Starting With the Orchestra

There are several different positions for musicians to work onboard a cruise ship.  Each possibility has it's own unique requirements and performances and it could vary between different cruise lines.  My experience was working as a drummer in the orchestra, playing nightly shows in the theater.

The stage before the orchestra performs for a guest entertainer's show.

I will start with an overview for all musicians working onboard.  The usual contract length is between 6 and 7 months long.  Sometimes I get asked how much time off we have in between cruises and the answer is none!  Believe it or not, there are only a few hours between one cruise and the next.  One day you will play a Farewell Show for one cruise and the following evening is a Welcome Aboard show for the next ship full of guests  The musicians work continuous cruises from the day they sign on the ship until their contract ends.  There are good and bad parts to this style of contract.  You don't have to worry about booking gigs each week, it's already done for you and you know exactly how much you will earn from month to month.  But you can imagine the normal life events that you will have to miss by being at sea for 6 to 7 months at a time (weddings, birthdays, etc.).

Now some specific information, and I will start with the orchestra...

A 9-piece orchestra playing on stage.
I'm playing drums but you can't see me.

The Musicians.  This group is made up of musicians who are hired independently from each other.  They are auditioned by the cruise line or an agency to fill a specific spot.  Unless a musician has worked with another musician on a ship on a previous contract, the musicians for the most part do not know each other before their contract together.  In some cruise lines the orchestra will rehearse together on land and then join the ship all together as a group, but for most cruise lines the musicians in the ship's orchestra will come and go at different times.  This can be good and bad.  When you sign on the ship, there might be a pain in the rear musician and they only have one more cruise left on their contract.  Meaning that you only have to put up with them for a short while.  But on the other hand, you might meet a great musician in the orchestra an find out you will only be playing together for a week.  The orchestra is made up of different numbers of musicians depending on ship size and the cruise line.  As you can imagine with budget cuts over the years, what started as full big bands has gone to usually 7 to 9 piece groups.

The orchestra performing during a show, I was the drummer.

The Work.  The work can vary for the orchestra from ship to ship and between cruise lines.  But usually the orchestra will play for a Welcome Aboard Show, a Farewell Show, the production shows, guest entertainer shows, big band sets, and maybe a few cocktail sets.  The larger the ship, usually the more the ship's orchestra sticks to playing inside the theater only.  But for smaller ships and with less musicians onboard, the orchestra may be used in other venues.

For Welcome Aboard and Farewell shows, the orchestra usually plays a feature song and maybe a short play-on for the cruise director and guest entertainers like a juggler and a comedian.  It is usually very routine and the musicians can expect relatively the same from cruise to cruise.

A photo of musicians performing during a production show.
My wife, Anna Fegi, is the featured singer on the left.

Production shows are more elaborate shows involving the singers and dancers on the ship.  Many are Broadway review style shows that include a random assortment of well-known songs from musical theater.  Some shows are more creative, though.  I've played some production shows including one that used more popular music and another one was a Tango show from Argentina.  There was even one that was an a capella show which meant a night off for the orchestra!  Most production shows are done to click track, meaning that the musicians have a metronome sent to their headphones.  The reason for this is because the shows tend to be rather involved with sound, lights, musicians, singers, moving sets, etc.  The average guest cruising onboard doesn't care that it might be the lighting tech's first time to run the show, they want to watch a smooth show and be entertained.  Basically it reduces the chance for mistakes.  Also, if the orchestra is a 9-piece group (alto, tenor, 2 trumpets, trombone, keyboard, guitar, bass, drums), there might be pre-recorded string parts or other orchestral instruments not available on the ship that are played in the house along with the live orchestra.  These tracks are called backing tracks or sweetener tracks and make the orchestra sound fuller and include non-standard instruments.

Here is an example of one of the more poorly written charts.
The result is a lot of wasted time in rehearsal.

Guest entertainer shows can vary greatly.  They are performed by entertainers who usually only stay onboard the ship for a few days at a time and they travel between ships and cruise lines performing their own show.  The acts can range from tribute groups (Motown acts are very popular as are Beatles groups), vocalists, violinists, instrumentalists, magicians, or more.  They have their own charts and the orchestra will play for them during the show.  It's so important to be a good reader because the rehearsal is usually only one hour to 90 minutes to put together a one hour show.  Some guest entertainers have great charts where everything is clean and the rehearsal gets done early, but then there are others (I won't mention names) where the chart can be full of errors, be written in pencil, or just have lead sheets and most of the rehearsal time is wasted just trying to figure out what is supposed to be played.  David Bentley, a great MD I worked with, once asked a rather old guest entertainer when they would be updating their charts as they were the same ones with the same errors being used for over 20 years.  The guest entertainer actually responded, "How much longer do you think I'll actually be doing this?"  I guess it takes all kinds.  Good guest entertainers will continually update their show and invest in their product.  The guest entertainer shows keep the musicians on their toes and also adds variety to the gig.  Those shows are important to the guests because they add variety to the entertainment they get onboard.

The orchestra playing before a Captain's Cocktail Reception

Big band sets and cocktail sets.  Again this can vary depending on the size of the ship, the cruise line, and also the cruise director.  Big band sets were very popular during the peak popularity of cruising (think mints on the pillows, midnight buffets every night) because that was the music from that generation.  But let's be honest, that generation is not getting any younger and the average age of most the average cruiser is in their 50s or 60s, which would make them born after the Big Band era.  Some Cruise Directors (who schedule all of the ship entertainment) like to stick with tradition and will continue scheduling big band sets for the orchestra, but I have also worked with some cruise directors who prefer to have more up-to-date musical offerings.  But for any events that need a large band, the orchestra is usually the group to cover it.  It may be a cocktail reception for the Captain or a reception for those guests who have cruised many times.


For my next entry, I'll be covering the requirements to be successful as a musician in the orchestra.  While each cruise line holds auditions, sometimes people are still able to slip through the cracks.  I will list what I consider to be the top 5 things in order to be successful as an orchestra musician.

For the most part I have been able to play on very nice equipment on ships.  Here is a 6-piece Yamaha Maple Custom with a nice Zildjian setup.