The Five Best Things About Creed’s Summer of ’99 Cruise

Here are the five best things about Creed‘s Summer of ’99 Cruise.

The festival cruise took place from April 18-22, and took fans from Miami, Florida to Nassau, Bahamas and back.

It was an incredible trip back to a halcyon time in rock history and fans more than indulged in their dose of powerful nostalgia while each act asserted the staying power of their music these last 25 years.

Loudwire was onboard and, below we recap some of the biggest highlights of the whole trip!

Karaoke Was Outrageous!

The hottest karaoke spot on the planet might be onboard the Norwegian Pearl on the Summer of ’99 cruise.

Each night, there was open mic karaoke where anyone could sign up and there was also a karaoke competition judged by Creed’s Mark Tremonti and 3 Doors Down‘s Brad Arnold, with ship co-host Eddie Trunk of SiriusXM moderating.

This boat was full of belters — these fans have talent!

The competition was fierce and, below, in Loudwire’s Instagram slideshow, you can see one contestant Becky singing her heart out to Halestorm‘s “Familiar Taste of Poison.”

Tremonti took the opportunity to sing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” crooning as the sun began to set. In 2022, he released a Sinatra covers album to benefit NDSS — National Down Syndrome Society.

Things came to an apex as Arnold joined Tremonti in a duet of Billy Idol‘s “Rebel Yell.” At the crowd’s insistence, Trunk even got behind the mic for a part of it!

Fans really tore it up in the Spinnaker Lounge, where karaoke was held nightly. One woman sang Taylor Swift and received a round of applause after acknowledging people probably don’t want to hear it, but asserted, “Fuck y’all, I’m doing this for me.”

Brian Storm of Rockfeed also leveled the place with some bangers. In the last slide in the post below, he tears up Limp Bizkit‘s “Nookie.”

Mark Tremonti Was EVERYWHERE

Each member of Creed took part in their own special event, as well as two publicly hosted interviews.

Scott Stapp nearly beat the best basketball players on the boat in a free throw contest and Brian Marshall‘s pick throwing contest was another fun event. There was also a flip cup competition with Scott “Flip” Philips and Tremonti was part of a painting instructional. Let’s just say his painting came out better than ours…

Fans also had an opportunity to snap a photo with everyone in Creed.

With all those scheduled events, it’s a great chance to see the members outside of the usual band element. He also took extended time to sign autographs for people, sometimes even right from the stage.

However, it seemed like every time you turned your head, Mark Tremonti was nearby. He was at other contests for his bandmates and, on the last night, turned up with an entourage and stayed in the back of the lounge to watch some wild karaoke.

You Can Learn a Lot From The Power Hour Interviews

AXS TV’s The Power Hour is gearing up for a third season and the cast are co-hosts on the festival cruise alongside Eddie Trunk.

Usually a trio of Matt Pinfeild, Caity Babs (also of SiriusXM) and Josh Bernstein, Babs unfortunately fell ill before the ship set sail. Her co-hosts held it down in her absence, chatting with many of the bands onboard, leaving fans with a pretty deep understanding of this late ’90s rock scene.

Pinfield’s influential time working for MTV and in A&R and radio help set the scene as he reconnected with so many musicians he had experiences with in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Bernstein, whose rock knowledge is also rather deep, was often quick with one-liners, mixing in hearty laughs between waves of music history.

We recommend catching the interviews each day to get the full perspective and learn more about each artist!

Two Other Cruise Ships at Port Watched 3 Doors Down

This might sound pretty trivial but we promise we have a genuine point to make when all is said and done.

Before setting sail for Miami, Florida, departing Nassau, Bahamas, the cruise ship was at the port sandwiched between two other cruise ships. Onstage to kick off the return trip, 3 Doors Down played to more than the Summer of ’99 crowd as people from both sides watched on and cheered.

It shows the transcendental nature of the music featured on the festival cruise. It was obvious there were fans on both of the other ships, who were probably stunned to see that the Creed Cruise had pulled up alongside them on their vacation.

The sense of community was so strong on the Summer of ’99 cruise that seeing others getting to enjoy a slice of what we all did was an unexpected and wholesome touch.

With a Disney-branded boat on one side, it’s amusing to imagine how different of a situation this would have been had Buckcherry been onstage singing “Crazy Bitch.” It’s a scenario best left in the realm of the imagination, for sure!

Creed Played Their First Two Shows in 12 Years – DUH!!!

Creed’s reunion shows are, of course, the main reason everyone was here!

The band’s first performance since 2012 came at 4:30PM as the ship embarked on its journey. They looked and sounded great, playing a 16-song set that included some of their biggest hits as well as other fan favorites and deep cuts.

If you closed your eyes, you’d swear you really were in 1999 — they sounded that good. Stapp, especially, was a dominant force onstage, beaming with intensity and delight, exchanging smiles with Tremonti that seemed to convey a thousand words with just one glance.

It was also Tremonti’s 50th birthday and the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” before the final two songs of the set.

With a day off between sets, Creed returned to the pool deck stage for the first reunion show after dark.

As incredible as the first set was, the nighttime setting is the best way to experience an outdoor rock show. The pressure of the first show back was off and Creed appeared to be even more confident onstage, tearing through 17 songs with a couple of changes in the setlist.

They’re more than ready to conquer the world again, first on the Summer of ’99 and Beyond cruise that sets sail on April 27 and then on summer and late fall tours.