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Best ships for dancing


joyoftravel
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We've cruises mainly on Carnival. Although their floors are small, when you start doing serious dancing, people usually leave you plenty of room.

 

The main thing we've found that is important is the size and age of the ship.

If the ship is old and small, they seem to only have budget to have one band so therefore only one dance venue open at a time. This means that they typically don't play anything you can ballroom or swing to.

 

Since that experience, we make sure to book on more modern ships in popular routes (ie bigger entertainment budgets).

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  • 1 month later...

Dancing on Costa Atlantica, December 2011

 

Main Lounge- Deck 2 Madame Butterfly: 36’ x 24’

Two groups (Trio Tringali and Duo Virginia) alternated, continuous music from 17:30 to 01:30 except for a few cruise staff activities. Good tempos, they play what people dance to, very accommodating for requests. In my opinion, everything one could expect for social dancing.

 

Deck 1 Corallo lounge: 39’ x 20’, slightly curved but mostly usable.

I believe the present group will be replaced after the next cruise.

 

 

Deck 2 main lobby- oval, 28’ x 12’

The pianist sometimes plays in the main lounge, also plays good dance music. Partly blocked by a large tree for Xmas.

 

Deck 2 Via Veneto (restaurant entrance) an oddly shaped area about 16’ x 10’, with a small lounge. Surprisingly popular, with some dancing.

 

Disco rarely used, there was too much else going on in the lounges. The usual, what I call “Neanderthal crackhead engine room” noise.

 

Deck 3 There is also a pianist in one of the bars and classical music in the Café Florian,

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Our experience is limited just to the QM2, having done two transatlantic crossings. We love to dance and picked the QM2 for this reason. While we agree with most that the band can be a problem with tempos, overall they were passable. The floor is large and not always that crowded. On TA #2 we did notice a significant drop-off in the quality of the band. A few of dancers spoke to the CD and the band leader and things improved a bit.

 

One item that irked us on both trips: the daily programs lists there will be recorded music for dancing for about 45 minutes after the band quits for the night. However, the cleaning crew lurks nearby and if the floor is empty for a minute, they move in and set up ladders and equipment and start working. One bad song, everyone sits out and it’s over. They flip up the lights and start working.

 

Last fall we spent a weekend on the original Queen Mary in Long Beach. They have a beautiful main ballroom with a large floor. In their Observation Bar they have a small dance floor that slopes about 10 degrees and is bordered by stairs. One false move and it’s over. This floor would normally hold 3 or 4 couples. However there were 10 couples all dancing Balboa. We’re now learning that dance for our next cruise. It fits no matter how small the floor.

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Just got off QM2 TA last week. The band was mediocre and uninspiring, but I guess you could say passable. The recorded music needs work- someone with knowledge needs to go through and prune out the unsuitable. Just got off QE today. The band was acceptable, the recorded music had a few duds but was pretty good.

The big problem with QM2 was no alternate dance venue when there's a reception in Queens Room. The entrance to G32, which isn't a really good floor anyway, is through QR. Five nights out of 7, there was less than 3 hours of ballroom. That's not cost-effective at Cunard's prices. On QE and QV, there's music in Yacht Club/Hemispheres 1945-2030 when there's a reception; the ED might be negotiable for more if enough were interested.

Edited by Dancer Bob
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  • 5 weeks later...

Dancing cruises are different from simple cruises. There are many arrangements in it. Dance friends were an Alaskan (non-dance) cruise and they said the band played whatever they requested because they were the "stars" of the dancefloor - other passengers came to watch them dance.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Loving the comments on this thread and like Danceman my wife and I are certified instructors (although definitely jealous of DM's accomplishments which far outstrip ours :)). Even though I'm 61 I still like to compete.

 

When we go cruising we accept that the live music will be off tempo, sung seriously under pitch and we will be social dancing. However, I usually take my music with me (and it is all current strict tempo). In the past we have just approached the activity directors and asked if we can use the ships sound system for a bit of practice in a down period. Usually the ship personnel are very accommodating and we get something happening. Word spreads quickly and by day 3 all the practiced ballroomers have come out of the woodwork and the ship establishes a daily "Ballroom Practice". We include Westcoast Swing so all the Westies show up too. This leads to a lot of interaction with people from all over the place. We usually get 30+ dancers and double that for an audience.

 

Worked very well until our February cruise on the Emerald Princess. It was fully booked and so all the rooms were fully booked with activities all day long. We got to practice less than 30 minutes total over 10 days. Such is life but we still had fun.

 

If you're ever passing through Victoria, BC on the way to Alaska contact us through the Victoria Ballroom Dance Society and we can direct you to a lot of dancing while on land.

