UDC 23, 80s Cruise, and beyond - my musical journey continues

[Honolulu Blue]

TEC sent me another e-mail yesterday.  It seems they've announced another theme - Back to the 80s.  Eh, it seems generic, but I'll make something of it.  They also announced a new band that will be performing on the cruise - The Knack.  Their hit songs are kind of all right, but I doubt I'll see them live.

[Honolulu Blue]

StarVista introduced a new music themed cruise - The Big Easy Cruise.  As the name implies, New Orleans is a big deal on this cruise; it actually stays overnight there.  That makes it an outlier, as I've rarely seen American ports as overnights on cruises that aren't world cruises.  I'm ashamed to admit that I don't recognize any of the performers - even the one that will be performing in Nawlins.

 

Anyway, the cruise is in November '23 and it looks like there are a lot of cabins available - at least for now.  If one of you happens to make it on this cruise, be sure to let us know how it goes.  Thanks!

[Honolulu Blue]

Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald did something yesterday that I had never seen him do before - post some summary numbers on one of Carnival's charter cruises.  In this case it's the NKOTB Cruise.  Most interesting was the very low number of passengers under 21 (32; the charter doesn't allow anyone under 16 onboard) and the very low number of their highest tier passengers (just 45 Platinum & Diamond).  

[Honolulu Blue]

Megan duBois of FamilyVacationist.com wrote a guest article in USA Today that said some nice things about themed cruises and the cruise lines that host them.  The 80s Cruise was mentioned by name and a paragraph was dedicated to Princess and its 80s and comedy cruises.

 

It also had a link to Celebrity's music-themed cruises for 2023 at Themed Cruises, Music Cruises & More | Celebrity Cruises .  

[Honolulu Blue]

Small update, both from The 80s Cruise... Nina Blackwood is OUT as a host, with "Downtown" Julie Brown taking her spot.  Six of one, half a dozen of the other, I think.

 

And the last theme night was revealed as "A Nightmare on the 80s Cruise".  There were some scary movies, scary songs, and scary videos during the decade, so I'm sure some will have fun with it.  I don't think I have anything that matches, but I haven't thoroughly checked yet.

[Honolulu Blue]

Today was the day I had been looking for for a long time - The 80s Cruise opened up reservations for seats for concerts in the main theater.  I happened to be online at the appointed time (10 AM CST today), so I picked out a seat.  The very best reservable seats were all gone, so I went with a decent backup option - Row F, Lower Orchestra 3 (starboard side), Seat 3.  It's a little more off to the side than I would like, but I'll make it work.  I'm only planning to go to two main theater shows anyway.

 

BTW, it seems that I have the same reserved seat for all the shows.  I wasn't sure about that.

[mikehoncho]

22 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Today was the day I had been looking for for a long time - The 80s Cruise opened up reservations for seats for concerts in the main theater.  I happened to be online at the appointed time (10 AM CST today), so I picked out a seat.  The very best reservable seats were all gone, so I went with a decent backup option - Row F, Lower Orchestra 3 (starboard side), Seat 3.  It's a little more off to the side than I would like, but I'll make it work.  I'm only planning to go to two main theater shows anyway.

 

BTW, it seems that I have the same reserved seat for all the shows.  I wasn't sure about that.

I got my reserved seats for the first time today as well (4th 80's cruise).  I guess it will be nice to know my seats are there without too much worry.  I've been looking at the princess 80's cruise with the cover bands.  I'm interested, but I'm curious how much 80's theme is around the ship (decorations, etc).  I know it won't compare to the 80's cruise, but am wondering how much effort Princess puts into it.

[Honolulu Blue]

29 minutes ago, mikehoncho said:

I got my reserved seats for the first time today as well (4th 80's cruise).  I guess it will be nice to know my seats are there without too much worry.  I've been looking at the princess 80's cruise with the cover bands.  I'm interested, but I'm curious how much 80's theme is around the ship (decorations, etc).  I know it won't compare to the 80's cruise, but am wondering how much effort Princess puts into it.

