Lori Majewski’s Top 3 Moments From The 80s Cruise 2024

May 8, 2024

Hey, 80s Cruisers!

It’s been nine weeks since we disembarked the Mariner of the Seas. How is it that it feels like just yesterday we were sailing the southern Caribbean and yet, at same time, like a lifetime ago? That’s the thing about time machines — they’re so disorienting!

While I’m no longer feeling the back-and-forth swaying of the ship (thank goodness!), and I’ve put away my Molly Ringwald/Andie from Pretty In Pink costume (until next year!), I’ve yet to stop telling everyone who’ll listen about my “senior year” onboard The 80s Cruise. Earlier today, I was giving Andrew McCarthy — a.k.a. the Pretty In Pink actor who plays Molly/Andie’s star-crossed crush, Blane (“Blane?! That’s not a name! That’s a major appliance!”) — the lowdown on our John Hughes Prom. (I was interviewing him because McCarthy has directed a new documentary called Brats, about the 1980s actors known as the Brat Pack. It’ll be coming to Hulu soon!).

I always find Prom Nights onboard The 80s Cruise to be on another level. Though I shoot iPhone videos to show the uninitiated back home what it’s like, they always fail to capture the size and scale and complete and UTTER JOY of those nights. It’s one of those omigod, like, totally awesome #onlyonthe80scruise moments you have to experience for yourself to truly understand. To use a 2020s-ism: #IYKYK!

With that, here are my personal top three moments of The 80s Cruise 2024.

How many Duckies (and Camerons, and Ferrises…) does it take to celebrate the classic teen films of the decade on The 80s Cruise? I have no idea — I lost count! You cruisers certainly brought your A+ prom game this year, from the cotillion of red-headed Claires a la The Breakfast Club, tothat white-suited dead ringer for James Spader’s Stef (swoon!), to all Sixteen Candles conga-lining through the ballroom! As usual, I was dazzled by the ice sculptures and the prom-portrait set-ups, but the John Hughes theme made our annual dance-floor sing-along to “Don’t You Forget About Me” over-the-top special. While it may be true that when you grow up, your heart dies, us 80s Cruisers know that the secret to eternal (and electric!) youth is to never grow up in the first place. This is why I’ll never, ever skip prom!

The #onlyonthe80scruise revival of her Electric Youth tour concerts flashed me back to my first-ever date on November 22, 1989, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. I considered myself an alternative girl — a new-waver and a dark-waver, an obsessive of Duran, Depeche, the Smiths and the Cure. But I’d met Debbie when she sat a few rows ahead of me at INXS at Radio Music Hall in 1988, so I knew she was cool. And she wrote her own songs! That night at the Islanders’ home arena, I became a diehard Deb-head, — and Donald-from-the-record-store became my first boyfriend. Fast-forward to March 2024, where Debbie was zappin’ it to us while fitting into her 35-year-old costumes! Bringing her high school buddy Buddy out on stage — and he can still back-flip! And teaching us cruisers how to do the “Electric Youth” choreo! (FYI, I remembered almost all of it.) It was like having an out-of-body experience. Who needs a DeLorean to take us “back to the future” when you have The 80s Cruise?! Above all, I loved watching Debbie have the time of her life reliving her favorite decade right along with us. When she hit the dance floor at the prom, it was a meta moment I’ll never forget.

Another #onlyonthe80scruise experience! I’d seen Air Supply in concert maybe a dozen times over the years. However, I’d never seen them play a show as spectacular as the one on the cruise!  Rather than a straight-forward presentation of their soft-rock ballads and balladry, the Russells turned the musicality up to an 11. Every single song ROCKED, thanks to re-workings of the smash singles that allowed their drummer and youthful electric-guitarist to truly bring it. All that was missing was the billowing curtains and fan-blown hair straight out of a Meatloaf-style music video. (FYI: The Air Supply hit “Making Love Out Of Nothing At All” was penned by Jim Steinman, who’s also responsible for the ‘loaf’s Bat Out of Hell hits). But then, Air Supply more than made up for it by BRINGING OUT SEBASTIAN BACH TO SING “ALL OUT OF LOVE”! Was it real or did we collectively dream it?! P.S. How about the Air Supply biopic news that dropped soon after we left the ship? The world is about to find out what us 80s Cruisers already know: The Australian duo met during a production of Jesus Christ Superstar; their birthdays are four days apart; in 50 years, they’ve never had an argument; and, perhaps my favorite bit of Air Supply trivial: Graham Russell decided on a whim to call music maestro Clive Davis collect from the South of France — and Davis accepted the charges! I can honestly say that Air Supply reigns supreme when it comes to The 80s Cruise — my favorite in four years of sailing! And that’s not even taking into account their earnest and lovely commencement at the senior-class graduation. Only on The 80s Cruise, indeed!

Just recapping all of that has made me desperate to fast-forward to The 80s Cruise 2025! Among the artists I’m most excited to see is Adam Ant. I spoke with him a couple of weeks ago — Adam’s currently on tour with ’24 act The English Beat — and I told him about the true-fan vivacity of the cruiser crowds, the intimacy of the venue, and, of course, our penchant for costumes that’ll likely lead to numerous Adam Ant doppelgangers. He just kept saying over and over: “Wow!” “Wow!” As with everyone else I tell about The 80s Cruise, Adam Ant will just have to see it to believe it!

By the way, if you want to tell me YOUR 80s Cruise moments, tweet me or message me on Twitter,Threads or Instagram: @LoriMajewski. Let’s keep the conversation going! I’m missing you already!

Until next time!

Lori Majewski