Honolulu Blue

I have 7 cruises coming up - one in 3 1/2 weeks, 5 in 2024, and one in 2025. They're on four different cruise lines. Four are music charters. All solo, of course. 🙂

I'm curious... who did you ask? Your cabin steward? Guest Services? Both? Someone else??

I can't say that I have. Then again, I've never received "attitude" from a local when I've traveled by any means.

Something I neglected to mention, and I'm surprised that someone didn't remind me of, is that sometimes you don't have a choice of taking your passport with you in port because sometimes the country or countries involved wants a closer look and so instructs the cruise line to hold your passport. And some cruise lines will hold the passengers' passports for all ports. I was inspired to post this by a FB post in Carnival Brand Ambassador (fancy name for a cross between a cheerleader and a town crier) John Heald. He posted some customer complaints about Spain making Carnival take the passports for all its embarking passengers and promising to withhold their lock on them after they leave the last Spanish port on this cruise. The passengers who Mr. Heald highlighted were understandably upset by this, but Carnival's hands were really tied because this requirement was sprung by Spain at the last minute.

I recently returned from a trip to the southwest tip of the state for a concert that featured Stephen Pearcy (RATT's lead singer) and Quiet Riot. TL,DR: Both concerts were good, filled with great songs (IMHO). I had never been to the Four Winds Casino before. It was fairly easy to get to - though the showers and construction along the way were trying. The path from the interstate to the casino was relatively long and twisty, but eventually I ended up where I needed to go. There seemed to be lots of surface parking, even near the main casino entrance, so I passed on the parking garage. Checking in was easy enough, as was getting to my hotel room. Since the trip from home was 2 1/2 hours each way, I determined early on that I needed an overnight stay somewhere along the way, and what more convenient place could there be than where the casino where the concert was taking place? There were few other hotel options nearby, so I was kind of stuck with it. The hotel room was nice enough with an excellent view of nature just beyond the casino grounds as its highlight, but this was the most expensive hotel room I've ever paid for out of my pocket - $322 for the night. Ouch! After joining the local slot club, I tested the fates at a couple of the pretty slot machines. I ended up with an enormous profit of $3. This was my biggest win; yes, I'm the last of the big time spenders. 🤑 Finally, it was time to get seated for the big shows! Quiet Riot was first. They closed the show with my favorite song from them, "Bang Your Head". Their big hit, "Cum On Feel the Noise", was immediately before this. They played 10 other songs before those, all of which I recognized. The biggest and best surprise among the songs they played was one from their first album - the "Metal Health" closer "Thunderbird", which they dedicated to those that departed from the band for whatever reason. After about 15 minutes of an intermission (surprisingly quick, I thought - I expected at least a half hour), it was time for Mr. Stephen Pearcy. Mr. Peacy, as I mentioned earlier, is the lead singer for hard rock/metal band RATT that had its heyday in the early and mid 1980s. This is when I latched onto them. I won't bore you with the story of why the whole gang isn't touring together (partly because I don't know it all). I thought Stephen did a good job with what he had - some great songs (again, IMHO) and capable performances by the rest of the band. Mr. Pearcy did 13 songs, all from RATT - none of his later solo stuff made the cut. The big hit "Round and Round" closed out the show. My favorite RATT song, "Dangerous But Worth the Risk", wasn't played. My favorite song among those they did play was "Lay It Down", which is #3 on my personal list. The most obscure song they played was definitely "The Morning After', which was a filler song from the middle of the B-side of "Out of the Cellar", their first and biggest album. After the show was the meet and greet that I bought and paid for. Me and about 30 others gathered in a corner to get the opportunity to meet Mr. Pearcy when he was ready to meet us. It didn't take all that long; maybe half an hour until we were swept to a side room to meet him. He greeted us individually to sign our stuff and make small talk. I was fifth in line. The show gave us an 8 X10 glossy for him to sign, we could take a photo with him with our camera or cell phone, and we each had an opportunity to have up to three personal items autographed by him. The items I chose were the outer cover of RATT's first greatest hits collection and the outer cover of (IMHO) RATT's best album, "Invasion of Your Privacy". Mr. Pearcy talked about my name (it's an uncommon one) and my shirt (I chose the shirt with many band logos and got many compliments on it elsewhere), so I didn't get a chance to talk to him about The 80s Cruise and how I'm so looking forward to seeing him there. Since these items were so highly personalized, I won't be putting them out for the wide Internet to consume. I'll show them to @George C when we meet. I realize that Stephen can't compare to Melissa Manchester, but we each have out idols, and I'm glad I got to meet him for the few minutes that I did. He seemed nice enough from the brief contact I had with him and witnessed him with others. One thing I never realized before is that he's relatively small in stature. I'll end the story of this musical adventure here. Scheduling concerts a long distance away is very chancy here during the late fall and winter months, so my next adventure looks to be The 80s Cruise at the end of February, where I'll see, among other things, an encore by Mr. Pearcy. Will he play the same songs? Probably not, but that's a story for another day. Thanks for sticking around.

