Cruise Ship Drumming

I just finished watching the Netflix documentary "Poop Cruise" and was wondering if we've got any ship musicians onboard here.
What's the gig really like, conditions, requirements, pay etc... and nightmare scenarios like in that documentary?

I had a regular thing on a Columbia river boat 1-4 weeks on/off at a time, over about ten years, and five month engagement on Carnival in 1990. I haven't done any of it since about 2007.

I'm not watching the movie, but pay was good on the river boat, bad on Carnival-- $220 a week. Carnival would also make you pay the housekeeping staff to make up your room every day, a non-insignificant percentage of your pay. In both cases the gig itself was fine, playing with 4-6 players, playing dance music and accompanying entertainers, no other annoying duties like the rest of the cruise staff had to do.

On Carnival the situation was pretty exploitive of the general crew-- mainly the custodial/housecleaning staff-- who were mostly from central and south America, and the caribbean.

The worst things that happened were the death of a musician-- a young bass player I had been working with regularly dropped dead from an undiagnosed ulcer-- and of some passengers-- by drunken misadventure on Carnival, from a ramp failure on the Columbia boat, there were serious injuries and one death. Apart from that there was a pretty gross plumbing explosion on Carnival, and typical plumbing issues on the other thing. Never any food poisoning outbreaks.

Jeremy Bender said:

I just finished watching the Netflix documentary "Poop Cruise" and was wondering if we've got any ship musicians onboard here.
What's the gig really like, conditions, requirements, pay etc... and nightmare scenarios like in that documentary?

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Did they mentioned (if they did I missed it) if the passengers got any kind of huge settlement?

I already did cruise ships in the Mediterranean in 1986. Jazz trio. Italy, France, Spain, North Africa intinerary.

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. You will get a lot of playing time, and you will learn to enjoy jazz horn players and theater singers on songs like Crazy Train and Seven Nation Army. You will learn a million and one coping strategies for ancient salted out gear. You will learn to love having a roommate in a 10 x 6 windowless room for 4 months at a time, and never being able to fit in the shower. You will love the food at the employee buffet for about a week.

It also has a couple drawbacks.

doggyd69b said:

Did they mentioned (if they did I missed it) if the passengers got any kind of huge settlement?

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At the end of the film, I think there was a mention of a $500.00 voucher and their trip refunded.

toddbishop said:

Carnival would also make you pay the housekeeping staff to make up your room every day, a non-insignificant percentage of your pay.

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For some reason, THIS is the bit that shocked me.

Jeremy Bender said:

At the end of the film, I think there was a mention of a $500.00 voucher and their trip refunded.

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For almost dying? wow that is low even for a cruise line. I meant nobody was going to die of hunger or thirst but what about ecoli? or other contagious stuff like that because of all the bacteria just running rampant.

JimmyM said:

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. You will get a lot of playing time, and you will learn to enjoy jazz horn players and theater singers on songs like Crazy Train and Seven Nation Army. You will learn a million and one coping strategies for ancient salted out gear. You will learn to love having a roommate in a 10 x 6 windowless room for 4 months at a time, and never being able to fit in the shower. You will love the food at the employee buffet for about a week.

It also has a couple drawbacks.

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Still a lot better than the Navy where you have 70 stinky dirty room mates that wake you up at all ours of day or night because if they are not sleeping, neither should you. The food and I am not kidding when I say this was not fit for human consumption. (I literally saw it in the meat boxes we had in the freezers I hope they are doing better by now but I doubt it). The showers... 3 showers for said 70 people so you had long wait times (usually before you went to sleep after being up for over 24 hrs already). Deployments lasted a minimum 6 months usually longer. at least I fit in those showers, the submarine is a different story those are ridiculously small that even a little kid would feel claustrophobic.

These videos by David Cola are really good, in case you haven't seen them...

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.

doggyd69b said:

Still a lot better than the Navy where you have 70 stinky dirty room mates that wake you up at all ours of day or night because if they are not sleeping, neither should you. The food and I am not kidding when I say this was not fit for human consumption. (I literally saw it in the meat boxes we had in the freezers I hope they are doing better by now but I doubt it). The showers... 3 showers for said 70 people so you had long wait times (usually before you went to sleep after being up for over 24 hrs already). Deployments lasted a minimum 6 months usually longer. at least I fit in those showers, the submarine is a different story those are ridiculously small that even a little kid would feel claustrophobic.

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Much respect for you and your service, but of course, I don’t think I intended to say that it was in THAT league of hell.

JimmyM said:

Much respect for you and your service, but of course, I don’t think I intended to say that it was in THAT league of hell.

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It wasn't all that bad we had some good times too. I went to places I would have never gone on my own and now enjoy a pretty nice retirement.
and thank you for the kind words.

Sort of off-topic, but the best part of my drum career was playing in a town where the cruise ships docked regularly. I was shocked by how many people can come off those ships into a small town.

Every ship, each band, is different.

We only played after midnight at the "night club", and, once every 5 days, an hour at the pool. Only Jazz, whatever we wanted (not dance music), with good musicians. Each musician had his own room, with full bath.

I’ve been on as a guest band for 10 days, we played every day except one. We also did a few 4 day cruises. We were basically guests although they told us no “fraternizing” with guests, going back to their rooms and a few other conditions. I loved it. Love the food, love being at sea, I got seasick once which was a nightmare but it’s gotta happen sometime.

What I gathered from talking to other staff was that the resident musicians who stayed on for months do not get the same deal, you can’t be in certain areas at certain times, you can only eat from the main kitchen on the ship so you can’t treat yourself to the other restaurants onboard, much lower pay. They didn’t seem too happy at face value.

Would love to do it again.

I was a cruise ship drummer in 1990 for about 3 months. The ship left from Los Angeles, stoped in Calatina Island, San Diego, and some ports in Baja California, México. I played in what was called the lounge band, and unlike the show band,required no reading skills. We played lots of background music, Bossanova, old standards, cumbia, salsa, merengue, and some typical popular dance music ( mostly “oldies”) The band consisted of a pianist who was the leader, bass, guitar, saxophone/flute, and drums. Everyone sang. Good players from Latin America and the Philippines .

I don’t remember exactly how much we got paid, but we got paid in cash, and it seemed like a ton of money to this then 20 years old. By the end of the summer, I bought a nice set of LP congas, bongos, and timbales which I still play to this day. I still had some money saved for college and lots stories for my UNT buddies!

I spoke with a friend/bassist yesterday and he had just returned from a 7-day cruise on Carnival. He took his girlfriend, two daughters and 83-year old mother. He loved the food, the service, the vibe and the music. He noticed the drums in every venue were electronic, and everyone used IEMs; no floor wedges. He said all the bands were very tight, very clean sounding.

I prefer something smaller.

A good friend of mine spends nine months of the year as a cruise ship drummer and musical director.

I interviewed him a few years ago:

finally a topic I know nothing about @cbphoto