Offer from O for an oversold cruise

[pinotlover]

7 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

Though suddenly I'm picturing myself next month on Sirena in the E. Caribbean by the pool listening to a medley of songs that includes Nobody's Fault but Mine, Back in Black, Enter Sandman & Come Out & Play/Keep 'Em Separated! Being 59 I'm definitely a child of hard rock & roll.

A dose of reality this afternoon at our repeater’s party. For our cruise about 355 were carrying over from earlier segments. About 300 boarded with us making our cruise about 655 passengers. 520 of us are Oceania repeaters or right at 80%, the highest of any cruise I’ve been on. There are so many repeaters that three (3) repeater receptions are planned. 
 

Sitting there today with about a third of those repeaters , demographically at age 71, we were in the bottom 3-4% of attendees. Perry Como and the Rat Pack were clearly in the majorities wheel house. They were playing Tommy Dorsey and other Big Band music after the speakers were done! Walking out, a fellow younger (?) repeater asked me “ ever get the feeling we’re not in Oceania’s concentrated recruitment group?” My wife response was “ the next 3-5 years are going to take out a third to a half of that room.  If they don’t recalibrate soon, they’ll be running people off. “
 

Time will Tell! Currently, the evidence clearly put our young bottoms in the younger crowd.

[MEFIowa]

16 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

...Walking out, a fellow younger (?) repeater asked me “ ever get the feeling we’re not in Oceania’s concentrated recruitment group?” My wife response was “ the next 3-5 years are going to take out a third to a half of that room.  If they don’t recalibrate soon, they’ll be running people off. “ Time will Tell! Currently, the evidence clearly put our young bottoms in the younger crowd.

Though we did our first O cruise on Riviera in 12/21 and we booked the upcoming Caribbean Sirena cruise while on her. Then booked 2 cruises in the Med for 2023. And a Baltic for 2024. So that puts me to age 61. Who knows, by the time 2025 rolls around the ship band will be playing all of AC/DC's Back in Back album some night? And I'll have a lighter out held high. Or at least I can hope.

 

(I was blessed to see the Rolling Stones play in 1981 and The Who in 1982. Still have my ticket stubs. The Who sponsored by Schlitz. $16.50 GA plus 50 cents tax. Plus so many more bands back in that era from Cheap Trick to The Grateful Dead and Fleetwood Mac.)

Edited October 22, 2022 by MEFIowa

[hawkesbaynz]

My father would have loved that music! He would be 93 if he was still alive! I thought that Glenn Miller music was a bit old for him as he was 14 when the poor chap died. 
 

Offerings from AC/DC… could do that. Saw the original line up in the 70s a couple of times before I got into New Wave and Punk like the majority of my age group. 

 

My wife (62) is concerned that she will be too young for O. She will be pretty miffed if the food is not what she anticipated. Fortunately she does not read social media and I am not telling her.

[pinotlover]

They haven’t made it to 3 Dog Night or the Grass Roots yet. Afraid some of the more modern (70s) Groups are probably a decade away. However, one lady piped in a said they were playing Anne Murray and Olivia Newton John on the pool deck a couple days back. Progress is being made! 😂

[DrHemlock]

FWIW: Somebody on Riviera is playing with the restaurant mix-tapes.  As we walked into Terrace Cafe for breakfast a couple of mornings ago, the muzak was playing the long, weird instrumental break in the middle of Led Zep's "Whole Lotta Love."  That was different -- and right up our alley -- though they cut away to 50s pop as soon as the vocals resumed.  Maybe somebody didn't pay enough royalties for the entire song?

[DrHemlock]

On 10/22/2022 at 5:53 AM, pinotlover said:

Went to the GDR today for lunch and ordered the veal piccata. I got veal in a ( tasteless) brown gravy. It was a mostly forgettable meal, but I complained to the head waiter that it wasn’t what I ordered, and if one checked the menu, there is no veal with brown gravy on it. 

Can't resist adding this coda to pinotlover's story.  On Riviera's GDR menu tonight is "Veal Piccata Marsala."  A bit like saying "pasta bolognese al pesto," isn't it?  

