Thursday on the Music Boat

It seems like ages ago, but remember when I went on this great cruise.  Yeah, well it's time to finish the story. 

Thursday was the one day of the cruise spent sailing all day.  Which meant everyone was on the boat at the same time.  I don't remember much about that morning, except I woke up too late to go get breakfast before getting in line to meet some of the artists.  Thanks to everyone else getting up on time, I was way back in the line.  Funny thing is I wasn't really sure who was going to be at this particular meet and greet.  I just got in line.  I like to talk to people, and so I struck up a conversation with the folks around me.  One guy, a youth pastor from down south, was pretty interesting.  When we got into the dining room where the artists were, I found out I was in fact waiting in line to meet Mercy Me.  Wait a minute, I already know these guys.   I also got to meet the guys from Audio Talks, First Day, and David Nasser.  Bart was being Sandi Patty for the day.  I got to talk to Mercy Me's manager, Joel, for a bit.  It was a fine morning, but I had to that point had no coffee or breakfast.  Not good. 

After I grabbed some breakfast, I went and started packing since all of our bags had to be outside our stateroom by 11pm.  In the afternoon, they had a Q&A session with various artists.  It didn't say who was going to be part of it, but I thought it would be interesting no matter who showed up.  It was!  Will from Audio Talks came running in dripping and barefoot straight from the pool to the stage.  Mercy Me showed up, and the illusionist, Brock Gill. They were all pretty funny, and I enjoyed listening to them talk about their ministries.  I think Steve Fee and one of the guys from Pillar were there too.

Right after that I ran (literally) to the pool because Matthew West was performing there.  He's a funny guy too.  Especially the song he sang for the weird "lady of the sea" statue that was in the middle of the stage. 

I left Matthew West at the pool to run and get in line to get Hawk Nelson's autograph for Marissa.  Now, I could care less about getting someone to sign their name on something, but I had promised her I would get theirs for her.  And I intended to keep that promise.  The line started on deck 4 and wound up the stairs to deck 14!! Insanity.  By the time we got to the top deck where they were, all of us in line knew everything about each other.  I didn't mind it too much.  I enjoy meeting new people.  One guy was so sweet and kept leaving the line to get his young bride ice cream cones.  Sweet!  They were both very nice. 

I ended up getting to meet the guys from Fee (turns out I had already met Heath in the elevator.)

I got the Hawk Nelson guys to sign the t-shirt I bought for Marissa, and made fun of Jason Dunn the lead singer for his ridiculous tweets (which his band mates confirmed as being true.)

I also got to say hi to the Barlow Girls, Alyssa, Lauren, and Becca.  Sweet girls, and so pretty! I also had a nice chat with their assistant and long-time friend, Becca Hart.   

I am so ridiculously burned, but on the plus side, it makes my teeth look nice and white.  After all that waiting in line to get pictures with the artists, it was time to get ready for dinner.  After dinner was the concert I'd been waiting for.

AA Talks opened the evening by talking about the orphanage they work with in Haiti, and a story of a little baby that was rescued and brought to them.  I don't think I'll ever forget that story, or the picture they showed of her today as a happy, 2 yr. old.  I cried.  David Nasser spoke next.  I'd heard of him, but never heard him speak before.  I very much enjoyed his style of speaking. 

Mercy Me is amazing in concert!  These guys are real and their music always leads me into a place of worship.  For Phil, he said it was a great concert, but he felt awkward.  You see, we were only a few rows back, and the MM guys could see us. 

They had never officially met my husband, and so they were looking at him.  Mike told me so the next time I saw him.  I thought that was pretty funny.

I wish I could remember the set they played, but I can't.  I know it was good, that's all.  It's always good. 

After the Mercy Me show we wanted to go see the 321 Improvguys one more time.  They were doing a version of the game show Family Feud with two of the entertainment directors from the cruise, as the hosts.  The improv guys were part of the "families".  It was pretty funny...until Phil raised his hand and got us up there!!  The rest of our "family" was the great people who were at our dining table.  Phil called us the McCoys hoping the other team would get it and call themselves the Hatfields.  They didn't.  It was fun, but I do NOTenjoy being in front of a crowd of people, or having to say anything into a microphone.  Our top ten answers were "children's story characters beginning with 'little'. It was pretty funny because the 321 Improv guys were giving goofy answers like Little Debbie snack cakes.  We ended up winning, and each got a Royal Caribbean keychain.  We left as soon as we were done, because we still had a ton of stuff to pack.  We found out later that we should have stayed because they called us up for the winners round at the end. 

The last event of the cruise was the "farewell concert" in the center of the ship.  I missed a lot of it, but got to see the Katina'splay and hear some of Matthew West's songs.  For the Katina's I was singing and worshiping only to open my eyes and realize that Nirva "Nirvassence" Dorsaint-Ready of Toby Mac's band, Diverse City was worshiping next to me.  I was kind of sad that the cruise was ending, but as I was heading back to our stateroom, I ran into the MM guys one last time. 

Friday morning we had a nice breakfast, and sat by the pool watching the sound guys pack up all that equipment while we waited for our color group to be called to disembark. 

Getting off the ship went smoothly, and we ended up riding in the rental car van with the drummer from the band Altered, and his wife.  I felt kind of bad that I hadn't even gotten to see his band play.  Nice people though. Phil got to hear them and said they were good.  A bit on the country side, which is not my thing.  We got our rental car and headed to the airport. 

Turns out we got to the airport so early, the airline wouldn't even let us check in or check our luggage.  Sheesh!  They always want you there early, but apparently 6 hours early is too early.  I was mad.  Spitting mad actually!  Here we were, on our actual anniversary, sitting in the FL airport.  For hours. I could have been sitting on Cocoa Beach for at least a few of those hours, thenwent to the airport.  Let's just say I didn't handle things well at all, and poor Phil took the brunt of my anger.  I did end up getting an iced tea, walking around the mall area (yes, Orlando Airport has a mall in it) and watching people.  That was interesting.  I ran into countless people from the cruise.  Like Pillar, Hawk Nelson, the Katinas, and David Nasser.  They were all hanging in the airport too. I didn't feel so bad then.  I refrained from talking to any of them, because I figured they'd probably had enough of fans trying to talk to them.  I did tweet James Katina about the food court, and he tweeted right back. 

The rest of our trip was quite uneventful. After we got some lunch at Chilis, we found a nice little alcove with comfy chairs.  Phil watched tv on his phone, and I lost myself in a book.  The day was redeemed.  Of course, I had to apologize for my earlier attitude, but my husband is gracious and all was well.

And there you have it folks!  You made it through the telling of the cruise story.  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  Go here to see some real pictures from the cruise!

Comments

[Rhonda]

Lisa, I LOVE LOVE LOVE your new blog look. This is the best design and fits perfectly with your blog name. You look like a lobster girl! Your feet are so funny how they tanned. Your trip just sounded amazing and so packed full of events. I will go now and check out the rest of the pictures.

[kelly (race_12_1)]

SO I was thinking--after lasts nights tweets I needed to come and read your story of the cruise again--now I really do want to go next year!!! But If you and Sarah bring your husbands--I'm gonna be a 5th wheel =))) We gotta get someone to be my roommate!

[Lisa]

Kelly,
We're bringing our girls this time. So, technically you'd be an 8th wheel. Lol. Are you kidding, if there is any way you can go, you HAVE to! We should put it out there for all the original SLOBS to try to go on this cruise. That would be so much fun! I'm believing for a miracle, so Shellie could be your room mate.