Bill Board on Board changing formats

[BarryFromBoston]

3 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Interesting that you mention piano tuning.  It is very common, on turn around days in Florida ports, to see (and hear) local professional piano tuners doing their thing.  It happens to us, a lot, when on Princess where they have a real piano in the atrium.  In December, we were aboard when a tuner was working on the Sky Princess atrium piano and he told me he is busy, every Saturday and Sunday tuning cruise ship pianos.  

 

By the way, you are terrific on any kind of piano/key board :).

 

Hank

Exactly, Hank. So, now say you're cruising the African Coast, and the cruise is 3 months long. Any good tuners in Zembabwe? 

[BarryFromBoston]

3 hours ago, RedIguana said:

Most cruises have a 7 night segment. If he had started "Free Bird" mid-cruise, mot of the passengers would be disembarking before the song was over🤪

Okay, so here's my story about Freebird. I personally am never the guy who gets snippy when people want Piano Man or Sweet Caroline. When I started on RCCL, people walking through the Schooner Bar would yell, "Freebird!". (Google "Why people yell Freebird".) Being a 9 minute song (14 in concert) they're usually just goofing on me. So, I started a running joke that if someone came in and yelled, Freebird", I would say "sure, right after this request". Often, the regulars had been prompted that if someone yelled it, and I agreed to do it "right after this song", if the person tried to leave, the whole room would go, "Ut Ut! Your song is coming!", all while I  was doing the longest, slowest version of "Send In The Clowns" ever. So, if I asked you to choose again, either I'd already done the bit, or the audience immediately turned to me as if to ask, "Are you gonna do the bit?". It assuredly wasn't personal. 

Edited February 5 by BarryFromBoston
Typo

[Hlitner]

27 minutes ago, BarryFromBoston said:

Exactly, Hank. So, now say you're cruising the African Coast, and the cruise is 3 months long. Any good tuners in Zembabwe? 

I wish.  The piano tuner was at Port Everglades (Dec 9).  But we sure do love longer cruises (3 months would be nice).  No future bookings on HAL (we have lost faith in the current product) so, unless you find yourself working on one of the smaller luxury vessels our paths will likely not cross in the near future (our loss).  We spend our winters in Puerto Vallarta, where, until recently, we enjoyed many visits to a piano bar (Incanto).  Unfortunately, that place recently closed and our community is desperately in need of a new piano bar.  We have at least one excellent piano entertainer in town (Mark Hartman) but no good bar venues for him to perform.

 

Hank

[RuthC]

2 hours ago, BarryFromBoston said:

The same outsource is brining in the players, so there are really no losers in this story. 

Except the passengers who would prefer that at least the remaining R-ships in the fleet revert to a real Piano Bar. 
In all my nights closing ships' piano bars over the years, I have had more fun than should be legal. I miss that. 

[cruisemom42]

5 hours ago, montythecat said:

Well, what a sad picture that was. The one with a 

single piano on Rotterdam. I genuinely do hope

HAL have a re-think. This isn’t just a musical issue

but an entertainment one deriving from the 

interaction between the two pianists. I really

can’t believe that HAL’s finances are such that 

this type of penny pinching is necessary.

 

Isn't it just as entertaining (if not more so) to have the pianist interact with the AUDIENCE?

 

That's what a good single-piano format is.

[BarryFromBoston]

3 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Isn't it just as entertaining (if not more so) to have the pianist interact with the AUDIENCE?

 

That's what a good single-piano format is.

I think so. 

[JennysUncle]

Having fun at the piano

[Ipeeinthepools]

32 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Isn't it just as entertaining (if not more so) to have the pianist interact with the AUDIENCE?

 

That's what a good single-piano format is.

 

Nope

[weeislayman]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Isn't it just as entertaining (if not more so) to have the pianist interact with the AUDIENCE?

 

That's what a good single-piano format is.

I agree.  The most memorable piano entertainment that I recall was Barry.  His interaction with the audience made it more than a bunch of tunes.

