Honolulu Blue

Several updates from the Weekender newsletter: Chris Botti at Sea 2025 will be announced on November 29 The Jazz Cruise 2025 will be announced on December 6 TJC '24 is now listed as fully sold out The McDonald LaBelle Cruise is now over 75% reserved

Of limited relevance to OP's situation, but I'd like to call everyone's attention to a year called 2021 when cruises were just restarting after a brutal shutdown. Cruise line cancellation policies were much looser then. I had booked two cruises during this period on Carnival where they changed the onboard protocols to something I didn't like, and they kindly said, "If you don't like it, you can cancel with no penalty". I took them up on it - I canceled both and got my $$$ back. One was about a month away; the other was about 2 1/2 months away. But that was then, and this is now, with cruise line refund policies pretty much going back to where they were.

If I were picking for myself, I'd have a tough time choosing. I like the Conquest class of ships and am well used to them, though the Glory is the only one I haven't sailed on. I haven't sailed on any of Carnival's XL class of ships yet. They might be TOO BIG for my liking, though with their size comes some nice amenities - like extra places to hang out and different places to eat. The ports aren't the best. I haven't been to MoBay, though I have been to Falmouth and Ocho Rios in Jamaica. I choose other ways to visit my slush funds other than by cruise ship, so Grand Cayman get a "meh" from me. I've been to both Costa Maya and Cozumel a lot and I'm running out of interesting things to do in both places. But enough about me. If I were picking FOR YOU, based on what you've revealed about yourself so far, I'd pick the Jubilee at the same price. It's a nice and new ship that has a lot of stuff. The ports have fun things to do - especially for a first visit. Be sure not to book your cruise when you're too far along. Have a great trip!

Thanks for sharing this. I'll note that I will be cruising with Air Supply and Michael McDonald on separate cruises next year. Perhaps I'll get autographs from either or both of them? 🙏

That's a good question to which I don't know the answer. Is that her previously scheduled drydock?

On the drive in to work today, I heard "Love Is A Battlefield" from Pat Benatar and "Low Rider" from War. I saw Ms. Benatar in concert in September and she played this song. WAR I will see on the Rock & Romance Cruise next year. They seem like a lock to play their song there.

Brand Ambassador John Heald mentioned in his video that the Panorama will indeed be going into dry dock. He didn't say where. Here are some back-of-the envelope calculations on how expensive this repair is going to be: 2000 cabins X $2000 average fare per cabin = $4 million $4 million X 4 weeks = $16 million $500 average onboard spend per person per cruise X 4000 passengers X 4 weeks = $8 million $16 million X 75% average FCC per cabin = $12 million So far I get $36 million, which doesn't include flight refunds or the actual cost of the repairs. It also doesn't include the reduced expenses (like food and fuel) for the cruises that aren't happening, which I assume are a lot less than $36 million. TL,DR: It's a substantial hit to the bottom line. No wonder why TPTB delayed making a decision on this.

In my experience, if a canceled port has been replaced with a sea day, I've gotten refunds of the port fees as OBC. If a canceled port has been replaced with another port, I'm sure in theory (and in their contract) they could charge for the difference, but I have yet to see it. I assume the cruise line treated it as if they canceled each other out and didn't charge extra or give OBC for the difference. Your mileage may vary.

@NinS - thank you for sharing your stories! You're well connected and well informed in a way that I hope that I'll be, but probably won't ever achieve.

UPDATE: I emailed Jazz Cruises for information about their '25 cruise. A rep from there got back to me (not the big guy). She said that there is no imminent announcement of The Jazz Cruise for 2025. They're tentatively thinking that it will be made in early December, but they want to make sure all the pieces in place before they make any announcement. Fair enough, but that runs into the time for the announcement of the 2025 Chris Botti Cruise: Will this be delayed too? It would seem so, but I didn't directly ask about it, so I can't be absolutely sure. So I guess those of you who are looking for news about The Jazz Cruise '25 and Botti at Sea '25 will have to wait a little while longer. ☹️

That's part of the point for sure. Also, Xcel could be short for "Excel" as in Celebrity "excels" at everything it tries - including food quality and customer service.

