![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Ship's Log
I am back from my tropical adventure! Actually, I've been back since lateish on Saturday night, but yesterday ended up being mostly a rest-recovery-run urgent errands day. As will happen when one takes vacation for over a week, and one's cell phone does not survive the experience. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
So as I mentioned, the purpose of this vacation was primarily to attend this year's JoCoCruise. A group of my friends went two years ago and have been talking about attending again ever since; this year, the stars aligned, some of the group got together to make reservations, and T and I decided to join them. If you're not familiar, JoCoCruise is a sort of convention/music festival at sea, headlined by nerd rocker Jonathan Coulton and co-hosted by comedy music duo Paul and Storm. Other attendees include SFF authors, comedians, musicians, and podcasters -- and this year included a special appearance by They Might Be Giants. TMBG were one of my main incentives to attend, along with the fact that San Juan, Puerto Rico, was one of the ports of call, a place that sounded exciting to visit, and that I was happy to support with my tourist dollars.
As I often do with cons, I had hoped to jot down notes about each day as it happened, but it's probably no surprise that I didn't manage this. So I'll share my thoughts and memories as best I can.
We flew to Florida three days before the cruise. Since I had nudged T onto the cruise in the first place, I let him choose our Florida itinerary, and he decided on two activities: seeing manatees at Blue Springs State Park, and Kennedy Space Center.
Manatees are ocean mammals, but during the winter they come inland to hot springs, in search of warmer waters. However, central Florida had some unseasonably warm weather in the weeks leading up to our trip, and the park had reported very few manatees on site. We talked about finding something else to do, but ultimately we decided to take our chances with the manatees, and we were rewarded. There were so. many. manatees! At least dozens, if not over 100. Including baby manatees! I posted a few pics on Twitter, and T has a larger album here. Also, it was just a nice park. Many birds and fish, beautiful clear water, some nice hiking trails. Some parks offer trips where you can swim or snorkel with manatees, but Blue Springs doesn’t allow that — the waters are closed to humans while manatees are present, and I thought it was lovely to watch them, undisturbed, from the boardwalk. It looked like a nice place to swim, especially in summer, but I was happy to leave it to the manatees.
That night, we also saw Captain Marvel (YAY). More about that later, maybe after I see it again, which I most certainly will.
Kennedy Space Center was the next day. T is a big fan of space stuff, so it’s no surprise that he picked it as a place to visit. For him, it was less educational and more of a pilgrimage. I like space, but don’t know as much about it, so I learned quite a lot. I also found myself more emotional about the visit than I had expected, choking up at random times. At first I didn’t really even understand why. Then we got to the Challenger memorial, and I understood. That disaster was pretty formative for me — as I’m sure it was for many people about my age; I was in 7th grade, and not only was it shocking and memorable, it's one of the first times I remember the adults around me being truly upset about something and unable to hide it. And it was moving in other ways too, seeing objects that actually went to space and came back, and inspiring to think about what people can accomplish if we actually work together. Yeah, that's all worth a few tears.
Last Saturday was the first day of the cruise. We drove from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale, where we boarded the ship, Holland America Oosterdam. (This ship is identical in plan to the cruise ship we took to Alaska last June, which was handy but also provoked lots of deja vu.) Here's a few snaps from that day, which included one of my first signs that this cruise would be a bit different from my last! Also the Aperture Labs signs posted in the buffet, and the positive affirmations that kept showing up in the elevator. We left the land and the Internet behind a little before sunset, on our way to the first port of call in the Bahamas.
My understanding is that it's typical for JoCo to have three days at sea and three ports of call (the typical seven-day Caribbean cruise stops at four ports and has two sea days). But there's so much more to do on the boat, it makes sense to spend a little more time there. Our three ports were Half Moon Cay (pronounced "Key"), a private island in the Bahamas; Road Town, Tortola, the British Virgin Islands (we spent most of the day across the water on Virgin Gorda); and, as previously mentioned, San Juan, PR. The three sea days were roughly divided into themes: author day, which featured several major readings and a couple of panels (I saw John Scalzi, Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, and Mary Robinette Kowal); podcast day (I attended live recordings by Schmanners, Our Opinions Are Correct, and My Brother My Brother And Me), and a grab bag sort of day. Some of my other highlights included the Disney Song Sing-A-Long (I know way more words to way more Disney tunes than I realized), Five Sherlock Holmes and a Vampire (featuring the cast of The Adventure Zone plus Patrick Rothfuss), musician Jean Grae's live radio play "Stacy Jambles, Private Detective with No Short Term Memory", and getting my copy of Here There Be Gerblins signed by all four McElroy boys.
