Question about the lead performer on a cruise?

[Langley Cruisers]

...The commercial for the ship I tried to watch calls her the "Godmother" and she does all the talking in it.... Her voice just grates me in a way I have never experienced...

 

 

Oh dear - LOL, but not really. OK, gotcha now. Her name is Kristen Chenoweth and unless she is sailing as a passenger on your specific cruise, you will not see her or hear her.

 

Have fun.

 

.

[Hlitner]

LOL TravelinGert....After looking at some of your other posts we gather you are concerned about Kristin Chenowith (who happens to have an amazing singing voice). You can rest assured that she will not be on your cruise. In fact, we would assume that if she ever does take a cruise it would likely be on a more upscale cruise line, or a private yacht....not on RCI :)

 

Hank

[Cruisin' Chick]

Most of the time I wouldn't have known who the Godmother is of a ship I'm on (and I usually check the website of the cruiseline I'm going on before every cruise -- before, when pre-cruise docs w/a booklet with the info was sent, I would read this too). It's really not something that will be in your face (or ears). Even Kathy Lee Gifford, when she was doing the Carnival commercials, wasn't being shown on the in-cabin TV during any of my Carnival cruises. I didn't have to hear her singing or be aware of her at all.

 

Now when we were on our December cruise on the Golden Princess, videos about the Royal Princess were being constantly shown. In the waiting room before getting on the ship. On the in-cabin TV between movies and shows. At the Captain's Circle party for past passengers. But the videos were more about features of the ship and featured Princess management talking about it. The Godmother hadn't been selected yet. But I doubt if the Duchess's voice would even be heard on the ship at all, unless the Naming Ceremony was run on one of the channels.

 

Most likely the only PA announcers would be the cruise director and the captain (or the officer on deck has an important announcement to make).

[sail7seas]

LOL TravelinGert....After looking at some of your other posts we gather you are concerned about Kristin Chenowith (who happens to have an amazing singing voice). You can rest assured that she will not be on your cruise. In fact, we would assume that if she ever does take a cruise it would likely be on a more upscale cruise line, or a private yacht....not on RCI :)

 

Hank

 

 

Marlee Matlin is Godmother of HAL's Noordam and she has actually sailed the ship with her family. Crew told us they all had a wonderful time. If you did not recognize her out and about enjoying the ship just like everyone else, you would not have known she was aboard.

 

For those who don't know her, she is a deaf actress who won an Academy Award for her performance in Children of a Lesser God. She also participated in DWTS and it was amazing how she was able to keep the beat considering she is totally deaf. (the bass vibrated on the floor and she could feel it.)

 

 

[cruisecritiquer]

I see you have some sensory defensiveness against her voice. ;) No one can really judge you because we all have sensory defensiveness against something. Are you sensitive to other stimuli? For everyone else, if she's talking about Kristen Chenoweth, she is a Broadway performer and television actress (maybe movies too?)...she's been on Jay Leno several times. OP probably knows her from TV. Her voice is very Minnie Mouse-ish and a lot of people think her voice is cute. She doesn't bother me but I can see how someone might think her voice is irritating. I doubt she'll be on your ship.

 

Here she is:

OP, you might want to stay away from this link. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b8aM1MkBLo

[Ehpride]

Oh no. I doubt you'll have to worry about the godmother of the ship.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Ms. Chenowith might appear on one of the shorter pre-inaugural cruises, but I doubt she will sail on any longer subsequent cruises. Even if she does, I'm almost certain she will not make announcements.

[Hlitner]

Ms. Chenowith does have a strange Minnie-mouse kind of voice when she speaks. But, put that tiny woman on a stage and let her sing and its an entirely different story, as she has a beautiful voice that has won her a lot of acclaim. She is also an accomplished Opera singer and is a trained soprano. Its hard to reconcile her singing voice with her strange speaking voice. Although I would not want to hear her doing public speaking (but we did enjoy her on the West Wing) we would be happy to hear her singing broadway (where she has won awards) or opera.

 

By the way, she is not the first strange sounding speaker to be an excellent singer. Just think back to Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle) who sounded like a hick until he started to sing. And then you would see mouths agape as people said, I didn't know he could sing.

