Piano Bar entertainers - who is your favorite?

[Hlitner]

Perry Grant

 

Perry has not worked on HAL for years. Lately he is to be found on the Royal Princess and some Crystal cruises. We would not even call Perry a piano bar player as he is quite unique. Like Barry from Boston, Perry is one of those entertainers that folks either seem to love or dislike. Some might say he is an acquired taste.

 

Hank

[EllenSunny1]

Any idea who will be on the Maasdam August 18?

 

 

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[mamaofami]

My favorite WAS Jimmy Maddox. [emoji22]

 

 

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Sheila, do you remember when we were on the Maasdam and Marc Farris was at the Piano Bar? After the show, we would sit around and wait for him to start and we sang with him till he closed up. He's now with Crystal Cruise Line. Hal's loss.

[Ashdale]

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[taxmantoo]

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Thank you for sharing that :confused:

[dkramer]

Great news! Jimmy Maddox is coming out of retirement for the 2019 Grand World Voyage. That was all we needed to hear. We are booked for the entire cruise! Cabins are still available. Grab 'em while you can.

[sjde]

Wow-HAL seems to have a tradition of great piano bar musicians. I have only had the pleasure of listening to Stryker on the Maasdam 8 years ago . He made the cruise for us.

 

We also loved Perry Grant on the Celebrity Solstice  10 years ago. 

 

Do all lines have piano bars?

[oakridger]

46 minutes ago, sjde said:

Do all lines have piano bars?

 

Unfortunately HAL doesn't have piano bars any more.  Crystal has/had piano players in a bar but it's not a piano bar per se.

 

~Nancy

Edited March 2, 2021 by oakridger
Added info

[Hlitner]

12 hours ago, sjde said:

Wow-HAL seems to have a tradition of great piano bar musicians. I have only had the pleasure of listening to Stryker on the Maasdam 8 years ago . He made the cruise for us.

 

We also loved Perry Grant on the Celebrity Solstice  10 years ago. 

 

Do all lines have piano bars?

DW and I are piano bar junkies and can never get enough of a decent piano bar venue with a decent entertainer.  For decades, HAL has piano bars on most (if not all) their vessels and had many excellent piano entertainers.  For whatever reason ( I would call it complete incompetence by management) they eliminated piano bars from their vessels in the few years leading up to the Covid shut down.

 

Regarding other lines it can sometimes vary by ship.  But Princess still has piano bar venues on most of their ships (usually called Crooners).  I am not going to name any other line because nobody knows what will exist once cruise lines resume operations post COVID.  

 

As to Perry Grant ("and what kind of counters do you have in your kitchen?") it is hard to know what will happen to him post COVID.  The last I heard he was still working on some Celebrity cruises and had done some RCI cruises in 2019.  But Perry had also been doing some shows in the large theaters and trying to expand his horizons to a Guest Entertainer as opposed to a piano bar entertainer.  I think Perry is unique and needs to stick with smaller venues where he can have personal interaction with his fans.   But here is the Perry Grand "question of the year."   "How old is Perry Grant?"   LOL.

 

Hank

 

Hank

[rotjeknor]

On 3/2/2016 at 1:52 AM, JPH814 said:

In August, we were on the Oosterdam and had the pleasure of spending many evenings with Jimmy Maddox. I thought he was wonderful and could not imagine a better piano bar entertainer.

 

Until we were on the Zuiderdam in January and we met Stryker. My god, what a talent. Incredible musician, singer and entertainer.

 

So now we have another cruise booked on the Oosterdam, in February of 2017. I have no idea who it will be in the piano bar. I can only hope it will be as good as either of these two.

 

which got me to thinking...

 

Who is you favorite piano bar entertainer and why??

Dan from Louisiana !! He was on our Baltic cruise on the Rotterdam and Trans Pacific on the Volendam.

Absolutely the best we had.Nice , friendly interaction with crowd. Stryker by far the most annoying.

[rkacruiser]

6 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I think Perry is unique and needs to stick with smaller venues where he can have personal interaction with his fans. 

