This is the FCB Podcast Network. This is the Jeff and Nick Show. Welcome to the Jeff Gloria Nick Show. And we're an informative talk show that's focused on finding solutions to make this our country, our communities much better. We're happy to have with us today Pastor John Coates as our co host. Good morning, John, Good morning to you man. It's it's it's a great it's a great morning in Ohio. We're almost we're approaching summertime. And today we have a great guest, none other than Captain Rick Fryan. Captain Rick Fryan is the owner, operator, CEO, and captain of one of Cleveland's most premier attractions, which is the Good Time Three. We have a great lake and it's called Lake Erie, and we're gonna have Captain Rick tell us about the good things that are going on there with the Good Time three, which is again Lake Erie's primier ship for sailing and cruising. It says, not a sailing but cruising. Captain Rick, good morning, happy to have you here. How are you boy there? Gentlemen, Okay, listeners, it's great to be here on your show this morning. Today is June fifteenth. June fifteenth, for the Good Time is our first day of our summer schedule every year since nineteen fifty eight. We are now celebrating our sixty fifth anniversary year all summer with several special events. We have Father's Day coming up this weekend, and then of we have a Murder Mystery Dinner cruise and Alma Cosi Sushi Cruise coming up fourth of July. Of course we have a Superhero cruise and I believe it's in late July. And then we have Boaterhead Yacht Rock is going to be on in August along with a sock cop the final sock Hop Dance cruise for a well known Cleveland radio personality, and that is Norman Knight. He is very h he was very intricral and bringing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame here to Cleveland. Okay, Kevin Rick. Before we get into some of the events, because we're gonna want you to tell us a little bit about that, give us a little bit about that, us a little bit about the good Time through the ship, and maybe give us just a little bit of history because folks that are gonna be listening all over all over that and they want to know. Folks are looking for good things to do this summer. Tell us about your operation. Well, our operation offers narrated sightseeing tours and we do those. There's twelve cruises a week, so we run basically Tuesday through Sunday, so we have two sightseeing tours each day during that period of time, and then we offer a Sunset CRS on Wednesday evening. Friday evening we offer a Harbor Happy Hour and then a city Lights Cruise that is an entertainment both the Happy Hour and the city Lights Cruise or twenty one and over. And then on Saturday night, after the sightseeing tours during the day, we offer a dinner and city Lights cruise. It's a combined cruise. Boards at six thirty seventh to nine fifteen for dinner or nine o'clock, and then we come back into the dock pick up folks for the city lights portion of the cruise, and we go back out at ten o'clock and return at midnight Sunday. We of course have two day trips and obviously the first day trip of the of the of the day, which is the noon trip, can involve lunch, so you can either do the lunch in sightseeing tour or just the sight seeing tour itself. We're very versatile. We try to make it very fair. The first hour of those cruises, those narrated tours is narrated for the first hour, and you're going to learn a lot about the city of Cleveland, the history of Cleveland, and also you're going to learn about the bridges, which obviously are the connection between the east siders and the west siders of Cleveland. Wow, Captain Rick, you know, there's there's no greater way to see the skyline of a city than than buy a boat cruise. You know, I'm reminded of of of being in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, are being in San Antonio for it's famous river cruise. But but you can see Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio on a boat and possibly have dinner as well. Tell us about the food, well, uh, I know everyone can't see me, but you know, I'm living proof that the food is good. So I'm a little chubby or well insulated. But yes, our food comes from the Normandy Catering which is in Wickliffe, Ohio. They're a premier caterer in Cleveland and they do a fantastic job for us. Uh. You know. We have beef chicken, pork, um, you name it, we have it. Albeit we do not sell seafood, but for private events, um, we all we always have a shrimp available if the client wants to purchase it. And we offer a lunch curse which combines a beef chicken. Uh. There's a pasta dish, there's a phenomenal salad and fruit salad. Um, it's just a it's a it's a great meal. So is the sight seeing cruise available on the on the on the daily basis or on daily schedule. Yes, twelve noon and three pm Tuesday through Saturday, and then on Sunday we run twelve thirty and three thirty days, the only odd day out. No. Can you purchase your tickets online or um or at the actual location where you're launching. You can. You can purchase them online at good time III dot com. You could spell it, you can put ones, you could put els, you can put eyes. I bought every domain so that people could get to us. Another one that's role popular is cruise Cleveland dot com because that's exactly what we do. You cruise Cleveland. Yes, we do, Okay, And for the sixty fifth anniversary, tell us a little bit how the ship has evolved over these sixty five years, and kay, yeah, yeah, I'd be happy to We actually started with a smaller vessel. It was one hundred passenger in nineteen fifty eight. That was called the Good Time. Then in nineteen sixty we introduced the Good Time Too. It was the same length as the original Good Time, but it had a thirty one foot beam, which