The End of Lincoln Center

[Brentt_M]

This is pretty much how Rolling Stones Rock Room ended each night on my last cruise...

 

[Sea42]

6 hours ago, Brentt_M said:

This is pretty much how Rolling Stones Rock Room ended each night on my last cruise...

 

 

Looks like a younger group is enjoying the show. It maybe that some people's view of HAL's passengers are a bit outdated. 

[Colorado Klutch]

On 1/7/2023 at 11:20 AM, Infi said:

If BB King contract is expiring, that will be another big loss for HAL as that venue must be a huge moneymaker.

 

The article says the BB King Blues Club will remain on the Pinnacle class ships. 

[Colorado Klutch]

I'm in my mid-50s and I like anything outside of Gangsta rap. (I don't hate it. It's just not something I enjoy.)

As long as the performers are talented and work to put on a good show, I'm going to enjoy it. Although I really am looking forward to seeing the string quartet on my upcoming Alaska cruise. Now it looks like they may not be there. 

[david,Mississauga]

On 1/7/2023 at 12:46 PM, lazey1 said:

I for one am delighted to find out that HAL will be eliminating Lincoln Center Stage or limiting it to a rotating headliner act. Classical music is not enjoyed by everyone and it seems like for years that Lincoln Center Stage has been devoted to funerary music. Perhaps once a cruise I could manage to sit through one of their shows. PS, I am 81 years old, definitely not one of the younger generations.

 

Attendance at classical concerts is not mandatory. Of course classical music is not enjoyed by everyone, but is there something wrong about providing varied entertainment for all tastes? Cunard does that well.

 

A few years ago we had a cruise aboard the Noordam. The only entertainment that was to our taste was the violin/piano duet. They played an hour a day. That was it. There was no shortage of over-amplified blues/pop/rock. I have always hated that; it's not an age thing. You could hear the racket a hundred metres away from its source. There were rumours of a pianist but the room where he or she was supposedly playing was always either locked or closed for a private group function.  

[JennysUncle]

A lot of angst could have been avoided if the HAL management had announced what was coming at the same time that they announced what was going.  Surely they know ??

 

Perhaps nothing is changing but the names.  Certainly Rolling Stone Magazine is not assembling the bands in the RS Rock Room, and it is unlikely that Lincoln Center in NYC is providing the string quartets, or BB King sending the blues groups.  They are coming from agencies, and HAL is paying a licensing fee for the names - which could be substantial.

 

Going back to Adagio, Neptunes, and HALcats labelling would save money, probably without much changing the experience.

[HALcruiser2001]

1 hour ago, Colorado Klutch said:

I'm in my mid-50s and I like anything outside of Gangsta rap. (I don't hate it. It's just not something I enjoy.)

As long as the performers are talented and work to put on a good show, I'm going to enjoy it. Although I really am looking forward to seeing the string quartet on my upcoming Alaska cruise. Now it looks like they may not be there. 

Don't jump to conclusions, is all I have to say..  Other posts here have said that the venue name could change, but they keep the LCS "idea".

Time will tell.  I think it would be a mistake to leave this musical genre completely, but that is just me.

[3rdGenCunarder]

41 minutes ago, JennysUncle said:

A lot of angst could have been avoided if the HAL management had announced what was coming at the same time that they announced what was going.  Surely they know ??

 

Perhaps nothing is changing but the names.  Certainly Rolling Stone Magazine is not assembling the bands in the RS Rock Room, and it is unlikely that Lincoln Center in NYC is providing the string quartets, or BB King sending the blues groups.  They are coming from agencies, and HAL is paying a licensing fee for the names - which could be substantial.

 

Going back to Adagio, Neptunes, and HALcats labelling would save money, probably without much changing the experience.

 

To answer your question at the top of your post, I hope so. I wonder if the info about LC, BBK, etc going away was a leak they didn't anticipate, so they didn't have an announcement ready. IIRC, the LC musicians were vetted by LC or Julliard, at least at first. The first cruise I was on that had LC, there was also a piano player in one of the lounges. This guy was awful, so he couldn't have passed the same audition as the pianist in LC. 

 

HAL's desire to shore up their name by attaching themselves to brand names hasn't been limited to music. America's Test Kitchen came on in place of the Culinary Center. A lecture on 800 ways to cook eggs is NOT as good as a proper cooking class. When people complained about the ATK poor choices of content, they were told ATK controlled what was presented. HAL didn't care. Bringing on a canned program was a lot easier than organizing something themselves. 

[HALcruiser2001]

2 hours ago, Sea42 said:

Looks like a younger group is enjoying the show. It maybe that some people's view of HAL's passengers are a bit outdated. 

