Up on Saturday for another bright and sunny mid 80s March day in Florida and boarding the Celebrity Summit cruise ship for five days of 1970s era live music.  Dropped the Mazda off and taxi'd a couple miles from the airport to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. Along with a few other ships, we pulled out at 5pm with a DJ playing hits from the 70s by the pool.  DJ?  When he finished and Barry Williams welcomed us, Hal Bruce played some covers solo with an acoustic guitar.  When he finished I was expecting a featured originals performer or band to take the stage.  Nope.

  As it turned out, the only originals band to play during the day for the entire cruise was Orleans on Sunday afternoon for an hour.  There was just one or two one hour performances by a cover act per day by the pool. I had pictured the originals musicians to play some during the day, either on stage or informally in various configurations.  There were daytime interviews in lounges with some of them that you could watch on your stateroom TV.  Didn't go to any of those so the only place I saw the originals musicians was onstage except for Jock Bartley of Firefall.  Had an interesting talk with him in the spa area on Sunday.

Each originals band did two shows.  The featured ones played the theater, one night early and the next night late, and vice versa.  The color of our card got us into the late shows.  The theater acts were America, Little River Band, The Orchestra, Christopher Cross and Peter Frampton.  Frampton got on and off in Cozumel and did both his shows on one night, Monday.  Most of the other acts, including cover bands, were on board for half the trip, departing or arriving in Cozumel. Read more