I did a cruise on Celebrity in 2017, none in 2018-20, one in 2021, two in 2022, and one in 2023 so far. I have one scheduled for 2024. I should note that the '23 and '24 cruises, and one of the '22 cruises, are music charters - which is to say that the primary reason those sailed on Celebrity was that the charter company chose Celebrity to charter the ship from. Also, I have a booking for a '25 music charter that used Celebrity ships in the past but are not because another charter got there first.

Three quickie comments: I think the OP's hyperlink is the longest I've seen in a long time. Normally I'm suspicious of such long links, but I clicked on it and my computer didn't lock up on me, so I guess it's mostly harmless. The book isn't scheduled to be released until February 20, so it's not going to make a good read for Christmas for anyone - unless the OP was talking about Christmas 2024. I like reading business leader autobiographies, so I'll check out the sample for this one when it's released. Thanks OP for calling it to our attention.

I don't know if anyone has posted this yet, but the itinerary for the 2025 Smooth Jazz Cruises is ready and posted at their main Web site. It's the same for both cruises: Day 1 - Port Everglades, depart at 4 PM Days 2 and 3 - at sea Day 4 - Labadee, 7-5 Day 5 - Turks & Caicos, 8 AM - 11:59 PM Day 6 - sea day Day 7 - Nassau, 8-5 Day 8 - Port Everglades, arrive at 7 AM

Thanks for sharing. I found quite a few interesting nuggets in this document. Allow me to spotlight some of them: CLIA considers Gen X as a "younger" generation. As a Gen Xer myself, I resemble that remark. 🙂 I'll try to ignore my creaking old bones. Asia & China fell way off as a destination region between 2019 and 2022 To a lesser extent, so did Australia/NZ/Pacific The passengers on Transatlatic/World cruises, exploration cruises, and Canada/New England cruises all have average passenger ages of 62+. Not surprising, but interesting. Hawaii cruise passengers average near 60 Asia & China has both the lowest average age and shortest average trip length, with considerable distance in both categories Caribbean/Bahamas/Bermuda is second in average age (around 44) and third in shortest average trip length (about 6 days) NA West Coast/Mexico/California/Pacific Coast has an average trip length of about 5 days The top 10 worldwide port list is very interesting... You may have heard that Port Canaveral was the top cruise port in the world last year; certainly I did. CLIA sees it differently - POM is #1 by their count and PC #3, with almost a million difference between them. Barcelona is in between Miami and PC Two ports listed are overwhelmingly transit ports as opposed to embark/disembark ports. I trust that none of us are surprised that Nassau is on the list. Puerta Maya in Cozumel made the list too. I wonder if it's JUST Puerta Maya, which hosts mainly Carnival Corp. ships. Cozumel has two other ports nearby. The age of the average cruiser in 2022 was 46.5, with 65% being 40+ (about evenly split between 40-59 and 60+)

This thread has already been moved. You can check out its new location here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/77-cruise-air/ .

