Celebrity Reflection January 14 to 21 2017

[Bimmer09]

Random photos from the Caribbean

 

The ruins at Tulum, Mexico. I could go along on excursions for free as I had friends, like Billy here, on the cruise staff. Before the ruins I had Chankanab lagoon all to myself for an hour while the set-up team were unloading refreshments for the pax who would arrive later. I kayaked amid huge tropical fish in shallow water.

With one of the 2 Polish bands

 

The drummer, John, to my right, took over for me when I had pneumonia for a week and was confined to bed. My room mate Mike the keyboard player was put up in a vacant passenger cabin. I was put ashore in Miami for a week of clinic treatment and asked to be put up at the Marriott Brickell Point hotel rather than the Howard Johnson. No problem! I was cleared to return to work by the following Saturday which was a relief. Pneumonia was brutal as was missing all the fun for two weeks.

Sun deck at dusk

 

 

Mike and I in Labadee



 

Norris, off to work!

[DJVKN]

Oh thank goodness another Norris review is in the works. Looking forward to reading about this adventure as I have thoroughly enjoyed your past reviews.

Diana

[Walt fan]

Hey there Norris! I am so enjoying your walk down memory lane. It's so good you took so many pics and had the brochures and keepsakes. You had a lot of adventures and met so many interesting people from all over the world. Amazing.

 

The cruise we took on RC Enchantment of the Seas' MDR is called My Fair Lady now. I remember it vividly as it was one of my favorite musicals.

 

Midnight buffet! We did not start cruising until 2009 so midnight buffets were gone by then. But I remember my SIL still having midnight buffet on Carnival around 2005.

 

Thanks for sharing Norris!!

[FRMPEI]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was our comedian the last night of cruise just this past Thursday evening on Equinox. He was Funny,fantastic!

 

 

 







 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

 

 

[FRMPEI]

The two mannequins remind me of the models the cruise lines use in their brochures-usually a vivacious lady in her late 40's with silver hair and a sparkle in her eye and the man with salt and pepper hair usually has a crisp blue and white striped shirt with a pullover around his shoulders and a nice gold watch. They sip champagne while a smiling Philippino butler stands waiting with a silver tray. Has anyone ever met them?

 

 

Norris,

 

You cracked me up with your comment. To answer you question, Have you meet them? That would be a big NO! on our recent Equinox cruise where the average age was no where near that target Celebrity Marketing age of 40's more like 65'ish.

 

This is how far I got on your on review before I left on March 10, please forgive. So I am catching up on your entertaining report as my cruise photos are slowly uploading to my Lightroom.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[May B]

It's pretty darn amazing to me, to see those old brochures. It's like nothing has changed and yet so very much has!

 

And you, Norris, wow, what a life that was. Even at Labadee, who knew they've been going there for that long? I'm totally enthralled. I now see that many years of cruising went on without me! I guess it's better late than never for me.

 

Keep tossing us this wonderful info. Don't stop!

 

And for sure, don't stop enjoying.

 

--May

[perfect match]

I just want to let you know, Norris, that I'm still here and am still thoroughly enjoying your trip down memory lane! I really appreciate you taking the time to share it with us. I hope you are enjoying the journey back to 1986 as much as I am. :cool:

[Bimmer09]

Hey there Norris! I am so enjoying your walk down memory lane. It's so good you took so many pics and had the brochures and keepsakes. You had a lot of adventures and met so many interesting people from all over the world. Amazing.

 

The cruise we took on RC Enchantment of the Seas' MDR is called My Fair Lady now. I remember it vividly as it was one of my favorite musicals.

 

Midnight buffet! We did not start cruising until 2009 so midnight buffets were gone by then. But I remember my SIL still having midnight buffet on Carnival around 2005.

 

Thanks for sharing Norris!!

 

I still have a lot of pics to come thanks to Carol's new super fast scanner-an Epson Fastfoto-just under 1 second to scan a photo loaded into a hopper. For the past week I have been walking 40 feet round trip to our Brother scanner and loading one photo at a time. I scanned 38 photos in less than 40 seconds today and sat on a barstool the whole time. Hooray!

Some pics I haven't found yet and when you mention me meeting interesting people one of my favorites was Marvin Hagler who was on for a week with his lovely wife. Somewhere is a pic of this fine gentleman with his arm around me or punching me in the face-I forget which. I don't even like boxing. He came to the disco a few times and was easily the best dancer on the floor-just moved like liquid in the less-is-more fashion which is my mantra for everything in life except Guinness where more is more and that's still not enough.

