Christmas has simply handed. Final week I put away all my Christmas decorations. And a reader is asking me about Easter eggs on the Margaritaville at Sea Islander.
Easter is greater than three months away. Why the sudden query about Easter eggs? And what do Easter eggs need to do with a cruise ship?
Effectively, really the Easter eggs this reader is on the lookout for aren’t the sort you dye and hunt on Easter Sunday. No, what she needs was slang for references tucked away in films, video video games and extra know-how. Little tidbits that not everybody may see or perceive.
She wished to know what Jimmy Buffett references have been on his new ship Margaritaville at Sea Islander. Cruise ships typically have a stupendous décor however not a major theme like Margaritaville at Sea does as a loving reminder of the person who portrayed a way of life described as “island escapism.”
The beloved singer, songwriter, musician, writer and businessman died Sept. 1, 2023, at age 76 after a protracted struggle with a uncommon pores and skin most cancers. However his Islander is stuffed with touches of Buffett’s songs, writings and companies.
My second cruise on the Islander
My first cruise on the Islander in June 2024 was a fast two nights out and again, barely sufficient to essentially see the brand new 2,650-passenger ship. So I wished to return and I did on a five-night cruise from Tampa, Florida, with stops in Key West and Cozumel.
What did I uncover? Listed here are a half dozen or so Easter eggs or Buffett references and that’s solely scratching the floor of the Buffett treasures on this ship.
I feel it might be enjoyable if the powers-that-be would create just a little pamphlet the place passengers may go on type of a treasure hunt to examine off all of the Buffett touches. That will be a delight for Parrotthead followers and for folk like me who’ve by no means been to a Buffett live performance and don’t personal one among his albums however suppose the Islander is a welcome addition for cruisers.
Jimmy Buffett Easter eggs
Right here goes with a few of the Buffett references I discovered:
Margaritaville
For starters, the identify of his new ship – Margaritaville at Sea Islander. One among Buffett’s hottest songs was “Margaritaville” and the ship’s exterior is brightly painted with island touches. Anybody who sees Islander docked someplace will not be going to doubt whose ship it’s.
The story goes that Buffett was in Austin when the inspiration struck for “Margaritaville.” He and a buddy had stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant earlier than she dropped him on the airport for a flight dwelling to Key West. They bought to consuming margaritas.
Buffett additionally bought to pondering how it might be good to have an actual place named Margaritaville the place, because the music says, “there’s booze in the blender and soon it will render that frozen concoction that helps me hang on.”
On the aircraft, Buffett wrote a part of his 1977 hit music. He principally completed it whereas driving all the way down to the Keys the place a wreck on Seven Mile Bridge stopped site visitors for about an hour. Buffett finalized “Margaritaville” and carried out it the subsequent night time in a Key West bar.
Big 14-foot flip-flop sculpture with a pop-top underneath it
Positioned within the coronary heart of the Islander atrium, the sculpture is a favourite photograph cease for passengers.
Christened in June 2024, Margaritaville at Sea Islander spans 12 decks with 1,100 staterooms plus 12 eateries and 13 bars and lounges, every with its personal cocktail menu.
The sculpture is a nod to Buffett’s lyrics, “Blew out my flip-flop. Stepped on a pop-top.”
Duplicate of Buffett’s seaplane Hemisphere Dancer suspended over ship atrium
A licensed business pilot, Buffett’s most well-known airplane was his 1954 Grumman HU-16, a two-engine amphibious flying boat primarily used as search-and-rescue plane by the army.
On Jan. 16, 1996, Buffett had taxied Hemisphere Dancer within the water close to Negril, Jamaica, when native authorities thought it was a drug-running aircraft and fired on it. Fortuitously, nobody was harm however the aircraft did maintain a number of bullet holes. Flying with Buffett was U2’s Bono.
Like the nice author he was, Buffett wrote in regards to the incident in his autobiographical e-book “A Pirate Looks at 50.” Buffett additionally penned a tune in regards to the incident as recorded within the music “Jamaica Mistaica” on the album “Banana Wind.”
The aircraft jogs my memory of the now-poignant phrases in his music “Wings” that Buffett sang: “Way up high, I feel free on those wings you can’t see.”
Parrots galore to honor Parrotheads
Parrots over prime of me. Parrots under me. Parrots appear in all places on the Islander, even on the mattress coverlet in my stateroom.
The omnipresent parrots are a nod to Buffett followers known as Parrotheads. How did his followers get that identify?
