Is Celebrity Entertainment Slipping?

[C 2 C]

Have read several comments about the decline in the quality of Celebrity entertainment in the past year. Has anyone noted a change? We have been happy with what we have seen on the Galaxy in May and Infinity Dec 5....

Is it the production shows? Comedians, Jugglers??? Cirque???

[Ma Bell]

I don't recall threads saying that the entertainment was going downhill in fact most of the things I read said it was better than it used to be. I've been on 17 Celebrity cruises and in my opinion the entertainment seems to be better than it used to be. Obviously the Cirque experiment is having some problems, but on the whole the performers I've seen recently have been quite good. They could still use improvement in some areas, but I would say they are trying.

[geoherb]

I was disappointed in the entertainment on the Century last week. My biggest disappointment was the lack of options each evening. I guess I got spoiled by our previous four cruises on Princess--where there were a couple of different types of shows in the theater and main lounge most nights. On the Century, it was just one type of show per night--a comedian, the production shows, the ladder guy, a magician, and a couple of singers. There were other things--like karaoke and the newlywed game--but not real options. Also, the duo playing in Rendezvous Square was not great. I never saw a big following for them like I've seen for groups on other ships. And the pool band had a great lead singer--and a guy who was worse than most of the karaoke singers who sang and played the keyboard. The quartet who played in the dining room (violin, clarinet, bass, and piano) was very good.

[trcori]

... on 12/12 Millennium, compared to our previous four X cruises in a little over two years. During the cruise, as I noted in a few posts, they debuted what's supposedly a brand-new addition to the production-show repertoire, "I Love the Nightlife." Despite being no big fan of production shows, I really enjoyed it. The outside-the-showroom talent on our cruise was terrific, from the Spanish guitarist to the Michael's Club pianist to the jazz vocalist who sang at the Captain's Club party (I believe she was part of the lounge duo?), etc.

 

TR

Mercury AK 8/26/05

****

Millennium EC 12/04, Mercury CA-MX 4/04, Infinity AK 8/03, Century WC 3/03, Century EC 9/02

[C 2 C]

I don't recall threads saying that the entertainment was going downhill in fact most of the things I read said it was better than it used to be.

 

I'll refer to a couple of threads you might have missed....

 

http://messages.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=116543

 

http://messages.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=115980

 

http://messages.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=115557

[JNLROSE]

We were on the Mercury Nov 26-Dec 6 and we thought the production shows were pretty poor in compairson to Summit in March, the pool band really sucked, the string quartet was fabulous as was the ship band, the Rendezvous Black & White Duo was pretty good but Noli the singer in the nightclub, was also pretty bad. Overall, I would give Mercury's entertainment only a 5 on a 10 scale!Summit would get a 9 in my book!

[C 2 C]

We really enjoyed the Polish quartet on the Hawaii crossing and stopped there every day.. We thought the production shoes were fine, Rendezvous was always busy with dancers..

We had one classical piano player that put on two daytime shows that were also packed..

 

Comedian so-so.. was an adlib performance based on very slim material... but some people found it enjoyable..

[fireguy091]

I'm not going on my cruise for the intertainment, so is everything else about X still OK... :D

[garykool81]

Frankly, I feel that this is an industry-wide problem. No one who has gone to land-based broadway style performances, even with the imitations done in Vegas, could honestly say that ship-based entertainment comes anywhere close these days.

 

The cruise I just got off of on Holland America's Zuiderdam had the WORST entertainment of *ANY* venue, land or sea, that I have ever been on. As is typical, the independent entertainers brought onboard were good, but the ship-employed singers and dancers were *worse* than most high school productions I've seen.

 

I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.

 

The entire industry needs to get their act in gear and realize that a beautiful theater coupled with state-of-the-art lighting and sound does NOT make up for a poor quality product. As I put on my recent comment card, "...even in cooking, a good sauce can only go so far in covering up the taste of spoiled product."

 

And to address another person's posting here, you *ARE* paying for entertainment. You're paying for it BIG TIME in your ticket price. Entertainers onboard these modern cruise ships are among the highest paid crew onboard, short perhaps of the officers themselves. The theaters given to these performers are without doubt the most expensive venues onboard any modern cruise ship, topping out with multimillion dollar price tags. Do I expect to see high-end entertainment? Absolutely not. But, do I expect at least college quality performances that I could see at the local community college? Yes. Anything less is outright insulting and embarassing to the company and the performers themselves.

[Ma Bell]

C2C,

Thanks for the threads,

I have only sailed on M-Class ships with Celebrity except for my first with them which was the Horizon. I'm sure the better entertainers are on the M-Class ships. As I said the Cirque experience seems to have problems, but since it is only an addition to what is already offered, I find it diffficult to say the entertainment is worse because of this. Hopefully they will be able to make it better. It's not unusual for something new to take a little while to work out the problems. That's why they're not charging anyone at this point. Celebrity's entertainment has been one area where they could use improvement and in my opinion they are trying to do that. I've definitely seen some very fine performers that last few years. My last two cruises were on Constellation and the cast of the production shows was very good. There have been more guest performers and lecturers as well who have provided more options for the passengers. As I said, there's still room for improvement.