 

Hank

[TravelinGert]

I see you have some sensory defensiveness against her voice. ;) No one can really judge you because we all have sensory defensiveness against something. Are you sensitive to other stimuli? For everyone else, if she's talking about Kristen Chenoweth, she is a Broadway performer and television actress (maybe movies too?)...she's been on Jay Leno several times. OP probably knows her from TV. Her voice is very Minnie Mouse-ish and a lot of people think her voice is cute. She doesn't bother me but I can see how someone might think her voice is irritating. I doubt she'll be on your ship.

 

Here she is:

OP, you might want to stay away from this link. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b8aM1MkBLo

 

 

 

I guess I am no good at being coy. After I got a lot of flak for saying I had no idea who she was, I didn't know if I should be open about just who was causing me to cringe. I was just watching everything on youtube I could find on the Quantum when I came across the one with her voice. I have never seen anything she's performed in prior to that. When we saw Wicked, she was not yet a part of it, but I had to look it up to know that because I don't really like to pay any attention to performer names when I watch plays and musicals. It tends to spoil the suspension of disbelief thing for me. Really, I'm quite certain they couldn't possibly have had someone that made many people cringe star in a big musical like Wicked. And since she won't be the voice of the Quantum, I think everything will be fine. :o

 

The post above really made me giggle, so thanks for that! I've never had quite the reaction to anything which I had to her voice in that commercial. Sometimes she speaks several words and nothing. Then she'll say something and this tone comes out in her voice that just makes me cringe. As I mentioned, maybe this was caused by my ear infection which damaged my ear drum about a year and a half ago? Maybe she just happens to hit the right tone with that - I guess it is sort of an undertone in her voice - and sets off the cringe thing because of that. I was really sad about it, because I was prepared to like her very much due to her having been in one of my favorite musicals.

 

Someone else mentioned maybe she's like Jim Nabors. I had to giggle at that, as well. My mom used to put on her Jim Nabors album when we'd clean house every Saturday. If the house was clean when he finished, I could go play outdoors. Having never seen his face, I was totally shocked when one night he appeared on Johnny Carson. I had no idea that awesome, huge voice could have possibly come out of the same guy that played Gomer Pyle. :p

[kitty9]

Ms Chenoweth was with the original cast of Wicked on Broadway, where she originated the character of Glinda. She was also nominated for a Tony Award for her role, losing to her co-star Idina Menzel who played Elphaba (who I saw in concert last night, btw). So, unless you saw Wicked in NYC, you didn't see her at all because she didn't do any of the touring companies. Ms Chenoweth also won a Tony for the musical, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown and she won an Emmy for her role in the TV show Pushing Daisies. She's also been nominated, and won, many Drama Critics Awards for the numerous Broadway shows she's appeared in. She also starred in quite a few TV shows, such as West Wing, so I really don't think her voice makes that many people cringe. Just listen to her singing voice and I think you'll change your mind. Broadway producers don't hire people to star on Broadway if their voices make most people cringe. And, while she does have that "little girl" voice, things you watch on You Tube tend to have pretty bad sound quality, so you might be able to discount the cringe factor a little bit.

 

FYI, many actresses from Broadway are Godmothers of cruise ships, but have absolutely nothing to do with the ship after the christening. Julie Andrews is the Godmother of Crystal Serenity, Angela Lansbury of Crystal Symphony, the Rockettes of NCL Breakaway. Other Godmothers are Jennifer Hudson of Disney Dream, Sophia Loren of MSC Divina, Pricilla Presley of the American Queen, Mariah Carey of the Disney Fantasy, Helen Mirren of Ventura and finally Kim Cattrall (from Sex and the City) of NCL Dawn.

 

So, you won't have to worry about hearing anyone's voice on the Quantum that may bother you. To be honest, you rarely hear anyone speaking on the ship unless it's the obnoxious announcements that are done by the cruise director.

[Jimnbigd]

What you will likely here several times a day is something like this:

bing-bong [a doorbell that alerts you an announcement is coming]

GOOOOOOD afternoon [your ship name here] passengers. This is your cruise director John. In 10 minutes we have exciting jackpot bingo in the main theater...

