Anyone played cruise ships?

robwright

My Dad was guest cabaret for 20+ years on the ships - had a great life and was able to take my Mum a lot of the time! It did seem like they were always on holiday! Lot of flying cos he would only be on a ship for 1 or 2 weeks. As @DannyP says, he would always have a guest cabin and eat with the passengers - not a bad life doing 2, maybe 3 x 45 minute shows a week! Dad came from doing the UK cabaret circuit since the 70's - I think it's hard to break into now without some kind of background (although you could always start rehearsing a 'speciality act' - do they still have magicians @SGLPPRS?)

DannyP

robwright said:

not a bad life doing 2, maybe 3 x 45 minute shows a week! 

Yes, I was shocked at how little they wanted from us.

Once you're on board, you realise that the time passengers spend in the theatre is time they could be spending money or gambling!

For the poor sods playing in piano bars etc, it's the opposite - keep playing so they keep buying drinks!

SGLPPRS

The guest entertainer world is incredible competitive now, the standard is incredibly high. Many household names are now on the circuit, so without profile you need to be exceptional, have two shows with dots for orchestra and 5 piece band, interactive screens for virtual sets, not to mention world class costume. When we are setting up a guest ent just the collateral around the act starts at about 10k minimum investment!

topdog91

@SGLPPRS I doubt I'll ever make time to get my sight reading together and I do have a day job, but thanks so much for the insights, this is a really interesting thread and it's nice to dream!

Littlejonny

I know a few musicians who’ve done cruise ships. It is apparently very lively in the dating side of things, to put it very mildly. I suggest you take plenty of precautions!

Good fun though on all accounts!

SGLPPRS

It’s a great life at the right time of your life! Our musos fall into three categories, recent grads that have no ties and want an adventure, recently single that are looking for a change, musos locked in teaching and just want to play! You WILL need a good level of reading or exceptional playing ability, happy to be 4-6 months away at a time. If anyone’s up for it I’m happy to ask admin whether a dedicated thread can be opened? 

DannyP

Well we must have done something right because they've booked us on a bigger class of ship sailing out of Long Beach to Hawaii in October!

Just in case future generations find this thread looking for the info I was seeking originally...

In terms of power, stage pockets had both 120v US and 220v Euro outlets
There were a couple of solid state / keyboard type amps aboard, but straight into the desk seems to be the norm.

Col_Decker

We went on a Norwegian cruise last year. The level of playing was seriously impressive. Saw one guy play in 3 completely different bands over the week, OK its a bit sterile as they're looking at the notation so not throwing shapes like you and me do when we do gig down the pub, but if I was in my 20s, single, and had the talent I'd be all over it.

SGLPPRS

DannyP said:

Well we must have done something right because they've booked us on a bigger class of ship sailing out of Long Beach to Hawaii in October!

Just in case future generations find this thread looking for the info I was seeking originally...

In terms of power, stage pockets had both 120v US and 220v Euro outlets
There were a couple of solid state / keyboard type amps aboard, but straight into the desk seems to be the norm.

Excellent, glad you had a good experience. A note on power, this varies wildly ship to ship. It really depends on where the ship was registered when it was built. We work with a British fleet, but some of the ships registered in Bermuda have US power! Also ships get sold/traded regularly to different territories around the world.

Danny1969

I would guess, like US homes virtually all  ships use 220V for a lot of things but the wall outlets are centre tapped to produce 110V where needed. This is the best way to do it and the most economical way. 

DannyP

That's good to know, will stock up on adapters and maybe a step up transformer?

Danny1969

DannyP said:

That's good to know, will stock up on adapters and maybe a step up transformer?

Anything that runs on a SMPS will generally run fine on 240, 220 or 120V  .. because internally it will sense the incoming voltage of 120V and simply increase the on duty cycle to keep the output at the correct voltage for the unit. This is why laptop chargers are the same brick part, it's just the clove leaf or fig 8 mains part of the cable needs to be changed for 120 or 220V and the specific plug type that is used

So a Helix internal supply doesn't care, neither does a Boss or similar external power supply. 

Older units using a linear supply like a Vox Tonelab will care as their internal voltage will be half'ed if UK brought and then run on 120V 

Amps are a bit different but all the bands I've seen were straight into PA anyway, even in the Caribbean where the local artist were generally more old school in their production (better for it as well IMHO)