Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

A few months ago I posted about the various options for landing work as a performer on Cruise Ships. One talked about the option of contacting the lines directly, the other discussed the option of working through an agent.

Since about the beginning of the year it’s felt like there’s been a bit of a pinch on and that there just isn’t as much work for performers as there once was… The cruise lines are looking at cutting back any way then can and this included the entertainment programming. I recently received an email from my agent in Miami that talks a bit more about this and thought I’d share it here just to give people some insight into current trends…

I just want to reiterate that summer is quickly approaching & work is getting more & more scarce.

This year, especially this summer, has been rough. Between the major budget cuts, added production shows, Int’l guests & more & more ships heading to foreign ports, every line has reduced the # of acts that they typically book and is using local acts in the foreign ports as much as they can. Every act has been affected by this. Obviously, our agency has been affected as well, but we keep perservering & trying our best every day. We get so many e-mails from acts, who are concerned about how their bookings have been affected by this & I just want you all to know that we are working really hard, every day, to try to pick up more dates!

I really do believe that things will get better! Everyone has been affected by this volatile economic climate, and, unfortunately, the cruise lines, are no exception.

So there you go… Now you could look at this and see that there are possibly an increase in opportunities for local acts in foreign ports, but the over all trend is fewer jobs for the same number of acts. Not good math for the number of performers who rely pretty heavily on the cruise ship industry for a large portion of their annual income, and likely not good news for people who are looking at breaking into the market either. Will things turn around? It’s hard to say how long the current situation is going to last or if, after implementing these new budget cutting measure, the cruise lines will ever return to the more flush days that appear to be ending… If/when I know more I’ll post it here.

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