Updated on March 2th 2024
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*** Welcome on Rockhead's KISS Weblog!!! *** Gene Simmons welcomes you to our KISS Weblog!!! *** Just announced: The Gene Simmons Band European Tour 2024, we got our tickets for his shows in Utrecht, Oberhausen, Luxembourg & Lierop!!! *** Eric Carr Unfinished Business RSD editions will be released on april 20th 2024!!! *** Ace Frehley 10,000 Volts RSD picture disc edition will be released on april 20th 2024!!! *** New album Ace Frehley 10.000 Volts out now!!! *** Eric Carr Rockology Picture Disc RSD Black Friday Edition out now!!! *** Our KISS Meet & Greet Experience in Brussels!!! *** Our concert reviews from KISS live Amsterdam, Brussels & Cologne 2023 are posted! *** Our KISS Collection is updated with new photo's! *** Eric Carr Rockoloy RSD Deluxe Vinyl & CD Editions out now!!! *** KISS Off The Soundboard: Live In Poughkeepsie out now!!! *** We got our Ace Frehley's 21st Century Singles Collection 7" Vinyl Box Set in! *** We got our KISS Creatures Of The Night 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Boxset in!!! *** KISS Off The Soundboard: Live In Des Moines out now!!! *** Our KISS Meet & Greet Experience in Amsterdam!!! *** Check out our reports from the shows we attend during their End Of The Road European Tour 2022! *** Greatest KISS Vinyl out now!!! *** KISS Off The Soundboard: Live In Donnington out now!!! *** KISS Off The Soundboard Live In Virginia Beach out now!!! *** KISS The Music From The Elder Clear Vinyl Edition out now!!! *** We got our KISS Destroyer 45th Super Deluxe Editions in!!! *** KISS Off The Soundboard Tokyo 2001 album out now!!! *** Paul Stanley's Soul Station Now And Then album out now!!! *** Frehley's Origins Vol. 2 album out now!!! *** Our KISS Kruise IX Experience!!! *** Our Ace Frehley Meet & Greet Experience in Miami!!! *** Our Peter Criss Meet & Greet Experience in Miami!!! *** Check out our KISS Meet & Greet Experience @ Graspop! *** Our concert reviews from KISS live In Essen, Graspop, Amsterdam & Iffezheim are posted! *** Check out our KISS Kruise VIII Experience now, including the Gene Simmons Vault Event! *** Check out our Vinnie Vincent Meet & Greet Experience now! *** We're lucky to get our Paul Stanley Puma Sneakers! *** Check out our Gene Simmons Vault Experience now, with video's & photo's! *** Read our Gene Simmons Band concert reviews from Esh-Alzette, Tilburg & Oberhausen! *** Check out all our KISS Kruise Experiences, with many photo's & video's! *** Everything about our Meet & Greet Experiences with Peter Criss in Los Angeles & New York aswell our LA & NY KISS Landmark Tours! *** Read our report about our own KISS/Peter Criss LA & NY sightings tour! *** We've meet Bruce Kulick in New York! *** Check out our concert reviews of the KISS shows in Dortmund, Frankfurt & Rotterdam! *** We got a email from Peter Criss! *** Check out our concert review of Ace Frehley live in Agoura Hills! *** Our visit @ Rock & Brews! *** Check out our reports from the KISS shows: @ Rock Im Revier, Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Amsterdam & Graspop, including our Meet & Greet with KISS in Berlin june 3th 2015! *** Read our reports from the Ace Frehley shows in Amsterdam, Zoetermeer & Bochum 2015!!! *** Check out our trip to see KISS live in Las Vegas, including our visit to the KISS Monster Mini Golf and Paul Stanley's Book Signing! *** Read our Meet & Greet Experience with KISS in Prague, Czech Republic on june 14th 2013!!! *** Check out our report of our trips to see KISS live in Berlin, Germany 2013 and live at the Holmenkollen Sommerfestival in Oslo, Norway on june 30th 2012!!! *** Check out all our reports from the shows we attended during the Sonic Boom Over Europe tour 2010 including our KISS Meet & Greet in Arnhem (NL) *** Our Meet & Greet with Ace Frehley & Bruce Kulick! *** My KISS collection is updated with new photo's! ***

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Sunday, November 24, 2019

Our KISS Kruise IX Experience!!!


