UDC 23, 80s Cruise, and beyond - my musical journey continues

[George C]

53 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Thanks for the notes. I only spent time by the pool to watch the bands (much easier on the UDC than The 80s Cruise). The R&R lineup doesn't feel full yet, so maybe you'll get your wish. 🙏

On normal cruises I spend lots of time in the pool, but on rock and romance only during daytime concerts , I have a little edge on you since we have pool in our backyard that I can use 6 months out of the year. 

Edited May 6, 2023 by George C

[Honolulu Blue]

9 hours ago, George C said:

On normal cruises I spend lots of time in the pool, but on rock and romance only during daytime concerts , I have a little edge on you since we have pool in our backyard that I can use 6 months out of the year. 

No pool for me, thanks:

1. I don't want one
2. My back yard isn't large enough for one, though I suppose I could stick a wading pool outside.  I assume yours is better than this:

[George C]

It will be 90 today might jump in the pool later

[Honolulu Blue]

Because the last TEC had a Purple Night in dedication to Prince...

Because the last TEC had Morris Day and the Time, who are forever connected with Prince...

Because my 80s themed cruise on the Ruby had Red Corvette, who did a nice tribute to Prince and his music...

 

...I am sharing the below link to an article I found interesting.  Yesterday, the Minnesota governor signed a bill changing the name of some highway passing through a couple of Minneapolis suburbs to Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway.  A high honor indeed.  I wish he was around to see it. 🙁

 

Anyway, here's that article:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/minnesota-governor-sign-bill-dedicating-155929022.html

Edited May 10, 2023 by Honolulu Blue

[Honolulu Blue]

I heard about Lionel Richie's Dancing on the Sand concert/adventure in the Bahamas that will be held at the end of November.  Mr. Richie managed to pull in Sheryl Crow and Nile Rogers & Chic as his guests, among others.  I assume these ex-Chic ladies weren't invited:

 

(above photo from last year's UDC; I missed them on this year's UDC. ☹️)

 

Anyway, the info page is at https://lionelrichie.vibee.com/ .  I finally found out their prices.  To make a long story short, it doesn't make enough value sense for me to go.  Oh well, I'm sure they'll get plenty of takers and make lots of $$$ for those involved.

 

Something that might be a good value is a recently announced show by Pat Benatar and her guitar-playing hubby Neil Giraldo at one of our nearby Native American megacasinos in August.  Here's the link to that site:  https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/5899452/pat-benatar-neil-giraldo-battle-creek-firekeepers-casino-hotel .  I don't see any VIP experiences, but the base tickets are pretty reasonable for a Hall of Famer - $50 to $80.  I like Pat well enough, so maybe I could make an evening out of this.  We'll see.

[Honolulu Blue]

I bought my ticket to the PB show this morning.  I got a nice, close solo seat in the 7th row next to the aisle.  On paper it looks near perfect.  It was $78 including all fees.  I'll fill in the plans around it later.

 

My favorite song from Pat is "Invincible".  She's likely to play it, but it's not a lock - call it 70%.  She's previously said that she's never playing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" live ever again due to all the public shootings.  They haven't stopped ☹️, so I don't expect to hear it here - which is kind of too bad.  "Promises In the Dark" is my second favorite from her.  It's relatively obscure, so it might come down to how long the concert is.  If it's a 25-song set list, she'll have no choice but to play it.  If it's just 10 songs, she's probably going to prefer others.

[George C]

Next week we will see new broadway play about Neil Diamond in New York, also bought tickets for Judy Collins playing with a symphony in Dallas area.

[Honolulu Blue]

Reason #42 why music charter cruises are better than festivals on land:  Shows (almost) never get canceled due to bad weather.*  Here's a link to yesterday's tale of woe at the Cruel World festival:  Siouxsie Sioux's anticipated U.S. comeback concert canceled due to 'severe weather': 'Please evacuate the festival site immediately' (yahoo.com) .

