What (shipboard) jobs do cruise musicians have when not performing?
June 10, 2019 9:41 AM Subscribe
Just returned from a cruise where musicians performed in various venues on the ship. Looking at the schedule, it seemed that none of them played more than 3 or 4 hours out of every 24. What other jobs do they do when not performing? (FWIW - this was not a cruise focused on music.)
None, probably.
If they work a 7-8 hour shift, then playing 4 hours, a half hour or hour for lunch, and rehearsing for 3 hours sounds about like a full-time job to me. Being a musician is not quite like filing paperwork, you can't just pick up and put it down, you have to warm up and practice regularly. And to rehearse a piece takes at least as long as it takes to play the piece in performance, if not more. Think of it more like being a student: sure, you're in class some of the time, but a "credit hour" includes 3-4x as much time for homework.
posted by epanalepsis at 9:57 AM on June 10, 2019 [12 favorites]
If they work a 7-8 hour shift, then playing 4 hours, a half hour or hour for lunch, and rehearsing for 3 hours sounds about like a full-time job to me. Being a musician is not quite like filing paperwork, you can't just pick up and put it down, you have to warm up and practice regularly. And to rehearse a piece takes at least as long as it takes to play the piece in performance, if not more. Think of it more like being a student: sure, you're in class some of the time, but a "credit hour" includes 3-4x as much time for homework.
posted by epanalepsis at 9:57 AM on June 10, 2019 [12 favorites]
Sometimes they help out with the muster drill.
posted by amro at 9:58 AM on June 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by amro at 9:58 AM on June 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
Entertainers on ship often have safety related duties, other guest relation duties, ancillary teaching or entertainment positions, rehersals, show development, or nothing at all, in the case of headliners and other acts. Depending on the performance, they may have to stay in shape, part of a performer's typical day, or recover from the pace of performing on a cruise.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:06 AM on June 10, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:06 AM on June 10, 2019 [11 favorites]
I have a close friend who sings on cruise lines. She doesn't have any other duties besides rehearsals.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:18 AM on June 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by DarlingBri at 10:18 AM on June 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
There are two different classes of musicians on cruise ships. The ones that perform on the big stage and as backing bands in the lounges are employees on a 6 month contract. They have very minor other duties related to safety (they will have a station for the initial lifeboat drill), but otherwise generally have a rehearsal and a performance or 2 rehearsals and 2 performances per day. Otherwise they are free to do whatever they want and they live in the crew quarters in shared rooms. The ones who are headliners in the lounges or the main stage travel like guests in guest rooms and usually only do one or two cruises. They have no safety duties at all.
posted by Lame_username at 11:00 AM on June 10, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by Lame_username at 11:00 AM on June 10, 2019 [10 favorites]
My husband was part of a backup band on a cruise once. His only responsibilities were the music rehearsals and performances...he was free the rest of the time.
posted by victoriab at 11:18 AM on June 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by victoriab at 11:18 AM on June 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
According to those I know who've done this or similar, none. This is their job. And as one of them, perhaps a pinch defensively, added "is someone seriously defining "job" as "the thing you do at least 8 hours a day"?"
posted by Cosine at 11:48 AM on June 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Cosine at 11:48 AM on June 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: What would make you think that being a musician on a ship is not a full time job?
The assumption (incorrect, I guess) that cruise lines are too cheap to pay the musicians to work only as musicians. I tipped $5 each to a violin/cello duo and from the looks on their faces, you would have thought I had handed them a pot of gold.
I'm a big believer that no one pays the musicians enough. Am very encouraged to learn that working as a musician on a cruise line is a decent gig.
posted by John Borrowman at 2:06 PM on June 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
The assumption (incorrect, I guess) that cruise lines are too cheap to pay the musicians to work only as musicians. I tipped $5 each to a violin/cello duo and from the looks on their faces, you would have thought I had handed them a pot of gold.
I'm a big believer that no one pays the musicians enough. Am very encouraged to learn that working as a musician on a cruise line is a decent gig.
posted by John Borrowman at 2:06 PM on June 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I've had a number of former classmates and students who were cruise ship musicians for a summer gig. As far as they told me, their only responsibilities were rehearsals and performances. They spent the rest of their time in some combination of 3 activities: 1)playing music together that they actually wanted to play (a very studious, very Mormon violinist I know learned a huge amount of quartet repertoire over one summer perhaps because options 2-3 were uninteresting to her), 2) drinking a lot, and 3) having sex with the other musicians. They all said it's a great gig for a young musician, did wonders for their sight reading chops, but would make you feel empty inside if you made it a career.
posted by dr. boludo at 2:49 PM on June 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by dr. boludo at 2:49 PM on June 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm a big believer that no one pays the musicians enough. Am very encouraged to learn that working as a musician on a cruise line is a decent gig.
