Day One – 1/21/16
The first night of the Def Leppard Cruise, Matt and I took it easy. He stayed on the extremely windy pool deck and saw Thee Rock n’ Roll Residency. I was taking too long figuring out ways to decorate our cabin door. It turns out that the pictures I had brought stayed well magnetized to the walls bordering our door rather than on the door itself. Who knew? We had dinner that night in one of the ship’s restaurants, met a few new people who sat with us at our table, and then ended the night at the Black & White Lounge to see Kip Winger. I stayed out with a couple of the new people we met during dinner hoping to sing karaoke later, but I was never called up. I did get to see Eric Martin’s guitarist and Ritchie Kotzen go up and sing some karaoke.
Ready for Hysteria on the High Seas – no idea of what was to come
My crazy stalker shots with the guys!
Day Two – 1/22/16
The second day of the cruise, we didn’t really have anything to do until 1:30 that afternoon for the Def Leppard Storytellers and Q&A. We were docked in the Bahamas, but it was pretty rainy and nasty out. It was okay, as we had no plans of getting off the ship that day, and I woke up pretty late due to my karaoke watching until about 3 AM! That morning, the cruisers who purchased the VIP experience had a little get together with the band at the Black and White Lounge. It was already sounding like the cruise wasn’t delivering on what was promised. Meeting them in a group setting wasn’t part of the plan. Well, I came to find out later that the VIP meet and greet turned out to be one huge fiasco, as the fans could not contain themselves and swarmed the band. Not only that, but apparently Joe wasn’t even there! Security had to step in to remove the band, leaving many of the VIP peeps high and dry.
During the Q&A, a young girl asked Joe Elliott if he still warms up his voice before a show and if so, what that entailed. This is when Joe broke the news to us that he had been fighting a cold and that there was something wrong with his throat. I didn’t really think too much of that at the time. They went on to perform Ziggy Stardust, Hysteria, Armageddon It and Pour Some Sugar on Me acoustically. Like Matt has pointed out, I don’t understand why they would pick the most overplayed songs to play for us at that moment. I mean, the world is your oyster – you have a ship with Def Leppard fans – we don’t need to hear the songs you play most often. After the Q&A Storytellers, we got to take our group picture with Def Leppard on the stage. Think of it as your classic 80’s elementary school picture with your whole class – just with Def Leppard in the front/center. I was slightly freaking out, as we were a couple of rows behind the band in our picture. Vivian was in front of me, and I reached my hand out and placed it on his back throughout the time it took for them to take the picture. It was over in a flash, and afterwards, we made our way to the pool deck to see Kix. It was extremely windy that day, and it was a wonder they were able to stay on stage. Seriously, it looked like Steve Whiteman was singing in to a wind tunnel. Kudos to Kix for pulling off a really great set under those conditions. We ended the night at the Golden Jazz Lounge, and I finally got to catch Thee Rock N’ Roll Residency. Well, actually, we were forced to listen from outside of the lounge because the place was packed!

Vivian is probably nervously smiling because my hand is creepily touching his back!
Day Three – 1/23/16
The third day of the cruise was to be the highlight of the whole cruise experience, as it was the night of the Def Leppard concert in the Pantheon Theater. We were scheduled to be docked in MSC’s private island Half Moon Cay that morning, and there were going to be a couple of shows performed on a pirate ship on the island, as well as food and drinks. Sadly, due to the weather, this didn’t happen. We were told that the weather was bad and that the conditions were only going to get worse throughout the day. So there we were, stuck on the ship. They rescheduled the shows, and I finally got to see Thee Rock N’ Roll Residency – kind of. Seriously – they placed the band back in the Golden Jazz Lounge, and the place was thoroughly packed once again. At least this time we got there early enough to get seats inside, but the amount of people standing everywhere was just out of control. Later that night we had dinner at Eataly. It was alright, nothing to brag about. I’m sure the version of Eataly on land is a much better experience than this version on the Divina.