And then there was the Land Concert in San Juan, which I gather has become a centerpiece of the cruise experience for the last few years. It was also the only scheduled performance by They Might Be Giants -- John Flansburgh was on the boat, as was drummer Marty Bellar, but the rest of the band did not attend the whole cruise, most notably John Linnell.
One thing to know about visiting the tropics: bring your raincoat, because you never know when it might rain. There was a little rain in the forecast, and as we ate dinner before the show on the cruise ship, rain pattered on the windows. But we decided that rain wouldn't stop us, so we pulled out our jackets and an umbrella and trekked over to the outdoor venue. We had missed the first two acts to eat, so by the time we got there, Jill Sobule was playing. I know a couple of her songs, but she didn't play either of those; still, I enjoyed her set very well. Jonathan Coulton was up next, and it rained through most of his set, but not so much that it got in the way of his performance or our enjoyment of it. He's a great live performer, definitely recommended if you ever get the chance. It was super fun, even if I only knew a few of the songs, and then he signed off, hyped up to introduce TMBG.
And then the skies opened, and it POURED.
Did I mention that this concert was held on a pier, which is mostly an open-air venue? And the stage was protected only by a overhead covering, open to the elements on all four sides?
We braved standing in front of the stage for a little while, and then we fled for a sheltered area off in a corner while we decided whether to wait it out. People started leaving, first a few at a time, then in larger groups. Eventually, at about the time that TMBG's set had been scheduled to begin, the mass exodus began, and we followed, racing back for the ship and cover. A rumor started: they were trying to get permission for John Linnell to board the ship, so that the band could play a set or two there. The main theater aboard ship could accommodate a little less than half the passengers, so maybe they could do two shows. We got back on board the boat, changed out of our wet clothes, and made our way up to the buffet for a late night snack and to await word about what was going to happen with the show.
Then word came, around 10:30 pm. TMBG was on the boat, but the non-passenger band members, including John Linnel, had to be off the boat before midnight. So they would play one set, starting immediately, first come first serve.
We abandoned our most of our food (leaving it with T, who didn't attend any of the concerts because he doesn't like amplified music). I carried an eclair with me the whole way. All five of our group got seats, although not together, and settled in literally seconds before the first note was played. It was a miracle that they pulled it off. So while it might not be technically or musically the best TMBG show I've ever seen, it is absolutely among the most memorable. I danced almost the whole time. It was magical and electric. At 11:56, Coulton came to the stage to shoo the band away and thank us for our cooperation and understanding. I took my eclair back to the buffet, where T had eaten most of our food, and got another round of snacks, and stayed up late, hyped and glowing from the experience. Although realistically I know I would have preferred to have the full set in the open air, part of me wouldn't trade this memory for anything.
(This, by the way, is when my phone died. At some point during the deluge, I got concerned about keeping it in my wet shorts pocket. So I moved it to my bag.... which was less waterproof than I thought. The phone ended up sitting in a puddle for about 10 minutes, which was enough to kill it entirely. Sadly, this meant that I lost almost all my photos of San Juan, although T took many, so the record isn't completely lost.)
The cruise ended last Saturday, and we spent a few hours in Miami. T and I started with some of the others at the Frost Science Museum, which has a nice aquarium, and then I broke off to have lunch with a Bryn Mawr friend who I hadn't seen since the last reunion. We flew home mostly without incident, and now the re-entry into regular life commences.
JoCoCruise was a great experience, and under the right circumstances I'd go again for sure. But ultimately I would say that it's not quite my type of con. It's very gaming oriented, especially board-gaming oriented, and otherwise centered on a corner of Internet nerd culture that is not quite my own. The gender balance was pretty good, but it felt very white -- even whiter than most of the con spaces I'm in, which admittedly are also quite white. I believe that JoCo has been doing outreach into marginalized communities, in particular working on inviting more white women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color to be featured performers, but I suspect they have a ways to go. Finally, it's quite expensive. The cost of a cruise, of course, and then a fair bit more on top of that. I could easily have gone to WorldCon in Dublin for the same amount, not even including the flights to Florida. And while I don't regret my choice at all, if I'm deciding where to put my con-going dollars, I'd rather do an international WorldCon or 3-4 book/media cons in the US, where I already have a community and the events more closely hit my interests.
That said, if you have any interest, and the means, I absolutely recommend this cruise. It's a fun time with fun people, and you won't be disappointed.
