posted by Carolyn Ohme at 11:59PM

The much-anticipated Rock Boat Review. Kinda long, be worn-warned...

Welcome Rock Boat depression. Not exactly what I expected, but still lingering nonetheless.

Every year I have done this (this is my third consecutive year) I have been so excited, yet nervous that this year is not going to be as amazing as the last. Again, I was pleasantly surprised. The Rock Boat just seems to get better and better without any hesitation. I cannot quite explain the exact emotions that I get when I think about it, but I will do my best to hit the highlights and spark my memory so that I can never forget the events and emotions that make me adore the Rock Boat year after year.

It had honestly felt like Thursday, January 11th was never going to get here. Like it was just not going to ever exist, but finally it was here and I was so much more prepared than ever before. I had taken airbourne for about two weeks in advance to build my immune system as best I could to avoid the typically Rock Boat sickness that everyone tends to get right after, or sometimes during. I had been able to financially support this vacation in a way like never before, thanks to my ever-loving brother and his amazing (yet cheating) gift to me. *grin* I was also able to prepare with ample time to pack and get prepared with having a day off prior to my trip and having recovery days set up right after, all of which I had never had before. As time and experience grows, I do get better in preparation. Things worked out perfectly because of all of it.

Shannon and I met up with Cali and Tony at their house to begin our track down to Fort Lauderdale. I was very excited of all the amazing people that I had recruited to attend this year and I was looking forward to knowing quite a few people on the boat in comparison to the years before. I think it finally hit all of us at the same time that we were about to board the most amazing boat ever and our nervous excitement was creating a buzz in the car, so much in fact that we couldn't hold it in have the time. It was almost too much to handle.

Fortunately, we were some of the early arrivers and got to board the ship pretty much right on time, which made me happy and less stressed about lines and whatnot. They seemed to open the lines right as we were walking up. Already began seeing sightings of *fish* while making our way through the port. Sister Hazel was about to board, then Collective Soul right behind them. Of course, no one notices but me cause I'm on high alert and I just smiled at that thought that the time was finally there and we were about to board.

Stepping onto the ship was as great as it usually is, but still a bit overwelming being a brand new and larger ship than I am used to so not knowing where to go kind of initally frustrated me. Our room wasn't completely ready yet, so we hiked our bags up with us to get some lunch on the lido deck. I quickly learned how different the ship was in comparison to the years before and cursed not knowing where anything was for a brief moment.

Fast forward to everyone getting on the ship and meet and greeting our friends at the arrival area, things were just beginning to get great. So with Dan and Matt (Big 10-4), Pauly and Vic with friends (Dirty Shannon), John Frank, Akiva (Karate Kid *grin*) & Five Star Iris on the boat, we had our musicians covered. We, of course, missed our good friends back home consisting of Randall Shreve, Pete Woj, Matty Matt, C Floyd & Berg, but all in all we definitely kept Orlando represented.

So many things differed from the years before, some not so appealing like the fact that the boat got bigger, but the venues remained the same sizes. So, it was great that Wideawake was the first band to play on the boat, but they were playing in the most initimate of venues and everyone went to the same place, causing difficult viewing of the band and hardly a place to stand. That wasn't the greatest decision in the world, but things did get better in that respect. It was still a great way to begin "rocking" and that's when I first felt our departure.

The night was full of excitement and never-ending stories, but as I say every year "What happens on the boat, stays on the boat" Even some pictures will stay hidden. *grin* It truly felt like the first night lasted a month, which was amazing in every possible way. That is how the boat nights should feel. Got to bond with Mindy and Jill more. Saw Claire Wyndham rock out for the first time officially on the boat. So proud! And ran into Akiva for the first time this boat. Good to see the kid again!

Saw a bit of Sister Hazel before getting my place for Mr. David Ryan Harris, who never ceases to amaze me. Kinda made "high five" friends with his bassist. We made it "our thing" to give each other high fives everytime we ran into each other on the boat. Good times. "Free high Five" according to Mike Hunsucker. *grin* Amazing preformance, as usual. About this time, I heard that Marc Broussard was a stow away on the boat. I was wondering why he wasn't preforming this year, apparently he got married the morning that we boarded. In addition, Lei Ole got married on the boat, the day we boarded. How awesome is that? We got to see a bit of it from outside the venue, so pretty!

Basically, The Rock Boat rocked my world yet again with amazing preformances. My highlights were definitely discovering Aslyn on the 3rd floor simply playing the piano on the first night at like 2 in the morning. I ran down and got Dan from the casino to experience the intimate preformance for less than 10 people in total. Amazing. She played songs that she hadn't played for anyone yet. That was one of my favorite moments for sure.

"It is what it is" according to Dan. "'Fo Shore" ;)

I don't think I fell asleep before 5am any of the nights on the boat because everything was too exciting and I certainly didn't want to miss anything. I have a habit of strolling and wandering to make sure that I don't miss anything that might be going on. Dirty Shannon, Big 10-4 and Akiva pulled out their guitars or sang their hearts out many of the late nights and we jammed hardcore. I lost my voice the first night trying to sing Dan's songs. It made it's way back pretty good, which I appreciated.

