Live from the Viking Star World Cruise 2021-22

[longterm]

On 1/5/2022 at 8:03 PM, OnTheJourney said:

Jim...well stated. Pretty much my thoughts as well. We're scheduled to sail in March and just not certain (even with just a short cruise compared to a WC!) how much it's worth incurring all the hassle and potential issues. Does it still qualify as a 'relaxing vacation'?  Not sure...

 

LOL...Even being a musician, I agree with this one also. Sometimes silence is golden. 

 

That's even worse! My mind quickly picks up when the loop repeats, and repeats....drives me crazy. 

 

From the perspective that you're with a group of all-vaccinated people, yeah, I can see that. But - at least for us - we're not comfortable at present with eating in resturants, so that's one of our big concerns if the covid situation persists to the same degree by the time we are scheduled to cruise in a few months. Might bag it in favor of a (probably more relaxing) car trip. Of course, can always do room service onboard - but somehow takes some of the enjoyment out of what we've always liked about cruising - the idea of a relaxed meal in the various restaurants. If room service, I can do that in a hotel wth take-out food. But, there again, you're eating with all-vaccinated. We ARE hopeful to cruise again in '22 and beyond. 

I had to laugh when I read about the piped music. I've been a professional musician all my life, and as a piano player, I can't help but listen to the piano player in the atrium--whether he's good or whether he's not so good.

On our last cruise, I would describe the resident piano player as "decidedly shlocky." I'm sure it appealed to some of the passengers--me not so much (ok, not at all). Finally on one of the last days of the cruise, while we were waiting for our excursion, I slipped onto the piano bench and played a few of my favorite Christmas tunes (it was December 20th I think); I got away with about 10 minutes of playing before a polite but annoying steward came over and told me I wasn't allowed to play the piano... said they disinfected it each time the pianist finished playing (which wasn't true).

On the Grand European river cruise I met the pianist and he invited me to play every afternoon if I happened to be on board. As someone who's been playing piano since I was 5 and who plays every day, it was wonderful to be able to stretch my fingers a little each day.

[OnTheJourney]

1 minute ago, longterm said:

said they disinfected it each time the pianist finished playing (which wasn't true).

Well, that's a poopy excuse LOL  Guess they'd have all sorts of people sitting down on  the bench (some of whom undoubtedly aren't much beyond 5 finger exercises).

 

We traveled with a small tour group to Wales several years ago, and I always played something before we started the days' travel (being that we were staying at a lovely hotel that had a piano in the front room overlooking the sea.) I would have LOVED to spend a few quiet days there - would have been so inspirational for doing some composing. 

[GKTV32162]

World Cruise Day 56/152 - Sea day - To flush or not to flush, that is the question...

 

 

https://kolbsontheroad.blogspot.com/2022/02/world-cruise-day-56152-sea-day-to-flush.html

[TayanaLorna]

16 hours ago, longterm said:

I had to laugh when I read about the piped music. I've been a professional musician all my life, and as a piano player, I can't help but listen to the piano player in the atrium--whether he's good or whether he's not so good.

On our last cruise, I would describe the resident piano player as "decidedly shlocky." I'm sure it appealed to some of the passengers--me not so much (ok, not at all). Finally on one of the last days of the cruise, while we were waiting for our excursion, I slipped onto the piano bench and played a few of my favorite Christmas tunes (it was December 20th I think); I got away with about 10 minutes of playing before a polite but annoying steward came over and told me I wasn't allowed to play the piano... said they disinfected it each time the pianist finished playing (which wasn't true).

On the Grand European river cruise I met the pianist and he invited me to play every afternoon if I happened to be on board. As someone who's been playing piano since I was 5 and who plays every day, it was wonderful to be able to stretch my fingers a little each day.

@longterm I was on the Sea for the TA that brought the Sea to you for your 12/13 cruise.  Agree about the piano player.  Shlocky is a good description but we did enjoy him the one evening we listened.  We have been on cruises where all the pianist did was classical so this guy mixing it up was fun.  Now if you want to play the piano on board you should ask for permission from the Hotel Manager maybe.

[longterm]

20 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

@longterm I was on the Sea for the TA that brought the Sea to you for your 12/13 cruise.  Agree about the piano player.  Shlocky is a good description but we did enjoy him the one evening we listened.  We have been on cruises where all the pianist did was classical so this guy mixing it up was fun.  Now if you want to play the piano on board you should ask for permission from the Hotel Manager maybe.

That's my plan for this upcoming cruise; probably won't get anywhere, but it's worth a try. I had no problems with it on our river cruise, used to play almost every afternoon when we returned from excursions. As someone who's performed for 4 presidents and played concerts all over the world, I was dismayed that i wasn't allowed to play a few tunes. Oh well... wasn't a great piano anyway...

[OnTheJourney]

11 minutes ago, longterm said:

As someone who's performed for 4 presidents and played concerts all over the world, I was dismayed that i wasn't allowed to play a few tunes. Oh well... wasn't a great piano anyway...

