Atlantic Ocean - The Show Must Go On!

19th November 2009.

Hello from the Atlantic Ocean, it was Vigo on the mainland of Spain yesterday and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands tomorrow.

What’s on today on board Oriana you may be asking yourself: plenty! We will have our usual packed daytime program with events and activities to suit everybody and tonight it’s the production show ‘Let’s Face the Music’ from the Headliners Theatre Company, this is a great dance show featuring musical numbers from days gone by. We also have movies being shown, a formal night ball, a syndicate quiz, lounges and bars with live music playing, and a game show.

The ‘Show Must Go On’; it’s my job to make sure it does! We go in to each and every cruise with a detailed schedule of how the entertainment will run; normally it runs to schedule but on rare occasions we are required to change it. We have to change it for a number of reasons, it could be the weather, or someone could be ill, for instance a cabaret vocalist without a voice!

My job is to make sure during the cruise we supply all the entertainment we set out to do, even if it’s not in the order we had originally planned! I will give you a classic example of this; last cruise on 10th November we were at sea cruising the Mediterranean and ran in to some rather lumpy weather, a force 9 to be precise!

That evening we had scheduled the Headliners Theatre Company production show, ‘Stop in the Name of Love’, it would have been very difficult for the cast to perform this high powered dancing and singing tribute to the great music of Motown with the stage of the Theatre Royal going in different directions to their feet!!! So I made the decision to postpone the show and ask one of the cabaret acts (singer David Karl), to step in and perform instead. The passengers did not miss out at all, they saw David Karl perform his show, (brought forward from another night), and ‘Stop in the Name of Love’ went on when David had originally been scheduled to perform.
Doing a cabaret when it’s bumpy is for obvious reasons, far easier than trying to run a production show. Usually a cabaret act does not move too much on stage, a production show with a cast of thirteen and scenery changes is quite another matter altogether.

The bottom line is that when we put the Headliners Theatre Company Shows on we want the passengers to see the best possible show and for the cast not to be concerned about potential injuries resulting from the moving stage. Flexibility is the name of the game. A cruise ship is a moving platform so myself and my team have to ‘think on our feet’ its all part of the fun and challenge of working in the entertainment business at sea!

When we do make changes communication is vital. The passengers need to be informed and if it’s a last minute change I will have to make a PA announcement. All other parties involved in my department also need to know like on 10th November; this included Headliners Theatre Company, the ship’s resident orchestra, the entertainment production team, and David Karl obviously as he was the one who I asked to work that night!

The life of a Cruise Director is never ever dull, and always interesting!!

I thought you might like to see our new Headliners Theatre Company!

Here they are at 8.50pm in rehearsals in the Pacific Lounge on the evening of the day they joined 16th November!!!

Left to right;
Ross Millington, Helen Dunderdale, Martin Lawson, Liam Lakin, Bryony Thompson, Laura J Neison, Marc Noble, Lucy Wilkerson, Andrea Brenhan, Adam Berrisford, Michelle Rowsell, Cindy Ciunfrini, Lisa-Jayne Davies.

Bye for today.

Nigel