Just returned - Crystal Jazz Cruise

[chrismch]

This was our first jazz cruise and we loved it so much we booked again for the Nov 30 2008 cruise. It was a 7 day western Caribbean cruise and we enjoyed the ports but chose the cruise as it was a jazz theme cruise.

 

Here's some basics of how it was set up...they had 28 musicians on board (not counting the crew musicians). They mixed them in into trios, quartets, sextets etc. They would play for 45 min at a time and a 2nd band would start within 5-10 minutes of one stopping. It was usually 2 hrs each around lunch, pre-dinner and late evening shows. This was done on sea days as well as port days. In addition, they had a lecturer on Jazz history and on the TV you could watch vintage jazz videos from the 1950's- 1970's. The music was straight ahead accoustic jazz - mostly traditional and some big band.

 

This was sponsored by Jazzdagens and probably 80% of the pax were jazz fans. If you booked through Jazzdagens you got access to some additional chats with the musicians and a cocktail party. However, all the daily sessions as mentioned above were part of your standard cruise fare. It was a stellar deal!

[hattack]

sounds great and very classy to open it for everyone..on the "mass" cruise lines only the folks who paid the premium could gain access to all venues, which sometimes causes hard feelings