What is a (jazz) spotlight cruise?

[Joanandjoe]

Our September 16-24 cruise from Montreal to New York has become a "Spotlight on Jazz" cruise, featuring Bucky Pizzarelli's "All that Jazz". That sounds exciting, but we don't really know what it means. Do Jazz concerts replace the normal shows? Do we get a chance to meet the musicians in workshops, or in the small room settings that are normally more appropriate to jazz than a large auditorium. Do they only have Spotlight cruise when they think they won't fill up the ship without a spotlight? In short, how does a spotlight cruise change the normal Radisson routine?

 

We'd appreciate input from people who have been on muscial spotlight cruises in the past, and (assuming this thread stays around for awhile) from people on other Jazz spotlight cruises on May 25, June 10, and August 24.

[Leejnd4]

It seems that all of a sudden, a whole bunch of RSSC cruises were designated as "Spotlight Cruises". My Med cruise departs in just over 2 weeks, and I just saw on the RSSC website last week that it's now a "Spotlight on Antiques" cruise, which is GREAT, since we love antiques!

 

I've been told that many of these cruises were already listed as "Spotlight" cruises in old brochures, but I never saw any of the brochures so I can't confirm that. I certainly never saw anything about it when I was deciding what cruise to take way back in September, or at any time during the months of massive research I've been doing on this cruise since I booked it.

 

In any case, the RSSC site lists this as a description of your Jazz cruise:

 

"Jazz legend Bucky Pizzarelli is in the spotlight on this spectacular cruise from Montreal to New York. For more than half a century, Bucky has been a part of the fraternity of musicians who have kept mainstream and traditional jazz alive. The list of big bands and vocalists with whom Bucky has performed and recorded reads like a veritable Who's Who of Jazz, he's made dozens of acclaimed recording and appeared in performance all over the world. He's joined on this jazz festival cruise by Jim Galloway, Joe Ascione, Nicki Parrott, Randy Sandke, John Allred, Ken Peplowski, Johnny Varoo, and Eddie Erickson for an exciting tribute to mainstream jazz about the Seven Seas Navigator."

 

I would venture to guess that means that much of the standard musical entertainment will feature jazz, rather than string quartets or other types of music. I don't know if it would change the stage shows, nor do I know about workshops/lectures etc, so I too am interested in hearing from others who've experienced "Spotlight" cruises.

 

LeeAnne

[Joanandjoe]

Our cruise definitely was NOT listed as a spotlight cruise in the 2005 brochure. Spotlight popped up only in the past few days.

[PaulaJK]

Our Voyager trip to Baltic last summer was an 'antique' show.

They had 2 antique pros on board who gave a few lectures

and led explorations in various ports.

 

Re: Jazz.......did that on Crystal, not rssc. They had a jazz

lecturer plus two jazz [different styles, one w. singer] groups.

It was delightful because each group played each day in

addition to the regular shows. One usally played in the evening,

in Palm Court and thus was an alternative activity. The other

group played at tea time [really a treat!] or as another

'extra' somewhere in the schedule. Enjoy.

[Joanandjoe]

A jazz cruise just ended. If anyone was on that cruise, please fill us in on the details. Thanks.

[cotto22]

Our Voyager cruise was a spotlight on Sinatra and featured a very talented performer named Steve Lippia with the Cary Richards orchestra who sang many of Sinatra's hits, as wells as others with the Sinatra sound. These performances (three I believe) were in addition to the large scale show type presentations that the ensemble cast performed, as well as the small venue guitar and piano bar type entertainments that we enjoyed.

There were no workshops or presentations on Sinatra (not a bad idea though!). I am looking forward to a specific answer to your request on the jazz spotlight report.

[curiouscruiser]

We were just on a spotlight on jazz cruise to Bermuda. I don't recall ever seeing that information prior to getting on board. The previous poster is right - the entertainment had more jazz options, and there were lots of jazz lovers on board. From the comments I heard from those folks, when the mega-lines do a "jazz" cruise it changes the whole complexion of the cruise. Not so with Radisson - the entertainment leads more to jazz but it is in no way overwhelming. I like jazz and liked the events I attended. It also brought an interesting mix of people on board, and though we were still some of the youngest folks on the cruise the demographic (in my opinion) was a bit younger than I am accustomed to. It was interesting - some of the people we met knew each other only from taking jazz cruises and met up at least once a year on a cruise even though they didn't plan it that way. James Moody was one of the artists featured. We really enjoyed the cruise. If you have any questions I'd be happy to provide more info.