Ships & Dip 5 Feb 2009 Travel Log by Pooch and Star
WE WON
Pooch and I won a cruise - we are going on Ships and Dip V in February it is a 5 day chartered cruise on Norwegian Jewel with many bands playing we won it off a contest on Gaelic Storm's website (the bad that was playing when we started dating) We get an ocean view cabin for 2 and admission to the BNL headline show onboard. Have to come up with our own airfare and drink money
Artist lineup Pooch, Patrick from Gaelic Strom, Star
Pre-Cruise
Okay we have our plane tickets - AirTran. We are flying thru Atlanta but only quick change of planes. Staying with our friends Danielle and Brenda the day before and after our cruise. Our Cabin is on the Nowegian Jewel cabin 8606 category CC Oceanview Stateroom Travelocity deck plans Deck 8 is the upper of the lines Two lower beds that convert to a queen, TV, refridgerator, safe, bathroom with shower, picture window.

Mainline Concerts Barenaked Ladies Sarah McLachlan Seating : Show 1 Lower Zone 10 The Stardust Theater accomodates 1042 We will be just left of 'zone 11' shown here
Friday Jan 30
Flight from MCI to atlanta then a quick 45 minutes to go from concourse C to concourse D and made it just as they called our section. There were some minor maintenance issues on the plane - my light was not working on either flight but we were on the 2 seat side so that was nice. In Atlanta there was someone on our flight that looked like a friend's friend but wasn't them (infact we could not find them at all on the ship) and I asked if they were - it became a joke thru the flight. We arrived at PBI and our friend Danielle showed up just after we got our suitcases. Went to Denny's on the way home for some late night food. Turns out she knew the cashier from when he used to do private chef work, but the economy downturn has lead him to get another job, and he says Denny's business is down 20% Got to Brenda and Danielle's place - wow it is huge - the kitchen / tv / dining / sitting area are all open with lots of marble and interior columns. House is in two wings - master bedroom suite then the guest / office / media room, and a huge screened in porch / pool deck. Their shower is bigger then our whole bathroom. The realestate business was very good to them for many years - though they are feeling the crunch currently. Various spiffy things caught my eye - Danielle is a huge fan of the Amazing Race and she has one of the clams from season two that they had to swim down to get the clue. And the Disney pin trading habit I got her hooked on? She's gone to some of the conventions and has a framed set of here Disney pin scavenger hunt. Yeah I go her hooked big time. And then off to sleep
Saturday Jan 31
Lazy day Although Pooch has feared that he would miss the Conflux pre-release he and D were able to find a place in the area with a Saturday pre-release (Tate's Gaming Satellite) I lounged around, took shower, surfed the interwebs. When they got back D showed us some photos - there is one of six folks - including us and D from the year before we met her - quite amusing. Also in that photo was Revy who we met a few years ago when we visited D in Colorado. I got caught up in Livejournal and email, so will be easier to walk away from net-contact for 5 days. Fought with tracfone trying to add minutes to Pooch's phone - first time i've had bad service from them Saturday night is the "Night Star forgot the tickets" (or so Danielle tells me I should remember the night) About 1pm (which is while they were at the MtG pre-release so already fishy) D hands me the tickets for Mama Mia and tells me not to forget them (since B called here later on to remind her to bring the tickets). So we were almost at dinner when D asked me to confirm the play start time on the tickets and I realized I forgot them (or maybe she realized this was the excuse she was going to tell B). So we turned around and headed back to the house to get tickets and a comedy of restaurant attempts happened, including sitting down and getting water at one and realizing that things would take to long. So D and I grabbed food at the supermaket (Star got sandwich, D got jelly beans and chips - Miss Nutrition 2009 claims "Hey no fat, no cholesteral") and Pooch and B ran off to the all you can eat sushi place. Mama Mia at the Broward Center for the preforming arts was amazing. I laughed, I danced. We got back to the house planning on being quiet but Pooch and B were still up chatting, so we all chatted for a while then off to sleep.
Sunday Feb 1st
Brenda headed into (That woman works way to much) work and the rest of us treid to goto the casino for brunch but the line was way to long so headed towards miami. We stopped at Moonlight diner in Ft Lauderdale on our way down to the Port of Miami. Daniele dropped us off about 12:30pm, there were porters there to collect the luggage (which we had printed off tags with our room numbers attached) and then we headed to the line to wait. Not only was this our first Ships and Dip Cruise but it was our first cruise at all, so I don't know how much of everything being wonderful was due to the charter company Sixthman and how much was Norwegian Cruise Line. Our ship was the Norwegian Jewel (my Picture) The boarding theme was 'camp day' so lots of girls in boyscout uniforms. Line was maybe 15 minutes, we were handed a 'have you had any of these symptoms' form to fill out" then thru security, then to the NCL checkin where we give our credit card info then upstairs to sixthman checkin (they had lanyards for us all). Line there was about another 15 minutes to get our room key and our concert tickets. Then onto the boat - various BNL band members were on hand all day to welcome folks onboard - Kevin was doing the greeting when we arrived. We boarded this ship with the first of many hand sanitizing (there were stations all over the ship) which would be repeated each time we boarded or entered a restaurant. Crew members welcomed us with champaign and by 1pm we were in The Great Outdoors to sit in the sun and enjoy some snacks until the cabins opened up. We had our first 'oh no - no internet' moment as pooch wondered about the comparison of our ship size to his dad's ship (USS Halsey) that he rode on once.
