Our KISS Kruise VIII Experience!!!

We arrived in Miami on october 29th and once in our hotel we arrived in the middle of the Vinnie Vincent Event that was going on. We checked in and relax a little bit in our room. Later that evening we took a walk on the Bayside and did some shopping, after diner we got back to our hotel and stayed in.
The next morning we got up early and after breakfast it was time for our Vinnie Vincent Meet & Greet Experience! You van read all about our experience here!

After meeting Vinnie we went back to the Bayside erea and enjoyed our sunny spot near the water. Next up was the pre-party in the Hanger with Vinnie as special guest. We had a great time there, seeing old friends and make new ones.

The next day, wednesday october 31th, we checked out of our hotel because it was time for the KISS Kruise VIII, our 7th one! This time our ship was the Norwegian Jade, instead of the Pearl, who was öur" ship for the past 6 Kruises. Before we went on board it was time for our welcome on board photo:

Once on board we saw a lot of familiar faces and after many hugs and catch up with eachother we went to the restaurant to get lunch. Around 2:30 PM we headed over to entrance gate and waited untill the band arrived. They were late but finally the band arrived and we shook hands with Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Shannon, Sophie, Eric Singer & Tommy Thayer!
Here's our video of Paul Stanley & his family arrival:

Here's our video of Tommy Thayer & Eric Singer's arrival:

And our video of of Gene Simmons & his family arrival:

Once KISS was on board it was no time to do something else because the drill was held a few minutes later. After the drill we went as fast as we could to the pool deck, we had to run up the stairs to deck 12, lucky enough we managed to have a very good spot, second row at Gene's side.

Around 6 PM there was the welcome shot hosted by our captains KISS! Followed by a group photo with the band and fans. A few minutes later it was time for the sail away show and they started with Comin' Home. Everytime we see the band right in front of us, sailing away from the port in Miami, we got a special feeling over us! The band sounded awesome again.
Here's our video of See You Tonight:

They played some great tunes like Mainline & Flaming Youth.
Then Paul said it happens to be that we have Bruce Kulick on board and the crowd went nuts. Yes! Bruce came on stage and took place next to Tommy! This was so cool to see and the first song they played together, since 1995, was Domino followed by Hide Your Heart.
Here's our video of Domino:

Paul takes the mike and said, we have Bruce Kulick on board but it happens to be that we have also Ace Frehley on the Kruise! So with this announcement Ace came on stage and wow, this was so special, a moment we'll never forget. Everybody in the audience went crazy! So awesome to see Gene, Paul, Tommy, Eric, Bruce & Ace on stage to play together! The first song they did, since 2000, was 2000 Man follwed by New York Groove & Nothin' To Lose!
Here's our video of 2000 Man:

They all had so much fun to play together as we did to see them play together. The last song of the evening was Rock & All All Night and here's a part of it:

And then it was all over. We needed a moment to settle it all in. Tonight another page in KISStory has been written and we're happy to be a part of it!
Here's a selection of the photo's we took:

We never left our spot because next up was Ace Frehley for the first time ever on a KISS Kruise! And wow, Ace was awesome, backed up by the Gene Simmons Band (we know they are now Ace's band but we still see them as the Gene band) and they started with Save Your Love played live for the first time ever! Here's our video:

Ace sounded great and made a lot of jokes on stage. He had a great setlist with songs as Getaway, Rocket Ride & Rockin' With The Boys, here's our video:

His next suprise song for us, he never played live before was, Torpedo Girl and here's our video:

We had the time of our live we knew that his new band had a lot of influence about the setlist this night, wow what a show!

After the show I went over to the merchandise store and bought 2 T-shirts & hoodie's, went back to the pooldeck and headed over to my spot for the last show this day, the Bruce Kulick Band and as we remember his show last year on the KISS Kruise VII, we knew what we could expect. So when Bruce took the stage we got ready for a journey through KISSstory! They started with King Of The Mountain and followed their setlist with a lot of KISS songs we never had heard live before or hadn't heard in a long time! Like Who Wants To Be Lonely, I Still Love You, Let's Put The X In Sex & Little Ceasar! The band had so much fun playing these songs and Bruce was smiling all the time. Before we knew it was all over.
Here are some photo's of Bruce's show:

We had a blast with the KISS sail away show, Ace Frehley and of course Bruce Kulick and this was just day 1...

