INCREDIBLE!

What could be better - my favorite lady, our favorite group on a 3 day getaway Bahamas cruise over Valentines Day!!!

Then how about a full 7 day package - yes, 6 phenomenal night s worth - well, keep in mind that they do have 200+ tunes the could play for us....hmmmmmm

Pinch me and say it's too good to be true! Y'all remember what your old Dad taught you, don't you? Yadda yadda....

So the two $32,000 questions are - who else has booked, and who else plans to go?

Good morning...I have my cabin booked! There is an advantage to booking early. You will get preferred seating at the shows by being allowed to enter prior to the remiander of the audience. Should be an awesome weekend and one that no Ripps fan should miss! Cya there!

Does anyone know if it will be a full-ship charter?
Thanks,
Steve

Hey Steve;

Royal Caribbean's Monarch Of The Seas is not a mega-ship. It's one of their older shorties at less than 900 feet, but with a passenger capacity of 2,744. Considering RCCL has 2, or 3 crew members for every passenger, it's a pretty good size vessel. It could be a full ship charter, but I don't know for sure. Here's a link to the agency handling the cruise. http://www.floridasmoothjazzcruise.com/ You must book your trip through them to get benefit of The Ripps, fellow islander and former Ripp; Paul Taylor and former islander and former Ripp; Jeff Kashiwa.

My wife and I are cruiseaholics and RCCL is our line of choice. Unfortunately We already have cruises planned for January 09 and I don't think it's wise to take 3 cruises in 30 days on my budget. I will say that ANYONE taking the trip will absolutely L*O*V*E RCCL's private island Cocoa Cay. I'm pretty sure that's where Ears is hanging out with his sax, snoozing under that palm tree. We have been there several times and it's the closest experience one could ever have to being on Gilligan's Island. There are no natives...nobody "lives" there other than crew members assigned to service the guests. The only buildings on the island were erected for the purpose of entertaining guests and lodging crew members. You will find a straw market there hosted by citizens of neighboring islands. Once while walking in the shallows on the beach I nearly stepped on a Stingray as it buried itself in the sand. All the beach areas are nothing less than great. There are many areas for one to get very secluded. The island has scuba, bars, snorkel, jet ski, bars, kayak, paddle boats, bars, volley ball, oh somebody stop me....did I mention bars? It's paradise. And then to be able to finish off the day with the Ripps...wow; 3 days JUST AIN'T ENOUGH!

Hi Ripps cruisers:

I'm Roland Guilarte, I'm producing the 2009 Smooth Jazz Valentines Cruise with Russ, Jeff Kashiwa, Paul Taylor and company. Just wanted to let everyone know that my company has been promoting national smooth jazz artists for 15 years. Please log on to http://www.jazzseries.com to look at our concert roster list if you wish. I'm not here to toot my own horn, rather just to say that my partners, Cathy & Mark Powers - Florida Smooth Jazz Foundation, as well as our associate, Daphne Lacy at Travel By Ginny, are all smooth jazz lovers first and committed to this cruise. We chose Valentines weekend because it fits well with smooth jazz AND that Monday, February 16th is also President's Day so schools and government workers are off, allowing more folks to possibly come enjoy this cruise.

We hope to offer lots of fun, tons of great entertainment at a price and time frame that will allow many smooth jazz lovers to join us. I know that being a single dad I can't afford a 7 day cruise. We hope that the three day option with a holiday on Monday will allow families and single parents like me to enjoy cruising and the music we all love.

If anyone has any additional questions or concerns I hope you'll feel free to email us through this site or at http://www.floridasmoothjazzcruise.com. Thanks!

Now that's cool. Thanks for sharing the strategy.

Thanks all. Got a nice email from Roland. So far its a half-ship charter, but they're hoping to sell out the while ship. Should be very cool. Hope we can make it.
Steve

If you look on the Smooth Jazz Cruise site http://www.floridasmoothjazzcruise.com/faq.htm, you'll see questions 4 and 5 "What if too many people sign up for the smooth jazz cruise?" and "Can the other regular passengers already on the cruise sign up for the smooth jazz concert package?" to which they reply: "We have a limited number of smooth jazz cruise packages that we will sell to insure that all of our guests will have an experience of the highest quality. After we reach that number, the jazz cruise will then be “sold-out” and will only take names for a waiting list" and "The smooth jazz packages will only be sold at the current price by booking your cabin through our exclusive travel partner, Travel by Ginny. Depending upon availability, other passengers on the cruise may be allowed to purchase smooth jazz packages, but at a much higher price. However, as we expect a sell-out, it is highly unlikely that any of these packages will be available to other passengers on this particular cruise"

Seeing that this ship has a capacity of about 2,700 people, I just don't see how the whole ship could be "chartered" to Ripps fans - and if it was, where on the ship could they seat all 2,700 of us for a single performance at the same time?

For clarification purposes, just maybe a phone call to the Travel Agent is in order....

We've been on the Smooth Jazz Cruise twice, and its a full-ship charter. The way they do is it 2 concerts nightly; with half the ship seated in the theater for the 1st concert, while the 2nd concert seating is eating dinnner. Then during the 2nd concert, the 1st audience goes to dinner. Seems to work. Although the Holland America ships they use are smaller, about 1800 guests if I remember correctly.

I contacted the exclusive travel agent, Travel By Ginny, asking several related questions. Their answers are as follows:

1) There will be a single performance each night.

2) It is a half ship charter.

3) The capacity of the theater where performances are held is 1,081.

This math all adds up......