Here are a few videos from Sarah McLachlan's final show on the last night of Ships & Dip V.
Enjoy!
Sarah McLachlan - Building A Mystery
Sarah Mclachlan - Adia w. Butterfly Boucher
Sarah McLachlan - Angel w. Butterfly Boucher
Friday, May 8, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Post-Cruise Day 2 - Sunday Feb 8
Sunday - Day 8
Well this is it.
The end of our trip.
Time to head home.
Blakely here we come.
Today we got up around 7 and headed for the complimentary breakfast at the hotel. After grabbing a quick bite we went back to the room to shower and finish packing. We left the hotel around 9:15 to bring the Toyota Sienna minivan back to Hertz. I am sorry to see this car go. The car had to be back to Hertz at the Orlando airport by 10:00 and we got there at exactly 10. There was shuttle ready to leave for the airport and we hopped on. After about a 7 minute ride we are at the US Airways terminal. As per usual the check in counter was as far away as possible and we had to walk. (more exercise for all the food we ate on the cruise!) We checked in and headed for the security checkpoint. I was nervous about this because last year was pretty crazy going through security. It turned out to be very easy - as we were next in line, a TSA agent had us go over to a much shorter line and we breezed through. I must say we are getting pretty good at this air travel stuff. What we didn‘t count on was this process being so fast that we had over an hour wait to board.
We made the most of the wait by checking out some of the million photos we took! Gotta love digital photography. We got a couple of sandwiches and snacks and waited for them to call us to board. The flight was scheduled for 12:10 and the boarding started at 11:40. Since we sat towards the back of the plane we boarded early and ate our lunch while the rest of the passengers boarded. The plane left the terminal promptly at 12:10 however we sat on the taxiway until approx 12:20. The flight was full and seemed to have quite a lot of loud children who were apparently as unhappy leaving Mickey as we were leaving the cruise. There was little turbulence on the flight however it was not too bad. While listening to our Ipods the flight seemed to go by fast. We touched down at about 2:40. After about another 10 minute wait to get off the plane we were finally in PHL to get our luggage from the baggage claim area. Our bags came down about 3:10 and they both looked to have made fine. After getting on our last shuttle bus we headed for the parking lot to pick up “V” - Amy’s car. We loaded up our stuff in “V” and $99 later we were out of the lot to make our 2 ½ hour drive home. By the way when we got in “V” the temp was 57. When we left Orlando it was 61!?!? Only 4 degrees colder! WTF! Strange week for weather. Got home about 6. Got pizza. Went to sleep.
What a great trip. Who knew that this might be the last time we ever see BNL with Steve. Who knows if there will ever be another Ships & Dip but one thing that's for certain is that this in not our last cruise.
This is it for the blog for now but we may post an update or 2 with some more video that we took from this cruise and maybe even previous cruises.
Thanks for reading.
Stan & Amy
Well this is it.
The end of our trip.
Time to head home.
Blakely here we come.
Today we got up around 7 and headed for the complimentary breakfast at the hotel. After grabbing a quick bite we went back to the room to shower and finish packing. We left the hotel around 9:15 to bring the Toyota Sienna minivan back to Hertz. I am sorry to see this car go. The car had to be back to Hertz at the Orlando airport by 10:00 and we got there at exactly 10. There was shuttle ready to leave for the airport and we hopped on. After about a 7 minute ride we are at the US Airways terminal. As per usual the check in counter was as far away as possible and we had to walk. (more exercise for all the food we ate on the cruise!) We checked in and headed for the security checkpoint. I was nervous about this because last year was pretty crazy going through security. It turned out to be very easy - as we were next in line, a TSA agent had us go over to a much shorter line and we breezed through. I must say we are getting pretty good at this air travel stuff. What we didn‘t count on was this process being so fast that we had over an hour wait to board.
We made the most of the wait by checking out some of the million photos we took! Gotta love digital photography. We got a couple of sandwiches and snacks and waited for them to call us to board. The flight was scheduled for 12:10 and the boarding started at 11:40. Since we sat towards the back of the plane we boarded early and ate our lunch while the rest of the passengers boarded. The plane left the terminal promptly at 12:10 however we sat on the taxiway until approx 12:20. The flight was full and seemed to have quite a lot of loud children who were apparently as unhappy leaving Mickey as we were leaving the cruise. There was little turbulence on the flight however it was not too bad. While listening to our Ipods the flight seemed to go by fast. We touched down at about 2:40. After about another 10 minute wait to get off the plane we were finally in PHL to get our luggage from the baggage claim area. Our bags came down about 3:10 and they both looked to have made fine. After getting on our last shuttle bus we headed for the parking lot to pick up “V” - Amy’s car. We loaded up our stuff in “V” and $99 later we were out of the lot to make our 2 ½ hour drive home. By the way when we got in “V” the temp was 57. When we left Orlando it was 61!?!? Only 4 degrees colder! WTF! Strange week for weather. Got home about 6. Got pizza. Went to sleep.
What a great trip. Who knew that this might be the last time we ever see BNL with Steve. Who knows if there will ever be another Ships & Dip but one thing that's for certain is that this in not our last cruise.
This is it for the blog for now but we may post an update or 2 with some more video that we took from this cruise and maybe even previous cruises.
Thanks for reading.
Stan & Amy
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Post-Cruise Day 1 - Saturday Feb 7
Saturday - Day 7
Sea World day!
We arrived at Sea World at 10:00AM ready for a day of fun and excitement as this is our first Sea World experience. The first thing we did when we got in the park was grab a map and plotted out our day. There are a few rides and a few shows. Each show lasts about 30 minutes and rides vary. The first place we HAD to go was to see SHAMU! Shamu’s first show started at 11 and we made it in plenty of time. The show was pretty cool. Apparently there are 2 groups of killer whales at Sea World and yesterday they put the 2 groups together for the first time. The show didn’t go as expected as about half way through they stopped the show to give the whales some time to get “acquainted” with each other. They finished the show but I got the feeling it didn’t go as planned, anyway it was still cool.
After the Shamu show we headed over Kraken - Sea World’s only roller coaster. It may be the only roller coaster in the park but by no means is it tame. It is a very fast loopy-twistin'-scream fest and that’s all before the first drop. And we are proud to say we survived. After getting off the ride and catching our breath we went over to the sea lion and otter theater to see the Clyde and Seamore pirate island show. Clyde and Seamore are sea lions and this was the best thing at Sea World - so much so we even went back to see the show again before leaving. The show is hysterical especially because Clyde and Seamore were not taking their cues properly. Very funny stuff. Definitely 2 flippers up!
After the show the weather warmed up enough (about 68) so we headed over to Journey to Atlantis - a water flume ride. Amy was a little nervous as they said you WILL get wet on this ride. We ended up on a boat with half kids and I don’t know if that had anything to do with it but we didn’t get too wet - good for Amy but a disappointment for Stan. We then had a bite to eat. Next, we took in A’Lure. This is Sea World’s performance show like Cirque du Soleil. It was cool. We then went to Wild Artic an indoor ride that is like a helicopter ride to the artic that goes crazy. Very Cool. This was the last ride for us in the park. After grabbing a quick snack (ice cream in a shamu bowl) we then stopped by the Shark Encounter to check out the sharks. After the sharks it was time for another Clyde and Seamore show that we had to see again.
When the show ended we stopped by the sea lion and seal feeding area and then on to the Penguin Encounter to see Tux’s relatives. We then made a quick stop at Dolphin Cove to get up close to some dolphins. This area is a big pool with a whole bunch of dolphins that people can lean over he side and put their hands in the water and hopefully maybe a dolphin will swim close enough to touch. Since Amy is a little creeped out by her hand in the water - she took pictures of Stan with his hand in the water. He really didn’t think any would swim by as they were over in the other part of the pool. So he would take out his hand and wash it, then sure enough, more would start to swim by and he would put his hand back in. The routine went on for a few cycles and then to his surprise a few did swim over he got to touch a few. Wow, very cool to actually touch a dolphin. They feel kinda like slimy, stiff pudding. After washing his hands the final time we walk by the stingray pool. Here we can feed stingrays and touch them. The food place was closed but you can still touch them. Once again Stan puts his hand in and there like 50 stingrays in the shallow pool. After a few minutes of touching them, much to Stan's surprise, Amy gingerly drops her hand in to touch them as she wasn‘t afraid since she held one last year in Grand Cayman. We thought it was cute that they were all swimming in the same direction in a circle and creating a whirlpool. Imediately after touching them we washed our hands again and headed for the exit as it freezing now and we still had to eat dinner and pack. (sob, sob) We decided to leave Sea World and go to Universal’s City Walk for dinner, which is near our hotel. Since is was our last night we had to get a margarita from Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant. We got there at about 7:30 and they said it would be a 1 hour to 1hour & 15 minute wait. Well we didn’t want a margartia that bad. We then walked over to the Hard Rock Café and if it was less than an hour we would eat there. To our surprise we walked right in! We even had a margartia there and we were finished before we would have even been called for out table at Margaritaville. It worked our great. Now it was time to head back to the hotel and pack.
Do we really have to go home?
Sea World day!
We arrived at Sea World at 10:00AM ready for a day of fun and excitement as this is our first Sea World experience. The first thing we did when we got in the park was grab a map and plotted out our day. There are a few rides and a few shows. Each show lasts about 30 minutes and rides vary. The first place we HAD to go was to see SHAMU! Shamu’s first show started at 11 and we made it in plenty of time. The show was pretty cool. Apparently there are 2 groups of killer whales at Sea World and yesterday they put the 2 groups together for the first time. The show didn’t go as expected as about half way through they stopped the show to give the whales some time to get “acquainted” with each other. They finished the show but I got the feeling it didn’t go as planned, anyway it was still cool.