Wow....would love to hear some of your music. Links to recordings?  Totally understandable, of course, if you'd rather not. Which 4 presidents? 

[Jim Avery]

22 minutes ago, longterm said:

That's my plan for this upcoming cruise; probably won't get anywhere, but it's worth a try. I had no problems with it on our river cruise, used to play almost every afternoon when we returned from excursions. As someone who's performed for 4 presidents and played concerts all over the world, I was dismayed that i wasn't allowed to play a few tunes. Oh well... wasn't a great piano anyway...

I remember a passenger playing piano in Torshavn during the day.  I am sure the General Manager could arrange it if you ask.

[OnTheJourney]

Bob...thanks so much! I've been enjoying listening to some of your clips. Great stuff! Surely more of a jazz slant to your music than what I do. My style on both guitar and piano has been heavily influenced by the early Windham Hill musicians, and so tends to fall under the 'new age' 'category. 

[longterm]

3 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

Bob...thanks so much! I've been enjoying listening to some of your clips. Great stuff! Surely more of a jazz slant to your music than what I do. My style on both guitar and piano has been heavily influenced by the early Windham Hill musicians, and so tends to fall under the 'new age' 'category. 

All good; I remember when Windham Hill was started, listened to George Winston some but he's a little too tame for me... 🙂

I spent most of my career in Nashville playing with country artists, but jazz has always been my thing. Now that I no longer live in Nashville, I play what I want (for little or no money of course!), but it's still fun to go back and play with good studio musicians no matter what kind of music it is. 🙂

Edited February 18, 2022 by longterm

[OnTheJourney]

Very cool! My career was spent teaching music, though always played on the side. Retired from teaching but continue as organist for my home parish. 

 

Yes...George Winston. Uses lots of overdubs, etc. Windham Hill is an amazing story - started by Will Ackerman (who heavily influenced my guitar style) solely by peddling his own music. It took off in a short time. Once CEO of this company that was generating millions, he found it wasn't really his thing to be managing something of that magnitude and so sold it (for even more millions!). Just conferred with Will and his attorney over securing mechanical licensing to do a cover of one of his songs on an upcoming album. Long, involved story. Some of these early Christmas songs are indeed in the public domain, but I'm doing my arrangement that closely mirrors someone else's arrangement  (of a public domain song) and thus is no longer really public domain and so subject to licensing! It went around and around for a bit with email flying between several different people, include the licensing company I use. They had initially charged me for all the songs, but then refunded 3 of them indicating that they are public domain (which is true and yet not true based on what I've just explained). Finally got it all straightened out. Another example - I'm doing "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach - you don't get much more public domain than that! However, my arrangement is based on a copyrighted, contemporary arrangement. Not sure why the licensing company didn't "get it". Became a hassle to refund me and then recharge again. 

Edited February 18, 2022 by OnTheJourney

[longterm]

3 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

Very cool! My career was spent teaching music, though always played on the side. Retired from teaching but continue as organist for my home parish. 

 

Yes...George Winston. Uses lots of overdubs, etc. Windham Hill is an amazing story - started by Will Ackerman (who heavily influenced my guitar style) solely by peddling his own music. It took off in a short time. Once CEO of this company that was generating millions, he found it wasn't really his thing to be managing something of that magnitude and so sold it (for even more millions!). Just conferred with Will and his attorney over securing mechanical licensing to do a cover of one of his songs on an upcoming album. Long, involved story. Some of these early Christmas songs are indeed in the public domain, but I'm doing my arrangement that closely mirrors someone else's arrangement  (of a public domain song) and thus is no longer really public domain and so subject to licensing! It went around and around for a bit with email flying between several different people, include the licensing company I use. They had initially charged me for all the songs, but then refunded 3 of them indicating that they are public domain (which is true and yet not true based on what I've just explained). Finally got it all straightened out. Another example - I'm doing "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach - you don't get much more public domain than that! However, my arrangement is based on a copyrighted, contemporary arrangement. Not sure why the licensing company didn't "get it". Became a hassle to refund me and then recharge again. 

Sounds like it's going to be a great project; Bach has always been one of my favorite composers. Back in college I used to play 2-part inventions and other of his pieces, but unfortunately I haven't kept up that repertoire. Post a link when you get something recorded!

[TayanaLorna]

27 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

Bob...thanks so much! I've been enjoying listening to some of your clips. Great stuff! Surely more of a jazz slant to your music than what I do. My style on both guitar and piano has been heavily influenced by the early Windham Hill musicians, and so tends to fall under the 'new age' 'category. 

Enjoying your clips too.  Found you on Spotify too.  I wish more of the music on the Viking ships was jazz and blues.  On our very first Viking cruise, the Viking band had a jazz leaning.  Loved it.