On october 30th the day has come we’ve been waiting for a whole year: it was time for sailing with KISS again. This KISS Kruise IX will be our 8th one! We arrived around 11:30 AM at the port and after we’ve checked in it was time for our welcome aboard photo:

Once aboard we went to the restaurant to get lunch and during our stay there we saw a lot of our friends from previous Kruises and we had a great time catching up with eachother. After our lunch we went to our cabin to fresh up and we’re happy with our gift; a KISS Kruise IX Beach Towel! Then we headed over to the entrance deck and waited for KISS to arrive at the Pearl. Here’s our video of the arrival:

After the band was on board and our drill we went up to the pooldeck for the KISS Q&A, this time the usual KISS sail away show was a day later because they had something special planned for us. So we had a great spot for the Q&A, front row, on the right side, as you can see on the photo below.

Around 6 PM Gene, Paul, Tommy & Eric came on the stage along with a huge cheer by the fans. They were in great spirit. No suprises with the questions that were asked but always fun to see them joking around. Here’s a selection of our Q&A photo’s (just click on play button below):


After the Q&A we got our first KISS Kruise IX Cup, the Catman Cup! Than we headed over to the Spinnaker Lounge for all the merchandise, we bought several items; some cool T-shirts & Hoodies. After diner we checked out some of the other bands and then it was time for some rest.

The next day, october 31th, we had our first stop in Great Stirrup Cay. We decided to stay on board and relax a bit after our hectic days with our Meet & Greet Experiences with Peter Criss & Ace Frehley! We got our black Kruise Cup and then we did the KISS Expo tour. Each year they’ve different KISS gear & costumes displayed around the ship and it’s always great to see those items for real.
Around 4 PM we went to the pooldeck were KISS would perform their sail away show. This time they had something special, they would play on a round rotating stage! We decided to get a spot on the upper deck so that we would have a great view on this stage and a few minutes after 5 PM the band came on the stage and they started with Comin’ Home. It was cool to see them playing on that rotating stage. Paul joked a lot by saying; seeing you in a few minutes again, lol. Here’s our video of Beth:

They played some great tunes like See You Tonight & Mainline. Here’s our video of Mainline:

And our video of Hide Your Heart:

After Hide Your Heart they asked Bruce Kulick to join them and we loved to see them all together! They all had fun to play together and we loved it. Here’s our video of Domino:

It's always great to see them play unplugged and with this rotating stage it brought something special to it. We thought it was awesome!
This was the setlist: Comin' Home, Hard Luck Woman, Plaster Caster, Goin' Blind, See You Tonite, Love Her All I Can, Hotter Than Hell, Beth, Mainline, Hide Your Heart, She, Shandi,A World Without Heroes, Domino, Every Time I Look At You, Nothin' To Lose.
Here's a selection of our photo's (just click on play button below):

After the show was over we relaxed a bit and had some dinner. Later that night we went to the halloween party and we had such fun there and it was a perfect ending of this second day.

On friday november 1th, after breakfast and having our Starchild Cup we went to the Stardust Theater for the Paul Stanley Art Class, always great to hear him talk about his passion. He also talked about his glass sculpted guitars and answered questions from the fans.
Then we went to ask Doc, the Q&A with KISS's manager, follewed by the KISS crew pannel, quite interestting. Later it was time to see Bruce Kulick and his band on the pooldeck for his first show. We knew after his show on the KISS Kruise VIII we would get a great show! They started with Creatures Of The Night and followed their setlist with a lot of KISS songs we headn’t heard for years like: I’ve Enough (Into The Fire) & Get All You Can Take, here’s our video:

Bruce was smiling all the time and had so much fun to play these songs. The band with Zach Thrones, Brent Fizz & Tod Kerns are a pleasure for us to see them perform together with Bruce! They also played a Animalize medley, here’s our video:

