Honolulu Blue

Thanks for the shoutout! I'm sure you and your husband are enjoying breakfast right now, to be followed by a report on what happened yesterday. I am looking forward to it. 👍

WARNING: Excessive fangirl crushing alert ahead. I got my final instructions for my VIP session with Paula Abdul by e-mail a few hours ago. There are just a couple of days to go until that concert. I admire and respect the many careers Ms. Abdul has had - from Laker Girl to famous dance instructor to pop singer to singer/dance judge to whatever she's doing now... I guess it's a hybrid. I like her chirpy little singing voice, now that I've gotten used to it. It may surprise you that I didn't much care for her first two big hits, and still don't. But once "Cold Hearted" dropped, I fell in love with it and Paula. I was sad that her third studio album and its singles did almost nothing on the charts, but happy for what she gave me through the years. And now I get to meet her. And I'm a little nervous about it. Forgive me. 😍 Swooning over, I promise. Let's get to the facts about my VIP session: Check in starts at 4:30 and ends at 4:45. I think it's a different entrance than the GA entrance for the concert The meet & greet session starts at 5 Concert doors open at 6 Show starts at 7; I think Paula is in the middle between DJ Jazzy Jeff and NKOTB The photographer will take one Polaroid picture and one professional photograph. The latter will be available on a separate site 5-7 days after the show. I assume the Polaroid will be available instantly, sort of. No cell phone selfies on my phone; I'm not certain they're allowed in the VIP session One autographed item. It looks like I'll be taking my "Forever Your Girl" CD sleeve, cliche as I'm sure it is. Us VIP concierges get a special number to text for any day-of problems I have a hotel in Columbus near the arena. I used a bunch of my Southwest points to pay for it. Parking is tight, so I'll have to pay to valet my car. This all sounds like fun. I can't wait for Friday!

I'm here and I've been here since the beginning. You haven't been able to chase me off. 😛 I have been reading your adventures here. They've always been interesting. I also have enjoyed the pretty pictures. I do have one question. I've responded to you here and there in various threads through the years. You've never responded to me, ever. I'm convinced you have me blocked somehow. If by chance I'm NOT on your block list, it would be nice if you could reply to me with anything - even something silly like "Dominica is not in the Dominican Republic". Thanks.

From the Jazz Cruises biweekly newsletter: * The 2025 Jazz Cruise is fully booked * The details for the 2026 edition are tentatively planned to be announced in mid to late October * Details for the 2026 Chris Botti Cruise will come after this * The 2025 edition is nearly 85% reserved

It's been at least two years since I've seen a cabin steward in a mask. I have seen the occasional crew member in masks around the ship beyond what you'd expect.

I agree that it's bad to be kicked out of a cabin that was previously chosen, but in your example, all cruise ships that I'm aware of have a limited number of regular cabins that can hold 3 or more. I'm sure it's in the contract that they can do this. I imagine that HAL offered some compensation, especially if the cabin they moved to was considered a downgrade. I've done over 30 cruises, all solo, and have never been kicked out of a 2-person cabin either prior to boarding or onboard. I have gotten some upgrades pre-cruise and on another cruise I was offered an upgrade onboard.

I've been to Dominica a couple of times in my travels. Nice place. I'll make it back there next December. Sint Maarten is one of my favorite stops ever, so I'm looking forward to hearing more about it. 👍

Our board was identical for our cruise on the Emerald two weeks ago, except for the guy on the bottom left and the lady on the bottom right.

I'm glad you enjoyed Mr. Cross's performance. That's a good sign as he is on The 80s Cruise next March on Royal's Explorer of the Seas. I plan to be there. 😎

My pleasure. You'll have to deal with U.S. Customs when and how you return to the country (unless you can pre-clear at the airport in Canada). I'm sure the pork brisket is good, though I always prefer spareribs if I can get them. Be sure to tell Fernando I said hi 😛, not that it will do you any good. 😁 And I hope Steamers treats you well. It's in the same location as Planks; they kind of alternate days.

They happened to be on a music-themed charter cruise I was on earlier this year (not on Princess), and they'll be on a different one next year (also not on Princess).

Reason #49 why I'm dreading the first time I ever have to deal with self-serve laundromats on cruise ships. Fortunately, on all my past cruises I've either had enough clothes to not have to deal with them, or I've gotten free laundry, or I've bitten the bullet and paid for the ship to do it for me. P.S. Thanks for continuing to share!

Each charter had a theme - for example, the 80s - and the charter was priced high enough so that if you weren't attracted to the theme, you weren't going to get on this cruise. So, all the passengers were similar to me in that we liked whatever the theme was - horrifying as that may be to some of you. 😮 We all liked the same things and understood where we were coming from when we drank (or didn't drink, as the case may be).

