Internationally known Jamaican band Third World band recently completed the Tom Joyner Caribbean Cruise 2K6, along with a number of other major international acts. Joyner is an iconic Afro-american radio broadcaster and author.

From Saturday, May 27 to Friday, June 2, the reggae ambassadors joined the likes of Bobby Brown, Teena Marie, Baby Face and Earth, Wind and Fire on the sixth annual edition of the celebrity luxury tour of the Caribbean.

"We started in Miami and we went to Freeport [Bahamas] first and then we left from Freeport and we went to Nassau and then we left Nassau and sailed to Ocho Rios," Third World's Stephen "Cat" Coore, told the Sunday Observer. "Actually, we were contracted to play three nights on pool deck," he explains, " they have a stage on the pool deck where we played. But one of the nights there was a lightning storm and we weren't able to perform, so we performed the other two nights. We boarded the ship Saturday, but we only played Sunday and Monday ( Memorial Day).

For the past six years, Joyner, popular host of America's number one urban radio, has put this adult-only seven-day, six-night cruise together. The trip annually raises more than $1 million for the Tom Joyner Foundation which provides scholarships to help keep students in historically black colleges and universities. Since 1998, the foundation has raised more than $25 million and helped thousands of students stay in school.

"Tom Joyner has this thing where he does this cruise every year and some of the proceeds go towards help sending black students to schools and colleges and so forth. What he does is charter a big cruise ship and he takes top artistes on board. Like this year we had Bobby Brown, Frankie Beverley and Maze, Earth, Wind and Fire, Teena Marie, and Baby Face. Then of course there are some jazz people because he caters to a older crowd. You had Chuck Brown from the Soul Searchers, its a hell of a thing, y'know," Cat enthused.

He said this year the vessel had a 900-seat theatre with state-of-the-art facilities where the top acts like Earth, Wind and Fire and Baby Face performed. Bobby Brown performed in a ice-skating rink with accommodation for 1500 people, while the deck provided seating arrangements for over 700 people.

This was the second time for "The Worlers" who missed the festival of the sea last year. "We didn't do it last year, but we did it the year before," Cat said. Speaking of the performances he added, "Bobby Brown was superb, absolutely superb". He also made mention of another Jamaican band from Montego Bay, that he said gave a good account of themselves.

Last year, partnering with the Caribbean Cruise Line, the voyage set sail from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and for the first time stopped in St Lucia, St Maarten and Barbados. But next year's cruise has already been sold out.

"Next year," says Cat, "they going out on a new cruise ship that can hold 4000 passengers, three thousand hold on the one we went on this time, and next year's cruise, has been sold out already."

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