Our last day of the cruise was a sea day. Once again we slept in, worked out, met for lunch, relaxed, laid out because it was a beautiful warm day, and got ready for dinner.
8:15pm dinner every night was SOOO much fun. We had great waiters and a drink server who had waters ready and who had learned our soda orders perfectly (after we shocked her by saying that none of us would be drinking alcohol the entire cruise). The food was really good. We LOVED the soups… especially the cold soups. I think I had filet or prime rib half the nights and it was so good. Chris, of course ordered two appetizers, two soups and two main courses and usually two desserts. Our FAVORITE dessert was melted chocolate cake with ice cream and was SOOO rich we could barely finish it – but continued to order it every night. I want some right now!
The last big show in the Showtime Theater was the CARNIVAL LEGENDS and we wanted great seats for it. Throughout the cruise people auditioned for spots in the final show by singing karaoke to one of ten singing legends… Garth Brooks, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Shania Twain, Frank Sinatra, etc.
Just a couple days into the cruise we sat in on the first round of ‘karaoke auditions’ and begged Doug to try out. He picked Elvis and sang ‘Jailhouse Rock’ (their pick). There are a ton of words and they’re quick but he absolutely nailed the chorus and of course is a natural when it comes to all the Elvis-isms. He had the whole lounge cracking up and cheering. At the end of the five or more contestants then the crowd cheers for the one they want the most… and everyone wanted Doug -- except for the host, who seemed to think he was going to be in big trouble because of who the crowd picked. It was SOOO funny. From there on out Doug was recognized as ELVIS on the ship and we were Elvis’ entourage.
A couple nights later we headed to the karaoke lounge for the second half of the auditions. Geneva was thinking hard about going for Shania Twain and we were there to cheer her on. We came late so we ended up squishing up towards the front and stood to the side with a group of people who we ended up talking to and laughing with all night. One of them was the gal who won the Tina Turner ‘title’ the time before and they, of course, had recognized us as the Elvis group. When the host saw us he shook his head and said, ‘oh, no’ which made everyone laugh and cheer. Then the host said, “We still need people to audition for Bruce Springsteen and then pointed over to our group!” Everyone looked straight at Chris and started telling him to do it.
When it came time for Geneva to sing we had this new group of friends cheering as loud as we could but still someone else got it. Geneva was way better too! Then it was time for Bruce Springsteen and because of all of the pressure Chris ran up to do it. The song was ‘Born in the USA’ and was much too high for Chris but he had fun doing it anyway. Two other people auditioned and Chris cheered loud for both of them to win so he didn’t have to – and he didn’t.
All of the Michael Jackson auditions were horrible. One of the gals sitting next to us (friends with ‘Tina Turner’) said quietly to us, “Do you have to be a male to try out?” With that Doug practically pushed her on stage and got the whole crowd cheering for her. She was PHENOMENAL and then came back saying “I was so nervous I didn’t do any of my moves”. We laughed because she had some serious moves.
So Elvis and our new friends, Tina Turner and Michael Jackson were given an IPod with the song to help them memorize it to perform for everyone on the last night… costumes and everything. It was really a fun show, especially since we had helped pick all the singers anyway. Good times.
There’s our Elvis… with the backup dancers. He did so good!
After the show all the performers went into the lobby so we could take pictures…
Of course we wanted our picture taken with Elvis but so did everyone else… we had to seriously wait in line!
And there’s Tina Turner and Michael Jackson!
Ok, one more thing… so the whole week people had been coming up to Chris and telling him that he “did a great job last night”. The first time he looked confused and the people said, “oh, you’re not one of the dancers?” Of course that made us laugh… “No, I’m not one of the dancers.” When it happened the rest of the week we were thinking – “Who is this dancer that they think you are?” We missed out on most of the big productions because we were playing games or doing other things. When Doug came back from ‘dress rehearsal’ he said, “Chris, I think I know you everyone thinks you are!” So while we were taking pictures of the ‘celebrities’ Chris went around and stood by the dancer to see if we all thought they looked alike – and although I didn’t get a great picture of them – Brian videoed them up close – and yes, they are twins. Funny.
Such a fun TWO WEEKS!! Now time to get back and see those kiddos of mine! (and post something other than vacation stuff!)
