Live From the Golden 4-27-11 to HI

5/9/11

Another day at sea, one day prior to packing day – the worst day of the cruise. Bummer.

Judy has been attending all the EULA hula classeses. Today was the Hula dress rehearsal with taping for the Reflections DVD. (They put the whole rehearsal on the DVD which was nice.) The hula class was very large, the Eukulele class even larger. I shot a lot of video so I can just relax and take in the show on the last night of the cruise.

We went to Pub Lunch at the Crown Grill for the first time. I had chicken curry and Judy had fish and chips. Her batter was undersalted, but the fish was cooked to perfection and very tasty. The curry was ok, but not very spicy. Still a nice break and a nice addition to the dining options.

We went to Kelly’s advanced Line Dance class with Slap Leather and the Tush Push. We know the “universal” Tush Push and Kelly’s version wasn’t too much different, mainly in the first few steps and the clapping at the end. Lots of fun and a good workout to boot.

Judy went to her Last Heirloom Lei class today. I now have 4 kukui nut leis for the cruise in October and she has 4 straw/crocheted leis.

Kelvin and Eric taped the Wake Show Live in the Vista lounge in the afternoon. That was fun to attend. Kelvin and Eric play off each other extremely well. We/they got to see and meet several of us characters that wrote in every morning – Judy, Judy, Judy; Patricia the Stripper; Delicious Donna; Mike and his wife, who would write notes to each other via the morning show.

We started the evening of Dancing with Passion in Explorer’s and then moved to the Vines for wine, sushi and Tappas for dinner. Much better than the dining room.

After dinner we hit the wheelhouse with Rick Kilburn and his band. Very good ballroom band and they also venture into some really good jazz, but are lacking a horn.

We went to see the British Invasion production show. Because we needed to get aft to the Marriage Game show, we sat up near an entrance and didn’t get the full flavor of the show, but we would come back the next night. The show is/was one of our favorites. Caliente and this one are right up there with a lot of high energy, lots of dancing, good music, and good vocals. Nicely done. Highly recommended.

We participated in the Marriage Game Show for the second time in a few years. Lots of new questions and lots of opportunity to try and embarrass Eric the host, with little success because he’s probably heard it all before. We didn’t win, but then we didn’t try that hard. We wanted to have fun and give the audience a chance to laugh a bit.

After the show, we went back to the Wheelhouse for some dancing before heading off to bed.

5/10/11

Packing day. I hate packing day. It interrupts an entire day and really screws up the nap schedule. We would also dock in Ensenada for about 5 hours, but we had zero plans to get off the ship.

Line dance review class with Kelly got through 6 or 7 of the dozen line dances we learned on the cruise. But we skipped the ballroom review.

They had a Mexican buffet lunch outside the HC, and it was actually quite good. Chips, salsa, guacamole, beef and chicken fajitas – all quite good and nicely seasoned.

Dancing was with Rick and the group in the wheel house until we left for the show. One last twirl around the floor to the guys and then that was it. It was so nice to have two good dance bands to choose from.

British Invasion – Round 2. I wanted to see the show from the 3rd row center this time. We did and it was twice as good. Good interaction with the dancers and singers, great dancing, great vocals, a great show that we gave a standing o to at the end. Really a great way to see a show and a great show to see.

The Aloha Oe Show, the actual end performance of the Hula dancers and Ukulele players, wouldn’t be until 10pm at night. So it was going to be a long night. It was combined with the Princess pop star finals. I talked Judy into going to the show, she hesitated, but she was glad she did. She was up front and did a really good hula dance. The Ukulele players, several dozen of them, were good as well. It was a great production and a great end to a good cruise and a very fitting end to the Golden’s HI season.

David and Lealoha seemed very pleased, but extremely tired as their season came to an end.