Just back from CB.....anyone else in love with Bert Stratton?

[Colo Cruiser]

Yes he will be,

According to his vacation schedule he will be back from vacation on 08/27/05.

[reggielew]

Yes, Bert will be on the CB this September. You can check his vacation schedule through April 2006 on his website at http://www.bertstratton.com. He probably doesn't know his vacation times yet for 2006, but as soon as he does I'm sure he'll post them. He's very aware that many people want to make sure he'll be aboard when they cruise on the CB, so he always posts his schedule as soon as he knows it.

 

A cruise with Bert is "above and beyond" any other cruise!!!

 

Reggie

[reggielew]

Yes, Bert will be on the CB September of this year. You can check his vacation schedule until April 2006 at http://www.bertstratton.com. Bert is very aware that many people want to make sure that he will be on board when they cruise on the CB, so I'm sure that he will post his schedule for 2006-2007 as soon as he knows it.

 

A cruise with Bert is definitely "above and beyond" any other cruise experience!!!

 

Reggie

[marly]

Reggie: Definitely worth repeating!!!! :)

 

May I also add: He's the "One and Only" entertainer I'd book a cruise to see!

 

Certified Bertified Marly

[redjoan]

I was beginning to think I had lost it-----cause I felt the same----Bert is the only entertainer I would book a cruise JUST TO SEE AGAIN!!! It makes me feel better reading that soooo many others feel the same about him. I received an email from him yesterday saying that he plans on rebooking the Caribbean Princess through the summer of 2006. He didn't go beyond that date? Also said that his DVD is coming out in October and to watch for it on his web site. WOW! That an entertainer could be so commanding! LOVE IT! I am definitely "Bertified!" Hope Princess realizes what they have in him and treats him well! :-)

[Dreamer333]

I wonder where Bert Stratton goes for VACATION?? (Since his work, is as close to vacation as you can get, while working!!) :)

 

Maybe he just goes home for vacation!

[marlinmike]

I'd like to "RIGHT NOW" be in his Living Room with all of you, calling out "Bert", we'd all be family and "Soon we'd be kin", everyone would have a seat, afterall "there's only 30 or 40 left", we'd sing Twofers, Countree, Snippets and Origeeginals with great Participitation - then we'd all be Bertified!!!

 

He's the greatest!

[Julia & David]

I miss sitting in Bert's livingroom every night. It is taking awhile to adjust. He is the best!!!!!

[marly]

MarlinMike: :)

[Greyhound3]

Bert Stratton is the reason we booked the CB for our upcoming cruise!

 

I first saw Bert on the OceanBreeze in 1994, back in his "Tabasco" days (if you saw Bert perform around then, you'll know what that means). We spent every night of that cruise in Bert's "living room", and look forward to doing the same on this trip.

 

Bert is undoubtedly the best entertainer afloat!

[waterrats]

I have written his name down and will add it to the things to see this year on my cruise in September. Thanks. Since so many have liked him, I am sure I will too. Does he do a show in one of the lounges or mainly in the Centrum. If it is only in the Centrum, that will be cool because it is a nice informal setting.

[reggielew]

Hi!

 

Bert does his show each night in Crooner's Lounge which is right off the Centrum. On other Princess ships I have seen him do an occasional show in the Centrum or in the Explorer's Lounge, but usually he is in his "living room" in the Crooner's Lounge. Don't miss him!!!

 

Reggie

[waterrats]

Thanks for the update. I won't miss him

[marly]

waterrats: I recommend buying his CD too. He wrote all the songs, and they are beautiful.

Marly

[marlinmike]

I did a "private review" of our trip on July 23rd and this is the section about Bert:

Sorry I was busy last night, so I didn’t get my review done. We went over to a retired partner’s house for dinner and had fun telling stories, lies and God knows what. I’m not sure how long these will last as I’ve got a new project to work on. I found out he’s got a Princess cruise to Alaska booked for about three weeks from now. I really want him to have a good experience. Bill and Cathy would be great fun to cruise with. The last time they went of a cruise was a group deal through a local travel agency that puts together pretty good packages. He is a University of Washington Alumni and a long time football season ticket holder. He went with a large group to Florida, went on a cruise and was supposed to come back to see the Huskies play Miami in a first of the season game. First of all, their cruise went to **** when they heard about this 9/11 thing, they also lost a 12 person plane load of people in an excursion from Cozumel in a plane crash and hit rough waters coming back so everyone was sick. Then, because of 9/11 their football game was cancelled so it was all for not. I told him I’d spend some time and send him some tips about how to make this experience a little better.

