Our last day at sea I slept in until 11. Rochelle got up early for more spa stuff but I think the week caught up with me all at once and I slept for like 11 hours. I was groggy and a tad bit hung-over when I noticed a small packet of home made hangover cure with a note from Mike Phirman to take it as soon as I woke up, he developed the recipe during a month long bender in Amsterdam.
This was a “sea” day meaning we would be cruising back to Florida all day and night before disembarking the next morning. So I basically had no plans. The final concert wasn’t until 4:30, followed by dinner and the goodbye party. I cleaned up and headed for the top deck to begin my day.
Rochelle had had breakfast with Wil, and told me that in the Cayman’s she had given him some money because he was going to go buy Cuban cigars to smoke and he would meet me at noon topside to smoke them. I usually allow myself one cigar a year and had even decided since had not had one in 2010 I would go ahead and just give it up. But a Cuban waiting for me already? Why, it would just be rude to let that go by. After some *really* obnoxious poolside DJ games that thankfully got vetoed by the crowd, we were able to chill.
So there we sat, Cuba off the side of the ship, enjoying double scotches and fine cigars in the 80 degree sunshine. Rochelle and Wil’s family along with our friend Andrew and a couple of other people joined us and I can’t think of a more fitting and relaxing time I could have had on the last day.
The show started at 4:30, but I wanted to make sure Rochelle and I could pack throughout the day, since our departure was 9:30 the next morning and I wasn’t going to be in the mood on the last night of partying to have to worry about getting up at 6 to pack. So we came back a little earlier to begin that process. Needless to say we didn’t really get that far. But at least we got started. Dinner that night was with the Captain, which evidently involves a floor show. So I changed clothes to long pants and shoes and we headed to the show.
The show was an all request show from Jonathan and it was fantastic as people asked for really obscure songs he didn’t quite remember. That said, he did an admirable job, even during The Presidents where the crowd had to supply the lyrics on the back third of the song, which ended up being fun and hysterical. Jonathan gave himself an F on that song and I shouted out technically it was an Incomplete. There was also a fancy pants parade, which was every bit as fancy as you could imagine.
But probably the most amazing moment for me was actually a song at Jonathan’s request that John Roderick didn’t get to the previous night. I’ll just link the video. Note the stunned silence from the crowd when the song was complete. I was moved to tears by this performance and it stood out as a really special moment from the entire trip. As I have mentioned before if you do not have any music from The Long Winters GO GET SOME.
As a finale, all the performers joined Jonathan on the stage for a performance of the Beach Boys’ Sloop John B. I got to stand on a stage with people whose comedy and music have meant so much for me, in many cases actually going back 20 years. And I got to sing with them.
If this is how 2011 starts, then this year really does go to 11.
Photo credit, Adhesive Medical Strips Flickr Feed
(Editor’s note, I originally intended this to be the last post but I will do one more tomorrow just about the cruise in general for those who have never cruised and hopefully answer some questions like could we feel the boat moving, how was the food, anything we didn’t like, stuff we liked, etc etc.)