After the Shamu show we headed over Kraken - Sea World’s only roller coaster. It may be the only roller coaster in the park but by no means is it tame. It is a very fast loopy-twistin'-scream fest and that’s all before the first drop. And we are proud to say we survived. After getting off the ride and catching our breath we went over to the sea lion and otter theater to see the Clyde and Seamore pirate island show. Clyde and Seamore are sea lions and this was the best thing at Sea World - so much so we even went back to see the show again before leaving. The show is hysterical especially because Clyde and Seamore were not taking their cues properly. Very funny stuff. Definitely 2 flippers up!
After the show the weather warmed up enough (about 68) so we headed over to Journey to Atlantis - a water flume ride. Amy was a little nervous as they said you WILL get wet on this ride. We ended up on a boat with half kids and I don’t know if that had anything to do with it but we didn’t get too wet - good for Amy but a disappointment for Stan. We then had a bite to eat. Next, we took in A’Lure. This is Sea World’s performance show like Cirque du Soleil. It was cool. We then went to Wild Artic an indoor ride that is like a helicopter ride to the artic that goes crazy. Very Cool. This was the last ride for us in the park. After grabbing a quick snack (ice cream in a shamu bowl) we then stopped by the Shark Encounter to check out the sharks. After the sharks it was time for another Clyde and Seamore show that we had to see again.
When the show ended we stopped by the sea lion and seal feeding area and then on to the Penguin Encounter to see Tux’s relatives. We then made a quick stop at Dolphin Cove to get up close to some dolphins. This area is a big pool with a whole bunch of dolphins that people can lean over he side and put their hands in the water and hopefully maybe a dolphin will swim close enough to touch. Since Amy is a little creeped out by her hand in the water - she took pictures of Stan with his hand in the water. He really didn’t think any would swim by as they were over in the other part of the pool. So he would take out his hand and wash it, then sure enough, more would start to swim by and he would put his hand back in. The routine went on for a few cycles and then to his surprise a few did swim over he got to touch a few. Wow, very cool to actually touch a dolphin. They feel kinda like slimy, stiff pudding. After washing his hands the final time we walk by the stingray pool. Here we can feed stingrays and touch them. The food place was closed but you can still touch them. Once again Stan puts his hand in and there like 50 stingrays in the shallow pool. After a few minutes of touching them, much to Stan's surprise, Amy gingerly drops her hand in to touch them as she wasn‘t afraid since she held one last year in Grand Cayman. We thought it was cute that they were all swimming in the same direction in a circle and creating a whirlpool. Imediately after touching them we washed our hands again and headed for the exit as it freezing now and we still had to eat dinner and pack. (sob, sob) We decided to leave Sea World and go to Universal’s City Walk for dinner, which is near our hotel. Since is was our last night we had to get a margarita from Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant. We got there at about 7:30 and they said it would be a 1 hour to 1hour & 15 minute wait. Well we didn’t want a margartia that bad. We then walked over to the Hard Rock Café and if it was less than an hour we would eat there. To our surprise we walked right in! We even had a margartia there and we were finished before we would have even been called for out table at Margaritaville. It worked our great. Now it was time to head back to the hotel and pack.
Do we really have to go home?
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Day 6 - Friday Feb 6
Well, this is it, the ship is back in Miami - the cruise is over...
...but our vacation isn't. We're going to Sea World!!
But first we have to debark the ship.
First things first - we got to eat. We go up to the buffet for our final omelette and then come back to the room to finish packing and head on out. Since Norweigan is a freestyle cruise line they have freestyle debarkation, where, if you're carrying your luggage off yourself (instead of the porters) you can debark the ship at your convience anytime between 8am -10:30am. We got off the ship around 8:30ish and had no problems.
We got a shuttle to take us to Hertz in downtown Miami and we got our rental car , ahem, rental van and were on our way to Orlando by 9:30. We checked into our hotel, a Hampton Inn, a little after 2 and settled in (read: Amy disinfects the room). After being away from the internet for 6 days Stan is going through withdrawals and takes advantage of the free Wi-Fi connection and gets to work catching up on the week while Amy falls asleep - for 3 hours! After Amy waking up way past dinnertime (7pm) we head over to Downtown Disney to have dinner at the Fulton Crab House. Downtown Disney is an area of shops, restaurants and night clubs that are a separate part of Disney World. It must be hoppin' tonight because we have about a 35 minute wait for a table at the restaurant. After our bellies are full we walk through some of the Disney shops before driving back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we will go to Sea World for the first time.
Can't wait to meet Shamu!
...but our vacation isn't. We're going to Sea World!!
But first we have to debark the ship.
First things first - we got to eat. We go up to the buffet for our final omelette and then come back to the room to finish packing and head on out. Since Norweigan is a freestyle cruise line they have freestyle debarkation, where, if you're carrying your luggage off yourself (instead of the porters) you can debark the ship at your convience anytime between 8am -10:30am. We got off the ship around 8:30ish and had no problems.
We got a shuttle to take us to Hertz in downtown Miami and we got our rental car , ahem, rental van and were on our way to Orlando by 9:30. We checked into our hotel, a Hampton Inn, a little after 2 and settled in (read: Amy disinfects the room). After being away from the internet for 6 days Stan is going through withdrawals and takes advantage of the free Wi-Fi connection and gets to work catching up on the week while Amy falls asleep - for 3 hours! After Amy waking up way past dinnertime (7pm) we head over to Downtown Disney to have dinner at the Fulton Crab House. Downtown Disney is an area of shops, restaurants and night clubs that are a separate part of Disney World. It must be hoppin' tonight because we have about a 35 minute wait for a table at the restaurant. After our bellies are full we walk through some of the Disney shops before driving back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we will go to Sea World for the first time.
Can't wait to meet Shamu!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Day 5 - Thursday Feb 5
Thursday - Day 5
Today is supposed to be our day of relaxing in the sun at the beach on Norwegian’s private island of Great Stirrup Cay.
Well, it was not to be and yesterday we were told that due to the poor surf conditions at Great Stirrup Cay we would not be able to tender at the island. Instead we are going to Key West, FL. As this was very unexpected, obviously, we had done no research on Key West so we were not going to do too much as this is a long day for us. 2 words can describe our time in Key West - VERY COLD!!
Since it was kinda cold, surprisingly, this made Stan crabby and we didn’t spend too much time there. We did walk around downtown for a little bit, had a really good piece of Key Lime pie and coffee, got some souvenirs and then ate lunch at a great little place called Roof Top Café.
Well that was our stop in Key West. We're sure it is a great little place but Stan just was in no mood for the cold weather. Oh well, guess it happens to all of us at some point or another.
Anyway, we got back on the boat around 2 and time to starting thinking about how to make the most of our final night on the ship. With it being pretty cold and the schedule calling for a show out on the pool deck to start in the evening followed by a couple of indoor main theatre shows and ending with a late night outdoor jam we have plenty to think about regarding our clothing situation. At 4:30 we dressed in long pants and long sleeves and headed up to the pool deck for the sail away show by Gaelic Storm (our 3rd time seeing them this cruise). As we got there about an hour and half before show time we started chatting with another guy there who grabbed a couple of chairs and put them right up front of the stage. We followed suit and no sooner than us the rest of the people hanging out on the deck grabbed a few chairs or just stood in their spot for the show. Luckily for us we ended up right in the first row just left of center. AWESOME!! This makes baring the cold that much easier. The band came out and played fantastic even with it being so cold and Patrick seeming to be under the weather as he was “broken” the night before from a late night partying.
The show ended with Patrick leading a Conga line from the stage up to the 2nd level of the pool deck, around the upper level and down the other side stairs, directly to the pool where - yep you guessed it - Patrick jumped in followed by a few crazy souls. What a crazy, great ending to a trifecta of GS shows.
Thanks to BNL and Sixthman for exposing us to another great band that we have fallen in love with.
With the first outdoor show of the night over and a couple of indoor shows next we headed to our cabin to remove some of our layers and have our heavy clothing ready for after the BNL show. First we went to dinner and checked out the merch store (again!). Amy wanted to see what our charges to the room were and even though we have assigned seats for the show Stan was getting anxious about getting to the Sarah McLaughlin show as he was really looking forward to this since she was announced on the cruise. So Stan went to the theater and Amy went to the reception desk and she met him in the theater. She made it by the 8:30 start time and as usual, with just about everything on board, the show was late and Amy didn’t miss a thing. On my way to the theater, before the show started, Stan noticed a sign that made him both excited and bummed at the same time. The late night shows on the pool deck have been moved indoors to Bar City. So Yeah! We won’t freeze tonight but at the same time the new venue is quite small and the late night jam finale is a big event. All of our heavy clothing planning was for naught. Sarah’s set started at about 8:40 and it was amazing! Obviously she sang and played guitar on some songs and piano on the others. She was backed by Tyler and Jim from BNL and Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet. Sarah also asked Butterfly Boucher to sing on 2 songs. Did we say it was fantastic??!?!
With Sarah’s show over and at least 45 minutes before BNL, we headed up to our cabin to get rid of our heavy clothing since we will not be going outdoors anymore tonite. We made it back in plenty of time for BNL and they started their set about 10:15 and of course it was great. At the time we did not realize that this would be the last time that we would be seeing Steven Page playing in the Barenaked Ladies.
