Gay Nagle Myers is on the Malt Shop Memories Cruise on the Carnival Inspiration. Her second dispatch follows. Click to read her first dispatch.
Here’s my dilemma — so many activities, not enough time.
The Malt Shop Memories Cruise aboard Carnival’s Inspiration, sponsored by Time Life and produced by Entertainment Cruises Productions, is musical overload for me.
Days at sea are busy, active and require decisions. Do I head for the hula hoop contest at 3 p.m. at the pool on the Inspiration’s Lido deck, hosted by "Marilyn Monroe," or the one-on-one chitchat at the same time with Little Anthony (that’s THE Little Anthony of Little Anthony & the Imperials of late-50s fame) in the Candlelight Lounge on the Promenade deck?
Already, I’d packed into the crowded Paris lounge in the morning to hear Chubby Checker tell a rapt audience that “this cruise is great because it gives people from all over the country the chance to get together and share this music that has been part of our lives for 50 years.”
That was followed by the T-shirt party on the Lido deck hosted by Jerry Blavat, “The Geator with the Heater,” famed South Philly DJ. Cloudy skies gave way to sun, drinks were on the house and the crowd never stopped groovin'.
My dance card is packed. I’ve applauded the Elvis-wannabee contestants (finalists were announced on Sunday night, the last night of the cruise), marveled at the vocal cords of Lou Christie, who belted out the oldies in the Atrium Bar, dined with my nine new friends at table 308 in the Carnivale dining room and then dolled up for prom night.
After dinner and before the prom, headliner Chubby Checker delivered an 80-minute nonstop musical tribute to the music of the 50s that had the standing-room only audience on its feet and dancin’ in the aisles.
I’ve got blisters on my hands from clapping, blisters on my feet from dancing, and I am having a blast.
There’s a third Malt Shop Memories Cruise planned for fall 2012, seven days instead of four, and my new friends on this cruise are very interested. Malt Shop promises early-booking incentives and discounts, and will work with agents on bookings.
Seems to me that music cruises are a niche market that could be as lucrative and as easy a sell as the souvenir disco balls and 1950-era sunglasses sold on this cruise in the gift shop.
Meanwhile, the Beach Boys were the headliners on Saturday afternoon. You would have found me on the Lido deck, right in front of the stage.