Please, no Art Auctions

It's been a long time since I've been on a mainline cruise and even longer since I've had to face an art auction. The last one I recall was on long gone Orient Line, and that was also the only time I got sea sick -some of the "art" was displayed in a public location near my room.

So, when I cruise on Noordam this coming February will I be confronted with cruise art for sale? Based on current HAL policies can I get a hearty No? Thanks.

Based on my last experience with HAL, in 2015, it's all over the ship. But some of it is very good.

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Based on my last experience with HAL, in 2015, it's all over the ship. But some of it is very good.

 

 

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. Yuck; I still remember bad bad Peter Max, fake Dali prints, nightmarish Kinkade villages and cottages of the damned plus sports stuff. People off boarding and noticing that the exact "art work" they just bought is being reloaded for the next idiot. I really did not expect this.

��. Yuck; I still remember bad bad Peter Max, fake Dali prints, nightmarish Kinkade villages and cottages of the damned plus sports stuff. People off boarding and noticing that the exact "art work" they just bought is being reloaded for the next idiot. I really did not expect this.

I've never gone to the auctions, therefore they've never bothered me. The Art Gallery is usually on deck 2, so yes, you might walk by, but they won't Shanghai you.

Yes -- there will be art auctions.

Many ships have it in the Ocean Bar and the art is usually placed all around the atrium.

We don't go to them and just stay away from where ever they are going to be.

The time and place will be listed in the daily program.

Two things that really bothered us about the art auctions were the trees that were cut down for the dozens of leaflets and paper-trash you had to throw away each and every cruise ( together with the spa invitations to get rid of wrinkles, ingrown toe nails, excessive stomach "bumps" etc.) and, secondly, the use of the Crows Nest besides the Ocean Bar which has always been a good space for quiet reading and viewing the scenery. During our last cruise on Koningsdam the Crow's Nest was blocked quite a few times for Art Auctions - besides being blocked by "private functions = groups so that you were forced to either sit in the over-crowded Explorations Café or in the Dutch Café which was a delightful haven though if you were lucky to find a seat!

By the way - we do love art, but the art that is sold should come with quotation marks....

Does anyone really go to these charades and actually buy something???? I see people showing up, snagging a free glass of cheap sparking wine, and walking away.

For the life of me I can't understand the idea of going on a cruise and developing a sudden desire to buy "art".

I wouldn't waste my time if they were paying people to attend.

I agree about the waste of paper involved with delivering the endless advertisements to cabins. It's an annoyance to have to keep disposing of them. Minor, admittedly, but still an annoyance.

It is on the Noordam front and center. It takes over full lounges, creeps into the hallways, fills your mailbox with fliers, and fills your eyes with garbage. It got a LOT of my comments on the end survey.

Such a waste of real estate to get $3000 sales (retail is $5900!!) of something you could get at Michaels for $29.99.

I would love to see the space turned over to shops carrying actual garments. Maybe a kitchen theme boutique to go with the new test kitchen, pretty much anything other than that Gawd Awful 'art'

According to a Bloomberg story from late last year Park West, a major purveyor of cruise "art", is still making major moolah from sales and obviously the cruise lines get their cut. The two stories I read mentioned every major cruise line but HAL which is why I posted.

Due to my cabin placement on my aforementioned Orient cruise I had to pass this garbage every time I went to or from my cabin; it was like a fresh affront each time. I think my cabin placement will not be as problematic this time.

It is on the Noordam front and center. It takes over full lounges, creeps into the hallways, fills your mailbox with fliers, and fills your eyes with garbage. It got a LOT of my comments on the end survey.

 

Such a waste of real estate to get $3000 sales (retail is $5900!!) of something you could get at Michaels for $29.99.

 

I would love to see the space turned over to shops carrying actual garments. Maybe a kitchen theme boutique to go with the new test kitchen, pretty much anything other than that Gawd Awful 'art'

Well somehow this post made me feel better about the coming ordeal and I like your idea about the kitchen boutique. My own food thought is that I would really like it if a local chef could come aboard on nights when the ship is harbored and prepare some local cuisine; has anyone experienced that on any cruise line?

Sure, there are a few spaces on board where junk art is displayed, but it is not that hard to ignore. Just one of the occasional minor annoyances of cruising, but not as problematic as the loud-mouth shouting into his cell phone, the me-firster pushing ahead into the elevator, the Typhoid Mary wannabe who fingers and puts back rolls.

It is a lot easier to ignore the cheap art and its promotion.

One day went up to the Crow's nest for a quick bite at the Explorations Cafe. Crow's Nest was blocked off for an art auction. Grabbed my little sandwiches and sat in the computer/library area. What amazed me was hearing the final bids on the pieces they were selling. Quite a few were in the five digit range.

I'm channeling PT Barnum. Can you read my mind?

