Our KISS Kruise VII Experience!!!

We arrived in New Orleans in the evening. After we checked in to our hotel, we got some diner and explored the city of NOLA. The city has some nice spots, but totally different than Miami. The next morning we visited some local shops and the French market.
After we've checked out our hotel, we got a cab to the port of New Orleans and it was time for the KISS Kruise VII, our 6th time that we are sailing with KISS!
Before we went on board of the Pearl, we got a great photo for giant KISS statues.

Once on board we saw a lot of familiar faces and after many hugs and catch up with eachother we went outside, because we knew the band will be arriving soon. Just a few minutes later we shook hands with Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Shannon, Sophie, Eric Singer, Tommy Thayer & Doc McGee, how cool is this!
Here's our video of Paul Stanley & his family arrival:

Here's our video of Gene Simmons & his family, Tommy Thayer, Eric Singer & Doc. McGee's arrival:

When we catch our breath we went to the restaurant, inside they had curved out melons of the KISS members placed all over, so cool. After the drill we went as fast as we could to the pool deck, and we got a very good spot, second row at Gene's side. But we had to wait for 2 hours before the show, in the mean time we got our first Kruise Cabo Cups and 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. The band sounded awesome and it was great to see them again. Always a incredible feeling when you see the sail away show on the boat while sailing away from the port.
Here's our video of A World Without Heroes:

They played some cool tunes, like Love Her All I Can, See You Tonite & Every Time I Look At You:

As always we had a blast during the show and it all ends to soon. KISS delivered again and this was just day 1!
Here's a selection of our photo's:

Then we headed over to the merchandise lounge, we bought some T-Shirts, Hoodies, a Bag and some other items.
At 9 PM it was time for, the first time ever on a KISS Kruise, Bruce Kulick's show on the pooldeck! Together with his brother Bob, they played a killer setlist, with all KISS songs we never had heard live before or hadn't heard in a long time! Like Wouldn't You Like To Know Me, Who Wants To Be Lonely, Goodbye, Turn On The Night and many more! Here's our video of Nowhere To Run:

We had the time of our lives. Wow! We were wondering if KISS could top this...
We ended our first day with a great diner.

Day 2:
After we had bought our secondKISS cup, the one from Tommy, at 9 AM (yep that early) we had breakfast and then it was time for the KISS World Panel on the pooldeck. Guests included were: Bruce & Bob Kulick, "Big" John Harte, Lydia Criss and for the first time ever: Micheal James Jackson (producer of the albums: Killers, Creatures Of The Night & Lick It Up) hosted by Keith Leroux. All kind of questions were asked, about how it was to work with Vinnie Vincent on the albums MJJ produced, the setlist of the Kulick brothers last night, how it was to work for John for the band, Lydia's work for the band and many more. Quite a interesting time we spend with this panel.
Up next was name that tune with Tommy Thayer. He did this also last year on the Kruise and we liked it. Always great to hear him play some guitarsolo's and then guess from what KISS song that solo is.
Up next we went to The Dives who played their first show. We had seen them last year on the KISS Kruise VI and all we can say they are much better now, with all gigs they've played this year in the US and as special guests during the European KISS tour in the UK, they've grown as a band! Amoung the songs they played, were all the songs from their first EP. We had a great time and we love this band!

Then we headed over to the KISS World Meet & Greet event, were you could get autograps & photo's from all the guests. When we meet Bruce he recognized us right away and was glad to see us again! We talked for a while with him and it's always great to see him again.

Also we got cool photo's with "big" John, the famous pose photo.

As on previous Kruises, there's everything going on, so it was now time for the making of the Gene Simmons Vault, hosted by the Demon himself & Keith Valcourt. There were 2 vaults placed on the stage in the Stardust theater and it was a very interresting event were you got a extreme close-up to the Vault, with some snippets of the songs that are included on the boxset and even Gene played a song on a accoustic guitar!
1 hour later it was time for: are you smarter than a rock god? with Gene again, he was competing at a panel about who was smarter. He was winning, but looses the battle after he choosed for double or nothing!
Finally it was time to go to the restaurant to grab some food, lol. Later that night we went to the show of Sophie Simmons (she was also on the last KISS Kruise) and this time she performed a lot of original songs. Also Gene & Shannon were watching her show. We loved her show and when we meet her after the show, she was so nice to us.
Here's a compilation of the photo's we took from Sophie & The Dives:

Day 3:
Yes we had our Gene cup at 9 AM and we were in Cozumel, Mexico. It was a relax day for us. We visited Cozumel and took it slow. Once back on board we did the KISS World Expo Tour, a tour on the boat that guids you by displays filled with KISS gear & costumes! So cool to see Paul's Dynasty costume for real!
We visited also the art of Paul Stanley, this year he had some new paintings aswell some cool glass sculptures!
At 6:45 PM it was our time for our photo with the band. This time we decided to switch, Marina would stand by Gene and I stood by Paul! As you all can see above, our picture turned out awesome!!!

