No B.B. King lounge on Volendam?

[Grandma7]

I was just getting ready to book a TA on the Volendam and realized they don't have the B.B. King lounge. I love that lounge and am now wondering if any of the bars have any musicians that play in the evenings. I am not sure about Billboards style music. Thanks for any help.

[Sir PMP]

No, BB King lounge , band in the ocean bar and the piano duo in the billboard lounge..

[Roz]

@Grandma7, when I was looking at South American cruises, my choices were the Volendam or Oosterdam.  I chose Oosterdam because there are more entertainment venues, which is important to me on a long cruise.

[CruiserBruce]

None of the smaller, R and S class ships have BB King.

[kazu]

The old Rotterdam that was recently sold used to have BBKings.  I was lucky enough to be on board when they did.  It was in the Crow’s Nest and the Crow’s Nest was packed every night.

HAL cancelled it shortly after that and for love of me, I can’t understand why.  Drinks were pouring, people were dancing and happy.

Assuming all is good, I’ll still happily sail on the Volendam because of the better itinerary for Norway and the British Isles.

We usually enjoy the Ocean Bar.  

[CruiserBruce]

21 minutes ago, kazu said:

The old Rotterdam that was recently sold used to have BBKings.  I was lucky enough to be on board when they did.  It was in the Crow’s Nest and the Crow’s Nest was packed every night.

HAL cancelled it shortly after that and for love of me, I can’t understand why.  Drinks were pouring, people were dancing and happy.

Assuming all is good, I’ll still happily sail on the Volendam because of the better itinerary for Norway and the British Isles.

We usually enjoy the Ocean Bar.  

Sure about Rotterdam? I was on here for 14 days in June 2019...she didn't have BB King then...

[kazu]

19 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Sure about Rotterdam? I was on here for 14 days in June 2019...she didn't have BB King then...

Oh I’m very positive.  We were on in March. - April 2017 and believe me it was rocking and rolling.  For whatever reason, HAL decided to remove it.  It was shortly after our cruise IIRC.

 

I did a live thread at the time and raved about the group. They were fantastic.  We were there every night but one.

[richwmn]

Rotterdam did have a BB King group in the Crows Nest, but it didn't last very long.

[KAKcruiser]

I also enjoyed the BB Kings group on the Rotterdam.  I heard a rumor that it was cancelled because of the late night noise but that seems like an excuse.

[aliaschief]

15 minutes ago, KAKcruiser said:

I also enjoyed the BB Kings group on the Rotterdam.  I heard a rumor that it was cancelled because of the late night noise but that seems like an excuse.

Heard several,  same response’s, about noise complaints from cabins below Crows Nest even before BB King. Late night activities in the Crow’s Nest seemed to be in a decline before BB King shows. My opinion;  but like the commercial some say I have the memory of an elephant!😁😷

[AtlantaCruiser72]

I’ve always felt the “noise” statement for not offering BB Kings on the S&R class vessels was bogus. Look at the deck map.
 

The highest deck of passenger cabins is deck 7.  None of those is located forward of the stair/elevator lobby. The Crows Nest (where BB Kings was hosted on Rotterdam) is on deck 9 and entirely forward of the stairs/elevators. I find it hard to believe that any noise on deck 9 affected those on deck 7.  If it did it shows an extremely poor build quality on those vessels for sound containment.   The Piano bar an Ocean bar on deck 5 are FAR more likely to affect rooms above them on deck 6 than any event in the Crows Nest would to folks on deck 7. 
 

There are however crew cabins on deck 9 that would be affected by noise. Those should therefore be relegated to staff/entertainers whose sleep would not be disturbed by any activities/entertainment in the Crows Nest.

 

It think it’s simply more a case that the market demographic served by the S & R class vessels simply didn’t support a “late night” R&B/ party band (with potentially little to no bar revenue) so could not be justified in terms of the additional expense to house, feed and transport the group. 

Edited February 20, 2021 by AtlantaCruiser72

[Cruise4food]

8 hours ago, richwmn said:

Rotterdam did have a BB King group in the Crows Nest, but it didn't last very long.

Here is the BB King All Stars playing in Rotterdam Crow’s Nest during the Atlantic Crossing July 2017.

[BJzink]

I miss the HalCats - never heard BB King, but Blues/Jazz isn't my favorite......

 

 

 

[CruiserBruce]

14 minutes ago, BJzink said:

I miss the HalCats - never heard BB King, but Blues/Jazz isn't my favorite......

 

 

 

There is some variety amongst the various "bands", the BB King operation is excellent, both in skills, and song selection. Mostly blues and bluesy rock, but they reach out a bit. Far better than the HalCats. Waiting to experience the new venue...Rolling Stones Lounge, or whatever it is called, for more rock oriented music.

[Heartgrove]

Even though the Fitness Center was on Deck 8, the Bridge is on Deck 7. If you have ever been on a Bridge while under way, the atmosphere is like that of a church. I am sure that low frequency  sound transmitted.

[sfocruiser]

14 hours ago, kazu said:

Oh I’m very positive.  We were on in March. - April 2017 and believe me it was rocking and rolling.  For whatever reason, HAL decided to remove it.  It was shortly after our cruise IIRC.

 

I did a live thread at the time and raved about the group. They were fantastic.  We were there every night but one.

 

We were on the Rotterdam in Sept-17 and BB King were in the Crows Nest,  was the place to be after dinner always packed.

[kazu]

9 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

It think it’s simply more a case that the market demographic served by the S & R class vessels simply didn’t support a “late night” R&B/ party band (with potentially little to no bar revenue) so could not be justified in terms of the additional expense to house, feed and transport the group. 

 

On our cruise, the Crow’s Nest was packed every night and the servers were very busy serving drinks.  There was lots of bar revenue from what I could see and we were there every night but one.

 

19 minutes ago, sfocruiser said:

 

We were on the Rotterdam in Sept-17 and BB King were in the Crows Nest,  was the place to be after dinner always packed.

 

Our experience as well.  Completely packed.

[sfocruiser]

6 hours ago, kazu said:

 

On our cruise, the Crow’s Nest was packed every night and the servers were very busy serving drinks.  There was lots of bar revenue from what I could see and we were there every night but one.

 

 

Our experience as well.  Completely packed.

 

Reminded me of the crowds in the Prinsendam Crows next.   There was Piano Player cant remember his name who seemed always to be on board and had a loyal post dinner following.  Maybe Eddie?

[kazu]

1 hour ago, sfocruiser said:

 

Reminded me of the crowds in the Prinsendam Crows next.   There was Piano Player cant remember his name who seemed always to be on board and had a loyal post dinner following.  Maybe Eddie?

 

That name sounds right for one of our cruises.  We had a blast on the P’dam every time with the piano bar and it was always packed.

The piano bar often carried on until 1 am + with the crowd we had. 

 

It really was a lot of fun 😄 Going to miss that big time.

 

I’m sure Hank @hitner will come on to tell us we are wrong and the carpets roll up at 9:30 pm 😂