 

Last time I talked about the entertainment in the Princess Theater. This time I’m going to talk about one entertainer. Bert Stratton. This guy is special. He is a down to earth person that is an excellent singer, excellent entertainer, excellent piano player, excellent ad-libber and excellent songwriter. He does two shows every night at Crooners, except the night of the Champagne waterfall. Then he just stands by his piano and talks with people. And one other night he plays in Explorer’s instead of Crooners because of the crowds that want to see him. When we went in ’04 there was always a crowd around the area, now we know why. I think we went to at least one of his shows every night and both shows some nights.

 

 

What does Bert do? In fact that was one of his lines – “betcha you’re gonna have a hard time explaining this performance back home”. He’s right. Bert plays a piano standing up (except once just to prove he could play sitting down and then played a medley of about 10 abbreviated songs). He plays everything from country to rock to caribbean to classical – ANYTHING. He has a suitcase of paperback music books he stacks on the piano every night to be able to sing and play anything. He does songs by Elvis, Beatles, Manlow, Sinatra – a very wide variety of songs or just about anything you can request. What’s kind of a phenomena is that he’ll say “anyone wanna hear anything” and everyone will start blurting out songs. He’ll stop it after about 10 and then play them – without writing down any of the requests. Most of the songs he’ll turn into an audience participation thing and if you don’t participate – he’ll stop and talk you into it. He calls it “participitation” – an extreme form of participation. Some folks think he’s “Jim Carey’ish” he refers to himself as a cross between Tommy and Dickey Smothers.

 

 

The Crooner’s Lounge area was always packed and there was always people standing at the rail and plugging up the walkway. Once night during a rousing rendition of “Under the Boardwalk” Bert would sing and versus and as usual, we’d sing the chorus. Except this night there was a gentleman standing at the rail that belted out the “Under the Boardwalk” parts and we’d say “out in the sun”, he’d belt out “Under the Boardwalk” and we sing “we were havin’ fun” and so on and so on. He took Bert’s part of the chorus and Bert was left with just the versus. This guy wasn’t that big, probably with some Japanese or Japanese/Hawaiian decent, but could really belt it out. It was fun. After the show I went up to Bert’s piano to buy one of his CD’s, he said he had a boat load of ‘em. He also said you could buy them at the store that sold the cheapest liquor on the boat – where they sold the duty free booze. “Just look for the liquor and you’ll find my CD”. The only difference is that he signed everyone he sold personally. More about the CD in a minute, but this part of the story was about two other gentlemen up at the piano to buy CD’s also. One was the guy who did the “Down at the Boardwalk” thing. He introduced himself to Bert and Bert mentioned he had a good voice and he said thank you, I’ve sung for many years doing Vaudeville on Broadway. He went on to tell Bert that he thought Bert was much better than himself and that he shouldn’t be working on a cruise ship. He said “Bert, you have a gift for the ability to sing unlike a lot of singers”. He said you don’t sign from deep within your chest like most good singers – it’s almost a nasal thing. Then there was this other gentleman that joined into the discussion in a white dinner jacket. He introduced himself to the Boardwalk guy and said he taught and entertained on Broadway for many years. He then agreed Bert shouldn’t be working on a cruise ship and that his singing was unique and asked if he, by chance, knows of blah, blah (didn’t hear and/or recognize the name). Bert said, yes, that was his vocal teacher long ago and she was the one that taught him to sing the way he does. There were several times when Bert would go into an acapella solo and it was something special and man could he do one hell of a song from Phantom of the Opera – it think it was called The Music of the Night.

 

 

That’s enough about Bert the singer, now about Bert the entertainer. He had every audience laughing, signing, clapping and having a good time. As I said, he had two shows, but really he had one long show with a ½ break for selling CD’s, change his shirt and have a special made fruit milk shake. His second show is not a repeat of his first, different songs and more requests. His shows are more ad-lib as far as the songs go, no set script or order of songs. There are several songs he does every night, but really mixes it up well. Once he gets really warmed up and is sweating profusely he’ll put on a jacket. He’ll explain it’s for his health because he’s found with a lot of perspiration on his shirt the air conditioning will cause him to catch a cold. He keeps the crowd going and truly loves what he does. He lives in Fort Lauderdale and gets to spend a few hours at home on Saturday’s – his only day off.

 

 

Now about his CD. He wrote every song on it. Actually, I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but I’ve heard him sing a few cuts from it. This is why he is on a cruise ship he said. He’d rather try to get some exposure the way he’s doing it – by having fun while he’s doing it – but really wants to get into song writing. One of the tracks from his CD was recently picked up by Pat Boone, of all people, but is using it for the title track to his CD. Like he said – it’s a start.