Day 4:
Today we are in Costa Maya, Mexico. But before we went from the Pearl we made sure we had our next KISS cup, the one from Eric, lol. We liked Costa Maya more than Cozumel. When we came back and had some diner we got ready for our KISS indoor show. We didn't see anything from the show yesterday on the big screen in the Atrium, because we wanted to be suprised about the show and the setlist. We managed to didn't get any details about KISS's show last night from other fans, so we went unprepared to the show. We had better spots than last year, on Gene's side, and just waited for the show to start. A little bit later than 9:15 PM we heard the famous announcement: You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best. The Hottest Band In The World...KISS!!! The curtains went open and the band came on stage! And who had thought they would open the show with: Tomorrow & Tonight??? Wow, we cann't remember if we ever have heard this song live before. Fans were cheering and singing along. Paul said that the band decided that we fans deserved more on the KISS Kruise and they would play some very deep cuts and songs they've never played live before! All we could think, wow! And before we knew it they played Sweet Pain!
We just jumped and sang along with it, we had so much fun and you could see that the band knew that these songs were greatly accepted by the fans. When the song was over, a huge applause broke loose from the fans! Of course they played also the classics as: Flaming Youth, Hotter Than Hell & I Love It Loud. Next up was one from the album Sonic Boom, we thought it would be Say Yeah (who came along in the setlist later this night) but as Gene would sing this one, it must be something else. So to our suprise, for the first time live: Hot & Cold! The crowd went nuts! You could see the band had so much fun, just smiling all the time. But it wasn't over yet. Paul asked if we wanted to hear a song from Unmasked? We thought maybe Shandi? No, what about: Is That You? Again, never heard live before! We had a blast, wow! Before we knew it the show came to it ends. After Rock & Roll All Night we thought it was over, but they had 1 more suprise for us. They played... I from The Elder to close the show! Again the crowd went nuts and singing, jumping & dancing along.

We had a blast. KISS gave us more then we ever expected or wished for, they've deliverd a awesome show tonight! Incredible!
Here's a selection of our photo's:

Next up we went to see The Dives show in the Atrium. Again a great show of the boys.

Day 5:
After we had our last KISS cup, the one from Paul we started the day with something special. We were invited to have breakfast with The Dives!


We had fun with the guys and they were so friendly to us!
1 hour later we saw The Dives again on the pooldeck when they did their last show. We had a great time and we hope to see them on tour in Europe in the future.
Next up was the Gene Simmons Master Class event in the Stardust theater. We saw how he teach to write and make a song. Very interresting to watch. Right after we visit Tommy Thayers Book Reading event. He reads his book Ernest Hummingbird for the fans. Very funny to see Tommy do this.
Then we headed over to the Kruise kitchen, hosted by Paul Stanley. Great to see him do some cooking and make some salad with all different ingredients. He made some pasta and ceasar salad, that would be served in the restauarant later. Also he talked about his upcoming book, the next Kruise and if we wanted Bruce back. Hell yeah! And when Paul asked if we did like the setlist from the indoor shows and huge applause was to hear from the fans.
Next up was the KISS Q&A on the pooldeck. Always great to see that they make jokes about eachother, especially Eric & Gene are the ones who are picked on, lol. They announced the KISS Kruise VIII sailing from Miami from october 31th till november 5th 2018! Also they announced a new world tour, starting in 2018 for 2 years and possible 3 years. So we will see KISS next year in Europe!
Here's a selection of the photo's we took during the activities with KISS:

After the Q&A it was time for us to see our last show we wanted to see on the Kruise: Sophie Simmons in the Atrium. We had good spots and to our suprise we saw Gene & Shannon standing in the audience to see her perform! Sophie performed a great show, she's amazing and has a great voice.

Her parents loved the show as we did and Gene was taking photo's & video's of her show. I even talked to both after the show. Sophie did also a Meet & Greet and she was happy to see us and so nice to us.

So, now it was time for diner and to taste Paul's pasta and ceasar salad. All we can say it tasted so good.

The next morning, our last morning on the Norwegain Pearl. After breakfast it was time to embark the ship, 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 get's me inspired to do it!

We had such a awesome time again and this was our 6h KISS Kruise and every Kruise we did was special, we have no favorite, all 6 kicked ass! We hope we're sailing with KISS again on the KISS Kruise VIII next year!
Here's a last selection of our photo's about the KISS Kruise VII merchandise and all the flyers they left in our cabin each day:

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