Did they have wooden legs and eye patches?
Lol! They were actually a bunch of Caribbean dudes though. That's really funny!
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Lol! They were actually a bunch of Caribbean dudes though. That's really funny!
Doug Parent
Supporting Member
Contact the various cruise lines where they advertise for job openings, they might have the contact info they use for procuring talent. Years ago I came across an agent who got us years of work on Holland America Line. Just be sure your contract is really clear about what your duties entail, you might not enjoy rinsing off water sports equipment on the aft deck when you aren't scheduled to play. Yes I had to deal with that issue before. There can be a real disconnect between the Cruise line and the agent, make sure you don't fall between the cracks.
What Joe is not telling you is that they were cast overboard!
I suppose it depends which cruise ship gig you're looking for: If you have a self-contained band whose repertoire is what they're looking to book, they won't care how you guys learned your material, because they're hiring a self-contained unit...but if you're a freelance bass player looking to get hired as an individual to work in the onboard orchestra that backs up all the visiting "special guests" at least 50% of the gig is sight-reading with no rehearsals. And the other half is knowing a crap-ton of tunes...again without rehearsals, but also without charts.
I have never played a cruise ship, do know many who have...
What I picked up about it is:
If you are in an existing band that gets hired you don't need to read.
If you get asked to audition a bass seat, as I have been, expect to read well. Been phoned to audition but I decline. I have heard of guys (trumpet) not cutting the reading thing who get replaced.
I have heard of band leaders playing favorites and head games with good players. Seen fit young players go on the ships and 2 years later they are fat and unfit. Getting 'passenger status' is mandatory otherwise life will be horrible.
There's a Vancouver guy whose '50s precision was thrown off the ship by drunk crew members late one night. The cruise line replaced his bass with a new one. Crazy and true.
Not to rain on your fun idea of playing cruise ships as I used to think hey when I'm old (thats now) I'll do the cruise ship thing. Now it just seems like a jail sentence that I will not pursue. If I got an offer to go a short trip with a great jazz band with friends I know, I might reconsider
Life is too short for cruise ship gigs.
What I picked up about it is:
If you are in an existing band that gets hired you don't need to read.
If you get asked to audition a bass seat, as I have been, expect to read well. Been phoned to audition but I decline. I have heard of guys (trumpet) not cutting the reading thing who get replaced.
I have heard of band leaders playing favorites and head games with good players. Seen fit young players go on the ships and 2 years later they are fat and unfit. Getting 'passenger status' is mandatory otherwise life will be horrible.
There's a Vancouver guy whose '50s precision was thrown off the ship by drunk crew members late one night. The cruise line replaced his bass with a new one. Crazy and true.
Not to rain on your fun idea of playing cruise ships as I used to think hey when I'm old (thats now) I'll do the cruise ship thing. Now it just seems like a jail sentence that I will not pursue. If I got an offer to go a short trip with a great jazz band with friends I know, I might reconsider
Life is too short for cruise ship gigs.
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if you live in tourist country that has day cruises out of local dock there can be day/ night cruises around the islands, etc. wine themed . Jazz themed, suggest something like night dancing on the boat as a starter without the commitment to be at sea for weeks. several boats here atr Niagara Falls Maid of the Mist retires boats with the second deck taken off . lots of electricity and room like a restaurant. freshwater lakes, to - so none of the corrosion salt water does to Everything.
I've never done a cruise ship gig but know many who have. The general consensus seems to be that if you are young and hungry and don't mind very cramped quarters, having nothing to do in your spare time but drink and substandard treatment then have at it. Otherwise, not exactly a dream gig. One guy I know got fired because a passenger kissed him out of drunkenness and it was caught on camera. It didn't matter that he didn't reciprocate: anything that can be perceived "the wrong way" is strictly off limits. Yay.
