ships and dip cruise
All I have to say about the cruise: Best Experience Ever. I arrived in fort lauderdale on sunday evening, in time to enjoy the beach for a while before the sun went down. You could see the cruise ships leaving from the beach, so I watched the ships and walked along the beach with my feet in the water, which was warm. I walked along the beach until the sun went down then I went back to my hotel room and went to bed. The next morning I got up and went to Port Everglades to board the ship. While we were boarding everyone got their picture taken with bnl. After I got on board I walked around the boat and took pictures of fort lauderdale until we set sail. After the ship set sail there was a mandatory life boat drill, then the barenaked ladies played an acoustic set on the lido deck, which was on one of the top levels of the ship. The top two levels had hot tubs, swimming pools and bars all the was down them. That evening I also saw thinbuckle (Kevin's side project), the vanity project (Steve's side project), and the comedians, Sean Colluns and Harland Williams. During Harland's set, Kevin came up and played guitar and he and Harland sang a song Kevin had wrote called "He's a clown". During one part of the show Harland asked if bnl were there (in the audience) and then he said, "they are probably in their rooms masterbating" and from the back of the room we heard Ed yell, "We are here masterbating". I saw the ladies at all of the comedy shows. Kevin also got up with the vanity project and played with Steve. And while I was in line for the vanity project, Steve's parents were in line right in front of me, so I got to meet Steve's mom and dad.
The next day I got up and did the naked photo with the band. There were about 300-400 people that did it. After that, I went back to my room and got dressed then I watched the brothers creeggan (Jim's side project with his brother, Andy, who used to be in barenaked ladies). Before the show Ed and Jim were singing and Ed playing guitar so I went up front and listened. Then I watched bro creeggan, Ed and Tyler played with Jim and Andy. After that show, I walked around the ship with one of my friends and took pictures of the ship, cause it was beautiful. There was a bar in the middle called the Colossus that had glass elevators and there were merrels and artwork everywhere. Then we got in one of the hot tubs until I had to get in line for the bnl show that evening. There were two major bnl shows, the full tour show, and everyone was let into one, I was in the first one so I went to that. I ended up being a couple of rows back. Andy came and played a couple of songs with them, then when they did "brian wilson" he came back and played the bongo drums. I've never seen them play with Andy before so that was an experience in itself. During million dollars someone threw a green dress on stage and Steve put it on, but at first he couldn't figure out how to get it on, it was so funny. After the bnl show we all went and watched Sean Colluns and Harland Williams again. After the shows were over I hung out at one of the bars that was on the top of the ship with one of my friends until the bar closed then went to bed.
The next day we stopped at an island in the Carribean and most everyone got off to go shopping and to the bars, I stayed on the ship and walked around and took a ton of pictures of the islands. Then I got in the hot tub in the lido deck, I sat there until the ship set sail again, then got a good spot for the bnl show on the lido deck. They did a "rare songs" set as we took off again. I made a bunch of friends in the hot tub and after the show I went to dinner in one of the dining rooms with my friends. After dinner we went to watch the brothers creeggan show, I left that show early to see the vanity project, then after the vanity project I caught the end of the guster show. While I was sitting there watching guster, Harland Williams came in and sat next to me so I introduced myself and told him that I love "half-baked". When guster was done they said that there had been too much clapping and cheering so they would only come back and do an encore if everyone booed. So when they left the stage, everyone booed and chanted "guster sucks" to which they came back on stage giving us the finger. After the guster show I went to the disco to meet up with my friends and while I was walking there I ran into Harland again who stopped and chatted with me about the shows I had seen. I went to the disco and danced a little bit with my friends but then I left to see the thinbuckle show on lido. I watched thinbuckle and Harland sang again with them and they did that song "he is a clown" again, which I liked. Tyler also played with them and Andy also came up for a couple songs. After the thinbuckle show I went to one of the bars that was on the back of the ship to hang out and Harland was sitting at a table back there with Bob, the drummer from thinbuckle and some other people. As soon as I walked through the door Harland started waving at me, so I went and sat next to him and was hanging out with him and Bob and Kevin came over to the table and sat down. So I ended up hanging out with Harland Williams, Bob and Kevin. I told Bob that I had enjoyed the thinbuckle shows, I love how Bob jumps up and down while he plays the drums and throws his drum stick in the air and it lands on the cymball in time with the music. So I hung out with them until Bob and Harland left to go to bed, then I hung out with Kevin for a while until he was ready to turn in too.
The next day I got up and walked around the shops on the boat for a while. They also had a spa, a sauna, a hair salon, a casino and just about everything you could want to do on that ship. But that day the boat was rocking a lot and I was a little hungover and sea sick so I laid down in my room for an hour and watched the stuff on the tv. They had one channel that was showing pictures that people had taken and another channel that showed footage of everything on the ship, random footage and parts of the shows. They used my footage of my picture with the band on the footage channel so I was on tv. I laid down until it was time for the guster show then I went to the lido deck to see guster. I found a seat and while I was waiting for the show to start Kevin came by and gave my a hug and stopped and chatted with me. Then Bob came by and gave me a hug and stopped and chatted for a while. Then this group of people ended up sitting with me for the guster show so I made another set of friends. I watched guster, then I hung out there with them and watched the next band that came on. They were called Gaelic Storm. They were in that movie, Titanic, when they go to the lower class people party and they are dancing on the table to some irish sounding music, that was Gaelic Storm. One member played the bag pipes, they also had a violinist and the drummer played bongo drums. They sounded really good. After that, there was a party going on in the Colossus bar and Kevin had told me the night before to meet him there to hang out, so I went to the Colossus bar and hung out with Kevin for a while until a lot of people started showing up. Jim was also there. Then I went back to my room and packed up my stuff for the next morning and I was walking in the hallway and ran into these guys who do a tv show in toronto and they were interviewing people so I got interviewed. After that I watched the second bnl show, which was televised in all the bars and rooms. Then I went up to lido deck to see that last of the shows. I watched the New Odds, then Acid Wish. Acid Wish, which was really the New Odds dressed up as a cover band and they covered rock songs and they wore wigs and funky eighty's cloths on stage. Acid Wish started by themselves, then Steve and Ed came up and sang with them. Then Tyler got up and sang and rapped with them. Then Jim and Kevin played with them. Then after that everyone was up there, all Acid Wish, bnl, members of guster and the other bands and everyone was up there just playing all kinds of songs. Me and me friends ended up in the front row, we were so close that at one point I reached up and touched Ed's broken guitar string. And at one point Ed put "the lady in red" song into the mix and he knelt down in front of me with his arm extended and serenaded me. Ok, maybe it was because I had red in my shirt, but I like to think he just wanted an excuse to serenade me, he he. The last show went on for 4 hours non- stop. After it finally ended I went back to my room to sleep for a couple of hours until it was time to leave.
And since I took about 250 pictures I'm not going to put them all here so here is my site to see them:
http://my.opera.com/lilacgirl/albums/