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| Saturday night in the city. Le Rouge Wine Bar & Tapas on Sand Lake Road is trying to draw a late night chill crowd and the atmosphere is definitely conducive for bringing a special date. |
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| Stopping by to visit DJ Tony Z (Atlantic Dance Hall, Planet Hollywood, Paradiso 37) playing a mix of Ambient and House. |
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| Small crowd dancing to the grooves. Will need to check this place out on a more crowded night since I think last night most people had Cinco de Mayo partying on their minds! |
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| Quick visit to CityWalk to say hi to a friend. Adjacent and below the moving sidewalks from the parking lot is the new Hollywood Drive-In miniature golf courses; Invaders from Planet Putt and The Haunting of Ghostly Greens! |
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Will definitely need to give these places a try. |
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| On the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, Seattle and Las Vegas-based DJ Tina T (USA) will be spinning live in The Groove. Tickets are $10. Nice to see TG doing something different again. |
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| No club hopping this time downtown. I planted myself in Independent Bar and stayed there. The sign has finally been fixed! |
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| DJ Indie John (second from left) and Lighting Tech Ernie (second from right) joined friends up in the booth. Nice! The Saturday night format here and at sister club Barbarella in Tampa is 80's New Wave. |
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| New sign outside, new flat panel monitors inside. The old TV's have been replaced! |
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| Also, new lighting and smoke effects were recently added to the club. |
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| Through the smog, one could almost ascertain that the dance floor was pretty jammed! |
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| Laura in the upstairs bar mixing it up just right. I tried to convince her that the last drink in a bottle is always free but she wasn't buying it! |
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| And a good time was had by all! |
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| It's great to be back in the United States of America and what better place to spend my return than the happiest place on earth....Walt Disney World! Had not been out to Atlantic Dance Hall in a couple months so needed to go check it out! |
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| OMG, without a wacky hat and outfit on, I did not recognize DJ Hollywood Bob (Motion, PI Live, Celebrate Tonight, DTD Waterfront Stage. Stitch's Club 626 Dance Party) at the controls! Bob was the closing DJ at Motion on Final Night. I had last ran into him at the One More Disney Day All-Nighter Party at Magic Kingdom on Leap Year day; link. |
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| ADH is so huge that even when there is a decent amount of people, it still looks empty. Such was the case last night. |
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| Line dances such as the 'Cha Cha Slide' do seem to get the maximum number onto the dance floor at the same time! |
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| As always, the music here is a mix of mostly Top 40, Hip Hop and Line Dances with occasional 70's & 80's Classics; whatever people request. Admission and parking are free and the club is located at Disney's Boardwalk Resort. UPDATE: Click on comments for additional discussion. |
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| Cozumel has three main piers where cruise ships dock and Carnival uses the Puerta Maya pier, the one farthest from the downtown area. Because there is a need for shopping and nightlife options near the pier, an entire "village" has been constructed that is only open when ships are in port. It's also within walking distance for ships docking at the International Pier. Fat Tuesday is a well known partying chain in many places although the Orlando location at CityWalk is a walk-up bar only. |
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| The DJ was playing mostly Latin Beats and when I say Latin, I mean Caribbean Latin, not the expected Mexican music one should experience here. But one plays what the people want! |
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| And people who had been soaking up suds and margaritas all day were dancing on the small floor. |
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| The music shifted to Hip Hop and 'The Wobble'! |
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| Also at the pier is Three Amigos, a place much like the Senor Frogs located in downtown Cozumel at the Punta Langosta cruise ship pier. Three Amigos was tame this evening with people eating but not partying. I've heard from other cruisers that it can get crazy in there too! Check both out if you're in CZM! |
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| One of the unique options to partake at Key West is something available to both cruise passengers as well as others traveling to the island via car: The Key West Pub Crawl. For a set price you get a guided walking tour of the island plus stops at 5 bars. And a T-shirt. |
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| At each bar you get a choice of a beer, well drink or the bar's specialty drink, all included in the Pub Crawl's price. At The Lazy Gecko a rum runner or pina colada was available and it was a great way to get started! |
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| Tree Bar is across the street and is literally wrapped around the large tree. A small plaque on the tree reads "Hemingway Pissed Here". |
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| Flying Monkey Saloon was my favorite as it's much like Fat Tuesday and Chiller's in Orlando in that they feature a variety of flavors of frozen concoctions. I had one called "Chocohol" and it tasted just like a frosty chocolate milk. Mmmmmm! |
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| After just 3 stops some people were already getting loony! |
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| Schooner Wharf Bar was my least favorite, its only unique amenity being it's location overlooking the wharf. There is absolutely no shortage of bars in Key West, nearly all of them are open-aired. The tour I took began at 10am but the guide told us bars in Key West open at 8am and thus we were two hours behind the locals! But I gave it up after the fourth stop, preferring to visit the famous Hog's Breath Saloon which was not on the tour. But I have to recommend the tour as what better way to meet fellow passengers than in a stupor! |
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| Music everywhere on cruises and this 4-night journey on Carnival Imagination was no exception. DJ Aurelius (USA) was in the ship's atrium during the first afternoon playing Chill, Top 40 & Oldies. |
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| Meanwhile up on the pool deck for sail-away, DJ Vertigo (USA) was playing a mix of everything including Top 40, Hip Hop, Disco, Dance and so on. |
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| The ship's disco is called Illusions Dance Club and the decor was rather unimpressive compared to some of the ship venue's I've experienced in the past. The ceiling over the dance floor has an egg crate look and above it they had multicolored neon lights that flashed off and on in different colors. These flashed through the egg crate openings down onto the floor but there were no spinning lights, smoke effects or even a shiny disco ball! |
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| DJ Vertigo opened playing about 4-song sets of first Top 40, then Reggae and Reggaeton and then onto Hip Hop. The latter was all older songs (i.e. Apple Bottom Jeans) that one hears at The Groove. The dance floor did stay pretty full so can't let my biases determine what to play! Above, DJ Coco Fresh (CDN) joined DJ ALX (BH) for this photo. There appear to be six DJ's on board sharing various duties including dance sets in Illusions. |
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| On another night DJ Bad Beats (left) directed the Booty Shaking Contest that drew a large crowd! |
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| And this young lady was declared the winner in a heated contest. She was quite deserving! |
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| DJ ALX was topside for the sail-away party out of Cozumel. He will be shifting over to new build Carnival Breeze when it debuts this June sailing out of Barcelona! |
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| This party was all about line dances such as the ever-popular 'Cupid Shuffle'. |
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| Wobble Baby Wobble!! |
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| Back in Illusions last night for one more evening of dancing. Crowd went crazy for Avicii's 'Levels'! |
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| Bad Beats on the boards mixing an entire Dance/House set to the packed floor. |
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| And bartender Yulia (RUS) knew how to mix them too! Great times on Carnival and as they say, any day at sea is better than a day at the office! |
