wwcruisers

Thanks Globaliser -- I'm SO hoping that this might be something on the West Coast!

I also noted that our Smooth Jazz Cruise (24.2) is completely sold out! We have a good cabin booked, but are on the waiting list for a Sky Suite.🤞

Thanks Guys -- we may have to actually call HAL to see what's available in the way of Neptune Suites, for this sailing. But, we'll wait a while and see if this cruise is even going to be possible first. LOVE the itinerary -- 5 days from Vancouver to San Diego, with one quick stop in San Francisco. Beats the heck out of flying to San Diego!

And CruiserBruce -- LOL on the website issues. It's reassuring to know that RC/X aren't the only ones with those!

Does anyone know if there is a trick to selecting a particular cabin on the HAL Booking page? I'm trying to do what we used to refer to as a 'dummy booking' -- just to see which Neptune Suites are available on a September Pacific Coastal repo cruise on Volendam. No matter which cabin number I enter on the 'select your cabin' page, I get the "sorry, we can't help you" reply -- with instructions to try again later, or call a HAL rep. I've tried several times in the past couple of weeks -- always with the same result, no matter which cabin numbers I enter. And, I don't want to take up a HAL rep's time -- since we don't know whether we'll be booking this cruise yet. Over the decades, my DH and I have booked many cruises on RC & X -- so, we're familiar with their websites. But we are relative newbies to HAL. Thanks, everyone!

Thanks for all of the positive input. We will need to make our back and forth from Ft. L to Miami, next year. Nice to know that Larry's Limo is still around -- with lots of happy customers! 🙂

On 1/25/2023 at 9:39 AM, George C said:

I also would recommend anyplace but Embassy suite , our stay last year was terrible, service was really bad . I used to love this hotel. 

Sadly George, we recently had a similar experience, on our Blue Note at Sea (Celebrity Millennium) cruise. We were initially thrilled to see that the Jazz Cruises folks had lined the 17th St. Embassy Suites up, as the official pre-cruise hotel. For many years (until Covid hit) that ES had been our pre-cruise hotel of choice in the Port Everglades area. Although we had not been there in 4 years, we were shocked at the condition of the hotel! We didn't get in from the airport until 7pm, and the first room they put us in had badly stained bedding. When we asked to have the bed re-made, the night manager took us to another room. The bedding in that room was clean, but absolutely raggedy -- holes and frayed areas on both the duvet cover and the sheets. My husband popped-open the little Neutrogena shampoo, and the cap had something resembling black mold in it -- YUCK!

We had another night booked there, for after the cruise -- as we've learned that you need a good night's sleep, before flying x-country from a jazz cruise. But, we immediately canceled it and booked the airport Hampton Inn, instead. Note: the E.S. manager told us that the hotel is scheduled for a major remodel, this spring. Might give them another try after that -- but I'd want to see some really good reviews, first!

SpicyP -- enjoy the Botti cruise. We would have considered it, but we already booked the second week of the 2024 Smooth Jazz Cruise! Very much enjoyed seeing Chris Botti on our Blue Note at Sea Cruise, earlier this month. Your instincts on booking a suite early were spot-on -- IMHO, booking a suite is well worth it!

What appears to have been the last Blue Note at Sea cruise was fabulous! We're already booked for next year's Smooth Jazz sailing (24.2)!

Just signed up for the Smooth Jazz Cruise 24.2 (Feb 1-8, '24)! Suites were sold out, but managed to snag a nice aft-facing cabin. Looking forward to sailing Summit to Aruba & Curacao! 🙂

Anybody else thinking about this one?

HaHa -- you had me at San Francisco to Hawaii!😄

On 10/8/2022 at 6:25 AM, Globaliser said:

It seems like some possible good news may yet come. Today's email says that Blue Note "will not sail in the January-February window, but a fall sailing from the West Coast is being considered". So I suppose it's a case of watching this space.

Glabaliser, you beat me to the punch, lol!

This is great news for those of us who live on the 'left coast'! I would urge anyone who thinks that this would be a good cruise to please contact Michael Lazaroff at Jazz Cruises LLC, and give him your feedback! (Per CC rules, can't post a link to the website, but Google's your friend!😉)

On 9/24/2022 at 6:22 AM, Globaliser said:

 

This now looks confirmed, judging by today's email, even though it won't be formally announced until about Thanksgiving (2022).

