Honolulu Blue

I follow a few social media influencers who do YouTube videos. The better ones (IMHO) disclose when they're given a free cruise or they're paid for some of their video content. I find that most of them pay for most of their cruises out of their pocket, the same as you or I would. I don't think their presence influences fares to any significant extent. I find them useful, but it helps to know their biases. Some are travel agents, some are current or former crew, some have their favorite cruise lines, etc.

I was checking out the 2022 newsletters for a 2024 cruise that I'm considering - a transpacific cruise from Honolulu to Sydney on the Ovation of the Seas. Oh my goodness. 😲 I found it incredible how much music trivia there was - they had at least 20 sessions throughout the 19 days, not counting the eras and segments I didn't know well or didn't care about. They also had some lectures about music history and some music performers that included a Freddie Mercury tribute, a general R&B tribute band, an 80s tribute band, and DSB - the same band I saw on Princess a few months ago. I know that past newsletters are, at best, a limited guide to what will happen in the future, but I'm excited about what they did, and if they provide half of this on the cruise that I'm currently looking at, then I'll be in good hands.

Good news and bad news. The good news is that Princess put up a new themed cruise today. The bad news is that it has nothing to do with the 80s. ☹️ The new themed cruise is all around Adam Savage - original co-host of Mythbusters. I'll quote Princess directly on what they has in mind for Mr. Savage on this cruise (emphasis mine): guests will have the exciting opportunity to meet Savage, learn about his career through several hosted activities and even get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Discovery Princess with Savage as guide. It will be sailing November 25-29, 2023 from Los Angeles. If this is of interest to you, the direct link to the cruise is at https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=X350 .

WARNING: I'm just spitballing and doing some back-of-the-envelope research and calculations with this post. This is mostly for my archives. OK, I did some research into possible themed cruise targets for Princess. Here are the parameters I put in: No more than 5 days Leaving from a U.S. port Round trip Between October 2023 and April 2024 This is the grouping that the Princess 80s themed cruises came from the last two years. So far none of these are labeled with any themes, but they might be. Here's what I came up with: Crown Princess out of San Francisco (all 5 days) - November 21, 2023, February 2 and 17, 2024 Discovery Princess out of Los Angeles (al 5 days) - November 29, 2023, February 10 and 19, 2024 Caribbean Princess out of Port Everglades, 5 days - October 31, 2023 This is a shorter list than I thought it would be. There's nothing out of Galveston, as all the voyages from there in the selected time period are 7 days or longer. All of those dates should be OK, though a couple of them are close to cruises I've already booked. We'll see if they decide to use these cruises for 80s and comedy cruises, or if they decide to go in another direction. Or they decide to not do them at all, which would make me sad. 😒

As you all probably know, there are many themed cruises available out there. But there are many other themes that no one is doing charters for. I'll give a couple of personal examples... 90s music has been underrepresented on cruises so far, IMHO. Sister Hazel hosts one, as does Train. Creed will be hosting one starting next year. None of those are quite what I'm looking for, but a well-done cruise featuring music of the 90s could get me to book. And how about a cruise exclusively for those who are single and ready (or at least willing) to mingle? The closest I could find is some of the LGBQT+ cruises. I'm not that way - not that there's anything wrong with it - but why should they have all the fun? But then I think about the economics of it and I can understand why no charter wants to touch this. But I would actually appreciate the attempt, but someone, sometime... But enough about me and what I want. What niche are you in that you'd like a themed cruise to serve?

In addition to the facts and perspective provided by @chengkp75 and @Heidi13, there's possibly another option I've heard of... On occasion I see requests on Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald's FB page for burials at sea. This is obviously different than your potential situation in that the requests are from surviving loved ones and there's no body, just cremated remains. Anyway, Mr. Heald has always asked to e-mail him the details. So, it seems Carnival still does disposals at sea under some circumstances.

I have over 200 days on cruise ships (not all on Carnival) and close to 100 sea days. I only recall grabbing a second entree once in the MDR - for short ribs. Mmmm, good. 😃 No thirds required, even of that. There's a possibility I have taken a triple-sized serving of something or another at the trough, but buffet plates and buffet employees tell no tales. 😈

I took a screenshot of Mr. Lazaorff's latest newsletter mentioning the 2025 sailings. They're all scheduled to sail out of Fort Lauderdale, so there's no need to plan for a trip to sunny San Juan. Otherwise I have no further comment:

I'm fine with it. If you HAVE to do something like this, then I think it's better and fairer to start charging after the THIRD entree rather than the SECOND as some other cruise lines do. And $5 is trivial, almost a nuisance fee to ensure that only people who really want that third (and beyond) tail of lobster actually do so. Few restaurants have main courses of $5 or less these days. DISCLOSURE: I'm a shareholder in Carnival Corporation. 😁

I should preface this by saying that I haven't been on Carnival in over three years, and things may have changed. I welcome any corrections from those with more up-to-date experiences. Laundry loads are mostly done through bags that are roughly the size of paper grocery bags on land (but more fragile). They're $15 a bag for those who are Gold or below (Platinum cruisers gets a certain quantity done for free, depending on how long the cruise is), which is a special that I think you can get any time. You can also have laundry service done by piece. IIRC, they're between $2 and $6 per piece. There should be a form in each cabin listing the exact prices.

