Honolulu Blue

I'm on the Magic RIGHT NOW, my first Carnival cruise in over 3 years, and I've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of things that are as good or better than I remember them. This includes some of the service. But maybe I just got lucky. 🤪

I'm not a beach person at all. I look and feel very awkward there. I'll defer to others on this one.

From someone who got off at Terminal 2, it wasn't that big a deal. 1 and 2 are maybe a 3 minute walk away from each other. Our last tender time was 4:15. We didn't have any announcements, so I guess we got everyone on board with no issues. We did leave a little late - closer to 6 than 5 (ship time, an hour later than local time).

I'm from "that ship" and can confirm your last sentence.

It seemed clear enough to me. What was less clear is the old language at the bottom encouraging use of the waitlists. Probably just an artifact.

Yeah, we left a couple of hours ago. I tried to wave, but I'm sure you didn't see me as I was facing the wrong direction. ☹️

I cruise solo all the time. I'm Cruising solo RIGHT NOW, thought not on Princess. My last solo cruise on Princess was in April. They've all been great in their own ways. What do you want to know? I've never had any problem booking the cabins I want online on Celebrity, Carnival, or Princess. YMMV.

I bought a casino-used pack at the casino many years ago on one of my first cruises. It cost $1 then and went on my S&S account, not the casino bank.

I was very lucky - I was immediately placed on a tender heading back with only two other people on it. But that was two hours ago. I wish you the best of luck. 🙏

@Saint Greg: I saw the Regal at anchor in Belize: I'm on the Carnival Magic. The Carnival Dream is also here. It was just starting to get busy when I left the Belize port. I guess I'll have to say bye to both you and @BlerkOne when we leave. 👋

@BlerkOne: I saw your ship at anchor today: I'm on the Magic. The Dream is also hanging around. That's an awful lot of people for Belize! It was starting to get busy when I was making my way back to the ship. I'll be sure to wave bye when we leave in a few hours. 👋

I have no plans to visit any of Carnival's newest ships any time soon - and none of them were built with libraries anyway. I was last on the Pride in 2017. I think it had a library then, but I don't think I took any picture of it - not that it would do any good. The Magic obviously survived at least one dry dock with its library intact. I don't know how long it will survive another.

From the latest Jazz Notes newsletter: * This will be the last edition of Jazz Notes until February 21, 2024 * All the 2024 jazz cruises are sold out * Getting on the waiting list for any of the 2024 cruises is useless, since there's a long line with few projected openings * The McDonald LaBelle Cruise is not considered a jazz cruise and still has openings * Don't forget about the Jazz Cruise webinar tomorrow at 3 pm EST * Announcement dates remain the same - Botti 25 on November 29, TJC 25 on December 6

The death of ship libraries is somewhat exaggerated, IMHO. I'm currently on the Magic and there are dozens of books in the library here, along with some board and card games.

From the app on our cruise. The big breakfast is on the last sea day, which is two days away.

I never knew you could reserve the breakfast before the cruise (I had no reason to look for it). It's always been available for booking onboard - including the cruise I'm on right now. It's held in one of the MDRs, so it's hard to imagine it selling out before the cruise.

Following. Good to know that what I always thought has turned out to be true - the vast majority of the mainstream cruise lines have statuses that never expire, unlike some airlines. This might change in the future as I hear occasional stories about what cruise lines need or want to do about all the people at their respective top levels.

We had a show on my current cruise called America Rocks. This was a step up from the typical shows you see on this cruise line, IMHO. The music was true to the theme, and it was performed live by a band rather than just singing and dancing to prerecorded music. There were so many ties to music performers I've seen and will see that it would take me hours to explain it all. Suffice it to say that there were a bunch. Here are a few pictures from the show, more for me to remember than for both of you to enjoy.

UPDATE: My agent at ECP and I booked me a space on The 90s Cruise. Its an interior cabin on deck 8. This is another music charter for me to enjoy in 2025. I hope there aren't any conflicts that come up, like Soul Train.

That was quick. I got a reply from ECP. No answer to a link between TEC and TNC, but they gave me an active (I assume) code to get the proper singles rate. Then they asked me to email them and they would manually add my alumni discount and OBC. Sounds good. 👍 I'll give it a try later today. More updates as warranted.

Yes, Sophie B. will be on the cruise too. I like the song and I like your paraphrasing of it. Anyway, small update... I tried booking while I had time in the wee hours of the morning. I couldn't use the single rate code, and I'm not willing to pay the full single tax for this cruise (blame Mom 😁). So I sent ECP a note about this and any linkage between TNC and TEC. They've responded to me relatively quickly in the past, so I expect to hear from them in the next day or two. I'll post more when I get that reply.

I missed the days of the future cruise credit for booking onboard, but a couple of times I did use them to get special OBC for booking there. IIRC, this was phased out in 2017. Th future cruise desk was one of the busiest places onboard when open, and the future cruise lecture was one of the busiest places to be. I miss them both. 🙁

Thanks for sharing. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Im glad it all worked out relatively well. COVID-19 was a little different because they DID NOT want you onboard to potentially spread your disease to others. For that reason and others, cancellation policies across all cruise lines were a lot more generous than before and after the pandemic.

Oh boy, I figured this day would come. I just wish I wasn't on another cruise (not music themed) and have limited tools at my disposal. Anyway, ECP today announced THE 90s CRUISE. It's like their 80s Cruise, but a decade later. I think there was still a lot of music put out in the 80s - like Blues Traveler, Collective Soul, Gin Blossoms, Color Me Badd, Lisa Loeb, C+C Music Factory, and Jesus Jones. I didn't mention those names at random; they're all announced to be on the cruise! Yeah!! It is scheduled for January 31 - February 5 out of Tampa on the Serenade of the Seas. It's just before the Comic-Con Cruise on the same ship. They're having to Cozumel and Costa Maya. Yawn. Sorry, been a busy cruise so far. 😁 The best priced cabins for solos are the dedicated studios, which are already gone. I signed up for the waitlist just in case. 🙏 For a few hundred extra, I can choose my own full-size interior or OV, since those are offered at 150% of the singles price. It all works out to be slightly more than my TEC without the full drink package that cruise offers (they offer a non alcoholic package instead). I think I'm going to do it, but I need to take some time to properly consider this cruise. Stay tuned for more details. P.S. Part of the entertainment today was a 90s music trivia contest. I didn't win, but it was quite fun. They didn't play any songs from any of the artists that will be on this cruise. Also, this will be 2 1/2 weeks before the return of the Ultimate Disco Cruise, which is interesting timing. I wonder what this means for TEC 2025, if anything. Could they move it to Tampa and fit it in with their two other cruises. Or will it continue to be separate? Staying separate seems likely since TEC uses much larger ships than the Serenade.

In your opinion. Others may prefer someone who happens to be working on the ships today that might be the Rodney Dangerfield of tomorrow. In my experience and opinion, cruise ships offer a wide range of entertainers that do many different things quite well. They don't offer A list entertainers (except, perhaps, some charters) because it would cost too much and not be appreciated by enough cruisers to make a meaningful difference. To answer your original question, I think most modern cruises could use a cruise director and have them in some form. In fact, Carnival splits the main role in half - their cruise directors act as the main face the ship to the passengers as they host events, make announcements, etc. They also have entertainment directors that do much of the entertainment stuff that's behind the scenes. And I should mention that CDs have certainly been around since the 70s, at least on some cruise lines. Just ask Julie McCoy. 😀