I personally have never attended an "Art" auction. (I have better things to do with my time! Like a visit to the medical center) Please don't get offended I meant it as a joke... Anyway, I have a SIL who attended one on her last cruise and actually bid and "won" the piece of art. It went for a modest price. I think she said $200. I asked her what made her buy it and she said. "I just liked the picture." She said she knew it wasn't any "great art" but she just liked it.

Anyway I have no problem with "art" I just wish the "art" wasn't in the way of where I want to go. When it lines the Atrium and people have to turn sideways and jostle around it, that is when I get annoyed.

HAL should display all the "art" in the Neptune Lounge and line the hallways in front of the Pinnacle Suites. Those hallways are plenty wide enough! Haha!!!! Got you didn't I?/?

HAL should display all the "art" in the Neptune Lounge and line the hallways in front of the Pinnacle Suites. Those hallways are plenty wide enough! Haha!!!! Got you didn't I?/?

Hallway envy is curable. ;)

They don't bother us. We simply tune them out. We don't attend them.

Just try googling Park West litigation.

The art auctions are easily avoided. Recycle the fliers. Step around any "art" that intrudes into hallways and report the clutter to ship's staff as a safety hazard. Smile as you realize that the auctions are a huge income source for the cruise lines and that the people who buy the art are helping to keep your cruise fares low.

Many years ago, on a 12 day Alaska cruise, we met a young couple who purchased 18 (yes) items of "art" because they planned to open a bed-and-breakfast. They did not have the place yet, but they had lots of stuff to hang on the non-existent walls! We were amazed.

Two things that really bothered us about the art auctions were the trees that were cut down for the dozens of leaflets and paper-trash you had to throw away each and every cruise ( together with the spa invitations to get rid of wrinkles, ingrown toe nails, excessive stomach "bumps" etc.) ...

Agreed! Maybe in the future, they will come up with a better system to invite us to all of these special events, etc., that aren't in the daily pamphlet. Way too much paper waste on our last cruise! I'm happy they had a recycling section in our waste bin, but it still just made the room super cluttered from time to time.

Many, many years ago (more years than I care to count), the art auctions were somewhat different.

We had a guest artist on board who acutally did a painting on board (Zamy Steinovitch sp?). It was fun watching the progress and his skill at work. It was auctioned off near the end of the cruise with the $ going to charity and the Crew fund.

the pictures back then were quite pleasing generally speaking and yes, way back then we bought a couple including some of Zamy's work which we still enjoy.

But things have changed since that time of long, long time ago and we have avoided the art auctions like the plague for the last decade or so. ;)

According to a Bloomberg story from late last year Park West, a major purveyor of cruise "art", is still making major moolah from sales and obviously the cruise lines get their cut. The two stories I read mentioned every major cruise line but HAL which is why I posted.

Due to my cabin placement on my aforementioned Orient cruise I had to pass this garbage every time I went to or from my cabin; it was like a fresh affront each time. I think my cabin placement will not be as problematic this time.

Talked to the gal handling art sales on an early Crystal cruise who said this was a $4 billion industry on just cruise ships alone world wide. She had the entire ship hung with very large pieces on that cruise, and also offered fairly interesting art lectures which were not sales pitches.

She was not part of the ParkWest type auction houses, but an independent purveyor out of Basel Switzerland. Second Crystal cruise no longer had these large individual artistic displays -which were quite different from the more mass market commercially-produced art products on HAL ships.

Is not the makeover of the Northern Lights disco space into the "Gallery Bar" a place now where they hang some of these commercially produced auction products?

Many, many years ago (more years than I care to count), the art auctions were somewhat different.

 

We had a guest artist on board who acutally did a painting on board (Zamy Steinovitch sp?). It was fun watching the progress and his skill at work. It was auctioned off near the end of the cruise with the $ going to charity and the Crew fund.

 

the pictures back then were quite pleasing generally speaking and yes, way back then we bought a couple including some of Zamy's work which we still enjoy.

 

But things have changed since that time of long, long time ago and we have avoided the art auctions like the plague for the last decade or so. ;)

Zamy Steynovitz; seems to have been heavily influenced by Chagall. He died in 2000.

It's been a long time since I've been on a mainline cruise and even longer since I've had to face an art auction. The last one I recall was on long gone Orient Line, and that was also the only time I got sea sick -some of the "art" was displayed in a public location near my room.

So, when I cruise on Noordam this coming February will I be confronted with cruise art for sale? Based on current HAL policies can I get a hearty No? Thanks.

I have been cruising on HAL for over 20 years and there is an art auction. I have never gone to one. No one is forced to go.

I won a painting on my very first cruise in 1999. Question was, "What was Rembrandt's first name?" and my (correct answer was "Rembrandt!" The prize was a bottle of what I was told was very nice champagne (I don't drink alcohol, so the friends and family who were with me enjoyed the treat). It's a beautiful place, and hangs in my bedroom

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