It was so great to have good friends on the boat this year. I think it made our bonds stronger and developed something that we can't ever replace. It was such a great memory and I am looking forward to more amazing times with these people.

Friday was full of music all day long, which the thought of it just makes me smile big. Everyone had their own plan for the day, but we all started out by going on the top of the Lido deck and laying out, right as the clouds began to move in and the sprinkles started. That didn't cloud up our day though. We were just enjoying everyone's company and hanging out.

We made it to the Honor By August show just in time. They had won a battle of the bands contest to get on the boat so I knew I had to see them. I made it a point to try and see artists that I have never seen before or ones that I thought might need the extra support for because those are the best experiences for me. The show was great and they impressed me highly. We were fortunate enough to randomly meet them later and hang out a bit. Not quite sure if they will remember me later, but at least we had fun the moment of. Very nice guys, Michael and Evan. Just hope they don't move to Ireland. *grin* Matt and Paulie finally showed up. Seems they got a bit lost on the ship. I heart them. Crack me up!

We decided we were gonna try out the fine dining for dinner that night so we invited Matt, Paulie, Dan and Mike to join us. They were all up for it so we got ready and headed down for a nice relaxing dinner. It was quite entertaining from Paulie being completely blue in the face from sea-sickness, Matt cracking jokes the whole night, Dan completely exhausted and trying to drink an entire bottle of wine, surprising visit from Vic, being randomly sat next to Cali, Tony and friends, our waiter teaching me spoon tricks and giving us lessons in magic, and not the best food in our opinions. It was very fun though and we made it out in perfect timing to go get all of our spots for Aslyn's preformance in the Firebird Lounge. I was so stoked, as were we all.

We got some good seats in the back benches, but Shannon and I knew that we wanted to be up closer for certain songs so we sat on the floor upclose and shortly after Dan and Mike joined us to support. It was an amazing preformance filled with storylines and a positive environment. So relaxed and her voice just uplifts me. Such a great experience!

Headed straight to open mic to support our friends in Dirty Shannon, Akiva & Sarah. It's so great to have friends participate in open mic and see them have supporters on the boat to come and watch. Dirty Shannon was definitely highlighted, especially by our friend, Scuba Josh, who was hosting the event. He hearted the "Dirty Shannon fans" in the front row. *points to myself and Shannon* They were great and it was an awesome time seeing good friends and hanging out.

I show hopped the rest of the night with Ingram Hill (love their song "almost perfect"), Collective Soul (just in time for "Shine") and the Zac Brown Band who always makes me smile. 80s tribute night was nuts. So full of people and I definitely squeezed in just to get a glimpse of the Getaway Car band who dressed up as Kiss. Insane I tell ya, they looked just like them and sounded really good as well. Just way too crowded for my tastes.

Stayed up pretty late yet again and got into bed probably around 5:30am. By the time I woke up, my roomies had headed out to the beaches and on their excursions on the island so I leisurely got ready and went to meet up with them at Margaritaville. It wasn't too hard to locate them and we enjoyed a long and pricey lunch with the forceful wind, beautiful scenery, obnoxious DJ, short-lived songs, poor service yet a great atmostphere in general. I just love Carribbean style locations in general. Nothing can really get me down while I am there.

After lunch, Mindy and Jill went shopping while Shannon and I opted for some sun time. Shannon had found a "private pier" that she wanted to show to me so we headed over in that direction and noticed that it was completely private, beautiful and our perfect haven for the next few hours to just lay out, relax and enjoy the solidarity while glancing a bit into the clear ocean and the view of our boat just to our right. That's important so we know it doesn't leave without us on it. *grin*

Several minutes later after getting settled into our spot on the "private pier" we hear a horn. We questioned it as it couldn't be our boat because we still had a couple of hours to spare. Heard it again, but this time louder and Shannon suggested it could be a shark warning, although I wasn't buying that, nor did I want that to be the truth for obvious reasons. All of a sudden we look up in front of us and there is a boat full of people who just came back from their scuba diving excursion. Great. Our so-called private pier is now invested with Rock Boat musicians and people all staring at us questioningly and stepping over us. Classy. Not five minutes later, another boat (yet smaller) comes to the right of us. We are now surrounded by random people. At this point we are just laughing at ourselves and decide our private pier, yet a good idea at first was too crowded for us.

We hopped back on the boat shortly after that and went to experience their amazing workout room again. It was much nicer to work out without having to hold onto the sides due to waves. I enjoyed that for the day. We then joined in on the deck party where they gave us free, but highly sweet drinks and watched the Pat McGee band rock out for our enjoyment. Shannon and I went to support Oval Opus, who was really great. We got to talk with the lead singer right before he went on and he was super nice. David Ryan Harris was next, in which we were surprised by Karate Kid's arrival. So, Akiva watched with us until we moved onto Five Star Iris at the Follies Lounge. Mindy and Jill had saved us amazing seats in the top level, front row in front of the sound system. They were perfect for rocking out and enjoying the full show. Although typically I enjoy the up close and personal show, for Five Star Iris, this was perfect.

