Entertainment question

Hello everyone

My husband and I are thinking of a luxury line for our 10th anniversary. We will both be 40 and I love cruising. My husband enjoys it, but hates the crowds on mass cruise lines, so we thought a smaller, luxury ship would be the way to go.

My husband loves jazz and any people who are talented musicians...good, pianist, small trio band, etc. We are not the people who want to go and dance the night away in a club playing club music. We prefer to sit back and listen to talented musician, have a nice drink and good conversation.

I've looked into Sea Dream, which looks amazing, but it doesn't appear as though they really have any entertainment. I do love their 7 day itineraries though. I've also looked at Seabourn, Reagent and Crystal. Do any of those stick out to any of you as fitting a bit more closely what we are looking for?

Thanks for any guidance you can pass along.

Crystal will probably offer the best variety of entertainment because it is a much larger ship than others. they have full scale production shows. But if you like a pianist or a group the smaller ships like Seabourn or Silversea have those too. For me personally the best entertainment on a luxury cruise is conversations with fellow passengers over a cognac while someone plays background music in one of the lounges.

We were on the Crystal Serenity for 25 days in March, 2015. The shows were generally large scale productions, although there were a couple of featured soloists. The band members were quite accomplished, and on many evenings they held jazz jam sessions in the Crystal Cove bar in the center of the ship. Sometimes they were joined for a few songs by one or two of the core vocalists. These performances were sublime, much more to our tastes than the big cruise ship production shows. There is a pianist in the Avenue Bar every evening.

On Seabourn Sojourn for 68 days in 2014, we enjoyed the pianist in the Observation Bar, who often sang. Her repertoire was pop to jazz. The Sojourn's showroom is a bit small, so no huge production shows, although a bit too much of the group song-and-dance productions of Belinda King. There were many nights where a soloist, sometimes one of the Cruise staff, was featured, and those were very good, approaching jazz.

We would love a lot more jazz and sophisticated music on cruise lines, but unfortunately have not found it. My observation is that the lines perceive that their customers prefer middle-of-the-road production shows with pop music and lots of old fashioned corney stuff.

I know it's not luxury, but the best jazz on a cruise line, IMHO, can be found on Cunard, especially the QMII. The nightly performances in the Chart Room are as good as a night club in NYC.

Happy cruising and enjoy the music!

Maybe one of the music cruises by Hapag Lloyd? We'll be doing the 'new voices' one as we love opera.

My husband and I are your age/younger and have always enjoyed the Europa. Generally, the Europa 2 is probably more suitable for younger cruisers though.

Surprisingly, the small Ponant L'Austral had the best piano player of all the cruises I have been on - classical music of concert quality, he was from the

Ukraine - and the best solo singer. She was from Cuba, think a modern version of a French chanson singer. Ponant also does classical music cruises.

It looks like you have to brush up your French or your German. :)

Maybe one of the music cruises by Hapag Lloyd? We'll be doing the 'new voices' one as we love opera.

My husband and I are your age/younger and have always enjoyed the Europa. Generally, the Europa 2 is probably more suitable for younger cruisers though.

An important difference between the Europa, and the Europa 2, is that the former no longer has 'International' cruises, so cruises are conducted solely in German.

Additionally, the Europa requires a far more formal dress code.

And I understand the shows on Europa 2 are all without dialogue so no language problem.

The live ambiance music (in the lounges, during tea, etc) on Crystal was wonderful - some light jazz, some string quartet, some cocktail piano - and was part of a really enjoyable cruise experience. And the dixieland jazz sessions held on occasion in the central lounge (some of the showroom musicians) was a real highlight.

An important difference between the Europa, and the Europa 2, is that the former no longer has 'International' cruises, so cruises are conducted solely in German.

 

Additionally, the Europa requires a far more formal dress code.

But that only means that there are no official bilingual cruises anymore, right? :confused: If there are English speaking cruisers on-board, they'll still be looked after by the international hostess. At least that was the case on all the cruises I've been on (which where not designated 'international'). Hard to believe they wouldn't offer that anymore...

But that only means that there are no official bilingual cruises anymore, right? :confused: If there are English speaking cruisers on-board, they'll still be looked after by the international hostess. At least that was the case on all the cruises I've been on (which where not designated 'international'). Hard to believe they wouldn't offer that anymore...

Europa 2 does have international cruises according to the website. By international, they mean English in addition to German.

But that only means that there are no official bilingual cruises anymore, right? :confused: If there are English speaking cruisers on-board, they'll still be looked after by the international hostess. At least that was the case on all the cruises I've been on (which where not designated 'international'). Hard to believe they wouldn't offer that anymore...

On it's website, Hapag-Lloyd states that cruises on the Europa will be conducted in German.

Support for English speaking guests may well be available from an 'International Hostess', but the question is how far does that support extend?

On the Europa 2, announcements from the bridge will be in English, as will introductions to certain entertainment events.

In the various restaurants, Menus in English will be readily available.

Port Lectures in English will be provided.

A daily English language newspaper of one's choice is provided.

The daily 'Programme Of The Day', and 'Port Information', are provided in English.

Staff speak English.

To what extent is the foregoing available to English speaking guests on the Europa?

We have chatted with several of the international hostesses on our Europa cruises and also with some of the English speaking passengers (on our (non-bilingual) cruises there were about 4-10).

It seems that menus and the daily information are translated every day by the hostess.

During the tours, they have one of the staff translating as much as possible.

In general, all staff members speak English to some extend.

There are no announcements in English aside from drill. Not sure whether they have an English newspaper in the library but you can definitely request it.

If you want diversity in music I would go with Crystal.

Each evening there is dancing to a live band before and after dinner.

There are also pianists in two areas for listening. One sings and the other one does not.

Sometimes the orchestra will also play when people can dance.

On a typical cruise you have a Bill Joel Concert on Serenity and an Elton John one on Symphony who each have solo vocalists who really sound like the real thing.

There are a couple of musical shows, and a couple of other ones plus there are usually 4 to 5 entertainers from shoreside such as Pianist, Vocalist, Comedian, and a couple of other performers.

Keith

Fantastic information everyone! I really appreciate the information. It helps me a lot to narrow down my search. Thanks!!

Crystal has themed cruises, including three jazz cruises scheduled for next year. (You can check out theme cruises in a link on the very bottom of the company's website.)

(I was on the Crystal Symphony when there was a jazz theme and it was great. I am not really a big fan of jazz, but the music was incredible and the jazz performances were in addition to all the regular entertainment. It was a great cruise.)