We had such a great time to hear all those songs again and before we know it, it all was over. This was the setlist: Creatures of the Night, Tears Are Falling, Watchin' You. Animalize Medley with: I've Had Enough (Into The Fire), Get All You Can Take, Burn Bitch Burn, Lonely Is The Hunter, Under The Gun & Thrills In The Night, Uh! All Night, Trial By Fire, Reason To Live. Hot In The Shade Medley with: Betrayed, Read My Body, Little Caesar, The Street Giveth And The Street Taketh Away, Rise To It, Let's Put the X In Sex, My Way, Turn On The Night. Revenge Medley with: Carr Jam, Paralyzed, I Just Wanna, Tough Love & Spit, The Star-Spangled Banner

It was time for a break and we got some dinner in the restaurant before it was time for our KISS show in the Stardust Theater. We had almost the same spots as last year, standing at Gene’s side. At 9 PM it was time for the Hottest Band In The World...KISS!!!
Everytime it’s a magic moment for us when we see the curtains go open and we see the band on the stage, everytime we got goosebumps and everytime we a thrilled for the show! They started with Say Yeah!, always a favorite song of us. Then they played (for the first time since 1995) Larger Than Life (!), here’s our video:

We had a blast to hear this one and all the fans went nuts!
Here's our video of Crazy, Crazy Nights:

The band sounded awesome and this year we got some deep cuts, like It’s My Life, played live for the first ever! Here’s our video:

Another deep cut was God Give Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II. With Rock & Roll All Night and a rain of confetti it all came to a end for us, we had a blast at this show and enjoyed every minute of it! This was the setlist:Say Yeah, Larger Than Life, Strutter. Watchin' You, Got To Choose, Do You Love Me, Christine Sixteen, Heaven's On Fire, Cold Gin, I Was Made For Lovin' You, Crazy Crazy Nights, It's My Life & God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II. Encores: Detroit Rock City, Rock And Roll All Nite.
Here's a selection of our photo's (click on play button below):

After this awesome show it was time to relax, as good as it get's, because we heard that KISS would make a big announcement tomorrow...

The next day, saturday november 2th, we had our second stop: Falmouth in Jamaica. This port was a nice place, it looked like a little village. Once back on the ship the one questions we asked ourselfs was: what would be the big KISS announced this night? European Kruise? Last tour show? After we got our Spaceman Cup we went to the Stardust Theater for our stage photo and as you can see above it turned out great! After that we headed to the Atrium for Name That Solo with Tommy Thayer, always great to hear & see Tommy play some solo’s. Right after we went up to the pooldeck for Bruce Kulick’s second and last show. Around 6:15 PM it was time for the band to hit the stage and they started with Unholy, followed by Who Wants To Be Lonely, here’s our video:

Brent, Tod & Zach all wear the same shirts with all the band members names on the front, shame they didn’t sell these on the Kruise.
Here’s our video of Uh! All Night:

Again they had a great setlist with the Carnival Of Souls medley including I Walk Alone, here’s our video:

Bruce also did a emotional tribute to KISS drummer Eric Carr with Little Ceasar & Carr Jam! The band also played for the first time a song live that isn’t listed on any KISS album: Time Traveler, here’s our video:

We had a blast at this show and the Bruce Kulick band did it again!
This was the setlist: Unholy, Who Wants to Be Lonely, Uh! All Night, Trial by Fire Carnival Of Sould Medley with: Hate, Master & Slave, Rain & In the Mirror, I Walk Alone Animalize Medley with: I've Had Enough (Into The Fire) Get All You Can Take, Burn Bitch Burn, Lonely Is The Hunter, Under The Gun & Thrills In The Night, Time Traveler, Betrayed, Read My Body, Little Caesar. Revenge Medley with: Paralyzed, I Just Wanna, Tough Love & Spit, The Star-Spangled Banner.
Here's a selection of our photo's (click on play button below):

It was now time to relax a bit and ask ourselfs what would be the big KISS announcement? It supposed to be announced at 8:30 PM at the pooldeck, but because of a little bad weather it would be announced at 9 PM right before the band would start their second show in the Stardust. A few minutes before 9 PM we went to the Atrium and waited for the announcement…

At 9:02 PM KISS announced all the last dates of their End Of The Road World Tour and their last tour show ever! Here’s our video of the announcement:

So KISS’s last tour show will take place in: New York on july 17th 2021!!! We hope we’ll be there…

Later that night we’ve meet Bruce Kulick in the restaurant. Always awesome that he knew our names and is happy to see us. We talked about his shows and his band. We said to him that we appreciated his tribute to Eric Carr and he sincere thanked us for that. We talked quite some time with him and as always it’s a pleasure to meet him!