Awesome!  Yes, I also think it's nice to know where your seat(s) is/are.

 

As for the Princess 80s cruises, I did one last December.  I thought it was a lot of fun.  I'll be on the one in April sailing from Galveston.  They didn't do a lot of decoration, but there was a bit.  Here are my notes on that cruise, reposted from another thread elsewhere:

 

• We had quite a few movies and some TV shows on the VOD section.  We had "A Christmas Story" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", but your cruise might be too far away from Xmas for them to show up.  But the other big 80s Christmas movie, "Die Hard", seems like a lock.  
• There were some people who dressed in various 80s costumes (but maybe they weren't costumes to them, just ordinary clothing?), but not many
• We had a different Bon Jovi tribute act (Slippery When Wet) who impressed me even though I'm not a Bon Jovi fan at all
• Our other tribute band was Rich Girl, who did Hall & Oates.  I thought they were great and I'm sad that they're not on any of these cruises. ☹️
• DSB was on some of the 80s cruises last year, but not mine
• Trivia was a lot of fun.  I won twice at 80s music trivia.  There were other 80s-related trivia sessions that I didn't do so well at.
• There was a lot of 80s background music in the hallways, common areas, and before the shows
• We had Carlos Oscar on my cruise; he was good, well worth seeing

[George C]

2 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Awesome!  Yes, I also think it's nice to know where your seat(s) is/are.

 

As for the Princess 80s cruises, I did one last December.  I thought it was a lot of fun.  I'll be on the one in April sailing from Galveston.  They didn't do a lot of decoration, but there was a bit.  Here are my notes on that cruise, reposted from another thread elsewhere:

 

• We had quite a few movies and some TV shows on the VOD section.  We had "A Christmas Story" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", but your cruise might be too far away from Xmas for them to show up.  But the other big 80s Christmas movie, "Die Hard", seems like a lock.  
• There were some people who dressed in various 80s costumes (but maybe they weren't costumes to them, just ordinary clothing?), but not many
• We had a different Bon Jovi tribute act (Slippery When Wet) who impressed me even though I'm not a Bon Jovi fan at all
• Our other tribute band was Rich Girl, who did Hall & Oates.  I thought they were great and I'm sad that they're not on any of these cruises. ☹️
• DSB was on some of the 80s cruises last year, but not mine
• Trivia was a lot of fun.  I won twice at 80s music trivia.  There were other 80s-related trivia sessions that I didn't do so well at.
• There was a lot of 80s background music in the hallways, common areas, and before the shows
• We had Carlos Oscar on my cruise; he was good, well worth seeing

I kind of like the assigned seats , on our starvista rock and romance it was always whoever gets there first and some people waited hours to get good seats , even upper suites do not have priority. 

[Honolulu Blue]

Sad news - Irene Cara passed away last week and Christine McVie was called home today.  One by one they're all leaving us...

[Honolulu Blue]

Oh happy day!  StarVista released its tentative schedule for the Country Music Cruise that's coming up next month.  These are fun (to me at least) to look at and see who's playing where - even though I'm not interested in country music.  You can follow along at https://countrymusiccruise.com/booked-guests/schedule/ .

 

Here are the things I found most interesting:

 

• There are six venues with musical performances
• At times there are up to four venues with music at the same time
• The Elvis tribute acts perform every day way up in the Crow's Nest on deck 11
• There are two performances each day by dueling pianos
• The main theater act each day performs a double - back-to-back performances in the evening.  I'm sure it makes the setup and prep between shows a lot easier.  I saw some of that on the themed cruises I took last year - but more often the main shows on the same day were different.
• I didn't see any matinees in the main theater.  I like matinees. 🙂
• I saw some tastings and a brunch with VIPs (for extra $$$ of course), but I didn't see any formal autograph sessions
• The cruise itself leaves Ft. Lauderdale at 11:30 PM - extraordinarily late by cruise ship standards
• The stops in Sint Maarten and San Juan are 11-11 - relatively long, relatively late arrival, very late departure.  I wonder if it's to accommodate some of the artists who choose to get on or off at those stops.