The inconsistency from ship to ship shown by Carnival on what should be a simple task with simple instructions disturbs me. 🤬 It doesn't much matter to me if I have to request one or tell my cabin steward to give me one or pick up one from around the ship. But please Carnival, pick a direction, and tell everyone to get on board with it. Thank you.

As someone who prefers window seats, I approve of this. 👍

I've done three Princess cruises since the restart. All three times they've upgraded me for free without me requesting them - one from an OV to a balcony, once from a balcony to a mini-suite, and once from an interior to an obstructed OV. I've never gotten an upgrade on any other cruise on any other cruise line.

I got an e-mail with three items from the UDC. First, it reminded us that prices will be going up tomorrow morning. No worries for me; my price is locked in and I'll be making monthly payments until the end of time. 🙂 Those of you out there that are reading this and are interested, well, you know what to do. 🤑 Second, there's a clarification that the Original Stone City Band is The Rick James Band. That's good; I like Rick's music and I'll probably check these guys out. Third, the UDC did add a few acts to the list - George McCrae (whom we already knew - thank you random Internet rumors!), The Legendary Blue Notes, and The Brothers Johnson. The Blue Notes were on the last UDC earlier this year. I didn't go to their concerts and probably will pass on them again. The Brothers have a couple of songs I really like - "Stomp!" and "I'll Be Good to You". They have a couple of other hits that I need to explore. I look forward to seeing them.

From Jazz Cruises' biweekly newsletter: Botti at Sea '24 says they have less than 5 interior cabins remaining; they're calling it a "sellout". You can watch Mr. Botti give his words of thanks here (it's under a minute): https://sail.jazzcruisesllc.com/c/1aperxWTM2yqDufTuiS4t2rDaw8 Reminder - Botti at Sea '24 has a live webinar tomorrow at 3 PM. Michael Lazaroff himself will be hosting; he'll be assisted by other staff. Registration is not restricted to guests; others who are interested can attend. Here's the registration form: Registration (gotowebinar.com)

Three items of note. I'll try to be quick about them. No photos this time. ☹️ 1. In the Always Something There to Remind Me department, on the drive into work today I heard Soft Cell's "Tainted Love". They'll be on next year's 80s Cruise. There is (almost) no chance that I will go see them. Then they played a promo for a Great White / Quiet Riot concert at one of the state's megacasinos on December 29. Great White was on last year's edition of The 80s Cruise. I didn't go see them. Quiet Riot has done cruise ship concerts here and there through the years, though they're not scheduled for any that I'm on. 2. There are only 3 days until the Stephen Pearcy / Quiet Riot concert. I have the Ticketmaster app; my ticket pops up nicely. They don't accept printouts or have any printed tickets. I've been thinking about what shirt to wear. I don't have any Pearcy, Ratt, or QR logowear, so I'm going to have to dig deeper in my closet for something appropriate. How about one of those 80s Cruise T-shirts? Mr. Pearcy will be on next year's TEC. Or maybe I'll bring my aloha shirt of many bands? We'll see. I'll come up with something. 3. Speaking of that concert, the weather looks... manageable on the way there. The concert location is about 150 miles away from home, about a 2 1/2 hour drive. I don't like driving in the rain, so I want to avoid that. Anyway, the latest weather forecasts for both here and there show rain chances Friday through Saturday, but the rain is likely to pass by Saturday afternoon. Sunday should be clear. I might have to dodge some raindrops on the way there, but it shouldn't be too bad. Not bad enough to cancel anyway.

A more reliable list of shows has been put together by @Saint Greg at Playlist Productions – Saint Greg's Travels (saintgregtravel.com) . According to that list, Conquest has 80s Pop to the Max, Epic Rock, Flick, and Heart of Soul. With your sailing being only 4 days, you probably won't get all of those shows. I've seen Epic Rock twice on different ships several years ago. I thought the show was good for what it was - good songs, good singing, and good dancing. Don't expect a Broadway-caliber show

