Following this interesting thread. D has expressed interest and I believe there are Disney auditions this week in Chicago. D was sad to see she is not old enough yet ( must be 21). All in good time dear, all in good time!
The reason that Equity members can do cruises is that cruises don’t fall under Equity’s jurisdiction. (I think it has to do with the fact that you’re not working “on American soil”, but in international waters). It’s not considered “non-Equity”, but rather, “non-jurisdictional” (i.e. it’s not a category that falls under Equity’s jurisdiction). So it’s allowed.
Wow, timely, guys! I just now got home from the airport after putting my son on a plane headed to Houston to set sail tomorrow for his first job as a cruise ship musician with Norwegian. Saying goodbye was so hard, but he is excited to get to see the world while doing what he loves to do. I have 3 other friends with kids working as performers on cruise ships right now and for the most part loving it. 2 are signing up for a second contract. One is on a smaller ship with more crew duties, and for sure there are crazy things to have to deal with, but for young people it is a great way to get to perform every day while seeing the world and socking away some money. But it is hard to be away from friends and family and internet! Wifi is expensive while on the ship so needs to be used sparingly!
Here’s a fun fact. I remember watching American Idol years ago and hearing Jennifer Hudson say she once worked on a cruise ship. Fabulous talent can be found on cruise ships!
@Calliene I know someone currently singing on the Norwegian cruise line! Small world. I love this thread though
There was a young pianist on our cruise last month - he was fabulous! He did an entire show of Billy Joel songs. His fingers just flew across the keyboard. I’m a classical pianist, but I couldn’t believe how well he played. He was sweet - dedicated a song to his new fiancee, since he was on the ship on Valentine’s Day.
@ABMT16, my son will be on the Norwegian Jade starting tomorrow. If that’s your friend’s ship, let me know!
Yes, Jennifer Hudson worked on the Disney cruise! After she was on American Idol, I looked back through our cruise pics and found a picture of her! My D has a friend that worked on the mediterranean Disney cruise and loved it…she did 2 contracts. On our last cruise, which was Carnival, my D befriended the entertainment staff and they let her come and take masters classesin dance with them…mind you shes only a sophomore in high school…they really talked up doing the cruise ship gig, all of them loved it…some were college graduates, some were not. And on port days, they were off and running in the ports like tourists! They all exchanged contact info and are still in contact on social media!!
My family is very into carnival cruises for our spring/fall break vacations and since I’m into theatre/music I have visited the people there. There’s a handful of people who are entertainment staff and they aren’t performing in shows but it still has an appeal to theatre people. They get to --lead games like bean bag toss, trivia, and host karoake. Sure, it’s not the Broadway career but as mentioned the pay is amazing and it’s possibly the longest term contract a theatre person will ever have. A lot of the people told me that they just graduated college and this was a fun way to be a performer, see the world at the ports, get some experience for resume, and pay off student loans. The downside being you aren’t able to start building a reputation or hitting the pavement in New York since you are at sea.
The housekeeping grunt staff are all filipino or indonesian (balinese) nowadays.
On the cruises I’ve been on, we’d see the theater company at the bar/disco anytime we visited it. It seems like a colorful job to do short term, but don’t see how the lifestyle would appeal to someone out of their 20s.
Lots of great info here-- thanks all! It’s always nice to hear feedback – good or bad. Cruise MT/singing work has always been mentioned by my son for his plans after graduation. He doesn’t feel he’d be ready to go to NYC straight out of school, and that getting work experience to put on a resume is a wise choice. He’s currently in Scotland for school, so being away from home and in a foreign country doesn’t bother him at all-- in fact, he loves it. He even might look into pursuing work at Disneyland Paris. (Not sure of work/visa requirements there…haven’t looked into it.)