NinS

You captured the vibe very well, Jojo. I'm also in my 40s. I've been on a bunch of music charters and they do tend to skew older regardless of genre in part because you need both the cash and at least 8 days off to go -- plus there's the aging audience for jazz, particularly of the straight ahead variety (which may explain why the more modern Artemis and Latin jazz star Chucho Valdes often played to modest audiences despite being major theater attractions on land). But the year I went on Blue Note at Sea the audience wasn't considerably younger despite the likes of Robert Glasper being on the ship. And yes, I met a woman on an excursion who was there with her 93 year-old mother. The mom skipped the excursion but when I saw her back on the ship she was having a blast. There was one elderly gentleman who was there with what appeared to be his adult grandchildren. The kids were always quite drunk and grandpa would talk loudly through the music, much to the annoyance of those around him. I saw him get into four verbal altercations and Jeff Hamilton refused to start a song until he was quiet! Luckily he didn't swat anyone with his cane. Considering that there were 2000 people on board it's not surprising that there was one outlier, and I certainly wasn't going to let him ruin my vacation -- but I did try to avoid sitting anywhere near him. After doing two TJCs in a row I'm also not booked for next year. Chucho and Paquito, Artemis (especially Allison Miller), Kenny Barron, Eliane Elias and Anat Cohen were all really big draws for me. I also love Charles McPherson and Bill Charlap but they're not quite enough to make me pull the trigger yet (and I've seen both in past few months on land). Plus I'm going to try for a Soul Train Cruise cabin (which is far from a sure thing) and I wouldn't have the time or money to do both. But regardless I wouldn't hesitate to sail on TJC again in the future.

Likewise, HB, the Outlaw Country Cruise, which sells out every year, tried a West Coast version in 2022. It made perfect sense since many of the most popular bands on the cruise are CA-based. For whatever reason (and Covid certainly didn't help) it was not a success and I've heard nothing about any future editions. A European cruise is probably out of my budget for the foreseeable future (although ironically I've taken land trips to Europe from here on the East Coast that were far less expensive than flying domestically). It might be a great way to get a taste of the continent while seeing some of your favorite artists, although I'd also worry that I'd have to choose between the music and seeing some sights that are more unique than just another Caribbean beach (not that I didn't enjoy the warm weather last week). On The Jazz Cruise so few of the passengers got off at the first port that the few shows programmed during the day were overflowing. In the middle of Emmet Cohen's B-3 organ set when the ship was in Labadee Michael Lazaroff handed Emmet a note saying there would be a repeat performance while the ship was in Puerto Plata the next day, and by the time the set was over the app had been updated with the added set. Another show slated for a smaller venue while the ship was at the second port was moved to the theater due to expected demand. TJC probably has the oldest demographic of any music cruise I've been on except for Malt Shop Memories, and in talking to them I've found that many are very experienced cruisers and have a "been there, bought the t-shirt, don't need to get off again" attitude about the ports. I got out to Labadee early to make sure I could get a chair and umbrella at the beach and discovered there were hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of unused chairs and umbrellas in prime spots, with crew members and musicians vastly outnumbering paying passengers on the beach. One thing I forgot to mention from Lazaroff's Q&A is that he said that new environmental regulations mean ships can't go as fast, diminishing the ports available for a 7-day cruise, so if you think the music charter itineraries have been repetitive in the past, they're going to get even more limited. This was also the explanation for why we were somewhat oddly (for a music charter with lots of afternoon programming) in St. Thomas between 1pm and 7:30 pm. I imagine this has been widely discussed elsewhere on CC.

I am just off a spectacular edition of The Jazz Cruise. The amount and quality of music was just unbelievable -- I had an hour of work to do and it took four days before I found that hour in the day! I only had time for a Main Dining Room dinner twice. And I didn't see a bad set all week. Two of the musicians, Houston Person and Lewis Nash, got sick at the last minute and couldn't make it. Houston was replaced by Lew Tabackin who got Covid a few days before the sailing, so Houston's band just played without him. Michael Lazaroff did a Q&A. Many of the questions were centered around the transition of Blue Note at Sea to Botti at Sea. While it wasn't explicitly stated, one came away with the impression that BNAS isn't coming back any time soon. Asked how many years are on Chris Botti's contract Michael smiled and said "a lot." The other big news was that Jazz Cruises is looking to expand with a European and/or West Coast cruise in either 2025 or 2026. The cruise concept was not discussed, although given how popular the Smooth Jazz Cruises are my money would be on that format. There are apparently 2000 people already on the waitlist for the 2025 SJCs. A slide shown in between cruise photos stated that the 2025 TJC cabin availability is: Penthouse 0 Suite 0 Concierge/Aqua 105 Veranda 149 Oceanview 119 Interior 75 With several hundred pre-sale reservations already made this number should shrink considerably once the pre-sale starts, although one images that as usual TJC cabins will remain for several months before eventually selling out as happened this year.

