Honolulu Blue

This too. I had had a cruise prior to this one (not on Princess), but a large portion had not. I'll agree that it was a great cruise. The main thing that would have made it better was to make it longer. 👍

As the Flyer has mentioned, it DOES depend on several factors that are mostly out of your control. The ship will make an announcement in each port when the gangway is open. Do your fellow passengers a favor and steer clear of the gangway before then. All of that said, for an 8 AM arrival in most Caribbean ports, you should be able to get off the ship by 8:30. YMMV.

I confess to not using contactless payment at all in the U.S., though it's becoming more and more available here. In the Caribbean, my experience is that not too many places will take contactless payments - and the ones that do are probably not the places with the best bargains. I'd suggest a physical card and Colony Bucks to get around.

Thanks for sharing. You should check to see if it's refundable, and if it's not, then lobby for it.

Thanks for continuing to share. I'm glad Double Vision put on a good show. Princess should really do more of these 80s themed cruises. Let's lobby them and maybe they'll do it. Slippery When Wet, the Bon Jovi tribute act on our Regal cruise back in November '21, tried to get the crowd involved too, but it didn't seem to take as well. I was up in the cheap seats, the theater was maybe 40% full, and all the guests were in masks. If my calculations are correct, you're going to get a different tribute to the Jersey Boys tonight - WANTED. I hope they put on another good show for you. And back to Double Vision... on a different 80s cruise (a charter that's NOT on Princess) we're going to have Lou Gramm. That should be quite the show. There's a chance he could perform all three songs you highlighted in your videos ("Feels Like the First Time", "I Want to Know What Love Is", and "Juke Box Hero").

How ridiculous! It shouldn't matter what size your team is. I would argue that being on a smaller team disadvantages them because the pool of knowledge is that much smaller. BTW, I won all my awards in a team of three - me, myself, and I. 😁 I participated in a team once as a fifth wheel. We did well but didn't win anything. Maybe I'll try team play again someday. Boat on a rope = Carnival medal. Mine looks the same as the one posted by @Robbie555in the first post of this thread.

Thanks for sharing. I started cruising less than a decade ago, so apparently I missed the best rewards. Though I think I'd rather have one of Carnivals trophies than anything you mentioned - impractical as they are for everyday life. It's eye opening to find out about the champagne, as both Celebrity and Princess like to offer them to me for various reasons. The offerings on Viking scream "participation trophy to me, of which I'm not a fan. I was taught that to get something decent, you have to compete and win.

I will note that I have been on two full charter music cruises and will be going on two more this year. None are on Princess. I was on one of Princess' 80s themed cruises in 2021 and will be going on another later this year. I have not, to my knowledge, shared any ship with a partial charter on any cruise line. I suspect my time will come eventually. I'm not looking forward to the experience.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and awards. On Princess, I won a couple of competitions. Both times I was offered champagne, but as a teetotaler I declined them. The first time I got a Princess swag bag with most of the stuff you have pictured. The second time I got a Princess water bottle. On Carnival, I've won nine ships on a stick and a single boat on a rope. These were all pre pandemic.

Almost forgot - I tendered into Santa Barbara last year. Nothing else of note to add to my conclusions above.

Thanks again. Glad to hear (and see) that the PBE was worthwhile. Double Vision tonight! Carlos Oscar gets a second pair of shows in the aft lounge. We only got to see him one time, I'm pretty sure.

I don't have any answers for you that haven't already been said elsewhere. But I want to put some notes down about the difference between full charters, partial charters, and cruise line themed cruises: FULL CHARTER - The charter controls the bookings and the prices for the cabins. They have full access to the ship and its facilities for the duration of their rental. It's not possible for regular people to randomly book a full charter, so mixing and mingling is limited. PARTIAL CHARTER - The charter company pays a fee for access to certain facilities on a cruise ship and the right to book some rooms through it. The cruise company reserves the right to control everything else, which means they try to keep things as normal as possible for the rest of the passengers on the ship. Sometimes it works better than others. CRUISE LINE THEMED CRUISE - The cruise line retains full control over the ship, but the entertainment and such will have a theme to it (80s, comedy, cooking, etc.). Beware if you don't like the theme.

Thanks for making your feelings known and sharing your feedback. I wonder if the lady pretended to know more than she did in order to string you along. If not, what she said was distressing. I'm not a big fan of the MDR, but if that's the only way to get a decent prepaid meal... (deep sigh)

Congrats on the win! I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to lock in your profit. Those are some nice chips. As for the not-fully-clued-in player, it's a hazard of playing the game, I've found. Sometimes stuff like this annoys me too, though mostly I tune it out. In the long run, what the other players do have no effect on my winnings.

I'm definitely not pining for the "good old days" of cruising with set dining 3 meals a day. Thankfully, most cruise lines had moved on from this by the time I started cruising. And while I do appreciate a high quality sit-down meal on occasion, a lot of the time I just want to eat some good food at my own pace while not having to worry too much about how I look.

I remember you from the roll call! We were on the same cruise! Indeed it was lots of fun for (most) everyone.

I was on the Millie in November. I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that I had a great time on my cruise, what I saw of the entertainment was surprisingly good (the show Boogie Wonderland and soloist Kristina Wells), and I thought the food was excellent. The bad news is that the food situation on Celebrity seems to be in transition. Room service has, or will soon, increase to $12 per order (with some exceptions); there are reports of the dinner buffet having its selections cut; and some MDR menus have been simplified. I'm too lazy to link all the discussion threads here discussing these changes, but they're all over page 1 and 2 here. What I will link is my review of my cruise on the Millennium. Have fun!

@CanadianBurger: Thank you for continuing to share! It looks like today will be another day that's jam packed with 80s goodness (though a bit less so than yesterday). The Knights of Rock lectures look especially interesting. Not your classic stuffy old enrichment to be sure!

I appreciate Celebrity's disclosure on this.

Thanks for sharing this. We had about half that number on our cruise on the Regal a bit over a year ago.

The plot thickens. I note that "we haven't announced yet any cancellation" is subtly different than "we haven't cancelled". Please keep us posted.

Following. Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you had a smooth embarkation. As a CCL shareholder, I fear what this means, even though as a cruise guest I totally approve. It looks like this is even heavier on the 80s theme than my cruise late in '21. I like the 80s themed bands scattered all over. I wanted to book more than one of these 80s themed cruises, but this particular one had the worst conflict with work. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I liked Mr. Oscar, but I heard that the group on another recent Princess cruise gave him a rough time. I'm looking forward to hearing your comments about the Pat Benatar and Foreigner tributes.

Finally! The UDC shows up as a Celebrity cruise on my app! Initial notes: My muster station is in the casino. Easy to find and convenient. The new room service charge shows up for me I can complete the initial check-in process. I'll take a closer look later. There's nothing on the schedule The excursions available for Key West look expensive. I've got a golden ticket to see KC & the Sunshine Band on that day; that looks like it's going to be my "excursion" for the day. A quick look at the excursions for Cozumel didn't turn up anything of interest. I've been to Cozumel several times in my cruising life with two more visits just this year. I'll figure something out.

Hi guys. My charter cruise that's scheduled to sail in late February on the Summit finally connected to Celebrity and I'm able to look at it on my app. It does show the $9.95+18% room service charge for the plebs and Aqua Class. RS for Retreat guests remains free.

A page or two back, some clever poster Frenchified the description of pork & beans. I've found that speaking in French goes a long way toward making things appear fancy/gourmet.