So as I mentioned, the purpose of this vacation was primarily to attend this year's JoCoCruise. A group of my friends went two years ago and have been talking about attending again ever since; this year, the stars aligned, some of the group got together to make reservations, and T and I decided to join them. If you're not familiar, JoCoCruise is a sort of convention/music festival at sea, headlined by nerd rocker Jonathan Coulton and co-hosted by comedy music duo Paul and Storm. Other attendees include SFF authors, comedians, musicians, and podcasters -- and this year included a special appearance by They Might Be Giants. TMBG were one of my main incentives to attend, along with the fact that San Juan, Puerto Rico, was one of the ports of call, a place that sounded exciting to visit, and that I was happy to support with my tourist dollars.
As I often do with cons, I had hoped to jot down notes about each day as it happened, but it's probably no surprise that I didn't manage this. So I'll share my thoughts and memories as best I can.
Pre-boarding
We flew to Florida three days before the cruise. Since I had nudged T onto the cruise in the first place, I let him choose our Florida itinerary, and he decided on two activities: seeing manatees at Blue Springs State Park, and Kennedy Space Center.
Manatees are ocean mammals, but during the winter they come inland to hot springs, in search of warmer waters. However, central Florida had some unseasonably warm weather in the weeks leading up to our trip, and the park had reported very few manatees on site. We talked about finding something else to do, but ultimately we decided to take our chances with the manatees, and we were rewarded. There were so. many. manatees! At least dozens, if not over 100. Including baby manatees! I posted a few pics on Twitter, and T has a larger album here. Also, it was just a nice park. Many birds and fish, beautiful clear water, some nice hiking trails. Some parks offer trips where you can swim or snorkel with manatees, but Blue Springs doesn’t allow that — the waters are closed to humans while manatees are present, and I thought it was lovely to watch them, undisturbed, from the boardwalk. It looked like a nice place to swim, especially in summer, but I was happy to leave it to the manatees.
That night, we also saw Captain Marvel (YAY). More about that later, maybe after I see it again, which I most certainly will.
Kennedy Space Center was the next day. T is a big fan of space stuff, so it’s no surprise that he picked it as a place to visit. For him, it was less educational and more of a pilgrimage. I like space, but don’t know as much about it, so I learned quite a lot. I also found myself more emotional about the visit than I had expected, choking up at random times. At first I didn’t really even understand why. Then we got to the Challenger memorial, and I understood. That disaster was pretty formative for me — as I’m sure it was for many people about my age; I was in 7th grade, and not only was it shocking and memorable, it's one of the first times I remember the adults around me being truly upset about something and unable to hide it. And it was moving in other ways too, seeing objects that actually went to space and came back, and inspiring to think about what people can accomplish if we actually work together. Yeah, that's all worth a few tears.
All Aboard
Last Saturday was the first day of the cruise. We drove from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale, where we boarded the ship, Holland America Oosterdam. (This ship is identical in plan to the cruise ship we took to Alaska last June, which was handy but also provoked lots of deja vu.) Here's a few snaps from that day, which included one of my first signs that this cruise would be a bit different from my last! Also the Aperture Labs signs posted in the buffet, and the positive affirmations that kept showing up in the elevator. We left the land and the Internet behind a little before sunset, on our way to the first port of call in the Bahamas.
Land and Sea
My understanding is that it's typical for JoCo to have three days at sea and three ports of call (the typical seven-day Caribbean cruise stops at four ports and has two sea days). But there's so much more to do on the boat, it makes sense to spend a little more time there. Our three ports were Half Moon Cay (pronounced "Key"), a private island in the Bahamas; Road Town, Tortola, the British Virgin Islands (we spent most of the day across the water on Virgin Gorda); and, as previously mentioned, San Juan, PR. The three sea days were roughly divided into themes: author day, which featured several major readings and a couple of panels (I saw John Scalzi, Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, and Mary Robinette Kowal); podcast day (I attended live recordings by Schmanners, Our Opinions Are Correct, and My Brother My Brother And Me), and a grab bag sort of day. Some of my other highlights included the Disney Song Sing-A-Long (I know way more words to way more Disney tunes than I realized), Five Sherlock Holmes and a Vampire (featuring the cast of The Adventure Zone plus Patrick Rothfuss), musician Jean Grae's live radio play "Stacy Jambles, Private Detective with No Short Term Memory", and getting my copy of Here There Be Gerblins signed by all four McElroy boys.
Singing in the Rain
And then there was the Land Concert in San Juan, which I gather has become a centerpiece of the cruise experience for the last few years. It was also the only scheduled performance by They Might Be Giants -- John Flansburgh was on the boat, as was drummer Marty Bellar, but the rest of the band did not attend the whole cruise, most notably John Linnell.
