Thoughts on small scale karaoke rooms

[kgelner]

In the recent audio related announcements from Virgin, they talked about having a number of small private karaoke rooms:

"The ship will offer another music forward space called, The Groupie, a modernist take on Japanese-style karaoke rooms. These futuristic-style, full-color personal pods were designed by Academy Award-nominated film director Roman Coppola, and challenge the notion of doing Karaoke in front of a room of strangers. Instead, they are designed as intimate, curved, sound zones perfect for those looking to share their vocal talents and dance moves with only the company of invited guests."

 

These sounds pretty cool, but I was surprised at them having private rooms for this - on the last ship my wife and I were on, they had a fairly large karaoke bar anyone could drop into that seemed to be pretty heavily attended each night.

 

Some people would be sailing in groups, but I think most would not be so it surprised me a bit there'd be such focus on a small private space like this that was meant for a small group.

 

Maybe the thought is that people will naturally form small groups on board and go do this for fun, I could see that as I do know people make friends on cruises they hang out with.

 

Also my wife pointed out to me, maybe one of the larger dual use spaces would in fact be converted for karaoke use at times so people could just go enjoy a larger group of singers some nights.  I guess natural groups might splinter off from there.

 

Basically, I just thought it was a really interesting hint at something Virgin was trying to encourage for those cruising with them.

 

[aimee0715]

We took a cruise on NCL Jewel several years ago. They had a few rooms in one of the lounges that had Karaoke machines and game consoles that sound similar to this.  You could sign up for them for an hour.  They were pretty busy. 

[LandlockedCruiser01]

This sounds like something called a "karaoke box" (term may vary).  I get that it appeals to some people, like someone with stage fright, but in my opinion, it kills the point of karaoke.  Which is putting on a show for a roomful of new people, and seeing how good of response you get.  (There's a world of difference between polite applause and enthusiastic applause.)  Many times "on land", I met new friends on a karaoke night in a bar.  Which brings me to another point: I've only cruised solo, so a karaoke box wouldn't fit my needs at all, unless I meet people and get an invitation to join them.

[hotsauce126]

A lot of Japanese restaurants in the US have them. They're fun with small groups because a lot of people who don't have the guts to do it in front of strangers will do it in those rooms. In big rooms everybody is usually just waiting for somebody they know to go up anyway

Edited December 2, 2019 by hotsauce126