"We're here for a good time, not a long time..." (Trooper)

Wow.  Hmmmmmm...where to start...

First of all, let me just say:  Life.  Is.  GOOD!  :)  And vacation is highly underrated.

I think I'm going to backtrack a bit:

Friday night was the pre-cruise party at Exit 66 nightclub in Fort Lauderdale.  Enuff Z'Nuff and JSRG (aka Vixen) were the evening's entertainment.  Enuff Z'Nuff were already on when we got there.  We found A&A right away and then the Meister joined us shortly thereafter. It was pretty busy, and the crowd included Jeff LaBar (Cinderella) and the London Quireboys.  I was pleasantly surprised by JSRG -- I've never been a Vixen fan, and don't know any of their music, but I thoroughly enjoyed them.  We also met A&A's friends from "across the pond" (England), P&S (first time cruisers), who, as I understand it, are heavily involved in Firefest, a big weekend metal music festival every autumn somewhere in England.

And then it was finally  Saturday -- the day we boarded the ship for the SECOND Monsters of Rock Cruise!!  Wooooo!!

They've changed the process a bit this year, and getting through security, checking in, and boarding all went faster. So, we were on the ship around 2:00/2:30.  The first act playing was Heavy Mellow -- Flametal last year -- metal classics played in the Flamenco style, and very cool.  I could even play this when visiting with my "old maid Catholic school teacher aunt" (her words, not mine) and she'd never even know she was listening to Metallica or Ozzy Osbourne.  :)  Anyway, we loved these guys last year and were so glad to see them back on board.  We bought their CD last time and I was hoping they'd have a new one this year -- and rumour has it they do!  I have yet to actually see or procure it, however.

We hung out at the pool  for the "blackout at sea" photo before the sailaway concert with Tesla -- who were great, by the way.  (Oh, too funny -- this year someone was wearing a Neil Diamond  concert t-shirt!)  And speaking of Tesla, we tried the "Tesla-tini"  and the Faster Pussycat Iguana (tequila, pina colada mix, pineapple juice, etc., etc.)  After that, we kind of roamed around, saw a bit of Russ Dwarf (of Canada's own Killer Dwarfs), Ron Keel, and Motley Inc.  Actually, everyone is playing great sets!  We tried to see LA Guns and Y&T on the pool stage, but I found it too windy and cool for me.  I'm sure we'll get another chance to see both of them.  Then to cap off the first day, Lita Ford was in the theatre for 12:30.  As I mentioned last year, the theatre concerts NEVER started on time, but she was on and playing by 1:00 (yes, that's a.m.), so that's actually not too bad.

The celebrity sightings are too numerous to mention, but:  members of Helix, Cinderella, LA Guns, Stryper, Keel, Black'n'Blue, Loudness, London Quireboys, Lita Ford, John Corabi, Russ Dwarf...well, as I said...

Ok, Day 1 is a wrap, and Sunday is our Rockin' Day at Sea.  See you tomorrow!

\m/

Oh -- and Happy St Patrick's Day!