Calling all jazz cruisers

[SpicyP]

On 11/22/2022 at 7:17 PM, wwcruisers said:

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?

I’m so happy I found this thread. Last October, I booked my first Jazz Cruise that I heard about on XM Watercolors. We’re doing the Botti At Sea sailing Feb 8-15, 2024. I was looking around for input from others that booked through Jazz Cruises. We have never done a charter, always booked directly with the cruise line, so was a bit nervous. But we dove right in the deep end of the pool. But after finally finding this thread, feel so much better. We booked early so was able to get a Suite but even though it was early, there were only like 2 left. We are super excited!!🎉🎉

[wwcruisers]

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!

[SpicyP]

1 hour ago, wwcruisers said:

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!

Enjoy the Smooth Cruise…..the lineup looks amazing!! If I had seen it before booking Botti, I would have certainly booked that one instead. I have a feeling this foray into Jazz-Cruising is going to be just the beginning for us. Going to definitely do the Smooth Jazz Cruise next, maybe 2025. We will be traveling with one other couple so far….working on the rest of our friends. This seems like something best shared!!

[Globaliser]

FWIW, I see that today's ECP email contains the following. So perhaps not a resurrection of Blue Note at Sea, but a different direction altogether - and a focus on vocalists would certainly interest me.

 

STEPPING OUT WITH A NEW CRUISE PROGRAM

 

Jazz Cruises will soon be announcing another cruise program for ’24. One of our passions has always been iconic vocalists. Watching great entertainers perform hit after hit after hit is a great format for entertainment on a cruise. Over the years, Jazz Cruises, through its various programs, has presented Natalie Cole, Al Jarreau, George Benson, The Beach Boys, Kenny Loggins, Huey Lewis, Dianne Reeves and many other vocalists whose name defines a music genre and whose music is on the tip of your tongue and in your heart.

It is in that tradition that our newest program has been crafted. Stay tuned for more.

[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.🤞

[wwcruisers]

It's official -- both Smooth Jazz Cruises for 2024 are sold out! 🎷

[Globaliser]

On 3/23/2023 at 11:58 PM, wwcruisers said:

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

 

I'm not sure that this was actually announced to the mailing list. If it was, I missed out. But the new cruise appears to be a Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle cruise on Norwegian Pearl. Miami to Nassau and back, 10 April 2024, 3 nights (that's Wednesday to Saturday), one sea day.

[wwcruisers]

Yeah -- I was disappointed to see that -- had been hoping for a West Coast cruise. 🥺

[Honolulu Blue]

On 4/12/2023 at 12:54 PM, Globaliser said:

 the new cruise appears to be a Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle cruise on Norwegian Pearl. Miami to Nassau and back, 10 April 2024, 3 nights (that's Wednesday to Saturday), one sea day.

I booked this cruise and I'm not even that much of a jazz fan. It will be interesting to see who this cruise attracts and how I will get along with them.

[wwcruisers]

Don't get me wrong -- I'd book (in a NY minute) just to see the Divine Patti Labelle! But, flying x-country for a 3-4 day cruise -- two months after I've done that same trip for the Smooth Jazz Cruise -- is sadly just not in the time or $$ budget for me, this year! 😕

I hope that you'll come back with one of your wonderfully detailed trip reports, HB! ☺️

[Honolulu Blue]

3 hours ago, wwcruisers said:

Don't get me wrong -- I'd book (in a NY minute) just to see the Divine Patti Labelle! But, flying x-country for a 3-4 day cruise -- two months after I've done that same trip for the Smooth Jazz Cruise -- is sadly just not in the time or $$ budget for me, this year! 😕

I hope that you'll come back with one of your wonderfully detailed trip reports, HB! ☺️

I'll see what I can do! No promises! 🙏

[Honolulu Blue]

If I do post a trip report on the McDonald LaBelle cruise, it likely won't be here (though I have no intention of cancelling my follow for this thread).  I started the roll call thread for this cruise at 

and I also have my thread dedicated to my 2024 musical adventures (of which this cruise is just a small part) at 

 

[retired dude]

On 4/1/2023 at 7:29 PM, wwcruisers said:

It's official -- both Smooth Jazz Cruises for 2024 are sold out! 🎷

glad to say that brian culbertson was just here in town and this sat we will get to see dave koz, eric darius and candy dulfer right here on land in lovely clearwater.....The $50 tickets sure  do beat the smooth jazz cruise rates...life is good

[Honolulu Blue]

In case you didn't get your weekly e-mail from Michael Lazaroff, he revealed the dates for Jazz Cruises' 2025 voyages.  it seems the Summit will be doing a drydock in early '25, so there will be some shuffling of dates:

 

• The Jazz Cruise - January 28 - February 4
• Botti at Sea - February 4-11
• The Smooth Jazz Cruise #1 - February 11-18
• The Smooth Jazz Cruise #2 - February 18-25

[Globaliser]

Thanks. That gets these sailings out of the holiday period, and it also seems to make more sense to have TJC and Botti in successive weeks.

[wwcruisers]

I like the later sail dates -- but will have to wait and see what the lineup is for the various '25 sailings!

[Honolulu Blue]

The plot thickens on those 2025 sailings.  I checked the sailings for the Summit for early '25.  They're selling them for all the dates throughout the period.  They're also scheduled to sail from San Juan, Puerto Rico throughout the period.  This brings up several questions:

 

• When are they going to cancel all those current sailings?
• What sort of "apology" is Celebrity going to give those who actually booked one of these cruises?  Surely they won't move them over to the charters??
• Are these jazz cruises actually going to sail from San Juan?  Or will they head to Ft. Lauderdale or Miami and sail from there, then head back when this group of cruises is over?
• Mr. Lazaroff presented the dates and facts as though they were a done deal.  Maybe they're not such a done deal after all?

 

Sorry to interrupt for such a small detail for most of you.  

Edited July 6, 2023 by Honolulu Blue

[Globaliser]

This is actually all pretty common for prospective charters. My guess is that cruise lines don't take their own announced sailings off sale until the contract with the charterer has become firm/unconditional/similar, or reaches some particular commercial milestone. At that point, those who have booked an affected sailing as a normal cruise get their bookings cancelled by the cruise line with some sort of compensation.

 

The same thing can happen on the charterer's side. If the proposed charter sells really badly but the charterer isn't yet fully locked in to taking the ship, then the charterer might cancel all the bookings it's taken and cancel the charter, paying to the cruise line whatever penalty the contract specifies. But this isn't likely to happen with these Jazz Cruises charters - the SJC sailings will sell out quickly, TJC will reliably get to ~100%, and Botti will as usual be the one that has to be pushed a bit harder.

 

Do we know where the drydock is taking place? I noticed that the first sailing date of the block of charter dates is one day earlier than Celebrity's own plan of 29 January 2025 ex-San Juan. I expect that the ship's likely to have to reposition for its first post-drydock cruise anyway, and Miami or Fort Lauderdale could be a day closer than San Juan to the drydock location. At the end of the block of charter dates (25 February 2025), it's not hard to imagine a 4-night repo to San Juan for the ship to pick up the existing schedule ex-San Juan on 1 March 2025.

 

All of that is speculation, of course, but geography and maths necessarily impose limitations on the permutations.

[Honolulu Blue]

@Globaliser:  Thank you for your perspective.  I don't know where the drydock is scheduled to be.

[wwcruisers]

Hmmm... or maybe they go with a different ship -- like Millie? It will be interesting to see what happens!

[Globaliser]

9 hours ago, wwcruisers said:

Hmmm... or maybe they go with a different ship -- like Millie?

 

I haven't got it any more, but I think that Michael Lazaroff's email specifically said that these would be on Summit.

 

Of course, anything could change until everyone is contractually bound (and possibly even afterwards).

[Honolulu Blue]

4 hours ago, Globaliser said:

I haven't got it any more, but I think that Michael Lazaroff's email specifically said that these would be on Summit.

I still have it and this is exactly what he said:

[Globaliser]

I see that ECP (as I still call them) has now finally emailed specifically about the McDonald/LaBelle cruise.

[Honolulu Blue]

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:

[wwcruisers]

Thanks for posting that, HB! Just knowing that it's Summit out of Port Everglades -- along with the dates -- is a good chunk of information to have, this early in the game!