 

I'll stop here since nobody's left reading this.  The Soul Train Cruise says they'll release their schedule at the end of December.  This was a "maybe" at various points last year, so I'll be sure to check their schedule out when it's released.

[Honolulu Blue]

Well well.  The Soul Train Cruise released their schedule.  It's a couple of weeks early, but I'll take it.  Here are my notes on it:

 

• The embarkation day performer (Babyface) is a double, but the on the other days, there are different performers for early and late shows
• Evelyn "Champagne" King and Deniece Williams are doing the other kind of double - they're performing in the same main theater show together.  Interesting.
• Purple Reign, the Prince tribute act, got main theater shows
• The Al McKay Allstars also got scheduled in the main theater.  They'll be on my UDC coming in February.  I don't think they'll get a main theater slot there; too few days and too much competition.
• This cruise features three comedians.  One night has a late-night tripleheader with all three performing in one show.  That sounds like fun.  I'm sorry to miss it.

[Honolulu Blue]

StarVista has been busy the past few weeks.  The Sandy Beaches Cruise, the Soul Train Cruise, and the Country Music Cruise have all announced their itineraries and initial lineups for their 2024 cruises. Nine of them are ready to book yet for the general public, those dates will come in February. Soul Train's lineup so far isn't as magical as the one that will be sailing in a couple of weeks, and the others are of genres that aren't of much interest to me. but I encourage you to check out what they have. Maybe one or more of them is right for you. 😀

 

This probably means the UDC will come out with its own 2024 lineup in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to it almost as much as the actual cruise.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Honolulu Blue

[Honolulu Blue]

A random commenter on the UDC FB page said that the UDC will not be held in 2024.  If this is true (and color me skeptical at this point), then I would be very disappointed, but it would also free up time on my schedule (and $$$ in my bank account) for other adventures.

[Honolulu Blue]

The good news from The 80s Cruise is they got Lou Gramm for the cruise.  I thought he was the better half of Foreigner and his solo stuff wasn't half bad.  It will definitely be a show worth seeing.  "Down On Love" is my favorite Foreigner song; I give Mr. Gramm less than a 5% chance of playing it here.

[Honolulu Blue]

The UDC made a couple of announcements while my back was turned.  First, they announced that France Joli couldn't make it, but they would be replaced by The Ritchie Family.  Neither of them move the needle for me.

 

Second, they announced the theme nights for this cruise.  I'll quote their rep, who posted this in their FB page:

 

You’ve been asking...so we’re delivering! See below for the theme nights on The 2023 Ultimate Disco Cruise! We can’t wait to see all your incredible outfits!

 

Sunday the 26th - Sequins and Silks -- Time to Dress To Impress! Go overboard on your authentic 1970s fashion and style – grab the sequins, press the silks and don’t forget those killer stilettos!

 

Monday the 27th - Saturday Night Fever: It’s a Monday on the calendar but its Saturday Night Fever onboard the Celebrity Summit!

 

Tuesday the 28th - Caribbean Queen Night: Get out of my dreams, get onto the dance floor! Billy Ocean is in the Main Theater this night so let’s celebrate his calypso background with Caribbean attire with Disco flair.

 

Wednesday the 1st – White Night: A simple concept with a big impact… we hope to see you in ALL white attire from head to toe as we close out our celebration of the disco era.

 

Let's see... Caribbean Night should be easy, and now we know when and where Billy will be performing.  White Night is doable (especially if you accept khaki as white; true white pants have been scarce in Michigan since 1980), but the principle offends me.  SNF & S&S are challenging; looks like I'll have to skip those.  Sorry guys!