 

If the sauce really does contain white wine and lemon and capers and mushrooms and Marsala and parsley, then perhaps despite being brown in color and gravy-like in consistency, it may not qualify as "tasteless."  While "tasty," on the other hand, could be an entirely different matter.  (Think I'll skip it.)

[LHT28]

5 hours ago, hawkesbaynz said:

My father would have loved that music! He would be 93 if he was still alive! I thought that Glenn Miller music was a bit old for him as he was 14 when the poor chap died. 
 

Offerings from AC/DC… could do that. Saw the original line up in the 70s a couple of times before I got into New Wave and Punk like the majority of my age group. 

 

My wife (62) is concerned that she will be too young for O. She will be pretty miffed if the food is not what she anticipated. Fortunately she does not read social media and I am not telling her.

Just lower  your expectations  then you will not  need to be miffed

Yes they should play  AC/DC  & other heavy metal, music  to change the vibe   when relaxing by the pool 🙄

Maybe a  few disco tune & throw in some rap during tea time

[LHT28]

5 hours ago, pinotlover said:

They haven’t made it to 3 Dog Night or the Grass Roots yet. Afraid some of the more modern (70s) Groups are probably a decade away. However, one lady piped in a said they were playing Anne Murray and Olivia Newton John on the pool deck a couple days back. Progress is being made! 😂

OMG  Anne Murray 🤑

[susiesan]

Too bad that Oceania is taking over the reputation from Holland America as the old fogey's favorite cruise line🤭. It would be nice if they could move things up a notch to cater to the boomer generation, we've got a few years to go before we start dying off.

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by susiesan

[PhD-iva]

5 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Just lower  your expectations  then you will not  need to be miffed

Yes they should play  AC/DC  & other heavy metal, music  to change the vibe   when relaxing by the pool 🙄

Maybe a  few disco tune & throw in some rap during tea time

NO RAP! NO RAP!

[shepherd really]

1 minute ago, PhD-iva said:

NO RAP! NO RAP!

Not even if the entertainment team performed Hamilton?  

[MEFIowa]

5 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Maybe a  few disco tunes...

While I'm not a fan of that genre, having survived it by way of the punks, I will listen to Disco Inferno by The Trammps all day long, but it has to be the LONG version:

 

""Disco Inferno" gained much greater recognition when the nearly 11 minute album version was included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. Re-released by Atlantic Records, the track peaked at number 11 in the U.S. during the spring of 1978, becoming the Trammps' biggest and most-recognized single."

 

And I have a dream... I'd hear "Holiday in Cambodia" (1980) by the DKs some day on one of the O ships!

Edited October 23, 2022 by MEFIowa

[ORV]

Interesting thought on the music. I have heard all types of canned music on the pool deck, but they generally have it so low you can't hear it. The most common style seems to be 70's Singer Songwriter. As another poster mentioned, occasionally they'll get on the wrong channel as I've heard Led Zeppelin, Cream, Lynyrd Skynrd, etc, among others. One thing I've never heard is country, but you never know. 

 

I see their choices more about what they perceive their customers taste is as opposed to age, although at times it goes hand in hand. Lots of people love the string quartets, not my cup of tea. 

[lj77346]

We started cruising in the early 1980's and remember that music from the 40's and 50's was being featured on the ships.  We used to think - some of the people on this cruise are really old.

 

Now it's the 2020's, we're in our 70's and when younger cruisers see us, they're probably thinking - that couple is really old.  However, 40 years since we started cruising and we're still listening to music from the 1950's.  It sure would be nice if the music choices at  least moved to the 60's and 70's.  It looks like the driving force behind developing new shows for Oceania is inertia.

[emd138]

2 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

NO RAP! NO RAP!

On our sail away from Manhattan, they played Jay Z's Empire State of Mind....I loved it, but it was NOT a popular choice, hahaha!  We are in our 40's, so definitely in the minority age-wise.  We love older music, too, though!

[janecambridge]

8 hours ago, emd138 said:

On our sail away from Manhattan, they played Jay Z's Empire State of Mind....I loved it, but it was NOT a popular choice, hahaha!  We are in our 40's, so definitely in the minority age-wise.  We love older music, too, though!

