Last Sea Day and Cruise Post....Hooray!

We woke up on our last sea day to these beautiful seas:  thank goodness too.  We were pretty homesick for our kids at this point and just wanted this day to speed by even though we didn't want the trip to end! 

 The view looking down from our balcony:

We headed up on the spa deck really close to our room and hung out here:  This big lounge couch was calling our names! 

 I couldn't resist taking a picture of Missy....she's such a babe in red and that turquoise behind her hello little model!  While we were sitting there this poor bird flew right into the ship's window next to us.  It stunned the little guy so badly that he didn't know what to do.  He literally sat on the deck like this for almost 25 minutes.  I grabbed my camera and tried some close-ups.  I've never been this close to a bird before.  Its little heart was beating sooo fast.  I think had I touched it, it would have died of a heart attack! 

We were giggling at Terri since at one point she ended up in the lounge chair with two men!  (Neither of which are her husband!)

(As told by Lisa J): 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!   (I don't mind not winning if the person is better than me, but she really wasn't. [I think the Karaoeke director didn't want to have two people from our group.]  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.

What a trip.....what a way to go out with a Big Bang!!! Good times!  Where are we going next?