Hyatt Family Blog

Mayercraft Carrier 2008

A few weeks ago, Steve and I, along with my cousin Derek and his wife Cindy, went on one of the best trips of my life. So great, in fact, I had to break my nearly 2 year hiatus of blogging to tell you about it. As some of you may know, I am a bit obsessed (OK, a lot obsessed) with the singer/songwriter John Mayer. He chartered a Carnival cruise for his fans, called it the Mayercraft Carrier and along with about 12 other amazing artists of his choosing, we all went on a 4 day rock adventure from Miami, Florida to Freeport, Bahamas and back. It was truly an amazing experience.

The trip didn't get off to a great start. The night before we left, St. Louis got 9 inches of snow on the ground and most of the flights were cancelled. We weren't sure we'd make the boat.

Once we got on the ship, we were able to relax and enjoy the views of the port of Miami, especially the sight of Mr. Mayer himself boarding the ship!

Then the fun began!

The first night we got to see John perform in concert which was AMAZING!!!

VH1 was also on the boat filming scenes for their show "The Best Week Ever". We got to see a great comedian from that show, who happens to be one of John's best friends, Sherrod Small. They also hosted an 80's trivia game, a door decorating contest and more.

We caught some great concerts from other singer/songwriters such as Colbie Collait (who sings the song "Bubbly" that's on the radio), Brett Dennen, Brandie Carlile and more.

We also met John's drummer who was very cool.

On Saturday, we docked in the Bahamas for the day and spent the day at the beach. The guys played sand volleyball while Cindy and I got some sun.

The theme for the Saturday night formal night was an 80's prom! We went all out and had a blast.

Later that night, as we were heading to bed at 2:30am, we noticed a crowd outside the disco and found out that John was inside handing out shots to the crowd! I stood on a chair and took photos for an hour like a total dork.

For me, the best part of the weekend was the acoustic show John performed on the Lido deck on Sunday, shirtless, a bit drunk with amazing weather. I pushed my way up to the front and snapped away.

We actually got to see him perform AGAIN in the theater that night where he did another great concert - despite being so drunk earlier in the day that he ran around the track in a "Borat" bathing suit! (check it out on YouTube!). I still can't believe we got to see 3 totally incredible and different John Mayer concerts in 3 days.

While we were so sad the cruise was over, we were totally wiped out from 3 days of paryting with very little sleep. But, the trip was not over yet. We had several hours to kill before our flight home, so we visited South Beach and had lunch at Mango's with some really trashy looking waitresses who danced on the bar for us.

Despite taking about a week to recover, it was such a great time - great weather, great friends, great food and of course, great music. Mayercraft Carrier 2009 - here we come!