November 28-29, 2004: Rockin' Roll Report -- Cruise Diary, Day 2 and 3

The Caribbean Sea and Cozumel, Mexico
Carnival Cruise Ship Triumph

While on the Rock & Roll Holiday Escape Cruise in 2004, I made sure to keep a diary on my laptop to record the events of the 7 day cruise so that I would be able to do a complete write up for my anticipated "Rockin' Roll Report" upon returning to dry land and available Internet access. Here is what I journaled and later used as basis for my two reports on the cruise.

Cruise Day 2 and 3.

Sunday was a quiet day at sea… spent mostly relaxing, eating, and just truly vacationing. Kept up with our cast and crew on board – must have spotted members of Journey's crew every half hour or so and Ricky Phillips and Dave Amato every 2 hours. Spent some time with Cat and Jenn – discussing some of our Journey Past & Present issues. Got our dinner table reassigned so that our whole group – Darla and Emerson, Janice and me, Cat and Jenn, and Debbie and the kids were all at the same table.

We also had our first formal night and the Captain's Dinner – it was great seeing everyone all dressed up.

We arrived in port Monday morning about 7:30 (I think… we were still in our cabin having breakfast) and Janice and I headed out for the Highlights and Shopping tour of the island. Got to see a few small sites, not hugely impressive, but it was a pleasant tour. We got dropped off in the downtown shopping district where we were accosted by vendors left and right. I had the brilliant idea to check out one of the side streets – MISTAKE!!!! We couldn't walk past a shop with out someone literally blocking our way and turning us in to the store. I did manage to bargain down a hair clip from 18 to 10 dollars, but "Cheapo Philipo" was quite a hard sell! I also got two pairs of very small diamond studs for $100 – another relative hard sell, but in a less seedy shop.

Back to the ship by mid-day for lunch and a nap – which meant no wandering around and running in to oh, say, Tommy Shaw, who (we learned later) several people ran in to and got their picture taken with. Figures! We got ready for the Q&A and headed up to the Rome Room about 5 to hang out for the doors to open. Turned out we really didn't need to be there that early since there were maybe 200 people in the room. We did get good seats front and center, and the boys from Styx were having a grand old time laughing and joking around. As the Q&A started there were several opportunities to win things – photo with the band, an autographed guitar, and upgraded seats. Darla and Emerson lucked out and got the upgraded seats and were sitting in the pit for the whole show. What a perfect prize for the honeymooners!

There were a couple of interesting questions – How did you meet your current wives (Todd – his wife is a singer and met at a gig, JY – was at a party with another woman.) What bands influenced you (JY – the Who.) One person asked if they were planning on singing their Christmas song and I saw Tommy's eyes kind of unfocus as he was trying to remember the words then the whole band launched into it acapella! Very fun. We also got a five-part harmony rendition of "Happy Birthday" for a woman who was celebrating her 40th birthday on the cruise.

After the Q&A, we dashed over to line up for the show. Since there were 4 of us (Cat, Jenn, Janice, and me) we took turns in line while the rest of us ran back to the room or grabbed something to eat. We stood in line for a good 90 minutes before we were finally allowed to go to our seats. Luckily for us Butch and Val had VIP seats and there were seats near them, so we wound up a couple of rows from the front of the stage, over on Tommy's side. Woo hoo!! I had my camera with me, but since we'd been TOLD no "professional" cameras, I didn't bring any extra film. Since there was absolutely NO security checking bags or walking around, I was able to use my camera to take a few shots. Unfortunately I only had about 8 shots left on the roll! They should turn out pretty well since I was so close. Darla and Emerson should have gotten GREAT pix and we'll be swapping.

The show started a few minutes after 9, and the second the intro music started, people were on their feet and cheering – and stayed that way all night long. Tommy welcomed us to "the most unusual show Styx has ever done" – and I gotta say, it's the most unusual show I've ever been to. Styx kept up their stellar track record with just an amazing show with such great energy. They closed the main set with what Lawrence called "the most appropriate song" – "Come Sail Away." Naturally the crowd went nuts since nearly everyone has been singing that song on ship since we left Miami – most often off key and very drunk!

Set list:

Blue Collar Man
Grand Illusion
Lorelei
One With Everything
Lady
Too Much Time on My Hands
Snowblind
solo – Laurance, rag time
More Love for the Money
medley
These Are the Times
Crystal Ball
Foolin' Yourself
Miss America
Come Sail Away

Encore:
What I Say
Manic Depression
I Am the Walrus
Renegade

After the show and a quick bite to eat, we went downstairs and ran in to Kevin Cronin who was looking for the Hollywood Bar, so naturally we offered to walk him to it! Too damn bad I was all out of film!