One thing to know about visiting the tropics: bring your raincoat, because you never know when it might rain. There was a little rain in the forecast, and as we ate dinner before the show on the cruise ship, rain pattered on the windows. But we decided that rain wouldn't stop us, so we pulled out our jackets and an umbrella and trekked over to the outdoor venue. We had missed the first two acts to eat, so by the time we got there, Jill Sobule was playing. I know a couple of her songs, but she didn't play either of those; still, I enjoyed her set very well. Jonathan Coulton was up next, and it rained through most of his set, but not so much that it got in the way of his performance or our enjoyment of it. He's a great live performer, definitely recommended if you ever get the chance. It was super fun, even if I only knew a few of the songs, and then he signed off, hyped up to introduce TMBG.
And then the skies opened, and it POURED.
Did I mention that this concert was held on a pier, which is mostly an open-air venue? And the stage was protected only by a overhead covering, open to the elements on all four sides?
We braved standing in front of the stage for a little while, and then we fled for a sheltered area off in a corner while we decided whether to wait it out. People started leaving, first a few at a time, then in larger groups. Eventually, at about the time that TMBG's set had been scheduled to begin, the mass exodus began, and we followed, racing back for the ship and cover. A rumor started: they were trying to get permission for John Linnell to board the ship, so that the band could play a set or two there. The main theater aboard ship could accommodate a little less than half the passengers, so maybe they could do two shows. We got back on board the boat, changed out of our wet clothes, and made our way up to the buffet for a late night snack and to await word about what was going to happen with the show.
Then word came, around 10:30 pm. TMBG was on the boat, but the non-passenger band members, including John Linnel, had to be off the boat before midnight. So they would play one set, starting immediately, first come first serve.
We abandoned our most of our food (leaving it with T, who didn't attend any of the concerts because he doesn't like amplified music). I carried an eclair with me the whole way. All five of our group got seats, although not together, and settled in literally seconds before the first note was played. It was a miracle that they pulled it off. So while it might not be technically or musically the best TMBG show I've ever seen, it is absolutely among the most memorable. I danced almost the whole time. It was magical and electric. At 11:56, Coulton came to the stage to shoo the band away and thank us for our cooperation and understanding. I took my eclair back to the buffet, where T had eaten most of our food, and got another round of snacks, and stayed up late, hyped and glowing from the experience. Although realistically I know I would have preferred to have the full set in the open air, part of me wouldn't trade this memory for anything.
(This, by the way, is when my phone died. At some point during the deluge, I got concerned about keeping it in my wet shorts pocket. So I moved it to my bag.... which was less waterproof than I thought. The phone ended up sitting in a puddle for about 10 minutes, which was enough to kill it entirely. Sadly, this meant that I lost almost all my photos of San Juan, although T took many, so the record isn't completely lost.)
Land Ho
The cruise ended last Saturday, and we spent a few hours in Miami. T and I started with some of the others at the Frost Science Museum, which has a nice aquarium, and then I broke off to have lunch with a Bryn Mawr friend who I hadn't seen since the last reunion. We flew home mostly without incident, and now the re-entry into regular life commences.
JoCoCruise was a great experience, and under the right circumstances I'd go again for sure. But ultimately I would say that it's not quite my type of con. It's very gaming oriented, especially board-gaming oriented, and otherwise centered on a corner of Internet nerd culture that is not quite my own. The gender balance was pretty good, but it felt very white -- even whiter than most of the con spaces I'm in, which admittedly are also quite white. I believe that JoCo has been doing outreach into marginalized communities, in particular working on inviting more white women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color to be featured performers, but I suspect they have a ways to go. Finally, it's quite expensive. The cost of a cruise, of course, and then a fair bit more on top of that. I could easily have gone to WorldCon in Dublin for the same amount, not even including the flights to Florida. And while I don't regret my choice at all, if I'm deciding where to put my con-going dollars, I'd rather do an international WorldCon or 3-4 book/media cons in the US, where I already have a community and the events more closely hit my interests.
That said, if you have any interest, and the means, I absolutely recommend this cruise. It's a fun time with fun people, and you won't be disappointed.
no subject
no subject
no subject
I'm sorry about your phone! :(
no subject
Re. phone: thanks. It's not as bad as it could have been -- it was an iPhone SE, which I adore, and the model has been discontinued, so I was bracing myself for an expensive "upgrade" that I didn't want. However, they must have kept some SEs in stock for warrantee replacements and such, because they sold me a brand new one for less than half what I was going to pay for a newer model. So I'm pretty content with the outcome, if bummed about the lost photos.
no subject
no subject