How I Spent My Winter Vacation, pt. 1
Feb. 13th, 2011 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serindeSome several months ago, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nedlnthred were enticed to hitch our wagons to Ships and Dip, the fourth of that name. The concept, if you do not feel like making clicky, is that the Barenaked Ladies and a bunch of bands they like / are friends with get on a Caribbean cruise ship and invite you, yes, YOU along. So it's like a regular cruise, except that awesome music is constantly breaking out all over. And, as Tami (our Pied Piper) put it, wouldn't you rather go on a cruise with a pack of alt-rock fans than with blue-haired old ladies playing shuffleboard?
Yes. Yes I would.
So last Saturday, we girded our loins and headed south to Miami. (One needed to be on the ship no later than 3pm Sunday, but the night over gave us wiggle room in case of trouble, and also meant that Sunday morning was not sheer madness.) Tami had arranged, through her work travel agency, a car to come pick us up at the airport and deliver us to the Marriott Biscayne Bay. Both of these things were awesome--the car was a huge black SUV with tinted windows; I felt like I was part of a presidential motorcade--and the hotel was plushy and comfortable, and we had a little balcony looking over the pool (and if you craned a little bit, you could look out over the bay and towards Miami Beach). We got settled, refreshed ourselves, and headed out to Miami Beach to find dinner and amusement. Dinner was at a fusionish place called Balans in Lincoln Road Mall, an extended pedestrian plaza with Stuff, and which I know I have seen in GTA: Vice City. (Indeed, all of Miami Beach particularly looks like Vice City; it was kinda hilarious.) Then we took a cab to the South Beach, to a place called Wet Willie's, which appears to be rather famous, not to mention so popular and raucous that they have police always hanging out in front of it. But it was no trouble at the time, as the entire upper floor was taken up by Dippers (as the cruise attendees are known). The specialite du maison is alcoholic slushies of great potency in two dozen flavors. Beth and I were both feeling sort of fried, and not up to a huge party, so we took our slushies and withdrew to the outdoor balcony over Ocean Drive, and watched the cruisers a-cruisin'. (This was another street that I can point to exactly in Vice City.) After while, we wanted to explore a bit, so we walked up the drive looking at all the Art Deco architecture and facades--it is apparently a famous district for this, which I did not know, and they even have a gift shop--and then a little bit along the beach, dipping our toes in the ocean. Amusing side note: when we stopped at the top of the beach to put our shoes back on, a stray cat came ambling up and jumped purring into Beth's lap. Of course it did! (Tami told us later that the city puts out kibble for stray cats, to keep the rats down.) Caught a cab back to the hotel, and passed out.
Woke up much earlier than I needed to on Sunday, so I went forth and procured caffeine for our party, and sat out on the balcony drinking it and enjoying the warmth soaking into my bones. When the others got up and put their faces on, we went down to breakfast, after which Beth and I took a brief turn along the marina...brief, because it turned out to be too hot and bright for what I had on at the time, including No Sunglasses. We kicked around til quarter to twelve, then went down, checked out, and got a cab to the Port of Miami, where the cruise ships herd.
Ensued then a 2.5-hour agony of standing in lines, sometimes in the hot sun, sometimes in arctic air-conditioning, sometimes not moving at all. The less said about it, the better, but in any case we finally got on board and to our room by about quarter to three. We dumped stuff off and stampeded to the buffet (as we missed lunch in the full service dining room), and after quieting the wolf within, went back to get ourselves settled a bit. We actually had a mini-suite; it can house two pretty roomily (well, by cruise ship standards) or four living in each other's armpits, but we coped surprisingly well. The "bedroom" half can be one queen bed (I think) or split into two twins, which we had the latter done, and those were for Tami and Cory; and the "living room" half has a couch which pulls out into a sofa bed, where Beth and I slept. We also had a balcony, which was worth the price of admission right there, and a bathroom with toilet, tub (a luxury, I understand), and a pretty good-sized sink & mirror. After settling and doing some unpacking, we headed up to the pool deck for the sail-away show. It is an agreeable custom of this society to, whenever the ship is leaving a port, have one of the bands play a show on the pool deck as we get underway. The first sail-away show is, of course, the Barenaked Ladies. And they started with "Lovers in a Dangerous Time". (I will admit I immediately had a Ha! Ha! thought ataudiovile.) So we sat there under the warm, cloudless Miami sky, drinking fruity alcoholic drinks and listening to awesome live music. Oh, it sucked to be us.