The show ended and we headed over to Bar City for The Odds then Acid Wish’s All-Star Jam. As expected the place was packed. We managed to squeeze our way to the left of the stage probably about 8-10 rows back in the standing room only floor. As the night went on and the hour getting later more people started to leave and we kept moving up as expected. By the time the show ended we were in about row 1½. At around 3:40AM during a raucous version of the Proclaimers “I Will Walk 500 miles”, the power went out. Ed made a sign saying they “blew a circuit and they were working on fixing it“, however we have a feeling that Norwegian were not working real hard to get it fixed. The remaining performers would have none of the silence and urged the crowd to continue the “na na na na na, na na na” part of the song. After about 10 minutes of this you could tell we were just about done for the night. Then all of a sudden someone started to sing the ending to “Hey Jude”.
Still with no power, the guys on stage leading the sing along about 100 more times, they finally ended the last refrain of “Hey Jude” making a perfect end to the cruise…well that is until the audience decided they were gonna be the ones to say when the jam/cruise was over. A few audience members started singing Hey Jude again then the voices carried from audience member to audience member like a wild fire before every member of the audience was singing. By now the guys on stage just stood there in amazement as we continued. The guys on stage then took our lead and started again playing whatever percussion instrument they could find. Then after what seemed like another 100 times of Hey Jude it was over. 4:10AM and we were done. WOW! We stuck around for a few minutes seeing all the guys say goodbye to each other and then we made our way up to the garden café once more for a late night, now early morning snack. This time it only consisted of a few glasses of water and ice tea and some cookies we had in our room. We went to bed a 4:30 to get some sleep and get up around 8 to pack and grab breakfast before disembarkation.
What a long a wonderful day!
Today is supposed to be our day of relaxing in the sun at the beach on Norwegian’s private island of Great Stirrup Cay.
Well, it was not to be and yesterday we were told that due to the poor surf conditions at Great Stirrup Cay we would not be able to tender at the island. Instead we are going to Key West, FL. As this was very unexpected, obviously, we had done no research on Key West so we were not going to do too much as this is a long day for us. 2 words can describe our time in Key West - VERY COLD!!
Since it was kinda cold, surprisingly, this made Stan crabby and we didn’t spend too much time there. We did walk around downtown for a little bit, had a really good piece of Key Lime pie and coffee, got some souvenirs and then ate lunch at a great little place called Roof Top Café.
Well that was our stop in Key West. We're sure it is a great little place but Stan just was in no mood for the cold weather. Oh well, guess it happens to all of us at some point or another.
Anyway, we got back on the boat around 2 and time to starting thinking about how to make the most of our final night on the ship. With it being pretty cold and the schedule calling for a show out on the pool deck to start in the evening followed by a couple of indoor main theatre shows and ending with a late night outdoor jam we have plenty to think about regarding our clothing situation. At 4:30 we dressed in long pants and long sleeves and headed up to the pool deck for the sail away show by Gaelic Storm (our 3rd time seeing them this cruise). As we got there about an hour and half before show time we started chatting with another guy there who grabbed a couple of chairs and put them right up front of the stage. We followed suit and no sooner than us the rest of the people hanging out on the deck grabbed a few chairs or just stood in their spot for the show. Luckily for us we ended up right in the first row just left of center. AWESOME!! This makes baring the cold that much easier. The band came out and played fantastic even with it being so cold and Patrick seeming to be under the weather as he was “broken” the night before from a late night partying.
The show ended with Patrick leading a Conga line from the stage up to the 2nd level of the pool deck, around the upper level and down the other side stairs, directly to the pool where - yep you guessed it - Patrick jumped in followed by a few crazy souls. What a crazy, great ending to a trifecta of GS shows.
Thanks to BNL and Sixthman for exposing us to another great band that we have fallen in love with.
With the first outdoor show of the night over and a couple of indoor shows next we headed to our cabin to remove some of our layers and have our heavy clothing ready for after the BNL show. First we went to dinner and checked out the merch store (again!). Amy wanted to see what our charges to the room were and even though we have assigned seats for the show Stan was getting anxious about getting to the Sarah McLaughlin show as he was really looking forward to this since she was announced on the cruise. So Stan went to the theater and Amy went to the reception desk and she met him in the theater. She made it by the 8:30 start time and as usual, with just about everything on board, the show was late and Amy didn’t miss a thing. On my way to the theater, before the show started, Stan noticed a sign that made him both excited and bummed at the same time. The late night shows on the pool deck have been moved indoors to Bar City. So Yeah! We won’t freeze tonight but at the same time the new venue is quite small and the late night jam finale is a big event. All of our heavy clothing planning was for naught. Sarah’s set started at about 8:40 and it was amazing! Obviously she sang and played guitar on some songs and piano on the others. She was backed by Tyler and Jim from BNL and Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet. Sarah also asked Butterfly Boucher to sing on 2 songs. Did we say it was fantastic??!?!
With Sarah’s show over and at least 45 minutes before BNL, we headed up to our cabin to get rid of our heavy clothing since we will not be going outdoors anymore tonite. We made it back in plenty of time for BNL and they started their set about 10:15 and of course it was great. At the time we did not realize that this would be the last time that we would be seeing Steven Page playing in the Barenaked Ladies.
The show ended and we headed over to Bar City for The Odds then Acid Wish’s All-Star Jam. As expected the place was packed. We managed to squeeze our way to the left of the stage probably about 8-10 rows back in the standing room only floor. As the night went on and the hour getting later more people started to leave and we kept moving up as expected. By the time the show ended we were in about row 1½. At around 3:40AM during a raucous version of the Proclaimers “I Will Walk 500 miles”, the power went out. Ed made a sign saying they “blew a circuit and they were working on fixing it“, however we have a feeling that Norwegian were not working real hard to get it fixed. The remaining performers would have none of the silence and urged the crowd to continue the “na na na na na, na na na” part of the song. After about 10 minutes of this you could tell we were just about done for the night. Then all of a sudden someone started to sing the ending to “Hey Jude”.
Still with no power, the guys on stage leading the sing along about 100 more times, they finally ended the last refrain of “Hey Jude” making a perfect end to the cruise…well that is until the audience decided they were gonna be the ones to say when the jam/cruise was over. A few audience members started singing Hey Jude again then the voices carried from audience member to audience member like a wild fire before every member of the audience was singing. By now the guys on stage just stood there in amazement as we continued. The guys on stage then took our lead and started again playing whatever percussion instrument they could find. Then after what seemed like another 100 times of Hey Jude it was over. 4:10AM and we were done. WOW! We stuck around for a few minutes seeing all the guys say goodbye to each other and then we made our way up to the garden café once more for a late night, now early morning snack. This time it only consisted of a few glasses of water and ice tea and some cookies we had in our room. We went to bed a 4:30 to get some sleep and get up around 8 to pack and grab breakfast before disembarkation.What a long a wonderful day!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Day 4- videos part V
Here is the 5th and final installment of videos from Day 4 - Wednesday.
This is also the last part of Ed's songwriter's panel. As the previous posts these are all in order of how they were played and these are not every song but only the ones we taped.
Enjoy!
Chris Murphy - Set In Motion
Alan Doyle - Newfoundland History
Alan Doyle - Belong
Brian MacMillan - Let The Darkness Go
Psycho Killer - Ed Robertson Songwriter finale
This ends of the videos from the songwriters panels from Day 4 Wednesday.
Next will be Day 5 - Thursday's blog - our last full day on the cruise.
This is also the last part of Ed's songwriter's panel. As the previous posts these are all in order of how they were played and these are not every song but only the ones we taped.
Enjoy!
This ends of the videos from the songwriters panels from Day 4 Wednesday.
Next will be Day 5 - Thursday's blog - our last full day on the cruise.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Day 4 - videos part IV
Here is the 4th installment of videos from Day 4 - Wednesday.
This is also the first of 2 parts of Ed's songwriter's panel. As the previous posts these are all in order of how they were played and these are not every song but only the ones we taped.
Enjoy!
Ed Robertson - songwriter's panel intro
Ed Robertson - You Can Count On Me - new song
Mike Evin - If You Were My Girl
Butterfly Boucher - I Can't Make You Love Me
Chris Murphy - Set In Motion
end part 4.
Stay tuned for part 5 - the finale.
This is also the first of 2 parts of Ed's songwriter's panel. As the previous posts these are all in order of how they were played and these are not every song but only the ones we taped.
Enjoy!
end part 4.
Stay tuned for part 5 - the finale.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Day 4 - videos part III
Here is the 3rd installment of videos from Day 4 - Wednesday. These are continuing where we left off with Steve's songwriter's panel. Once again these are all in order of how they were played and these are not every song but only the ones we taped.
Enjoy!
Luke Doucet - I Wish I Was American
Steven Page -The New Sad
John K Samson - Sounds Familiar
John Darnielle - See America Right
Boothby Graffoe - short song - finale
end part 3.
This also ends Steven's songwirter's panel.
Next up - Ed's Songwriter's panel.
Enjoy!
end part 3.
This also ends Steven's songwirter's panel.
Next up - Ed's Songwriter's panel.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Day 4 - videos part II
Here is the 2nd installment of videos from Day 4 - Wednesday. These are continuing where we left off with Steve's songwriter's panel. Once again these are all in order of how they were played and these are not every song but only the ones we taped.
Enjoy!
John Darnielle - Surrounded
Boothby Graffoe - Sausage Fingers
Steven Page - new song
Boothby Graffoe - The Ballad Of The Budgie
Mike Evin - If I Were A Farmer
end part 2.
