Honolulu Blue Cruising Blog

A detailed analysis of the items I consider when booking a music themed cruise

If you’d rather watch the video version, just click below:

Around the time I was preparing to embark on the Ultimate Disco Cruise last February, I was offered an opportunity to book the Soul Train Cruise for 2023. These are the items I considered and my ultimate decision:

Who’s playing?

The Soul Train Cruise offered a formidable list of R&B musical acts from multiple generations, most notably:

• The Commodores
• The Spinners
• Evelyn “Champagne” King
• Deniece Williams
• Al McKay Allstars
• Purple Reign
• The Urban Guerilla Orchestra (UGO)

The Spinners, “Champagne” King, and UGO were all on the Ultimate Disco Cruise last year. I knew they would all give high-quality performances. The Al McKay Allstars will be doing Earth Wind & Fire songs, a band I really like. They and UGO will be on next year’s Ultimate Disco Cruise. Purple Reign is the most famous of the Prince tribute bands. I really, really dig the Purple One and anyone who can echo him is going to be on my good side.

What’s the ship and itinerary?

The ship is Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam. I had sailed on HAL before about three years ago, though not this ship. I found it to be a good experience, so I didn’t mind sailing with them again.

From its specifications, the ship looks to be about the size of the Celebrity Summit, which I thought was a good size for a charter – big enough to have plenty of room to roam, but not so many passengers as to cramp my style too often.

The itinerary had an even mix of sea days and port days:

I’ve sailed from Fort Lauderdale before. Its best asset, in my opinion, is that it’s very close to the airport. I also find it well organized and suitable for the heavy amount of cruise ships that sail every day from there.

Grand Turk is a nice, peaceful port that’s mostly suitable for beaches and water sports. I should note that I’m not a beach or water sports kind of person.

San Juan is my favorite embarkation port. I always enjoy the view departing from there. Surprisingly, I have only visited once as a port stop. It showed me a lot when I visited, so I would have enjoyed visiting here again. The stop here is exceptionally long at 15 hours.

I’ve never visited Half Moon Cay, Holland America’s private island. I have heard that it’s like Grand Turk, but only more so – more beaches, more water sports, even less to do other than those two things. I don’t think it would have thrilled me, but I always like to visit new places. Maybe it would have a surprise or two for me.

What else do they have?

They have a comedy club. I like to laugh; it might be worth checking out. The ship’s host is Tony Cornelius, son of the legendary Don Cornelius, who was the first host of the Soul Train TV show.

How much would it cost?

The sticker price for a solo traveler in an inside cabin would be about $3650, including port fees and auto gratuities, but not including any other extra cost items – like specialty dining, drinks, or excursions. I would have gotten a small discount had I booked within a few days of the open release of cabins, and another small discount for being booked on the Ultimate Disco Cruise.

The cost per day would have been about the same as what I paid for both years of the Ultimate Disco Cruise, and considerably more than what I paid for The 80s Cruise.

Other considerations

I work at another job other than entertaining and informing you cruise and music aficionados, and there are times that I cannot cruise because I need to be in the office. Also, I don’t want to exhaust myself by taking too many cruises in too short a time span. In this case, I thought the month between the Soul Train Cruise and either the UDC or TEC would have been fine.

Why I didn’t go

The decision was very hard between a second sailing of The 80s Cruise and my first sailing of this cruise. I ultimately went with TEC 2023. Here’s a quick summary of why:

• Cost – TEC costs several hundred dollars less. Every little bit counts.
• Timing – As it turns out, I would have a harder time selling the week off in January-February of next year to my bosses than the week in March that TEC would be sailing on
• Music – I liked the acts on TEC a little bit more than here.
• Itinerary – I favored the stops and their timing on TEC

This doesn’t mean I don’t have some sleepless moments about whether I made the right decision.

Conclusions

I would have had fun on the Soul Train Cruise had I taken it. There is certainly value to be had, and I certainly wouldn’t fault anyone for making the decision to embark on this trip. Unfortunately, or fortunately, my time to make decide has run out, as the Soul Train Cruise sold out a couple of months ago. It’s not worth my time to get on the waiting list.

For a discussion of what music themed cruises I will be taking in early 2023, watch this video: