Background Music On-Board

Hi everyone,

I would be curious to get your opinions regarding the selection of background music on-board the various cruise lines. This includes the pre-recorded music on your stateroom televisions, in the hallways, at the pool, etc. This does NOT include any form of live music, such as piano bars, bands at the pool, and such.

Information that would be specifically helpful:

Type of music you've heard around the ship (name ship please!)...frequency of repeats on stateroom TV music channels...too loud, too soft, just right...whether or not the music is appropriate to the environment...general opinions...how important properly selected music is to your cruise/vacation experience.

If you'd like to hear any changes to what is currently available, please feel free to jot them down as well.

Thanks!

Adam

Most of it is hideous, too loud pop/Top 40 or soporific easy listening/classical. In my experience, there is never any good World Music, zydeco, blues, ska, etc.

Working for public radio, I am spoiled with all the good music carried on public stations!

Opps, double post!

On the ships we have sailed on there is a good selection of music on the television ... rock, pop, country, jazz, classical, standards. I don't really notice the background music in the hallways, but it's typical muzak --- designed to blend in to the background!

I typically do not want music in my cabin so tend to leave the music off. I love music, but want it on my own terms and to suit my taste-of-the-moment.

Hi everyone,

 

I would be curious to get your opinions regarding the selection of background music on-board the various cruise lines. This includes the pre-recorded music on your stateroom televisions, in the hallways, at the pool, etc. This does NOT include any form of live music, such as piano bars, bands at the pool, and such.

 

Information that would be specifically helpful:

 

Type of music you've heard around the ship (name ship please!)...frequency of repeats on stateroom TV music channels...too loud, too soft, just right...whether or not the music is appropriate to the environment...general opinions...how important properly selected music is to your cruise/vacation experience.

 

If you'd like to hear any changes to what is currently available, please feel free to jot them down as well.

 

Thanks!

Adam

Hi Adam,

Wondering if you are involved in some way with providing background music to various cruise companies?

There is no background music on luxury cruise lines. If music on cruise ships is annoying, you may want to let the cruise line know. Some people do enjoy having music 24/7 -- however, it is not necessary to impose this onto everyone else on a cruise. IMO, this is not necessarily age related. However, it is sad that those who listen to loud music do lose their hearing at an early age. So, in order to hear the music, it has to be even louder. The annoyance is similiar to those who have to shout into their cell phone in order to be heard.

Hopefully, cruise lines will no longer feel that they have to give in to behaviors that impact other cruisers. Music certainly has it's place and can be a lot of fun. But, it is something you want to go to in a specific venue rather than have it intrude on your every move on a ship.

The response that has been elicited here is what I was trying to bring out into the open.

To answer the question posed above, yes. I figured this would be the best place to get some anonymous, unrefuted data. Currently, we are working on a better solution that will make the music more complementary to the cruising experience.

Unfortunately, for those of you who wrote about the background music being atrocious, I understand your concerns. It is probably not reasonable to think that the cruise lines would do away with all background music, as that would create a dry atmosphere. But it is, in fact, reasonable to believe that it can be done better.

Thank you for the responses...keep 'em coming!

Adam

I too posted a question on this subject, see

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1248010

My personal opinion is that it is an imposition which the majority of people don't want or need (when they stop to think about it) and that cruise lines should make efforts to at least provide quiet areas and let us know where these are.

I don't feel background music is annoying in any way but I also don't feel it adds anything to the cruising experience.

The Celebrity Solstice played a lot of Sinatra type music. We heard a lot of Sinatra, Connick Jr, and Michael Buble'.

I think background music is a nice touch, as long as their are also venues on board that don't have it.

Whatever music is selected, PLEASE don't have it blasting loud. I have had to leave certain venues because the music is too loud. Background should be just that...... softly in the background.

Thanks for asking for our opinions. :)

I love music and I'm one of those people that has "ears" in often. I find lots of times on cruise ships that the muzak is very boring. Guess I can only hear "misty" and frank Sinatra so often it gets monotonous.

I would like more "destination" music. Reggae in the Caribbean, (OK - Frank for New York/New York) and Jazz/blues in NO. You get the idea. My dentist has a muzak track that cracks me up. It plays all those "hair bands" of the '80's ballads. Think guns 'n' roses and poison. This is kind of cool because you don't expect to hear them in this setting.

I have found that the music being piped in is often times WAY too loud. Personally I think there's enough sensory overload on a ship (people of all ages, talking, laughing, bar sounds, food service sounds, pool splashes, the ocean) that piped in music could go away and no one would notice or care.

If I want music, I'll plug in my own iPod. It's funny (as in ironic),the cruise lines say to use your headphones so as not to bother the other passengers, and yet they themselves pipe in music.