I tend to tune these out.

[TravelinGert]

Ms Chenoweth was with the original cast of Wicked on Broadway, where she originated the character of Glinda. She was also nominated for a Tony Award for her role, losing to her co-star Idina Menzel who played Elphaba (who I saw in concert last night, btw). So, unless you saw Wicked in NYC, you didn't see her at all because she didn't do any of the touring companies. Ms Chenoweth also won a Tony for the musical, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown and she won an Emmy for her role in the TV show Pushing Daisies. She's also been nominated, and won, many Drama Critics Awards for the numerous Broadway shows she's appeared in. She also starred in quite a few TV shows, such as West Wing, so I really don't think her voice makes that many people cringe. Just listen to her singing voice and I think you'll change your mind. Broadway producers don't hire people to star on Broadway if their voices make most people cringe. And, while she does have that "little girl" voice, things you watch on You Tube tend to have pretty bad sound quality, so you might be able to discount the cringe factor a little bit.

 

FYI, many actresses from Broadway are Godmothers of cruise ships, but have absolutely nothing to do with the ship after the christening. Julie Andrews is the Godmother of Crystal Serenity, Angela Lansbury of Crystal Symphony, the Rockettes of NCL Breakaway. Other Godmothers are Jennifer Hudson of Disney Dream, Sophia Loren of MSC Divina, Pricilla Presley of the American Queen, Mariah Carey of the Disney Fantasy, Helen Mirren of Ventura and finally Kim Cattrall (from Sex and the City) of NCL Dawn.

 

So, you won't have to worry about hearing anyone's voice on the Quantum that may bother you. To be honest, you rarely hear anyone speaking on the ship unless it's the obnoxious announcements that are done by the cruise director.

 

This isn't a matter of changing my mind, I'm afraid. Unfortunately this more one of those reactions you can't help. Like when someone hits your leg just below your knee and it jerks or how someone watching you really intently can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

[kitty9]

This isn't a matter of changing my mind, I'm afraid. Unfortunately this more one of those reactions you can't help. Like when someone hits your leg just below your knee and it jerks or how someone watching you really intently can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

 

Oh believe me, I understand. My sister has very sensitive hearing and there are many things that to her sound like fingernails on a blackboard.

[TravelinGert]

Kitty9, I could never understand one of my friends who is very touchy because little noises I never even noticed would be really grating to her. Now that I have experienced how a noise that obviously is no bother to most anyone else can be such an issue, I have a lot more sympathy. I'm really sorry your sister also experiences this situation. At least I can just avoid the one thing that seems to irritate me pretty easily, rather than it being a lot of things.

[Langley Cruisers]

Oh believe me, I understand. My sister has very sensitive hearing and there are many things that to her sound like fingernails on a blackboard.

 

Yes, remember some years ago there was a person who claimed the sound of Mary Hart's voice gave him or her seizures? Yikes. :eek:

[navybankerteacher]

Yes, remember some years ago there was a person who claimed the sound of Mary Hart's voice gave him or her seizures? Yikes. :eek:

 

Was there a real person with that syndrome - or just Cosmo Kramer in that Seinfeld episode? I know a lot of his shows about "nothing" were based on real incidents in New York -- as in the Soup ****, and Elaine's job with the J. Peterman catalog.

[The Mister]

Jumping in with a related anecdote - nothing to do with cruising, though.

 

I have a co-worker who can't stand the sound of styrofoam when two pieces rub against each other. So leftovers and take-out are particularly troublesome for him. However, his GF (also a co-worker) has gotten really good at holding styrofoam containers juuust right so they don't make a noise as they drive home from the restaurant.

[cruisecritiquer]

Jumping in with a related anecdote - nothing to do with cruising, though.

 

I have a co-worker who can't stand the sound of styrofoam when two pieces rub against each other. So leftovers and take-out are particularly troublesome for him. However, his GF (also a co-worker) has gotten really good at holding styrofoam containers juuust right so they don't make a noise as they drive home from the restaurant.

 

That is easily one of the worst sounds on earth.