From April 25 to March 2, we went on a 5-day Ultimate Disco Cruise out of Miami, with port calls in Key West and Cozumel, and several of the performers on the cruise were the actual disco stars of the 70s, with others being one or two of the stars from a group (e.g., two of the women of Chic) or cover bands/groups representing performers of the day (e.g., Al McKay Allstars’ Earth, Wind, & Fire Experience).”
Free t-shirts
Everyone got a free t-shirt on board:
Daily schedules
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Trip highlight
The highlight of the trip for us was when we ended up in one of the ship’s elevators with Kathy Sledge of Sister Sledge and one other person. The other person asked Kathy if she’d take a selfie with her, which she did.
Then Bob asked if she’d mind if we took a picture of her, and she said, “Let’s get out of the elevator and take a selfie. That’ll be a much better background than in the elevator, don’t you think?” So incredibly gracious and generous.
After getting home, I posted the picture on Instagram with this caption, and Kathy saw it and commented on it!
A diverse crowd
StarVista, the company who chartered Celebrity’s ship to put on this cruise talked about how this was one of their most diverse cruises, because disco music is one of those genres loved by so many different kinds of people—Black, white, gay, straight, old, young, etc. And we met all kinds of nice people, including some gay people.
For those who aren’t cruisers, or have never noticed on a cruise you ???? been on, most of them have 2 meetings noted in the daily schedules on several days, if not all of them. One gathering is called “Friends of Bill W,” is for recovering alcoholics, and is a reference to Bill Wilson, one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. The other gathering is called “Friends of Dorothy,” a meet & greet for LGBTQAI+ folks, and is a reference to The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy, played by Judy Garland who was a huge gay icon and who sang Over the Rainbow, the rainbow ? now being ????? by the gays and made into a flag ?️?.
Lest you fear there are no gatherings for straight, sober people, every other meeting or gathering on the ship is theirs. On this ship’s daily schedule, as you can see above, there is no secret-code, wink-wink “Friends of Dorothy” notation, just an explicit naming of the gathering. (Perhaps times are changing.)
I’ve attended “FoD” meetings on past cruises and my experience has been that they’re typically poorly attended—and by poorly attended I mean sometimes only one other person shows up, and it’s even been the case that no one shows up! So we were really happy to have people not only show up but be fun to hang out with.
At Saturday’s gathering, we met a fun group of 4 guys from Tampa, Alex from Toronto (who bought us our first-ever French Martinis), and Todd (who has both a wife AND a boyfriend, 6 kids, and 6 grandkids) who runs a B&B.
On Tuesday, we met a guy named Anthony, who was funny and so nice—and chill. Imagine my surprise when I found out he was the star of the Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical that we saw the following day. He turned out to be one of those unassuming people who completely transforms into a power house on the stage, and he was absolutely phenomenal. Gave me chills more than one time.
Here’s a 1-minute clip from the musical that gives you a taste of his energy and talent.