StatJewelHalsey
Hull legnth965 ft509.5 ft
Beam106 ft66 ft
Draft27 ft31 ft
Speed25 knots30+ knots
Capacity2,376 passengers
1,100 crew		383 officers and enlisted
Tonnage92,000 gross tonsDisplacement (Saltwater) 9,300 Tons
Cabins opened up about 1:45 so we went to find our cabin number 8606 bed/window photo and dresser/door photo. We did our unpacking and found the Ships and Dip V bag they gave us all. We didn't expect our luggage until 'after dinner' but a knock on the door at 2:30 was luggage delivery. So we unpacked those also and then wandered the ship a bit. 4pm was lifeboat drill, back to our cabin to get the lifevest then to our designated area. (These lucky folks had the bar as their site) and then we went to what ended up being our favorite place - Maltings (the single malt bar) where we enjoyed some single malt scotch. Star enjoyed some Bowmore 17 and Pooch tried GlenFarclas (speyside - okay but not great) then we grabbed a quick bite at the Garden Cafe (the buffet) Star had her first of many calzones (this one was spinach) then it was time for... The Barenaked Ladies Sail Away Concert with the other 2,000 guests on board (in the back of this photo you can see the private deck area from the upper suites where the bands were staying - you can see Sarah McLachlan and her daughter enjoying the show. (Video from show). They played You were my last thought, Welcome back Karter, Rio, Wind me up, yoko ono and others - we found a spot just right of the stage to watch shows from that worked well for us. Pooch wandered up to the Spinnaker lounge to watch the superbowl (without the commercials since it was the ESPN feed) and met Bonnie who we ran into a few times. Star tried the message board party but hadn't been that active on it so gave up and stopped by the casino (walked in with $50 and out with $70 - the best night of the cruise - I was good and put it against our booze bill), then grazed a bit at Garden Cafe before the Gaelic Storm show. I ran into Patrick and thanked him for us winning the cruise (and bought him a helmet of beer). He was very glad to know we were enjoying the cruise - seems that they had a contest a while ago where some lady won a trip to ireland and when they called to tell her she replied "great, that's all I need right now" and they don't even know if she went. The show was awsome - I love how much energy they create in the crowd - "Me and the Moon" became one of the anthems of the cruise. Pooch joined up part way thru the show and was able to see the band crowd surf at the end of the show into the pool. We ran into Patrick a bit later - he was still sopping wet. Late night snack at Blue Lagoon (the snack shop) which had some of the best food on board - we had spinach dip and a paninni sandwich made with prochitto. Our drink tab for day one was $81 but that did include the single malt and beer for the band. off to sleep - slept amazingly well
Monday Feb 2nd
Woke up about 7:30. On the message board I had planned a Board Game Geeks meeting for noon in the Card Room but turns out card room is taken with band green room so had to check out other options for the meeting. Tried calling but no luck so went down to front desk and got wonderful help - she got the number of people and other requirements from me - the time and estimated duration and then directed me to wait in the atrium as she did calling then came over and let me know that they would have Tangos restaurt available for us. So I put up a poster on the card room and delivered post it notes to the cabin numbers I knew, along the way I got to enjoy some of the "20 years of BNL" door contest entries I realized I had put in a mile of walking before breakfast so went to see if Pooch was ready and we headed to Tsars' dining room for breakfast. I had the salmon eggs benedict with dill, banana (they serve it sliced for you, very pretty, still in half peel), and OJ. Pooch had scrambled eggs, sausage, english muffin with orange marmalade. Service very quick, were in and out in 20 minutes. Then it was time for the Naked Photo, I had read about this on the message board, it is a tradition on the cruise. So we changed to bath robes and headed to the pool deck. This was the "Year of the Floaters" (they had some folks floating in the pool including BNL band members. They estimated there were 850 people in the naked photo this year. Here is a Before photo and someone has scanned the After photo. You can see the top of my head in the lower left here and you can see Pooch in the lower left here (and my blue sunglasses) Back to the room to change into swimsuits and up to the Sun Deck for some tanning. Though I only layed in the sun for 10 minutes. Andrea was out for an hour. I did pout that two of the hot tubs were shut down cause the cabeling from the pool deck stage made them unsafe, but I found a nice shady spot on deck 8 to read and listen to the ocean and engine and could see a bit of cuba on the horizon. I tried out the casino again but the luck was not with me. And then was time for board game geeks. We had 5 folks playing settlers dice game and San Juan and 3 or 4 other stopped by. Then I tried out the Sean Cullin Schau - not my type of humor. We had drinks at the martini bar (Mangopolitan and a rum&Coke) then it was time for our headline show - Sarah McLachlin and Barenaded Ladies. Steven Page is very energetic on stage and at one point in his jumps and kicks he connected his knee to his nose and knocked his glasses off. Here is a Video of Testing 1,2,3 from the show. Some of the fans put together a list of all the BNL songs not preformed on any Ships & Dip cruise and put them all on ping pong balls and into a bucket and they did a few songs from the bucked each show - which lead to Ed saying "Is this even a barenaked ladies song?". Luckally someone had a massive Book of all BNL Lyrics to help the band out. Here are some more pictures from our show Set list Drink bill for monday $42.72