The rest of the night was pretty much wandering and enjoying Florez in the Promenade for a couple of hours. They were amazing and floored us all. They were so much fun too. Stayed up super late again, without planning, jamming on our favorite third floor piano bar. Met up with Karl (from The Samples) and Big 10-4 rocked out with Akiva, Karl, John Frank, amazing twin sisters who sang beautifully and extras. The guitarist (I think Terry?) for Stef Dorfman visited us again to hang out. He was super nice. We had quite a crowd that night and everyone enjoyed the "sing along". Headed downstairs for a bit to catch some of Dirty Shannon's impromtu show at the Atrium bar. They rock my socks. Headed to bed around 5:30am yet again and had to wake up at a decent time on Sunday to not miss Five Star Iris' Lido Deck preformance at noon.

We got up around 11ish, which was super early for us, but we were hardly ever really complaining about that and honestly not too tired. We were more stoked and excited than anything. Got to the Lido deck and enjoyed our friend's rocking out. It was a great show on the Lido deck and they impressed everyone there. Florez took the stage right after and rocked out as well. I throughly enjoyed their new song "Salute"! It is addicting and hilarious, in my opinion. We rushed over to the Follies stage to hit up Aslyn's initmate preformance there. We ran into Mel and Mitch there. They are so much fun! It was great times. Aslyn was amazing as usual. Loved all of her preformances.

I show hopped at that point to the Alan Yates Band, who needed the support and were great! We were front row! *grin* Then met up with Shannon at the end of Wideawake's set to enjoy the last time on the boat to hear "Not So Far Away". They held an additional open mic at the Promenade so we promoted Dirty Shannon for the night and had a great crowd there! Scuba Josh was totally being supportive and was namedropping Dirty Shannon every chance up at the mic. We heart him!

So, Dirty Shannon, Akiva and Sarah all rocked out open mic again. They are my favorites as usual. I really liked Gareth as well as a new addition. He was great! Right after open mic, we caught a few songs of an acoustic Five Star Iris show on the Promenade and then went to catch "Baby, you're amazing" of Josh Kelley. Ran into Shannon there, rocked out and then went back to Sister Hazel to catch a few last Rock Boat songs from them.

Coming to a closer, we had decided to stay up throughout the night and enjoy our last night on the boat. Akiva gave us a private show and I got to hear "This is Life" which is my favorite of his. Yay! "You're the best around!" Karate Kid! *grin* We caught some of the jam session on the Lido Deck, but it was litereally more of a long-gated jam session with no lyrics so I wandered a lot, before settling on taking a tour of the boat many times, including visiting the casino to see our friends winning lots of mulah, when finally heading up to the top back deck to watch the sunrise.

Shortly before sunrise, Matt, Paulie and Akiva joined us and we all hung out and watched the boat port. It was a sad moment. I definitely did not want to leave. I got to reunite with a lot of my regular Rock Boat pals including: Todd, Beverly (yay, she's having a baby girl!), Mel with Jack and got to meet Mitch this time, Jen and Barbara, Sarah and her sister Laura, Scuba Josh, Stacey (John Frank's friend), Myriah and Trinity and more. I loved having more friends on the boat. It was just an amazing experience, yet again.

"You're subtleties..." I heart Paulie. At such perfect timing, Paulie would sing out just the first two words of "It Ends Tonight" by The All-American Rejects, but the final moment on the boat when we were about to leave was enough to make me pretty depressed.

We headed down for breakfast before saying our goodbyes or see ya laters. Most had eggs and hot chocolate, while I ate some cereal. One of my favorite quotes of the boat was Matt stating "I'm about to get off soon" to the woman taking our dishes away. Classy. I think it was more of an invitation than a statement.

We gave our long-dreaded hugs and kisses and said farewell for the time being. Shannon and I went to get our stuff to prepare to disembark. Mindy and Jill were just getting ready to head out as well. I was gonna miss my roomies (Bubbles, Emu and Curly. I was nicknamed Emo *grin*). We somely walked out and awaited the boat to be reopened to disembark. Apparently Cali and Tony had gotten out earlier before something occurred to have them stop the process.

I followed Marc Broussard and his new wife off of the boat and rushed to meet up with Cali and Tony, who were patiently waiting for us in the car. I slept most of the way back home, yet it still seemed to have taken forever. Shannon wasn't feeling so great by the time we made it back. Tony and Cali seemed fine. I headed home and after getting a lot of my errands completely, I crashed for what seemed a long time and I needed it.

I had to wake up quite early the following day (Tuesday) because I agreed to assist with training our new VIP Tour Guides for about an hour during my vacation time. Why? Because I enjoy it and why not? So I sucked it up and thankfully had a voice to do it. After getting some emails checked, I headed home and slept the rest of the day away. Woke up for the zelazowa and Randall Shreve show that night at Studio Caf� and it was just what I needed.