Many years ago I did one cruise ship contract. Wasn't for me. I stuck with the overseas hotel gigs, much better. The ship gig had us sharing rooms, rooms were super tiny, zero privacy, more rules/more oversight, no space to roam around, more playing required, etc etc. Crew bar was fun, though.
Hotels are better. I had five weeks at the Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong, the pay was better, you get your own regular room, and you get to just live like a person. Still, after that we had two weeks at an R&B club, and it was a relief to be put up in a regular apartment in town.
Cruise ships are for kids looking for experience and older people who went through a difficult life change and need a break from it all.
It seems like the kind of place you'd flee to after a bad divorce, bankruptcy, prison term, I didn't see that. There are a lot of people doing their first real playing job, and a lot of people who are just working professionals. On the Columbia thing we got an influx of players from the Mississippi boats at one point, who had been working them for years. A bandleader who came on at that time had been previously doing a Disney gig in Florida for about thirty years. The players were generally great. The weakest players were just out of college, adjusting to the kind of playing you do in that setting.
Actually the Columbia and Hong Kong things both started inauspiciously. On the first day on the boat I walk into our very small room, and the leader takes one look at me and cursed. The regular drummer had been sending subs and not telling him. Kind of a rough character, ex-Marine, played on the Dorsey road band, former alcoholic.
On the flight to the Hong Kong I'm settling into my seat next to the singer and she looks at me funny-- I pressed her a little bit about what was wrong and she said "I was told this was going to be an all Black band."
It all worked out fine, it was just funny.