 

http://www.vbds.org

Edited by operabob
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  • 2 months later...
My experience on Oosterdam was totally different. The music, which was provided by HAL and the musicians had to play, was dull, dreary, dismal. I think the musicians were just as bored with it as we were (I was with a dance group, I refused to go unless we took our own music for the breaks. Good decision, and I saw the band playing the air-guitar to our music a couple of times.) Not to mention- I was just about the only passenger awake after 11 PM.

 

But what made it completely unacceptable- the ship put nonskid, sticky gunk on the floor! It was like walking on adhesive tape- you could hear your shoes pulling loose. Your ankles and knees were at great risk.

 

The only music I really know much about is dance music, but I thought one of the characteristics of jazz, is a complete lack of strict tempo?

Haven't been on the QM2 recently, but I hear they have improved a little.

 

 

 

I would like to get in contact with dancerbob ASAP about his comment on the condition of the dance floor on the HAL ship, how is that possible??

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As far as I could tell, they put the same sticky gunk on all the hard tiled surfaces in the corridors. Given all the people I saw making a big show of being feeble and decrepit, I can see why. It's quite possible if the hotel manager couldn't care less about keeping dancers happy, just wants to appease the old farts. I have no personal knowledge, but I heard a report Eurodam did the same thing.

The group I travel with did another cruise on HAL, I believe the Nieuw Amsterdam. I refused to go, never again on HAL until I'm at least 90 years old. The report I heard was that the hotel manager was totally uncooperative and refused to consider any request, although I'm not sure of all the details.

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  • 4 months later...

I've been on HAL twice -- and the only way to survive the sticky dance floors is to wear something over your shoes -- so they will slide on the floor. The floors are fine if one just wants to stand and sway to the music. We found it easier to dance on the carpet -- we could hear the music in the area where the elevators were, and just danced there. There wasn't much traffic through the area, and we had enough room to waltz and foxtrot.

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  • 2 months later...

Our pick for best dancing was on the Norwegian Epic. Specifically the Main Dining Room.

 

They have a large wooden dance floor right in the middle of the MDR. Their house orchestra as well as various bands and performers from other venues on the ship perform there nightly.

 

You can actually dance between courses of your dinner. We even came back later in the night to have dessert and enjoy some more dancing. Especially when they would feature one of the singers from the evening shows with the orchestra.

 

The dance floor is large however, at times, they do have tables set up on a portion of the floor. Still, it is larger than most dancefloors that you find on ships these days, especially the newer ones.

 

-Jim

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I would be wary about recommending NCL Epic for dancing. When I was on, there were ALWAYS tables packed onto the floor in the Manhattan Room. And you HAD to dance during dinner, it was the only decent music on the ship.

The group in the Atrium was terrible; the Cruise Director claimed "they have a prerecored background tape and can't change the tempo". The condition of the disco floor was terrible; they could have saved a lot of money on music by simply piping in engine room noise. The deck parties were just drunken clown dancing.

It could be NCL's management attitude has changed, but I was always treated as an annoyance when I tried to find out if alternatives were possible.

Edited by Dancer Bob
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  • 2 months later...

:confused: Getting this data is like searching for a needle in a haystack and often gets ignored, then buried by answers such as "I don't know but we found a large one ... and a postage stamp one ... yadayada ..."

 

Thus far, all I have is

Crown Princess Fusion (rear of ship so can be rocky) = 1450sf (square feet)

QE II reported as 1000sf but quotes say this might have been enlarged to retain it's reputation as largest afloat?

 

So that's the quest of this post - What IS the largest wood dance floor afloat today?

No need to post best band, cruise line, preferences, just a simple data question - what is the largest wood dance floor afloat & available to US passengers?

If you think you have a winner, please first contact the cruise line customer /guest relations ... guessing really doesn't help here, it just crowds up the space.

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How do you factor in odd shapes? QM2 has a rectangular floor, while Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth, Costa Atlantica and Costa Mediterranea all have semicircular additions on the end. Crystal Serenity has a rectangular floor as large as QM2 but with four pillars on it, and a second large floor that's somewhat horseshoe shaped (and they put tables on it). The Costa Fortuna-class ships have circular floors that are quite large in total area for latin/rhythm, but less so in terms of Line Of Dance, for ballroom/smooth.

Edited by Dancer Bob
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  • 3 weeks later...

There are several good ballroom dance groups that sail together on various ships. These are people who know how to dance and love to dance! Always a fun, friendly experience!! Look it up! Great fun!!

