I woke up this morning having no idea how the day was going to go. Would Denise even be able to get out of bed? If so, what kind of shape would she be in? I had several things on my original schedule I wanted to do, but they all took a backseat to her.
I probably did a little work when I got up. I honestly don't remember. I really was just focused on her.
Last night, prior to all of the issues with Denise's back, we had put together a breakfast order and hung it outside our door. We got the phone call a little before 10 that our food was on the way.
When Denise woke up, she was able to get up and use the bathroom without too much of a problem. She was sore, but she wasn't incapacitated. That was a good start.
I took in our breakfast order, only to find that about a third of it was missing. We could have lived without most of it, but they hadn't even left us more than a dribble of cream for the coffee. I called down and let them know, and before long, the girl was back with the rest of our food.
I asked Denise what the plan was. I was prepared to hang out in the cabin all day if she didn't feel fit to move around the ship. (I certainly wasn't going to leave her there alone.) If worse came to worse, I knew we could watch the main show tonight on the ship's TV.
Denise said she thought she was good to go out, although she wouldn't be breaking any speed records. This was good news.
Our first event of the day was an interview with tonight's headliners, Berlin, in Studio B. That was good - a quick jaunt to the elevator, then down to the third deck, and we were right there.
Now there was some weird politics going on between ECP and Berlin. This year was the sixth annual 80's Cruise, and Berlin had been on every sailing. Many considered them the official band of the 80's Cruise. However, when the schedule for next year's cruise came out, Berlin wasn't on it. This seemed to split the 80's Cruise crowd down the middle. Some were ready for someone new. Others were horrified by the snub. In a question-and-answer session with the ECP Cruise Director JT (the guy who had played Marty McFly on Day 1), he had supposedly said that the demand wasn't there for them, and that their feedback showed that a lot of their cruisers were tired of them.
I could see both sides. On the one hand, I like to see new bands, so if I had been around for all six 80's Cruises, I might be ready for somebody different too. On the other hand, I like to see good bands, and as we get further and further from the 80's, and the potential acts get older and older, Berlin is one band that can still bring it. We were booked for next year already, and I'd like to see Berlin again. Especially since ECP had gone ahead after the initial lineup had been announced and re-invited Living Colour for next year. I'd rather see Berlin a million times over Living Colour. If I can find the petition that is supposedly going around to bring them back, I'll certainly sign it.
The whole band showed up for the interview.The interviewer was MTV's Mark Goodman, who proved to be a pretty deft interviewer. He took the band through their history. The funniest part was Terry Nunn's description of how the lyrics for the song "Sex (I'm A...)" came about. Basically, she was dating someone (Richard Blade, cough cough!) at the time, and while she wanted to do a little sexual role playing, he really wasn't into it - hence the song's call and response, where she's a goddess, a virgin, a geisha, etc., and he just keeps repeating, "I'm a man."
The hour flew by. The interview was a good way to start our day.
Next stop was up to the pool deck, where were hoping to find some seats in the shade for Dramarama. Unfortunately, we scoured Decks 11 and 12, and the only seats were some loungers out in the open sun on Deck 12. (And as I said in an earlier post, I don't do sun.) We made one more circle around Deck 11 and found one empty chair with a table all the way to the side of the stage. I gave Denise the seat and decided to try another plan. I was a little nervous leaving her alone, but we both had our phones, so she could message me quickly if she needed me.
I then scooted up to my old friend, Ellington's Night Club on Deck 14 (where we'd seen Larry's karaoke show the other night). It overlooked the pool deck, and while I wouldn't be able to actually see the band, I hoped I might be able to hear them. (God, I loved this room. If they have an equivalent room on next year's ship, I plan to spend more time there, especially since next year, we won't have a balcony.)
The room was pretty empty, and I quickly found myself a seat that overlooked the pool. I bought myself a Heineken and settled in. Unfortunately, the venue had the Cruise Radio station on low. And when the band came on, I could hear them, but it was pretty muddy.