IIRC, one of the options was an egg on top of the burger

I asked Mr. Heald about this this morning. Here's the TL,DR: Guy's for breakfast is still open on the Sunrise, but ONLY the Sunrise It wasn't popular on the Mardi Gras, so score one for @1025cruise

On Princess, they have a limited amount of reserved seats in the main theater for their regular entertainment for their top tier package holders. Those seats are opened up 10-15 minutes before the show. One of the music charter cruises I've been on has reserved seats for those who booked the cruise far enough in advance. The booking process is far in advance of the cruise, and it's the same seat(s) for every show, all week. Those seats open up at showtime, not before.

@cj.cross Welcome to Cruise Critic! I'm sure Carnival will have a solution to this problem as soon as they can define and get to work on it. You and your kids may not like it, but such is life sometimes. ☹️ I wish you the best on your upcoming cruise, if and when it goes.

I wasn't expecting anything about the Smooth Jazz Cruise. I was expecting news about the older cruise, THE JAZZ CRUISE. Nothing new up yet...

You're welcome! I'm glad to be of assistance. It's November 7 where I am and I don't see anything about 2025 on TJC's main site or its FB page. I don't recall any adjustment to the schedule that I quoted above. Did Mr. Lazaroff forget about this??

This saddens me a little. ☹️ It's starting to look like an experiment that Carnival hopes we don't remember.

That's a key question, IMHO. It depends mostly on where they can fix it and how long it will take. If they can fix it within a week at Long Beach, then the effects are minimal. If they have to go to dry dock to do a permanent fix, then that complicates things. My recollection of azipod issues on other Vista-class ships is that it can take a while to fix, but sometimes they wait a while to do so. One thing they could do is switch ships and itineraries temporarily with the Radiance. We'll see what they come up with.

My question is the title of this post. A little background... just before the pandemic, one or two Carnival ships experimented with having Guy's open for breakfast in addition to its usual 12-6 times. There were some special burger items on the menu at this hour. After the restart, I thought I saw the Mardi Gras with breakfast hours for Guy's. Thanks in advance for any insights.

My first thought was Hollywood Squares, the Peter Marshall-hosted version. I was a young 'un when that first aired and I didn't get all the jokes then. My second thought is that new regimes often change logos - not always, but sometimes. Some do it to draw attention away from the other changes that have been made, and some do it to draw attention away from the lack of other changes. I'll leave it up to you which category the LHB administration is in.

Your physical description sounds like a lot of people, and a lot of cruisers. Good luck finding out his name. One guy we can eliminate is this one:

Quickie bursts of rock and roll news from around the Net: One of the guests on the Headbangers Boat went overboard. There was a search, no body found. Doesn't look good. ☹️ Bret Michaels will be having a show at one of the area megacasinos in February. Tickets on sale soon. I had the chance to see Mr. Michaels on The 80s Cruise earlier this year, but didn't do it. Not my speed. So I think I'll pass on this opportunity. At the same megacasino in August, ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd will be performing. Tickets on sale... sometime. I saw ZZ Top a couple of years ago, just before they lost Dusty Hill. My pictures of these guys at this concert are really bad, so no pictures - sorry about that. I don't think I'll go to this concert either.

The Big Easy Cruise announced some performers and other details about their 2025 cruise: No New Orleans stop this time, which I'm sure will be disappointing to some. Since the initial edition leaves today (good luck!), those passengers get first dibs on cabins for 2025. They can book onboard. Bookings open to the general public on November 21.

Notes that I found most interesting from this webinar (I have weird tastes, so YMMV): They switched from HAL ships because the music venues no longer met their needs (too inflexible, too small) The Summit leaves from and returns to Terminal G on both sailings Cosmopolitan Restaurant (MDR) used as a concert venue on these cruises. Jazz Cruises Chop House will be in Blu this year; it’s a conventional steakhouse, as opposed to Tuscan Grille – which is more Italian than steakhouse Special guest Jeffrey Osborne will be on the second half of the first cruise, and the first half of the second cruise “Everyone else will be on the whole week of each cruise” - Michael Lazaroff No flash photography or video recording Only the main shows have guaranteed seating Each person in line can save a seat for one other; this is intended to reduce the line length People with 10+ sailings can reserve a seat during main theater shows There are 15% or fewer reserved seats per show (2024.1 second seating has the most) They've changed from theater opening 20 minutes before the main show to 45 minutes to keep the lines shorter