[Wasasalad]

32 minutes ago, weeislayman said:

I agree.  The most memorable piano entertainment that I recall was Barry.  His interaction with the audience made it more than a bunch of tunes.

I loved my cruises when Barry was the piano man. So much fun!

[montythecat]

Maybe. Each to his or her own but I prefer having

two pianists interacting with their audience.

[Ipeeinthepools]

4 minutes ago, montythecat said:

Maybe. Each to his or her own but I prefer having

two pianists interacting with their audience.

 

I agree 1000%.   I would rather have 2 professional entertainers performing rather than 1 entertainer and a room full of amateurs that only want to entertain themselves.

[montythecat]

Yup !!!

[jeh10641]

You guys have great memories. I do not remember the name of any performer I have seen on a cruise except for Cantare and Boulvevard.

Jim

[KAKcruiser]

There was a young woman named Anika about 7 years ago who was great.

[talpostal]

Is the gist here that HAL is switching from two pianos to one? I will be on the Nieuw Amsterdam this summer.

[FlorenceItaly]

We loved Johnny Melnick on our 51 day South Pacific/Hawaii cruise in 2019.   In fact, we are still in contact with him.  We will meet up with him next week when we are in Ft. Lauderdale.

[Ipeeinthepools]

3 hours ago, talpostal said:

Is the gist here that HAL is switching from two pianos to one? I will be on the Nieuw Amsterdam this summer.

 More important they are changing the overall nature of the performance.  The original was a performance between two talented performers and the other is a performance between one professional and amateur guests.  I really have no desire for the other guests to be involved in the performance.

[BarryFromBoston]

17 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

  I really have no desire for the other guests to be involved in the performance.

You're assuming this is the case. It isn't. Guests sing ALONG, not on microphone. With a good piano bar, the guest chooses their experience, from ambient entertainment to very inclusive, by where they sit. What happens off mic around the piano is a whole second level that guests on the other side of the rooom don't hear. The main difference is that at its heart, the dueling show as done on HAL was meant to be scripted, carefully timed material, so the screens would project trivia about what they're hearing. Solo piano bars may have a theme, but are ready to re-shape the evening, on a dime. Please note that there are dueling shows on other brands that are not scripted, and are nearly all requests. I do those, and very happily so, aboard NCL. Some great dueling is launching on RCCL. It's all what's right for the demographic present. In fact, on Day 1 of a new cruise, the stage manager or production manager would break down the cruise by age, location, and how many of each level of loyalty level are on board. This didn't affect most acts. But I would say, "Let's swap out Best & Worst of the 70's with Best of Broadway, and since we have so many Europeana, let's scratch TV themes and add in..." (and so forth).  

[RuthC]

23 minutes ago, BarryFromBoston said:

Solo piano bars may have a theme, but are ready to re-shape the evening, on a dime.

Precisely. 

I'll never forget the night we had a substitute musician in the Tropic Bar on the (old, old) Rotterdam. So, we suggested he play Three Blind Mice in the style of various classical composers. He played along, and was very good at it. It was tremendous fun, and he was a really good sport. 

Another musician (same bar, different cruise) used to say 'name a song I can't play and I'll give you $1000'. I did, and he did! Sure, it was funny money, but it started a good game of 'stump the piano player' that lasted all 16 days of the cruise. I learned a lot of new-to-me songs on that cruise. 

A good Piano Bar isn't a 'performance'; it's a party. 
I also learned to LUV piano bars. 

