Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Sea Day
Outfit: Maroon "Costa Maya" T-shirt, green shorts
Drinks: 6 or 7? glasses of champagne, 2 Coronas.
Up around 8:00 AM, had breakfast at Windjammer buffet (WJ) then back to room to chill until 11:00 when I went to my prepaid "Bottomless Galley Brunch" a guided tour of the main galley (kitchen) and then dining on a three-course brunch with constantly-refilled glasses of champagne (or mimosas if you were a wuss, which I was not). The galley was smaller than I'd expected but then again I had seen YouTube video filmed by crewmembers of the massive galleys on the humongous ships like the Oasis-class. Majesty's galley was about the size of HoJo's kitchen from my teenager restaurant-worker years of the early eighties. (Wonder if the ship's galley crew had late-night "choir practices?") The selection was like that of the dining room dinners where you had a selection of appetizers, main courses and desserts to chose from. I chose the Wild Mushroom soup, NY Strip Steak with Asparagus and Pomme Frites and Key Lime Pie for dessert. And drank as much champagne as they would refill my flute glass. Nice conversation with table mates as we were seated at large 10-seat tables. Took about 2 1/2 hours. A very popular onboard "excursion" as there were many groups.
After the sumptuous brunch, slept it off 'till 3 or so and went up to WJ for more food! I was really stuffed after this!
8:15 PM show in the theater was a pianist Ashley Carruthers who told humorous little tales and accompanied them with his favored piano ditties by an eclectic group of artists such as Little Richard, Ben Folds, Liberace and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Afterwards, caught Day 2 of the Karaoke Challenge competition. Some really interesting performers. The usual bad singers, of course, but all of them gave their all so gotta hand it to them even if they sounded like nails on chalkboard. Some of the more talented ones though: Ken, from Nashville, a laid back guy, but I detect "family," who chose 70s and 80s niche or classic country. Kirin, from the UK, a likely gay, likely Asperger young geek favoring modern geek/teen angst anthems (including the song "Anthem"). Betsy, a young Hispanic girl who chose pieces that you'd think were WAY out of her league like Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You." And they were. But not too horribly. She got most of the notes, just failed to reach those "stellar" ones. Dave, a flowing white haired surfer-dude type who made out like he was about to sing a syrupy love ballad to his wife who "left him" for the Latin Dance Lessons in Bolero's but instead belted out a rousing rendition of "Super Freak."
The overall star of the show was an older black man Lonnie from "Ill-In-Oy-SSS" (Illinois) in which pronunciation, unlike most people, he strongly emphasized the usually-silent S. Never you mind that quirk though 'cause this guy could belt out rich bass and baritone notes like he was spreading butter with a hot knife. He sang "Rainy Night In Georgia" and for the second line of the song that starts "Heavy rain fallin'..." his voice dipped so low you'd think the deck would start to rumble. The older black women and some of the younger girls too were melting. Smooth as silk.