I've been on a few charter cruises (not on Princess) where there was an alcohol package included in the price for everyone. I noticed some well-lit folks at most times of the day, but they were all my peeps thanks to the charter's theme, so it was all good. 🥳 And I've been on other charter cruises where the alcohol package was very popular. It was the same story there - we were united by the theme, and so everything was fine. 🙃

Nice work! I'm glad you're having fun in your own way. I am a little surprised you're not playing any trivia onboard. On my Emerald cruise last week, they had lots of trivia almost all day and especially in the evenings.

This reminds me of a couple of stories. First, I had the pleasure of going through my local airport last week to get to a cruise. Their departure board listed all the departures for the day - and if it's late enough, they'll list some for the next day. It's a very small airport. 🙃 And I've noticed throughout my travels that flights tend to leave from the same gate day after day.

I'm sorry the experience was frustrating for you. Frustration is not what cruising is all about! ☹️ Me, I've had worse and more frustrating experiences. Once I learned HOW to make a rezzie, it was easy enough to do for Planks BBQ, which I did later on in that cruise. It helped that I flipped my personal wayback machine to 2004 and how fancy casual restaurants were reserved then.

I'm not sure what class the Emerald is, but I was on that ship last week and the Gastropub there DID take reservations and DID NOT want to take walk ins. The reservation process for the Gastropub wasn't easy. They're not available pre cruise, at all. And they can't be booked on the app or TV. They have to be booked in person or through the dine line onboard.

I've sailed out of Galveston a few times on both Princess and Carnival. Yes, it's costly to get from either Houston airport to the terminal and yes, it's a good distance away. Since your group will be coming into town the day before, I do not recommend going with the Princess shuttle. Those are designed for travelers that go straight from the airport to the terminal. On the one occasion when I got in two days before (long story), I stayed at the La Quinta nearest the airport (IAH). It was a nice place, comfortable, not too many frills. Overnight stay options in Galveston are, I have found, limited and expensive. YMMV. It might be best to find a hotel for the night somewhere between Houston and Galveston, and then find a way the rest of the way the next morning. Good luck, and enjoy your upcoming cruise on the Regal!

I got an e-mail about this this afternoon. I won't spoil the performer list, but... Both cruises will be on the Summit out of Ft. Lauderdale Both have the same itinerary: Port Everglades -> Key West -> sea day -> Costa Maya -> Costa Maya -> Cozumel -> two sea days -> Port Everglades There's a video on the site (and a link in the e-mail)

I've been through facial recognition in several ports, mostly successfully. This didn't happen in Boston, at least not to me. Perhaps the ladies and gentlemen in Portland got everything they needed in Portland? I assume so. I'm trying to remember what happened in Vancouver and Maui on my cruise between those two locations. I know for sure I passed through Canadian immigration at the Vancouver airport. I might have passed through some form of immigration and/or customs at the terminal, but I couldn't swear to it. It was a long time ago.