We had dinner around, eh, 7ish I think, in the "Venetian" restaurant. --A word about how cruise ships work, for those who were as oblivious as me; the staggering price of your ticket includes all the food you can eat at the main dining room(s) (the Norwegian Dawn has two: the Venetian and the Aqua), which are open at set times (most cruise lines, you actually have scheduled seatings if you choose to eat there; Norwegian does not do this, which I like); at the massive buffet (the Garden Cafe) open at least partially from early morning to fairly late in the evening; the small all-night dinerish place (the Blue Lagoon); and at the grill they have open on the pool deck mostly during lunch. There are also a dozen "specialty" restaurants which cost extra, anywhere from $10 to $25--I am told they are excellent but we did not try any. Because the other thing not covered is your booze. This is where all your dosh goes. The fruity drinks are about $6-$8, plus mandatory 15% service charge tacked on to every last thing you do. Wine has about a x3 markup, based on the couple of bottles they had in stock that I recognized--e.g. the Ferrari-Cardano fume blanc of which I am fond usually lists at $16 (and I get it on sale at, say, TJ's for about $11), but went for $42 on the ship.
So after dinner, I explored a bit, and then Tami and Cory and I went to the big indoor theatre (the "Stardust Theater") to see Great Big Sea. I had heard of them, and August played me some of their stuff when I visited, and I liked what I heard; and oh my God the show totally blew me away. It was made of 100% pure, unmitigated awesome. Loved. It. The only thing that would have made it better would have been someplace to dance. That ended about, um, 11pm I think, after which I went back and collapsed.
nedlnthred were enticed to hitch our wagons to Ships and Dip, the fourth of that name. The concept, if you do not feel like making clicky, is that the Barenaked Ladies and a bunch of bands they like / are friends with get on a Caribbean cruise ship and invite you, yes, YOU along. So it's like a regular cruise, except that awesome music is constantly breaking out all over. And, as Tami (our Pied Piper) put it, wouldn't you rather go on a cruise with a pack of alt-rock fans than with blue-haired old ladies playing shuffleboard?Yes. Yes I would.
So last Saturday, we girded our loins and headed south to Miami. (One needed to be on the ship no later than 3pm Sunday, but the night over gave us wiggle room in case of trouble, and also meant that Sunday morning was not sheer madness.) Tami had arranged, through her work travel agency, a car to come pick us up at the airport and deliver us to the Marriott Biscayne Bay. Both of these things were awesome--the car was a huge black SUV with tinted windows; I felt like I was part of a presidential motorcade--and the hotel was plushy and comfortable, and we had a little balcony looking over the pool (and if you craned a little bit, you could look out over the bay and towards Miami Beach). We got settled, refreshed ourselves, and headed out to Miami Beach to find dinner and amusement. Dinner was at a fusionish place called Balans in Lincoln Road Mall, an extended pedestrian plaza with Stuff, and which I know I have seen in GTA: Vice City. (Indeed, all of Miami Beach particularly looks like Vice City; it was kinda hilarious.) Then we took a cab to the South Beach, to a place called Wet Willie's, which appears to be rather famous, not to mention so popular and raucous that they have police always hanging out in front of it. But it was no trouble at the time, as the entire upper floor was taken up by Dippers (as the cruise attendees are known). The specialite du maison is alcoholic slushies of great potency in two dozen flavors. Beth and I were both feeling sort of fried, and not up to a huge party, so we took our slushies and withdrew to the outdoor balcony over Ocean Drive, and watched the cruisers a-cruisin'. (This was another street that I can point to exactly in Vice City.) After while, we wanted to explore a bit, so we walked up the drive looking at all the Art Deco architecture and facades--it is apparently a famous district for this, which I did not know, and they even have a gift shop--and then a little bit along the beach, dipping our toes in the ocean. Amusing side note: when we stopped at the top of the beach to put our shoes back on, a stray cat came ambling up and jumped purring into Beth's lap. Of course it did! (Tami told us later that the city puts out kibble for stray cats, to keep the rats down.) Caught a cab back to the hotel, and passed out.