Tuesday Feb 3rd - Cozumel
Had room service deliver breakfast since we had to be at Fizz bar for our excersion. Coffee, OJ, scrambled eggs, bagles, danish - yummy and a nice way to deal with a rushed morning. We met Pete and Sandy in line for the excersion, retired high school teachers (Geography and history) from florida but now living in texas. We followed the green 'Sun & Fun Tours - Tulum' handsigns to the boat adn then the bus. The girl from the show last night with the lyric book was also on our excersion and from her we found out the scoop on Sarah M - that she had called up BNL and asked if she could be in their cruise since she wanted to take her daughter on a cruise. The boat to Playa Del Carmen on the mainland was pretty rough (I though it was like a roller coaster, Pooch was glad that he had time to settle breakfast beforehand). Once at the Playa we met our tour guide Manuel and walked a mile to where we boarded our busses. It is about 45 mintues to Tulum and Manuel gave us lost of information about the Mayan culture and Tulum. We learned that there is a type of obsidian that has a gold sheen when the sun hits it just right - and from a distance this is what cause the impression of "city of gold' at Tulum (and we could buy masks of this gold obsidian at our nex stop which also had clean restrooms and free tequilla shots). There was also a Weaver had a kewl shuttle thrower on his loom (Video). The second half of the bus ride we got a sales pitch on Pakal necklaces (our names in Mayan characters), but wasn't quite as bad as it sounds. once we arrived at Tulum we walked to the main area and got about 20 minutes of information and then had about two hours to wander around on our own. We hiked to some of the ruins, and saw many Iguanas then Pooch wandered down to the beach to play in the ocean.. Was really wonderful day and a great mix of structured tour and free time to wander. We had hoped to visit some of the shops on the way back to the bus but we had wandered the ruins to long so had to rush back. I slept much fo the way back to the boat. The wind had picked up and the trip back was even more rockey - Pooch kept his eye on the horizon to try to keep from turning to green. We got back to the Jewel and Pooch grabbed a gingerale and a nap and felt better. Then we went to to Great Big Sea sail away concert. Sean from GBS had decided to have a different hair style every day of the cruise. Set list for the sail away We then went to the Sushi premium restaunt for dinner there was a $15 per person surchage but all the sushi you could eat - quite yummy, though the waiter didn't know much about sushi so had to keep asking the chef for each questiion I asked, and there was no plum wine (pout) Then we headed down to bar city for the Gaelic storm show (Video) - it was AWSOME - the crew was watching from the atrium. Great Big Sea joined them for a few songs, and they ended the show by much of the band wandering thru the audience then up the stairs to an upstairs bar to order a round of jamisons and sang over the balcony. Drink bill for the day $27.61 (lower since pooch was not drinking cause of the rocky ride), also bought a copy of the naked photo
Wednesday Feb 4th - Day at Sea
Turns out E! News Online was represented on our cruise. I woke up to an alien possessed Pooch trying to wake me up so we could go see the sunrise. (For those that don't know I'm the morning person in this relationship.) We went up to the pool deck and had missed the actual rising of the sun by a bit but it was still pretty. We met the Awsome Wankers - a group of guys that had decided to stay in the hot tub until the beer was all gone. Two were from Devon, UK and the other was Channon Roe. It appears they had the bartender fill an ice chest with beer before they shut the bar down. We declined joining up to help them finish the beer but we did stop to talk to them for a while, amusing display of the 'tongue of truth' which caused a very amusing comment of "That tongue makes me with I was a girl ... but not enough to get an operation or anything." We grabbed some breakfast at the garden cafe then back to sleep for a few hours. Star got up first and tried out her free $10 for table games (some roulette and 3 card poker) and then we met up with some of the gamers at maltings for some Magic the Gathering and San Juan. Jason and Michelle from New Jersey were enjoying being on a vacation without the kids and getting a chance