ACTS & BANDS REQUIRED FOR CRUISE SHIP FLYBACKS & RESIDENCIES

Solo Acts and Duos: $2500 - $5000 per week
Groups/Bands: $6000 - $10,000 per week

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I worked on cruise ships for a large part of my life... also actually played with a band on them and in church..

Only my ships where grey and had large guns and missile containers on them...

Unfortunately, all that glitters is not gold. Joe Ayala and I talked at length about his life aboard cruise ships, and while he thoroughly enjoyed what he did, it was not the luxury life that most folks think it is.

As a staffer, you are not treated to the luxuries that visiting bands enjoy. You can not mingle with the guests, you cannot drink anything alcoholic on the job, you do not get to eat with anyone other than the crew members, and you share a tiny cabin with another crew member, usually one that uses garlic juice for deodorant. The pay varies for staffers, averaging about $600 to $800 a week, which is far less than I made performing the NH circuit. And, you usually work 6 to 7 days a week, playing 6 hours a day, beginning with poolside, then moving to the bar, and later to the dining room. You do not get to use your own equipment, but instead, the junky stuff they have onboard.

Joe spent more than a decade playing on cruise ships. He said it was an OK job at best, you spent a lot of time away from home, especially if the ship's home port was on the opposite coast. The cruise line would pay for one trip every six months so you could fly home for a few days, then return to the ship. If you needed to go more than that, even for emergencies, you were stuck with the air bill. Joe said that top salary for lounge performers, which is what you would be, ranges $2,400 to $4,800 per month, and he didn't know ANYONE that got $4,800.

Headliners are the ones that haul down the big bucks, they get to sleep in a real cabin, eat with the customers, and are paid $4,000 to $18,000 for a week long performance. Other than Don Mason and Nigel, the vast majority of us do not fit into the headliner category. Stick with the NH and senior circuit - that's where the highest pay and most rewarding working conditions are found.

All the best,

Gary

Actually the big bucks are in industrial, film, movie, etc. Captain Russ makes the BIG bucks!
Still if I were younger, I would love to do a cruise ship, just for the adventure. Maybe conditions are better now. When I was young enough, I wasn't good enough!
I had a pretty good offer about 10 years ago, but I didn't want to be away from home that long.

watch all 6 videos

Gary ... I know we have discussed this before, but things have changed a LOT for musicians since the days you describe above ... We have been on a number of cruises the past few years, the most recent being a 13 day Mediterranean cruise aboard the Holland - America Line.
There was one R&B band that worked in the "BB KING" Lounge every night but one, and that was all they did ... another band played in a cocktail lounge for 1 1/2 hours before dinner and 1 1/2 hours after dinner ... this band was also the 'show band' playing for the big song and dance shows which were put on 3 times during the 13 days ... other nights the theater featured acts that got on the ship for one night ... there was also a male/female duet that played another lounge, a high powered 'piano man' who 'commandeered' an 'all request' piano lounge every night, and a piano/violin/flute trio in another location for a couple of hours before or after dinner ...
There was seldom anyone playing at poolside - which differed from cruises we've taken on Norwegian Lines to Bermuda which had a reggae band that only played by the pool - .
I had the opportunity to talk with the members of several different bands on the ship, and mostly they signed on for a 6 month or 9 month contract. They were ENCOURAGED to mingle with the guests, even to the point of having lunch with us. I often saw them having breakfast and lunch in the same dining room as the guests but I'm not sure where they had dinner. They said the pay was pretty good, and when the ship was in port they had the opportunity to go sightseeing if they weren't rehearsing.
So while I am not saying it is 'glittering gold', I think the life is a little better than it used to be.

A sax player that I played a gig with a few weeks ago just came off a 1 week Norwegian Line Bermuda cruise playing with a 50's group he is part of. I will ask him about accommodations etc. ...

Did two summers in the 70's...1 hour at each of 6 meal settings. Exact same trip, to the minute, week after week....BORING as HELL!

Did it for a guy from Lexington who has bee doing it for over 30 years....45 weeks a year. He has an old motor home at the site and drives from Miami to Lexington, rehabs the vehicle and heads back. He stays on the motor home when he's in port.

Can't remember, but if you stayed in regular workers quarters (there were options with better accommodations and less money), it wasn't a bad way to spend the summer as a college kid.

Met several nice ladies, too! Almost got thrown off the boat for that little diversion.


R.


Russ

like Tony Russ..said that's 40 years ago BIG difference then playing it today

I also did it in the early 80s for a while with a show band..

nothing is boring today on a ship with 5000 people aboard

In the 80's I cruised on the SS Norway a few of times and made friends with Fred Sample the piano player and vocalist of the Fred Sample Quartet in the International room. I was really taken by the guy and his group. He could sing and play like Nat King Cole, Ray Charles and other favorites of mine. Each time I was on the ship Fred was playing and asked me to sit in on drums. It was a great feeling to be asked and a lot of fun to play with his group. Long after my last SS Norway was retired, I got a call from Fred saying he got a contract to play on a Disney ship and wanted to know if I would be interested in being in his quartet. I couldn't do it as I owned and was running a company that demanded my daily participation. Nothing else could have held me back...so I had to pass.

For the last 5 years Carol and I have taken Caribbean cruises over each Christmas week. All were very enjoyable until this past Christmas when both of us came down with, what I am sure was, a major head and chest cold. We coughed, sneezed and wheezed our way through the week quarantining ourselves in our stateroom. It was just an unfortunate happenstance, not the ships fault.

This Saturday we are to depart on a Panama Canal cruise to kind of make up for the unfortunate Christmas cruise. Today, I got a call from the Travel Agent and an email from the cruise line saying the ship's departure Saturday would be delayed due to the need to disinfect the ship and the terminal because of a norovirus outbreak on the ship this week. According to the cruise line's email only 19 of 1900 passengers were diagnosed with the illness and SMALL NUMBER OF CREW. (An occupational hazard?)

I can't find any incidents of a second outbreak on a recently disinfected ship...soooo....off we go.

Eddie

Tony, the pay scales I quoted were current - and came from a simple google search of jobs aboard cruise ships. The $2,400 per month rate works out to $600 per week, which is exactly what Joe told me he was making 20 years ago. Keep in mind that historically, pay scales have not really changed very much in this business over the past 50 years, at least that's the case in my part of the world and the other locations I've performed.

All the best,

Gary

Gary ... actually, I didn't mention anything about the salaries, but the working conditions as you described them ... and while the salaries might not have gone up, based on the musicians I spoke with on board, and the comments made by the young man in the videos Donny posted, playing less than 4 hours a day was common .. so the $$$ may not have changed, but apparently the number of hours you work are considerably less ...
When you consider that you are also getting room and board, the gig could be quite attractive - FOR THE RIGHT PERSON ...
And from what I've seen, the RIGHT PERSON is usually someone 40 years and younger ...

I agree, Tony, they would have to be a lot younger than you and I. Well, at least younger than me. As for the living conditions, it seems to vary considerably with the individual cruise lines. Some provide a real cabin, while others only provide you with crew quarters, which are often shared. Joe told me that the headliner bands were treated like royalty, while the piano bar entertainers were just another crew member.

All the best,

Gary

Thanks Donny, i really enjoyed them..

Also found proof of him being a real musician overhere



Its also on a cruise ship