Enjoy!
end part 2.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Day 4 - videos part I
Here is the first part of the videos from day 4 - Wednesday. The following videos in this installment and the next couple of blog entries are almost all of the videos we took from Steve's and Ed's songwriters panels. Since most of the songs we taped were so good we couldn't decide which ones to post so here are all of them. These are all in order of how they were played.
Enjoy!
Steven Page - All Went Wrong
Mike Evin - Theres A Chance
Melissa McClelland - Two Snow Birds
Luke Doucet - Blood's Too Rich
John K Samson - One Great City
end part 1.
Enjoy!
end part 1.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Day 4 - Wednesday Feb 4th
Back on track for another fun day at sea.
Stan woke up @7:15 and spent some time walking the ship. Amy got up shortly after and wanted to try out the fitness center onboard. We met up for our usual breakfast at the buffet and then took another trip to the merch store (just HAVE to get one more cd...and t-shirt..) Walking around outside a bit we find another windy, cool day at sea, but at least the sun's out. We hear an announcement from the captain (and Ed) that due to the weather, we will be unable to visit Great Stirrup Cay (the private island slated for tomorrows port stop). The wind and a cold front were causing high swells in the sea and it would be too dangerous to tender near the island. (A tender is when a smaller boat shuttles you from the ship to the island when the dock is too shallow to allow the ship to get close). This was a little disappointing since we (especially Amy) were looking forward to just spending a relaxing day at the beach. Instead, the captain tells us, we will be porting in Key West, Fl. Well, he could've said we were spending another day at sea so it's nice to get a chance to see Key West.
The rest of the morning was spent "chilling" on the ship. The afternoon is our "triple dipper" event. Steve and Ed were each hosting separate songwriter panels in the Stardust Theater and as guests on all three cruises we were able to sit in on both of them. (Double dippers were only able to choose one of them). Steve's was up first starting at 1PM. Included on his panel were: Mike Evin, Luke Doucet, Melissa McClellend, John K Samson from the Weakerthans, John Darnielle from the Mountain Goats & Boothby Graffoe.
They each took turns playing a song, explaining their writing process and what the song meant to them. One of the highlights from this was Mike Evin. He was uncomfortably playing guitar (he normally plays the piano) and before his 2nd song he asks Luke Doucet, who is sitting next to him, to show him a chord on the guitar and then asks if he'll play with him. Before Luke accepts they shake hands and introduce themselves to each other as they never met. Quite funny. The rest of the panel was really good and we even got to hear a new Steve song. We were very impressed by all the talent on stage.
After Steve's panel, there was a about a half hour break to let the double dippers that chose Steve's panel time to leave and the dippers who chose Ed's panel time to find a seat. (everyone in the audience was wearing color coded bracelets to differentiate between the 2 panels)
Stan woke up @7:15 and spent some time walking the ship. Amy got up shortly after and wanted to try out the fitness center onboard. We met up for our usual breakfast at the buffet and then took another trip to the merch store (just HAVE to get one more cd...and t-shirt..) Walking around outside a bit we find another windy, cool day at sea, but at least the sun's out. We hear an announcement from the captain (and Ed) that due to the weather, we will be unable to visit Great Stirrup Cay (the private island slated for tomorrows port stop). The wind and a cold front were causing high swells in the sea and it would be too dangerous to tender near the island. (A tender is when a smaller boat shuttles you from the ship to the island when the dock is too shallow to allow the ship to get close). This was a little disappointing since we (especially Amy) were looking forward to just spending a relaxing day at the beach. Instead, the captain tells us, we will be porting in Key West, Fl. Well, he could've said we were spending another day at sea so it's nice to get a chance to see Key West.
The rest of the morning was spent "chilling" on the ship. The afternoon is our "triple dipper" event. Steve and Ed were each hosting separate songwriter panels in the Stardust Theater and as guests on all three cruises we were able to sit in on both of them. (Double dippers were only able to choose one of them). Steve's was up first starting at 1PM. Included on his panel were: Mike Evin, Luke Doucet, Melissa McClellend, John K Samson from the Weakerthans, John Darnielle from the Mountain Goats & Boothby Graffoe.
They each took turns playing a song, explaining their writing process and what the song meant to them. One of the highlights from this was Mike Evin. He was uncomfortably playing guitar (he normally plays the piano) and before his 2nd song he asks Luke Doucet, who is sitting next to him, to show him a chord on the guitar and then asks if he'll play with him. Before Luke accepts they shake hands and introduce themselves to each other as they never met. Quite funny. The rest of the panel was really good and we even got to hear a new Steve song. We were very impressed by all the talent on stage.
After Steve's panel, there was a about a half hour break to let the double dippers that chose Steve's panel time to leave and the dippers who chose Ed's panel time to find a seat. (everyone in the audience was wearing color coded bracelets to differentiate between the 2 panels)
Ed joked at the start of his panel that Steve's panel might have had the better musicians but his panel would be far more entertaining. Ed was joined onstage by Mike Evin, Butterfly Boucher, Chris Murphy from Sloan, Alan Doyle from Great Big Sea, Brian MacMillan, Craig Northey from the Odds & Boothby Graffoe.
Once again the highlight of this panel was Mike Evin. This time he was playing an accordion as "it was closer to a piano". In the middle of one of his songs Mike yells to the rest of the panel for someone to play a solo. Everyone just looks at each other and tries to pass their guitar to the person next to them. It was obvious that they were not familiar with the song. And Mike just kept on playing. This panel seemed to have a little more energy than Steve's and was really good as well. The panel ended up going over time a little and ended with everyone doing a cover of Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads.
We left the theater to head back to our room to re-charge our batteries - for the cameras and our bodies. On the way, we saw Tyler from BNL signing autographs and taking pictures with fans so we quickly hopped in line and got a pic of Amy with Ty. COOL!
We also made reservations for dinner at 5:30 at the Italian restaurant before arriving at our room. After our re-charge, we were energized for the evenings activities.
On our way to dinner, with about 20 minutes to kill before our reservation time, we walk around the pool deck to see what was going on. On the schedule it says "ships and dip covers" but we have no idea what it could be. We get there and find out it is BNL performing a set of cover songs! We picked a spot on the side of the stage and listen a bit till it's time for dinner. What we hear is fun but its really windy outside and we decide to head over for dinner. Mama's Italian Kitchen is the Italian restaurant on the ship and it is one of their cover charge eateries($10 per person). Our dinner there was good but not as great as the other pay restaurant from the other night, Tangos. Amy has chicken parmigiana and Stan has lobster ravioli. After dinner we head to our first show of the night, the Vanity Project in the Spinnaker lounge. The Vanity Project is Steve's side band and he has preformed on all of the previous cruises but this year this was his one and only show of the week so it was a full house when we got there. We didn't have the greatest seats but we were able to hear him well and enjoyed the show. We left a little early to get good seats for the shows in the main theater - The Weakerthans, Great Big Sea and Kevin McDonald & Dave Foley.
The Weakerthans came on around 8. This was our first time seeing them and didn't know what to expect. We had never heard of them before they were announced on the cruise so we downloaded their latest album before we left and Amy was enjoying it. They didn't disappoint, they were really good. At one point during the show while the lead singer was telling a story and the drummer was gone we notice Ed (from BNL) quietly hop behind the drum kit and motion to the audience to be quiet. The song starts with Ed on drums. The crowd is cheering and when the singer eventually turns around during his guitar solo he finally sees Ed. Just another cool moment on the cruise.
Next up around 10:00 is Great Big Sea. This is our third and final time seeing them this week. We really enjoy their show. It's so full of energy both from the band and the crowd. Not even the "rocky boat" swaying back and forth (yes, the sea was bad tonight) can keep us all from dancing it up tonight. They play a great set and Gaelic Storm even crashes their show for two songs. We heard Great Big Sea for the first time last year on the cruise and listened to their music for the past year, but after seeing them this week we are now true fans and admirers of theirs. What a great group of talented musicians and singers who you truly get a sense that they love doing what they do.
Last up for the night at midnight is the comedy of Kevin McDonald & Dave Foley from the Kids in the Hall. They preform a bunch of skits which Stan finds hilarious.
Afterwards its up to the buffet for a little snack and off to bed around 2am. (We go back to eastern time today so it's now 3am). In a few hours we will arrive at Key West and our final day of the cruise.
We'll leave you with a couple more pictures.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Day 3 - videos
Here are 4 videos from Day 3.
Great Big Sea - "Consequence Free"
Gaelic Storm - "Don't Go for The One"
Boothby Graffoe - "Baseball Playing Spider"
Butterfly Boucher - "Keeper"
Great Big Sea - "Consequence Free"
Gaelic Storm - "Don't Go for The One"
Boothby Graffoe - "Baseball Playing Spider"
Butterfly Boucher - "Keeper"
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
BREAKING NEWS!
We interupt this blog to bring you breaking news.........
A MESSAGE FROM BARENAKED LADIES
By mutual agreement, Steven Page will be parting company with the remaining members of Barenaked Ladies. Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, and Tyler Stewart will continue recording and touring together as Barenaked Ladies. Steven Page will pursue solo projects including theatrical opportunities while the band enters the studio in April 2009, and hits the road in the fall.
Page says "These guys are my brothers. We've grown up together over the past twenty years. I love them and wish them all the best in the future."
The band also wish Steven well in all of his endeavors. Ed Robertson says: "It's the start of a new chapter for all of us. Here's to the future!"
Everyone is looking forward to making new music and thanks their fans for their support.