I played on Norwegian Cruise Lines for 4 years in the show band. You definitely have to read well. Depending on the itinerary you'll do jazz sets (real book), ballroom sets (reading standard notation), production shows (reading standard notation), and guest entertainer shows (reading standard notation). There are no rehearsals for the jazz sets or ballroom sets, you have to sight read real book and standard notation. Production shows have minimal rehearsal, pretty much just one run through on the day of the show followed by 2 shows in the evening. Guest ents usually have poopy Shaun Evans charts, some have great charts, and you only get one rehearsal the day of the show.
Ship life isn't for everyone, which is why I don't do it any more. You're always at work, the food sucks (yes you can eat in passenger restaurants/buffet, but you don't always have time and sometimes they don't allow you to.) On a lot of ships you have to share a tiny cabin with another person, which can be fine... sometimes. Some of the newer ships give musos single cabins with a shared bathroom. You can never be over .08 BAC at any time during your contract. Yes, everyone drinks too much, but you can be breathalyzed at any time. If you get fired for any reasons, including not being able to handle the gig, you get droped off in the next port and have to find your own way home. There are more reasons I don't like it, but I'll stop there for now. Some people absolutely love ship life, I have friends who have been doing it for decades. The travel is great, I've been to 39 countries on ships. The dough is fine. I worked through an agency, if you can get booked directly with the cruise line you'll get paid a bit more. You're chops will get really good because you're playing everyday.
Ship life isn't for everyone, which is why I don't do it any more. You're always at work, the food sucks (yes you can eat in passenger restaurants/buffet, but you don't always have time and sometimes they don't allow you to.) On a lot of ships you have to share a tiny cabin with another person, which can be fine... sometimes. Some of the newer ships give musos single cabins with a shared bathroom. You can never be over .08 BAC at any time during your contract. Yes, everyone drinks too much, but you can be breathalyzed at any time. If you get fired for any reasons, including not being able to handle the gig, you get droped off in the next port and have to find your own way home. There are more reasons I don't like it, but I'll stop there for now. Some people absolutely love ship life, I have friends who have been doing it for decades. The travel is great, I've been to 39 countries on ships. The dough is fine. I worked through an agency, if you can get booked directly with the cruise line you'll get paid a bit more. You're chops will get really good because you're playing everyday.
I played cruise ships for a while back in the mid 1990s. I even wrote an article about the subject for Bass Player. I played in show bands and jazz combos. I had to read charts every day, as some acts changed weekly. I played with a click track a lot. I'm not sure what the scene is like these days, but you absolutely had to have strong reading and improvisation skills back then. It's unlike any other work situation I've ever encountered, and you run into all sorts of characters.
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I am writing from my ship gig on the Queen Elizabeth. There is so much misinformation here in this thread I don't even know where to begin. I'll just address 3 things..
1. You absolutely must be able to read standard notation and do it well. The group I'm in doesn't rehearse at all. We sightread every night.
2. We play from 3-5 sets, 7 nights a week.
3. I got this gig by contacting Proship.com and arranging an audition. I auditioned by video and over the phone. Musicians here on Cunard line are hired individually as sidemen.
1. You absolutely must be able to read standard notation and do it well. The group I'm in doesn't rehearse at all. We sightread every night.
2. We play from 3-5 sets, 7 nights a week.
3. I got this gig by contacting Proship.com and arranging an audition. I auditioned by video and over the phone. Musicians here on Cunard line are hired individually as sidemen.
That's not true. It depends on what band you're in. If you are in the main band that does all the shows you had better be a good reader or your @$$ will get fired quick. If you can only read chord charts you need to bring a band on, or work in a jazz/lounge band. The main orchestra that backs the shows is a reading gig.
Proship takes a cut of your pay. You're better to go straight through the recruiting offices of the cruise line. If you're booking your own band and it's a headliner you can go through an agent, they will get you paid more but still take a cut.
Scott Henderson of Tribal Tech wrote a derogatory song about taking a cruise ship job called Boat Gig. But if you're a fully dedicated fusion musician you might just hate a so called "boat gig". 
