographed. About half of them had the lanyard autographed. It was a nice lanyard. I had fun wearing it around the arena. The reverse side lists the tour dates. Since this post is going to be picture heavy as it is, I'll spare you the snap of it. About 5:15, the girl herself showed up. She gave a brief introduction thanking all of us for being here and hoping we all had a good time. There was a mini stage where we all posed for pictures with Paula. First, we got a Polaroid photo, then a professional digital camera photo that would be available for download later. About that Polaroid. It was a modern Polaroid "instant" camera, not some SX-70 that was dragged out from the 1970s. I now understand why it was offered to us - since we couldn't take our own photos with our own equipment or indeed have anyone else do so, this photo was the first and only that would be available with Ms. Abdul for as long as a week. But in fact, the pro photo was available for download this afternoon, a day later. I'm in possession of it. Also, that Polaroid took a long time to process. I estimate it took about 10 minutes for it to develop, which seemed to disappoint some of us in the crowd (we hung around in the same room to watch everyone get their meet & greets, pick up our stuff, and wait for photo processing). And the photo itself? Well, there's a reason we mostly moved on from Polaroids some decades ago - quality. The Polaroid of Paula and me was just OK; the digital snap was much better with basically the same pose. I'm still camera shy, but one thing our fearless leader Mitch disclosed is that after this tour, Paula will be heading up to Canada (mostly) for a tour with Taylor Dayne and Tiffany. I knew about the tour, but didn't know about who was joining her. Taylor I saw on the UDC in 2023. Tiffany has been on a couple of 80s Cruises, though they were both before my time. It's unlikely I can find time for this, but Paula's company makes it more likely that I'll do so. We'll see. Have I mentioned that Paula likes her hugs? She hugged us all coming and going to the stage. Basically, she greeted us all like we were actually BFFs and VIPs at the same time. And that made the VIP session totally worth it for me. Thanks again Paula! After the meet and greets were all done, Paula left us for who knows where with a jaunty wave. We were led up to the concourse area where many food outlets and some merchandise tables were available. Some of the food smelled really good and I was tempted, but resisted. I also successfully resisted the siren's song of the Magic Summer and Forever Your Girl tees. I didn't think that $45 for either was a good value. We'll see. During this time was a good amount of waiting around and walking around. One story I'll highlight before I forget. I was asked by a couple of lady Blockheads to join them while they drank their drinks. One of them was impressed by my Paula Abdul VIP lanyard and impressed the desire to attend if she had known about it. They both seemed very nice. They even took a picture with me and my shirt (they liked it). Eventually they let in the rest of the riffraff and some time after that they allowed us to take our seats. My seat turned out to be better than I expected. It was behind the floor, center, and elevated. I generally had good views. First up was DJ Jazzy Jeff. The way his show was organized was he played some songs with help from a rapper/singer (not Mr. Smith, of course) and occasionally us. Jeff didn't do any singing but he did occasionally talk to us. He didn't do any Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince songs except for the theme from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". That was a little disappointing. Other than that, it was a half hour of revving up the crowd for the other acts. After about 15 minutes, our girl Paula came out. She was accompanied by half a dozen or so dancers. "Straight Up" was her first song and "Forever Your Girl" was her last of this set. In between she played her biggest hits and some that weren't such big hits, like "Vibeology". She confessed that she loved her costumes and there was a costume rack or two within easy reach during most of her songs. Let's see if you can guess these two songs. One more photo because Paula is so awesome. I really liked the show, but I have two criticisms. First, this was a very short show - only about 35 minutes. Some of the songs were truncated because of this, and I never like that. And second, I really like the music playing behind Paula's songs. I'm unusual in that way because I'm sure Paula and most of her fans appreciate her dancing and others dancing. But if there were musicians playing, they were well hidden and certainly never acknowledged. I'm going to assume there was a backing musical track that was pre-recorded and played for us. I will further assume that Paula sang live for us. There's no reason for me to think that she didn't. With Paula off the stage, it's time for a couple of comments. First, I've never been to a concert with such a female skew. Our Paula Abdul VIPs were about evenly split between male and female, but during the show, it was a different story. My best guess is women outnumbered men at least 3 to 1. I think we can blame New Kids for this. They always had a fanbase that heavily skewed toward the fairer sex. I could have had some fun with this, and maybe in another place or time I would have. Second, the average age looked to be in the mid-to-late 40s. This was younger than I expected. There were actually a few kids around that i spotted. After a half hour of prep, NKOTB took the stage about 8:50. They did a great job of getting their audience excited and out of their chairs. No one can say they don't know their audience. The guys did play my favorite song from them. They did it relatively early. On and on they went with the songs - some old, some not so old, and some new. The crowd ate it up. They brought back DJ Jazzy Jeff and they all did a version of Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's "Summertime". An hour and 40 minutes later they played their last song, "Hangin' Tough". This came complete with our fourth confetti shower. I'm sure the arena's maintenance crew appreciated it. Overall I found the New Kids On the Block's show in line with my expectations. They didn't have a backing band either, being five guys who sing and dance (and sometimes other stuff, but never mind 😛). And at nearly two hours, I found the show exhausted me. I assume it's because I'm not within their traditional demographic group and that I liked them, but I never liked them all that much. I doubt I'd pay to see them if they weren't linked to someone I wanted to see much more. And that was that. Paula was great - both in the M&G and in concert. DJ Jazzy Jeff and NKOTB were both good. I'm glad I did this.

You make fair points, but has the world changed that much from 2023 or 2022? Maybe it has, but... Carnival canceled a lot of things during the restart - including the Quest. But it came back, and now (apparently) it's gone for good fleetwide.

Thanks for sharing this. I had MarQ as a CD on one of my sailings back in 2018. I think it was the Splendor, but I'm not 100% certain. He's a good guy. I'm happy he's one of the very few CDs that survived the pandemic and came back to Carnival. As to your original comment, I'm somewhat confused. I am sure Quest has received a bunch of complaints through the years. Why cancel it now? I'm tempted to ask Mr. Heald about it just to put him on the spot. But I think there's a significant chance that MarQ is trying to pull a fast one for whatever reason.

As mentioned by others, you should assume that most cruises on most mainstream lines sail full (at or above 100% of double occupancy). One big exception was immediately after the restart. I went on two cruises late in 2021 that didn't crack 30% of capacity. I remember them fondly. Sigh... Anyway, December 8 seems like a good time to me to cruise. There probably won't be too many kids on the ship, as they've just had Thanksgiving break and they will get another break in a few weeks for Christmas. YMMV on this.

Great work as always. Some irreverent notes: Mr. Simon is all right (mostly before my time), but I really like his wife's songs I saw Rock Opera on my cruise a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was all right. Too much opera for my tastes and not enough rock. The performers were talented across the board. I routinely climb up 5 or 6 flights of stairs to get to the trough or come back to the cabin from a day out on the town. IIRC, I only took the elevator once on my last cruise. There are several boring reasons for my preferences. It sounds like you had a good time and Princess did their part to help. 🥰 Safe travels!

Thanks for sharing this. It looks good to me, for a cruise ship. I'm sure it varied from day to day - even minute to minute.