#poem (human written)
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@lindasgoluppiart Apparently, lol. At least, the upscale expensive cruise ships (not the massive shopping malls).
@ai6yr On the ship I worked on, we had "gentleman hosts" who were older guys with good suits, knew all the ballroom dance styles, and who's job was to dance with the widows. Those guys would discretely hook up with the widows. It had to be discrete, because if the widows thought they were being snubbed for a dance they'd raise hell with the Entertainment Director or even the Cruise Director. Those poor guys danced non-stop every set, except the late set after the main show - by 10:30 the widows were tired.
This was Cunard line - way too pricey for mortals, and the widows were typically quite demanding. We played 2 or 3 sets of ballroom dance music every day. It was invaluable as education for n00bs like me, but the old timers in the band were bored and/or drunk.
@grumble209 YES! THIS! This was the guy's job.
@ai6yr I'm not even sure our hosts were paid - they had better cabins than the band, and had dining room privileges (we got the crew galley and lunch access to the poolside bistro). In return, they had to essentially be hosts at every entertainment event through the day, dance at the dance sets, and sometimes be guides on shore excursions. It looked like a PITA to me. I think that's why they swapped out every few weeks.
The only worse job, imho, was the photographer who literally had to be at every event all day, every day. Halfway through my contract they fired our photographer because he was always drunk. His replacement showed up a couple days later, and refused to use the previous guy's cabin - he'd peed on the mattress so much that the metal tray underneath was rotted out.
Our lecturers got flown to/from the boat, good staterooms, full guest amenities, but not even a stipend. Most of them seemed to have books that they'd try to sell.
It was a very educational four month contract - which was good since it paid not much. There's a whole genre of cruise ship musician videos on YouTube, and frankly, I think I was on a pretty good ship compared to some of those stories they tell.
@grumble209 @ai6yr when I was 16 I got a phone call from someone trying to recruit a saxophone player for a 6 month international cruise ship at the very last minute - going through the musicians union book line by line. Seriously thought about it at the time but very glad I didn't take it.
This was about the same time I was getting into free jazz and a couple of years before I got completely disillusioned about the state of the professional music scene. Probably would have been an alcoholic at 17 because the repertoire would have driven me up the wall.
Then my little brother actually worked on one about five years later as a dancer/singer, but he's tee total.
@ai6yr Entertainment (music, dance, hosts, etc) at that tier was either kids working their way up, or veterans on their way down into retirement. I got the job because I'd met the Music Director when he stopped by BYU. Two years later I was a EE and got an email... he wasn't looking for a great player - he was looking for good-enough and sober. I left a lot better than I showed up :)
My EE boss was kind enough to let me come back to work.
@ai6yr I found this clip. This was before Royal Viking line sold her to Cunard. Maybe 800 passengers fully loaded, which is nothing compared to the modern container ships filled with drunks these days. This clip was 10 years before I worked there.
Dolly Parton filmed a Christmas special on the ship in the 80s, but I can't find clips of that. It looked huge on the TV, but the stage was very much not huge.
LINERS : Royal Viking Sun
YouTube
@grumble209 Wow, small ship! (in modern terms).
hardcopy is forever
***trivia: I once met someone whose job was lecturing on interesting topics on cruise ships. On the off season, he spent his time wooing/bedroom surfing the mansions of wealthy divorced and windowed 80- and 90-year olds. 🤷 He admitted (and apparently quite enjoyed) his job was mostly flirting and/or bedding extremely rich women a decade or two older than him. 🤷
@ai6yr welcome to dating the Santa Barbara way.
@ai6yr what if Speed 2 but Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
@ai6yr sounds consensual, and everyone deserves to have fun. lol
@bolderbekah No one was complaining, not at all 🤷
@ai6yr Wot!? Someone will flirt with you when you are over 70???? Why didn't they put that in the cruise liner’s adds? I shudder at the idea of getting on one of those monstrosities but someone might actually FLIRT with me?
#Fediverse #Mastodon #Cruise