The Cruise from Heaven, to Hell, to Utopia!!!
The offer came in last year to play on a cruise. How could
we turn that down? On top of that,
when we were offered the deal, the ship was still being built! The Norwegian
Escape was under construction in north-western Germany and would be going into
sea trials in November. So, on top of everything else, it would be a brand new
ship!
The event we were hired for was to be called “The Trop Rock
Music Festival At Sea” and would be showcasing a good assortment of Trop Rock
music acts. In addition, along with Dani Hoy, my wonderful girlfriend and
musical partner in The Shanty Hounds, as well as our two podcasts, “The Key
West Music Show – Conch Rockin’ In The Keys” and “Key West Beer Tales - The Sum
Of All Beers”, would not only be playing, but also we would be doing a beer
podcast on the ship as well!
We drove to Miami, taking an overnight stop in Key Largo. We
usually stay in one of two places there, either Sunset Cove, or The Pelican,
which are right next door to each other. In addition, we always stop at The
Caribbean Club for a libation or two while in Key Largo. This trip was no
exception!
In the morning we headed to Miami. Good ride, no delays at
all. We got on the ship and boy, was it impressive! Considerably larger than
the Titanic, completely state of the art, this ship made a great impression! We
got to our room, got settled, and then went up on deck where we hooked up with
members of our tour group.
On deck of Norwegian Escape at Port of Miami, looking up
Government Cut to Miami Beach and the Atlantic Ocean
The WONDERFUL Dani Hoy!
Steve Tolliver of the Trop Rock Junkies
After a beer or two, I went back to our cabin. The ship had
not left port as of yet and I thought I’d take a short nap before it did. When
I awoke we not only had left port, but we also were well clear of Government
Cut, the channel that ships take leaving Miami out to sea. Miami was in the
distance.
That evening Steve Tolliver and The Trop Rock Junkies were
to play outside on the stern of the ship. Weather being weather, it started to
rain and that put a regretful end to that. The end result was a jam at the
first Margaritaville that evening. For all I know, as The Norwegian Escape is a
brand new ship, this could have been the first jam held there.The Highway 1 Band was well represented there, as was Tim Charron!
We, The Shanty Hounds (Dani Hoy and myself), got to play a
few songs too! Thanks to Donny Brewer for letting me borrow his guitar too! Afterwards,
we had all sorts of people giving us fantastic complements and saying they
couldn’t wait to see our show on Thursday!
The ship also had a host of restaurants and bars. We first
went to the Irish restaurant, then on later we hit La Bistro, a fantastic
French restaurant, Le Bistro, with a fantastic staff and French Maître d’ named
Adrian, who was always smiling and just as active as the rest of the staff. Everything
on Norwegian was very, very professional!
On Sunday there was a group event at the 5 O’Clock Somewhere
bar on the ship. Donny Brewer played, as did A.J. Angelo, Reggie Starrett, and
a host of others sitting in. Fun afternoon indeed!
Reggie Starrett
A.J. Angelo performing with his brother Carmen on percussion
Donny Brewer at the 5 O’Clock Somewhere lounge aboard
Norwegian Escape
Tea Wallace, Donny Brewer, and Carmen Angelo
On Monday afternoon, Dani and I did our beer podcast, Key
West Beer Tales – The Sum Of All Beers, from the first craft bar on a cruise ship, The
District Brew House! We had actually stopped there on our first day on the ship
and were duly impressed! 24 beers on tap and over sixty in cans and bottles.
The Wynwood Brewery out of Miami is the signature brewery featured on the ship.
Their beers were the beers that we focused on for our podcast. The three we had
were their Pop’s Porter, La Rubia, and Wynwood IPA. All three of these beers
were outstanding examples of their styles, and Norwegian must be recognized for
making such excellent choices, as much as Wynwood should be acknowledged for
the brewing talents.
Norwegian Escape was also kind enough to offer their top
bartender, Wade, as well as two officers from the ship, Martin and Jose, for us
to interview for the show. It was a lot of fun and a pleasure interviewing
them. We also had a great crowd from our group there as well, which we are
always very grateful for! Thanks everyone! What a great time and we understand
this was the first radio podcast made on Norwegian Escape as well. Fun and good
times all around!
