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On Carnival, the two rules were to their benefit.

1) Don't go into the Casino. If a crew member was winning and a passenger was losing, they could cry "FIXED". Bad publicity. Since we roomed in the same area as the casino workers, rigging could be a possibility at the poker games.

For those who cruise and play the slot machines, on the ships I was on, the odds of winning were better at the beginning of the cruse and slowly got worse towards the end. That way they let you win money at first, and then take it all back, and then some, before you are done.

2) Don't go into a passenger's cabin. It's OK if a passenger comes to your cabin. If a crew member happens to have sex with a passenger, if that passenger comes to your cabin, it implies consent. If you go to the passenger cabin, and the passenger is remorseful, he/she could claim it was forced.

I don't gamble in casinos. Why? I know the house always wins.

Actually, I played slots once just for the experience. I was in a band, and we rented a house while playing a season contract in Fort Meyers, FL. The owner of the house had an old mechanical slot machine. He said we were welcome to play it, but it was his piggy bank, and any money we lose in there is his. I put 4 quarters in there and lost them all. But I got the experience.

I went on the cruise ship with Mrs. Notes, so seducing a passenger was not going to happen. Besides, I have the best, and don't need to sample the rest.

I did enjoy gigging on the cruise ships. There was no TV in the corner or pool table to take attention away from the band. Nobody had to work the next day or drive home, so they didn't worry about drinking a bit too much (the more they drink, the better we sound). They generally come in small family groups, don't know the other passengers, so we get their undivided attention. Around the ship and in port, we get semi-star status.

We got vacation pay too!

We worked 8.5 months on and 3.5 months off for 3 years. We chose our 3.5 months off to be the peak of the tourist season in Florida when work was easy to get. That build up our reputation.

After 3 years, my mother-in-law got sick and needed care, we had enough work around here by then, so we stayed ashore to take care of her.

That was a long time ago.

Carnival treated us right, gave us the big cabin with a porthole, ignored that we were selling cassette tapes (it was officially against the rules, but the top entertainers at the time did it as long as it was low-keyed), and allowed us to adjust our hours for the mutual benefit of us and the ship.

That is when we started playing 'baby-boomer' music.

The orchestra and the Filipino band played standards, the disco played top40, the piano bar did what piano bars do, another single act did country, and the band by the pool played soca and reggae. We analyzed it and decided the missing niche was 50s and 60s music (that was back in the late 1980s). We went to the passenger introduction show, put on a little shtick, and announced to the audience, "although we play a variety of music, tonight there will be a 50s/60s party in our lounge as soon as this show is over."

So instead of playing during the introduction show, something we couldn't compete with, we played after the show, got a great crowd because nothing else was happening but the disco, and immediately made friends who probably wouldn't have discovered our little lounge until mid-cruise.

It pays to use your brain in this biz.

Insights and incites by Notes