Just wondering...how's the dancing?

[luxurysailer]

I am wondering whether or not dancing on HAL ships has improved in the past year. For those of you who have been on recent cruises, I would really appreciate your opinions.

[mrsltg]

I've only been on one HAL cruise. It was a 7 day Western Carib. on 3/29. Dancing? Not really. There were a few waltzing away to the band but that was about it. There were also a few in the nightclub pretending it was a junior high dance (girls on one side, boys on the other) and that was probably because they were in junior high and high school! Overall nothing offensive but more of a lack of anything.

[luxurysailer]

When we were last on a HAL ship about 16 months ago, the dancing opportunities were mediocre at best. On second thought they were actually pretty poor. I thought HAL was launching a new program to promote dancing. Judging by the lack of interest in this thread, there must be little interest on the part of HAL pax for dancing. So, has anyone been on ships where this new program has supposedly been started? If so, please let us know about it.

Incidentally, we just completed a cruise on the Crown Princess which had two really good bands in addition to the orchestra's musicians and DJ's. There were at least two and usually three opportunities for dancing every night on this ship, and that has been my experience on all four Princess cruises that we have been on. Has HAL ceded pax who like to dance to Princess? I hope not, because in many other ways I prefer HAL.

[Kween Karen]

When I did an 18 day Panama Canal crossing in May, 2007 the dancing in the Ocean Bar was great. I spent MANY hours there. The band was called the "Station Band" and they were quite good......very good dancing music.
From this thread I gather things have changed???

[RuthC]

When I did an 18 day Panama Canal crossing in May, 2007 the dancing in the Ocean Bar was great. I spent MANY hours there. The band was called the "Station Band" and they were quite good......very good dancing music.
From this thread I gather things have changed???
Not to my knowledge. There's always been a dance band playing in the Ocean Bar. On the Vista ships and the E-dam there's a disco. The other ships have music and dancing in the Crow's Nest.

[Krazy Kruizers]

It really depends on the band in the Ocean Bar.

The one on our 21 day cruise was just so-so. They would play for about 20 - 30 minutes and then be gone for about 20 minutes or so. Few people danced. Sadly -- when they did play -- their music was very good.

[dandro]

We had "Henny & the HAL Cats" in the Queen's Lounge, and there were a lot of people dancing.

I heard music coming from the disco but never looked in there to see if anyone was dancing.

A couple of people were dancing in the Crow's Nest to the guitarist.

[Bill S]

We are ballroom dancers, and generally, there has not been a lot of company on HAL cruises. But, I hope that HAL may be trying to improve the dancing environment.

We were on the Amsterdam in May, and there was a trio with a vocalist in the Ocean Bar. They called themselves "The Neptunes", and they were pretty good. They played a lot of very good dance tunes, with decent variety and took requests.

We thought it was a big improvement, and noted such on our end-of-cruise surveys.

[catl331]

I think it is partially bands/HAL and/or passengers. At least nowadays you don't have to have a partner. You do your own thing.