to play. Doug from New Hampshire had some other great games from Asmadi Games such as "We didn't Playtest This at All!" (which I have ordered a copy of). (Pete also recommended Race for the Galaxy that is much like San Juan that I want to check out.) We all moved up to the Blue Lagoon for a snack (Pooch had yummy fish and chips, I had tomato soup and grilled cheese) and played some No Thanks!. Then wandered the ship some more. Turns out we were not the only gamers - there was a Guitar Hero tournament going on in the atrium and there was at least One game of Call of Cthulu. The captain decided the weather was to cold to enjoy the private island and the wind/water to choppy to tender to the island so going to key west instead, so no snorkeling this trip. We checked the Restaurant Guide for ideas but decided to just hit the Garden Buffet again - WRONG Choice - the pasta was mediocre, and three other things I tried were all to spicy. Saw Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland's shows (same stage, same folks, just different person doing lead and different songwriter). Various other band folks like Ed Robertson from BNL joined in on some stuff. Pooch went up to spinnaker lounge for Vanity Project ("neah") and Thin Buckle ("okay but limited range"). Then it was Chocolate Buffet time. We saw Sean from GBS with his Hair of the day and then afterwords we both saw The Odds (Pooch liked more then me) where it was COLD on the pool deck. We stayed for a bit of Acid Wish (sort of like The Odds doing $ellOut) then headed to the Stardust theater to catch the 2/3rds of Kids in the Hall performance of Dave Foley & Kevin McDonald with some guitar help from Craig Northey. Drink Bill for Wednesday $18.46 (Low since Pooch still recovering)
Thursday Feb 5th - Key West
Slept in and had breakfast on board (star had waffles, pooch had omlet). There was a shuttle tram that ran from the dock to downtown all day so we could come and go as we wished. Key west is the southernmost point in the US and the beginning of Route 1, it is also a very tourist / party centered town, and hugely queer friendly. They have a sunset celebration every day (but we had to be back onship at 4:30 but we did catch the sunset on board). We wandered around, of course being us the first place we actually enetered was that Adult megastore Fairvilla who have wonderfully knowagalbe (and cute little gay boy) staff, who fuss over anyone that actually asks intelligent questions. (How do neoprene rings compare to metal ones). We wandered up and down Duval street and a few streets either side. Pooch decided he wanted Conch for lunch since we were here and we looked at a few menus wandering closer to the docs and found Conch Republic Seafood once we were seated we knew we picked right since the local cops were eating there also. I had Mojito, oysters (best I have ever had) and conch fritters. Pooch had cracked conch and conch chowder. VERY YUMMY. We looked over a map to see what we had missed and Pooch realized there was a Hard Rock Cafe so went over to have his traditional B-52 and get a shot glass. I never knew that Hard Rock had pins - so now I decided I get a pin when I do a shot with Pooch - I found a 2009 Key West musical skeleton for my first pin. We found more Del Sol color chaning nail polish and mostly just wandered and had fun. They were making a killing on sweatshrits (it was 47, the all time low in key west is 41). I found the Knitting Store but nothing there I can't get at Yarn barn at home. Back on board it was Gaelic Storm's turn for sail away show, and then we wathed the Weakerthin's show where it was very cold and windy, but I did finally run into Jennifer Braun who is friends with a friend of mine from jr high. Drink bill $33
Friday Feb 6th - disembark
You pick a disembark color (with approximate time) and they picked up our suitcases overnight (leave out in hall). We had breakfast at Tsar's for the last time and then back to the room to pack the final things. Hung out in the atrium until our number was called then off to get our luggage and wait for Danielle. D&Pooch had to stop by the game shop on the way home to get a box of MtG Conflux and they did pack wars most of the night. We got frozen pizza and just vegged out. I pulled all 412 photos off the cameras and started in on my 486 emails and -380 livejournal.
Saturday feb 7th - fly home
We stopped at the casino for breakfast and a bit of gambeling (D ended up $160 up) and then off to the airport to come home. it is hard adjusting to life off boat - took 2-3 days to stop rocking and I still wish I could hold up my room key and have someone bring me drinks. Total cost of our free cruise was $1757 - that includes everying including our airfare ($330), luggage fees ($60), cruise books for research, sunscreen, parking, meals in Florida and Key west, excersions, casino money, drinking, tips, shopping in key west. Our actually onboard costs were about $500 We also put together a list of bands on our dream version of a cruise if we were to put one together [edited to be clearer]
Packing List
Essential Little Cruise Book
Validated by HTML Validator (based on Tidy)
Last Updated: 03/23/09 Visit my homepage