We also videotaped the show! When the audio is done, I’ll
post the link here, as well as on iTunes.
At around 4am on Tuesday morning I woke up with a lot of
chest pressure. I’ve been down this road before, albeit not on the high seas.
We called the ship’s emergency and they picked me up. We were on the same level
as their infirmary, so it was a quick ride over. My blood pressure was through
the ceiling. Their staff was fantastic and had me down to normal levels within
a half hour, maybe less. However, we would be docking in St. Thomas in a few
hours and they wanted me to get checked out at the hospital there.
I wasn’t crazy about the idea, but I knew they were most
likely correct. Besides, what if this happened again when we were a few days
out of port?
It must be mentioned that before I was taken off the ship,
the organizer of the group on the cruise I was with, Deanna McElwee, came to
see me. Deanna was great right from the conception of the cruise, which started
late last summer. We had a cruise event that I hosted during MOTM in Key West
in November and we’ve been in touch from the inception. Deanna was great from
the get go and here I was on a stretcher about to be taken off the ship and she
was right there with me. Thanks for everything Deanna!
At the ER in St. Thomas’ Schneider Regional I had a Dr. Lauck
reviewing my situation. Dr. Lauk was an easy going guy and I felt comfortable
with him from the start. My hope was that he would review my situation and I’d
be back on the ship before 5, when it headed for its next port of call,
Tortola.
Dr. Lauck came back a bit later with the news. I was in a
situation that was too unpredictable and was at risk for a heart attack. In
other words, I wasn’t going anywhere. Dr. Lauck wanted me to see the
cardiologist. The cardiologist was on one of the other Virgin Islands, St.
Croix, and would be here Thursday. It was now Tuesday.
I pleaded with Dani to rejoin the ship and continue the
cruise. She needed a vacation, not this. However no matter what I’d say, she
wasn’t leaving me. It says mountains about her. I’m a very lucky guy.
So basically I was in the hospital for two days waiting on
the doctor. The ship left of course, so there were lingering questions that
remained at hand as well. While the ship was in St. Thomas, there was an event
at a dockside bar named Latitude 18 and most of the musicians in our group
attended.
Latitude 18. Now here was a curiosity. Before we ever left
on the trip, our friend Jerry Theese, who plays bass with us, suggested we seek
out Latitude 18. He knows finding an out of the way local bar on a marina was
up our alley. Our friend Jeff Lange, who lives in St. Thomas, had set up the
jam there for the cruise. Dani went to the jam with everyone else while I was
still on the ship. Then she learned I was being sent to the hospital and got a
ride back. The owner of the bar, Rick, heard of our plight and was kind enough
to offer Dani the use of their band room to stay in while we were marooned on
St. Thomas! Wow! He didn’t even know her, or myself! Proof that there are good
people in the world! Thank you Rick!!!
It was on Thursday evening that I met Dr. Griffith, the
cardiologist from St. Croix. What a pleasant man with an easy laugh. It was
funny because he went to school in Miami and we actually has some mutual acquaintances.
I think it was around 11 PM That I was wheeled into the ER and Dr. Griffith
performed his magic. Thank you Dr. Griffith!
On Friday Dr. Rohloff, the head of the hospital, released
me. I can’t tell you how good it feels to step out into fresh air, having been
holed up for a few days! Big thanks to Schneider Regional Hospital. Everyone
there was great!
What a place to walk out to! I had never been to the
Caribbean. This was much different than the little island of Key West that I
lived on. These islands were volcanic way back when. Lots and lots of hills!
It was at this point that I met Rick. He picked us up and
drove us back to Latitude 18. It was Friday morning and Dani had been staying
here since Tuesday.
Beach off of Latitude 18
Some of you may have my book “Bar Stories” and perhaps some
may know that I’m also working on a new book, “The Absolute Best Bars in The Florida
Keys”. Well, Latitude 18 is the type of bar that would be in my book, if it
were in the Keys. My type of place!