After seeing Steven Adler’s great show, this day almost came to a end for us, but not before we saw our great gift that was waiting for us in our cabin:

On sunday november 3th it was a full day ahead for us. After breakfast we got our last Cup, the Demon Cup to make our set complete!

Then it was time for the Kruise Swap and I got some cool items to add to my collection. Right after I went to the Stardust Theater for the events with Gene Simmons. My lovely wife was waiting for me and had my spot covered. When I sat next to her she asked how the swap was and I told her I got some cool items. Then she showed me, to my big suprise, some Gene Simmons Money Bag Soda’s! Wow, so cool, I was trying to get these for almost 2 years! We we’re so happy with them!

So, it was now time for Are You Smarter Than A Rock God? with the Demon himself. But before Gene started he first make some advertising for his Gene Simmons Money Bag Soda’s, lol. Always funny to see him answering questions in the way he does. Next up was Pick Throwing With Gene Simmons and again he promote his Soda’s in a funny way. Also funny to see him throwing the second price (a bobble head) in the audience, not knowing it was a price, lol. And of course, as all you know, Gene is a king throwing guitarpicks!
After the event we got to the restaurant for something to eat, because the next event that was coming up was Tommy Thayer & Eric Singer Tells All. This event was hosted by Keith Leroux and fans had the chance to ask questions as how it was for them to join the band as how the songs are picked for the setlist. It was great to see that Bruce Kulick was asked to join them by Tommy & Eric! It was quite some interesting Q&A with all of them together. Next up was supoosed to be the KISS Family Feud event on the pooldeck, but sadly it was cancelled because of the bad weather. After dinner we went one last time to the Stardust Theater for Bedtime Stories With Paul Stanley, we had no clue what we could expect, but the dresscode was you had to wear pyjama’s, lol. Once the event started Paul came on stage (filled with pillows) in a KISS/Paul pyjama, so cool to see and he thanked all for beeing there in their pyjama’s and that we had the balls to wear them. To the ones who attented without pyjama’s he said you don’t have balls, lol. He started with some cartoons on the big screen, followed with answering questions and ended with telling us a bedtime story out a book. So funny to be a part of it, lol.
Here’s a selection of our photo’s of all the activities we went to with Gene, Paul, Tommy & Eric (click on play button below):

With this event this day came to a end for us.

The next day, monday november 4th, was our last day on the Norwegain Pearl and our Kruise came to his end. After breakfast it was time to embark the ship, but not before way say goodbye to a lot of old & new friends. Every day on this Kruise I got compliments on our KISS blog and that’s always great to hear! That is the reason I still get inspired to do it all!
Here’s selection of photo’s of our KISS Kruise IX goodies (click on play button below):

We had such a awesome time again, sailing with KISS again and of course Bruce Kulick, this was our 8th KISS Kruise and every Kruise we did was special, we have no favorite, all 8 kicked ass in their own way!!!

*(c) 2019. 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!

16 comments:

Kevin said...

Just booked too, see you there!

Patrick said...

Gaaaaaaaaaf!

Drew said...

Here we go again, see ya in rocktober

Anonymous said...

We've booked today, so happy to do it all over again.

Bill said...

Booked today! It will be my first Kiss Kruise! Thank you for posting your Kiss Kruise experiences on your blog, made my decision to go a lot easier! Hope to see you both on the ship!

Drew said...

Cool that Bruce is back, he was incredible last year!

Ina said...

Besides Kiss & Bruce the line-up till now is pretty weak.

Anonymous said...

Bedtime stories with the starchild, what the heck is this, sleeping with Paul? lol

Sean said...

Laminates and tags looking great!

Matt said...

Counting down the days, hurry up. See you soon

Anonymous said...

Great review. Thanks for posting.

Patrick said...

I've enjoyed this story about your adventure on the kiss kruise this year. Always great to read and to watch the vids.

Marc said...

Mooi verslag weer van jullie kruise reis. Ik heb er weer van genoten.

Barry said...

Awesome report!

Sean said...

I've missed the gene soda's, damn!

Ken said...

Great review!