Woke up much earlier than I needed to on Sunday, so I went forth and procured caffeine for our party, and sat out on the balcony drinking it and enjoying the warmth soaking into my bones. When the others got up and put their faces on, we went down to breakfast, after which Beth and I took a brief turn along the marina...brief, because it turned out to be too hot and bright for what I had on at the time, including No Sunglasses. We kicked around til quarter to twelve, then went down, checked out, and got a cab to the Port of Miami, where the cruise ships herd.
Ensued then a 2.5-hour agony of standing in lines, sometimes in the hot sun, sometimes in arctic air-conditioning, sometimes not moving at all. The less said about it, the better, but in any case we finally got on board and to our room by about quarter to three. We dumped stuff off and stampeded to the buffet (as we missed lunch in the full service dining room), and after quieting the wolf within, went back to get ourselves settled a bit. We actually had a mini-suite; it can house two pretty roomily (well, by cruise ship standards) or four living in each other's armpits, but we coped surprisingly well. The "bedroom" half can be one queen bed (I think) or split into two twins, which we had the latter done, and those were for Tami and Cory; and the "living room" half has a couch which pulls out into a sofa bed, where Beth and I slept. We also had a balcony, which was worth the price of admission right there, and a bathroom with toilet, tub (a luxury, I understand), and a pretty good-sized sink & mirror. After settling and doing some unpacking, we headed up to the pool deck for the sail-away show. It is an agreeable custom of this society to, whenever the ship is leaving a port, have one of the bands play a show on the pool deck as we get underway. The first sail-away show is, of course, the Barenaked Ladies. And they started with "Lovers in a Dangerous Time". (I will admit I immediately had a Ha! Ha! thought at
audiovile.) So we sat there under the warm, cloudless Miami sky, drinking fruity alcoholic drinks and listening to awesome live music. Oh, it sucked to be us.We had dinner around, eh, 7ish I think, in the "Venetian" restaurant. --A word about how cruise ships work, for those who were as oblivious as me; the staggering price of your ticket includes all the food you can eat at the main dining room(s) (the Norwegian Dawn has two: the Venetian and the Aqua), which are open at set times (most cruise lines, you actually have scheduled seatings if you choose to eat there; Norwegian does not do this, which I like); at the massive buffet (the Garden Cafe) open at least partially from early morning to fairly late in the evening; the small all-night dinerish place (the Blue Lagoon); and at the grill they have open on the pool deck mostly during lunch. There are also a dozen "specialty" restaurants which cost extra, anywhere from $10 to $25--I am told they are excellent but we did not try any. Because the other thing not covered is your booze. This is where all your dosh goes. The fruity drinks are about $6-$8, plus mandatory 15% service charge tacked on to every last thing you do. Wine has about a x3 markup, based on the couple of bottles they had in stock that I recognized--e.g. the Ferrari-Cardano fume blanc of which I am fond usually lists at $16 (and I get it on sale at, say, TJ's for about $11), but went for $42 on the ship.
So after dinner, I explored a bit, and then Tami and Cory and I went to the big indoor theatre (the "Stardust Theater") to see Great Big Sea. I had heard of them, and August played me some of their stuff when I visited, and I liked what I heard; and oh my God the show totally blew me away. It was made of 100% pure, unmitigated awesome. Loved. It. The only thing that would have made it better would have been someplace to dance. That ended about, um, 11pm I think, after which I went back and collapsed.