is the width of the vessel, and ship would accommodate up to foreigner passengers. Nineteen sixty four or sixty three, my grandfather and great uncle cut it in half and added thirty some feet to make it almost a hundred, So that brought the passenger capacity to four seventy five. And about nineteen sixty five we got rid of the original Good Time and it went to Massachusetts and did sightseeing tours around Martha's vineyard. The Good Time Too, of course, remained in Cleveland, operating from the spring of nineteen sixty through September thirtieth of nineteen ninety. April of ninety one, we introduced the Good Time to three. So the new vessel, although it's thirty two years old, is I think going to be our final vessel. We are in fresh water. We take very very good care of the vessel. You know. My theory is it should want for nothing. So I have just completed a two hundred and fifty thousand plus dollars renovation and maintenance of the vessel, you know, replacing generators and rebuilding engines the whole nine yards. Um. Some of the money that I put into the boat you can't see, but some of it you can. And we're trying to modernize and you know, give give the vessel of a facelift, you know, absolutely, that's that's great. So this is the year, um, the sixty fifth anniversary. The vessel itself is updated, renovated, and well maintained. Man, I tell you, there's folks that are coming in that will be visiting Cleveland with all the attractions. This is an attraction that you really want to see before so that you can get a view of the entire city, the entire a lot of the big attractions. Well, you know, to add to that, we are docked right next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Obviously, the Rock Hall brings a lot of people from all over the world. Actually, we get a lot of visitors from Europe that come down, they'll do the tour of the Rock Hall. Then they'll walk down to the Harbor and they're like, oh, what do you guys do, So, you know, we explained to them it's a two hour tour. It's the best way to see Cleveland and to learn about the city. So we kind of feed off of each other. And obviously there's a lot to do in Cleveland, not just the good time, not just the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But we have the Great Lakes Science Center, we have University Circle, we have you know, world renowned art museum. There's just there's a lot here for everybody. That's amazing. You're literally about one hundred feet away from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exactly. Maybe well, we made the area so popular and they built it right next to us. Just yet and and even what two hundred feet from the Great Lakes Science Center. Yeah, we're not very far. You get that. We're right there at the harbor. I welcome people to go online and google North Coast Harbor, Cleveland, Ohio, and then you can see everything that's down there. We are the big white boat with a blue stripe. It can't miss us. Now, would you say that this is something for families to do. Yes, definitely that We actually have thirteen public cruises every week where you can bring kids on, including the Wednesday evening Sunset cruise, and that is a really nice relaxing evening out on Cleveland's lakefront. The sunsets that happen here in Cleveland are just as beautiful as anywhere in the world. Well, tell us about your charter capabilities, and you know, if I want to have a party, and I want to have the party on the water, how can how is that give us a call? We charter the boat by deck. We do main deck, second deck, if the main deck is already booked, or the entire vessel. Our charter rates are actually pretty low and I want to keep them that way so people have an opportunity to get out on the water. We furnish everything. We furnish the dj the food, you know, beverages, whether it be adult or otherwise. We have weddings on board the ship. We also do a lot of corporate events, customer appreciation, employee appreciation, company picnics, you name it. When people come or bring a large group into Cleveland, even family reunions they'll select a good time to show off the city and something to do for a couple hours. Well, but but the entire boat is available for charter if available. Yeah, yeah, Typically, like in season, that would be Tuesday, Thursday nights. Sometimes we'll do Sunday night charters, but obviously Friday and Saturday are reserved for the public scheduled cruises. Well, well, you're right, oh good, as you're right next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You have a professional baseball team, football team, basketball team in Cleveland. Can you tell us about some of the celebrities that might have slipped on board? Oh my gosh. Well, from when I first started back in eighty six, that spring we had a gentleman by the name of Willard Scott. And of course Willard Scott was the original Ronald McDonald. I don't know if people know that, but he did two hours of The Today Show from the third deck of the Good Time Too. And what a guy I mean he was just he had a magnetic personality. Also, we've had Chuck Norris on board. We've had Robert Redford for a EPA summit that was here in Cleveland, Ohio. On a Good Time Too, back in the I want to say eighty eight, maybe eighty nine, alle Berry. We also have had Drew Carey, We've had the Prime Minister of Egypt, several dignitaries. In fact, in nineteen five fifty nine, the original Good Time took city officials to meet the first vessel that came through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Wow. So you know we have been part and parcel to those special events. Peter Jennings broadcasts in World News tonight, excuse me from the third deck of the Good Time three twice. The first time was in two thousand and two, and then he