That is more like it. We  hardly  ever go to the ‘shows’ due to music choice. Why can’t they play more modern music. I would hate heavy metal but ballads by more modern artists, James May, Lewis Capaldi, Ed Sheeran, George Ezra,etc would at least be a refreshing change. I’m early 60s,.

[ToxM]

On Sirena and Marina this spring I heard a very very nice (what I thought was) equivalent to a Yacht Rock Spotify channel. 

 

Added in a couple of country songs for good measure as well (nothing not mainstream).

 

It was a good mix, and I enjoyed it.  

[pinotlover]

Enrichment speaker was at 09:30 this morning, and I arrived at 09:20. Music over the system was all late 40s and 50s. I asked Peter Crowley, our speaker, if O was trying to put us asleep before he even got to begin! 
 

I will add that the last cast show of our first segment was Elvis and early Elton John. Inching forward.

Edited October 26, 2022 by pinotlover

[janecambridge]

Elton John! More modern. 

[sunlover12]

Last night’s opening production show featured music spanning several decades. They started out with Big Band (Glenn Miller), then early 50’s, then transitioned into Queen and Whitney Houston. They’re doing a pretty good job appealing to different age groups. 

I was in the spa this morning and heard a lot of Eagles over the intercom. One of my favorite bands. I’m mid-point baby boomer generation. Haven’t heard any heavy metal or country on the ship, thank goodness. 

[SueMo]

On 10/23/2022 at 3:19 PM, susiesan said:

Too bad that Oceania is taking over the reputation from Holland America as the old fogey's favorite cruise line🤭. It would be nice if they could move things up a notch to cater to the boomer generation, we've got a few years to go before we start dying off.

 

Just got off the "Old Fogey's" Nieuw Statendam on Saturday.  Their Rolling Stone Rock Room had a live band playing classic rock nightly, everything from Stones and the Beatles to ZZ Top, the Eagles, Zeppelin and Bob Seger.  The background music in all of the lounges piped in the same.  My husband and I are both in our 60's and enjoyed the entertainment quite a bit.  HAL knows their clientele well.  

We booked our first O cruise ever this coming March on the Marina, Lima to Miami.  I was looking forward to the great food and wasn't expecting much from the entertainment.  But some of the comments on this board have us worried...

[LHT28]

1 minute ago, SueMo said:

Just got off the "Old Fogey's" Nieuw Statendam on Saturday.  Their Rolling Stone Rock Room had a live band playing classic rock nightly, everything from Stones and the Beatles to ZZ Top, the Eagles, Zeppelin and Bob Seger.  The background music in all of the lounges piped in the same.  My husband and I are both in our 60's and enjoyed the entertainment quite a bit.  HAL knows their clientele well.  

We booked our first O cruise ever this coming March on the Marina, Lima to Miami.  I was looking forward to the great food and wasn't expecting much from the entertainment.  But some of the comments on this board have us worried...

It is  not as dire as some say 😉

IME

 

I found the food on HAL  MEH!!

No cruise line will be perfect  they cannot be all things to all people

[MarkWiltonM]

On 10/26/2022 at 4:46 PM, SueMo said:

Their Rolling Stone Rock Room had a live band playing classic rock nightly, everything from Stones and the Beatles to ZZ Top, the Eagles, Zeppelin and Bob Seger.

 

These are all '60s and '70s groups: I would think music that's 50 to 60 years old also qualifies as "old fogey" material.

[ORV]

40 minutes ago, MarkWiltonM said:

 

These are all '60s and '70s groups: I would think music that's 50 to 60 years old also qualifies as "old fogey" material.

Not necessarily. A lot that music rocks, it may have been done that many years ago, and the musicians, if they're still alive, are in the 70's 80's & 90's, but it's still rock n roll. 

 

Perry Como, Andy Williams, String Quartets etc., more like nursing home music. There is definitely a difference.

 

I won't argue that there are definitely some of us old fogeys out here that do like that music. I think Suemo's point is that most of that music is certainly more upbeat than what you will hear the bands on Oceania playing. 

[BWV]

Some of us who are barely 'fogeys' but love classical music certainly appreciate the string quartets!🙂