[Ipeeinthepools]

2 hours ago, BarryFromBoston said:

You're assuming this is the case. It isn't. Guests sing ALONG, not on microphone. With a good piano bar, the guest chooses their experience, from ambient entertainment to very inclusive, by where they sit. What happens off mic around the piano is a whole second level that guests on the other side of the rooom don't hear. The main difference is that at its heart, the dueling show as done on HAL was meant to be scripted, carefully timed material, so the screens would project trivia about what they're hearing. Solo piano bars may have a theme, but are ready to re-shape the evening, on a dime. Please note that there are dueling shows on other brands that are not scripted, and are nearly all requests. I do those, and very happily so, aboard NCL. Some great dueling is launching on RCCL. It's all what's right for the demographic present. In fact, on Day 1 of a new cruise, the stage manager or production manager would break down the cruise by age, location, and how many of each level of loyalty level are on board. This didn't affect most acts. But I would say, "Let's swap out Best & Worst of the 70's with Best of Broadway, and since we have so many Europeana, let's scratch TV themes and add in..." (and so forth).  

 

The dueling concept sounds great, too bad HAL has walked away from it.

[Ipeeinthepools]

2 hours ago, RuthC said:

Precisely. 

I'll never forget the night we had a substitute musician in the Tropic Bar on the (old, old) Rotterdam. So, we suggested he play Three Blind Mice in the style of various classical composers. He played along, and was very good at it. It was tremendous fun, and he was a really good sport. 

Another musician (same bar, different cruise) used to say 'name a song I can't play and I'll give you $1000'. I did, and he did! Sure, it was funny money, but it started a good game of 'stump the piano player' that lasted all 16 days of the cruise. I learned a lot of new-to-me songs on that cruise. 

A good Piano Bar isn't a 'performance'; it's a party. 
I also learned to LUV piano bars. 

 

I have no desire to attend a performance where you or any other guest is part of the performance and listen to you or any other guest play games.  I'm sure it was memorable for you but not so much for the other guests.

Edited February 9 by Ipeeinthepools

[richwmn]

8 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I have no desire to attend a performance where you or any other guest is part of the performance and listen to you or any other guest play games.  I'm sure it was memorable for you but not so much for the other guests.

While you claim to speak for 'the other guests', you really don't. If you don't like the piano bar as defined by @BarryFromBoston Barry, Striker, and others there are plenty of people that do. I have sailed with Barry several times, and each time his piano bar was the last venue open in the evening with a sizeable crowd.

Also, if you don't like 'sing-a-long', you shouldn't attend many of the performances on the World Stage. Just a few minutes ago I left the World Stage on Volendam where Trevor Knight was the performer and encouraged the audience to sing with him. Annie Francis has done several shows and also encouraged the audience to sing. There have been plenty of others.

Many people enjoy the sing-a-long aspect of shows. If you don't, you have the option to avoid that venue and go to another type of entertainment.

 

[Ipeeinthepools]

39 minutes ago, richwmn said:

While you claim to speak for 'the other guests', you really don't. If you don't like the piano bar as defined by @BarryFromBoston Barry, Striker, and others there are plenty of people that do. I have sailed with Barry several times, and each time his piano bar was the last venue open in the evening with a sizeable crowd.

Also, if you don't like 'sing-a-long', you shouldn't attend many of the performances on the World Stage. Just a few minutes ago I left the World Stage on Volendam where Trevor Knight was the performer and encouraged the audience to sing with him. Annie Francis has done several shows and also encouraged the audience to sing. There have been plenty of others.

Many people enjoy the sing-a-long aspect of shows. If you don't, you have the option to avoid that venue and go to another type of entertainment.

 

 

Or maybe, HAL should keep the dueling piano player concept because Billboard on Board was packed to capacity every night and you can enjoy the sing-a-long on the World Stage.  BTW I can guarantee that when the performer plays a game with one or more of the guests, it was not as memorable for the other 99% of the guests.

Edited February 9 by Ipeeinthepools

[Destiny0315]

12 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 More important they are changing the overall nature of the performance.  The original was a performance between two talented performers and the other is a performance between one professional and amateur guests.  I really have no desire for the other guests to be involved in the performance.

I have seen these two talented performers in person both playing alone and together and whether it was in an indoor arena with 15-20K+ people or an outdoor stadium with 60-70K+ people, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of amateurs were singing along with them and at times encouraged to by these professionals. 

 

Edited February 9 by Destiny0315