The next day we made sure we had our Spaceman Cup at 9 AM, lol. Yesterday we missed our first black KISS Kruise VIII cup because we wanted to see all the shows. With our Spaceman cup secured we had breakfast and for us it would be a relax day. Today we were in Key West. But we had no time to visit the city because we had the chance to be at the Gene Simmons Vault Experience, right on this Kruise! We had a blast and you can read all about our experience here! Later that day it was time for the first member activity this Kruise, the Gene Simmons On Power Talk and this was just great. This was a Q&A between Gene & Doc. Mc.Gee about business. Also some fans were asking questions and sometimes Gene was funny in his answers but also very serious to others. We came very motivited about a lot of the things he said.
Later than evening we checked out , every drummer of all the bands were in the jury, it was just a cool event. Also we checked out some of the other bands before we got some rest.

On friday november 2th we had a full day ahead of us. First up was to buy our next Cup, the Demon one. After breakfast we headed over to the pooldeck (first row) for the Gene Simmons Vows Renewal and this was so cool to be a part of! Here's our video:

Next up was the Paul Stanley Kitchen were he would cook and explained what ingredienst he used for that meal. In the meantime he answered question from fans about the tour, his upcoming new book, called Backstage Pass (out april 30th 2019) and new music (no new KISS album is planned) It was a great to see him hosted this event. Then it was time for the signing session for all the bands on the Kruise (except KISS & Ace Frehley) When we were waiting to get in we saw Sophie standing and we went over to talk to her and she was happy to take a photo with us.

We got only in line for Bruce and his band. When we meet Bruce he recognized us right away and was glad to see us again! We talked for a while with him and his wife Lisaand let them signed the photo of us with them from the Peter Criss Meet & Greet Experience in New York last year. it's always great to see them again.
Then we headed over, for the second time today, to the Stardust theater for the Paul Stanley Art Class were he teached some fans to paint. Each one got a canvas with a print of Paul's first solo album and their job was to paint it up the way they like. Also Paul pianted one too. Very cool to see and with his passion you wanted to paint something right away, lol. In the meantime he answered questions from fans about art, KISS & more. Great event!
So now it was time for a break, went over to the restaurant and one of the waiters came up to us asking if we want a KISS cup, just before I wanted to answer; we have the red one, we saw the black one (we've missed) from the first day. So we bought the black Cup. After dinner it was time to get ready for our KISS indoor show in the Stardust. We had standing spots at Gene's side and we were hoping that the band would wear their new costumes. A few minutes after 9 PM we heard the famous announcement: You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best. The Hottest Band In The World...KISS!!! And yes, there they're walking on the stage with their new End Of The Road costumes! Hell yeah! Gene's costume looked great, we loved it. Also Tommy's outfit looked cool! It was so cool to see them perform in their new costumes, that was a treat, a real treat! Let the show begin! They started with Shout It Out Loud, here's our video:

Paul mentioned that the ticket sale for their final tour was incredible. The band sounded great and especially Paul's voice was awesome! They played one of our favorites: Say Yeah & Warmachine. Gene was annoyed about fans who were texting on their cellphones right in front of him. He reached out for one of the fans phones (who probely thought that gene would take a photo of himself) and once he had it, he threw it away in the crowd! He did that more than once! Some other songs in the setlist were Heaven's On Fire, Hotter Than Hell & Hell Or Halelujah, here's our video:

There were no deep cuts this time, but we had still a awesome time. With Rock & Roll All Night the show came to his end, but not without a rain of confetti. Always great to see KISS live and we love the band.
Here's a selection of our photo's:

Once the KISS show was over we headed over to the pooldeck to see Ace Frehley's second show on this Kruise! This time he had some suprises on his setlist for us, like Bronx Boy, and here's our video:

We had a awesome time with songs as Hard Times, Torpedo Girl & 2 Sides Of The Coin, our video of it:

We loved to see Ace this second show!
Time to relax now and get ready for tomorrow.

