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Schooner Bar Piano Player

nubble88

By nubble88,
in Royal Caribbean International

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nubble88

nubble88

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Yes Masterbaker, that's him! Thanks so much! Brian Blatz, I will have to remember that. It would be great to run into him again. He is probably on another ship by now, but we were thinking of taking the Mariner again...one could only hope.

 

Thanks for the posting of his picture to make it absolute.

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masterbaker

masterbaker

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Yes Masterbaker, that's him! Thanks so much! Brian Blatz, I will have to remember that. It would be great to run into him again. He is probably on another ship by now, but we were thinking of taking the Mariner again...one could only hope.

 

Thanks for the posting of his picture to make it absolute.

 

I would love to see him on another RCI cruise again too. The last place I saw him was at a club in Sarasota, FL called New York New York. He sometimes takes a break from cruises to play clubs in FL.

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nubble88

nubble88

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I will have to keep that in mind if I am ever in that part of Florida, thanks for the info. He certainly is worth seeing no matter where he is playing. He is from Canada, I do remember that, so he was happy to play all the Gordon Lightfoot requests that he got.

 

An answer to YNKS09, as far as the Schooner Bar, I believe the piano player starts at 10:00 PM, and not sure when he ends. We usually hang around until midnight or not too much longer after that.

 

On the Freedom this past November, I think we spent one night there, was not impressed with the guy who was playing that week.

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masterbaker

masterbaker

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The best guy ever is called Paul O'Shea, he was on Independence and he went to Freedom. He is also very cute........;)

 

2544038130061726625S500x500Q85.jpg

 

Paul O'Shea was on our last Freedom cruise too. I was less than impressed. He would only play from a printed list of songs that he knew and used a backup computer to play along with. Basically he had very limited talent.

 

Brian Blatz, on the other hand is extremely talented playing piano. I tried my best to stump him with requests and couldn't do it. He even pounded out "Freebird" for me one night and brought the house to it's feet in applause. You would really have to see him play to understand the difference. He's just a truly gifted pianist with a great voice.

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SDPadreFan

SDPadreFan

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Brian Blatz, on the other hand is extremely talented playing piano. I tried my best to stump him with requests and couldn't do it. He even pounded out "Freebird" for me one night and brought the house to it's feet in applause.

 

Next time get him to try "Bugler's Holiday". Written by Leroy Anderson in 1954, it would be almost impossible to play "at tempo" on the piano because of the repetitive same note key strokes. Even for a trumpet player, it requires the ability to "triple tongue" to play that fast. That's an advanced skill for even a trumpet player. It would be much more difficult than even something like "Flight Of The Bumble Bee" on the piano.

 

Here's a good sample of the song.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmH-D7tUAZw&feature=related

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nubble88

nubble88

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I have to agree with you masterbaker. I too was going to comment on him playing from a list, he just could not do a request without checking that list first. It was a slow moving evening in between songs. And, as requests were made, he would tell them he would prefer to do another by a particular artist. He also would play a trivia game, I personally thought he did that to kill time. Oh well, at least the shows were good BEFORE he came out to play.

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pscruzinboyz

pscruzinboyz

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I beleive Matt Yee is on the Mariner Most of the time now.......A VERY FUNNY HAWAIIAN PIANIST. He is one of the best that we have seen.......:)

 

Oh the dueling Pianos.......They had them on the Monarch while she was in LA for some time and were the best thing going.....Nothing rehearst and always packed!

 

RCCL.....You had a GREAT thing on your ships......You should bring them back! ;)

 

Mike

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lappy22

lappy22

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I beleive Matt Yee is on the Mariner Most of the time now.......A VERY FUNNY HAWAIIAN PIANIST. He is one of the best that we have seen.......:)

 

Oh the dueling Pianos.......They had them on the Monarch while she was in LA for some time and were the best thing going.....Nothing rehearst and always packed!

 

RCCL.....You had a GREAT thing on your ships......You should bring them back! ;)

 

Mike

 

Have to agree about the dueling pianos on the Monarch. Hands down the best live entertainment that I've seen on a cruise. Guess they don't want to pay for two players. RCCL bring this back!

 

The schooner bar was empty every night on our 8/09 Mariner cruise. Awful and boring are two words that I would use to describe the singer. The bar was empty every night.

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nubble88

nubble88

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How I wish I could have seen the dueling pianist! From what people are saying, it was something to see. I've only been on 8 cruises and never came across it. Who knows, maybe some time in the future Royal Caribbean will bring it back again?

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Albert Ross

Albert Ross

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How strange.:confused:

He must have lost his talent mid-Atlantic as he was certainly very good on Independence, the Schooner Bar was packed, the British audience loved him, he played anything he was asked to, and he played for hours and hours, way past midnight, as the audience wouldn't let him leave.

Diff'rent strokes as they say.....

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nubble88

nubble88

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Yes, diff'rent strokes indeed. But, it wasn't like the bar was empty, but people left disappointed that he couldn't play their request. And it took him a while to set his equipment up, so, by the time he got started, it was already almost 10:30. But, it was what it was, plenty to do on a ship that size, so, we didn't let that interfere with a great time.

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  • 2 weeks later...
NYC cruiser lady

NYC cruiser lady

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My personal favorite is Will Bailey. If any of you know who I am, I am certain you understand why he is my personal favorite and you are smiling right now. Will is usually on a European ship but hopefully he will be crossing the Atlantic soon. He starts promptly at 9:30 or whenever he is supposed to start and stays to the end, or longer if there is a good crowd. I think the Schooner Bar is one of the better venues on each ship. It is great for chatting, drinking, etc.

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judie43

judie43

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We enjoyed Matt Yee on our Liberty 1/31 cruise Truly had the house packed and great audience participation. OY! OY OY! OY OY OY! slurp

 

I agree..Matt Yee is great. We did so much of the Oy OY OY..slurp that he actually had my DH up singing New York New York with a feather boa around his neck. Matt is quite the entertainer

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