I have always been fascinated by how your cruise entertainment directors approach the task of getting the "reluctant" passengers to get up and dance. (There's always one or two who will dance no matter what.)
And seriously, this was NYE, it shouldn't be hard. Even with the older and more sedentary demographic.
So, last night, after the Name That Tune (but before the fireworks), he had some time to kill and cranked up a line dance ("Cupid Shuffle"). Cruise director was joined by another crew member and pretty much taught everyone the dance by example. A couple cycles through and they were joined by another crew member. (I assume this was planned in advance and not "spontaneous," but whatever.) By the end of the song, they'd managed to get two whole (unrelated) passengers up with them.
Where to go next? Another line dance, of course. "Macarena." They had two folks here, too. Not a huge success.
I'm not sure if I sensed desperation coming off the entertainment manager, but he went to the metaphorical "in case of dance emergency, break glass" case and cranked up "Y.M.C.A." Passengers from around the room got up and danced along. I honestly couldn't figure out motivations here. "Y.M.C.A." lies in the center of a very strange Venn Diagram of Trump Supporters, Gay Rights Supporters, and People Who Attended My Bat Mitzvah. At the present moment, I don't think there's any song like it.
I was placing mental bets on where he could go after this. I commented to the folks I was with that even *I* would get up if he followed with "Time Warp." He did not. He went with "Dancing Queen" and everyone sat back down.
By the time the party had reappeared on deck, they were spinning "Get Lucky." The woman onboard whose job it is to sell you future cruises boogied on over in my direction in her backless green sequined gown. Oh girl, no. I'm not wasting my limited dancing spoons on Daft Punk.
...
We are now solidly in the North Atlantic, 11-12 foot swells rocking the ship. Most of us are trying to walk without falling down - I, myself, had to do that thing where you run to get your feet underneath wherever the rest of your body has lurched - dancing is not on the menu.
