Ships & Dip III - Sunday - Embarkation & Sail Away!

You Never Know What's Gonna Happen on the Cruise-Uh!

Sunday, January 27 - Embarkation and Sail-Away!

Embarkation was a breeze! Last year, the band took pictures with everyone, and it really dragged out the process. This year they didn't join us for embarkation photos, which kind of sucked, but I understood. We got on the boat MUCH faster this year! I was very impressed with the Carnival staff at the terminal. The guys each took turns greeting people as they went up the escalator. Ed was first, and we were pretty early, so we saw him on our way up. That morning, I had lost my original hat -- a nice straw one, actually, that I had planned on wearing at other times on the ship -- so I had to get another one at a little store under our hotel. Well, I'm so glad I did, because it was SO horrendous, Ed commented on it as we went up. Score! See the embarkation photo on the index page for that beauty. LOL!

Our rooms weren't ready yet, so we were directed up to Lido for lunch with all our carry-on baggage. That wasn't very much fun, as the buffet was crowded enough, but we managed. We also got to see LOTS of friends from barenaked.net right away at lunch, and sat near them. After lunch, we went to our cabin, and did our door decorations while we waited for it to be time for the lifeboat drill.

The drill was mercifully short -- much faster than last year! After the drill, we headed up to Lido for the BNL sail-away concert at 5 pm (Concert Count: 1). We didn't get a very good spot, and our pictures show it, but we still had a great time! There was another Carnival ship in port, the Valor, and I guess it's tradition to honk the big horn at each other, because they did it like 4 times during the sail-away show! The first time scared the living crap out of everyone, including the band. I can't wait to hear the recording of this show! LOL!

After the sail-away, we had some down time. I think we had some dinner, then went back to our cabin to unpack a bit. I think most of our luggage had arrived at that point.

We worked our way to the Atrium to see Jason Plumb (Concert Count: 2) at 8:30 pm. I have definitely become a big fan of his! I bought his CD, Under and Over, on the ship. After Jason, we caught a bit of Gaelic Storm's set (Concert Count: 3) on Lido (9:30 pm) before the BNL Double Dipper's show for cruise alumni at 10:30 pm (Concert Count: 4).

Our door! Stupid Elation. We didn't win, by the way. Click Here for detailed images.	Flags in Port
Steve and Clarissa in the Muster Drill	Suebee at the Muster Drill, blurry. John only had one drink, I swear!
Loading band equipment by crane	The crowd for the sail-away show with BNL, hanging off the rafters!
The whole band during the sail-away show... if you squint.	Admittedly, not the best location for concert photography!
The best shot we got.	Miami, and all the little boats!
The Carnival Valor	Passing the Valor on our way out
Leaving the Valor in the dust at Sunset.	Jason Plumb in the Atrium
Ed joins Jason	Ed with Jason
Gaelic Storm on the Lido Deck	Lead singer of Gaelic Storm
Gaelic Storm	Galeic Storm

Barenaked Ladies - Double Dippers Alumni Show!

This was SUCH a great show! Before the show, the Sixthman staff were walking around with a notepad and a little sand bucket, taking requests. They dumped all the requests into a bigger bucket (the white ones used for beer buckets), and the band pulled songs out of the bucket. A couple times they screwed up, and needed Renee's lyric book (one fan always brings a binder full of lyrics, and they used it a LOT on this trip!), but that's half the fun! At one point, "Another Postcard" came out of the bucket, and they almost didn't do it! But then Kevin said, "F*** it, it's in the Bucket!" I think that was the best version I had ever heard, because Ed couldn't remember all the different kinds of chimps, so he was making them up.

Later, One Week came out of the bucket, and they DID say "f*** it" to that one. Steve said, "I didn't come on a cruise to play One Week!" He stuck to it, too... as far as I know, it was not played ONCE on the boat! Awesome! :D (we did hear it in a store on Grand Cayman, though!)

After BNL's show was over, we went back up to Lido for some ice cream (a recurring thing), and caught a small bit of The New Odds (Concert Count: 5). We didn't stick around for Acid Wish (New Odds in costume, playing '80s hair band music), and as a result, missed Steve in a pretty seriously insane costume as "Bartles," but he pulled it out again (interpret that as you will) on Thursday night... but that's WAY later!

We pretty much collapsed into bed, and slept like corpses.