Saturday november 3th, we get up early and when we got our Starchild Cup it was time for breakfast. We took our time because the first thing that was coming up for us was our photo taking on the KISS stage. Our turn was 12 PM and we think that our photo looks great (see the first photo in this review) It was kind of special to be on same the stage as the band was last night! When we left the stage we got some cool KISS Kruise VIII Guitar Picks! We headed over to the pool deck to see Teaze and to make sure we got front row for the next event: the Ace Frehley & Bruce Kulick Panel, a Q&A between the 2 former KISS guitarists! Very cool to see and as always Ace is so funny and don't remember a lot, lol. Here's our video with a part of the Q&A were Ace & Bruce are talking about Eric Carr:

Another great moment in KISStory!

Right after the Q&A the Bruce Kulick Band took the stage for their second & final show on the Kruise. We had rumors that this time they even had a better setlist than show 1. They played a Crazy Nights medley with songs as Hell Or High Water, I'll Fight Hell To Hold You, When Your Walls Come Down & No No No and they did a tribute to Eric Carr with Little Ceasar, here's our video:

So cool to do this! Other cool songs they played were Take It Off, Uh! All Night and the song that was played when we got married Forever, still brought tears on our eyes. Here's our video:

Then Bruce said they'll do something special, a medley of songs of a album that is loved by the fans or hate. he said even KISS didn't knew what they were doing. Fans were cheering because we knew what album he was talking about, of course Carnival Of Souls! Incredible to hear finally these songs Hate, Master & Slave, Rain & In The Mirror live. The Bruce Kulick Band did it again, what a show, wow! It's a shame they did only 2 shows on the Kruise.

Time to get something to eat. When we came back from our cabin we saw Shannon and we got a photo with her.

Then we went up to the Spinnaker Lounge for the Micheal James Jackson Q&A with Keith Leroux, he was the producer of the KISS albums: Killers, Creatures Of The Night & Lick It Up. He had some interresting things to say about the recordingproces of songs for the albums. Also Bruce was in the audience and had a though question for him. Cool Q&A for sure. We also took a photo with Bruce!

Next up was visiting the art of Paul Stanley, this year he had some new paintings aswell some cool glass sculptures! Always great to see his art and spend some time there.
Then we did our KISS Expo Tour, like last year a tour on the boat that guids you by displays filled with KISS gear & costumes! So cool to see all these items (some of them we've in our collection) for real.

Sunday november 4th, we were in the Bahama's and after breakfast and got our hands on the Catman Cup and have our set complete now. We went off board and did some sighseeing. When we were back we just relaxed, talking to fans and enjoyed our Kruise. During the sail away from the Bahama's it was time for the last KISS activity, a lypsinc contest. We would have prefered a Q&A like the past years, but it was all good. Always fun to see how Paul, Gene, Tommy & Eric interact together. Also a cool moment was when they brought Bruce on stage!
Here's a selection of our photo's of the member activities:

Before we have dinner, we went back to our cabin and when we got in we saw the signed gifts for this year; a set of signed KISS King Cards and we loved it. Now it was time for our last show on this Kruise: Ace Frehley show number 3 in the Stardust theater! We made sure that we had a spot to this show because there could only around 1200 people in. At 9:30 PM it was time for Ace and again we had such a great time during his show. Another great setlist with Snow Blind, Rockin' With The Boys & Shock Me, here's our video:

Another great song he played live for the second time ever was Dark Light, Here's our video:

We had a blast at all the Ace shows and with the last song Cold Gin this show came to a end.
Here's a selection of our Ace photo's:

After some snacks in the restaurant It was time to get back to our cabin to start packing our suitcases.

The next morning, our last morning on the Norwegain Jade, we had breakfast for the last time and we've to embark the ship soon, but not before said goodbye to a lot of friends. During the Kruise I always got compliments about my KISS blog and that's always great to hear and that still get's me inspired!
Here's a selction of our photo's about this year Kruise experience:

We had such a awesome time again, expecially with Ace Frehley & Bruce Kulick, seeing KISS in their new costumes was awesome and this was our 7h KISS Kruise and every Kruise we did was special, we have no favorite, all 7 kicked ass! We hope we're sailing with KISS again on the KISS Kruise IX next year!

*(c) 2018. All personal photo’s/slideshows/filmed footage may only be used by others if is reference/linked to this site or me and ask me first!