A quick drink at the casino, check the email at the Internet Café, then it was off to bed and another night at sea. Tomorrow will be a "fun day at sea" to relax and do nothing. I could get used to this!

November 27, 2004: Rockin' Roll Report -- Cruise Diary, Day 1

Miami, FL and The Caribbean Sea
Carnival Cruise Ship Triumph

While on the Rock & Roll Holiday Escape Cruise in 2004, I made sure to keep a diary on my laptop to record the events of the 7 day cruise so that I would be able to do a complete write up for my anticipated "Rockin' Roll Report" upon returning to dry land and available Internet access. Here is what I journaled and later used as basis for my two reports on the cruise.

Cruise Day One.

Flew in to Miami yesterday and met Janice at the airport. We caught a cab to our hotel then dashed across the street for dinner at the Hard Rock Café. Weather in Miami wasn't too bad… mid 70s both in temperature and humidity – humid enough for this California girl to notice.

After a late nite of gossiping and getting to know each other, Janice and I headed down for the breakfast buffet. The elevators on cruise day were an interesting challenge. Frequently full of guests and luggage. By the time we were ready to check out, it took us about 15 minutes to get downstairs. All the elevators were full, and when I finally got on one, I went down 2 floors before going all the way back up to the 8th and then back down – stopping at every floor. Once we finally got to the lobby and met Debbie, Krystal, and Krystal's boyfriend Andrew we got ourselves checked out and into cabs to the port.

The port was an absolute zoo with cabs and shuttles and buses going every which way for the half dozen or so ships making ready to set sail. Janice and I lost Debbie and her crew in the cab shuffle, but arrived at the dock right behind Journey's road crew. While waiting to board, we did see one of our "celebrity" passengers – Ricky Phillips from Styx boarded the ship shortly before us. A pleasant surprise since we'd heard Styx would not be on board at all. Turns out only SOME of Styx would not be on board. Later in the day we saw Chuck Panazzo (Styx), Dave Amato (REO), and Bruce Hall (REO.) None of the Journey boys were on board, and they aren't expected until Thursday in Jamaica.

The ship is a total maze and god knows if we'll ever find our way around, but we managed to find our room successfully and drop our bags off. We explored the ship looking for people we knew and kept running into Rocko Ready – Journey's stage manager. We found the check in desk for the Rock & Roll Holiday Escape (R&RHE) and to get our registration materials – passes to the concerts and a T-shirt – but they had just gotten in themselves and weren't ready for us, so we headed up to the Lido deck for a quick snack (encountering more Journey crew members in the process.)

We hadn't seen any of our friends since boarding the ship, so kept exploring. When I pulled out my cell phone to call Mom, however, I discovered I'd missed a call from Darla – she and Emerson were on board an up at the Lido deck with Cat, Jenn, and Debbie and the kids. We headed back up and visited for a few minutes before the whole crew of us trooped back down to the Promenade deck and the registration for the R&RHE. The line was amazingly long, so we got to hear the story of how Cat got a call from Steve Augeri on Monday asking her if she wanted to go on a cruise. Lucky girl!

There was lots more exploring to do, but first we had to pass the muster – our drill should we need to abandon ship! Standing around with bright orange life vests – oh so attractive! We killed some time after muster by picking out our shore excursions. I really only wanted to go snorkeling, so I signed up for snorkeling at the reef with the stingrays in Grand Cayman. Cozumel and Jamaica will be improvised. Janice signed up for an island tour, and the rest of the gang signed up for various other activities.

The R&RHE cocktail party was at 7 and there we ran in to Styx fan Sharon and her Journey pals Julie and Judy. Sharon reported that Tommy Shaw was on board ship – WOO HOO! A full day tomorrow to see if I can find him. The cocktail party was quite nice and we met up with a bunch of other Journey fans and got our official "group photo" – my camera and about 35 others! LOL! A couple of nice people volunteered to take pictures and it took a good ten minutes to get them all done! Hopefully they'll turn out. We did find the couple from the Netherlands, but none of the UK folks unfortunately.

Then it was off to dinner, which was delicious, but the ship was a little wobbly around then. Fortunately I felt fine – don't think the motion of the ocean is going to be much of a problem. After dinner, it was off to kill some more time checking out the shops which had finally opened before meeting up again with Darla and Emerson for the "welcome aboard" night which was an enjoyable comedy show. A little cheesy, but fun.

Then it was back to the room to finally finish unpacking and getting ready for the next 7 days at sea. Tomorrow is a "fun day at sea" – so basically I plan to hang out at the pool and get some sun! (I hope! It was a little cloudy when we pulled out of port with showers in the distance.)