Icon - very disappointed

[cusematt4]

Hi all,

 

For a few years, rcl boasted about the icon having the largest orchestra at sea.  We love live music and value royal caribbean’s investment in live music with great quality and variety.

 

To feature the 16 piece orchestra, rcl created a show called Showband Live, a 45 minutes show featuring the orchestra in addition to all of the other production shows and entertainment.

 

Recent cruisers have commented that this show has been eliminated.  This has been confirmed by postings of the weekly icon live music schedule that has this show removed.

 

This is upsetting and disappointing as it was highly publicized for years and still is on rcls website.

 

Does anyone know why rcl eliminated it?  I really hope it is just a coincidence that it was removed around the time Nick Weir head of entertainment who stressed live music and entertainment “left” rcl.  I hope this isn’t a sign of what’s to come in regards to the elimination of most live music and orchestras that’s been rumored since his departure.  It’s one of the main reasons we love cruising with Royal Caribbean.

[ocdb8r]

I can't tell you for sure why....but we sailed an Icon back-to-back and watched one full show and popped out heads in one other time.  Attendance was very low at both and many people left early during the one full show we attended.

 

Personally, I also think they chose a very poor set.  Of all the "show" music out there, there was not much selected that would appeal to a large mainstream audience. I agree that having such a large orchestra on beard is great and utilizing it as much as possible is critical to it making sense for Royal, but this show wasn't a good way to do that AND appeal to the masses.  

[notscb]

I remember being so impressed with the band on Freedom but also wondered how long those folks were really going to be employed for going forward. Carnival has done away with live music in their productions and I'm sure Royal is looking for any and every way to cut costs.

 

It's a lot to bring on musicians for any length of time, even if on a typical contract, and they don't do much else onboard which unfortunately makes their value less to the overall operations. I'd hate to see RCL do away with live music, but I'm 100% certain it's coming.

[mplusj]

Catering live music to a mainstream cruise audience is hard for RC to do. I'll give them credit they tried. I hope they try again and don't remove them completely. 

[bonsai3s]

Many years ago, they had a string quartet (Rosario String Quartet)...they're gone.

 

We do enjoy the Stowaway Pianist...especially when he's inside the elevator.

[fla33023]

1 hour ago, notscb said:

I remember being so impressed with the band on Freedom but also wondered how long those folks were really going to be employed for going forward. Carnival has done away with live music in their productions and I'm sure Royal is looking for any and every way to cut costs.

 

It's a lot to bring on musicians for any length of time, even if on a typical contract, and they don't do much else onboard which unfortunately makes their value less to the overall operations. I'd hate to see RCL do away with live music, but I'm 100% certain it's coming.

Do you just think the big musical shows would be eliminated or even the entertainers in say Boleros or Schooner? That would greatly 

devalue an RC cruise for us.

[JamesEM]

By eliminating entertainers not only can RCL cut costs they have extra cabins to sell. 

[cruiseboy89130]

12 hours ago, bonsai3s said:

We do enjoy the Stowaway Pianist...especially when he's inside the elevator.

Yeah every time that happens we complain about it to GS - elevators are full enough as it is....

[retired dude]

we go on rccl for the entertainment, it sure is not for the food anymore...When live music goes away, we go away.

[SplashOfWater]

12 hours ago, bonsai3s said:

We do enjoy the Stowaway Pianist...especially when he's inside the elevator.

We ran into him once last week on Icon. Younger guy, really nice.

[PhillyFan33579]

I don’t understand posters who say Icon is the greatest thing since slide bread. While I enjoyed my cruise on Icon, it didn’t come close to blowing me away. Since I cruised on Icon in February, I have cruised on Symphony, Freedom twice, Allure twice, Explorer, Radiance as well as two cruises on Celebrity (Apex and Reflection). When rating these cruises Icon wouldn’t make the top five. 

[Mariredwine]

@PhillyFan33579Have you been home at all since February?! Living the dream! ❤️ 

Edited June 10 by Mariredwine

[alexgtp]

Jazz on 4 was one of my favorite places to hear live Jazz, i was disappointed when they closed down the venues to replace it with non smoking casino's.

I understand the business side of it, but damn shame! Some amazing bands were showcased!

Hope they don't also do away with the Music Hall live music, would kind of defeat the purpose of having a music hall 🙂 !

[George C]

18 hours ago, bonsai3s said:

Many years ago, they had a string quartet (Rosario String Quartet)...they're gone.

 

We do enjoy the Stowaway Pianist...especially when he's inside the elevator.

We saw him in elevator on harmony in November, we enjoyed it. Although we miss the jazz club which closed but that was normally half empty.

[OnTheJourney]

21 hours ago, bonsai3s said:

We do enjoy the Stowaway Pianist...especially when he's inside the elevator.

I think that one could use some explanation (?) How does one play a piano while in the elevator?

[RobInMN]

1 hour ago, OnTheJourney said:

I think that one could use some explanation (?) How does one play a piano while in the elevator?

Like this.

 

I thought is was so fun the first time we ran across this I still think it's fun. 

I believe the official title is "Stowaway Piano Player"

 

Edited June 11 by RobInMN

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, OnTheJourney said:

I think that one could use some explanation (?) How does one play a piano while in the elevator?

He plays a upright. Travels up and down for about a hour, elevator still holds 5 or 6 people.  On Oasis class he is always in the elevators, we saw the guy several times on Ovation and Quantum and he was always in the area of the rear elevators near Vintages. 

[OnTheJourney]

3 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

He plays an upright

Huh....learn somethin' new every day.

[goldfish65]

Lou’s Jazz and Blues gets good reviews for its large band. 

[steamboats]

MSC has a Big Band with 16 musicians onboard the MSC Euribia for a year now. Those shows are packed. There are two singers and the band.

 

So "largest orchestra on sea" is relative as MSC had it already.

 

steamboats

[Tenderpaw]

Did they eliminate the live orchestra or just the show?  On recent RCCL and Celebrity cruises we have taken, the CD made a repeated comment about how Royal still has live music and an orchestra, unlike so many other cruise lines.  I appreciate the live music and the band musicians are quite talented.

[BecciBoo]

Musicians in the band do lots of other gigs onboard.  We met some who played in Bolero's every few nights on Odyssee. Though we do not cruise for the music nor the orchestra, we go to all of their venues and enjoy them.  This would be a non issue for us and I'm sure we'll enjoy Icon, can't wait to get on her.

[lovesthebeach2]

On 6/9/2024 at 9:08 PM, bonsai3s said:

Many years ago, they had a string quartet (Rosario String Quartet)...they're gone.

 

We do enjoy the Stowaway Pianist...especially when he's inside the elevator.

We too love the stowaway pianist….i try to always have a couple of $$ for them. 

[SplashOfWater]

48 minutes ago, Tenderpaw said:

Did they eliminate the live orchestra or just the show?

We were on the June 1st cruise, and I don't recall that particular show being offered. We did, however, see some or all of the orchestra playing during the Wizard of Oz production show.

[ShayGonzo]

We sailed on the Icon last week. The big band show was not offered. However, the jazz performers in the Empire Supper Club were wonderful.