Honolulu Blue Cruising Blog

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We arrived in Key West on time (7 AM) and were cleared by 7:20. I barely felt anything movement in my interior cabin midship on deck 2. Nice job Captain Dimitri!

After a good breakfast and some knocking around, I went out about 10:30. That was the time StarVista Live told us the shuttles would be starting. I didn’t want to have to settle for a lawn seat, so part of the plan was to get out early.

I followed the crowd and actually got on the first shuttle to the amphitheater. We got off and joined the (at that time short) line for us from the cruise ship to get in.

This was about 10:45. Much of that time was spent listening to the others in line and their stories about this cruise, other cruises, and their lives beyond this experience.

Half an hour later they let us in. I scoped out the seating situation. Half the seats were reserved for our group. The other half were for the locals that bought tickets. There were a few covered seats on the berm and some lawn space beyond that. I ignored them and headed to the main seating area. I actually got a nice spot in row 4.

We had a DJ entertain us for about an hour until the main event. They actually premiered a new KC and the Sunshine Band single for us. I thought it was pretty good.

KC and the Sunshine Band played for us for about an hour and 20 minutes. They played most of the songs you know them for. And yes, they played my favorite song from them, the relatively obscure “I Like to Do It”. A lot of the stories and jokes KC told were familiar from my last experience with him at last year’s UDC. 

P.S. I thought the dancer on the far right was a stunner. She didn’t photograph well because she’s such a lively dancer that I always got her out of position.

The Band brought up George McCrae to sing his big hit (which KC wrote) “Rock Your Baby”.

Before I forget, I’d like to thank the lady next to me for sometimes dancing with me. She had decent moves and she had the good manners to not LOL at my attempts to shake my booty. No pictures of her, sorry.

Like all good things, this concert came to an end. This really was a good show, worth all the extra hassle and energy I put into it. Did I mention that the sun was beaming down on me the whole time? Well, it was. It was only about 80 degrees outside and there were occasional cooling breezes, but it was still an exhausting experience.

There was a long line for the shuttles back, so I decided to walk back to the ship. I must have taken the scenic route, because it took longer than expected.

Half an hour later I made it back to the cabin. I skipped out on the ex-Chic ladies because I was so tired. I was sorry to do this, but I wanted to save myself for the rest of the day to come.

By sunset I was ready to mingle again. I had dinner in the OVC and again I had no issues finding things I liked. One of many nice things about the Cafe is there are lots of windows where you can see random things like this:

I spent some time talking to a cruise buddy I had previously met in that KC and the Sunshine Band line. We split to go sit in separate sections but hooked up here. We discussed our musical plans for the night. They didn’t match up, but I was able to point her in the right direction for what she wanted to do.

After seeing her off, I killed some time before the Ashlie Amber concert in the Sky Lounge. I arrived 15 minutes early and quite literally hady choice of seats. I chose one in row 2. At show time the lounge was full – 300 or so Whitney Houston fans looking to be entertained.

And I don’t think any of us were disappointed. Well, I was, kind of – “So Emotional”, my favorite song from Whitney, was played early but got cut short.

As for the rest, Ashlie showed a big voice and a diva-esque presence. I wouldn’t be surprised if bigger things are in her future.

She was another singer that went into the audience for a song, but she moved too fast for me to capture it. Sorry.

Moving along, I went back to my refreshed room to plan out the next day and wait for my date with Cara Lee, who would be doing Cher in the Rendezvous Lounge.

The Rendezvous Lounge turned out to be an open area with more distracting background noise than the other concert venues (other than the pool). I arrived 15 minutes early and again I had my choice of seats. I chose row 3 center. It took a while for the front row to fill. I’ll tell that story a little later.

I was greeted by a gentleman who had sat next to me at the Ashlie Amber show a couple of hours ago. He had seen Cara Lee twice before on previous cruises. That he was seeing her again seemed to be quite an endorsement.

This was a different experience in that there was no band behind Cara here, just a backing music track. She did quite well. I was quite entertained. The most fun I had was when she picked a random guy out of the stands and had him play Sonny Bono on “I Got You Babe”

I suppose “Gypsies Tramps and Thieves” is my favorite song from Cher. Cara sang it and did a fine job with it.

The front row did eventually fill and we got people dancing to some of Cher’s greatest hits.

After the show was over I went to sleep well satisfied and filled with good music.

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