Welcome to the Cruise... I have been on the Cruise to the Edge for a few days now, so thought I would share a few observations. I was going to write more regularly, but the extortionate cost of wifi has prevented that. Amazingly it costs $300 for 24 hours! So I have waited until docking in Cozumel, Mexico until posting. The ship is nicely laid out and we have comfortable cabins looking out to sea which is a bonus. It is absolutely huge and there are thousands of cabins. It is divided between the 14 decks and the 9 stages with lots of eating places and various entertainments from casinos to spas to pools to shops. This is my first cruise and it is all a little curious and a bit new to me. Fortunately I was informed how expensive telephoning home is when out at sea. I heard via a friend that on another cruise someone made a 6 minute call and it cost them $700!! So no phoning for me. We sailed from Miami, USA via Cuba and were heading for Honduras when the weather changed. You would think that on a cruise in the Caribbean the weather would be guaranteed to be hot hot hot. Think again! Yesterday, the sky went black, the winds howled, the open deck was evacuated, the outdoor stage was cleared and all outdoor gigs were cancelled. So the boat changed course and went straight to Cozumel which, by the way, is a small island at the tip of the Mexican peninsula, somewhere near Cancun and Yukatan. It has been good to meet up with so many musician friends like Nick Beggs, Niko Tsonev and Rob Townsend and hear so much music. I have already heard the Steve Hackett Band (fab), Tony Levins Stickmen (great and perhaps the most contemporary band on the cruise), Lifesigns (very good) Three Friends (classy) and Patrick Moraz (disappointing). I saw Yes last night perform the whole of Close to the Edge which was not bad, and today heard UK which I enjoyed very much. I have a particularly soft spot for their album Danger Money and my favourite parts of the set were the tracks from that album, but they also played the whole of their first album and Starless by King Crimson too (John Wetton was on the original). There are gigs going on constantly, sometimes several at a time and also storyteller sessions where bands mainly talk and answer questions from the audience. Soft Machine Legacy (John Etheridge, Roy Babbington, myself and Mark Fletcher substituting for John Marshall on drums) have now played twice. Todays gig was on the outdoor stage on deck and in the Mexican midday sun, which was very hot and so not easy, but we did it and it got a great response, despite some technical problems. Yesterday we also did a meet and greet and met people from Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Germany, Scandinavia, the UK, Italy, France, Peru, Ukraine and all over the US. I can now see land and think it is time to step ashore...
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 16:40:32 +0000
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