No more evening Deck Dance Parties?

On Adventure now. Have already had two pool deck parties and a silent party.

What is a silent party? The vision I have must be different than what is actually is...at least I hope it is.

What is a silent party? The vision I have must be different than what is actually is...at least I hope it is.

A disco with headphones and two simultaneous tracks playing. Funny to watch others dancing to totally different songs

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I'm happy to have started such a lively discussion!

I agree that it probably is the drink packages that have changed some of the reasoning of RCCL as to how they schedule their activities, but I don't think that's the whole deal.

Drink packages or no, they still are responsible for providing a cruise experience that is the most satisfying to the largest proportion of their customer base. You can't please everyone, but I'm guessing that a deck party will make way more people happy than watching a movie by the pool. Also, it seems likely that the reason they have the deck parties on the older, smaller, ships, as noted by a couple of posters, is that the older ships don't have the movie screen. Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't been on one smaller than Voyager Class in about 7 or 8 years.

Ultimately, I don't care what their reasoning is. I only care to make my opinion known as publicly and loudly as I can, so that possibly, the powers that be will be moved to change their minds and bring back the parties. I also wrote about this in the post cruise survey, and it's interesting to note that at the end of the survey, they specifically direct you to Cruisecritic to share any other thoughts you may have. So, here I am, doing just that!

So, to the RCCL representative who is responsible for monitoring these boards, I say this. The decision to cut out evening pool deck dance parties (on any ship, of any size) is a BAD, BAD decision. You are irritating and disappointing many, many loyal cruisers. Take that to your bosses!

We did have a great cruise, thanks! However, that one aspect was disappointing. I sounded off pretty thoroughly on the post-cruise survey. The other thing that I noticed (and forgot to mention in the survey) was that on sea days, when the band wasn't playing, the Compass said that "DJ Mitch" would be spinning tunes. Trust me, there was no DJ. Unless he was invisible. It was just the usual canned music playing through the speakers.

I'm going to keep making noise about it and I'm planning on sending some emails. I also made my disappointment known to several Pinnacles we talked to onboard. If any passengers have some pull, it's them.

Disappointing for sure.

Why do you think Pinnacles have pull?

I'm happy to have started such a lively discussion!

 

I

Ultimately, I don't care what their reasoning is. I only care to make my opinion known as publicly and loudly as I can,

 

 

 

LOL sounds about right. You didn't get what YOU WANTED so complain..

Love it. Keep up the good work.

 

PS, it's not really a lively discussion. There are many replies of people telling you

that you are wrong and that they actually do have the parties

and then some strange attacks on Wolf for playing music at a bar.

it's certainly not the 20 pages of People saying how sad they were (which is how you make it sound)

in fact only 3 people said they would be dissapointed. Not exactly the Many Many Loyal cruisers you speak of.

I'm disappointed they don't do it anymore. Heck, I'm still traumatized by losing Derek Lewis last year! :) I admit I haven't even gone to the pool deck at night the last few cruises - not into watching movies on vacation. I can do that at home!

A disco with headphones and two simultaneous tracks playing. Funny to watch others dancing to totally different songs

 

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Thanks. That does sound funny.

I personally like both deck parties and evening movies. Maybe one solution is to have select nights for both...maybe every other night perhaps.

Here's to smooth sailing!

Just off the Adventure today. Lots of choices for things to do late night. We went to both nights of dance parties on the pool deck. The turnout was definitely very low.

We just got off the Liberty of the Seas, had a fantastic cruise, but I was disappointed that they did not have any pool deck evening dance parties. I was a little irritated with the CD for not planning one, but I was told by one of the Pinnacle Club members onboard that this was fleetwide. They are no longer doing dance parties on the deck (other than the line dancing stuff during the day). They also eliminated the sailaway parties on the deck when leaving the Caribbean ports. They only had a sailaway party on embarkation day.

 

If this is true, we need to make a stink so they will bring it back! Keep in mind, a little while back, they eliminated the pub entertainer position and even the lounge band on some ships, but after a while they brought those back, I assume because of significant customer reactions.

 

Has anyone else hear the same thing, or have you had deck parties on recent sailings?

Who was the CD on your sailing?

Drew Devine is the CD on Liberty. I do think the activities are set by the CD. Perhaps he's not into a late night dance. ;) He didn't run Quest - the Activities Director did.

On the Grandeur and in the Compass is island night deck party for day 8. [emoji3] poolside.

