Sail Away to Music in the Sky

It seems like tales of woe with air travel occur far too frequently, so allow me to praise American Airlines for our non-stop flight from Philadelphia to London Heathrow.  It could not have gone better.

Our flight left at about 8 PM, so we did have some rush hour traffic challenges on the way to the airport, but our Uber driver had a calm demeanor like our son Jay in dealing with the traffic.  He just put some good Motown on the satellite radio and placidly dealt with the traffic on an uncustomary route that kept us off highways most of the way.

With our Global Entry cards making TSA Pre-Check a given, check-in with absolutely no crowds was simply walking through the gate.

After settling into our seats, Julie and I both laughed slightly out of sync through four episodes of "Ted Lasso" on the seatback video screens, with wine and hot meals being served at some point.  Finally trusting my instincts over inclination to choose meat over carbs, I went with the pasta instead of the chicken, and that proved to be a choice I will follow in the future.

After dinner, a second glass of wine made me sleepy as I began watching The Fabelmans --- Steven Spielberg's somewhat autobiographical movie --- and despite finding the movie entertaining, I nodded off, as happens at home at about that same time in the evening while watching TV in my recliner.  I awakened to breakfast being served and watched a bit more of the movie.

At Heathrow, advanced facial recognition software made it easy to go through customs.  We picked up our bags and located a Princess Cruises representative for our 1 1/2 hour transfer to Southampton.  While I had slept pretty well on the plane, I again nodded off in the comfortable bus, awakening as we entered the port city of Southampton.

Sky Princess welcomed us aboard.  We checked our suitcases and then dropped our backpacks in our room before heading up on the deck for what had turned out to be a beautiful sunny day in England.  While not warm enough to be in swimsuits, it was nonetheless pleasant to stretch out on lounge chairs.

In the early afternoon, the live music began.  The opening act of what turned out to be a cruise chalk-full of great entertainers was Michelle Joly in the Piazza, but we were at the pool already, so for us it was Rhythm and Finesse at 1 PM.

Another pop dance band, NeoFunk, followed.  Both of these bands were talented, energetic and played surprising ranges of music over the next two weeks, but we spent our time seeking out some of the other acts.

Michelle Joly performed great covers of rock and indie songs on her guitar in the Atrium, but she was probably even better doing jazz standards on the piano in the Crown Grill Bar.  One night, she took the main stage for a tribute to the music of Adele, who happens to be one of Julie's favorites.

Michelle also performed a few times in the Elite Lounge for our pre-dinner happy hour.

Being a frequent cruiser with any cruise line has its perks, including special venues like the Princess Elite Lounge where tasty tapas are furnished for free.  

With our Princess Plus drink package, we could have anything from Diet Roy Rogers (Diet Coke with cherries) --- which elicited giggles from our waitress when I ordered one --- to those 007 Martinis that I favor on formal nights.

Most happy hours, Julie had Sauvignon Blanc or Rose, while I ordered New Castle Ale, which is on tap in the Vista Lounge.  The Vista Lounge serves as the actual venue for the "Elite Lounge" on Sky Princess.

We were always happy to find Ukrainian pianist Andrey Shabala at a grand piano.  He played a few sets in the Elite Lounge as well as other venues around the ship.  Unfortunately, I failed to record my own videos of his beautiful bite-sized classical pieces or musical scores, which were outstanding, but the link to his name show similar pieces on Youtube.  It's always a treat to hear "long-hair" music live on cruises, because outside of a concert hall, it is rarely found on land.  Gorgeous venues on Sky Princess make the perfect settings.

Along those lines, we also loved Sunny Classical Duo when they played their classical sets.  I associate them mostly with coffee time in the glittering Atrium, but we saw them at several venues.

Our favorite of the lounge performers, however, had to be the Giacomo Riggi Jazz Trio, who we caught for at least one set almost every night in Take Five Lounge, the dedicated jazz club on Sky Princess.

They did take a couple of evenings off, with a subset combo from the excellent Sky Princess Orchestra filling in with some fine jazz of their own.

The pianist and leader of the featured Trio, Giacomo Riggi, is a true virtuoso on keyboards.

On the last evening, he said that the next cruise would have 500 children on board (on our cruise there were maybe five), so he was working on arrangements of old Disney movie songs, which were often based on jazz classics.  He then proceeded to sight-read and play songs flawlessly, with the bass and drums adding more creative sparks, often introducing original elements that made the songs even better.

This is a trio, not a one-man show, and the rhythm section was the best I have ever seen in a jazz combo.  Because the best rock bands have strong jazz roots in their rhythm sections, you can take that to mean they are one of the best ever, but once we start talking about combinations like Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, however, it gets too hard to compare.

They played simply amazing music.  At the end of one set, the drummer pounded out one of the best extended percussion solos I have ever heard, culminating with Giacomo picking up drumsticks of his own and joining him first on the drum set and eventually as they walked around the stage and into the audience to drum on each others drum sticks, the stage, glassware, tables and chairs.  It was an absolutely fantastic finale.

The base player Milton was sensational, often playing parts on his five string base that, if we weren't watching him live, we would think were on an electric guitar.  Fast, dexterous, difficult, well-thought out, simply brilliant in every way.  I wish I had filmed some of his true highlights, which were awesome.

With sunsets after 11 PM, looking out the window to see daylight was kind of reminiscent of Saturdays at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, except that on Sky Princess, outside the windows were fjords and sea views.

Kudos to Princess for coming up with this venue for Sky Princess on Deck 6, where it draws the attention of theatergoers after production shows end.

Speaking of which, near the top of this post is a video featuring Lewis Codling, one of the four sensational featured singers in the production show.  In this video, he's performing in the Vista Lounge as a solo act backed by the excellent Sky Princess Orchestra. 

I will write about production shows and featured solo artists later, but for now, on to Norway.