 

* I've been very lucky in my limited experience that none of the shows I wanted to see on my cruises have been canceled due to excessive sea motion (a definite hazard on cruise ships).  I figure it's a matter of time before this happens to me.  @George C, do you have any weather delay/cancellation stories to share?

[George C]

37 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Reason #42 why music charter cruises are better than festivals on land:  Shows (almost) never get canceled due to bad weather.*  Here's a link to yesterday's tale of woe at the Cruel World festival:  Siouxsie Sioux's anticipated U.S. comeback concert canceled due to 'severe weather': 'Please evacuate the festival site immediately' (yahoo.com) .

 

* I've been very lucky in my limited experience that none of the shows I wanted to see on my cruises have been canceled due to excessive sea motion (a definite hazard on cruise ships).  I figure it's a matter of time before this happens to me.  @George C, do you have any weather delay/cancellation stories to share?

Never had an issue on my 70 something cruises , on last rock and romance they had to move some scheduled outdoor concerts indoor because of high winds . The thing about ships is they can change course to avoid bad weather. I was just looking at celebrity cruises for November and December 2024 and prices for suites are higher than our rock and romance suite in March . 

[Honolulu Blue]

18 minutes ago, George C said:

Never had an issue on my 70 something cruises , on last rock and romance they had to move some scheduled outdoor concerts indoor because of high winds . The thing about ships is they can change course to avoid bad weather. I was just looking at celebrity cruises for November and December 2024 and prices for suites are higher than our rock and romance suite in March . 

Thanks for sharing, and also sharing some of your live performance plans.  I always figured that concerts outdoors were more vulnerable to hostile weather conditions.  It's good to know that R&R and StarVista Live have backup plans indoors when they happen.

 

P.S.  I find it quite insane that any cabin for an "ordinary" cruise would be more expensive than any music charter.  I'm happy when the charter is less than twice what I would pay for the same cabin without all the performances.

[George C]

19 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Thanks for sharing, and also sharing some of your live performance plans.  I always figured that concerts outdoors were more vulnerable to hostile weather conditions.  It's good to know that R&R and StarVista Live have backup plans indoors when they happen.

 

P.S.  I find it quite insane that any cabin for an "ordinary" cruise would be more expensive than any music charter.  I'm happy when the charter is less than twice what I would pay for the same cabin without all the performances.

Even though my royal suite is expensive considering all you get over the much smaller sky suite, we get drink package, liquor setup , free specialty restaurants etc , sky suite gets none of those. 

[Honolulu Blue]

Oh no, another diva down! 😞 I just learned of Tina Turner's passing.

[Honolulu Blue]

From the Always Something There To Remind Me department, chapter 606:  On my drive into work today, the first two songs I heard were "1999" from Prince and "Lights" from Journey.  Recall that we had tributes to both acts on my Ruby Princess 80s adventure.  Both songs were played by their respective bands.

 

 

The drive continued.  I heard another song, then I heard "Our Lips Are Sealed" by The Go-Go's.  We had our lead singer Belinda Carlisle on The 80s Cruise last year.  She played this one.

Edited June 6, 2023 by Honolulu Blue

[Honolulu Blue]

This morning, I bought a ticket to see Styx.  It's at the same Native megacasino as my Pat Benatar concert.  It's two weeks later.  11th row, center section, on the aisle - looks good to me.

[Honolulu Blue]

I forgot to mention that this ticket cost about $84.  I'll make up the rest of my plans for this later.

[George C]

3 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

This morning, I bought a ticket to see Styx.  It's at the same Native megacasino as my Pat Benatar concert.  It's two weeks later.  11th row, center section, on the aisle - looks good to me.

styx were on one of our rock and romance cruises. 

[Honolulu Blue]

3 hours ago, George C said:

styx were on one of our rock and romance cruises. 

Thanks for the heads up. 👍 I know they've been other music themed cruises.

[Honolulu Blue]

The UDC 34 released their highlight reel.  It's about 4 minutes.  I didn't see myself, but I did see all the bands that were highlighted.

