FIRENZE – THE LIDO DECK

​One of the primary performance venues on any cruise ship – other than the main theatre – is the Lido Deck. 
 
In Italian, “lido” means “beach”.  Its roots are from the word “litus”, which means shore or seaside.  Later the word “lido” came to also mean outdoor pools.   So, the “Lido Deck” is the deck on a ship where the main pool is located. (Thus endeth your English lesson for the day.). And often times, there is also an outdoor stage and movie screen at one end of the pool. Consider it the amphitheater of the cruise ship.
 
The Firenze was no different.  This was the stage where a multitude of events took place, including ice carving, towel folding demonstrations, some game shows, the silent disco, movies, and so on.
 
All of which require sound, and lighting (mostly during the darker hours).  I never could find where the control boards were, but…

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I eventually asked a crew member who was doing some set up, and was informed that they were all backstage.  Now, as you can imagine, I cringed at that – how can the sound tech know their sound levels(!), how does the lighting tech know their cuing(!)?
 
The reality of it is, that on cruise ships, a lot of the venues are ‘set and forget’, and the techs are mostly needed to turn the systems on and off, and to troubleshoot. Most presenters, including the Cruise Director and their staff know how to use a microphone (woo hoo!), so monitoring sound levels and feedback issues is not always required.  It’s only for the big productions in the mail theatrers are cues called, sound levels monitored throughout, costumes need to be changed, and set pieces need to be moved in the middle of the performance. 
 
It also begs the question – who does the ‘setting and forgetting’? While large productions are designed on shore, usually a more experienced technician/tech manager will make the design decisions for the variety of events in the smaller venues.  Sometimes, as in the case of a disco, design decisions are made on the fly by whichever technician is running the event.
 
But, regardless of the level of complexity of the show or event in the smaller venues, the instruments and controls are all state of the art. The reason being – versatility.  Nothing special is needed to light a speaker on the stage, but in the evening when the stage turns into a silent disco, participants expect colorful moving lights and ‘bling’, that only programmable LEDs and movers can provided.
 
So, this is something to take into consideration when deciding which cruise lines to apply for.  Do you prefer to be running tech for large productions, do you prefer to have the variety involved in the smaller venues, or do you like the versatility of doing both?
 
Next post:  The Tuscan Lounge
 
Please Like and Comment – I’d love to hear if you’ve had any experiences with theatres and venues on cruise ships (as a technician or audience member)!
 
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