Now, as I stated previously, the cruise was supposed to have 2 Def Leppard concerts on the same night to accommodate everyone on the ship. However, since the cruise did not sell out, all of the people on the ship for Def Leppard were able to fit into the Pantheon Theater for one performance. Matt and I got to the theater early for the 10:45 PM concert time. I believe it was about half an hour later when Eddie Trunk came out to introduce Joe Elliott. This is when Joe Elliott dropped a bomb on us. It seems that the bug that he alluded to during the Q&A was still bothering him, and he would not be able to perform that night. He said that under different circumstances, the show would have been cancelled, but as we were all on a cruise ship and out to sea, this was not an option. The band was going to perform with the help of special guests. He said that we would all be contacted by management and offered free concert tickets to any venue of our choice. He then introduced the band and walked off stage. Holy crap! I seriously wasn’t even sure of what I just heard. It wasn’t until I saw him physically get off the stage that it finally hit me. A play by play of the concert will be written up under a different post. Let’s just say that it was short and interesting. We headed to a bar near the theater shortly after the show, and definitely heard some disgruntled people – some more than others. There was one guy who looked like he was ready to go fight someone over this – it was a bit much.
Day Four – 1/24/16
Day four of the cruise started out with a meet and greet with Frank Hannon, Kip Winger, and Kix. I got my pictures with all of them, and even mentioned to Kix that I was glad they didn’t fly off the ship! I made it back in time to the room to change and get ready for the Last in Line show at noon. I hadn’t stayed to hear all of their set list at the pre-cruise party, so I was looking forward to this show. Not only that, but after the previous night’s weirdness, I was ready to rock out to some music. We got to the theater before noon, took our seats, and waited for the show to begin…except that there wasn’t going to be a show. Eddie Trunk came out to tell us that the night before, just before Def Leppard was going to perform, they found Last in Line’s bass player Jimmy Bain dead in his cabin. WTF!! The weirdness was apparently going to be a theme of this cruise. Jimmy’s band-mates, Vivian Campbell, Vinny Appice, and Andrew Freeman came out on to the stage and just told stories of their time and their friendship with Jimmy as pictures of him playing at the pre-cruise party were shown on the screen behind them. We were shown the videos for “Starmaker” and “Devil in Me” which were pretty kick ass, btw. We left the theater a little dumbfounded, as this was obviously not how any of this cruise was supposed to go.
After a much needed trip to another bar and lunch, we were back in the Pantheon Theater for Tom Keifer. I must say, Tom tore the roof off of the ship’s theater, and we really needed that! The setlist was pretty much the same as the pre-cruise party one, but that was fine. Later on that night, Last in Line performed at the pool deck with Eric Brittingham playing bass – pulling double duty as he also played with Thee Rock N’ Roll Residency afterwards. At the very end of the night, we got to see Delta Deep, or really just Phil Collen, Debbi Blackwell-Cook and Frank Hannon. The cruise was now winding down and returning to Miami.
Kix
Kip Winger and Frank Hannon
Tom Keifer
Last in Line
Delta Deep
The following morning we finally got off the ship and on to dry land. So what were our general thoughts regarding this cruise? The Divina is a beautiful ship. MSC is not a well known cruise line, and in order for them to stand out, they should definitely improve their services. Instead, they pretty much fell flat. For starters, the bartenders were horrible!!! It always seemed like such a chore to get us drinks. If they weren’t understaffed, they just weren’t interested in getting you anything. As for the food, well, I can honestly say that I didn’t get on this cruise for the food. More often than not, we ate at the buffet. The one time we ate at Eataly was unimpressive. And how about all of the weirdness on the cruise? Seeing Def Leppard play without Joe Elliott was mind blowing to me. Having a band member (or anyone, really) die while on board is crazy. And although nothing could be done about Mother Nature, the weather while out to sea was bad enough to keep us aboard the ship the entire trip!
So in the end, I must say that we fell in love with Thee Rock N’ Roll Residency. They consistently wowed us every time they played. Their 70’s rock covers were not the usual fare you’d hear on a classic rock station, and that’s what made them even more appealing. Seriously, we want to book a vacation to Nashville to see them play at the Harp & Fiddle! Would I do this again? Well, I’d say probably, but from the sounds of it, Def Leppard would need some heavy duty convincing to ever do this again. I’m sure they didn’t like the fact that they were also trapped aboard the entire time. Also, all of the bad luck didn’t help either. I didn’t really interact with many other fans on this trip. It still felt like a Monsters of Rock Cruise and not a Def Leppard Cruise. I’d say if you wanted to meet like minded Def Leppard fans, the better place to do that would be another Las Vegas residency. Here’s to hoping that will happen again someday!!