For starters, it’s on the water. Big plus! Second, it has a
dock. Third, it’s hard to find! As a matter of fact, when the previous owner
set up its GPS location, she did it from her house and mistakenly used her
house coordinates, so the GPS is wrong!
Now some may shake their head at that, but myself, I think
it’s fantastic!
Latitude 18 fit us like a glove. On top of that, not only
did Rick put us up, but get this, he gave us a gig on Saturday! Here we are, stranded
and marooned on a Caribbean Island and we end up with a gig! How amazing is
that? The Shanty Hounds play St. Thomas, USVI!!!
The gig went great and in addition to that, I got to meet my
Facebook friend Jeff Howard and his wife Micki. It was additionally funny as my
other friend in St. Thomas, Jeff Lange had never met Jeff Howard, but they did
that night.
We had a great gig and ran it live on Facebook’s new live
video streaming ap for the world to watch. We called it “The I’m Not Dead Yet
Gig”, a takeoff on the Monty Python skit from “The Holy Grail” movie. What a
blast that was! Plus, all told we had nearly 700 views, so that’s a great
success in my book as well.
Here’s the link to the gig:
By this point the cruise we were on had been over since 8 am
that day and here we were gigging in St. Thomas!
We jokingly said we were thrown off the ship and marooned castaways
in St. Thomas. Although it was tongue in cheek, it was actually true!
The reality of it all was that everyone on Norwegian
Caribbean Line and in St. Thomas were fantastic! Top notch all the way and they
all did what was needed to keep me above ground.
However, the fact remained that our pals on the cruise were
back in Miami and we were still in the Caribbean running on overtime!
On Sunday we thought it would be fun to check out St. John!
The ferry was only $7.00 and the ride was around 15 minutes, or less.
We LOVED St. John! What a beautiful island!
Key West is not the only Mile Zero!!!!
Then Dani spotted it. It wasn’t quite noon yet and a Sunday
to boot, there was a sign that read “Tap Room” up on the second level.
We just had to go. We walked in around noon on the nose and
the woman behind the bar, Tori, was just fantastic! The beer was a craft brew
from St. John named “St. John Brewers” and their beers were excellent! We told
her about our Key West Beer Tales - The Sum of All Beers podcast and we did a
live broadcast from there, as well as live video! The chef was Jeremy and we
had both he and Tori on the video!
Jeremy suggested we check out the beaches there. It wasn’t
on our list actually, however as it was a high recommendation from a local, we
took it to heart and caught what they call a Safari Taxi to the beach, about 5
or 6 miles (9 Km) away.
We ended up on Trunk Beach, a national park… then back into
town!
Pictures say it best!
Dani Hoy, St. John
St. John Harbor
On Monday we flew back home. It certainly was an adventure,
if ever there was an adventure!
We landed at Miami International Airport and my friend
George Cornejo met us and drove us to port of Miami where the car was. Thanks
George!
It was a wild and crazy trip, there’s no doubt about that!
What amazing people we met. It’s funny, you end up seeing so much bad things in
the world, but here we ran into so many good people! From the entire group we
left with, to the crew on Norwegian Escape, to their medical crew, to the
medical staff of St. Thomas, to Rick, his staff, musicians, customers at
Latitude 18 in St. Thomas, to Tori and Jeremy at St. John Brewing and their
customer Guy…. It was just plain remarkable!
Meeting so many great people in various places, ... such beautiful places at that, was truly Utopia!!!
A situation that could have been a tragic experience, turned
into an extremely rewarding one! Again, thanks to all!
Big thanks to our friends Loretta, Jerry, and Steve for
watching the hounds while we were gone, especially the extra days! THANKS
GUYS!!!
While we look forward to our next trip to wherever it may
be, we sure are glad to be home with the family!
HEY! LOOK BELOW!!!
Thanks for reading the blog! All The Best From Key West!
My book “Bar Stories” is available through Amazon! At this moment its up to 13 five star ratings! Only $3.99!!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Bar-Stories-Semi-Fictional-Adventure-Tour-Witnessed-ebook/dp/B01AHKCY1K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1457639261&sr=1-1&keywords=bar+stories
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Thank you everyone!!
Key West Chris Rehm