[OnTheJourney]

1 hour ago, longterm said:

Bach has always been one of my favorite composers. Back in college I used to play 2-part inventions

LOL...yep...great pieces! Can't comprehend the mind. He was once asked to improvise, on the spot, a 6-part fugue for the King of Prussia. So....like...sure, no problem dude!!!  Same with Mozart - couldn't get the stuff down on paper fast enough. No wonder much of it looks like someone spilled the ink container. 

[OnTheJourney]

1 hour ago, longterm said:

Post a link when you get something recorded!

Sure. I'll do that. It's actually arrangements of Christmas pieces I recorded on cassette using a 4-track Yamaha back in the 90s (with the intention of sending some demo stuff to Windham Hill since, as you might know, they were always releasing those "Winter Solstice" albums - but, they weren't accepting many new submissions, so that, as they say, was that. Most recently my daughter wanted a digitized version of it, so it has all been resurrected. Now that it has been converted to digital, figured might as well proceed further. Very new-agey and so likely not your thing!  

[Azulann]

 Love reading  Rose's blog.

 

https://roseandtedsexcellentadventure.com/2022/02/17/episode-199-transatlantic-sea-day-logs-day-2-of-9/

 

 Learned that the Captain Olav  is a triplet and his brother is Captain of Viking Sea!

Leaned lots of information  in the Q&A with the officers.

 Also  the food looks so  delish. I hope some of those items  are offered  fleet wide  in the main dining room. 

[FLORIDA FLOUNDER]

On 2/16/2022 at 8:38 PM, GKTV32162 said:

World Cruise Day 55/152 - Sea Day shenanigans

 

https://kolbsontheroad.blogspot.com/2022/02/world-cruise-day-55152-sea-day-low-key.html

I think your Captain is a triplet or twin (can't remember which) and we had his brother Sverre Sovdness as our Captain on the Viking Sky last summer. We also had Chris the Financial Officer. Small World! 😃

 

[FLORIDA FLOUNDER]

5 hours ago, longterm said:

Sure! http://www.bobpatin.com is my website; in the 80s I played for Presidents Reagan, HW Bush, Carter, and Ford. Didn't get to meet any of them, but I was probably 4 feet from President (at the time, Vice President) HW Bush, and about 20 feet from President Reagan, in Atlanta at a campaign rally for which we played.

Amazing! Thank you for sharing! ☺️

[GKTV32162]

He is a triplet. One brother is a captain for Viking and the other is a cargo ship captain.

[FLORIDA FLOUNDER]

2 hours ago, Azulann said:

 Love reading  Rose's blog.

 

https://roseandtedsexcellentadventure.com/2022/02/17/episode-199-transatlantic-sea-day-logs-day-2-of-9/

 

 Learned that the Captain Olav  is a triplet and his brother is Captain of Viking Sea!

Leaned lots of information  in the Q&A with the officers.

 Also  the food looks so  delish. I hope some of those items  are offered  fleet wide  in the main dining room. 

Oh how funny, I literally just posted on this very same thing. 🤪

[longterm]

5 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

Bob...thanks so much! I've been enjoying listening to some of your clips. Great stuff! Surely more of a jazz slant to your music than what I do. My style on both guitar and piano has been heavily influenced by the early Windham Hill musicians, and so tends to fall under the 'new age' 'category. 

Thanks, glad you like it! If you were to be on our cruise, I would give you a CD or two. 😎

[longterm]

4 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

LOL...yep...great pieces! Can't comprehend the mind. He was once asked to improvise, on the spot, a 6-part fugue for the King of Prussia. So....like...sure, no problem dude!!!  Same with Mozart - couldn't get the stuff down on paper fast enough. No wonder much of it looks like someone spilled the ink container. 

Yep; He was basically a working musician, the only difference being that his employees were kings and nobles, as opposed to bar owners and pop singers. I wonder if he carried around a tip jar.He was basically a working musician, the only difference being that his employees were kings and nobles, as opposed to bar owners and pop singers. I wonder if he carried around a tip jar.

[nextariel]

21 hours ago, GKTV32162 said:

World Cruise Day 56/152 - Sea day - To flush or not to flush, that is the question...

 

 

https://kolbsontheroad.blogspot.com/2022/02/world-cruise-day-56152-sea-day-to-flush.html

Can I ask which room you are in. We will be boarding the Star in September and hoping it is not the same room.

[GKTV32162]

28 minutes ago, nextariel said:

Can I ask which room you are in. We will be boarding the Star in September and hoping it is not the same room.

We were in 4029 when we had the initial issues early on and those were specific to our room and I'm sure have since been fixed.  The issues lately have been systemic and not related to our room.

[OnTheJourney]

2 hours ago, longterm said:

I wonder if he carried around a tip jar.

LOL.....

[GKTV32162]

World Cruise Day 57/152 - Sea Day - Peanut butter and culinary creativity

 

https://kolbsontheroad.blogspot.com/2022/02/world-cruise-day-57152-sea-day-peanut.html