The Nerdlesque Allstars (Patreon)

One of the greatest perks of this trip was that I got to spend time with some really great people. I learned about social media, vlogging, and all things New Media from the hilarious and driven Stella Chuu. I got to be a goofball with my former roommate, Lefty. And I really got to bond with my hero, Nasty Canasta. Granted, one of those bonding experiences was listening to each other vomit on opposite sides of a shared bathroom wall, but we still had a lot of fun together. 

By coincidence, this cruise fell near her 40th birthday, and she’d been hoping to vacation to Key West, but had to cancel her trip, so I’m really happy that my booking her on this cruise could kind of take the place of that vacation, and she was really vocal about how happy she was to be there and able to soak up as much sun as possible before returning to cold, dark, New York.

One of the best experiences of the trip was the morning when we all took our breakfast into the Cinema to watch Flash Gordon at 10am. Stella had never seen it and she REALLY enjoyed it. We all oohed and ahhhed over the costumes, and I loved hearing Nasty giggle at all the cheesiest bits.

The shows themselves were really solid, which could not have happened without such a great cast. Making a really good show run with only four cast members is a challenge in and of itself, not to mention, a cruise ship is very different from what we’re used to to. And I got the feeling that the feeling was mutual. We got a lot of last minute things thrown at us, issues with the dressing room, changes in the size and shape of the stage, a much larger crowd than anticipated, and our second show took place as the ship was heading into a storm. But the cast soldiered through, no one vomited until after the show, and many members of the audience said they were impressed that none of us even stumbled during our acts.