[Honolulu Blue]

I sent an e-mail to StarVista Live's customer service, and it's official - no UDC for 2024.  ☹️  I wonder about the factors that caused this decision.  I wonder if there will be a replacement that I can pledge my loyalty to instead.  I wonder what that replacement, if any, will be about.  I wonder what they will sell at the future cruise booth.  

 

In better news, the online schedule and Celebrity booking number (so I can peruse the available excursions, among other things) are both scheduled to be released late this month.

[Honolulu Blue]

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.

[Honolulu Blue]

I looked on both the app and online.  I didn't see where I could pre-purchase slot play or casino chips this time around. ☹️  They do have blackjack and slot tournaments I can buy into; I'm not interested.

 

In other news, USA Today helpfully provided a story with discussion and links to some of the major music festivals going on this spring and summer. Here's the link:  Music festival 2023 lineups: Bonnaroo, Coachella, Sonic Temple, more (usatoday.com)

 

To make a long story short, I saw some acts of interest, but only a few per day for those multi-day festivals.  I'd prefer my lineup on TEC or the UDC to any of them.  Some of you might feel differently.

[Honolulu Blue]

On 11/18/2022 at 9:19 AM, mikehoncho said:

I've been looking at the princess 80's cruise with the cover bands.  I'm interested, but I'm curious how much 80's theme is around the ship (decorations, etc).  I know it won't compare to the 80's cruise, but am wondering how much effort Princess puts into it.

I know you asked about this three months ago and you might have ruled them out by now, but there was a thread about a cruiser who was on one of the recent Princess 80s themed cruises.  He liked the experience.  Newsletter copies are provided.  Take a look to see what he said:

 

[Honolulu Blue]

Good news - Carnival Corporation has joined the Starlink bandwagon.  Here's the official press release  https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/carnival-corporation-expands-next-generation-wi-fi-connectivity .  Carnival and AIDA ships will be hooked up first, followed by other Carnival Corp. ships.

 

Since no one is paying attention, let's see how likely my upcoming cruises will have the newest and greatest satellite service:

 

• February, Celebrity Summit - very unlikely
• March, Navigator OTS - unlikely
• April, Ruby Princess - unlikely
• November, Carnival Magic - probable

[Honolulu Blue]

I found another listing of music festivals, which also happened to include some themed cruises.  TEC was listed.  Here's the article:  Classic Rock Music Festivals and Cruises (ultimateclassicrock.com) .

 

This is more confirmation that these music themed cruises can offer really good value without most of the mess and hassle of festivals on land.  That said, I'm really tempted by day 1 of the M3 Rock Fest in Maryland in May.  Styx and Quiet Riot are favorites of mine, and there's just enough support there to make spending a day there a pretty good experience.  Don't be surprised if I take a flyer on this.

[George C]

For those on celebrity charters , the drink price is crazy 109 per day , happy we have a suite that will include it also suite bars.

[Honolulu Blue]

8 hours ago, George C said:

For those on celebrity charters , the drink price is crazy 109 per day , happy we have a suite that will include it also suite bars.

Noted.  I'm happy for you.  👍 TEC still includes a drink package for its passengers, even the ones in the cheapest cabins.  But that's on Royal Caribbean, so I don't know how much of the good stuff it includes.  For the UDC, of course, drink packages are extra, and likely to be popular. 🍺🍷🍹

[Honolulu Blue]

I purchased a 2-pack of proctored tests from the Optum Store.  They've served me well in the past, and StarVista doesn't seem to want to budge from their requirement for negative COVID-19 results before boarding certain of their charters.  The local options other than these have mostly dried up.  I might find a use for the second test if things spike again, or the expiration date is farther out than I expect it to be, or I take another StarVista cruise by the end of the year.

 

Now I'm in wait mode for the UDC and TEC to publish their preliminary schedules.