Cruising: The Final Frontier

So...how about a cruise in January? What if it's a Star Trek themed cruise? 

Tuesday: Though the cruise began Monday in Miami, we were scheduled to board the ship in Cozumel on Wednesday. This necessitated our flying to Mexico Tuesday. It appeared that we flew over Cancun to get to Cozumel.

yes, please

We were fortunate to spend the night in a fancy resort. Check out this room.

You can see the ocean from the toilet. It's inspiring.

the view from my balcony

First order of business: the telescoping handle on my suitcase broke when we got to the Atlanta airport this morning, and somehow survived the trip without being ripped off. However, I needed to figure out what was happening, so I took it apart. One of the wings on the button (they push down rods in the arms to release the lock) broke.

The only thing I could find in my room was a pair of coffee stirrers, so I tried to use them as a splint to help push the wing down.

Looks great, but it didn't work.

This is the taxi that took us to the restaurant where I got drunk.

the band serenaded us with Oye Como Va

After annoying everyone I came in contact with, I retired to my room, where I watched Dora the Explorer in Spanish. I was that drunk.

Wednesday: Our lobby call was 11:45 AM, allowing me sufficient time to lay in bed and do nothing. Good preparation for most of what I did on the cruise.

The cab dropped us off at a gate on the main drag, where we stood and waited to be processed before boarding the ship.

The long walk out to meet our old boat, the Norwegian Pearl.

My cabin...same as all the others (though no balcony this time).

No balcony, but check out the view...of a lifeboat. Great.

Our first performance was to be on the pool deck stage. We set up and sound checked, all the while battered by strong winds which threatened to blow all of our gear over. After we'd got everything ready, the show was moved indoors! Our gear was shuffled into a a full room during a question and answer session where we set up and hit, hoping that everything worked.

One peculiarity of this show: no saxophone! The sax songs all ended up being cut from the set list.

Thursday: Our day off (from what?). I slept late, drank coffee, read my book...

Watched a movie...

It's a tradition that we always eat at the teppanyaki restaurant on our night off, so...

After that, we did a lap around the boat to see what was happening. The atrium was hosting karaoke (and air drumming if you're the guy in the green shirt). Mark Dannells and I closed out the night with his personalized version of Unskinny Bop by Poison (I was only a dancer). The green shirt guy did NOT like our performance.

Thursday night towel animal

 Friday: More killing time. Here's the stupid lifeboat hanging outside my cabin window.

Today was supposed to be a port day at Norwegian's private island in the Bahamas, but the weather was such that we stayed out at sea, circling in smoother waters.

Friday night towel animal

Friday's show was successfully outside, to a pretty good crowd! I think the captain slowed the boat way down and angled it so that we didn't get blown away. At one point, we had Joe Piscopo checking us out. Pretty cool.

Saturday: We woke up in Nassau, Bahamas. The area around the port is pretty touristy, so I just went for a walk around town and then got back on the boat for lunch (and a nap, and some movie watching, and some book reading).

Then the weather moved in...

The time slot for our final performance was 10:30-midnight, which was probably not ideal--most of the passengers were packing their suitcases and heading to bed early. Even so, our small but vocal crowd was pretty good, and we had Joe Piscopo sit in with us on Pink Cadillac (which I somehow managed to download with the last seconds of my prepaid internet) and Twist and Shout. He really brought the fire. Nice work.

photo cred: Zach 

Sunday: Ouch. Finished at midnight, and the boat specified that we had to meet at 6 AM to get off the boat. I went to bed around 2 something and got up at 5:30 AM. The whole 6 AM thing turned out to be bullshit, and we sat there until 7.

After passing off the boat and through customs (which took all of thirty seconds, since we were the first off), we boarded a bus to the airport. But wait! The nine of us sat on the bus for another hour while we waited for twenty more people (less well known actors from the Star Trek series) to get up, have breakfast, and make their way off the boat. Big fun. We finally pulled away from the dock some time around 8:30 AM.

From there, we walked the length of the Miami airport to the correct concourse, and then sat at the gate for a couple of hours until our lunchtime flight home. I slept on the plane. It sucked.