After one song, I decided I wasn't going to get to see (hear) Dramarama on this cruise. I headed back to the cabin to see if A. They were showing Dramarama on the cruise channel (they weren't), or B. If I could maybe hear them from the balcony (I couldn't). At that point, I gave up. Hopefully, I'll catch them another time.
At this point, I realized that with the combination of the Heineken and the lack of sleep from last night, I could barely keep my eyes open. I laid down to take a quick power nap, putting the phone right next to my ear so that I'd hear it if Denise needed me. (I had hoped to maybe catch the game of Family Feud they were putting on in Studio B between A Flock of Seagulls and Johnny Hates Jazz, but at this point, a nap took priority.)
After a little while, I heard Denise come in. She had enjoyed Dramarama, although the only song of theirs she'd actually recognized was their hit "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)". (And I guarantee it would have been the same for me).
Denise's back was pretty sore again. She had hoped to catch a 3PM interview between Larry the Duck and Gene Loves Jezebel - she'd said that Michael Ashton had been very funny the other day calling the numbers at the Bingo game. Instead, she decided to rest for a bit, take down her decorations off of the cabin door, and then go down to the medical bay to see if the ship's doctor could do anything for her back.
I ordered room service for lunch - Denise wasn't hungry - and again, they forgot something or other. I got a burger, which was decent, a hot dog, which wasn't, and a plate of chocolate chip cookies, which Denise shared with me.
At 4PM, I accompanied Denise down to Deck 1 to the med bay. She was in there for a total of about 45 minutes. While she was there, they gave her a shot of something that was supposed to relieve the pain and three days worth of muscle relaxer pills.
We had dinner at 6. I wasn't all that hungry after a late lunch, so I ordered the turkey, which wasn't a bad choice. Denise uncharacteristically got the fish and chips. (She's usually not that big on seafood.)
After dinner, we went back up to the cabin to finish packing. We had to have our bags out in the hall for pickup by 10, which meant if we wanted to catch tonight's main show, we had to get them out before we left the cabin.
Then, a little before 9, we headed down to the (accursed) Royal Theater for the main event. (At this point, I was bruised on both sides of my stomach from those damned seats). I noticed that there was a hefty couple up there who had arranged to have two of the comfy seats from downstairs brought up and set up for them behind the last row of the balcony. I'm keeping this in mind as an option for next year, since next year's ship, The Navigator of the Seas, is a sister ship to Mariner and likely has the exact same set-up in the Royal Theater.)
At 9PM, Berlin came on. Two things: The first is that, sadly, I guess there are a decent number of people who weren't interested in them on this cruise, as the crowd was smaller than I'd seen for the most of the other headliners in this theater; and the second is that this was especially unfortunate, as they performed one of the best sets I'd seen all week (maybe second only to Human League). They blazed through their hits: "No More Words", "The Metro", "Masquerade," "You Take My Breath Away," and of course, "Sex (I'm A...)" - they played them all. It was a great show. And even bringing out Living Colour's Corey Feldman...um, I mean Glover...for the encore couldn't ruin it.
There were late night activities going on around the ship after that - Jessie's Girl was playing in Studio B, the Dualing Piano guys were playing in the Star Lounge, and there were a couple of DJ's set up in various places around the ship. But for Denise and I, Berlin pretty much ended our cruise. We had to get up by 6:30 or so tomorrow morning if we were going to catch some breakfast before getting off the ship. And we both wanted to get as much sleep as we could for the disembarkation. Even though we were using the wheelchairs again to get off the ship, I was concerned about Denise being able to drag her luggage around, and there was no way I could take hers and mine too. So off to bed we went.
While this essentially wrapped up our 80's Cruise, I'm going to post one more entry on this blog to tell you about our trip home and give an overall summary of the ship and the cruise. So stay tuned for that. (Probably tomorrow?) 'Night all.
