The Smooth Jazz Cruise opens its 2027 season out of Tampa with a 32-act bill

The first of two back-to-back winter sailings leaves Port Tampa Bay on Jan. 31, with Marcus Miller and Boney James hosting.

Some afternoon at the end of January, the cruise terminals along Channelside Drive will fill with people wheeling garment bags and horn cases toward the gangway. The day is Sunday, Jan. 31, 2027: The Smooth Jazz Cruise's first sailing of the year leaves Tampa and stays out through Saturday, Feb. 6, with 32 acts on the lineup as listed. Call it what it is — a week-long smooth-jazz festival that happens to float.

The cruise's own page for this sailing, billed as '27.1, puts Marcus Miller and Boney James at the top as hosts. It lists the ship as Celebrity Summit, calling at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman before coming home to Tampa. Booking runs through the cruise's own reservations page, not a third-party seller.

Start with the names most people will plan a week around. The official starring lineup for this sailing reads like a smooth-jazz station's request line: Brian Culbertson, Candy Dulfer, Jonathan Butler, Mindi Abair, Peter White, Vincent Ingala and DW3. Those are the sets to circle first. The trick on a ship is not letting a long dinner, a nap or a port day eat the one you came for.

Our listing also carries Kirk Whalum, Rick Braun, Richard Elliot and Eric Darius on this voyage. The cruise's own '27.1 page doesn't put them in its starring row as of this writing, and the two February sailings' official pages don't list identical bills. If one of those four is the reason you're booking, check the official lineup page before you put down a deposit.

Then go deeper. Larry Braggs and Ms. Monét are among the featured performers on the official page, and the full list runs on through Eric Marienthal, Patches Stewart, Marcus Anderson, Marqueal Jordan, Nate Phillips, Jay Williams, Ivan Peroti, David Dyson, Arlington Jones and Richie Gajate Garcia, among others. On a seven-night bill, the names further down the list are where the surprises live. Catch a few of them the first night out; by the last night you'll have favorites you didn't board with.

For anyone between Wesley Chapel and Sarasota, a Caribbean jazz festival is a drive to the port.

For Tampa Bay, the appeal is plain geography. For passengers coming in from elsewhere, this is a trip with flights and hotel nights on either end. For anyone between Wesley Chapel and Sarasota, it's a drive downtown and a parking spot. And the city gets this crowd twice: the official schedule has a second sailing, '27.2, leaving Tampa on Feb. 7, the same week this one comes back in. If you've got friends who can't make the first one, there's an obvious answer.

A practical note for anyone on the fence: the cruise's site keeps a separate page for each sailing, and that is the place to settle which artists are on which week before you choose one. Our listing links the reservations page directly.

Smooth jazz doesn't get much respect from people who write about music for a living. It gets a lot of loyalty from the people who actually buy the tickets, and a week at sea with this many of the genre's best-known names is the clearest proof of it. If you've always meant to try one of these, this is the one that leaves from home.

Sources: The Smooth Jazz Cruise '27.1 (official) (thesmoothjazzcruise.com); The Smooth Jazz Cruise '27.2 (official) (thesmoothjazzcruise.com); The Smooth Jazz Cruise — Marcus Miller (marcusmiller.com); Reservations — The Smooth Jazz Cruise (reservations.scecruises.com); Port Tampa Bay — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); JamBase festival listing (jambase.com)