Quick note on this via friends of mine who've worked the audio/production tech side of things on cruise ships - the pay itself is good but not great (which probably partly explains the surprise at your $5 tip), but 1) it's steady work, which can be hard to come by in the entertainment biz and 2) you basically have no living expenses and not much opportunity to spend money so as long as you have a cheap place to store a few belongings and to crash in between cruise contracts, like a parent's house or a friend's apartment, it seems like you're making a lot of money. (Both my friends ran through their savings much sooner than expected once they quit the cruise business and had to actually pay rent and car insurance and electric bills & etc.)
posted by soundguy99 at 8:03 PM on June 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
Quick note on this via friends of mine who've worked the audio/production tech side of things on cruise ships - the pay itself is good but not great (which probably partly explains the surprise at your $5 tip), but 1) it's steady work, which can be hard to come by in the entertainment biz and 2) you basically have no living expenses and not much opportunity to spend money so as long as you have a cheap place to store a few belongings and to crash in between cruise contracts, like a parent's house or a friend's apartment, it seems like you're making a lot of money. (Both my friends ran through their savings much sooner than expected once they quit the cruise business and had to actually pay rent and car insurance and electric bills & etc.)
posted by soundguy99 at 8:03 PM on June 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
My sister has worked for Princess Cruises forever, including a stint at handling visas for the workers and workers' guests on their ships.
On Princess, the entertainers not only don't work all that much, they get to stay in a passenger cabin and when not working they get to do all the stuff regular passengers do. Everyone else working the ship has to stay in the crew section, which is obviously not setup as fancy as the passenger part.
They also get to bring a guest with them during their entire stay (verses 30 days out of the year like regular crew), I recall. Not 100% confident of the length, but I do remember it was the same guest policy afforded to the officers in the crew.
Not a bad gig, although from what I hear the mix of "able to hang out with regular passengers" and "not working that much" has occasionally ended up with various shenanigans occurring.
posted by sideshow at 6:48 PM on June 13, 2019
On Princess, the entertainers not only don't work all that much, they get to stay in a passenger cabin and when not working they get to do all the stuff regular passengers do. Everyone else working the ship has to stay in the crew section, which is obviously not setup as fancy as the passenger part.
They also get to bring a guest with them during their entire stay (verses 30 days out of the year like regular crew), I recall. Not 100% confident of the length, but I do remember it was the same guest policy afforded to the officers in the crew.
Not a bad gig, although from what I hear the mix of "able to hang out with regular passengers" and "not working that much" has occasionally ended up with various shenanigans occurring.
posted by sideshow at 6:48 PM on June 13, 2019
Also, the "pot of gold" look on their face was likely actually a "oh shit, guess they snoozed past the part when they were told that tipping wasn't necessary" look. They might have been worried they'd be seen as not working hard enough to decline the tip you (likely) weren't supposed to give them.
posted by sideshow at 6:50 PM on June 13, 2019
posted by sideshow at 6:50 PM on June 13, 2019
I just finally managed to get off the cruise ship that I have been quarantined on for the past three months.
Even thought the passengers had alighted many weeks ago the crew and entertainers have had to stay on board whilst the ship travels the world to drop off staff in their home countries.
During this time everyone has had to take on responsibilities for extra cleaning including musicians - for the most part we were glad to pitch in - the deal was that we get to enjoy the facilities and to keep up morale we perform sets that are a refreshing change from the same old same old tunes for guests.
Different experiences for different operators - these guys seemingly had an awful time as cruise ship entertainers whereas we were lucky in some ways and didn't!
posted by jallypeeno at 9:28 AM on June 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Even thought the passengers had alighted many weeks ago the crew and entertainers have had to stay on board whilst the ship travels the world to drop off staff in their home countries.
During this time everyone has had to take on responsibilities for extra cleaning including musicians - for the most part we were glad to pitch in - the deal was that we get to enjoy the facilities and to keep up morale we perform sets that are a refreshing change from the same old same old tunes for guests.
Different experiences for different operators - these guys seemingly had an awful time as cruise ship entertainers whereas we were lucky in some ways and didn't!
posted by jallypeeno at 9:28 AM on June 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
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Presumably they also rehearse, as all professional musicians do.
posted by anastasiav at 9:51 AM on June 10, 2019 [11 favorites]