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I’m on Indy for a 4 day and it wasn’t scheduled, but now it is for tomorrow night. I really believe it’s up to the cruise director. I’m glad to have it. I always love the open deck parties

I'm curious, it has been a while since I posted this topic and I'm wondering if there is a trend one way or another in 2019? ARe they still doing deck parties on  most sailings? I do hope so! 

On 11/15/2017 at 9:17 PM, steveru621 said:

They show movies instead.

Ugh- am I the only one who hates the outdoor movies?  No one ever seems to be watching them...

On 11/17/2017 at 9:48 AM, TheTruthCanHurt said:

theotherchad said:

I'm happy to have started such a lively discussion! 

 

LOL sounds about right. You didn't get what YOU WANTED so complain..

Love it. Keep up the good work.

 

Thank you! I shall. I'm not sure of the purpose of your post, and honestly, I just now saw it over a year after you posted. Are you of the opinion that people should not complain if the cruise line does something that we don't like?  It's not like I complain about every little thing. I don't sweat the chair hogs, the shorts in the MDR crowd or the cost of the drinks. But the deck parties have long been something that I really enjoy, so when they didn't have one, I was disappointed, so I said something. Sorry if my opinion irritated you (though I can't imagine why it would).

On 11/18/2017 at 6:48 PM, exercisemama said:

Just off the Adventure today. Lots of choices for things to do late night. We went to both nights of dance parties on the pool deck. The turnout was definitely very low.

What was the itinerary and the length of your Adventure OTS cruise? I ask because those factors make a big difference in the demographic of the pax onboard. Every deck dance party we've ever been to (which is all of them on every cruise we've been on) has been packed, but we are doing pretty much 7 day Caribbean cruise exclusively. 

I don't think that RCCL would have stopped doing these on this type of cruise due to passenger disinterest. 

5 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Ugh- am I the only one who hates the outdoor movies?  No one ever seems to be watching them...

I've noticed the same thing. Then again, that probably doesn't bother RCCL, because the effort required to show a movie is basically, somebody pushes a button and flips a switch. Other activities require a lot more planning and effort. 

I hope on the new Navigator with the pool bar area having much more bar seating, this will encourage late evening pool bar parties.  I agree, watching movies at night isn't exactly exciting. Hopefully they roll out this design fleetwide. It looks like a lot of fun and should encourage socializing. 

On 11/17/2017 at 9:35 AM, land lover said:

 

Disappointing for sure.

Why do you think Pinnacles have pull?

I know that I'm answering a year and some change late, but trust me, Pinnacles have some pull. Don't get me wrong, I don't think they can just make anything happen, but they do have the ear of the concierges, the cruise director, the hotel director and often, the senior staff officers, including the captain. At the very least, they are heard. When a Pinnacle mentions something to one of those people, it's not just random passenger, it is that they are often friends with the staff, due to having cruised so often and for so long. 

47 minutes ago, purplegrapefruit said:

I hope on the new Navigator with the pool bar area having much more bar seating, this will encourage late evening pool bar parties.  I agree, watching movies at night isn't exactly exciting. Hopefully they roll out this design fleetwide. It looks like a lot of fun and should encourage socializing. 

It was reported that at least two late night pool parties were held on the 9 night Navigator cruise last week.

Dan

9 minutes ago, The Fun Researcher said:

 

It was reported that at least one late night pool party was held on the 9 night Navigator cruise last week.

 

Dan

Great, I'm glad to hear that my concern about maybe the deck parties going away was misplaced! Now, I'm curious about the Liberty OTS particularly. Any word on deck parties on recent sailings? That's our next one. 

I've had the Dancing Under the Stars for all of my sailings, including my TA in November. I really enjoy them. I'll usually find a spot on the upper deck and dance the night away with a drink.

Our last cruise was our first time on NCL (approx 20 cruises)... We loved the late night dance parties! And, the bars open all night! We too have noticed that the bands have disappeared on CCL.. I hope we're not disappointed in May when we go on the Symphony... If we are, then I think we found our new go-to cruise line, NCL!

I looked at our Compasses for our Harmony cruise last year.  There were no outdoor deck parties but they had various theme ones on the Royal Promenade.   There was White Party,  Music poolside.  I could go on. However there seems to be plenty of options.

On 3/11/2019 at 3:21 PM, theotherchad said:

 

Great, I'm glad to hear that my concern about maybe the deck parties going away was misplaced! Now, I'm curious about the Liberty OTS particularly. Any word on deck parties on recent sailings? That's our next one. 

No deck party on my Nov 2018 sailing.