hmmm ... i got vsl ... let's get a cruise ship, then ... ;-)

now you're one lucky guy, my man! keep doing ya thang and watch out for those caribbean pirates looking to steal your video-library. ;-)

dude... if you ever need a month off... PM me!!

Make them Dollars! :)

arrrrrrrrgh!

me's jelous

who the f**% is thaaaaatt

no one said the obvious

HE"s ON A BOAT - Take a good look at him cuz he sailing on a boat...

Mark me down as jealous...that sounds awesome!

I'm on a boat and ...
It's going fast and ...
I'm DJ'ing Video because I'm a phat man!

lol J/K!

i was just curious to know the breakdown of genres you play as youre sailing thru the caribbean.....

congrats to you mane! im sure youve been givin' out tons of business cards !

so, do they pay you like it's a regular job, or do they pay you dj rates?

watch out for norwalk virus. that ish can spread to EVERYONE within 24 hrs.

my boy worked for disney for a few years...
he made a killing, had a blast, tapped some sweet mouseclub tail and made great
connections he still uses today.

if your lifestyle permits, a hi-profile cruise is great

hey josh. i need that guy with the disney contact! i'm only an hour away. if you mean disney in FL not CA.

i've done 2 tours on ships as a guest entertainer (DJ went on vaca so they brought me on for a month at a time).

lemmie tell ya, if your on as a a guest entertainer, YOU'VE GOT IT MADE!!! otherwise, i wouldn't do it.

only crappy part, the ship i was on only had a peice of crap dual cd player and crappy mixer. the "DJ's" were usually someone going in as a waiter or waitress and saw the opening and said, "i can do that if it gets me a bigger bed and more freedoms".

but it was a great time and i'd love to do it again.

Yes, im a guest entertainer, but i bring all my own equipment, Mac book Pro, 2 CDJ 400's, Denon DJ DN-HC1000S Controller. The only thing i use from the ship is the pioneer mixer.
On the genres of music i play, on Princess they usually do a "theme hour" which varies from cruise to cruise, from 50's & 60's, Motown, 70's, 80's, 90's, Latin, romance, etc... But after that its is a crowd read, mostly mainstream with some house, electro, etc..

There is always a balance between what the cruise customers want to hear (mostly Top 40) and what the crew wants to here (mostly European house).

It's kinda funny at times.

when i was on, everyday was a different theme, country, disco, 60's, ect.

i got so diverse by working on the ship. i even did a "hoe down" here and got offered a mixshow on the local country station! lmao!!

you will enjoy the hell out of this cruise! live it up homie!

btw, i wish i could've brought my own gear, maybe if i had cdj's. i only have 1200's and i don't think i'd take those.

I'd love to do a few weeks on a cruise ship as a guest DJ. Only problem is can you use 1200's or is the booth rockin?

i just booked a 3 week contract on princess leaving from Long Beach. they said i could only bring one cdj-1000 (and that was after e-mailing back and forth for 2 weeks). instread, i plan on bringing both my 1200's since i live 20 minutes from the port. i could always send a deck home if they actually do care.

at the audition i tried to demonstrate video mixing but they just looked at me like i was speaking klingon. oh well... should be interesting.

good luck...

live long and prosper...


klingon.. ha!

hey phat-al, you're the shit. i love your work!

thanks!

depending on what ship, it might not have video in the club yet, and dealing with the ship's production crew, is like a act of congress

from what I understand cruise ships don't pay as much, I had offers and turned them down the pay was super wack!!