And I got to spend a lot of time with two comedians I used to see on British TV-a stand up straight man Albie Keen and a goofball called Mike Hope. Hope and Keen were their stage names. Their schtick was rehearsed with impeccable timing but I cracked them up with my off the wall nonsense and we had great times together over an adult beverage.

There's a pic of me and Albie coming up way later.

My Fair Lady I have never heard but we are seeing it at Lyric Opera late April with big voiced singers and a huge orchestra which is maybe the second best Opera orchestra in the USA, after the Met in New York. Ideal conditions for hearing it complete for the first time. My favorite musical-apart from Hamilton of course is South Pacific and any Gilbert and Sullivan really, but they take a back seat to a good Opera which 20% of all operas are -the rest being rubbish.

Thanks for the great comments!

Norris

[Bimmer09]

It's pretty darn amazing to me, to see those old brochures. It's like nothing has changed and yet so very much has!

 

And you, Norris, wow, what a life that was. Even at Labadee, who knew they've been going there for that long? I'm totally enthralled. I now see that many years of cruising went on without me! I guess it's better late than never for me.

 

Keep tossing us this wonderful info. Don't stop!

 

And for sure, don't stop enjoying.

 

--May

 

May, thanks for following along. I'm glad you chose Option 2!

1986 was the year Labadee was opened as a stop but the ship had already been sailing the Caribbean since 1970 so had 15 years of work before I set foot on her. When I put up pics taken on the Nikon SLR rather than the pocket Kodak Instamatic you'll get a better look at her on the outer decks as those were the film days where you had to load a specific ISO rated film-100 to 200 for daylight, 400 for indoors during the day and 1000 or so for taking night pics.

Thankfully with digital you can change the ISO in the camera, not the film and take one pic in the sun then the next in a cabin with no lights on or flash.

I had to go ashore in Miami each Saturday to Walgreens to drop off a roll of film and pick up one from the previous week and only then did I see if the pics came out or were disasters.

I am very happy that I took as many pics as I did and that most of them came out and were kept.

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Oh thank goodness another Norris review is in the works. Looking forward to reading about this adventure as I have thoroughly enjoyed your past reviews.

Diana

 

Hi Diana-the review has been going on for 8 or 9 weeks so far but it's never too late to join it!

Welcome!

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Norris,

 

You cracked me up with your comment. To answer you question, Have you meet them? That would be a big NO! on our recent Equinox cruise where the average age was no where near that target Celebrity Marketing age of 40's more like 65'ish.

 

This is how far I got on your on review before I left on March 10, please forgive. So I am catching up on your entertaining report as my cruise photos are slowly uploading to my Lightroom.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

 

Hi Kevin and thanks for stopping by again.

We are booked on the Equinox in January 2019 so I will be very interested to see your great pictures from her.

When you see my 1986 brochure you'll see that using models on board is a long standing tool used to sell the experience.

I look forward to your review!

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Random photos from 1986

 

I think the phrase "hangers-on" originated with this photo on 7 Mile Beach

Furniture by the pool on SON

 

 

Labadee shots



 

 



 

Labadee was a tender port and the tender wasn't a ship's lifeboat but a huge purpose-built craft which I believe is still in use as I saw it's likeness in January. It came in at the extreme right edge of the current port, far from the "new" pier. It was a relaxing beach day as it is now but zip lines and water parks were years away.

Carnival Holiday

 

 

Taken in Miami on turnaround day





Flash photo at night, aft



 

 

 

[Bimmer09]

Other ship sightings

The Nieuw Amsterdam of its day





Sun Viking in Miami



 

 

Cunard Princess



1975, 960 pax, 17,000 gross tons, 541 feet





Windstar



She gets a warm welcome in Miami







 

Norris

[lola2013]

Bimmer,

Love seeing the picture of the Cunard Princess...my first cruise was on her sister ship, the Cunard Countess. From that moment on, I was hooked. I did five additional trips on the Countess. Wow...those were the days!!!

Susan

[hockeyguru32]

Random photos from 1986

 

I think the phrase "hangers-on" originated with this photo on 7 Mile Beach

 

LOVE THIS PHOTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[silkismom]

You were pretty cute, I bet the girls were all over you.

