All That Jazz on the New Norway

Theme cruises tied to music, sports, fitness or even--as on Cunard’s QE2 last October--the tasting and consumption of chocolate are big attractions these days for cruise ships. A glance through almost any cruise-line brochure will turn up country and Western sailings, ‘50s and ‘60s nostalgia cruises, tennis clinics and voyages with well-preserved movie stars or TV soap-opera divas.

Also in October, the irrepressible Dizzy Gillespie celebrated his 74th birthday with 1,900 of his closest friends and fans and 65 fellow jazz musicians. The veteran trumpeter headlined the ninth annual Floating Jazz Festival aboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norway, the world’s largest cruise ship.

Also aboard the Norway, the first-ever rhythm-and-blues cruise is scheduled for next Saturday; country and Western cruises are set for April 4 and Nov. 7, 1992, and a Dixieland cruise is booked for May 2. In April, the Royal Viking Sun will offer a month of big band cruises with the Tommy Dorsey Band.

Part of the popularity of a theme cruise is the accessibility of celebrities in the self-contained environment of a ship. “Theme cruises bring together people of like minds--people who are interested in the same things, whether it’s jazz, football, golf or fitness,” says Shelley Shier, who, with partner Hank O’Neal, operates New York City-based HOSS, a company that produces music festivals for several cruise lines.

“Passengers like to be able to sit down and talk with somebody like Dizzy Gillespie,” O’Neal says. Shier and O’Neal tabulate the passenger comments from questionnaires collected at the end of each fall’s two-week jazz cruise to determine whom to bring back the following year. “Last year the two most requested musicians to bring back were Gillespie and Joe Williams, so they are two of the headliners this year,” O’Neal says.

Next year, the Norway will host the 10th annual Floating Jazz Festival, Oct. 24-31 and Oct. 31 to Nov. 6.

On this year’s cruise, the Norway was filled daily with the sounds of jazz trumpeters such as Red Rodney, John Faddis, Marvin Stamm and Arturo Sandoval, plus trombonist Al Grey, guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli and Gene Bertoncini, and pianists Roger Kellaway, Junior Mance and Dorothy Donegan, herself a jazz legend for nearly 50 years.

There’s no extra charge for all that jazz or the Norway’s regular program of entertainment, featuring some of the most professional productions seen at sea. We viewed a company of Broadway veterans performing the musical “Meet Me in St. Louis,” a rousing new version of the ship’s standard “Sea Legs Revue” that includes a Batman number reminiscent of “Phantom of the Opera,” and a still-tentative new show, “Everything’s Coming Up Broadway.”

The Norway became the world’s biggest cruise ship after last year’s $40-million renovation that added two decks of luxury cabins and suites atop the vessel. The new cabins are very handsome, each with big windows or private verandas open to the sea.

Unfortunately, none of the public rooms or dining areas was expanded to take care of these extra passengers, so traffic jams take place. The North Cape Lounge, where many of the major jazz events were scheduled, had a glut of chairs, some of them useless because they are jammed too close together to sit in.

On days at sea, self-service buffet lunches on deck were so popular with passengers that many people found themselves having to walk half the length of the ship before finding somewhere to sit down with their plate of rapidly cooling food. And while there are plenty of bus boys to clear up dirty dishes in the area, finding a bar waiter to deliver a glass of house wine or a can of soda took 15 or 20 minutes of diligent searching.

Those were only minor irritations in what is generally a very enjoyable cruise experience, particularly for jazz fans. Even with two extra decks, the sleek profile of this classic ocean liner that began life in 1960 as the French Line’s France is only slightly thickened.

On a lower deck, the indoor swimming pool area traditional to transatlantic liners was converted last year into a lavish 6,000-square-foot Roman spa with hydrotherapy baths, treatment rooms, steam rooms, saunas and exercise pool. The spa operator, Coiffeur Transocean, offers individual treatments in half-, full- or six-day programs, from $99 to $689.

We splurged on a half-day regime that included an exercise class, use of the sauna, spa and steam room, an exfoliation scrub (to remove dead skin cells) followed by a body wrap, then a low-calorie lunch served on a tray in the spa.

There are many other forms of entertainment, including the most elegant nightclub at sea, Club Internationale. A new a la carte restaurant, with music for dancing, serves daily five-course dinners at $35 per passenger.

Because of the ship’s vintage, cabins are in all shapes and sizes; nothing conforms to the standard module we’ve become accustomed to on new ships. Cheapest accommodations are small but livable, with upper and lower berths and bathrooms with 1960s fixtures and showers, at $1,245 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles to Miami.

A splurge of $2,425 and up per person, double occupancy, places passengers in a new Sky Deck suite with a sitting area, a window wall and tile bathroom with tub and shower.

Or a really big spender could book a Neptune or Venus suite with separate bedroom and big living room with wraparound windows just above the bridge, the same view the captain gets only higher, for $4,800 and up per person, double occupancy.

The Norway sails every Saturday year-round from Miami, calling at St. John, St. Thomas and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pleasure Island, plus--on alternating weeks--either San Juan or Sint Maarten. For a brochure, see your travel agent or call Norwegian Cruise Line at (800) 327-7030.