VERY low!

but, on the other hand...its a vacation, and you pay ZERO out of pocket for
food, drink and such...

the deal that came my was was like 75.00 a shift (2 shifts a day X 8 days; commitment
to four 10 day trips)

my name was thrown in a hat once to get a gig on a cruise ship, never even got far enough to find out about pay, the words 2 weeks away and cruise ship came outta my mouth and my girl nixed my plans for it real quick......she knows what people do on cruise ships lol

my boy who does some ships says they have a UBER strict dont fuck the patrons
policy...
like drop you off where ever you are policy.
(but the staff has drunken orgys I guess)

lol

I was a guest entertainer status, so i got to do only nights in the large club on the ship, my pay was 1250 per week 1099 status on taxes, and during the daytime i was like a passenger, so i got to go on vacation during the day

........ and yes the crew does have drunken orgies...

double what i make at my day job with a damn college degree so thats not half bad lol

so, after taxes about 430 a shift... not a bad deal at all.

all inclusive?

the only thing that sucks is it not consistent work never know when im working again, as for taxes, if i don't gross over a certain amount i don't have to pay any the the benefit of 1099 status

Well, im back doing it again, will be on the Star Princess starting in April, maybe it will warmer in the Caribbean vs. Florida

do u have a wife/girlfriend? just curious cause i would love to land a gig like that but i would find all my belongings at a storage place when i come back home lol

do u have a wife/girlfriend? just curious cause i would love to land a gig like that but i would find all my belongings at a storage place when i come back home lol

Sounds like you have problem there man....

No wife, just a few girlfriends

Hopefully they don't read the Serato forums lol

LOLOLOLOL!

i do!! lol

I'm ready to take a work-vacation. lol. mixing on a cruise for a bit sounds fun & interesting :) Dollar, let's do a "vs" version on the next trip - hahahaha! ;-P

i got the exact same deal as you dollar, near same pay, 1099 (booking agent took a small fee).

do you have your MMD? from my understanding, you are only supposed to work for like 30 days a year w/o an MMD. i would love to go on again but if i ever do, i'm stressing that i'm bringing my own gear. i was booked through an agent so i just got told time and place to be haha.

as for the pay sucking, it only sucks if you are crew or staff. as a guest entertainer, you can kind of name your price plus you have passenger status so you are like a guest on the ship that happens to spin in the night club. i've also worked on ships as a guest musician / singer. the stories are true, i've never felt like a bigger whore in my life lmao. lots of fun, great food and great times.

btw, when you are a guest entertainer, the world is yours. i hooked up with guests, staff, crew, locals hahaha. it was insane.

Yes, i have only done guest entertainer position since i have done this, never a crew position. and as for the MMD, i have never had to get one. I book myself directly through there main office.

so did you increase the revenue?

Did you have to play clean music and videos too?

good question!!

(im djing a 1 year old birthday bash this saturday, and in the plylist they gave me, they want me to play bedrock, im ill, beamers benz or bentley maino's remix lol im like wtf?)

Yes, clean versions you might be able to get away with dirty versions after 1am but i would ask the bar manager before you play them. As for increasing revenue. The club would usual be dead from about 8pm to midnight, but now when groups of people would come up to the club, the would buy a round of drinks, and instead of leaving they would sit and watch the the screens, then order another round, and so on, after about 3 rounds, the would be kinda tipsy and stay, thus increasing revenue.

hey dj dollar, i leave saturday for my first contract on sapphire princess. i was curious how much country, motown and ball room stuff do you actually have to play? the entertainment coordinator told me i could pretty much set whatever theme nights i wanted, but i'd like to be as prepared as possible. i will be in the skywalker club. any other useful nuggets of information would be helpful. thanks bro.

is there a way i can password protect this page....dont want my girl logging in and reading this lol

NICE!

the very first time i worked on the cruise, throughout the first week, they told me every night that i had increased bar revenue enough to break the previous sales records each night lol. by friday, the bar revenue had almost doubled and kinda stayed there throughout my 4 weeks. when i went on again, i was on a different ship but the cruise director was the one i had worked with on the previous trip. she said bar sales went down a lot and she was happy was back haha.

they rarely get "real" dj's. the guy replacing me was initially planning on getting a server position but when the dj position became available, he took it because of its "staff" status. he had no previous experience as a DJ, nor does he have any interest in music other than rock, but the pay is better and the "status" is better so he took it. pretty wack if ya ask me.

I really wish I was single and jobless so I could try out the cruise ship thing. Oh well, maybe in another life.

holla at skiggz hes got it down to a science

ha ha!!

