If anyone ever has a chance and money to go on 70,000 Tons, don’t hesitate as it is a great experience. Talking with people who went with the quad cabin and the cost is down to around $700 a person, but we sprung for a two person cabin with a balcony that was closer to $2k a person. It is completely non-stop with bands starting at 10 AM, going to 5 AM and then karaoke after that every day for 4 days. This is on top of band meet and greets, clinics, Superbowl parties, and lots of eating. Based on our pedometer, we walked about 10,000 steps a day as we seemed to cross the length of the ship every 45 minutes getting from venue to venue.
Favorite New Bands:
Saltatio Mortis
These guys were pretty fucking amazing with a great stage presence and crazy high energy vibe. The crowd response was so great that the singer was a bit overcome and had a hard time expressing himself in English. I had heard them before when they came up on random radio while listening to Subway to Sally, but didn’t pay much attention to them at the time. It was a running gag for us that it wouldn’t be a complete day if we didn’t run into the singer at least 3 times that day. He was everywhere, took a lot of time just to chat with random groups of people, and super friendly.
Trollfest
Another band with great energy and crowd response. I had one of their albums before the cruise and really enjoyed the music. My SO hadn’t heard them before and was blown away by the show. They somehow managed to make a cover of Britney Spear’s Toxic awesome and the crowd turned the mosh pit into a conga line that wrapped through the entire venue. That conga line for some reason was lead by a man in a banana suit. We did the snorkeling shore excursion with the Trollfest singer and he was a pretty cool guy. For the last show of the cruise, they took over one of the hot tubs and were crowd surfing with 5 guys in the hot tub.
Other Cool Moments:
-Turning a corner a bit too fast and almost being knocked over by Chuck Billy. Although I was unable to locate Alex Skolnick.
-Seeing Christofer Johnsson of Therion in a neck brace eating ice cream on the promenade. The only meet and greet we ended up making was with Therion and forgot to ask what he did to his neck. We also ran into bassist and drummer for Therion at the airport and chatted with them at the curbside check-in.
-Getting to the second Arch Enemy show late so that we were behind the band and being able to stare at Alissa’s ass in skin tight leather the whole time.
-Seeing Amorphis, Therion, Arch Enemy, and Orphaned Land twice. All great bands that I loved before the cruise and great shows. I’ll see if I have the energy to see Amorphis again next month when they come through town.
-Met 5 other people from the Denver area coming back from the cruise.