Just a quick question to all the cruise performers here:

How many of you travel with a regular assistant or assistants for your cruise gigs and how many use ship's production cast dancers? If you use the ship's dancers, what is a typical payment arrangement?

Thanks,
Richard

When I performed for Carnival Cruise Lines in the early 90s, I always travelled with my own assistant. I had to do a show within the first three days on the ship and didn't feel comfortable trying to get one of the ship's dancers ready that quickly, although many of them have assisted magicians before.

At that time, magicians who used a ship dancer would pay by the show. (Typically, they paid anywhere from $25 - $50 per show then. It doesn't seem like much but their base pay for the production shows was only $200 a week at that time so it was a nice bonus.)

Michael

I always travel with my own assistant (she is not my wife nor my girlfriend). This is simply because for a kind of show that we do it takes months of practice and it would be fairly impossible to train a dancer onboard. My assistant gets 20% of the weekly salary (cruise lines always pay per act not per person). The cruise line we are working for (Star Cruises) is one of the rare cruise lines that always gives separate passengers' cabins to performers who are not married nor in a relationship so I have my own peace and I'm alone in the cabin and so is my assistant. Usually in most cruise lines, magicians and assistants have to share the same cabin, being married or not (which can sometimes be hard). I know a family of performers that perform for Star Cruises (there's 4 of them - magician, his wife, an 8 yr old kid and 1 yr old baby). They got 3 cabins (passengers' cabins of course), 1 for her and the baby, 1 for the 8 yr old (the boy also performs) and 1 for him! On another, bigger ship with bigger cabins, they gave them a big executive suite (with a balcony of course).

Can I ask what sort of fee they pay for an act?

On a side note: I assume guest performers tip like paying passengers. Did you cover the tips for you assistant, or did you have her pay them herself? It seems that would eat up a good portion of her pay.

Thanks again,
Richard

The company we work (Star Cruises) for is very specific. They have a no tip policy. Tips are not allowed in any form. The passengers do not tip the crew (restaurant staff, housekeeping department, etc.). Service charge is included in the price of everything and the passengers, including ourselves don't pay anything extra. So we might be considdered lucky regarding this.

In most of the cruise lines there is a recommended tip rate for everything (which is usually given at the end of the cruise). Magicians do have to pay tips if they hold a pax status (passengers) and it is a fairly large amount of money. On the other hand side, the fees are very good and if a performer is lucky enough to get a long contract, the money keeps comming every week and there is more than enough left for savings and the tips are just a ridiculous fraction of it.

Hi
I work solo on ships but have used dancers on the ships in the past. I would pay them a flat fee. This is up to you but $50-100 per show isn't unheard of. On the line I work for, they are now charging automatically tips which are $10.00 per day and this includes guest entertainers and their guests (wife or partner). There is an argument going on at the moment because many cruise lines are making major cut backs. Guest acts on the ship I work for no longer get any discount in the shops and only 20% on drinks - with an automatic 15% added on to each drink it really isn't much. The rule is now that you pay the passenger rate in tips on ships, or at least the company I work for (which is one of the larger cruise lines.) If there are two people in a cabin, then the tips of course double.
Just something to keep in mind.
Paul
http://www.chaplinmagic.com
http://www.magicmasterclass.com

Paul,

I was wondering which cruise line is that (if you don't want to disclose it in public, please let me know by a PM)? I'm applying for various cruise lines and I would like to "skip" that one... Man, that's a robbery what they are doing!!!!

In Star Cruises we had 40% off of everything (extra food cakes, ice creams, beverage, shops onboard, hair salon, beauty salon, massage) and no tips. When it comes to free tings, we had 3 free meals daily in all bufet type restaurants (plus we could eat at the Officers' Mess any time 24 hours a day if we wanted to escape boring passengers etc), some free deserts and ice creams (and they were sooooooo huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge), free beverage with every meal and a free beverage before during or after the show. For ala carte restaurants or extra drinks or deserts we had to pay and we had a 40% off (and no tips).

The system is similar as in the NCL and Orient Lines (at least I have heard so), because Star Cruises owns those two cruise lines (I have noticed on your website that you have worked for NCL). By the way, it would be great if you could send me a PM as I would like to exchange some experiences, as I would love to work for NCL. I'm also interested in Princess cruises. One of their ships, think it was the Ocean Princess was docked besides us in Hong Kong one day and I went there as I wanted to meet the magician, but he was on a shore leave and I never got to meet him and I don't know anything about that cruise line...

Hope to hear from you...