The story goes that Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band have been acting at King’s Island in Cincinnati when bass participant Timothy Schmidt seemed out over the viewers clad in gaudy Hawaiian shirts and carrying inflatable parrots and quipped that they seemed like Deadheads (followers of the Grateful Lifeless) in tropical fits.
“They’re like Parrotheads,” Schmidt reportedly mentioned. Buffett instantly took up the time period, the story goes, and threw it out over his microphone. Buffett lovers adopted the identify from the get-go.
Now there are greater than 200 registered Parrothead golf equipment worldwide honoring Buffett and his legacy.
Booze within the blender scorching tub
Scorching tubs on a cruise ship are at all times standard. However I’ve by no means seen one like the new tub on Islander. The water is scorching and effervescent, in fact, however sitting above the bathtub is a giant blender inscribed with the phrases Booze within the Blender and 5 o’Clock Someplace – well-known strains from Buffett songs, in fact.
Havana Daydreamin’ cute lime inexperienced automobile and sports activities bar
A preferred photograph cease, the inexperienced automobile with the white prime is a smaller model of colourful autos typically seen in Cuba. The backdrop with its flowering flowers and arched home windows seem like a Havana scene.
Buffett’s fourth common main label album, “Havana Daydreamin’” was launched on LP in 1976 and in 1987 on CD. Stroll across the automobile and also you’re within the Havana Daydreamin’ Sports activities Bar.
The bar presents nice stay Latin beats from a band and attracts sports activities followers with its game-winning TVs. Cocktail menu presents Havana drinks just like the Florida Straits with rum, tequila, blue curacao, white cranberry and lime and the Papa Doble with rum, maraschino liqueur, grapefruit and lime.
Entrance porch swing
A comfortable place to cease and watch the foyer motion is a wood swing sufficiently big for 2 or three. Lettered over prime of the swing is “On my front porch swing,” lyrics from Buffett’s “Margaritaville” music on the album “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.”
These phrases are elsewhere on the ship as a reminder to flee from the stresses and pressures of on a regular basis life by heading to a tropical paradise. Or no less than boarding the Islander for a five-night cruise.
Quietly Making Noise speakeasy
The Islander’s speakeasy was an surprising spotlight of my cruise. I had by no means heard of it till I obtained a shock invitation once I boarded the Islander to go to the ship’s speakeasy one night time.
Solely 10 passengers are allowed within the small room at one time. And it positive wasn’t simple to search out.
Host Vincent met our group within the concierge’s lounge and led us to an space of the ship passengers don’t normally see.
Behind a nondescript door, we entered a room with a loaded bar, a bookcase stuffed with vinyl report albums and a report participant. Comfortable seats and low tables have been organized across the room for us. Six guitars hanging on the wall every had a narrative which Vincent shared with us.
I sat subsequent to a girl who had simply gotten a brand new tattoo – a palm tree with the initials JB. As I admired the pores and skin artwork, the girl’s daughter leaned ahead to jokingly inform me that she initially thought the inked paintings was actually for her since her initials are also JB.
The non-public nook is definitely named “Quietly Making Noise,” a nod to the Buffett music about embracing your personal distinctive particular person and residing life by yourself phrases.
Vincent informed us about Buffett’s formative years, he performed the vinyl albums Buffett listened to and traced how Buffett went from being an unpaid musician to turning into one of many world’s richest entertainers.
After we have been leaving, Vincent handed us a Margaritaville at Sea Island pouch with a shock reward in it. As it’s a part of the unimaginable go to, I don’t need to reveal any secrets and techniques however I treasure it.
Bubbles Up
Jimmy Buffett knew he was dying however he wished to report yet another album with an necessary message for his Parrotheads.
Buffett’s 32nd album, “Equal Strain on All Parts,” was accomplished earlier than his loss of life and launched posthumously on Nov. 3, 2023.
The album title comes from a saying Buffett’s grandfather would use to explain a superb nap which places equal pressure on all components of the physique. A Bubbles Up bar on the Islander presents smoke-topped margaritas whereas framed lyrics of the music hanging on a wall are a reminder to get pleasure from life.
The reflective ballad “Bubbles Up” presents recommendation given to sailors, pilots and different individuals who may unexpectedly land in deep water.
The phrase used to assist individuals get oriented and survive is to only comply with the bubbles they usually’ll take you to the floor.
The identical factor, Buffett sang, might be mentioned about powerful occasions in life:
“Bubbles up
They will point you towards home
No matter how deep or how far you roam
They will show you the surface, the plot and the purpose
So, when the journey gets long
Just know that you are loved
There is light up above
And the joy is always enough
Bubbles up”
Images by Jackie Sheckler Finch
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