A while back when our good friends Jim and Genevieve invited us to join them on a cruise onboard the Princess Discovery. Genevieve,  a Las Vegas entertainer,  and in my opinion, a singer as good as Whitney, was hired along with the legendary group The Platters to preform for a private Doo Wop cruise onboard. We loved the idea and booked our tickets to join our friends. But we didn’t realize we would be meeting and enjoying the company of the whole group and their wives. I guess we just thought they would do their own thing and we would just sit in our seats and enjoy the show. But far from that was our experience.

It all started a couple days before we set sail. We were staying at Jim’s and Genevieve had Don, the eldest member of the Platters, stop by the house to practice a few songs. Then the following day Grady and Lambus joined Don and the group had a practice session and we all got to meet each other. The cruise was a couple days away.

As soon as we boarded it became apparent our cruise was not to be just with Jim and Genevieve but with the  whole group and their wives. We ate together,  we laughed  together, and we learned about the music industry. All these musicians are old timers (a good thing), Grady the youngest at almost sixty-six year old. They have all sung and performed with the best of the best. Bocelli, Nancy Wilson, Patti LaBelle, Diana Ross, and many many more. Our nights were filled with stories about their own personal lives and their experiences entertaining over a lifetime. We were both amazed, shocked, and thoroughly entertained. Surprisingly, we fit right in, probably because our lives were unlike theirs and they, being truly nice and fun people, were interested in us. This filled our days with joy. Besides being close with Jim and Genevieve we are now dear friends with the others and their lovely wives. How many times have we ever spent a week cruising the seas and hanging out with ten friends? Never!

Of course there was also the music. These people are truly great singers and entertainers. One night, we missed it, but we heard the story of how Grady blew the house down at karaoke night. Ship travelers signed up to sing, and so did Grady as his wife had to deboard in Mazatlan to go entertain elsewhere.  That night the tourists suffered through a long line of amateurs, then it was Grady’s turn. According to Lambus Grady rocked it so hard that the crowd started throwing $20 dollar bills at him.  We experienced something like this on our last night when Genevieve and the others joined in on Karaoke night. The crowd loved them. Remember this was not a sanctioned Princess event, we were all just having fun. Of course the sanctioned events were wonderful too. The Platters were the top group to perform for sure, but it was fun to hear the others too.

Mazatlan was a blast too. This time it was just the four of us. We hired a driver and toured the city. At one time we asked the driver, Fernando, to crank up the music and we sang songs with the 1000 watt sub woofer and who knows how much louder the other speakers. It must have been pretty amusing to see a car full of old people jambing to super loud music as we cruised the streets of Mazatlan. We love the town, the vibe and the people.

So while we had planned on a cruise where we would sit by the pool and sip on strawberry daiquiris, we ended up meeting new friends,  and hanging out, laughing, getting dressed up, dancing, eating and more eating, and loving the whole experience in a way we never dreamed of, all thanks to Jimmy and Genevieve, we love you!