Honolulu Blue

Quick notes based on my experiences; YMMV: I've never been billed for more $$$ for the fare after booking I've never been billed for increased port fees after booking, though I'm sure it's in the cruise line T&C's Several times I've received OBC onboard for what I assume is port fees that turned out to be less than expected I haven't seen a fuel surcharge, though I'm sure that's also in the T&C's

Princess continues to introduce themed cruises, but on the wrong themes, IMHO. On the Princess site is a Magic Castle Conjurer's Cruise (7 days from Los Angeles; Discovery Princess; October 7, 2023), an exploration of Pacific Wine Country with the Wagner Family of Wine (6 days from Vancouver; Discovery Princess; October 1, 2023), and an exploration of Pacific Wine Country with Jackson Family Wines (7 days from Vancouver; Sapphire Princess; October 8, 2023).

There were some queries about the Pride in the comments on Mr. Heald's post. I haven't looked to see if anyone answered.

I just found out that the Sandy Beaches Cruise has sold out, so that leaves only one StarVista Live cruise for 2023-24 that hasn't sold out yet - The Big Easy Cruise. I'm hopeful that it will be successful, so I'll hold off on any more statements on the UDC.

I think I hear the boys and girls in Santa Clarita clearing their throats...

I've never possessed any stock certificates in my life, and I've been in the market... for a while. My parents weren't farsighted enough to gift me shares in Berkshire, or Apple, or Disney, or Carnival Corp. ☹️

Thanks for playing. Yes, I think I see the pattern. 🙂 I really liked your last two paragraphs. I agree entirely and have nothing to add. 👍

Howdy! I think we're on the same cruise, unless you're doing the 2025 edition. I've done six Journeys cruises of 10-14 days in length. I don't have much to add to what others have said here. It's a full 14-day cycle on the menus, though the offerings at the buffet might get a little old and/or repeat some in week 2. The crowd is generally more experienced and older and in the past the ships were a little less full (I think this one is going to be an exception as it's already sold out). Long cruises are great! Have fun on yours/ours!

I'm not a fan of being around such tragedies. I figure unless I'm assisting or otherwise personally involved, I want to get as far away from it as I can. I put it in the same category as accidents or people pulled over by the side of the road, rightly or wrongly.

Another entry in the Always Something There to Remind Me department - on my drive home from work, I heard "Separate Ways" from Journey and "Little Red Corvette" from Prince. I was reminded of my experience on the Ruby Princess a few months ago when DSB and Red Corvette paid tribute to those songs. I'm sure there are pictures of them upthread, so I'll spare you all this time around. Also, it looks like it's going to be a perfect weekend to attend a Pat Benatar concert. I almost wish it was outside.

Hi everyone. I thought it would be interesting to find out how many times you've sailed on a particular cruise ship. Here's my story. I have sailed four times on the Celebrity Summit. In 2017, I chose this ship as it was sailing a nice itinerary (IMHO) out of sunny San Juan at a nice price. I liked the cabin and the rest of the ship, and we even had a rock star of a captain. Fast forward four years. We were taking baby steps toward a cruising restart and the Summit was sailing out of Miami then. It had been extensively renovated and I really liked what they did to it. The itinerary was meh (Cozumel and Costa Maya, didn't bother getting off the ship), but the price was definitely right. Another good time was had. The other two sailings on the Summit were music charter cruises. Those were awesome times, and the Summit crew did their part in making sure it was so. I have another music charter on the Summit next year. I bet I'm going to have a great time on that one too, right @GeorgeC? 😛 My other Celebrity sailing, BTW, was on the Summit's twin sister, the Millennium. Sorry for rambling. I just wanted to tell my story. What's yours? Thanks for sharing! 👍

I received Mr. Lazaroff's midweek newsletter and saw a couple of items of interest to you guys. First, there are some approximate dates that the lineups for the 2025 dates will be released. And second, there are some more details about the 2025 Smooth Jazz Cruise. Rather than burn up another 2000 words, let's do a couple of screen captures instead:

Brand Ambassador John Heald posted on his FB page about the updated timeline for the rollout of the new MDR menus. Here's the timeline: He mentioned in his post that the Luminosa and Splendor are scheduled to get it at the start of 2024.

