oceangal00

Yes, it was the guitar player in Ocean Band. I hadn’t heard about the other. 

Just now, oceangal00 said:

12 minutes ago, travellersrest said:

I was also on the Volendam cruise. It was my understanding that the young man who passed away was a guitarist in the Ocean band. There was a second band, I believe just referred to as the house band, who played sometimes at the Ocean bar, as well as providing live music for singers on the World Stage. There was also an emergency evacuation of a female employee very near the end of the cruise and no further information was provided to passengers about her condition or her position on the ship.

 

Expand  

12 minutes ago, travellersrest said:

I was also on the Volendam cruise. It was my understanding that the young man who passed away was a guitarist in the Ocean band. There was a second band, I believe just referred to as the house band, who played sometimes at the Ocean bar, as well as providing live music for singers on the World Stage. There was also an emergency evacuation of a female employee very near the end of the cruise and no further information was provided to passengers about her condition or her position on the ship.

 

2 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Someone else was evacuated on the last 2nd to last day of the cruise. Hopefully recovered.  Rumor has it was an entertainment employee. I listened to the Ocean band many nights up to the final night. They were all present from start to finish.

Was there another band that played in Ocean Bar?

2 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

The first musician who died on ship was a transfer and had indeed just transferred to the Volendam arriving sick.   The second, who was very ill, though hopefully recovered I personally did not hear the details as to his/her assignment.  

I don’t believe two musicians died on Volendam. The one I know of was the guitar player in Ocean Band. Then there was the dancer on NS. Was there another?

26 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I was on the sailing. 

It is so tragic. I just wanted to clear up the misconception that this would have anything to do with BBKing issues on NS. No musicians were transferred between ships.

1 minute ago, Mary229 said:

There may have been both.  That poor sailing witnessed a lot of tragedies.  

Just to clarify- the Ocean Band member was on Volendam. I have friends who were on the ship at the time and was surprised no one mentioned it on this forum. 

3 hours ago, Mary229 said:

On the Volendam during the second week of March a member of the BB King AllStars passed away.   This might be the reason especially since the allstars are taken from various BB King bands

The musician who passed was in Ocean Band. There's no overlap between musicians of Ocean Band and BB Kings - they are hired, trained and rehearsed by different companies 

2 hours ago, Real NHDOC said:

I think you might be thinking of this ship. It was one of the dancers who died at Curaçao port call early this month. On that cruise they didn’t perform for several nights but that was a couple of weeks ago. While I am sure that was traumatic I can’t imagine they are still so affected by it to be causing this most recent problem. But one thing is for sure, we’ll probably never know the real story. 

There was also sadly a musician who passed away on Volendam a few weeks ago. He was in Ocean Band, not BBKings. 

On 2/2/2023 at 6:48 AM, GeorgianGal100 said:

Could it possibly be John Van Huizen, he has a wife called Grace and has been a chaplain on cruise ships?  Does that surname ring a "ship's" bell?

OMG yes that is him!!! I was able to find his website and can contact him through there. Thank you so so much. 

Hi all! Please pardon my very random request, but I was hoping someone could help me out. I was working on the Holland America Line Volendam this past November/December, and while I was on board I went through some difficult times in my personal life and the chaplain on board helped me out tremendously. He gave me his card with his full name and email address, but in packing and unpacking it seems it got thrown away. He left the ship before I did and I know he went on to a Cunard ship but I can't remember which. I know it started off in England. I'm pretty sure his name was John and his wife's name was Grace. They were both so lovely to me and I wish I could reach out to them to thank them. Is there anyone on any of the Cunard ships who knows them and would be willing to find out his full name or email address? If you mention it to him, I'm pretty sure he would remember. I would also be willing to share my email address through private message. Thank you so so much, I know this is an odd post but I appreciate any help!! 

1 minute ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Completely agree. I have a friend whose husband has made a career of being a cocktail/dinner pianist (one I've actually hired for events) and he says the same thing. The role is completely different to being onstage and giving a concert or playing a set.

And also, these are typically not musicians who make their entire career out of playing cocktail piano. Many are classical pianists or jazz pianists, or people who play with bands in very different settings. Cocktail piano is most likely not the extent of their ability or performance experience. Trust me, they've gotten their applause!

On 12/22/2022 at 12:26 PM, rodndonna said:

 

This did this on the Rotterdam in October and I would have called it a fail.They had a talented piano player, playing in a packed bar Ocean Bar full of people talking and laughing very loudly where he could not really even be heard. It was in  essence a very talented musician becoming background music (that people just had to talk louder over). I felt really bad for the guy.

 

 

There's no reason to feel bad. Cocktail pianists are meant to be background music. I'm saying this as someone who has a close friend who has played cocktail piano on cruise ships and says she always felt uncomfortable when people would sit and watch her as though she was giving a concert and felt awkward when people would applaud because it's not the nature of cocktail piano. That's the description of the job and what they carefully select music for - to be background music for people to sip a cocktail and have a conversation to.