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Most dance groups never make it onto the Internet. The local group in January was just a bunch of friends who decided to book on the Mediterranea at the same time. Nobody was really in charge and we mostly dance International style at the bronze/silver level. Incidentally there were equal numbers of singles- sometimes we end up with more single guys than women. There was a dance studio group from Florida who hadn't posted either. dancinglist.com has some cruises, but I personally know of one with Southern Star chapter of USA Dance next October that isn't listed.

I decided a long time ago not to hire partners for social dancing. I did try one of the companies that provides hostesses, but it was quite expensive and not all that much fun. I do travel with Stardust. They were getting 500+ people when they were on Costa Fortuna but Adventure of the Seas (San Juan) a much smaller group and I didn't like the ship (should have done trip report, will dig out my notes). Linda says she wants to sail from Florida next year but is having trouble finding a ship.

If you want "cheap" and "dancing" then, for all its many and varied faults Costa is your only real choice, so the best odds of finding other dancers is on whatever ship they have sailing from the US.

Edited by Dancer Bob
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  • 1 month later...

I just found out Costa will have the Luminosa in Miami this winter. I just got off the Deliziosa, which seems to be almost identical. These ships came out of the Fincantieri yard, there's a few differences from Atlantica/Mediterranea.

Ship reviews to follow as soon as I put my notes together.

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  • 6 months later...

P&O Oriana, Eastern Mediterranean from Southampton, Nov 2014. Sea state in Bay of Biscay usually moderate.

 

Harlequin's: overall about 32' x 40' but reduced by furniture to about 24' x 34'. Live groups John James Trio, High Society. Almost all tempos were correct, even if the music was less than inspiring. Very good recorded music in breaks. I asked High Society for a merengue, after much searching got "Quando" at a nice samba tempo. Requested a samba, got "Quando" at a nice merengue tempo. They gave up trying to find a Paso Doble, and there was no Viennese Waltz over the whole cruise. Many sequence dances announced, but rarely more than six couples, and very few under age 65. Used as the nightclub after 23:30, but not well attended. The passenger mix on this sailing was strongly skewed towards elderly, and a generally low standard of dancing.

 

Pacific Lounge: oval, 20' x 26'. Used for various theme nights, not usually for dancing.

 

Crow's Nest: circular, 18'. On deck 12, susceptible to movement. Used for lounge music.

 

Lords tavern. currently used as a sports bar but has an area 30' x 25' that could be used as a dance floor.

Edited by Dancer Bob
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  • 4 months later...
I've been on HAL twice -- and the only way to survive the sticky dance floors is to wear something over your shoes -- so they will slide on the floor. The floors are fine if one just wants to stand and sway to the music. We found it easier to dance on the carpet -- we could hear the music in the area where the elevators were, and just danced there. There wasn't much traffic through the area, and we had enough room to waltz and foxtrot.

 

I was on the Celebrity Solstice in Nov 2013, they had a decent size floor in the Sky Observation Lounge which they were always using for game shows and other nonsense AT NIGHT! We would get in there to dance with music from our iPhone before the nonsense started and it was actually quite fun to have the whole floor to ourselves to do our our nice lines and moves and people started coming up early to watch and clap for us!

However on the night when "Ballroom music" was finally scheduled they waxed the floor with said gunk, it was so sticky I almost twisted my ankle. Asked the DJ and the steward who had done it and they said this was the "correct" way for dancing!! We re-educated them and said that people were going to hurt themselves that night and they would be blamed - so they finally came and cleaned it up by washing the floor again! It was still slightly sticky but more manageable after that.

 

So the correct way to survive sticky dance floors is - Don't stand for it! Ask them to clean it up!

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Has anyone experienced Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas? What are the chance of us finding any ballroom dancing? My husband and I are taking ballroom dance lessons. We've only been taking them for a year and a half, but we enjoy it and we are hoping we might find ballroom dancing on the Oasis.

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No experience with Oasis. Vision had a nice floor, but only one hour of music was scheduled, conflicting with second sitting. Adventure, also a room with a nice floor, but I don't remember any music at all.

You'll probably find some rhythm if you check around, but no smooth.

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No experience with Oasis. Vision had a nice floor, but only one hour of music was scheduled, conflicting with second sitting. Adventure, also a room with a nice floor, but I don't remember any music at all.

You'll probably find some rhythm if you check around, but no smooth.

 

The Oasis has Dazzles, In my experience, has a very undersized dance floor, especially for a 2 story lounge. It has a band that plays more contemporary music.

 

Also, there's a Latin venue on the Promenade.

They have a very well done 70's night, but very common YMCA-style beginning, but it's something still is a great one experience.

 

Not much ball-room, though. You should find some beginner dance classes also.

 

Mike

Edited by manmtnmike
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