On The Blue Cruise 2023. Day One in Review

On The Blue Cruise | January 28-February 2, 2023 | Norwegian Pearl

For the 2023 On The Blue Cruise, I was once again joined by my Jedi behind the lens friend Obi Wan. Since our last adventure together at the Monsters on the Mountain festival in Gatlinburg, he has upgraded his camera body from a DSLR to the Nikon Z mirrorless series which prompted me to update his nickname to Zobi Wan.

As with any (music) cruise I have ever sailed on, we once again opted to make the drive to Miami the day before departure to eliminate any possibility of travel related issues on the day of sailing. I made the suggestion that since we were not in a hurry and had no agenda for the evening we should make a roughly thirty minute detour to the Iron Maiden themed restaurant partially owned by Iron Maiden’s drummer, Nicko McBrain.

Rock n Roll Ribs in Coral Springs, FL, is famous for its fall off the bone ribs, having been honored as “Best Ribs 2012” by the web site Broward-Palm Beach New Times.[1]

This was my third time visiting the establishment and the ribs were just as amazing as my two prior visits. The entire inside is adorned with Iron Maiden memorabilia and many visitors as I have seen in the past are representing in their Iron Maiden shirts and as Chief Metal Officer, it was my duty to proudly wear my newest Iron Maiden shirt.

After dinner we settled in for the rest of the drive to the hotel where once we got to the lobby to check in, we saw many familiar faces from our prior trips working with the various teams that are the behind the scenes crew.

After getting up to the room and settled in, Zobi and I both grabbed our cameras and headed to the lobby and outside area courtyard of the hotel where there were all sorts of interesting things in and around the hotel to take photos of. Again, more familiar faces were seen, greetings were exchanged and you could feel the excitement in everyone’s voices of the adventure ahead of us all.

The next morning, embarkation day, I was pleasantly surprised to discover there were also artists staying at the hotel as well as cruisers and the various crew teams. Then it was time for us to board the crew team bus for the ten minute ride to the cruise port. Check in at the cruise terminal was a snap and after a short wait in the terminal, our crew group was among the first onboard to get ready for the events of the next few days.

Before I begin to describe the awesomeness that this cruise is and was, Zobi Wan and I want to express our thanks and gratitude to the behind the scenes staff who make this event happen. The people the fans do not see (much of at least). The stage production staff, the sound and lighting team, the security group, fellow photographers and videographers. There is tireless dedicated work before, during and after an event like this and there is no way it can be successful without the people who make it happen.

Many thanks to everyone we interacted with, broke bread with, laughed with, rocked out with and just enjoyed the company of our fellow rockers! One other area of props to note is how well this team kept things on schedule as out of the fifty one performances that I saw, only one was delayed to not start on time. That is an amazing percentage given the scope of multiple bands playing at the same time in various locations across the entire ship.

In addition, it is worth noting that it is impossible for me to convey everything that I experienced on this cruise so I will stick to the main highlights. The daily schedule is so packed that it is also an impossibility to take in every band’s performance, every event, both On the Blue Cruise related or even offered by Norwegian Cruise Line. There are times when two different bands that you want to see are playing at times that cross over one another, so there are times when choices have to be made. Thankfully, each band plays at least twice. It is a good problem to have with so many options available.

To say that we made new friends in the first few minutes of being onboard is an understatement. Once cruisers first step foot onboard, the cabins are usually not ready for occupancy so masses of people congregate in the food buffet areas. Seating is very limited in those first couple of hours.

As Zobi and I stood with plates of food in hand scanning for an open table, we were offered a seat with two very friendly ladies which we readily accepted. After introductions between the four of us, we discovered Carol and Monica had never been on a music themed cruise and we began to try to describe just how much fun that they in fact were in for.

After completing lunch we Zobi and I parted ways with Carol and Monica for the time being, telling them we for sure would bump into each other out and about exploring the ship on this first day. Also soon after lunch the music started on the pool deck with Marbin and their jazzy rock fusion sound.

This was the first of their multiple performances in the various venues, but also as you will read in subsequent days’ posts, the guys in this band love music and performing so much that they are very rarely without their instruments and quite often break out with impromptu performances wherever they happen to find themselves hanging out on the ship. These impromptu performances always seem to gather a crowd.

Beside meeting new people and saying hi to familiar faces, for me the first day of a music cruise is usually spent exploring the ship to make sure I know the quickest and most efficient way in between the various musical venues and of course the food locations. In my music cruise experience, food is sometimes the forgotten necessity, where the music and the people can make time can fly by so easily that I forget to eat and do so only to keep myself fueled for the next performance.

Musically the highlights for me this day was being introduced to Randy Hansen, who I came to discover is an absolutely amazing axe slinger known for his “Rock Tribute Act” honoring Jimi Hendrix. He was absolutely mesmerizing on stage with his amazing ability to make us think we were actually seeing and hearing the mighty Jimi playing in front of us. I was totally blown away and definitely had his second performance circled on my schedule.

Also I can share that when I went up behind the stage to get a photo of Randy working his magic and the crowd facing him, there was Carol and Monica in the crowd dancing away and already having a great time!

Pat Travers started his set by saying that he and his band were here to “…kick our ass with some rock…” and most certainly did. Both Zobi and I were very impressed with The Bottom Feeders, a group of younger musicians in different bands literally thrown together for this event and their youthful, hard rocking spin on songs of an older generation.

The rest of the day was full of amazing music also taking in eight other bands for a marvelous start to this adventure. As Zobi and I settled in for a quick late night snack, we agreed that we were in for a fantastic and fun four days ahead.

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[1] https://blabbermouth.net/news/iron-maiden-drummer-s-restaurant-honored-for-best-ribs

More Photos From Day 1 from Randy Cook