All my worldly possessions will soon be for sale on eBay. (Expect a delay. Cataloging my James Brown collection will take time.) My wife Beth and I need the money to retire to life on a cruise ship. We made that decision following Zydeco Cruise 2001, a week-long tour of the Western Caribbean on the Carnival Cruise ship Inspiration.
Todd and Debbie Ortego of Eunice, our traveling companions, are auctioning all they own, too. On the Zydeco Cruise, we were happier than screaming 11-year-olds at an ‘N Sync concert. We had more than fun than Bill Clinton on White House Intern Orientation Day.
The Zydeco Cruise featured seven days of live music from Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie and Step Rideau and the Zydeco Outlaws. That’s all aboard Carnival Cruise Line’s Inspiration, an 855-foot ship filled with restaurants, clubs, a casino, pool, health spa and 2,040 guests. That sounded like heaven on earth, but deep down inside I had concerns. I wasn’t sure if it was OK to travel. In the week prior to Zydeco Cruise 2001, the FBI announced terrorists could attack the United States again. But authorities didn’t know where, how or when. Say what? President Bush said we should go on with our normal lives. (Even though Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked away to a secret location.) But how long was that high alert supposed to last? We’re already paranoid about anthrax, smallpox, low-flying planes, suspension bridges, nuclear reactors and Michael Jackson’s new album. What else is there to fear?
The idea of taking a cruise was unusual for me. I relate to water the way a Taliban minister gets along with a woman with make-up, a college degree and a spinning groin kick. I can’t swim. I prefer showers over baths. I don’t like to get wet. I don’t need a tan. I only go to the beach to watch the gir.., oops, I mean gulls. Seagulls. (You’re my only bikini babe, Beth.) To top it all off, I didn’t want to be seasick. This was my first time on a boat ride longer than the bamboo shoot at Astroworld. I had heard seasickness will leave you not only turning green, gray and purple, but begging to jump off the boat. But I was willing to take a chance for the fourth annual Zydeco Cruise.
This was seven days of zydeco in the morning, zydeco at noon, zydeco in the afternoon and zydeco under the stars until the wee hours. There was also dance lessons by Mona “Zydeco Queen” Wilson, Michael Seider of Breaux Bridge, Barbara Davis of Lafayette, Gary Hayman, Darrell and Mary Bill, Peter Hall, Kent Donley and Ann Burstall. All my fears were quickly forgotten. Zydeco Cruise 2001 was amazing, stupendous, fantastic, orgas…, (Well, not that good, but you get the picture).
The cruise was not only a week of live zydeco music and dance classes. There was a choice of 54 excursions to enjoy during ports of call in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico. Our outings included a tour of the Lethe banana plantation in mountains of Montego, shopping in Cozumel, relaxing with rum punch on the clear-blue waters of the Cayman Islands.
Each night, we ate four-course, gourmet meals with nine forks and spoons and names that I could barely pronounce. Now, I want to die on the Inspiration sun deck, dancing to Geno Delafose, just after another dinner of broiled penne, prime rib with beef au jus and creme brulée. Hurry. eBay is standing by to take your bids now.
While you’re booting up the computer, let’s clear up a few assumptions I’ve encountered about the Zydeco Cruise. Many people here in southwest Louisiana, the cradle of zydeco, think the cruisers were all-black and all-local since the music was created by Creoles of the region.
Banish those thoughts. Of the 430 guests with the Zydeco Cruise, less than 10 percent were African-American. Only a dozen or so were from Louisiana. Cruisers represented 27 states, along with Canada, England and France. More than 100 cruisers were from California. These white folks go through dancing shoes like a cruise missile goes through an Al-Qaeda cave. They dance on every song and only break long enough to change partners. In their minds, a zydeco song is a terrible thing to waste. As Sally from Massachusetts, a zydeco dancer for five years, told me, bands only come to her area a few times a year. She’ll make a three-hour drive to Boston just to hear a band. When zydeco is that rare, every song must count.
Carol Schreitmueller can feel her pain. This Seattle resident was active in her city’s dance camps when she stumbled upon the idea of a zydeco cruise. Schreitmueller said in 1997, a Seattle-area ballroom dance instructor was bringing small groups on ships for dance-themed cruises and a free trip for himself. That instructor tried to market a zydeco cruise (with no instructors or live bands), but failed to sign up enough people. Schreitmueller said the idea was too good to let it die.
“I had taken time off work to dance in the Oregon woods and in various other remote places—it made good sense to me to go on a real vacation and combine it with zydeco,” said Schreitmueller. “The appeal of getting out of the drizzly Seattle weather and heading for sunshine was a big draw.
“I got more interested in the idea of theme cruises after doing a lot of reading on it and surfing on the internet. I found hundreds of dance theme cruises but I never saw any that were focused on zydeco, amazingly.”
Schreitmueller’s search led her to Kermit Duhon of Lafayette. His agency, The Travel Machine, had done a 75-person Cajun cruise in 1997. Schreitmueller and Duhon’s tag team led to the first Zydeco Cruise in November, 1998. “About 250 people came, plus the staff, and it was a blast,” said Schreitmueller. “We were very lucky – we were truly winging it and the many thousands of things that could have gone wrong that first year, didn’t.”
This year, the staff numbered 36, including 12 from Seattle and seasoned MC, “Louisiana Sue” Ramon. The cruise has resulted in two marriages and hundreds of newfound friendships. The trip is handled exclusively by The Travel Machine. Zydeco Cruise 2002, aboard the Carnival Victory, sails from Miami November 3. A zydeco cruise from Miami sounds as out of place as a polka festival in Ville Platte. But Schreitmueller says regulars have asked for a new route to celebrate the cruise’s fifth anniversary. Their present will be a tour of the eastern Caribbean with stops in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas. The cruise returns to New Orleans in 2003.
More than 250 people, including groups from France and Australia, have signed up for next year’s event. The total is expected to reach 600. Maybe I’ll be retired by then, set for a life of leisure on the sea. I’d better start putting price tags on my stuff—now.
In other news, veteran Cajun accordionist Ledel “Blackie” Forestier died November 19 at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital after suffering a heart attack. Forestier, 73, enjoyed both national and local followings for more four decades. Forestier and his Cajun Aces band played every Saturday night at Randol’s Restaurant in Lafayette for several years.
His last album, entitled Reunion on the Hill, was dedicated to his fan club whose members traveled to Herman, Missouri, where the band often performed. Forestier and band recorded with La Louisianne Records of Lafayette and had their first single in 1967, “Big Pine Waltz.”
Some of his other popular songs include “Pistol Packin’ Mama,” “Anniversary Waltz” and “Cotton Fields.” Forestier was a member of the original group of musicians inducted into the Cajun French Music Association’s Hall of Fame in 1997.
(Contact Herman Fuselier by email at [email protected].)
