Chris posted a good question about dress code on ships:
What clothing is appropriate for wearing on the ship, aside from the uniform? Do you need a tux? The ship I’m about to work on considers jeans as inappropriate. What is?
Chris, it depends a lot on the cruise line and your status onboard. If you have what’s called “officer status,” as most cruise ship musicians do, you’ll have to follow the dress code policy of your ship anytime you are in passenger areas. Typically that means pants (no jeans – khakis or slacks are good), a collared shirt and – this is important – your NAME TAG. All crew members have name tags and they are required to wear them in passenger areas. That includes the buffet and even when you are on a break.
The exception to this rule, as I understand it, is if you have to walk through passenger areas to get off the ship – you don’t have to follow the dress code for that.
If you are a guest entertainer, then you most likely have “passenger status,” which means that you can dress like any passenger would and you don’t need to wear a name tag. In this case, you could wear a big, feathery chicken suit and the ship’s staff couldn’t say a thing.
Naturally, I wouldn’t recommend the chicken costume.
Regarding a tux, some ships require it, others don’t. Whoever hires you should make it clear what clothes you are supposed to bring on the gig. Make sure you ask if they don’t make it clear. On my first contract, Proship sent me to Germany two days after they called me and I was so flustered I didn’t know my tux from my chicken suit (You like how I brought that back? I’m clever.).
On my current gig, I wear a tux for every performance. I see the show band on this ship wearing a tux on formal nights. On my last ship we were provided a suit and tie by the ship and we were required to bring our own button-down black shirt. On formal nights we wore the tie and on informal nights no tie. On casual nights we had to wear this weird purple stretchy muscle shirt under the suit coat. We called it “the wetsuit.” It was hideous.
So again, make sure to ask the person that hires you to tell you exactly what to bring with you.
David J. Hahn
David J. Hahn is a Broadway conductor and keyboard player. He co-founded MusicianWages.com with Cameron Mizell in 2008. Visit his new project, Songwriter.fm and sign up for his songwriting newsletter.
Dave, your posts are so so funny!!
My son is about to embark on a ship as a lead trumpet, and I can only hope that he has the opportunity to wear a weird, purple stretchy muscle shirt….He is about 6’4″, and that would be a sight to behold. I will insist on a photo.
I don’t know your son of course, but I also insist he send us a photo.
The sax player in our band hated the outfit so much that he would change out of it DIRECTLY after leaving the stage. As in, he would tear the wetsuit off in the wings before he would even go to the dressing room.
I also forgot to mention the black rayon shirt with huge white polka dots. That was another version of our “casual” attire. If you looked at it for too long you’d have a seizure, so I’m not sure it really gave a very “casual” vibe.
Are dining room hostesses on a cruise ship allowed to wear high heeled shoes..I’m talking spikes.