[lola2013]

Bimmer,

I just found your review of the Caribbean Princess from 2014. I sailed on her in 2009 (Canada & New England) and will be on her this time next year for two weeks in the Caribbean. I am totally enjoying your review, sitting at my desk at work (please don't tell the boss) and loving the pictures and laughing out loud by your wit.

Back to CP.....

Susan

[Bimmer09]

Bimmer,

Love seeing the picture of the Cunard Princess...my first cruise was on her sister ship, the Cunard Countess. From that moment on, I was hooked. I did five additional trips on the Countess. Wow...those were the days!!!

Susan

 

Susan, I wish I had taken more than a bow shot to show you. I hope the service on board did Britain proud. Carol has a hankering to do a TA someday and if so I would hope to sway her to sail Queen Mary 2 so I could get a taste of British hospitality which I don't remember well from living in London as a working class N Ireland person at a time when people from that country were possible terrorists. I was very pleased when I came to Miami and experienced eating in American restaurants-even the humble first one in the Howard Johnsons I was staying in the night before the ship docked. So many choices! I had the spam, eggs, sausage, spam, spam,beans and spam with extra spam etc and it was served with a smile from perky Mindy, my server. Choice of salad dressings? Wow! Really? I had only Heinz salad dressing in the UK. I can order the temperature of my steak?

In my reviews I have often referred to being served by Old Ernie- hey Ernie, I see the burger comes with lettuce....what kind? " It's lettuce mate-the green kind!". Well Ernie can I have the burger without the lettuce? "Oh, no mate-it comes with the lettuce". Yeah I know so can you just leave it off? "Oh no mate- it's more than my job's worth. It comes with the lettuce." Sigh.

There's a Brit expression -you call someone a "jobsworth" and people know what you mean.

The Ernie character is based on someone I knew back then and met his "brothers" many times over.

Just another little insight to where I'm coming from.

You sailed on spartan ships as I did. I just remember happy fun people letting their hair down and enjoying the experience of being at sea. Now you get so much more to enjoy!!

Thanks for the comment!

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Bimmer,

I just found your review of the Caribbean Princess from 2014. I sailed on her in 2009 (Canada & New England) and will be on her this time next year for two weeks in the Caribbean. I am totally enjoying your review, sitting at my desk at work (please don't tell the boss) and loving the pictures and laughing out loud by your wit.

Back to CP.....

Susan

 

We really enjoyed the Caribbean Princess, Susan, and that itinerary gave us some great excursion adventures and sailing 5 hours late due to the ship arriving in thick fog and scrubbing down for Norovirus was soon forgotten.

I'm glad you are enjoying that review. Read them all when you have time but try not to get fired.

We have had some great Princess cruises and have 2 more booked.

Cheers!

Norris

[Bimmer09]

I just want to let you know, Norris, that I'm still here and am still thoroughly enjoying your trip down memory lane! I really appreciate you taking the time to share it with us. I hope you are enjoying the journey back to 1986 as much as I am. :cool:

 

Nancy, nice to know you are still out there reading along.

As it will be 6 months before my next review I am happy to spend the time recounting this adventure as this is the only time I can do this and once I commit there's no turning back.

Every picture might tell a story and give a better idea of cruise ship life back in 1986.

Many more pics to come.

Norris

[Bimmer09]

I didn't go ashore in every port each week. If Grand Cayman was too hot I would stay onboard and have lunch and enjoy the quiet ship and fit in that absolute luxury-an afternoon nap. I enjoyed meeting the passengers and chatting and ditto with various crew members which is why you'll see waiters and room stewards and Officers among the pics still to come up ahead.

Here I don't look like I'm in a big hurry to go ashore in GC. Looks like a windy day and maybe not ideal for swimming on 7 Mile Beach. I could always go next week

 

 

 

Probably taken at Sans Souci Hotel, Ocho RIos...

 

 

On the Starward (NCL)



 

The NCL Starward was the only ship that allowed us to come aboard to visit once we showed our RCCL I.D. She was a little beauty and I'll have more pics of her later. We used to dock together in Cozumel. HAL gave us a firm NO I recall.

Out of focus Starboard lounge

 

 

Me and Mark



 

Mark Savva was the original band member who left after 2 weeks of the 1986 contract. He was a lot of fun and about 10 years younger than me.

Norris

[Jasperdo]

I had the spam, eggs, sausage, spam, spam,beans and spam with extra spam

"Have you got anything without spam?"