And in other videos posted here, there are 70 and 80 year old's on the stage as well.

[Hlitner]

43 minutes ago, bdd123 said:

Don't jump to conclusions, is all I have to say..  Other posts here have said that the venue name could change, but they keep the LCS "idea".

Time will tell.  I think it would be a mistake to leave this musical genre completely, but that is just me.

I continue to think that HAL needs to actually expand their live music offerings in order to better attract  younger (on HAL that would be under 80) cruisers.  But their approach of simply hiring musicians, tossing them together, and expecting them to somehow pump out quality music is not generally going to bear fruit.  They need to move back to properly audition and hire real bands/groups that have experience working together.  Consider that folks do not go to concerts to hear "pick up" bands, they go to hear established groups.  Most resorts and other land based venues audition and hire real bands, not just a group of musicians who do not even know each other's names much less how to work with each other.

 

When HAL first started their BB King concept I thought, "what a fantastic idea" not to mention I really enjoy BB King music.  But when I heard a couple of the BB King groups, they hardly played any BB King music.  I had a long conversation with the leader of one of the BB King groups and he told me their group had been thrown together (shortly before coming on the ship) and managed to develop a small repertoire (of under 100 works) which hardly included any BB King music.  There are plenty of excellent bands/groups always looking for work and other cruise lines (such as MSC) hire real bands...not just individual musicians.

 

When we have cruised on Celebrity, there will be groups that have worked together for years...and it shows.  On Princess, we had an amazing 4 piece jazz group (from Brazil) who had been together for over 15 years!  They were amazing and had an amazing knowledge of the works of Antonio Jobeam (think,,,"Girl from Ipanema").  On Celebrity we had a rock oriented duo from Serbia that had such an expansive repertoire I did not hear them repeat a single number over a 2 week cruise.  Go on HAL and the groups will often play the same music night after night because "pick up" groups do not have the time or experience (together) to develop as a true band.

 

I think the entertainment problems of HAL start and end in Seattle where somebody needs to get a large broom and sweep away the "suits" who are responsible for hiring entertainers.  Just consider that on Seabourn, where they still have real shows, somebody had the smarts to hire Belinda King Creative Productions (a decent England based entertainment company) to staff, hire, audition, skilled entertainers who actually know how to perform.  That company also develops shows (some in conjunction with Sir Tim Rice) for Seabourn and even develops some shows/entertainers for Princess.  But it seems like HAL gets the short end of the stick when it comes to entertainers.  

 

Hank

[HALcruiser2001]

18 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I continue to think that HAL needs to actually expand their live music offerings in order to better attract  younger (on HAL that would be under 80) cruisers.  But their approach of simply hiring musicians, tossing them together, and expecting them to somehow pump out quality music is not generally going to bear fruit.  They need to move back to properly audition and hire real bands/groups that have experience working together.  Consider that folks do not go to concerts to hear "pick up" bands, they go to hear established groups.  Most resorts and other land based venues audition and hire real bands, not just a group of musicians who do not even know each other's names much less how to work with each other.

 

When HAL first started their BB King concept I thought, "what a fantastic idea" not to mention I really enjoy BB King music.  But when I heard a couple of the BB King groups, they hardly played any BB King music.  I had a long conversation with the leader of one of the BB King groups and he told me their group had been thrown together (shortly before coming on the ship) and managed to develop a small repertoire (of under 100 works) which hardly included any BB King music.  There are plenty of excellent bands/groups always looking for work and other cruise lines (such as MSC) hire real bands...not just individual musicians.

 

When we have cruised on Celebrity, there will be groups that have worked together for years...and it shows.  On Princess, we had an amazing 4 piece jazz group (from Brazil) who had been together for over 15 years!  They were amazing and had an amazing knowledge of the works of Antonio Jobeam (think,,,"Girl from Ipanema").  On Celebrity we had a rock oriented duo from Serbia that had such an expansive repertoire I did not hear them repeat a single number over a 2 week cruise.  Go on HAL and the groups will often play the same music night after night because "pick up" groups do not have the time or experience (together) to develop as a true band.

 

I think the entertainment problems of HAL start and end in Seattle where somebody needs to get a large broom and sweep away the "suits" who are responsible for hiring entertainers.  Just consider that on Seabourn, where they still have real shows, somebody had the smarts to hire Belinda King Creative Productions (a decent England based entertainment company) to staff, hire, audition, skilled entertainers who actually know how to perform.  That company also develops shows (some in conjunction with Sir Tim Rice) for Seabourn and even develops some shows/entertainers for Princess.  But it seems like HAL gets the short end of the stick when it comes to entertainers.  

