January 8-18, 2015 oosterdam southern carribean cruise Jazzzsea group on board

[Cruizann]

My DH and I are looking at booking the 10 southern carribean cruise on the Oosterdam January 18-28, 2016. I notice there is a group called Jazzsea on board and went to their website. They all have to eat at the early dining time so would this exclude us from early dining? Also when the jazz groups play what areas of the ship would they use and would we be excluded from these areas or could we listen? Would they play in the ocean bar (I presume not) as my DH and I enjoy dancing there. Any advise would be appreciated. Thank you.

Edited September 27, 2015 by Cruizann
error with date

[Himself]

If you cannot early dine because of the group there is always the Lido or the Specialty restaurants like the Canteleto or the Pinnacle Grill.

Edited September 27, 2015 by Himself

[3rdGenCunarder]

My DH and I are looking at booking the 10 southern carribean cruise on the Oosterdam January 18-28, 2016. I notice there is a group called Jazzsea on board and went to their website. They all have to eat at the early dining time so would this exclude us from early dining? Also when the jazz groups play what areas of the ship would they use and would we be excluded from these areas or could we listen? Would they play in the ocean bar (I presume not) as my DH and I enjoy dancing there. Any advise would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

Do you know if they will take over the entire dining room, or just the early fixed level? Maybe you could get into open dining at an early time. It might be worth a call to HALL or the Jazzsea people to find out how their early dining works.

[Krazy Kruizers]

How large is the group?

Large groups do tend to take over certain areas of the ship for their private parties and music.

No, will not be able to attend their music sessions.

As for dinner, if they have all of the fixed dining, maybe you can dine early in the Open Seating on the lower level.

[Krazy Kruizers]

This is all I could find on your group:

http://jazzsea.com/files/JazzSea_2016_RezForm_Flyer.pdf

[Himself]

I was on a cruise a few years ago with the National Review And the took over the whole Dining room for the second sitting and all of us had assigned first sitting.

[LHT28]

Also when the jazz groups play what areas of the ship would they use and would we be excluded from these areas or could we listen?

Usually when they have groups onboard you will be excluded from their events

They may have areas of the ship you will not be allowed into

 

We prefer a full charter for these types of music cruises then you know everyone is there for the same reason & no one is left out

 

Maybe you can switch to a different cruise ?

[sloth]

We're also on this cruise, and there is a roll call started for it. One of the posters there asked a similar question about the size of the Jazz group, and it was stated that the group "usually" is 200-500 people.

 

Cindy

[PathfinderEss]

I don't know about this group but we had a similar experience with a jazz group of that size on one of our cruises. They took over the Crows Nest 11 out of 12 nights of the cruise for their private jazz playing as well as other venues during the day, such as the piano bar, Queen/Show Lounge and others . My suggestion to you is, try find another cruise to go on if you don't like being denied access to venues you like to use for your entire cruise.

[JennysUncle]

In 2013 we boarded the Maasdam for a cruise on the Eastern Caribbean and discovered the JazzSea group onboard. There were 3 or 4 dixieland bands along, and they played most evenings, and some daytimes, in the Crow's Nest and the Ocean Bar, with dancing usually in both places. There was a banjo workshop in one of the meeting rooms, and a piano/singer sometimes in the piano bar. Although the group's music events were nominally restricted to the group, they were effectively open to anyone since the venues were not closed. We hung around on the periphery and had a good time -- thought we were lucky to have stumbled into it without paying a supplement. However, someone who didn't like that kind of music would undoubtedly have been unhappy. Regarding this upcoming cruise -- the Oosterdam has two much more contained venues - the Northern Lights 'disco' and the Queen's Lounge. It is possible that the JazzSea will make more use of them and less of the public areas, which would make their events both less intrusive and more privately limited.

[JimnKaren]

We were on Ryndam this year when JazzSea was there. I believe that Karen would agree with me that half of those with that group were quite rude. It appeared to us that they believed they were running things. Talking with a few of them, they used to have enough to charter the ship so that there was no conflict. However, their numbers are dwindling and they just cannot do more than half of the passengers.

 

We enjoy their kind of music, but early on we were asked to leave the Ocean Bar as we did not have IDs that indicated we were with the group. I put up a stink at the front office and it changed overnight.

 

If I had options, I would not be on board with that group due to their collective attitude. When we booked, we knew about it, but since we enjoy that music we went ahead. The music was fun, but the people with that group left a lot to be desired.

 

Jim

[elycelynne]

I would suggest to the OP that if you're thinking about changing dates, you don't have too much more time to do so without penalty. Since the cruise is January 8, your final payment date is fast approaching.

 

(Just my opinion, but if it were me I'd probably find another date. I don't know your taste in music, but I'm definitely not a die-hard for that music and I wouldn't appreciate being denied access to areas that all passengers should be entitled to.)