Cruise to the Edge day 1 – March 4, 2026

We boarded the ship a little earlier than expected, fortunately. We also got to our cabins at a reasonable time, unlike past cruises, where we’ve had to wait a few hours to get settled in. This cruise is taking place once again on the Norwegian Pearl, which hosted CTTE back in 2024, if I remember right. The cruise doesn’t take long to get the music rolling, for as we finished settling into our cabin, we were greeted with an already active schedule of musical acts and artist interactions. This cruise is particularly special because it is the 10th voyage of Cruise to the Edge. They even had a cake in the buffet on deck 12! It was vanilla with strawberry jam in the center.

Wish Bone Ash was scheduled to perform at 2PM, but their show ended up getting postponed to tomorrow, I believe, at 1:30PM. There were a few other small acts performing as cruisers checked in at guest services and made their way to their staterooms. I’m thinking it can’t be easy to have a performance planned at such an early point in the voyage, when many people aren’t quite ready to fully appreciate the musical acts taking place. The very first CTTE event I sat in on was some of The Flower Kings’ set on the pool deck, which followed the traditional sailaway photo taken of the crowd as the ship left port. I only stayed for a few songs, just long enough to run into some good friends in the audience.

I left early so I could get down to the Atrium in time for Marillion’s Q&A session at 6PM. Before their session, I listened to the last portion of the Q&A for a Canadian duo called Crown Lands. They looked like a younger two guys and I enjoyed hearing them express their love for Rush. They even expressed a little love for Primus.

I made some conversation with the guy next to me while waiting for Marillion. He was nice enough to give me a CTTE 2026 guitar pick, which led me to promptly “gift” him one of my blog business cards. I printed 50 total. So far, I’ve given one directly to 2 people, the other person being my friend Peter. I noticed on some of the bar top tables that someone had left a pile of cards advertising a prog podcast, so I decided to leave a few cards on the table, too. It may not be as successful of a strategy, but I want to try a few different methods of getting cards to people, as long as it doesn’t make me look too desperate and attention-hungry. 

Anyway, the Marillion Q&A was a delight for all. Beforehand, H and Mark Kelly  came to the Atrium floor to get drinks, just a few feet away from me. I was happy watching them, as a number of cruisers approached them for a hug or quick chat, which they adorably obliged. H was rocking these camo-print Crocs!

H even took the opportunity to give a Modelo can back to the woman he was chatting with after she walked away. How sweet! Most of the questions were related to the usual topics, like inspirations for songs or future tour plans. But one question that stuck out to me was when someone asked whether they feel any personal or professional competition with the other bands and performers on the cruise. They all disagreed, with Mark Kelly stating, “Competitions are for horses, not for artists,” which earned a massive round of applause.

Later tonight, we had plans after dinner to catch an Italian band called Goblin, but they had to stop their set due to a downpour, quite literally, “raining on their parade.” I went by myself to the Stardust Theater at 9:30PM to see something I never expected to see featured on CTTE: Pete Roth featuring Mr. Bill Bruford. It was a trio with Bruford on drums, with heavy emphasis on jazz, rather than on prog, in my view. Pete Roth had plenty of jokes to crack in between songs. It was great to see everyone in good spirits after a long and busy day I decided to turn in for the night after that, and watched some of a Yes documentary showing in our stateroom TV. I couldn’t place it, but from the footage and video quality, it looked like a more recent one.