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You are correct -- at 45 I will be the second youngest paying passenger after you! Haha! Be prepared for a lot of old Jewish ladies kvelling that a young person is interested in jazz and on the cruise. Of course lots of the musicians, especially the side people, will be in their 20s and 30s. As far as advice goes: Two of the three main venues, the Sky Lounge and the Rendezvous, are pretty small (and not all of the seats in the Sky Lounge are that great). If you have a must see artist it's worth arriving a little early. Generally you can always get a perfectly good theater seat even once the show is in progress. The big band shows in the theater (which are fabulous -- all the headlining artists on the ship rotate sitting in with the big band) always draw a good house but it's not like you have to line up an hour in advance to get a seat or anything like that. Sometimes the place will be jammed and sometimes, if there's a big show elsewhere, it won't be (or the crowd will filter out as something else starts up so you can upgrade your seat during the show). Last year on one of the at seas days they had some great artists playing a Spinnaker show at 1, and then another great group playing at 3, and really not much else going on. When the 1pm show ended no one left, and there was a huge group of people trying to get into the show as well, so they moved it down to the theater which was a wise move. I think they're going to do more counter programming this year so that doesn't happen. On the first night you can try checking out a show at each of those venues so you can get the generally vibe and plan accordingly. The Welcome Show is great because a lot of the artists do a song or two so you can get a nice taste of who you want to prioritize. One thing about showing up early is that you can chat with the people next to you so you'll have a familiar face the next time you see them around the ship. If you go to the main dining room without an assigned table you'll get randomly placed with seven or so other people. Some may find this a great way to make new friends, and some might prefer to just hit the buffet instead. I'll try to think of some more advice.

Hey JC1, I'll also be on The Jazz Cruise! I did it for the first time last year (having done Blue Note at Sea pre-Covid) and loved it, and I think the lineup this year is even better. Last year the schedule didn't come out until December, so I suspect it'll be a while before we get the times. Last year there were minor tweaks here and there but no really major changes to the initial schedule. Still, you'll want to double check the daily printed schedule left in your cabin.

Take note that Rocky's cruises as well as Concerts At Sea are both oldies partial charters where just a slice of the passengers are participating in the oldies activities. I am pretty sure that both of them have sock hop events nightly.

HB, if you want an inside single there seem to be only five left (there are usually very few to begin with). If you want another kind of room you can probably take your sweet time. It'll be interesting to see whether other StarVista cruises migrate over from Celebrity to the Pearl.

George, As someone who has done a number of music cruises I can tell you that this is a hotly debated topic. Look at StarVista: Their 50s/early 60s Malt Shop Cruise has reserved seatings. Their mid to late 60s Flower Power Cruise, with many of the same acts, does not. Every year the Flower Power attendees get asked in the post-cruise survey if they want reserved seating and the mere possibility leads to an annual outcry on the Flower Power FB group. Their argument is that Woodstock didn't have reserved seats and neither should a floating rock music festival. Or if they want to sit with friends they can't just all show up together at the theater. Then there's Cayamo (singer/songwriter Sixthman cruise) which has an incredibly complicated program where based on your alumni status you get a certain number of reserved seats for specific shows that you request. About a third of the theater (the center aisle about half way back) is reserved for each show with the rest being GA. The nice thing about this system is that the fans of each specific act are up front when they perform, and if you don't get a reserved seat you can still show up early and get a great seat up close on the sides. As far as I know none of Sixthman's many other music charters do anything similar, perhaps in part because the main headliners are playing the pool deck, not the theater. As someone who often enjoys the small venue performances I do like the reserved seat option because I can see someone else and then waltz in 5 minutes before showtime and have a great seat. One of the negatives is that while even the high balcony seats at these ship theaters are pretty good seats, there is the odd obstructed view seat behind a pole, or on Holland America ships there's a row that is totally obstructed because you're in a pit directly behind the rows of folding chairs set up on what is usually the dance floor. Imagine getting stuck with that seat for the entire cruise! Reserved seats are usually a carrot used by the charter company, but as you pointed out priority tends to be given to those who have sailed multiple times or reserved their cabins early, not to people who splurged for the most expensive cabin. For The Jazz Cruise there are only two or at most three "early/late" shows for the entire cruise. The rest is all GA, and since there's so much small venue action the theater never exceeds capacity even when the entire ship can attend a show.

What an incredible seat HB! I'm looking forward to the reports from your 2024 sailings. StarVista also announced that the Big Easy Cruise is moving to January in 2025. It seems like they're taking over the Holland America ship for quite a few weeks as they'll also have the Country Music Cruise (dates already announced) and likely the Soul Train Cruise (which has sailed on HAL for years and sold out its 2024 edition almost instantly).

Nice to see this thread going and also nice to see HB's wonderful reports are still happening. I'll definitely be following their 2024 cruise report thread. Yesterday everyone on the Jazz Cruises list got the McDonald/LaBelle cruise update. One interesting thing about the itinerary is that the tentative schedule makes it look like Patti is going to come on the ship in Nassau, do her two shows, and get off without sailing. Anyone who has been on a StarVista cruise knows that often a headliner does this at the midway point. It does seem like Michael McDonald will be on the ship the entire time.