A Typical Day for a Show Band Musician

I often get asked, usually by crew members, “what exactly do you do here?”  I’m not kidding, crew members don’t even know what I do.

The short answer is both “whatever I want” and “nothing,” but I normally give them the non-smart-ass answer of my actual position here.  But, you may ask, what is a normal day like for a cruise ship musician in the Caribbean?  (Note: I’m only talking about being a cruise ship musician in the Caribbean here.  Europe is totally different.)

First, I should preface this by saying that this is not a normal ship and mine is not a normal gig for a cruise ship musician.  This model of cruise ship is considered the highest level of class for our entire fleet.  There have only been a few ships of its kind made.  As such, several things are much different on this ship than on others in the same fleet.

For instance, on the other ships, the musicians play for all of the “cast shows,” which happen twice a night, threw nights a cruise.  We, however, do not play the cast shows at all.  They are entirely accompanied by rigid recordings made, no doubt, by some sweaty, fat guy they keep in the basement of the corporate office that only eats sardines.  That is, at least, the picture I get from the recordings I hear.

Let’s start, then, with a normal day:

I get up around noon.  I used to get up earlier in Europe to go see the sites, but here in the Caribbean I’m usually fairly certain that regardless of the port I will find the same things, i.e., a scary man renting scooters without brakes, a beach roamed by renegade waitresses serving tequila drinks with paper umbrellas, soliciting old ladies, etc.

Let’s say its a day spent entirely at sea, as today was.  I’ll get up at 11:30, get to the Lido Deck (the 9th deck, with all the food), and eat lunch.  Afterwards I’ll either go out on Deck 3 (Promenade Deck) to read, back to my little room below decks to watch TV, or directly back to sleep (again, in my little room below decks).  I don’t believe I’m felt tired for 6 months.

Around 3 I’ll work out.  The gym is just down the hall, and the beefy Phillipino guys aren’t in there at that time.  I don’t work out long, but sometimes I’ll go twice a day (because I’ve just got that much time).