Sounds kind of like a 'Stevie Ray - Pride and Joy' inspired bluesy shuffle to me. No criticism on that. They pull it off rather well!
Sounds kind of like a 'Stevie Ray - Pride and Joy' inspired bluesy shuffle to me. No criticism on that. They pull it off rather well!
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Both are very valuable assets for a cruise ship musician, especially if your sightreading skills are up to par. A few other skills needed:
--- Can you play metal songs done up in jazz arrangements with horns and keep a straight face?
--- Can you stand living months at a time with a stranger in a very cramped room on the bottom of the ship and not kill him?
--- Can you stand eating nothing but cruise ship food, save on port days when you might be able to hit a restaurant close to the port?
--- Can you stand being told that you can't go certain places on the ship lest you come into accidental contact with a passenger?
--- Can you stand doing boat drills with the passengers?
--- Can you stand having one or two channels of decent TV, and very limited internet and cell phone service?
--- Can you stand working 7 days a week, sometimes in multiple venues during a typical day?
--- Can you stand using the crap onboard gear that should have been replaced 5 years ago due to rust from the salt water (BTW, bring a cheap bass you don't care about lest the same thing happen to it)
Other than that, yes, cruise ship gigs are great. And you won't have to own your own place as long as you're on it nor buy your own food, and you can bank most of your money.
Depends---- if you want to play with the show band, you gotta read like a hawk.
My wife and I went on a Hawaiian cruise in 2016. Two "guests singers" did shows during the 10 days. The charts/arrangements were impressive. Both acts were new to the band--- the boarded the ship, ran a rehearsal in the afternoon and did two shows that evening. Between key changes and tempo changes and tech tracks, no way to fake it.
One singer did NY, NY ala Sinatra mimicking a record with skips. The whole band nailed it. The bassist was a gal named Brooke, about 30, fresh out of school. Very competent on BG and Upright.
The band also played big band dance stuff with spot on arrangements--- no way to fake those.
If you come on board with your own act, anything goes.
This is a good skill to have if you play in one of the lounge bands doing hits, but not so necessary if you're playing jazz instrumentals or playing in the main ship show band, because the main show band is always backing up singers and dancers. Still, any marketable skill you have, you should exploit and make it known to those hiring you.
I have never played a cruise ship, do know many who have...
What I picked up about it is:
If you are in an existing band that gets hired you don't need to read.
If you get asked to audition a bass seat, as I have been, expect to read well. Been phoned to audition but I decline. I have heard of guys (trumpet) not cutting the reading thing who get replaced.
I have heard of band leaders playing favorites and head games with good players. Seen fit young players go on the ships and 2 years later they are fat and unfit. Getting 'passenger status' is mandatory otherwise life will be horrible.
There's a Vancouver guy whose '50s precision was thrown off the ship by drunk crew members late one night. The cruise line replaced his bass with a new one. Crazy and true.
Not to rain on your fun idea of playing cruise ships as I used to think hey when I'm old (thats now) I'll do the cruise ship thing. Now it just seems like a jail sentence that I will not pursue. If I got an offer to go a short trip with a great jazz band with friends I know, I might reconsider
Life is too short for cruise ship gigs.
Passenger status is not easy to get. Band leaders get it. Guest stars/acts get it. New sidemen--- not often--- you've got to earn it with longevity.
Reading skills and navigating a chord chart are essential for all but the bands who do stuff like poolside reggae or dance hits in the lounges. However, being able to read IS preferred even in those bands, but they'll take a quick learner or a self-contained band if they pass.Yes and yes and yes
I think I spoke too quickly and not clearly enough. What I really wanted to express was that where there's a will, there's a way. There is a way to get cruise ship gigs without the ability to read. I know people who have done it, but I would guess most still do require reading skills. Or at least the ability to navigate a chart.
