Honolulu Blue

You speak the truth, not only about cruise info, but ALL information. Since the rise of the Internet and the movement of much data there, there has been a TREMENDOUS rise in the amount of available information, but also a rise in the amount of opinions that are sometimes disguised as information, and a rise in outright untruths. It can be hard to tell which is which.

I can imagine some new cruisers not paying attention to the app, the newsletter, or the TV screen and relying on the CD to tell them what's going on each day. I think I understand better why Carnival makes so many announcements - especially since they have a large percentage of new cruisers on most of their ships. I've been cruising for a decade. I'm pretty sure there were doors decorated on that first cruise. I don't know when the practice started. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a few of the cabins on the Titanic were decorated. I definitely started cruising before ducks were a thing on cruise ships. I hope it's a fad that will fade in time. That's all I'll say about it.

Southwest has opened up flight bookings through early March. I used this window to book several of my flights to/from my 2025 cruise cities. This ate into my current stack of miles, though I'll make up much of it with spending over the next year. One leg I left open because I didn't like SWA's available flights, and one leg won't be available to be booked on Southwest until early August.

FYI - StarVista Live's YouTube site has posted full All Access Passes (interviews) with several of its artists from Rock & Romance and Flower Power. The videos include Randy Bachman (twice, for both R&R and FP), Bad Company, Dave Mason, Generation Radio, and WAR. I'll have to remember to catch up with them when I get time.

No, I scanned that from the postcard I bought in town. Just kidding. OF COURSE I've been up there.

You mean like this? Photo from 2014, my first visit to St. Kitts.

This post reminds me of why I don't do laundry onboard. Thanks for sharing. I apologize for bumping this, but I wanted to note your concerns about Princess and the Emerald in my records, and this is the best tool I have to do this.

Hey, I remember you! I've followed some of your adventures on Celebrity, NCL, and MSC. Alas, I seem to have missed the posts on your Emerald Princess cruise. I'll go through it later. I'm sorry for what you went through. I've done three cruises on Princess since 2021. They were relatively short (5, 7, and 5 days). They were quite fun, especially the 80s themed ones. I didn't notice too many problems. And I received a pre cruise cabin upgrade each time. I'll be on the Emerald in August. I hope I'll have a.better experience than you did. 🙏 Anyway, I'm following along, so I'll give the microphone back to you. 🎤

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I can't say that I've ever had a fire situation on a cruise that involved me as a passenger. I've heard drills for fires and announcements that may have involved fires, but none of those involved any action from me.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced their newest inductees last night. Not in any order, but Cher, Kool and the Gang, Foreigner, and Dionne Warwick made the cut - among others. I saw the former lead singer for Foreigner, Lou Gramm, on The 80s Cruise last year. And I saw the band itself on the 70s Rock and Romance Cruise this year. Kool and the Gang I saw on the 2022 and 2023 editions of the UDC. They're scheduled for the 2025 edition. This photo is from last year: Cara Lee did a convincing job of looking like and sounding like Cher on the UDC last year: One of Dionne's biggest hits, "Then Came You", was with The Spinners. They did this song without her in 2022 on the UDC. They'll probably do the same in 2025, also on the UDC.

I've never had a true muster call, but I had the opposite happen a few months ago - passengers and crew were sent to our cabins and told to stay there for a couple of hours. Here's that thread:

I too miss sailing from SJ on Carnival. I've partially scratched that itch by cruising with other cruise lines from there. The last year or two before the pandemic had the Fascination leaving San Juan at 6 PM. I don't know why.

Quickie comments: My one overnight on Carnival was in Honolulu on a cruise from Vancouver to the islands several years ago I recently had an overnight in Nassau that wasn't on Carnival It's tricky to find overnight stays on Carnival cruises, but I think they still exist I've had some late stays (10 PM or later) in Aruba and Curacao When Carnival sailed out of sunny San Juan, some of their departures from that port weren't until 10 PM, since the first port was nearby St. Thomas.

I'm updating this to note that CC itself has done an article on one of the TS themed cruises (In My Cruise Era). It's at In My Cruise Era: What You Need to Know About the Taylor Swift Cruise (cruisecritic.com) . It adds a little more info about that particular cruise and also the fact that that particular one is sold out.

Let me briefly tell you all about my experiences with the medallion: Regal, November '21 - Fort Lauderdale. Medallion was mailed to me (it was before Princess decided to charge for this privilege). Majestic, April '22 - San Pedro. I picked up the medallion. Delay was a minute or two. Ruby, April '23 - Galveston. I tried to pick it up. Big mistake! Because almost everyone else needed to pick up their medallions also, I had to go in a separate (long) line to do that. It delayed me about half an hour, which I didn't like very much. 🤬 The lesson I took from this is to not bother with delivery for cruises except for those out of Galveston. My next Princess cruise is in August out of Boston, so we'll see what happens. My medallion is currently set to be picked up.