 

I agree.  The sets that I enjoyed the most was when he was performing in the Piano Bars of the R Class ships.  When I sailed on Celebrity Eclipse and his venue was in their Sky Lounge, he maintained "personal interaction" with his audience, particularly those close to where he was performing.  Sitting at the bar--some distance away--"not quite the same vibe" did I receive.  

 

6 hours ago, Hlitner said:

For whatever reason ( I would call it complete incompetence by management) they eliminated piano bars from their vessels in the few years leading up to the Covid shut down.

 

No disagreement from me with your statement.  I have thought during all of the changes that we have experienced pre-Covid, most--if not all--were made by "Executives" who had never taken a HAL cruise.  Sadly, I think, a year or so prior to Covid, some of these individuals were replaced by Executives who were in the process of returning our cruise experience to--or close to--what we expect.

 

When the -Dam ships once again return to sailing, I wonder what the onboard experience will be?  Have these Executives been RIF'd?  Resigned?  

 

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by rkacruiser

[Hlitner]

43 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I agree.  The sets that I enjoyed the most was when he was performing in the Piano Bars of the R Class ships.  When I sailed on Celebrity Eclipse and his venue was in their Sky Lounge, he maintained "personal interaction" with his audience, particularly those close to where he was performing.  Sitting at the bar--some distance away--"not quite the same vibe" did I receive.  

 

 

No disagreement from me with your statement.  I have thought during all of the changes that we have experienced pre-Covid, most--if not all--were made by "Executives" who had never taken a HAL cruise.  Sadly, I think, a year or so prior to Covid, some of these individuals were replaced by Executives who were in the process of returning our cruise experience to--or close to--what we expect.

 

When the -Dam ships once again return to sailing, I wonder what the onboard experience will be?  Have these Executives been RIF'd?  Resigned?  

 

 

Some of our best times on long HAL cruises were the many nights we spent hanging out in the piano bar (long after most were in bed).  We made many friends in the piano bars including one lady who is still a good friend and lives about 2 miles from our current home in Puerto Vallarta.   I do understand that piano bars are not for everyone, but we always gravitate to those venues on both ships and land.  One good benefit of cruising on HAL was that their piano bars were generally staffed with excellent entertainers.   

 

Hank

[sjde]

Hank, Google says Perry Grant is 58. 

[JeffElizabeth]

On 6/12/2018 at 5:23 PM, kazu said:

 

Steve from Halifax was on last week and was a blast.

 

Not sure if he will still be on in September or back but everyone enjoyed him. He's new to the HAL ships I believe and quite talented.

We loved Stevie. I hope Holland will bring him back. We were never a piano bar fan before him. (Fingers crossed) He would pack the Crow's Nest on the Prinsendam.  

Edited March 7, 2021 by JeffElizabeth

[Sunriseatsea]

I will always remember several long voyages with Debbie Bacon years ago. Special lady, special memories! Hoping she is well and happy.
 

[T8NCruise]

On 8/4/2018 at 1:13 PM, dkramer said:

Great news! Jimmy Maddox is coming out of retirement for the 2019 Grand World Voyage. That was all we needed to hear. We are booked for the entire cruise! Cabins are still available. Grab 'em while you can.

Jimmy Maddox was my favourite too, great entertainer - but some sour grapes here, I much preferred when he played on his own, before his now wife joined him.  She's nice but he was way better as a solo performer!

[RuthC]

It no longer seems to matter who our favorite Piano Bar players were. HAL got rid of all the Piano Bars and Piano Lounges on all their ships. It's now either Billboard on Board, or find something else to do. 
Sad. 😔

[sjde]

So what lines still have piano bars? I think Princess has Crooners. 

[rkacruiser]

35 minutes ago, sjde said:

So what lines still have piano bars? I think Princess has Crooners. 

 

They did on Coral Princess during the Summer, 2019.  Yet, it did not have the "intimate" feeling that HAL's true Piano Bars had.  (I am thinking of the venues such as were on the R Class ships and Eurodam.  It was on Eurodam where I met Diane Fast (now Slagle--thanks RuthC for the information).