Top Ten Reasons This Ship Is Better Than the Maasdam

Top ten reasons this gig is better than the previous gig

10 - Amsterdam is a bigger ship, in length and width. I thought I was comfortable with the small-sized Maasdam, but to my surprise I’m enjoying the extra distance from here to there.

9 - The crew mess is not off-limits, thus far anyway. I don’t have to dress up and go upstairs to the public area where the buffet is. Instead I can walk a few feet across the hall in sweatpants and T-shirt, grab whatever simple stuff they have there and be done with it. Some of the Indonesians look at me kinda funny, like I’m out of place, and why would I want crew food. Well I want crew food because it’s easy to get to in the morning.

8 - Laundry room is bigger. Perhaps this only makes sense because the crew is bigger, but there are 3 ironing boards instead of one, and the pressure and competition seems less.

7 - My cabin is bigger, by about two feet in each direction. Thus far has had the unlikely result of making me neater, as if the big wide uncluttered space might make me think better.

6 - My cabin is nowhere near the crew bar. On the Maasdam and the Ryndam, my cabin was only a few feet away from the crew bar, and the noise leaked through into the hallway. Sometimes the drunken kids wound up in the hallway too.

5 - I don’t have to carry a fan from my cabin to the piano bar every night. I got so used to doing it on the Maasdam, I forgot how ridiculous it was

4 - Lounge logistics. Once again, I’m surprised that I’m liking rather than disliking this. There are no chairs around the piano -- and I’m reaching out to people sitting 10 to 40 feet away. After a few bad starts, there is now a monitor system in place, where I can hear my own singing without being too loud for the room.

3 - No tinny raspberry piano. Instead, a beautiful Yamaha with a lovely rich tone.

2 - a musical director who makes it his business to help me. He was a tremendous help in getting the PA system in the lounge to sound right, i.e., twisting the soundman‘s arm. He provided a CD containing photoscans of sheet music I needed, he lets me know each night when I can expect the audience to start filing out of the main showroom. That’s just to name a few things.

1 - the itinerary, the itinerary, the itinerary