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My thoughts on the 08 "Birthday Cruise" followed by
6 Great Slide Shows of Vince Vance's Birthday Cruise 2008
Hey, everybody!
Vince Vance here and I just got back from the Gulf of Mexico. Yes, the Vince
Vance Crazy Cruise IV was a major success. This year we traveled to Progresso
& Cozumel, Mexico, aboard the Carnival Cruise Ship, The Fantasy. I don't know
how we keep topping ourselves.
Last year, it was Costa Maya, Cozumel, concerts and parties. Treasure Chest
Casino and Coke were sponsors. Coke had a 5 foot ice statue of me, a six foot
cake, a black calypso band w/ with white hair and the entire Lido Deck for one
of the many parties. Coke's version of "Deal or No Deal" amazed me THREE times
during the cruise.
This year, it was more than I can begin to explain, but I'll give you a
flash... well, as if you were on Bourbon Street. On Friday, February 8th at 6
PM, before we even left, it all started out with a cool Bon Voyage party, at
rockin’ local pub called Smitty's. Great food provided by Don, Jennifer and
Wanda –they put it together. For entertainment, it was me and and my crazy
sax man, Jimmy Vee, doing some great standards and some great jokes, too!
Jimmy was showing off, as usual, and played two saxes at once. One of the
major highlights for me was seeing my old friends, Dr. Tommy Thompsom, D.D.S.
abd his child-bride, Trish from Nashville, Tennessee. I hadn’t seen ‘em in
like 12 years. The Bon Voyage Party is our way of welcoming all the out-of-
towners and helping them get situated. Actually, yours truly even shuttled a
bunch of ‘em from the hotel. Did they ever get freaked-out when I pulled up to
pick 'em up in the band's shuttle?!
Next day, we board Carnival Cruise Lines, the Fantasy… and it is like a
fantasy, too. What a beautiful ship!
Anyway, as soon as the life boat drill is over, we start partying… with just
the sweetest Meet-and-Greet Party. Don Gardner, my manager, welcomed everyone.
And the chief cook and bottle washer, Jennifer Laneaux, my office manager, who
virtually put the cruise together tells the cruisers what’s going down each
day for the cruise. The FREE Blue Hawaiians, Rum Punch, Yellow Birds and the
finest hors d'œuvres rocked! We had fancy food, like cavier and canapes…
regular stuff, too, like little meatballs and chicken strips and more.
Beautiful girls were there, aplenty: Pam Guidry, Holly Guidry who won the
Shake-A-Tailfeather Contest, Bonnie Morice and her Barbie-esque niece,
Kristin, Abby Autin, Ex-St. Charles Parish Super Models: Brenda & Mattie,
Louisiana, lovely Alyssa Griffin from Raceland, Louisiana, my gorgeous
attorney, Debbie Adame from Fort Worth, Texas. I can’t forget a new face, the
lovely and exotic Angie from Topeka, Kansas. Great eye candy for the men!
Yabba dabba doo! LOL… Hey, if I missed you write and give me heck…. Look, I
don’t remember sleeping the whole cruise. When I got home after the cruise I
slept like 12 hours. And I’m still exhausted.
Is that all? No way, Jose`! We actually have a mini-wedding right in the
middle of the Meet-and-Greet Party! Two of the cruisers, Behrman High Grads
and childhood sweethearts, Ralphie and Diana, finally got together after like
30 years. They decide to renew their vows with a minister… well, the Right
Reverand Wanda Minor. You never know what’s gonna happen next on this
cruise. Trust me. No, you better not do that. I’ll have you up on stage
singing faster than you can say, “Senor Froggs!”
Then we all go to a formal dinner. Each night, I’d visit every table in the
dining room and kibitz with all my friends, fans and cruisers that I hadn’t
seen in so long, like Joe & Carol Moreland, Merv & Debbie Autin, Martin & De
Cooper, Mike & Toddy Arceneaux, Nat & Bonnie Morice, Mary Emma & Jack
Anderson, Ernest & Barbara Hare, not to mention the George Schmidt Crazies and
the Mike & Judy Sutherland contingent from Illinois. It was a boatload of
partiers who wouldn’t let up. Some still have headaches two days later.
24 hours later, it’s only on the second day of the cruise; we throw a major 2
hour concert which includes a genuine Mardi Gras simulation. We start out
with me singing a Dixieland version of "Oh, When the Saints Go Marchin' In." I
hand the mike to the great swamp pop rocker, Bobby G, and he starts belting it
out even better than me. Wow, what a voice! Actually, Bobby G sings “Saints”
on our new release, VINCE VANCE'S MARDI GRAS KING CAKE PARTY and it’s the best
version of that song… EVER! He even speaks Cajun French in it! Laissez les
bons temps rouler! Well, while Bobby’s singing, out comes another amazing
Guest Star... the reigning King of New Orleans Rhythm & Blues Mardi Music:
AL "Carnival Time" JOHNSON! Check it out… he’s dressed in his Golden Cape &
Crown and handing out long beads to most of the ladies in the house. Then he
does his own little show within our show including "Mardi Gras Mambo" and the
his number one Mardi Gras song "Carnival Time" both off of my new King Cake
Party CD. Well, like everybody starts going crazy! All the Cajuns and New
Orleans people get up and start waving’ their handkerchiefs into the air,
shakin’ their tail feathers and doing the Second Line. All the fans from other
parts of the country had never seen anything like it, but they loved it! One
of the favorite parts of the show for everybody was me in my sponge Bob
swimming trunks and my rubber ducky inner tube doing “Itsy-Bitsy Teensy-
Weensie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini.” I think they all liked it ‘cause the
Valiantettes were pretending like they were shy in their Betty Grable-esque
sun suits. So then I introduce formally Booby G. He does some great
songs, “You Don’t Know Me,” “That’s my Desire,” and Elvis’s “One Night With
You,” only with me on the piano and far more bluesy… like Smiley Lewis woulda
done it if he were a coon ass from Galliano, Louisiana. By the end of the show
everybody is standing with a tear in their eyes when I introduce all of the
veterans in the crowd and do a tribute to America and the troops.