WOW! We don't know what to say.
While reliving Ships & Dip V for this blog we never realized that these would be the last times we would be seeing Steve with BNL. We will pick up where we left off with the blog later this weekend when we had time to fully digest this news.
A MESSAGE FROM BARENAKED LADIES
By mutual agreement, Steven Page will be parting company with the remaining members of Barenaked Ladies. Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, and Tyler Stewart will continue recording and touring together as Barenaked Ladies. Steven Page will pursue solo projects including theatrical opportunities while the band enters the studio in April 2009, and hits the road in the fall.
Page says "These guys are my brothers. We've grown up together over the past twenty years. I love them and wish them all the best in the future."
The band also wish Steven well in all of his endeavors. Ed Robertson says: "It's the start of a new chapter for all of us. Here's to the future!"
Everyone is looking forward to making new music and thanks their fans for their support.
WOW! We don't know what to say.
While reliving Ships & Dip V for this blog we never realized that these would be the last times we would be seeing Steve with BNL. We will pick up where we left off with the blog later this weekend when we had time to fully digest this news.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Day 3 - Tuesday Feb 3rd
We're in Meh-he-ko!! Buenos dias!
We wake up early (thank you Central Standard Time for the extra hour!), shower & get dressed, have breakfast in the buffet and make our way off the boat for an 8:15 meet time for our excursion. As with our previous cruises we planned adventurous excursions. This year most of the excursion in Cozumel involved scuba/snorkeling or hanging out on one of the many beaches. We didn't want to do either of those and we were planning on doing the beach thing in Great Stirrup Cay on Thursday.
So we decided to take it easy in Cozumel and we chose a highlight and shopping excursion. Our guide, Mike, took us around Cozumel by bus. Our first stop of the day was a place called Discover Mexico, a museum type of place showing Mexico's culture. There were miniatures of the Mayan ruins and other famous Mexican buildings. We traveled next to el Cedral, an old, small village with lots of local shops. Here Mike tells us about Black Coral and how to spot the true from the fake. Black Coral is like a type of jewel popular in Cozumel. It is actually a deep-water, tree-like coral that is kind of expensive and there are some dishonest shops who sell fake Black Coral. Since a lot of the shops here sell it, Mike didn't want any of us, "his family", to get ripped off. After about a half hour here, we are back on the bus to drive around to the other side of the island. We stop at a beachy area for about 20 min and then on to our last stop -- The Cava Antigua Tequila Factory. Here, we see the Agave plant that tequila is made from and learn the distilling process of tequila. Afterwards, we are let loose to sample about 10 different types of tequila. Stan liked the Cava Antigua Anejo Tequila while Amy found that she preferred the flavored ones, like coffee, almond, orange. We bought a bottle of Anejo tequila and a small bottle of the Cream of Cava flavored one and then back on the bus to take us back to the ship. We were back on the ship around 3:00 and had a late lunch.
This gave us the rest of the afternoon to relax before the Great Big Sea sail away show on the pool deck. As we expected the show started a little later than the 6:00 PM start time. We were sitting towards the side of the stage near the water slide with our feet in the pool. This seemed like a good place to wait except for the 2 kids who kept going on the slide and splashing as they ran back to the top of the slide. When the show started we stood on the ledge where we were sitting and had a pretty good view of the stage over all the people who were standing down front. As per usual with GBS, it was a very energetic show and we barely noticed the sun setting and the tempurature going down.
After the show, it was time for dinner. Since it was a little bit late for diner for us (around 7:30), the main dining rooms were filling up. We walked by Tangos, one of the $10 cover charge restaurants, that served a mexican fare, and saw that they weren't busy, so we decided to try it. It turned out to be a good choice. They gave us complimentary margaritas, we enjoyed our quesedias and enchlaidas, and this ended up being our best meal of the cruise.
Our night was little different from the previous 2 cruises in that BNL would be playing a Main Show and we were not seeing them. The first time in 3 years of Ships & Dip and we did not see them!
We still had a great night and enjoyed some great music. First up at 9:00 in Bar City was Gaelic Storm. We would finally now be seeing a full set by them. And boy did they not disappoint! They played most of our favorite songs and a few that were new to us but the rest of the crowd knew. The Bar City venue is a weird place and not that great for a concert. The stage is very small and there are a few chairs set up in front of the stage (how you could sit for a GS show, I don't know?) and then behind the chairs is an area for standing (Where we were) and finally behind that is the Bar. Off to the side there are stairs that go up to the next floor where there is another bar and from there you can look down onto the chairs and audience - You can barely see the bands feet as the "stage" is set back and the ceiling is low. During GS's last song the singer, Patrick, started singing/walking out in the crowd. He made his way to the stairs and went upstairs. From our vantage point we could see him up on the second level still singing. Then for a second we lost him and couldn't see him.
However we heard him as he was carrying his microphone and went into the upstairs bar and ordered a shot of whiskey! While this is going on, Twigger and Jesse, also make their way up the stairs still playing,just in time to meet Patrick as he is coming out of the bar with his shot. The show then ended with them up there and we make our way up there to say hi to them and get a couple of pictures.
What a great show!
With Gaelic Storm's set going a little long we arrived about 20 minutes late for the 10:00 Boothby Graffoe show in the Fyzz lounge. Boothby is an English comedian who does his routine in songs. We first heard of him on last years cruise and wanted to catch him this year. Being a little late we still ended up with good seats and we were laughing as soon as we sat down. Mid-way through his set he was joined on guitar by Brian McMillan from Thin Buckle for the rest of the set. Between each song he would do a little stand-up and it was all very funny. We had a good time laughing for almost an hour.
We made our way over to the Spinnaker Lounge for 11:30 to see Butterfly Boucher. We heard of Butterfly from when she opened for BNL in 2004. We had her first album and Stan really likes her music and was looking forward to seeing her set. She played a really good set with just her and a guitar to start. She then brought another guitarist to play and she also had a drum machine for some songs. She played some songs from her first album and some from her new album which were really good. (yes we did buy the new album from the merch store) About half way through her set just as she gets to the chorus of "I Can't Make You Love Me", somebody comes running down the aisle towards the stage singing along. He then hops up onstage behind Butterfly signing the chorus and you could tell she was a little confused by this because it happened so fast and it took a second for her and the crowd to realize it was Ed from BNL! I guess their main show was over. What a great moment. A definite highlight! Ed only stays for the one song and is gone as fast as he appeared. But we are not done with the BNL guest appearances. Butterfly is later joined on stage for her last song by Jim from BNL. They play "Another White Dash" and this ends another great show on the cruise.
With that, we now come to the close of another day by having our ritual late night snack in the cafe and finally back to the cabin for some sleep by 1:30. We have a day at sea tomorrow with a bunch of shows scheduled for the Stardust Theater.
Finally here are a couple photos from Cozumel.
We wake up early (thank you Central Standard Time for the extra hour!), shower & get dressed, have breakfast in the buffet and make our way off the boat for an 8:15 meet time for our excursion. As with our previous cruises we planned adventurous excursions. This year most of the excursion in Cozumel involved scuba/snorkeling or hanging out on one of the many beaches. We didn't want to do either of those and we were planning on doing the beach thing in Great Stirrup Cay on Thursday.
So we decided to take it easy in Cozumel and we chose a highlight and shopping excursion. Our guide, Mike, took us around Cozumel by bus. Our first stop of the day was a place called Discover Mexico, a museum type of place showing Mexico's culture. There were miniatures of the Mayan ruins and other famous Mexican buildings. We traveled next to el Cedral, an old, small village with lots of local shops. Here Mike tells us about Black Coral and how to spot the true from the fake. Black Coral is like a type of jewel popular in Cozumel. It is actually a deep-water, tree-like coral that is kind of expensive and there are some dishonest shops who sell fake Black Coral. Since a lot of the shops here sell it, Mike didn't want any of us, "his family", to get ripped off. After about a half hour here, we are back on the bus to drive around to the other side of the island. We stop at a beachy area for about 20 min and then on to our last stop -- The Cava Antigua Tequila Factory. Here, we see the Agave plant that tequila is made from and learn the distilling process of tequila. Afterwards, we are let loose to sample about 10 different types of tequila. Stan liked the Cava Antigua Anejo Tequila while Amy found that she preferred the flavored ones, like coffee, almond, orange. We bought a bottle of Anejo tequila and a small bottle of the Cream of Cava flavored one and then back on the bus to take us back to the ship. We were back on the ship around 3:00 and had a late lunch. This gave us the rest of the afternoon to relax before the Great Big Sea sail away show on the pool deck. As we expected the show started a little later than the 6:00 PM start time. We were sitting towards the side of the stage near the water slide with our feet in the pool. This seemed like a good place to wait except for the 2 kids who kept going on the slide and splashing as they ran back to the top of the slide. When the show started we stood on the ledge where we were sitting and had a pretty good view of the stage over all the people who were standing down front. As per usual with GBS, it was a very energetic show and we barely noticed the sun setting and the tempurature going down.
After the show, it was time for dinner. Since it was a little bit late for diner for us (around 7:30), the main dining rooms were filling up. We walked by Tangos, one of the $10 cover charge restaurants, that served a mexican fare, and saw that they weren't busy, so we decided to try it. It turned out to be a good choice. They gave us complimentary margaritas, we enjoyed our quesedias and enchlaidas, and this ended up being our best meal of the cruise.
Our night was little different from the previous 2 cruises in that BNL would be playing a Main Show and we were not seeing them. The first time in 3 years of Ships & Dip and we did not see them!
