Cruise News Daily reports that Celebrity Solstice which we reported about here, here and here, has been floated downriver to Eemshaven where it will receive finishing touches. Celebrity’s largest ship and it is also the largest ship that Meyer Werft has ever built. It comes in at 122,000 tons and boast industry firsts such as glass blowing shows, a lawn club with real grass and a small version of Central Park, complete with trees and shrubs.
Crew will board the ship in Eemshaven and sea trials will be undertaken from this port as well.
One of the biggest perks, if not the biggest perk, as a cruise ship musician is shore leave. When the ship is in port, crew are allowed to get off the ship and visit the port. The duration of these visits varies quite a bit. You may be in port for 8 hours or you may stay in port overnight and only leave the next day in the afternoon.
These days, cruise lines are looking to penetrate new markets that haven’t seen a lot of cruise ship traffic in the past. Asia, is a good example. Many cruise lines are now going to Asia for the first time in company history. This, obviously, adds attractive ports to the itinerary that even veteran cruise employees may have never visited before.
Furthermore, many ships repeat their itineraries. The ship would, for example, undertake a 14-day cruise only to report back to the same turnaround port and repeat the cruise all over. To newbies this may sound repetitive and boring, but in fact this is a good thing. Passengers that get to one particular port and are allowed to spend 8 hours there, don’t always have enough time to explore all the city and surroundings have to offer. Crew on the other hand, get to explore various attractions of a given city on consecutive visits which allows you to really get know a place well.
If you are so lucky as to end up on a ship that does many different cruises, you’ll get to sample many different places which gives you a good idea where you might want to travel to for your next private vacation and the places to stay away from.
Sampling many different countries and cities, with their cultural diversities and attractions is a wonderful experience that you will never forget. Consider that you will most likely have very close friends on the ship through playing music with them daily, so not only do you get to visit great places all the time, but you’ll get to do it with some of your best friends.
Us musicians work hard at acquiring the necessary tools we need to be able to express ourselves properly through music. Once we acquire these tools it would be a shame to lose them.
This is where my beloved friend the iPhone comes in (again). The iPhone lets you download applications from the “appstore” that add functionality to the device. One of the apps that is real useful to musicians is called “Karajan” and it is a really fun ear training program.
You can challenge yourself by recognizing intervals, chords, scales, pitch, tempo and key signatures.
Once you chose intervals from a pull down menu, for example, the device will play random intervals for you to recognize. The device will remember your results so that you can come back later and see how well you did.
Here’s a video demo:
You several settings such as the instrument sound that’s playing back the quiz, you can chose to have the examples played legato, staccato, arpeggio or polyphon…
There is a free version that lets you play at the beginner level only, the paid version, which costs $14.99 will let you play at three additional levels.
All in all this is a fantastic way to kill time and do something useful at the same time. Any musician that already owns an iPhone should at least get the free version and check how well their ears are doing.
Cruise Industry News reports that Carnival will send Triumph up to Canada for the first visit to Quebec in company history.
The fun ship will undertake its 9-day voyages to Quebec out of New York City in the summer 09′ and will visit Quebec-City, Baie Comeau and Havre St. Pierre amongst others. Read more here.
One of my cruise ship trips brought me to Turkey where I discovered a number of great musicians and bands that I still listening to today. Here’s one of them:
Artist: Hasan Cihat Örter
Album: Re-formation
Song: Jamais (Sultaniyegah Sirto – Intro)
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-Cover Bands Needed-
We are currently looking for quality bands with high energy and character. Lead vocalists should have charisma and the ability to engage a crowd.
Bands should not only play great music with a fresh new sound, but should also be visually appealing and be able to create a fun atmosphere.
Go here and click on Party Bands to find out more.
Updated February 7, 2013
-Guitar & Piano/Vocalists Needed-
We are currently looking for young, highly skilled guitar/vocalists and piano/vocalists for work on cruise ships. Visit our jobs & auditions page to learn more about the jobs and the audition procedures. Contact information is