Hey, all this and we are not out of port 24 hours! And I mean, like what’d you
want anyway, dancing girls!?! Well, of course, we carry our own with us, the
vivacious and voluptuous Valiantettes… Vera, Violet and ‘Vette! And did they
have a good time!!? I don’t remember them sleeping between shows with all of
the many night clubs, bars, parties and karaoke-ing going on. Of course, I
don’t remember much. If you remember a lot, you weren’t really there. LOL
Anyway, back to my story, so we’re out of port… like less than two days when
we hit the sleepy little Mexican town of Progresso… only it wasn’t very sleepy
when the Vince Vance Crazy Cruisers got through with it. They got off that
boat with a vengeance… to eat, drink, party, sight see and buy every kind of
tourist stuff you could imagine. The prices were real cheap, too! Some of
the bargains floored me: like an onyx chess set for $20.00… but you had to
bargain with the locals a bit… and that was fun, too!!!
Some cruisers decided to just hang out on the ship, like my friend, Darlyn
Percle. She had come to chill and relax. So Perky, that’s what I call her,
decided to just bring a great book and chill. T-Mac did too. She just hung
out on the Sports Deck and sun bathed. I’m sure that made a lot of men
cruisers REAL happy, if you get my drift. T-Mac is a cute girl with a lot of
brains, too. She’s an elementary school teacher. T-mac… well, her real name
is Terry, loves music. She blogs about bands and puts together websites for
bands, too. Actually, she created the entire vincevance.biz site like ALL by
herself for me. You really oughta check it out. It will blow you away. It is
just so cool. My favorite parts are “Vinnie Gets Personal,” “Vince’s Favorite
Links,” “Good Times with Vinnie” and “Beautiful Girl Slide Show.” Be sure to
visit the merchandise section. They’ve got some really cool Valiant stuff and
great downloads!
Well, back to the story… So everybody else gets back on the ship. We’ve got
to rest, right? NOT! Not a chance… now it’s time to for my manager, Don
Gardner, to get me to squeeze out every bit of emotion out of the cruisers
with… An Intimate Afternoon with Vince Vance. It is one of the new parts of
the cruise. I got dressed up in my best tux… from Rubenstein Brothers in New
Orleans. There is no band set up… just a concert grand piano in the middle of
the dance floor. Don introduces me and I come out to nice applause.
Everybody’s in such a good mood. I get a little nervous ‘cause I’m not really
sure what I will do. Don said that the fans, friends and cruisers told him
that they wanted to know all about me and about my music. So that’s exactly
what I gave ‘em.
First, I told them an abbreviated life story about how I got into music and
details about my life… real stuff, stuff that I’d never tell anyone in a
gazillion years… about my Mom and Dad and who they are like. I even explained
how my hits were made. Then I got on the piano and played original songs and
concert sounding piano, like concert pianist Liberace or something. 99% had
never heard me played like that. Then I played some very personal songs… “We
Were Afraid to Fly” and then “You’re Such a Beautiful Girl.” The piano was a
very good one and the audience was with me completely and as I sang it I made
the mistake of thinking about certain beautiful girls and how the song came to
be. After it was over I had tears in my eyes and the audience was all choked
up, too. Hot Toddy Arceneaux handed me a Kleenex. I couldn’t speak for a
moment, which is rare, huh? I couldn’t speak because, well, I told them but
if you wanna find out you’ve got to get off your keester and come next time.
Anyway, many of the cruisers told me it was their favorite part of the cruise,
but I was kinda embarrassed… just ‘cause.
There was so much more… Dinner with the Captain, riding boats
called “tenders,” lobster, more lobster, strawberry bisque, Mexican food,
Cozumel, cream colored alligator boots, diamonds, snorkeling, diving,
gambling, checking out the ruins, another concert even better than the others,
more Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, joke sessions in Bobby G’s Captain’s Suite
with Pam Guidry, Sarge & Patsy, Pete & Helen Drago and Wanda, Janie Boyd and
Delois…
And I could go on for hours, but I'm taking up your time. I should be
performing somewhere near you sometime this year!
Come see me ‘cause I’m diggin' you and missin' you more... Let me see you
soon… Better yet, why don’t you come cruisin’ next year!?
Love,
Vinnie
Vince Vance's 2008 Birthday Cruise
Bon Voyage Party
at Smitty's After Hours
Vince Vance's 2008 Birthday Cruise
Meet and Greet Party
aboard the Fantasy Cruise Ship
First night Vince Vance & The Valiants
performed as the band during Vince's 08
"Birthday Cruise"
An Intimate Afternoon with Vince Vance
during the Vince Vance Birthday Cruise 08
Second night Vince Vance & The Valiants
performed as the band during Vince's 08
"Birthday Cruise" (1st half of 2nd nights
performance slide show)
(2nd half of 2nd night performance slide show)
Second night Vince Vance & The Valiants
performed as the band during Vince's 08
"Birthday Cruise"
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