 

[Honolulu Blue]

Reason #4028 why I generally like concerts at sea better than on land:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/massive-hail-storm-pummels-concertgoers-110847798.html

 

TL,DR:  Hail pelts concertgoers in Colorado.

 

I'm pretty sure I've never experienced a hailstorm at sea - the weather conditions in the places where I like to sail are mostly not conducive to hail.  And in any case, cruise ships are mobile and can probably dodge a hail core easily enough.

[Honolulu Blue]

Reason #4029 why I generally like concerts at sea better than on land:  https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/06/i-got-roofied-and-kidnapped-womans-story-highlights-safety-issues-at-michigan-music-festivals.html

 

TL,DR:  Young lady goes to music festival in Michigan, gets drugged, gets kidnapped, lives to tell a tale.

 

I also got an e-mail from The 80s Cruise with some small pieces of news - our formal night is John Hughes Night.  And they're up to 98% full now.

[Honolulu Blue]

Teeny tiny update... Pat Benatar tickets have all sold out, and there are just a few Styx tickets remaining.  I'm still looking forward to these shows.  👍

[Honolulu Blue]

I found a fun article from Steve Leftridge of the Riverfront Times (a St. Louis-area media source).  It's called "Is Foreigner Essentially a Cover Band? The St. Louis Show Begs the Question".  It goes into the title question, but also a lot more.  I thought it was a great read, if a little long.  The article is at https://www.riverfronttimes.com/music/is-foreigner-essentially-a-cover-band-the-st-louis-show-begs-the-question-40527398 .

 

To summarize it, the article talks about the current iteration of Foreigner, which only has Mick Jones as an original member - but Mr. Jones has been playing less and less through the years.  @George C and I will host this Foreigner on the Rock & Romance cruise next April.  It'll be interesting to see if Mr. Jones shows up (I doubt it, but wouldn't it be nice? 🙏).

 

Also in the article:

• Lou Gramm and the other living Foreigners were mentioned briefly
• Foreinger played "Waiting For a Girl Like You" at this show
• Loverboy was the opening act; they were reviewed
• St. Louis is apparently a hotspot for tribute bands; who knew?  Not me, until now.
• Several other bands that are coming to St. Louis soon are down to few or no original members

 

Also mentioned by the article were three hit Foreigner songs that Mick Jones wrote solo (as opposed to co-writing with Lou Gramm, which was most of the others) - "Feels Like the First Time", "Urgent", and "I Want To Know What Love Is".  I should note that Mr. Gramm played all three of those songs at his show on The 80s Cruise a few months ago.

[Honolulu Blue]

Reason #4030 why concerts onboard are better than on land:  there are no cancellations due to extreme heat.  Here's an article about a show in Phoenix that was called off for that reason:  https://www.12news.com/article/weather/extreme-weather/concert-canceled-phoenixs-extreme-heat-equipment-malfunction/75-6b6b2860-cd59-454b-801f-e86addb0edce

[Honolulu Blue]

In the Always Something There to Remind Me department, the radio station I listen to on the way in to work played, consecutively, "We Got the Beat" from the Go-Go's and "Every Breath You Take" from the Police.

 

I happened to see lead singers from both of those bands last year - Belinda Carlisle on The 80s Cruise in March and Sting on land in May.  Here are looks at both of them:

 

[Honolulu Blue]

I booked another musical adventure for later this year - October to be more exact.  It's at another Native megacasino about 2 1/2 hours away.  This one features Stephen Pearcy of Ratt and Quiet Riot.  Yes, I know Mr. Pearcy is on next year's edition of The 80s Cruise, but I figure it's not a bad thing to see him twice within 6 months.  Quiet Riot has always been a favorite of mine.  I booked the ticket (about $93 to be in the 12th row and on the aisle - seems good), a separate meet-and-greet opportunity through Mr. Pearcy's site ($100, we'll see how it goes...), and a hotel room ($330, ouch).  I hope the weather is good enough to allow me to visit this show.