We still had a great night and enjoyed some great music. First up at 9:00 in Bar City was Gaelic Storm. We would finally now be seeing a full set by them. And boy did they not disappoint! They played most of our favorite songs and a few that were new to us but the rest of the crowd knew. The Bar City venue is a weird place and not that great for a concert. The stage is very small and there are a few chairs set up in front of the stage (how you could sit for a GS show, I don't know?) and then behind the chairs is an area for standing (Where we were) and finally behind that is the Bar. Off to the side there are stairs that go up to the next floor where there is another bar and from there you can look down onto the chairs and audience - You can barely see the bands feet as the "stage" is set back and the ceiling is low. During GS's last song the singer, Patrick, started singing/walking out in the crowd. He made his way to the stairs and went upstairs. From our vantage point we could see him up on the second level still singing. Then for a second we lost him and couldn't see him.
However we heard him as he was carrying his microphone and went into the upstairs bar and ordered a shot of whiskey! While this is going on, Twigger and Jesse, also make their way up the stairs still playing,just in time to meet Patrick as he is coming out of the bar with his shot. The show then ended with them up there and we make our way up there to say hi to them and get a couple of pictures. What a great show!
With Gaelic Storm's set going a little long we arrived about 20 minutes late for the 10:00 Boothby Graffoe show in the Fyzz lounge. Boothby is an English comedian who does his routine in songs. We first heard of him on last years cruise and wanted to catch him this year. Being a little late we still ended up with good seats and we were laughing as soon as we sat down. Mid-way through his set he was joined on guitar by Brian McMillan from Thin Buckle for the rest of the set. Between each song he would do a little stand-up and it was all very funny. We had a good time laughing for almost an hour.
We made our way over to the Spinnaker Lounge for 11:30 to see Butterfly Boucher. We heard of Butterfly from when she opened for BNL in 2004. We had her first album and Stan really likes her music and was looking forward to seeing her set. She played a really good set with just her and a guitar to start. She then brought another guitarist to play and she also had a drum machine for some songs. She played some songs from her first album and some from her new album which were really good. (yes we did buy the new album from the merch store) About half way through her set just as she gets to the chorus of "I Can't Make You Love Me", somebody comes running down the aisle towards the stage singing along. He then hops up onstage behind Butterfly signing the chorus and you could tell she was a little confused by this because it happened so fast and it took a second for her and the crowd to realize it was Ed from BNL! I guess their main show was over. What a great moment. A definite highlight! Ed only stays for the one song and is gone as fast as he appeared. But we are not done with the BNL guest appearances. Butterfly is later joined on stage for her last song by Jim from BNL. They play "Another White Dash" and this ends another great show on the cruise.
With that, we now come to the close of another day by having our ritual late night snack in the cafe and finally back to the cabin for some sleep by 1:30. We have a day at sea tomorrow with a bunch of shows scheduled for the Stardust Theater.
Finally here are a couple photos from Cozumel.
Day 2 - video - Barenaked Ladies
Here are a few videos we took from the Barenaked Ladies main show 1 in the Stardust Theater on the 2nd day of the cruise.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Day 2 - Monday Feb 2nd
Day at sea
We both woke up this morning around 7:30. After taking a look at the schedule for the day, we showered and got ready for breakfast.
The ship has a breakfast buffet every morning in the Garden Cafe which is located on the pool deck. We both enjoyed our omelets at the made-to-order station that they had. After breakfast we go back to the room to get ready for the now infamous "naked photo" at 10:00. Getting ready for this is actually pretty easy--you just throw on your robe (with nothing on underneath) and proceed to the pre-determined spot, which was the pool deck. If you are reading this and you have never heard of the naked photo, this is something the band started on their first cruise. About 500 of us showed up the first year and we all dropped our robes for about 10 seconds for a "naked at sea" photo and have conituned doing it since. They had security standing guard only allowing those participating in the photo on deck. They had about 850 of us crazy "dippers" in the picture this year (slightly less than last year). And even some crazier ones actually jumped in the pool for the picture when the photographer called for some 'floaters" to fill in the pool area of the shot! (If your curious, the floaters convinced the band to jump in with them!) No, we didn't jump in the pool, but we did have a good spot this year and we will leave it at that.
Back at the room and clothed, we stopped by the Reverb room, Reverb is an environmental organization that BNL supports. They offer up suggestions for offsetting our carbon footprint on the environment, and give out cool samples. As with previous cruises, they were running a raffle for tickets to the BNL shows and we bought two chances for tonight's show. They told us the winners would be announced after 4:30 -- see you then! We then went to the David Bergman photo seminar slated for 11am. David is the photographer for the naked photo as well as BNL's tour photographer. He was offering a seminar where he was showing his work, BNL related and his other subjects, and fielded questions from the group. Most of the questions asked were about taking better concert photos. David offered up his suggestions and we blame him for the 1800+ pictures we took during our trip, mostly during the shows, trying to get that one great shot.
The seminar lasted about an hour, then it was over to the Garden Buffet for lunch. We don't remember what we had but we're sure it was decent. Next we went to the Stardust theater to line up for BNL's Snacktime show.
Snacktime is BNL's first children's album that was released last year. They were letting all the children in first with their parents (yes, a lot of people brought their kids on the cruise) and then they would let everyone else waiting fill in. We were happy to get into this as the line we were in stretched most of the ship and we weren't sure that there would be room. Even happier that we found seats in the third row, left side. The show started at 1:30 (1:45 actual time) and the band played all the songs from Snacktime as well as some other crowd favorites that were kid friendly like One Week and If I Had A $1,000,000. The band's energy was great for the kids and they put on a great set.
By 3:00, we had a few hours of downtime, one of the few times during the whole week that we were free, we decided to swing by The Sean Schau. This is comedian Sean Cullen's type of 'variety hour'. We only stayed about 15 min as we arrived in the middle of the show. If we caught it from the beginning we might have enjoyed it more but we just weren't feeling it. Throughout the rest of the cruise the show was replayed on the ship's TV and it was pretty funny. We took a walk out by the pool, Amy was wanting some outside sun time, and we thought maybe we'd take a little nap outside. Well, it was quite windy out and after about 20 minutes of the sun playing hide and seek with the clouds, we decided to take our nap to the cabin.
Before heading out for dinner, Amy wanted to stop by the Reverb room to see if the winners were announced for the concert tickets. We got there at 4:45 and didn't see any names posted. Stan figured they didn't do the drawing yet and was ready to leave, but Amy wanted to ask. She found out they held the drawing at 4:30 and you needed to be present to win. What? Nobody said that this morning, just to check back. She explained this to them and they said "yeah, I heard him say that to you. What was your name?". She gave them our name and found out that our names were actually drawn! We did win and we got the tickets!
This is great but now this messes up our night. We wake up, plan our day, and think we have it all worked out but our best laid plans are always at the mercy of the powers that be.
We decided to eat dinner at Azura, one of the ships main dining rooms. Stan had the lobster selection and Amy chose beef wellington--mmm good (well, sort of).
Our plan was to see Gaelic Storm play out on the pool deck at 8 but based on the game of hide and seek that the sun was playing with clouds earlier we knew the weather would not hold up. Sure enough we were right. While we were eating we thought we saw lighting. After we ate we headed out to the pool deck to see what was going on as Butterfly Boucher was scheduled to be playing there. Well it was pouring! No shows out on the pool deck tonight. Now the big question was where Gaelic Storm would be playing as we really want to see a full show by them. As we were standing by the doors to the pool deck watching the rain, right behind us comes Steve Twigger, singer/guitarist for Gaelic Storm. We figured if anybody would know where Gaelic Storm would be playing it would be him. He says they are playing in Bar City at 9:00. Well now we know where we are going.
On our way down to Bar City we stopped in the Atrium to see Mike Evin.
We never heard of him before and only caught a few songs but they were really good. When we got there Mike was playing piano and Andy Creeggan, an original member of BNL, was there playing percussion. The crowd really liked him and they did a awesome version of Billy Joel's Piano Man complete with the full audience singing along. CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO.
As it was getting closer to Gaelic Storm's start time we left the Atrium and headed over to Bar City. The new start time was 9:00 but they started a little late and we would have to leave before the show ended as the BNL show started at 10:00. Once again we would not get our chance to see a full Gaelic Storm show.
We made it over to the Stardust at 10:00 for BNL. We had pretty decent seats, toward the back on the left side. There were about 6 empty seats to the left of our row so Amy was happy to have lots of room to dance. They came on around 10:20 and as usual rocked a great show. Of note, was the crew made the band a "bucket of balls" in which they placed the names of all of the songs that the band had not yet played on any of their cruises, on ping pong balls. The guys in the band would pick out a ball and play the song that was on it. One of the balls that was pulled, Ed didn't even recognize as a BNL song!(and it was on their last album!) With a little coaxing from the other guys and the audience, he figured it out, played it and then resumed their regularly scheduled show.
After BNL, we stayed in the Stardust for a comedy show by Kevin McDonald from the Kids In the Hall. He was joined by Craig Northey from The Odds playing guitar as background music. We didn't stay long as it was getting late and the comedy was way out there. After heading up for our ritual late night snack, we go to bed with an extra hour of sleep coming to us. In the morning, we will be docked in Cozumel and also, a new time zone!
We both woke up this morning around 7:30. After taking a look at the schedule for the day, we showered and got ready for breakfast.