 

Hank

That is what you get when you are forced into a certain brand like endorsements form LCS, BBK, RS.
 

Hopefully the entertainment director got a good discount from BBK as not playing BBK or not being able to cover "classic soul and rock & roll" would be an absolute requirement for a BBK All-Star Band..

We should let HAL know about this stuff.  Here is HAL's "billing".

" Direct from Beale Street in Memphis, B.B. King’s All-Star Band cooks up a rich southern heritage of classic soul and rock & roll to get you dancing."
 

[3rdGenCunarder]

Hank, Belinda King would be a great choice. They used to be on Cunard and the shows were excellent. Then they parted ways--I was told that Belinda King had too many clients with the expansion of some other lines, so they had to cut back on contracts. Cunard then got "Broadway Bound," which had terrible shows. I don't think it was the performers, it was bad decisions on show design. I don't know who Cunard has now, but their shows have improved again. Their house bands play for dancing and to back guest performers. Plus, small subsets appear as a jazz combo or solo performances, like the pianist who plays during lunchtime in one of the lounges, or the guitarist who played solo at tea one day--lots of Jobim, which sounds great on solo guitar. 

 

I've frequently heard the complaint that the BBKing band doesn't play much BBKing. On one cruise, they did a show in the main showroom. It was like listening to a BBK jam session. The musicians were obviously enjoying doing it.  I don't know why they took that show out of rotation when they still have the BBK musicians onboard.

[mikebsxm]

The music style performed in Lincoln Center Stage does not lend itself to having waiters moving through the chair rows, asking for drink orders.   Moving the Lincoln Center Stage performances to the World Stage will allow people to flag down a waiter and order without disturbing others listening to the performance.  As we have seen with HAL in other venues, every square foot must generate enough revenue to justify its existence.  A quiet room with a string quartet playing just doesn't rack up enough drink orders.

[leerathje]

21 hours ago, Mary229 said:

For someone who has heard great jazz in person I can assuredly say it is far better to listen to the streaming version of great jazz than listen to BB King lounge on HAL 

 

Of course, because BB King is a "blues" lounge, not a "jazz" lounge.

 

L.

 

[scooter6139]

Wife and I were really looking forward to the Lincoln center for our Alaskan Cruise as it was something different.  

[MaisonRose]

On 1/7/2023 at 12:46 PM, lazey1 said:

I for one am delighted to find out that HAL will be eliminating Lincoln Center Stage or limiting it to a rotating headliner act. Classical music is not enjoyed by everyone and it seems like for years that Lincoln Center Stage has been devoted to funerary music. Perhaps once a cruise I could manage to sit through one of their shows. PS, I am 81 years old, definitely not one of the younger generations.

My experience with Lincoln Center stage is that it is ALWAYS hard to find a seat. I suspect this is about $ (what isn’t) so with prices shooting up almost everywhere, Lincoln Center/Juilliard priced itself out of the market.

Im curious to hear how many loved the pre dinner concerts. Those students were fantastic, IMHO.

[LMaxwell]

15 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I continue to think that HAL needs to actually expand their live music offerings in order to better attract  younger (on HAL that would be under 80) cruisers.  But their approach of simply hiring musicians, tossing them together, and expecting them to somehow pump out quality music is not generally going to bear fruit.  They need to move back to properly audition and hire real bands/groups that have experience working together.  Consider that folks do not go to concerts to hear "pick up" bands, they go to hear established groups.  Most resorts and other land based venues audition and hire real bands, not just a group of musicians who do not even know each other's names much less how to work with each other.

 

When HAL first started their BB King concept I thought, "what a fantastic idea" not to mention I really enjoy BB King music.  But when I heard a couple of the BB King groups, they hardly played any BB King music.  I had a long conversation with the leader of one of the BB King groups and he told me their group had been thrown together (shortly before coming on the ship) and managed to develop a small repertoire (of under 100 works) which hardly included any BB King music.  There are plenty of excellent bands/groups always looking for work and other cruise lines (such as MSC) hire real bands...not just individual musicians.

 

When we have cruised on Celebrity, there will be groups that have worked together for years...and it shows.  On Princess, we had an amazing 4 piece jazz group (from Brazil) who had been together for over 15 years!  They were amazing and had an amazing knowledge of the works of Antonio Jobeam (think,,,"Girl from Ipanema").  On Celebrity we had a rock oriented duo from Serbia that had such an expansive repertoire I did not hear them repeat a single number over a 2 week cruise.  Go on HAL and the groups will often play the same music night after night because "pick up" groups do not have the time or experience (together) to develop as a true band.