This is great news -- I managed to miss both legs of the Doobie 50th tour with Michael McDonald so I'm looking forward to catching it when it hits my town. I've also never seen Steve Winwood before. I just (an hour ago!) got off The Jazz Cruise which was a great time. We did have very choppy seas one night and one singer tried performing from a chair and then just gave up entirely. Everyone else just soldiered on. A friend is on StarVista's Country Music Cruise and the weather report for their original ports was so dire that they were worried about artists being able to make it onto the ship at the halfway point, so the ports were changed from Grand Turk and Key West to Miami (yes as a port stop!) and Nassau. Everyone had to get off at Miami and then get back on again. There was some online grumbling but I heard the process wasn't too bad.

I emailed the man in charge and he wrote back right away saying he wasn't yet sure how long Kool would be on the cruise, "but a bit for sure." By my count there is room for at least one major headliner to be added to the Botti affair and probably two or maybe even three as this year's schedule shows that they frequently do double bills for the evening theater shows.

Botti At Sea will be in Cozumel until 11:30 pm, which indicates that Kool -- or perhaps another artist (as the Weekender indicated there's at least one or two contracts that haven't yet been signed) will be coming on just for the day or leaving the cruise on the third day. And it does call Kool a "special guest." So that would leave them plenty of time to also make UDC. And speaking of UDC, today its Facebook page promised "big news coming soon." Kool? KC? Or perhaps UDC year 1 headliners Gloria Gaynor and the Village People? I've always been surprised that neither returned since they're such huge disco names, although perhaps Gloria, now 80, was hesitant to book a cruise while Covid was raging. And, finally, speaking of StarVista and big news, such a promise was recently made on the Malt Shop Memories Cruise page. The announcement turned out to be that Priscilla Presley is coming on the ship to do a multimedia and Q&A presentation. That actually sounds pretty interesting to me, but there were a few cruisers who made it abundantly clear that they were not interested. I'm not sailing on Malt Shop this year so I'll be eager to hear from my friends how she goes over.

If someone chooses to fly in the morning of a cruise and they encounter a flight delay that makes them miss the cruise's departure, will most cruise insurance cover the cost of the cruise and/or the cost of getting to the first port stop?

If @SpicyP and anyone else going on Botti At Sea rechecks the app (or bottiatsea.sched.com) they'll see the full schedule now. As usual there is plenty going on. Two or three of the headliners seem like they'll only be on for half of the cruise which is not surprising.

As promised TJC schedule is being updated in real time. There's already been one change: the legendary Houston Person has been replaced by another saxophonist, Lew Tabackin. Lew will play with Houston's band and in the time slots (including an interview) originally slated for Houston. Everyone will miss Houston who I think has been on every single TJC but Lew is a great replacement. He also subbed for Houston at a club show in NY a few days ago. The venue posted that Houston is "ill but okay."

Oh I see now -- I had thought it was a live Q&A with the online audience asking questions but I see it was pre-recorded and that the questions were those that had been generally asked (and indeed they had been as anyone who reads the UDC Facebook groups knows).

Thanks HB! I had not heard about this video, which I guess was just sent to the current cruisers, not past UDC vets like myself. I'll definitely be tuning in. On Malt Shop Jason and Alan have done similar Q&As in person on the last day of the cruise and they addressed many of the same questions.

And here's the 2024 Jazz Cruise schedule which has been officially posted on TJC website: http://thejazzcruise.sched.com What a packed schedule! Even though there is a 5pm dinner break I see very few evenings where I'll actually have time to go to the MDR for a full dinner. I'd rather eat at the buffet and get a good seat for some of the small venues shows that start in the 6pm hour. Also, you didn't hear it here, but: https://thesmoothjazzcruise1.sched.com/ https://thesmoothjazzcruise2.sched.com/ and finally, just the first day so far, but: https://bottiatsea.sched.com

The SJC apps are on the app Store, but don't waste your time downloading them -- it just lists the first day (spoiler: there's the welcome concert) and a few "test events." Which of course makes sense since no one told me to go looking for it!

Today's TJC "Get Ready" newsletter mentioned that there will be a schedule app that will be updated during the cruise. Now you didn't hear it from me, but maybe, just maybe, such an app is already available for download if you search for it and it has an early version of the schedule already on it. While the schedule will certainly change, one thing is for certain: there will be a lot of tough choices on TJC '24. (I did search for the sister Botti at Sea and Smooth Jazz apps but couldn't find them.)