The ship has a breakfast buffet every morning in the Garden Cafe which is located on the pool deck. We both enjoyed our omelets at the made-to-order station that they had. After breakfast we go back to the room to get ready for the now infamous "naked photo" at 10:00. Getting ready for this is actually pretty easy--you just throw on your robe (with nothing on underneath) and proceed to the pre-determined spot, which was the pool deck. If you are reading this and you have never heard of the naked photo, this is something the band started on their first cruise. About 500 of us showed up the first year and we all dropped our robes for about 10 seconds for a "naked at sea" photo and have conituned doing it since. They had security standing guard only allowing those participating in the photo on deck. They had about 850 of us crazy "dippers" in the picture this year (slightly less than last year). And even some crazier ones actually jumped in the pool for the picture when the photographer called for some 'floaters" to fill in the pool area of the shot! (If your curious, the floaters convinced the band to jump in with them!) No, we didn't jump in the pool, but we did have a good spot this year and we will leave it at that.Back at the room and clothed, we stopped by the Reverb room, Reverb is an environmental organization that BNL supports. They offer up suggestions for offsetting our carbon footprint on the environment, and give out cool samples. As with previous cruises, they were running a raffle for tickets to the BNL shows and we bought two chances for tonight's show. They told us the winners would be announced after 4:30 -- see you then! We then went to the David Bergman photo seminar slated for 11am. David is the photographer for the naked photo as well as BNL's tour photographer. He was offering a seminar where he was showing his work, BNL related and his other subjects, and fielded questions from the group. Most of the questions asked were about taking better concert photos. David offered up his suggestions and we blame him for the 1800+ pictures we took during our trip, mostly during the shows, trying to get that one great shot.
The seminar lasted about an hour, then it was over to the Garden Buffet for lunch. We don't remember what we had but we're sure it was decent. Next we went to the Stardust theater to line up for BNL's Snacktime show.
Snacktime is BNL's first children's album that was released last year. They were letting all the children in first with their parents (yes, a lot of people brought their kids on the cruise) and then they would let everyone else waiting fill in. We were happy to get into this as the line we were in stretched most of the ship and we weren't sure that there would be room. Even happier that we found seats in the third row, left side. The show started at 1:30 (1:45 actual time) and the band played all the songs from Snacktime as well as some other crowd favorites that were kid friendly like One Week and If I Had A $1,000,000. The band's energy was great for the kids and they put on a great set.By 3:00, we had a few hours of downtime, one of the few times during the whole week that we were free, we decided to swing by The Sean Schau. This is comedian Sean Cullen's type of 'variety hour'. We only stayed about 15 min as we arrived in the middle of the show. If we caught it from the beginning we might have enjoyed it more but we just weren't feeling it. Throughout the rest of the cruise the show was replayed on the ship's TV and it was pretty funny. We took a walk out by the pool, Amy was wanting some outside sun time, and we thought maybe we'd take a little nap outside. Well, it was quite windy out and after about 20 minutes of the sun playing hide and seek with the clouds, we decided to take our nap to the cabin.
Before heading out for dinner, Amy wanted to stop by the Reverb room to see if the winners were announced for the concert tickets. We got there at 4:45 and didn't see any names posted. Stan figured they didn't do the drawing yet and was ready to leave, but Amy wanted to ask. She found out they held the drawing at 4:30 and you needed to be present to win. What? Nobody said that this morning, just to check back. She explained this to them and they said "yeah, I heard him say that to you. What was your name?". She gave them our name and found out that our names were actually drawn! We did win and we got the tickets!
This is great but now this messes up our night. We wake up, plan our day, and think we have it all worked out but our best laid plans are always at the mercy of the powers that be.
We decided to eat dinner at Azura, one of the ships main dining rooms. Stan had the lobster selection and Amy chose beef wellington--mmm good (well, sort of).
Our plan was to see Gaelic Storm play out on the pool deck at 8 but based on the game of hide and seek that the sun was playing with clouds earlier we knew the weather would not hold up. Sure enough we were right. While we were eating we thought we saw lighting. After we ate we headed out to the pool deck to see what was going on as Butterfly Boucher was scheduled to be playing there. Well it was pouring! No shows out on the pool deck tonight. Now the big question was where Gaelic Storm would be playing as we really want to see a full show by them. As we were standing by the doors to the pool deck watching the rain, right behind us comes Steve Twigger, singer/guitarist for Gaelic Storm. We figured if anybody would know where Gaelic Storm would be playing it would be him. He says they are playing in Bar City at 9:00. Well now we know where we are going.
On our way down to Bar City we stopped in the Atrium to see Mike Evin.
We never heard of him before and only caught a few songs but they were really good. When we got there Mike was playing piano and Andy Creeggan, an original member of BNL, was there playing percussion. The crowd really liked him and they did a awesome version of Billy Joel's Piano Man complete with the full audience singing along. CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO.As it was getting closer to Gaelic Storm's start time we left the Atrium and headed over to Bar City. The new start time was 9:00 but they started a little late and we would have to leave before the show ended as the BNL show started at 10:00. Once again we would not get our chance to see a full Gaelic Storm show.
We made it over to the Stardust at 10:00 for BNL. We had pretty decent seats, toward the back on the left side. There were about 6 empty seats to the left of our row so Amy was happy to have lots of room to dance. They came on around 10:20 and as usual rocked a great show. Of note, was the crew made the band a "bucket of balls" in which they placed the names of all of the songs that the band had not yet played on any of their cruises, on ping pong balls. The guys in the band would pick out a ball and play the song that was on it. One of the balls that was pulled, Ed didn't even recognize as a BNL song!(and it was on their last album!) With a little coaxing from the other guys and the audience, he figured it out, played it and then resumed their regularly scheduled show.
After BNL, we stayed in the Stardust for a comedy show by Kevin McDonald from the Kids In the Hall. He was joined by Craig Northey from The Odds playing guitar as background music. We didn't stay long as it was getting late and the comedy was way out there. After heading up for our ritual late night snack, we go to bed with an extra hour of sleep coming to us. In the morning, we will be docked in Cozumel and also, a new time zone!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Day 1 - video - Thin Buckle with Steven Page
Here is a video we took from the Thin Buckle show on the Pool deck to close out the first night of the cruise.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Day 1 - Sunday Feb 1st
Here it is, the day we've been waiting for all year!
Boarding day for our third once-in-a-lifetime trip!
After waking up around 7:30 Stan went for a walk around the hotel while Amy hit the hotel's fitness center. We met back up at the room an hour later and went to breakfast downstairs in the hotel's restaurant. We both had the buffet (as we figured we'd practice for the cruise). There were delicious waffles that Amy enjoyed and delicious bacon that Stan enjoyed! After breakfast it was time to shower and pack everything up and get this cruise started. We left the room at 11:30 to head over to the port. After checking out, we went to wait for a cab and since this was the host hotel the line was full of cruisers and was probably the longest the hotel has ever seen. There was about a twenty minute wait for us to get to the front of the line and luckily a taxi van pulled up and we were able to share a ride with 8 other "dippers". The ride took about 8 minutes and cost us $7 each. We gave our bags, except for our carry-ons, to the porter and we will see them in our cabin in a few hours.
Below was our first view of the Norwegian Jewel upon arrival to the terminal at about 12:15.
The first thing we had to do when we arrived was to fill out a form for Norwegian that stated whether or not we have been sick in the last 48 hours. We never encountered this with Carnival and this is normal procedure for Norwegian. Next we went through security and unlike the airlines this goes much smoother; just empty our pockets and x-ray our carry on bags. Then there was a short line to check in for the cruise. We had to set up our on-board spending account and get our picture taken for our ID cards. A short walk upstairs to another line gets us our concert tickets and cabin keys.
Are we there yet??!!
Almost--one more line to have our embarkation photo taken and then we encounter our first surprise. Kevin from BNL is there to greet us as we walk on to the ship. We didn't see them but the rest of the band members took turns during the boarding process. The next surprise, that we would get very used to, was the Norwegian staff spraying our hands with sanitizer as we walked on to the ship. As we found out during the week, they would do this outside of each dining area. In addition, there were self-sanitizing stations in the hallways, elevators, etc.
Almost--one more line to have our embarkation photo taken and then we encounter our first surprise. Kevin from BNL is there to greet us as we walk on to the ship. We didn't see them but the rest of the band members took turns during the boarding process. The next surprise, that we would get very used to, was the Norwegian staff spraying our hands with sanitizer as we walked on to the ship. As we found out during the week, they would do this outside of each dining area. In addition, there were self-sanitizing stations in the hallways, elevators, etc.
FINALLY!! AT 1:00, WE ARE ON THE SHIP!!!!!!!!!
And what's the first thing we do? Accept a glass of complimentary champagne! Since they told us our cabins wouldn't be ready until after 2, we headed up to the pool deck to have our traditional embarkation burger and Stan's fruity umbrella drink.
After eating we decided to scope out the sightlines for the BNL sail away show that was scheduled for 5. With the layout of the stage this year we figured our best spot would be on the upper level of the pool deck across from the stage. We walk around the ship checking out the other concert venues before heading to our cabin a little after 2. Our first impression of the room was that it was a little smaller than our cabins on Carnival but still nice. And what do we do when we get there-- Amy immediately gets to work disinfecting the room with her Lysol and Clorox wipes while Stan checks out the view of Miami from the balcony! With that finished, we take a few minutes to plan out our evening of shows and then it's time to muster. The muster drill takes place at 3:30 and is mandatory for all on board. Our muster station is located in the Azure dining room and we are told what to do in the case of an emergency. Now when the drill is finished it is always a mad dash to the pool deck where everything is vying for a good spot for the sail away show. Fortunately, we have a system for this, as it is our third time and all. Stan takes our life jackets from the drill, and literally, throws them in the room while Amy runs to hold the aforementioned spot. Exercising this morning pays off because Amy was the first one on the second level of the pool deck and had her pick of spots. Stan made it up a few short minutes later and there was nothing more to do but wait till 5 when the show would start. We had yet another surprise when, at a little before 5, the ship actually set sail. This doesn't usually happen until after the band takes the stage but Norwegian officers are on the ball and no one is complaining.
