Oh my goodness!! I had such a wonderful much needed vacation! We managed to get down to Florida right before the major snow hit and I have immense gratitude for my neighbor who shoveled a path from her place to ours and cared for my kitties. My ever compassionate husband offered to let two of our neighbors who do not have a driveway, to park in ours since there was a town wide parking ban from Saturday thru Tuesday. They sent me these pics of our place shortly after the storm passed. They were not sure how the heck they were going to shovel out since they were not able to throw the snow high enough to clear the snow banks!

Meanwhile, down in Florida we arrived one day early for the cruise and it was rainy and a bit chilly but we got to meet up with a dear friend of mine that splits her time between New York and Florida. She truly is one of my favorite people of all time that I do not get to see nearly enough! We had a fantastic lunch and then went for massages from a wonderful and talented massage therapist that she knows. It was a truly great way to start a birthday vacation!

The next day, we boarded the Norwegian Joy for the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise. We had a lovely balcony cabin on deck 10 that afforded us several wonderful sunset views and a pretty selfie opportunity!

I had decided that I was going to try to keep the insanity to a minimum this year and NOT try to go to every show humanly possible the way I usually do at concert festivals! To be honest, it has been a rough few weeks with the heartbreaking emotional roller coaster associated with my ex’s immigration troubles and I truly needed to decompress a fair bit – and a cruise seemed like just the thing!

The E.N.D. Cruise (Emo’s Not Dead) is sponsored by a guy named Matt Cutshall and his wife Arielle, who started making a series of hysterical videos in 2019 with the tag line – “Felt EMO Might delete” and he has parlayed that into a very successful clothing line, a coffee company, and sold out cruises featuring some of the greatest bands in the genre. This was their 4th sailing but my first and I really had a great time!.

So my priority on board was to see every bit of “We the Kings” possible and I definitely did that! The first evening they did an acoustic show in the mid ship Atrium and I went down early enough to grab a barricade spot! That’s like the “brass ring” of concert going! It was a really lovely set! The next day they did a show in the Joy Theater and my husband, who likes the music but not crowds, came with me to check it out and actually had a really good time! But admits he likely won’t be making a habit of it – lol.

They had the day that we were in Costa Maya off (which I will come back to in a moment) but on the last day of the cruise, which happened to be the day before my birthday, they did a Meet & Greet signing as well as a great show at the H20 venue outside on the aft deck. That one was windy but fabulous! They did a bunch of fun covers and were just really playful and sweet. I also got to bump into Coley, the band’s keyboard and guitarist, on his way into a venue and Travis, the lead singer, in the buffet and they were just so warm and friendly. I truly love that band. 🙂

Okay, so Mexico was probably the most relaxing day of all. We booked a beach escape excursion that came with an open bar and so we got ourselves a couple of lounge chairs in the sunshine and I had like four rum punches – because I could! The beach was fabulous and I managed to get into the water for a swim and was just really relaxing and loving life for the day.

Something else I enjoyed a lot was their EMO art gallery where they put a unique spit on some famous paintings. Some of the captions were a riot!

Of course I did manage to catch a few other bands on the cruise including; Silverstein, Daisy Grenade, August Burns Red, Saves the Day and more. There was also a few giant inflatables because well… it wouldn’t be a festival without giant inflatables!! (or the obligatory towel teddy bear). 🙂

All-in-all the cruise was a really great time but I don’t think I will do it again next year. Hmm… we’ll see because it is my birthday week again in 2027 and well – I freaking love music. Haha!

Stay tuned for part 2 of the vacation blog where I tell you all about my next favorite part and the wonderful sea creatures that totally won my heart! Love – Mz Suzanne