Have I told you that I love sea days yet? Today was the last day of this cruise. There always isn’t much to do on sea days, especially the last day of the cruise. The last day is always the “Carnival Legends” show which is basically a karaoke show on steroids. There is a full lighting rig as well as costumes for each character. Rehearsal started around 11:30 (meaning mostly around noon). It always is a pleasure to see who shows up and what each character looks like. I try to imagine where each of them come from or try to remember a trait from each character. It makes it a little more bearable to listen to. Apparently, these people were selected because they were the best karaoke singers from the karaoke bar earlier in the cruise but it never ceases to amaze me how absolutely horrible they are. Most of the characters this week didn’t stand out much. HOWEVER, there was the Britney Spears girl again. I think this must be a running joke with the crew. This poor girl. As they say in the south “Bless her heart.” Where do I begin? Um. She’s about 5’2” black and weighs about 350 pounds. I hate to say it but she looked like an engorged tick. There. I said it. I don’t really know how you can mess up Hit Me Baby, One More Time, but it always happens. I just remember Dave who was in the booth with me during rehearsal looked up halfway through her act because he didn’t think anyone was singing and saying “OH MY GOD! IS THAT A WOMAN??!” I just blinked slowly shook my head and sighed. I think it was more hilarious because she wore a plaid miniskirt and a white dress shirt and BLONDE ponytails during the performance that night. Oh yeah, and in rehearsal she wore black leggings and a spandex top. I almost died when she walked up on stage. The rest of the performers weren’t that bad. This time Elton John wasn’t a huge bodybuilder and Frank Sinatra had glasses and a mustache that made him looked like Groucho Marks. I half expected him to take the glasses and nosepiece off during the performance as a stunt. Ah yes, Aretha Franklyn. Oh boy. This one actually could sing (thank God) but somebody PLEASE shoot the costume designer. It was a black sequined fabric that was stretchy in nature and it just didn’t look good on her at ALL. Let’s just say there were many rolls. Oh! And Elvis this time was a baritone or bass and when he sang it reminded me of like thunder rolling. He was a pretty good actor, meaning he moved around the stage a bit as compared to the other performers who planted themselves at the white star painted on the floor. The rest of the day I went back to my cabin and watched a 007 movie. It was nice just to hang out for a bit and have “me” time. The schedule is built every week and leaves an hour here, a half hour here but there isn’t really a lot of time to kill which I’m sure I’ll love later. We also had a little production meeting today. We met around three in a beautiful lounge called the Persian Lounge with a beautiful single pane of glass from floor to ceiling that displayed the sea wonderfully. I think it has been the only time where all of us met to discuss the shows, the schedule for next week, and some general notes in the performances. The music director was there, Jen the cruise director and the assistant cruise director were there as well. We talked about some basic stuff; apparently someone stole some microphones from the back lounge so now we have to decide where we want to keep them all when they weren’t being used. We talked about how we fixed the turntable (apparently it hasn’t been working for over six months) and what the schedule for next week was. It was nice to actually talk to the various departments and have some form of communication similar to an actual theatre setting. The performance of the show that night was ok except during the curtain call our lovely Britney thought it would be a great idea to flip up her skirt during the bow to expose her butt to the audience. Thank GOD she was wearing her leggings but even then it wasn’t a pretty picture. I think I washed my eyes out with my contact solution for a good half hour after the show. After all, that’s the procedure if you have an eye injury right? Our Frank Sinatra forgot his lines during the show and they had to pipe the track in so loud you could obviously tell he had missed it. After every Legends show there is a changing of the guard in terms of technicians. Every week we have a tech on duty which basically is on call 24/7. The bad thing about being the tech on duty was that you’re not allowed to leave the ship. I swear there should be some sort of ceremony with the exchange of satellite phone and full keys. Last week my roommate Daniel was on duty. This week it was my turn. Well, no one really told me about the exchange or what to do when someone called. Once again score one for Carnival communication. I’ve learned to check the tech email folder every time you’re at a computer because now I’m starting to get a little paranoid about missing a call or not knowing something I’m supposed too. After the show I debated about going down to the crew bar but weighed sleep versus a drink or two. I ended up going down and it was pretty late, around 1 am but by the time I got there it was packed full of people. Apparently there was a little party going on because some folks were leaving. I stood in line for about 15 minutes to get up to the bar but after a little while decided just to let it go because it was already 1:15 and they stopped serving at 1:30.
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