 

The email gives no date for a Blue Note in 2024.

Yep, my DH e-mailed the Jazz Cruise folks and they confirmed that the Blue Note was D/C'ed, as of next year -- with the Chris Botti cruise taking its slot.

Hmm... where does the '24 Blue Note at Sea fit into that lineup? Not really sure about it being retired, as this upcoming line-up (Jan '23) is lights-out: Chris Botti and Sheila E. Well, unless the new Chris Botti cruise is taking that slot permanently. Will have to watch for updates from Michael Lazaroff...

Good for you -- starting that r/c thread, Chrismch! Hope you get some fellow cruisers, signing on. We're on the Blue Note at Sea -- the week following your cruise. 😃

Bon Voyage, Dave Koz & crew! 😊

Just saw that David Sanborn is joining the cast of featured performers, on January's Blue Note at Sea Cruise. This line-up just gets better and better (and there are still good cabins available)! 😎

HB -- glad that you had a good cruise, and thanks for posting your review. After the sudden cancellation of our last January's 'jazz cruises', I'm so relieved to hear that charter music cruising is still alive and well! That gives me tremendous hope for next year's Blue Note at Sea sailing (1/13/23 - 1/30/23) -- which I believe still has good cabins available, if anyone is interested.🙂🤞🎶

Thanks for posting that, HB!😎

Oh, and a heads-up to anyone thinking of booking a 2023 Jazz Cruise, Smooth Jazz Cruise, or Blue Note at Sea sailing. You might want to book those as soon as possible. They were already selling better than expected. And now, those displaced '22 jazz cruisers (four sailings, total) are being given the option of transferring their bookings to one of the 2023 cruises. So, I think that they are going to book-up fast! Fortunately, we already had a '23 Blue Note at Sea booking, where we can transfer our cruise credit (for this canceled cruise). And, thank goodness that we're not scrambling to find a cabin that we'd like -- since we booked early. 🙂

Yep -- it's official -- all 4 of the '22 Jazz Cruises are cancelled. Looks like we'll be able to transfer credit for our 'Back to Sea' cruise to our existing '23 Blue Note at Sea cruise booking. Fingers crossed that next years' cruises happen!

Thanks for the heads-up, HB! We actually got an email from Michael Lazaroff (of the Jazz Cruises) to that effect. My guess is that he's trying to get out ahead of the storm, and avoid what happened to us in March of '20 (the last Smooth Jazz Cruise Sailing of the Year): The CDC pulled the rug out from under us and shut-down cruising on the day BEFORE we were to sail. ECP ended up with a lot of cruisers and talent stuck in the FtL/Miami area, with nowhere to go. So, if something like that is going to happen this year -- better to know it now, I guess.

Anyhow, will keep you guys posted on what develops. Also, anyone with news, please post. Thanks!

Well, we just had a Webinar on Friday, about our upcoming (Jan 24-31) Smooth Jazz Cruise, on Celebrity Summit. As of then, at least -- masks onboard are 'optional'. However, that was before RC's new mask policy. And, I agree with the sentiment of: can X be far behind? As we are flying to the cruise port, we'll be taking masks with us anyhow. Will stay tuned.😏

On 12/1/2021 at 6:45 PM, savvy22 said:

Dave Koz Jazz cruise May 20-27

Thanks for that update, Savvy22! Where are they sailing, this year?☺️

Thanks Host Kat -- I was originally having problems getting the 'welcome to mail' page to accept either my old or new e-mail addresses. But, I think that I got it figured out, and was able to send Host Jenn an e-mail, with both my old and new addresses, as well as my user name. Fingers crossed that it worked! Thanks again for your prompt reply, and suggestions! 😇

Host Kat -- my problem is that I cannot access 'help@cruisecritic.com'. When I try, it wants me to sign in with my old e-mail address, which I am having difficulties with -- a big part of why I'm changing it. I cannot get the page to just let me send a message to Host Jenn. Is there any other way I can do that? Maybe using the 'report' function, if I can get that to work??

I recently changed e-mail addresses, but cannot find any way to make that change in my profile. Can someone in tech/admin please help me do this? I tried accessing the help@ccaddress, listed in the 'sticky' on this topic, but I can't get into the system, using my old e-mail address -- which isn't working for me anymore. I know that I've changed e-mail addresses in the past, and had no problem. Please help.