I kind of worded it wrong. I don't wish those things upon myself but if I WERE in that situation I'd def take advantage of it.

Jimbo, is your contract a guest entertainer or ACD DJ (Cruise Director DJ) it does matter, Look at you contract it will tell you.

Let me know which one Jimbo

Sorry for the delay. I'm classified as a guest entertainer.

What exactly is the difference between the two?

Ok, you will be working the club only, and maybe asked to do one or two deck sets (one hour only) but all the princess ship i have been on previously have a format that every night for the first hour it's a theme hour, like (50's & 60's, Romance hour, Pop music, Motown Hour, etc...) but after that its popular club music, i played a lot of electro, house, dance, hip, hop, top 40, one or two country tracks, usually requested. But be prepared to submit a schedule of what your theme hours are when u get on the ship. The thing that helps me choose what im gonna do is a thing called the F&E it an overview of all of the entertainment happening on the voyage, then you can plan accordingly. But FIRST thing you need to do is meet with the cruse director and establish a repour with him or her. As for your question what is the difference, crew dj works all the time, does not work the club and gets less pay

Thanks dude! I should be all set then. What kind of cabin should do you usually get? Are all the entertainers in the same area of the ship? Can you eat in the formal dining room? Do you pay for internet access? What time does the crew orgy start? Should I bring lube?

LMFAO!!!

haha!!

you should get a coach (?) cabin, i got port hole cabins both times, you might be lucky too. They just stick you where ever they have openings. You can eat where you want, do what you want, see shows if you want. Internet access is an arm and leg but when you are in the middle of nowhere, you pay for it though. as for the orgys, well, you'll hve to find those on your own :-)

damn... I would make sure internet is free so you can "keep up to date and do your job properly". make it part of your rider

they have subscriptions to every promo only as well as a lot of other shit. they would find an excuse to get out of it.

how much per day? i couldnt live a month without internet lol

it was for like a 5 hour card or something, like $20. not sure, haven't been on since 2007. the crew card is cheaper i believe. ask around.

DAMN!!!! i wonder if that sprint usb wireless card works in da ocean :S

I remember my first cruise I didn't think that I'd get charged for text until I got home and had a 1k phone bill. I was pissed.

The internet speed on the ship is worse than dial up, i wait till i get to ports, find a internet cafe, faster, and usally find the casino workers, they have the best orgies

man, all this talk about ships, makes me wanna go back on. dollar, you got any jobs you can't do, holla! hahaha.

i makes ME wanna stop trackin the thread lol

LMAO.

UPDATE:
Im on the Star Princess now, and just finished doing a 2 hour deck set in front of the pool and I used the big 50 foot "Movies under the Stars" screen, and it was amazing looking at mixed video on a screen that big. The head of entertainment for Princess out of Los Angeles wanted to do a trial run at doing music video on the outdoor screen, and the were quite impressed with the result. They said that Rane had a great product, and is going to recommend hiring more Video DJ's for Guest Contracts. If this happens i will post contact info

PM bro!

just finished my first contract. thanks for the tips dollar. video mixing was a huge hit on sapphire princess. the only bad part was that a lot of crew members asked me to fill their hard drives up with videos. it got pretty annoying after a while.

how did you shake'em?

On the crew request, i tell them that the videos that i have, are licensed by my subscription and will only work on my machine. The usually get the hint then. Did you do any Video outside on the big screen ?

must of the time i told them to bring me a big enough hard drive, but most never did. the ones that were savvy enough to bring me a tb drive i told them it was the wrong format. basically i gave them all the run around until they stopped asking.

it's amazing how little respect we get for our craft. especially those of us who actually do all our own edits. i mean would you go up to a magician and ask them for all his/her tricks? or a comedian for all there jokes?

to dollar: i started off saying that but they still kept asking...

unfortunately sapphire princess didn't have the big outdoor screen. otherwise i would have. it would have been rad to use PIP while mixing to put my head on the giant screen like a super villain.

i would be like, dude its 10 bucks a month, go to 8thwonder.com lol