Unless I missed a price increase in there, Internet for 1 device costs $15 per day for those without status and without a package. I'm Platinum and it costs $7.50/day for me. 😁 Yes, you can share a one device package with as many people as you care to share the login code with. AFAIK, there's no difference in cost between booking onboard or booking in advance - but the total price will go down based on the number of days that have gone by. For example, if you can wait a week to buy the package, it will still be available at $15/day, but you'll only have to pay for 7 days rather than a fortnight.

Thank you for the topic and thanks for sharing your views on it. I have to say I found it impossible to choose between the four music themed charters I did last year and this year. The top five reasons why: MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC, the other passengers, and everything else. They were four of my most expensive cruises ever, but they were absolutely worth it. So much so that I have three scheduled for next year. Here's a random photo from one of them: Ranking close behind them were the two 80s themed cruises I took on Princess. They weren't charters (Princess chose the theme and was in charge of it), but ordinary and short cruises that didn't dent the pocketbook too much. They packed a lot of fun in each one. I'm anxiously waiting for them to announce another group of them for late this year and early '24. But instead they make a stupid announcement about some stupid stuff. But I digress... Here's another photo from one of them: Beyond that were the other cruises I've taken, each of which were special in their own ways. I won't pretend to rank them; it was tough enough splitting off the other six from these.

Sixthman snuck in an interesting music cruise on me. It's called the Summer of '99 Cruise. It will be hosted by Creed and feature other artists I remember from the '90s - like 3 Doors Down, Buckcherry, The Verve Pipe, and Louise Post of Veruca Salt. Not half bad, if I do say so myself. It's on the Norwegian Pearl and sail April 18-22, 2024. Nassau is the only listed port. The presale (which I missed) seems to have sold all the cabins, but there is sure to be a waiting list.

In the Always Something There to Remind Me department, the radio station I listen to on the way in to work played, consecutively, "We Got the Beat" from the Go-Go's and "Every Breath You Take" from the Police. I happened to see lead singers from both of those bands last year - Belinda Carlisle on The 80s Cruise in March and Sting on land in May. Here are looks at both of them:

Thanks for sharing. I remember the days, not too long ago, when the pre-cruise Internet rates were about $6 for social media, $12 for value, and $18 for premium.

The link was helpful, so thank you for it (and the rest of your post). I have a couple of clarifications: The direct link for cancellations, refunds, and final payments is at Standard Policy for Cancellations, Refunds & Final Payment - Princess Cruises Key dates: full refund period ends at 75 days for cruises of 5 days or less, 90 days for those 6-24 days, and 120 days for those over 24 days; final payment date is the same as the end of the full refund period; no refunds within 14 days for all but the longest cruises - for those the magic date is 42 days

I haven't heard anything about such a thing, but I'll follow along just in case someone finds out something or there's a press release.

Thanks for the update. I'm glad Mr. Scaggs was good to you and your fellow concertgoers. I was wondering about your reticence to book the obvious B2B. Now I understand better. Let's hope things go according to plan. 🙏

Reason #4030 why concerts onboard are better than on land: there are no cancellations due to extreme heat. Here's an article about a show in Phoenix that was called off for that reason: https://www.12news.com/article/weather/extreme-weather/concert-canceled-phoenixs-extreme-heat-equipment-malfunction/75-6b6b2860-cd59-454b-801f-e86addb0edce

I found a fun article from Steve Leftridge of the Riverfront Times (a St. Louis-area media source). It's called "Is Foreigner Essentially a Cover Band? The St. Louis Show Begs the Question". It goes into the title question, but also a lot more. I thought it was a great read, if a little long. The article is at https://www.riverfronttimes.com/music/is-foreigner-essentially-a-cover-band-the-st-louis-show-begs-the-question-40527398 . To summarize it, the article talks about the current iteration of Foreigner, which only has Mick Jones as an original member - but Mr. Jones has been playing less and less through the years. @George C and I will host this Foreigner on the Rock & Romance cruise next April. It'll be interesting to see if Mr. Jones shows up (I doubt it, but wouldn't it be nice? 🙏). Also in the article: Lou Gramm and the other living Foreigners were mentioned briefly Foreinger played "Waiting For a Girl Like You" at this show Loverboy was the opening act; they were reviewed St. Louis is apparently a hotspot for tribute bands; who knew? Not me, until now. Several other bands that are coming to St. Louis soon are down to few or no original members Also mentioned by the article were three hit Foreigner songs that Mick Jones wrote solo (as opposed to co-writing with Lou Gramm, which was most of the others) - "Feels Like the First Time", "Urgent", and "I Want To Know What Love Is". I should note that Mr. Gramm played all three of those songs at his show on The 80s Cruise a few months ago.

I actually have a cruise in January 2024 that I used the cancellation FCC on and has the OBC attached to. My PVP did a nice job for me there. 🙂

I was on the Freedom in November 2019 - just before the pandemic. It was pretty full, though there were fewer than 20 kids onboard. T.J. was our cruise director also.

Like many of my colleagues in this thread, I've traveled solo a lot and mostly don't mind making decisions on the fly. I think it gets easier as you go along. It certainly did for me. I wish you safe and less stressful travels.

In this particular case it's a combination of things - 1) Royal isn't known for having or maintaining libraries, 2) their ships don't have many libraries left on them, 3) this library was in a very unusual location, and 4) the general decline of libraries everywhere, as @pe4all noted. I should note that I was on the Ruby Princess in April and that library had many more books - and also games. No photos, sorry. ☹️

Not exactly. Some ports are closed or closing to larger ships, which the mainstream lines like Carnival tend to have. And the smaller ships are mostly with the luxury lines, which usually cost more.