came back in the fall of two thousand and four and unfortunately passed away from lung cancer in April of two thousand and five. What a guy, super nice people. Wow, what a history. Yeah, and I'll probably think of a few more. But we've had some great, great people. One of the one of the comedians that loves to come to Cleveland. Um, I'll think of his name in a minute, but um, he he was on George Wallace from Yes, great guy. Absolutely, And if I'm not mistaken, isn't he a Clevelander. Well he's in he's in Vegas now. But but he's a um, he's a member of my church really nationally, yes, and of course he doesn't tell the same jokes in church that he doesn't right but right, yeah, well there's you know, separation of church in uh comedy. Right, yes, yes, absolutely. But the next time you have Holly beriham board, you know, you call, you call pastor coach up, I would be more than happy to. And you know she came on board in the nineties. She's only like five foot tall. Uh, absolutely stunning, a beautiful young lady. And uh she uh she was with I want to say, David Justice's daughter. Wow, I believe, yes, I'm getting a little it was married to David Justice. Yes, yeah, she was. And she uh, she was just on a public sight scene tour and she came up and wanted some popcorn and I gave it to her and she says how much? And I said, for you nothing, just your presence is payment enough. Yeah. That's She's a dynamite personality from Cleveland, just a great star. I actually grew up with her, knowing her family and so forth. But getting back to the city lights cruise, can you tell me a little bit about that? That's it? Sounds like that's a fun cruise for adults. We have a variety of bands UH that entertain live bands that entertain on that and throughout the summer. UH. We have a band on the main deck and a DJ on the second deck, so if you don't like the music of the band, you can always go up to the second deck. But we have bands like Hubs Groove, We have Forecast, the Spasmatics Old School, which is like a nineties band, and of course the Spasmatics they play eighties music that's coming up. I want to say they play three times this summer. And we also have some local celebrity bands here in Cleveland like Ace Molar, which is Todd Meani's band, and then we have Monica Robbins and her she has two different bands, the Ninja Cowboys and the Whiskey Kings. So we love to get the local personalities out and have them entertained on the boat. People love it they get to see them. It's it's it's a good time. What's the atmosphere like during those um city lights cruises? UM, what's nice about it is you have an ever changing backdrop, you know. We try to go in the Cayaga River and through the flats, which obviously the flats are hopping all summer and people love to see that and be seen. You know, there's a lot of waving back and forth from the dock to the passengers on board, and of course you know the city bridges, they're lit up in the evenings. I mean, there's great photography opportunities. Beautiful. Yeah, not just at night, but during the day too. And for folks that don't know about the flats, can you tell us about the flats? Let them know what's happening. Well, the flats is a very interesting area that you know, was very rough and tumble back in the you know, fifties and sixties. But there were a few bars down there in little restaurants that became super popular. And then in the nineteen eighties it just kind of took off, and I mean it was it was huge. It was the place to go to. Fact, Shooters opened up in nineteen eighty seven and they were the largest grossing nightclub restaurant in the United States. Wow that year, right, And this is all along the river, yes, and now the east Bank has been totally redeveloped. There's so much to see I welcome people to come on the boat and then gow go down to the flats and have dinner. Oh beautiful. Okay, we're just about out of town time right now. I'm just thinking about the out of towners. But we're out of time right now, and our producer Darbo has told us that we've got to wrap it up. So tell us, Captain Rick, how can we find out more information? Give us your website again, phone numbers, tell us what to do to find out more information, to get tickets, etc. Okay, you're gonna want to go to Good Time three dot com. Spell it, write the number, do three eyes like a Roman numeral three, which is how we prefer it. But I have all those to get a hold of me, or just give us a call, you know, the old fashioned way two one eight six one five one one zero. Thank you so much, Captain Rick for giving us this, all of this wonderful information and opportunities to just get on board and have a good time this summer on the Good Time three. So to our audience again, thank you for listening. Thank you Pastor Coates for co hosting with me today, done an excellent job. And to our audience, thank you and take advantage of all this good stuff that's happening with the Good Time three on the Good Time three, food, entertainment and just family and friends. Get on board. Captain Rick, you have one more thing to say. I just want to say thank you very much, Jeff, John and Darbio. Thank you for having me on today. And you guys have a good time this weekend. Oh thank you. Kick off. Our cruises start today, all right, we have cruises all weekend, so come out and see this, okay, and to our audience again, thank you. And let's remember that we can all do better, and we can do better by providing taking advantage of this entertainment on the Good Time three. We can all do better. So let's do our part to make this country better, our communities better, and get on board. Thank you again. Wow wow wow. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where Real Talk lifts. Visit is online at FCB podcasts dot com.