YMMV on this. Some cruise lines mention that the cabins won't be ready before a given time (usually 1 or 1:30). If the room isn't ready, most of the time you'll be able to dump your bags, but any more unpacking is discouraged.

Thank you for sharing these changes in this form. I hadn't heard about them until now, but then again I'm not a religious follower of threads on here. Anyway, two notes on the Summit: 1. The gaps in the schedule may be due to some charters. I know of at least four that are happening in 2025. 2. I like the Eastern/Southern Caribbean routes out of San Juan. I'm disappointed that the Summit won't be making them. ☹️ Maybe they'll be back in '25-'26? 🙏

Slowly but surely these fees are becoming standard on the mainstream lines. Royal, as you mentioned, charges $7.95 for each room service delivery. I'm pretty sure there's 18% for gratuities on top of that. Celebrity charges about $10+18%. Carnival is a la carte. Princess has recently switched and made their RS charges needlessly complex (IMHO) - it depends on what fare package is selected, how it's ordered, and what class of cabins is being stayed in.

I've been on a few cruises where the early and late dining times were tweaked from their usual times. I think I experienced 5:15 early/7:30 late once. It's not a big deal to me as I always use YTD for MDR dining.

I'm sorry you're having difficulties with excursions. You've listed some reasons to prefer the ship's excursions - they don't exclude solos and they don't have some imaginary "standards" to book. Of course, you can always book a private excursion on your own, or even book a taxi on arrival.

Interesting points. I'm mostly your opposite - I don't see a lot of live music, and what I do is mostly on music themed cruises. As talented as the musicians of today are, I just can't find the time to get to know them very well. That's why I'm attracted to tribute acts - I know what they're likely to play and generally they're played well. Different strokes for different folks - that's what makes the world go around. 🙂

Thanks for sharing. I was summoned for jury duty one other time, many years ago. The first four days, no one in my group was called. The last day, most numbers were called - but not mine. That was the end of the week and they moved on. So I'm 0-for-3 in my life. My attitude on jury duty is similar to yours - I'm curious about it, would kind of like to serve sometime, but not enough to go volunteer.

These will be of limited use for your particular situation, but please allow me to spend a few minutes telling my recent jury duty stories. I was summoned in both 2021 and 2022. Both had opportunities to opt out, but I didn't need to, so I didn't pay a lot of attention to the hows and wherefores. The '21 summons was (I think) for federal court. I called in the weekend before my first day and I got an announcement that they weren't having any jury trials, so I was completely excused for that week. The '22 summons was (I think) for county court. I called in the night before each session, as ordered. They never pulled my number. I wish you well with wherever life leads you.

Thanks for sharing.

I booked another musical adventure for later this year - October to be more exact. It's at another Native megacasino about 2 1/2 hours away. This one features Stephen Pearcy of Ratt and Quiet Riot. Yes, I know Mr. Pearcy is on next year's edition of The 80s Cruise, but I figure it's not a bad thing to see him twice within 6 months. Quiet Riot has always been a favorite of mine. I booked the ticket (about $93 to be in the 12th row and on the aisle - seems good), a separate meet-and-greet opportunity through Mr. Pearcy's site ($100, we'll see how it goes...), and a hotel room ($330, ouch). I hope the weather is good enough to allow me to visit this show.

Thank you for sharing your experiences. If you don't mind, I have a couple of questions: 1) Who did you write to at HAL and who responded to you? I can't say that I've ever gotten a rude response from any corporate office that I've ever written to (and I've done a few). Direct, yes. Disappointing, sometimes. Hard to understand, also sometimes. But never rude. Most often they're fluffy, feel-good stuff that's designed to make me happy about the solution (or lack of solution) to the matter that irritated me enough to write to them. 2) Who did you write to at Princess? I've written to President John Padgett in Santa Clarita twice on relatively unimportant matters and both times I got replies back from his office - once by e-mail and once by phone. Thanks again, and I agree with getting in touch with the cruise line in writing whenever there's a problem.

Thanks for the TL,DR. It should be sufficient for my needs. 👍 I'll go back into the weeds now.