Take it away.

Currently, we are working on a better solution that will make the music more complementary to the cruising experience.

 

This sounds like industry talk. As you have heard, some people would translate this as "make it go away". Obviously this is not in your business interest.

So what are we trying to do with the music? Are we trying to get people to spend money? Trying to make them spend more/less time in a given venue? Trying to attract/repel a certain demographic? Are we trying to "theme" the entire ship/cruiseline, or are we creating different musical environments for different venues on the ship?

But I will respond. On the RCI trip I had a "promenade cabin" which had a lot of irritating noise from the atrium. I tuned my TV to one of those info channels with "easy-listening" background music. It was loud enough to screen out the background noise but so absolutely bland that I was able to fall asleep to it. Perfect!

On Carnival one early morning I listened to a smooth English voice talk about "visualizing your pituitary gland as a giant engine whose walls were all royal blue, and to imagine yourself walking through the royal-blue halls of your pituitary gland", all to the accompaniment of eerie new-age music. It was the most bizarre thing I've ever heard. Excellent. My compliments to Carnival.

On MSC one of the TV channels played background music which included my first hearing of "Wake Up Call" by Maroon 5. When that played before a dinner or show it was a happening thing. I was ready to punch out some Somali pirates. So if you're programming a common area designed to funnel people into a disco or an uptempo lounge just use "Wake Up Call" and "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse over and over and over.

This is great information...thank you guys for taking the time to respond.

In response to Lard, anything by Muse is a great choice in my book! Maybe not for a cruise, but that's a different story.

If anyone has something more to add, please do. It will not fall on deaf ears. And, hey, you might just end up shaping a little piece of your future experiences on-board.

Adam

On a Caribbean cruise, I want to have a choice of Caribbean music on my in-room tv. I don't really go to the Caribbean to hear hits from the 40's. It keeps the Caribbean feeling flowing all the time!

On the Ocean Princess at the buffet they play old, light rock. It is low enough that I only noticed it early in the morning when the place was nearly empty.

In response to Lard, anything by Muse is a great choice in my book! Maybe not for a cruise, but that's a different story.

 

Holland America, daddy. Round the clock and AMPED UP.

We were on P&O Oriana 6th to 23rd May, 2018.

When sitting in Theatre Royal in evenings waiting for show to start, one of thee songs being played had the lyrics 'Going Nowhere', but this isn't the title.

I believe Jane McDonald sang it when I saw her in a live concert at home, but the one onboard I believe was a different lady singer. Hope someone can help. Thank you.

I'm not a big fan of background music--how do you ever manage to find tunes everyone likes?--but if it has to be there, please, please make it 'background' not blaring so loudly we have to leave a venue.

One of our cruises, I'm pretty sure it was the Celebrity Solstice about 4 years ago, played background music everywhere on the ship constantly. You heard it in all hallways throughout the ship...maybe even the restrooms, though I wouldn't swear to that. The worst thing about it was the repetition - you heard the same songs over and over every day for the entire trip.

I love music and appreciate a choice in background music in my cabin. Throughout the ship, the volume should truly be "background" unless it's the primary entertainment for a venue. At least part of the time, the music should relate to the destination (reggae in the Caribbean, classical or flamenco guitar in Spain, mariachi in Mexico, etc.) If the cruise is a 14 day cruise which tends to attract older crowds, why play constant techno, rap or hip hop? If it's a 5 day spring break trip full of 20 somethings, don't play constant swing music/disco/smooth jazz. But again...please provide plenty of variety. I could play my own iTunes list for about 3 full 24-hour days without repeating a song, surely the cruise lines could do that well or better.

I think one thing that really got to me was that by the end of one cruise I knew what song was next on the playlist. The ships need to change things up and not simply repeat the same loop over and over.

I do have to admit I get tired of the steel drum music.

I don't think I've ever noticed the piped in music.

It is probably not reasonable to think that the cruise lines would do away with all background music, as that would create a dry atmosphere. But it is, in fact, reasonable to believe that it can be done better.

Thank you for asking!

Even in bars I prefer the "dry atmosphere". But I'm the exception I guess. To name two instances I can remember:

The Sunset Bar on Silhouette was so incredibly loud that we couldn't hear each other. Not at 10 PM, party time, but at noon. The choice of music was what I would expect on a Caribbean cruise during Spring Break, where we're going to St Petersburg with an average age of maybe 70.

In The Crow's Nest on Koningsdam I heard Boyoyo Boys/Alex Corner (Thanks Shazam!) at least once every two hours.

One last thing: how about asking the crew? They are the ones who get the small hints or complaints directly. Or they could simply ask what guests think when serving them.