After eating we decided to scope out the sightlines for the BNL sail away show that was scheduled for 5. With the layout of the stage this year we figured our best spot would be on the upper level of the pool deck across from the stage. We walk around the ship checking out the other concert venues before heading to our cabin a little after 2. Our first impression of the room was that it was a little smaller than our cabins on Carnival but still nice. And what do we do when we get there-- Amy immediately gets to work disinfecting the room with her Lysol and Clorox wipes while Stan checks out the view of Miami from the balcony! With that finished, we take a few minutes to plan out our evening of shows and then it's time to muster. The muster drill takes place at 3:30 and is mandatory for all on board. Our muster station is located in the Azure dining room and we are told what to do in the case of an emergency. Now when the drill is finished it is always a mad dash to the pool deck where everything is vying for a good spot for the sail away show. Fortunately, we have a system for this, as it is our third time and all. Stan takes our life jackets from the drill, and literally, throws them in the room while Amy runs to hold the aforementioned spot. Exercising this morning pays off because Amy was the first one on the second level of the pool deck and had her pick of spots. Stan made it up a few short minutes later and there was nothing more to do but wait till 5 when the show would start. We had yet another surprise when, at a little before 5, the ship actually set sail. This doesn't usually happen until after the band takes the stage but Norwegian officers are on the ball and no one is complaining.YEA! WE'RE CRUISING!!!
Our hosts take the stage at 5:15 (the first of many shows starting late) and do not disappoint. They kick off the cruise with a great set and everyone is singing along with every song. When their show is finished at 6:15 we first went to the room to see if our luggage had been delivered, which it had, and then to dinner, at one of the two main dining rooms, Tsar's. Stan feasted on baby shrimp cocktail, sirloin steak and fries while Amy enjoyed her salad, chicken breast, mashed potatoes and veggies.
With our bellies full we went to the merch table (first of many trips) to buy some t-shirts while all the sizes were still there, dropped them in the room and then walked by the pool deck to hear a song or two from Melissa McCelland & Luke Doucet, an unknown to us husband and wife duo. Next was a night of shows in the main Stardust theater. We found great seats in the fourth row, just off center. First up was Sloan at 8:30. We had never heard of this band before the trip and had just listened to a few of their songs before we left. Rolling Stones + Kinks = whole lot of crazy Sloan. We really enjoyed them as they were very entertaining. Next up was Great Big Sea at 10:00. We discovered them on the cruise last year and had been listening to their music a lot since. This would be our first time seeing them that we were familiar with their music and we couldn't wait. They took the stage and rocked our asses off! Was it because of our great seats? Our first full show of the week? The energy of them playing their first show of the cruise? Don't know but we really enjoyed them--a definite highlight so far.
They finished playing by 11:45 and before calling it a night , we would see one more show --Thinbuckle on the pool deck. (Thinbuckle is Kevin from BNL's band). We missed their first few songs but made it in time to see Steven from BNL preform a song with them. The rest of their set was good. By this time we were starting to get a little munchy so we went over to the Garden Cafe (buffet) and grabbed a late night snack of hot dogs and nachos. It's now getting close to 2, so we head back to our room, unpack and call it a night by 3.
Whew...a 3AM bedtime and this is just the first day!!!!!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Pre-Cruise Saturday January 31
Welcome to the latest installments of Stan & Amy’s Ships & Dip blog. With it being less than a week since we disembarked from the Norwegian Jewel and the cruise still fresh in our minds we are finally getting to post our daily recaps. We will try to post a recap every couple of days or so as these post are more like short stories rather than blog posts and we can really ramble and get detailed or as some might say tiresome. Anyway, go grab yourself your favorite beverage and possibly a snack and take a seat in your favorite chair and enjoy.
We start our trip on 1/31 from Blakely where we were packed, ate breakfast (Dunkin Donuts), out the door and on the road by 8:00AM. We couldn’t wait to get out of the cold NEPA weather. The drive was uneventful which is exactly what we were hoping for on our first day of the trip. We found a parking spot in the economy parking lot that was near a pickup/dropoff shelter to wait for a shuttle to take us to the terminal. We were freezing as we were waiting in the cold because we left our heavy coats and boots in the car since we did not want to travel with the extra heavy clothes. After waiting about 10 minutes a shuttle came, after another 5 minutes we were at the terminal checking in for our 12:15 flight to Miami.
With the new US Airways luggage charges we have to pay $15 for each checked piece under 50
lbs and $65 per bag over 50 lbs. We were concerned as we have 2 bags to check and really wanted them to be under 50 lbs. They weighed the first bag which we figured was the lighter of the 2 and it weighed 38 lbs. So far so good. We held our breath for the 2nd bag and it came up 42 lbs. Yeah! No extra charges for us. Now we headed to the security checkpoint which is always a chaotic mess with removing our shoes, empting our pockets and having our carry-on bags x-rayed. We made it with no problems and we were now in the terminal waiting for our flight, US Airways flight #1651 to Miami. We were in the last zone to board and we grabbed our seats in row 8 seats E and F on the “driver” side of the plane. The seats were just in front of the wing and therefore I had a nice view, which I really like. As we were getting ourselves set in, we were talking to the others in our row and they were all going on the cruise too. There were even a few others on the plane as well going on the cruise. It really is a small world after all!
Before we knew it we were on the taxiway and ready for takeoff. We took off a little late at about 12:27. Since we had our laptop with us we watched a movie and then listened to some music on our Ipods.The plane landed at about 2:27 and by the time we got our luggage it was around 2:40. With our bags in hand we headed to the taxi stand to get a cab to take us to the Marriott Biscayne Bay hotel which was the host hotel for the cruise.
The ride was maybe 15 minutes and the hotel was really nice. We checked in with no problem and went up to the room on the 16th floor. We had a really nice view of the Port of Miami and we had a balcony where the door was unfortunately locked. As with all Sixthman cruises the host hotel holds a pre-cruise party and this year was no exception.
We do attend for a few minutes but usually do not hang around too long. Before the party we walked to the Bayside Shopping area that was about 8 blocks away. It is like strip mall on a boardwalk. It is pretty nice area with a lot of little stores and restaurants. We walked around for alittle bit and then decided to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, a themed restaurant from the movie Forrest Gump. The food was really good but the place was really busy as the Miami Heat were playing the Dallas Mavericks and the arena is about a block away.
After eating we walked back to the hotel and stopped by the pre-cruise party. We grabbed a drink and walked around a bit. We did meet Steve from Sixthman who is our favorite blogger on the Sixthman blog. After hanging out for a little bit longer we decided that it was time to go to sleep and get ready for real start of the cruise.
Tomorrow we will be getting on the ship and seeing BNL for the first time since the last cruise.
Stay tuned!
lbs and $65 per bag over 50 lbs. We were concerned as we have 2 bags to check and really wanted them to be under 50 lbs. They weighed the first bag which we figured was the lighter of the 2 and it weighed 38 lbs. So far so good. We held our breath for the 2nd bag and it came up 42 lbs. Yeah! No extra charges for us. Now we headed to the security checkpoint which is always a chaotic mess with removing our shoes, empting our pockets and having our carry-on bags x-rayed. We made it with no problems and we were now in the terminal waiting for our flight, US Airways flight #1651 to Miami. We were in the last zone to board and we grabbed our seats in row 8 seats E and F on the “driver” side of the plane. The seats were just in front of the wing and therefore I had a nice view, which I really like. As we were getting ourselves set in, we were talking to the others in our row and they were all going on the cruise too. There were even a few others on the plane as well going on the cruise. It really is a small world after all!
Before we knew it we were on the taxiway and ready for takeoff. We took off a little late at about 12:27. Since we had our laptop with us we watched a movie and then listened to some music on our Ipods.The plane landed at about 2:27 and by the time we got our luggage it was around 2:40. With our bags in hand we headed to the taxi stand to get a cab to take us to the Marriott Biscayne Bay hotel which was the host hotel for the cruise.The ride was maybe 15 minutes and the hotel was really nice. We checked in with no problem and went up to the room on the 16th floor. We had a really nice view of the Port of Miami and we had a balcony where the door was unfortunately locked. As with all Sixthman cruises the host hotel holds a pre-cruise party and this year was no exception.
We do attend for a few minutes but usually do not hang around too long. Before the party we walked to the Bayside Shopping area that was about 8 blocks away. It is like strip mall on a boardwalk. It is pretty nice area with a lot of little stores and restaurants. We walked around for alittle bit and then decided to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, a themed restaurant from the movie Forrest Gump. The food was really good but the place was really busy as the Miami Heat were playing the Dallas Mavericks and the arena is about a block away.After eating we walked back to the hotel and stopped by the pre-cruise party. We grabbed a drink and walked around a bit. We did meet Steve from Sixthman who is our favorite blogger on the Sixthman blog. After hanging out for a little bit longer we decided that it was time to go to sleep and get ready for real start of the cruise.
Tomorrow we will be getting on the ship and seeing BNL for the first time since the last cruise.
Stay tuned!
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