Hi everyone. I wanted to take a few moments to list some of my thoughts and conclusions about this cruise and Princess in general. They won't be in any order and this post will probably run long, so I don't blame you if you read about @JamieLogical and her more current adventures instead: In thinking about my near miss at 80s music trivia, could I have won if I had been more aggressive about joining a team? Perhaps. But for several complex reasons, I think the teams and I would have been better without each other. Moving on... Both stops in Nova Scotia were very Scottish. I didn't know about this, even though the hint should have been in the name itself. I wonder if my favorite Scottish singer knows about this place. She probably does, and she's probably been there a time or two. NOTE: This photo was taken on another cruise, NOT this one: Cape Breton Island as an identifier was a Very Big Deal on Sydney and surrounding areas. It even has its own flag. It seems a little weird to me, as if the U.P. of Michigan had its own flag (I don't know if they do), or if the Conch Republic was more than a pipe dream, but whatever. I can play along. We generally had good weather last week. The rain in Boston held off until after we left. There was early morning rain in both Halifax and Portland, but both days they cleared up by the time we got to the port. Most highs during the day were in the 70s, but Portland got to the mid-80s - which was a little bit more like the Caribbean for my tastes. If I had a choice of taking a Caribbean cruise in July or August, or a repeat of this cruise, I'd take a repeat. That's even given the cons of this cruise. Princess showed off their good service onboard. I expected it, and I got it. It's the one thing I can now rely on onboard. The app generally worked well for me. One irritation was that there was about a 10 second lag between the time of bookmarking and getting an acknowledgement that the event had been bookmarked. Individually it's a small thing, but when you've got 30 events to bookmark, it adds up. WiFi worked well for me. There were some random hiccups that lasted up to a few seconds. I was able to stream Peacock and YouTube easily with minimum interruptions. This was despite never getting a speed test score above 3 mbps. I've gotten better on my other Princess cruises everywhere else. I apologize for the following organized events that I missed: my roll call's meet and greet, the Captain's Circle party, and the social media event. I hope that everyone can find it in their hearts to forgive me. 🙏 It seems that the side of the trough that was closed was the same for the entire week per meal. One side was closed for every breakfast and the other side was closed for every dinner. I've said enough about how I feel about that 🤬, so let's move on again. It was no problem answering questions from you guys onboard. I was happy to do what I could. The awkward look on Lloyd's face when he had to prematurely confess that he was leaving the ship with most of the rest of us was very interesting. Thanks @wallyj. I have a video capture of that, but I'll spare you guys its amateurishness (by me, not Lloyd). I love flying out of my local airport and wish I could do it more often. It was a 3-minute walk to the terminal from the long-term parking lot, another 10 seconds to security, and 1-2 minutes to any of our gates. No monorails or moving sidewalks needed. 🙂 Boston's airport wasn't bad. I found it fairly easy to get around and through. I've been through many worse. Delta gave us some free earbuds on the way into BOS. That was nice because I had forgotten my headphones. Overall, we got four nagging messages about watching the video and/or checking in at the muster station. FYI, our initial sailaway was moved from outdoors to the Piazza due to rain in Boston. I didn't attend. Four nice things about having an interior cabin on Baja: I didn't have to hear the more-than-occasional foghorn blasts. I felt little movement. Most locations were only a few flights away. And I didn't have to deal with sunlight. I'll certainly consider choosing another one on my future Princess cruises. And yes, there will be more Princess cruises for me in the future. I had scheduled two before this cruise for late 2025 and found no reason to cancel either of them. Unless Johnny does The Right Thing and schedules more 80s themed cruises, I can't imagine scheduling any more cruises on Princess before mid-2026. FYI - after you've finished dessert in either the Salty Dog Gastropub or Planks BBQ, there's nothing to sign for, so you can just leave. One random stat that stuck with me from Captain Johnathan is that when we were in Halifax, at one point nearly 90% of passengers were off the ship. This was surprising and impressive, especially since we were tendering and had a bunch of... seasoned passengers. I wonder about this figure in other of our port I've been to. I found my favorite seat in Explorers for trivia. It was in front, but off to the side. I don't think any of the hosts paid much attention to me. That's fine; if I had won, we would have found each other. Three stories about Reg, our shopping concierge. First, he was on the Wake Show as Lloyd's guest three times, more than anyone. Second, I met him outside the shops. He gave me a raffle ticket for one of their drawings. He seemed as smooth and nice as he was on the show. And third, he came on one of the shows wearing a pink diamond bracelet. It worked for him, but I don't think it would ever work for me. The city of Sydney has about 31,000 people, so our visit increased the population by about 10% on that day. Other than Halifax, I didn't see any other cruise ships with us. Where did they all go? I never did find out how Dress to Impress night was different than Formal Night Mr. Whitney built a steel plant in Sydney (Whitney Pier). I mentioned a few pages back that he built a coal mine here. I apologize for the error. The bus we had on our tour had lap & shoulder belts. I don't think the buses on either of my other tours had them. And they're rare on other tours I've taken. Quick shoutout to Benny, my seatmate on this excursion around Sydney. Hi Benny. I hope you're not scarred by the experience. 😁 I also described Sydney's Big Fiddle as a violin. It is, in fact, a fiddle. I apologize for this error. Our assistant CD Holly was from near Toronto, Ontario, Canada The most crowded day at the buffet was the day we docked at Charlottetown, PEI, and it still wasn't too bad compared to other of my cruises. The biggest industry on PEI is agriculture and potatoes are the biggest crop. They're the biggest grower of potatoes in Canada other than Alberta. Most are made into french fries. Of PEI's 1.6 million yearly visitors, 160,000 were by cruise ship (92 of them). Lloyd reminded us that any glitches with the television should NOT reduce the entertainment score. On the off chances that someone cares, my next cruises are the following: October 2024, Royal's Ovation OTS, Transpacific January 2025, Royal's Serenade OTS, Western Caribbean February 2025, Norwegian Pearl, Western Caribbean March 2025, Royal's Explorer OTS, Eastern Caribbean The last three of these are music charter cruises. I'd like to thank everyone for stopping by. Maybe we'll meet on some cruise in the future. Be sure to say hi if you can find me. 😄

Thanks for sharing. I consider tendering a pain, even when I have priority for whatever reason. I'm not sure I would like tendering back onto the ship after walking off.

Thanks for the update. I'm sorry you're going to miss Sydney. I liked that best of our four stops last week. Your new CD Holly has her hands full. I pity her, but suspect she'll be all right. Have fun and please keep us updated!

I'm sorry you had to skip this cruise. Let's hope the medical emergency resolves itself soon. 🙏 I was just on the Emerald, having disembarked yesterday morning. I have a LIVE thread about it somewhere around here. I didn't hear anything onboard about any fuel issues affecting the current cruise.