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How I boarded a ship a nothing and left as a rockstar... My Lip Sync Battle Experienc

Rinalouise

By Rinalouise,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Rinalouise

Rinalouise

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Hi there my name is Renee but most call me Rina. December 16th 2017 I boarded the Carnival Legend for my first ever Christmas cruise. Little did I know when I boarded the ship that I would leave 11 days later as the talk of the cruise and be a rockstar.

 

I had heard that the Lip Sync Battle was brought onto the Legend during the Transpacific from Hawaii back in October. I’ve seen the show on tv with people like The Rock and Anne Hathaway. I always thought someone like me (A bit of extra baggage & Two left feet) never belonged on a stage but I’ve always wanted to give it a go.

 

On sea day 1 we have the mixologist contest. On my last cruise I won the the mixologist competition so I entered with the exact same drink that won last time. I didn’t get picked which in hindsight I am kind of glad because there was better things on the horizon.

 

Sea day 2 is the Lip Sync Battle (which I’ll refer to from here on as just LSB) Open Auditions. To start we had 4 men and 6 Women. The 4 men made it through round 1 automatically and we had to bring the women down to 4 as well. Our first challenge was find stuff from the audience and strut our stuff down a catwalk. With a bit of booty shaking and sheer dumb luck I made it to round two. Round two was a “show us your best dance moves” comp. As I said before I am the proud owner of 2 left feet. So I got up there with every cheesy dance move in the book... the sprinkler the shopping cart the lawn mower and the crowd loved it. Round three came along and we had to Lip Sync to a song. The other lady I was competing against was given the song Locomotion (the version by Kylie Minogue) and didn’t know the song so she kinda forfeited her chance. My song I was lucky to get Single Ladies by Beyoncé. Everyone knows the words and the dance to that song so I blew it out of the water and won for the ladies.

 

Three hours later we were ushered into the piano bar for what could only be described as the feeling of watching a pyramid scheme presentation. We were crowded around a laptop and watched a presentation on what we just got ourselves into. After this we were given a black duffel bag with an iPod and charger as well as lyric books for our Lido Battle and Round 1 &2 Of the main event. We had to sign a waiver saying if we didn’t give these back at the end of the cruise we would be charged $200. This bag by the way I humbly named “The Football”.

 

We had 5 days between the open auditions and the Lido Mini Battle (on bigger ships it’s the Atrium Mini Battle but because our atrium was taken up with a massive Christmas tree they moved it to the Lido deck on the same night as the Mexican Deck Party). Every day I would come back to my cabin at night with a surprise from our producer Max. First night was a 24 Carat Gold made in Taiwan plastic ship on a stick and a bottle of Walmart champagne (still good stuff if your watching every penny on board... how can you say no to free booze?). The next night was a plate of strawberries then a plate of cookies and then brownies then another bottle of champagne. All of which had little pep notes on it. Truth be told by the end of it I was hoping for a free meal at bonsai sushi the way I was getting treats in my cabin every night from Max. It was like I had an admirer on board who just wanted to give me sweet treats and booze every night. Again how can one complain... IT WAS FREE!

 

We got to the night of the Lido Battle and were told we have to get our photos done for the video package they play before round two. It’s kinda like a “let’s see how far we’ve come” slide show. I was given props to work with like a dumbbell and a snake just all cliche things you’d find in a dress up box. The photos came out great. By the way I should mention just for getting this far we were given a USB Drive with $800 worth of professional pictures on it as well as a signed photo with all the cast. So I payed nothing for my photos on a cruise... can’t complain again! We also had to hand in our “getting to know you” sheets. These just had basic questions like where are you from who are you traveling with tell us one quirky fact about your self... etc you know the drill. We also had to give our song choices for the main event as well. More about those in a second.

 

We went up for our Lido Battle and the we had to Lip Sync a medley of songs:

 

Smooth Criminal

Wannabe

Fresh Price of Bel Air theme

Crazy in Love

 

The whole thing went for 4 mins. The winner chose who got to go first in the main event. I would have won but I had an asthma attack an hour before I went on. I was still out of breath after it so I couldn’t really move the way I wanted to.

 

Fast forward 3 days to the main event. We wake up early as we have an interview on the morning show with Jen the cruise director. Then I go and have a costume fitting. I had an allergic reaction to the right costume so I asked if I could wear something of my own and they said that was ok. We then go for a dress rehearsal. For round 1 you have 200 songs to choose from. Anything from rap pop country disco hip hop one hit wonders etc. My song was Right Said Fred’s song “I’m too sexy”. For round 2 the ladies have 3 songs to pick from as do the men... they are:

 

I will survive

It’s raining men (Weather Girls version)

Bad Romance

 

Here I go again on my own

Yeah (Usher)

Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Version)

 

I chose “It’s raining Men” because the thought of semi naked men dancing around me sold it. The other song that was picked was Proud Mary. I’m not going to spoil the whole thing but if you look on YouTube or Facebook you may find it.