 

 

He likes to quit playing the piano and jump around in a Jim Carey’ish dance and clap and cheer on the audience participitation, then pick it back up like be never missed a beat. LATE one night Julie, Dave and I were watching. Mary had gone to bed and I should have I had one eye closed and the other barely open while he was signing something slow, soft and mellow. Then BANG, he went into Jerry Lee Lewis’s, Great Balls of Fire and woke me back up with a start. Dave thought that was pretty funny.

 

 

There was this little girl named Leslie with Downs, maybe around 10 years old, and she requested “I Will Always Love You”, made famous by Whitney Houston. He asked her to come stand next to his piano while he sang it to her. He had a big smile on his face and belted out the song to her. She was crying profusely – tears of joy and about ½ way through the song she came around behind the piano, next to him and he continued without a crack in his voice. Believe me, it was a tear jerker (yes, Julie was a mess). Like I told him in my thank you email to Bert today, it must feel good to be able to put so much happiness in peoples lives by using his hands, his voice and his God given talents, especially for people like Leslie.

 

 

He has a website at www.bertstratton.com and a fan club at www.bertstrattonfans.com

[marly]

MarlinMike: What a fantastic and beautifully written review! Thanks so much for sharing "all" of our experiences with Bert. I'm sure we can all relate to your stories about him even though we weren't on the same cruise.

Marly

[montgomeryfamily]

I received a nice note from Bert Stratton in regard to my query about his 2006 schedule. He advised me that he intends to be on the Caribbean Princess next year and is in the process of finalizing his spring, summer and winter 2006 schedule. He will publish the finalized schedule on his website and hopes to have that completed by mid-September.

 

Now, the best news of all (at least to me :))--He plans to be onboard the Caribbean Princess during our August 19, 2006 Cruise Critic Group cruise!! Whoo Hoo!!!

[MaryPoppinz]

What’s kind of a phenomena is that he’ll say “anyone wanna hear anything” and everyone will start blurting out songs. He’ll stop it after about 10 and then play them – without writing down any of the requests.

 

Of the many mind-blowing abilities of Bert Stratton, remembering all the "blurt outs" and then making a medley out of them is definitely one of the most mind-blowing!

 

He's right about his act being tough to describe, but you did a nice job!

[Julia & David]

We were fortunate enough to enjoy Bert with our dear friends the marlinmikes. I miss being in Bert's livingroom every night but listening to his cd sure helps. I tried to talk him into the Crown for 2006 but he is staying with the Caribbean Princess. We hope to cross paths with him again in the future.

 

We sent him a thank you email and he responded. He is such a gem!!

[marlinmike]

I have some good news from Bert. He sent me an email and said:

Dear Mike and Mary, Thanks for great e-mail. I hope all is well You folks made my livingroom SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOOD!! I have great news. i am currently working on a DVD. It should be available by October if not sooner. It will carry the Bert Stratton seal of approval. (Certified Bertified). I will post it on my website at www.bertstratton.com I wish you the best for the rest of 2005. Take care and God Bless, Bert

 

This will help keep us Bertified between trips on the Caribbean Princess.

[marly]

October if not sooner! Wow, that's great news! I"m going on Sept. 10. I guess if he doesn't have the DVD "sooner," I'll just have to book another cruise so I can see him autograph my copy!

 

MontgomeryFamily: Aug. 19, 2006 sounds great to me! As soon as I'm off cruise restriction, :), I'll let you know about joining your group.

Marly

[montgomeryfamily]

Marly, I'm so envious you'll be sailing soon and will be in Bert Stratton's living room while the rest of us will have to wait for months until our next cruise :D Be sure and let us all know if the DVD was available on your sailing.

 

After you get back, you'll have to get those Ebay listings out immediately and earn the money to get you off of cruise restriction. ;)

[Roboat]

Bert's web site now says he's booked on the CB through April '06. I gotta see his guy!

[montgomeryfamily]

Roboat, he is definitely not to be missed!!

 

Also, to put your mind at ease, Bert Stratton is going to be on the Caribbean Princess through winter of next year! :) As I and some others have stated in earlier posts on this thread, Bert Stratton has advised that he is going to be on the Caribbean Princess through next winter and is in the process of finalizing his schedule, which he hopes to do by mid-September. He also indicated that he will post the updated schedule on his website once it is finalized. So although his website currently only shows him being on the Caribbean Princess through April, he will be on longer than that.---Including when I will be on the Caribbean Princess on August 19, 2006 for the Cruise Critic group cruise!!! :) WOOO HOOO!!!! :)

[britsbest]

We were on Caribbean for the week before his vacation. Princess staff videoed (sp?) his performance in Explorer's lounge and Bert hopes to release it on DVD later in 2005. Check Bert's site for info