A few comments: I carried a paper copy of my passport off the ship on my first two cruises, then stopped. I found it to be of very limited use. YMMV. I carried a passport off the ship in Martinique, since that island requires it Most of the time I leave my passport in the cabin Perhaps one of these times I'll have some business that will require me to bring a passport along. Then I'll bring it. As a rookie traveler back in the day, I was taught that U.S. passports are a hot property and heavily targeted by thieves, so the advice was to avoid traveling with it unnecessarily and protect it when it has to be brought. This may be less true these days, but why give outlaws a potential windfall when I don't have to? Again, YMMV. AFAIK, our state doesn't offer digital versions of our drivers license

Welcome to CC! As for the question in the title, there are at least three levels to it: Traveling on a cruise with someone Finding someone on the way to hang out with, eat dinner, go on excursions, etc. Finding someone... on a more permanent basis - from overnight to "death do you part" As a solo traveler, I'm not interested in #1, so I trust the advice of my colleagues here and have nothing to add. On #2, I find it fairly easy to meet people on a cruise to do whatever. It's also possible to get to know others online. As for #3, I think the cruise lines are really bad at this when they bother trying - which is almost never. As you may know, cruises are mostly set up for couples, with some doing a decent job with families and/or multigenerational groups. Solos, single or not, are an afterthought on most lines (NCL does throw a little love our way sometimes). That's not to say that you can't have a good time sailing alone - I've done more than my share of cruises solo and have had a great time on every one. But it does take effort, a little research, and some entertainment brought from home to fill in the gaps. I hope you find happiness in the future, whether it involves cruising or not. 🙏

Hmmm, this quote made me think of a certain charter cruise that has MOST of its passengers naked MOST of the time. 😀 They have their own policies and guidelines for appropriate times and places to cover up, of course.

Triple 0 wheels (which it sounds like what the Enchanted has installed) have been slowly expanding their presence in Las Vegas, so I'm not surprised that Princess is giving it a try.

I sailed with Sue on the Summit way back in September 2021. It was my first cruise of any kind after the restart. I thought she was all right as a CD.

I sailed with Mr. Soacat last year on the Millennium. He didn't seem obviously incompetent to me, but then again, I only spent 7 days under his care and never directly met him.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I'm glad you (generally) enjoyed your stay on the Summit. I've been on her four times (two were charters). I thought she was in great shape and didn't notice the specific shortcomings you saw. Then again, I've never had a balcony on the Summit.

All right, I'll do just one of these this week, and then I'm gonna stop. This random AT 40 countdown is from October 18, 2023. #40 was "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" from Pat Benatar. As I mentioned earlier, Ms. Benatar doesn't play this song live anymore. This is her singing one of her other songs at her show a couple of months ago: Moving along, #37 was "Walk Away" from Donna Summer. She also had the #11 song that week, "The Wanderer". I liked the former much more than the latter, even though the latter was much more successful for her. I say the odds are against Rainere Martin performing either of these on the UDC '25. The Jacksons had the week's hot mover with "Lovely One" at #28. The Jacksons were at last year's edition of the UDC and they played this one. At #27 was "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" from Daryl Hall and John Oates. Rich Girl was on the Regal Princess on an 80s themed cruise back in December 2021. They performed several Hall & Oates songs, but not this one. The last of back-to-back-to-back songs was "Whip It" from Devo at #26. They were on The 80s Cruise earlier this year, but I decided not to go see them. Diana Ross had two songs in this countdown - "I'm Coming Out" at #18 and "Upside Down" at #3. The ex-Chic ladies performed the latter at the 2022 edition of the UDC. Not a surprise if you remember how much it sounded like a Chic song at the time (which wasn't a bad thing at all): #6 was "Real Love" from the Dobbie Brothers. The story here gets interesting. We have the Doobie Others on the 70s Rock and Romance Cruise that might perform this, and we also have Michael McDonald, who sung lead and might also perform it on his special cruise. It'll be interesting to see if I get two performances of it within a month of each other. #4 was "All Out of Love" by Air Supply. They will be on The 80s Cruise in a few months, and I'm calling it now - this one is a lock to be played. And finally, at #1 for a third consecutive week was Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust". Queen Nation closed their show on the UDC this year with it, and I'm sure they'll perform it on the Rock & Romance Cruise.