 

I think the entertainment problems of HAL start and end in Seattle where somebody needs to get a large broom and sweep away the "suits" who are responsible for hiring entertainers.  Just consider that on Seabourn, where they still have real shows, somebody had the smarts to hire Belinda King Creative Productions (a decent England based entertainment company) to staff, hire, audition, skilled entertainers who actually know how to perform.  That company also develops shows (some in conjunction with Sir Tim Rice) for Seabourn and even develops some shows/entertainers for Princess.  But it seems like HAL gets the short end of the stick when it comes to entertainers.  

 

Hank

 

In my 40's.  There's *zero* music anywhere outside of music walk in the evening and a handful of LCS on random sea day afternoons.  Pool deck, zero. Deck party, zero none, they don't do them. Atrium or Ocean Bar before dinner? Silence.  

 

And when they do play music it is the same top 20 set over and over and over and over.  Talent only goes so far when you hear the same song repeated day after day.  

 

I have no idea what they plan to do for entertainment, but speculation doesn't improve anything.  All we know are the cutbacks that have been announced. I'd love to see more live music, more VARIETY, throughout the day - and they truly no longer can rely on music to carry the weight of the entertainment. Hopefully more mainstage shows, musical or not. 

[Sue from Canada]

On 1/7/2023 at 12:41 PM, REOVA said:

Why not have both better enrichment programs and live performance?

 

So I guess now the BBC movies will have recorded tracks (like the dance and singers now have since they did away with the HAL band). Next thing they'll just have digital music box to sit and listen to. But then they can sell tokens to drop in and select your song from the digital Jukebox. 🤔 

 

When they talked about cuts in 2019 it was mentioned the onboard entertainers and crew (band, singers, etc) would open cabins they could sell and also switch to cheaper third party entertainment agency. 

They could always bring back the passenger talent shows.  I enjoyed them.

 

[HALcruiser2001]

6 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

 

In my 40's.  There's *zero* music anywhere outside of music walk in the evening and a handful of LCS on random sea day afternoons.  Pool deck, zero. Deck party, zero none, they don't do them. Atrium or Ocean Bar before dinner? Silence.  

 

And when they do play music it is the same top 20 set over and over and over and over.  Talent only goes so far when you hear the same song repeated day after day.  

 

I have no idea what they plan to do for entertainment, but speculation doesn't improve anything.  All we know are the cutbacks that have been announced. I'd love to see more live music, more VARIETY, throughout the day - and they truly no longer can rely on music to carry the weight of the entertainment. Hopefully more mainstage shows, musical or not. 

That really kind of sucks.  Especially no live must ever at the pool and smaller bars.

[richstowe]

Our recent Nieuw Amsterdam cruise was enjoyable but cut-backs were apparent . On the positive , two things really stood out. The LCS quintet were excellent with multiple concerts playing a variety of musical genres . They also backed the BBC Earth presentation .The other highlight were the B B King All-Stars . Shockingly talented both with and without vocalists . 

Amusingly (?) these were the two entertainment items I complimented the most on the HAL feedback . 😑

Edited January 10, 2023 by richstowe

[halgator]

I am dumfounded that Lincoln Stage is going away, its a "not to be missed" part of the entertainment and went a long way to set HAL a stop above the pedestrian cruise ships.  I've told so many about it over the years and was looking forward to introducing our son and family to this part of the experience in August. its very apparent to see the cut backs since we've been cruising 1998 with Holland

SHAME ON YOU HAL

[Ipeeinthepools]

8 hours ago, bdd123 said:

That really kind of sucks.  Especially no live must ever at the pool and smaller bars.

 

It's a shame that this is the situation.  Come on HAL, the pools should be one of the most desirable places on the ship.

[HALcruiser2001]

On 1/7/2023 at 10:20 AM, foodsvcmgr said:

HAL’s death by 1000 cuts continues as Lincoln Center Stage will be eliminated later this year as a regular quartet on each ship and will now be a rotating headliner act that moves from ship to ship.

Thus you may or most likely will not encounter it on your particular sailing.

Source - Points Guy.

Is the points guy the definitive HAL  spokesman?

[foodsvcmgr]

No but was reporting what HAL told him, he didn’t imagine it.

[AFNavigator]

On 1/10/2023 at 1:28 AM, Sue from Canada said:

They could always bring back the passenger talent shows.  I enjoyed them.

 

Yeah, and other than some minor extra planning or setup work, these are virtually no cost agenda fillers for the cruise line.  I saw a vid where Royal Carib staff was giving out cruise line pens, notepads, stickers, etc., trinkets as karaoke competition prizes.