[Bimmer09]

Here's a photo which got me thinking -how did I get a shot of the ship leaving Miami when I was usually on stage playing drums at the time this would have been taken and the only reason I can think of is that we must have left port late but I started on time. I only played for 45 minutes so maybe we were delayed for an hour?

 

 

 

 

And a shot before leaving the pier

 

(Nikon SLR)





South Pacific Lounge



 

This was a big lounge at the stern where I played once a week for the Masquerade Parade with the CD and a couple of times doing the intro music for stand up comedians. It was also a movie theater at times and where the dancers did their high-kicking act in feathered headdresses.

All expense was spared on lighting and sound equipment. No mixing booth at the back of the room, no drums miked through a PA s so if I wanted volume I had to hit them harder. Very few spotlights and no trapdoors etc. Bare bones. But the people still applauded and had the kind of harmless carefree fun which wasn't easy to find gratis where they lived.





The main deck corridor had some shops selling luxury goods which I was never in the market for.

 

 

Guest Services (Pursers Office) and maybe shore excursions



 

 

The Casino



 

I'm not a casino guy (but I love Las Vegas!) and have never gambled but I am glad ships had them then and now as so many people like them and find the prospect of winning money exciting.

On the SON I heard for the first time the name Diamonds International and try naming me a port in Alaska or the Caribbean that doesn't have a branch? A "Port talk" was usually a shill on behalf of DI then and now. I am not nor ever have been into ostentation and have never worn jewelry besides a wedding ring long ago. No Rolex for me either as I am only interested in having a watch that tells the time and won't cause me to weep if I lose it. I don't wear clothes that have the designer's name on them unless it's in minuscule letters that even the Hubble Telescope can't read.

I don't care WHO you are wearing on the Red Carpet on Oscar Night-it looks uncomfortable and you paid too much for it.





I don't follow fashion as there's never been one for decent thoughtful caring people with a sense of humor.





Norris

[Bimmer09]

"Have you got anything without spam?"

 

I've got spam, egg, sausage, bacon and spam- that doesn't have much spam in it.

Norris who always has a can of Spam in the house. I like spam!

[Bimmer09]

Within this white steel shell I lived, worked, slept, ate, talked to people from 40 different countries and cultures, laughed until my face hurt for 32 weeks in a row, never leaving the ship for more than 8 hours or so at a time (Bar the pneumonia incident). All my worldly goods were in my cabin as I had sold all my drums, records, stereo, furniture etc before leaving London, not intending to return. I returned for one day in 1994 and not since then. Heathrow to change planes for a flight to Belfast doesn't count. (2002, 2003).

 

 

 

 

I only knew the SON from the perspective of an employee. After the first couple of cruises I didn't go to sleep at night/early morning giddy at the prospect of seeing Ocho Rios again. That was just where I'd be every Tuesday and I'd definitely have the Jamaican Pepperpot soup that night and the sirloin steak. I'd have a couple of Red Stripes ashore and fight off the basket sales ladies laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. Monday would have been Labadee and a swim.Cayman 7 Mile Beach and a lot of swimming and laying on a lounger drinking a couple of rum and cokes before my nap on board. Cozumel usually a ride over to El Presidente Hotel (crew members welcome) to snorkel and swim up to the bar in their pool for a rum and coke.

 

Those loungers you see aft are where I ended each day (unless raining or in a hurricane)

drinking beer and having a smoke with my band guys, quoting references and lines from Monty Python and cracking each other up. We didn't have to work for many hours and we knew the weather would be good tomorrow as it was 80 degrees right now under a sky just full of the stars that you miss living in London, where i had dwelled for 12 years of my life to date.





The passengers except that occasional couple trying to start a family in the nude on Promenade deck above were all a-bed dreaming of the Diamonds that lay just 100 nautical miles in the dark away. I had no doubt they were enjoying their vacation as I spoke to many of them everyday as I was free to mingle. Not so the room stewards and waiters and deck crews from Norway and the Philippines. Passengers were off-limits.

The small but cosy and dramatic Viking Crown lounge

 

 

Off-limits to crew but as I knew the bartenders and the Security Officer I was welcome and I loved the quiet sophistication of this bar and the view. "This is a bar like no other" I thought to myself. Kudos to RCCL from the get go in launching a successful brand!

 

 

 

Nikon shots

Edited March 30, 2017 by Bimmer09
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