 

The main event and the controversy:

So the main event comes around and I lip sync my heart out of both songs. The other guy apparently (I say apparently as I couldn’t see but I have seen videos of his performances and they actually match what most of the people have said to me) didn’t even Lip Sync any of his songs and focused more on his dancing. After it all I went back to the dressing rooms where I was greeted by most of the dancers as well as Jen Max and Pablo congratulating me on a great job and how I blew it out of the water. Unfortunately it was judged by the crowd and not by the crew if it was judged by the crew the results may have been different.

 

Now I have to say this... I feel I wasn’t robbed or duped out of winning. How can I say that? I just had the opportunity to perform with a multimillion dollar Stage production with world class dancers in front of 2000 people. That right there is a dream come true. What I did was for us bigger people and those who felt they never fitted the “cookie cutter” mold of being a performer. For once in my life I felt like a woman...

 

The after math:

We arrived back to Sydney the next morning and as I’m waiting for my shuttle I get stopped by 20 people asking for photos and my number all that Jazz. People thanking me giving me hugs telling me I’m an inspiration. I made my way to the airport to catch my flight back to Brisbane (an hour and a half north of Sydney) and even at the airport I got stopped by people who were on our cruise. To think I am an inspiration or I have changed someone really means a lot to me...

 

If you have anything you wish to ask about it all please let me know...

 

Happy new year and seasons greetings!

 

 

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Keys2Heaven

Keys2Heaven

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Wow! Great story and an experience you'll remember always. I'm really glad they are doing something like this now, rather than the Legends karaoke show. It give more people an opportunity to step out of their shell and do something like this.

 

I was in the Legends show a few years ago (I was a very very white James Brown) on the Valor and experienced a lot of what you did. We certainly didn't get all the freebies you did though lol. A group photo at the end was it for us. But, just being able to see what goes on behind the scenes and to be on stage and perform in front of your fellow shipmates....well, it was certainly something I will never forget.

 

We all need to feel like rock stars every once in awhile.

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Kel040

Kel040

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Wow ! Good for you !!!:D What a great experience for you !

 

I would love to have the confidence to try something like that ! The best I have done on a cruise was the thriller dance class - I've been to 4 thriller classes and still can't get through the whole thing without messing up !!!

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Rinalouise

Rinalouise

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Sounds like fun! I looked for you on You Tube, didn’t find you but enjoyed watching a few others.

 

 

 

Hi Zoey,

 

I just uploaded part 1 to YouTube you can view it here if YouTube haven’t taken it down for copyright issues first!

 

 

Cheers, Rina

 

 

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Rinalouise

Rinalouise

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Wow! Great story and an experience you'll remember always. I'm really glad they are doing something like this now, rather than the Legends karaoke show. It give more people an opportunity to step out of their shell and do something like this.

 

 

 

I was in the Legends show a few years ago (I was a very very white James Brown) on the Valor and experienced a lot of what you did. We certainly didn't get all the freebies you did though lol. A group photo at the end was it for us. But, just being able to see what goes on behind the scenes and to be on stage and perform in front of your fellow shipmates....well, it was certainly something I will never forget.

 

 

 

We all need to feel like rock stars every once in awhile.

 

 

 

I remember my first ever Carnival Cruise we had the “Ships Company Concert” we had Cooks Cleaners Bar Staff even the Captain come up and do a talent then 3 or 4 guests came up. One sang one did a spoken word thing one juggled then the fourth one will always stick with me she got on stage and played the recorder with her nose... she actually won it from memory!

 

I remember I did the dress rehearsal and I got a mini tour backstage. I was in awe spotting out things from shows I’ve seen onboard like “That’s the wig from studio vip” or “that’s the big fluffy jackets from motor city”. Then looking up on the stage and seeing the sets from all the shows you just get that awe inspiring feeling all over.

 

The whole LSB thing I feel is a better way to end the cruise because you’ve got not just the performers and the guests but you also have the little kiddies from the camps and clubs onboard getting to have their 15 mins of fame which is awesome!

 

 

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ricew001

ricew001

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Hi there my name is Renee but most call me Rina. December 16th 2017 I boarded the Carnival Legend for my first ever Christmas cruise. Little did I know when I boarded the ship that I would leave 11 days later as the talk of the cruise and be a rockstar.

 

The after math:

We arrived back to Sydney the next morning and as I’m waiting for my shuttle I get stopped by 20 people asking for photos and my number all that Jazz. People thanking me giving me hugs telling me I’m an inspiration. I made my way to the airport to catch my flight back to Brisbane (an hour and a half north of Sydney) and even at the airport I got stopped by people who were on our cruise. To think I am an inspiration or I have changed someone really means a lot to me...

 

If you have anything you wish to ask about it all please let me know...

 

Happy new year and seasons greetings!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Congratulations! I love these kind of stories!! My hubby was Frank Sinatra in the production on the Victory in 2011 after winning the karaoke contest. He and I **almost** won as the couple for the honeymoon show. It's a really cool experience. I don't know why people give these contests such a hard time. They really had a cool factor to the cruise experience!

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