The Soul Train 2025 lineup is out. There is a lot of overlap with the '25 UDC -- perhaps StarVista gets a talent fee discount when it offers artists two cruises at once. I'm going to try for Soul Train but if I can't score a cabin UDC might be a good backup.

StarVista has posted the schedules for the Soul Train Cruise (as well as their Country Music and Sandy Beaches cruises). BoyzIIMen are coming on Soul Train in port for an interview and then two shows, then getting off the ship before it sails. Country Music got their 2025 lineup last Tuesday so I would not be surprised to see Soul Train's 2025 lineup on the website tomorrow morning.

@SignorEggroll You can be assured that no headlining performance will happen on port days. I say "days" because the ship is in Aruba until 11pm, so the usual main stage times of 5:30 pm and 8 pm will still be in effect. (When a music cruise is in port that late it's often so that one of the artists can leave the ship after their performance.) Even lounge/poolside performances will be very limited as the artists also enjoy exploring the ports and no one wants to play to a mostly empty venue. There's a possibility that there might be a late afternoon interview. If you're booking through Celebrity you can cancel an excursion and get a refund 48 hours in advance, so there's not much risk in booking something now and then waiting for the schedule to come out.

Looks fun, HB. Did you ever dare to find out what Wang Chung's Wang was? The Jazz Cruise '24 artist-hosted events are almost entirely hosted by side people or mid-tier headliners. We haven't been told what the fees will be, and there's no way to reserve tickets before we board. One is a martini class hosted by a drummer my boss is good friends with. He's a very funny and personable guy and can probably make a mean martini but I'm not sure I'd pay a very high price for his class, especially since I don't drink. I once attended a wine tasting on the Malt Shop Memories Cruise so I could meet an artist: 1950s recording artist Lloyd Price, who has since passed away. When they asked what he thought of the wine he said he had not had a drop of alcohol since 1958. This artist was known for his business acumen so clearly he was happy to hang out and take whatever his fee for the event was! (He was extremely friendly at that event and the other numerous times I ended up encountering him on the ship.)

I see they have one of my spouse's favorite groups, Technotronic, although who exactly is in Technotronic these days seems far from clear. Original lead Ya Kid K has come back and left again and YouTube videos from the past decade seemingly alternate between her and a new lead. John Cafferty is from Rhode Island so he often plays around the Boston area where I live -- not really my thing but my friends who see him always enjoy his shows. I remember HB's posts about going to it. I don't think I'll be considering the 2024 edition, but if I'm ever tempted I'll go back and read those posts before I pull the trigger.

Also nice to see Bill Charlap, who was spectacular on the '23 TJC, back on the lineup for '25.

Don McLean has a bit of a reputation in the business -- I have no idea if that's fair or not. I look forward to hearing from you how he interacts with the passengers on the Rock & Romance Cruise!

As far as music goes, one genre that is underrepresented is bluegrass. While I realize it is a niche genre, so is jazz, and there are the four Jazz Cruises charters plus the Capital Jazz Super Cruise plus one or two other artist-led jazz cruises. Meanwhile there is enough demand for dozens and dozens of land-based bluegrass festivals all around the country. I go to one in upstate NY that has something like 10,000 attendees. Sixthman tried it about a decade ago. There is at least one partial charter which books bands that are good but not very famous, and both Cayamo and JamCruise will book the occasional bluegrass band, but it seems like something that with some big names could fill a ship.

Ha! There was previously chatter that UDC might become the Ultimate Dance Cruse. Regardless of the name, it makes sense that both the branding and programming will extend into 80s and 90s dance music (as it already started to last time with Expose and C&C Music Factory). I love disco more than those later genres, but there just aren't enough actively performing original disco recording artists to keep programming UDC without heavy repeats, and so far not enough disco fans to sell out the ship.

I just realized that the majority of the fall 2024/winter 2025 Sixthman music cruises will be on the Gem, not the Pearl. According to threads on this board, the two ships are nearly identical. I believe that when the Pearl became a "music boat" some obstructions were from the lido deck to help with seeing the stage when they have shows out there.

Tomorrow the inaugural Rock the Bells hip-hop cruise sails back to Miami. It sold out before the lineup was even announced, so not surprisingly a second edition has been announced -- and it'll actually be the exact same dates, November 13-17, just one year later. This year had lots of 80s and 90s hip-hop acts, but a lot of that may have been because it was the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, and those old school artists could do both live sets and panels. Ironically one vintage act who was never on the lineup was LL Cool J, who had the song the cruise is named after. A Rock the Bells resort weekend was recently announced for next spring and then very quickly cancelled. It had a much more contemporary lineup, and I wouldn't be surprised if next year's RTB cruise was also a bit more oriented toward current hip-hop.