 

Is there some reason that all your threads are trying to elicit negative response, especially when you try so hard to say you really haven't had the negative experience yourself?

[Carol Anne]

DH and I were on Century in September and the Production that were done were really excellent. Again on Constellation on December 11th the three large stage productions were outstanding, probably some of the best we've seen. As I recall one of the shows had most of the passengers on their feet for the dancers at the end of the evening. I can't compare to anything other than Celebrity and RCl as those are the lines that we normally do.

[StephenJohnson]

Well, for my money, Celebrity's entertainment has (on the whole) always been lame - it's improved somewhat IMAO since the RCCL merger, but is still hit-or-miss.

 

Fortunately, I don't really care about the entermainment that much.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

I agree with Ma Bell on this one.... I do not see any decline in the entertainment. On my last 3 Cruises on Celebrity, I feel that the overall entertainment was excellent.

 

As for the headliners that are brought onboard, those can always be hit or miss, depending on their act, and what YOU happen to like. Personally, I prefer Comedians, as I like to laugh and have a good time while on Vacation. It seems that of late, Celebrity has been leaning a little more towards Muscial Performers, such as Samantha Jay. While she is a great performer, and I enjoy her show, I would rather have at least 1 Comedian on my Cruise. But then again, that is simply my preference.

 

I also wish that Celebrity would add some new Production shows. For those of us who sail regularly, we have seen these shows several times. It would also be desired, that Celebrity didnt have the same "Featured Performers" most all the time. Some more variety would be nice in this area.

 

As for Cirque, I know that the comments have been not great, but I cannot comment on it, as I have not seen it in person. I will be on Summit on 4/1, so hopefully it will be a much better experience at that point. I do feel very confident that Celebrity will do whatever it takes to make Cirque a great experience. I think we all agree that it is a work in progress.

[C 2 C]

C2C,

Is there some reason that all your threads are trying to elicit negative response, especially when you try so hard to say you really haven't had the negative experience yourself?

 

If the forecaster says RAIN, and you wake up to a sunny day, the day will be beyond expectations.. if the forecaster says SUN and its a rainy day...you'll feel glum... By asking for negatives and getting positives... people will feel better about their expectations.. I have never had a BAD Celebrity cruise.. I have had several disappointing Princess cruises and a so-so HAL cruise... all based on previous experiences..

 

I believe I posted before...without bad news, there is no news... people check the weather for bad road conditions, people follow murders and disasters... How many people now know where Sumatra is?

 

I also have read.. that cruise line employees read some of these posts.... hints that there are areas that they can improve..

[Ma Bell]

I agree we need to hear the negatives as well as the positives, I just don't understand trying to stir up trouble where there is none. If your experience with Celebrity had been negative I could understand why you would bring it up but to just start a thread like this for no reason is beyond me. The other threads you cited were hardly worth raising a controversy.

[C 2 C]

I just don't understand trying to stir up trouble where there is none. .

 

“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost."— H. Jackson Browne

 

I think you understand quite well and are you again trying to stir up trouble... If you don't like my threads.. . you can start your own and avoid my posts since you seem to disagree with practically every one of them..

 

I'm trying to determine if there is a decline in the quality of entertainment on Celebrity ships over the last year.. You have made your point.. you think it is improving.. so why question my attempts to get others to post their opinion..

[Ma Bell]

Good idea, I just won't read your posts. Enough negativity in the world.:)

[lindajeff]

If the quality is "down" from the past then it must have been phenomenal before because it was excellent on the 11/28/04 Millie. Several in our group of 25 (mostly experienced cruisers) commented that the "main" shows were as good better than they had ever seen. We also were wondering how/why some of the performers "ended up on a cruise ship" instead of performing in a higher profile (i.e., Broadway or Las Vegas) venue.

[C 2 C]

Found this under Hawaii comparison:

Perhaps the negative comparisons are from the smaller ships.

 

my wife and i cruised spirit not to hawaii but on a 8 day panama

 

 

the ship is beautiful probably the prettiest ship i was ever on

 

the food and service is better on celebrity

 

the entertainment is better on carnival

 

we recently were on the 11 day vancouver to hawaii on celebrity

[kelly-NYC]

My experiences are only on the Zenith (8/03) and the Connie (9/04). The entertainment on the Zenith last year was terrible. The singers were very off key. The dancers were not very good. I could go on, but no need to do so. I participated in musical theater in high school and college, and I see a number of Broadway plays each year. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I really thought that the productions that I have seen at my high school in West Virginia were significantly better.

 

I was hesitant to go to any of the shows on the Connie in September. My husband convinced me to go to a few, and I was pleasantly surprised! He even went to a few on his own, when I was asleep in the room. We attributed it to having more talent on a larger ship. I'm not sure if it is the case, but I assume that the more talented performers get promoted to the larger ships. Someone can correct me if I am wrong. The Onyx band was excellent. I could have done without the duo in the Rendezvous Lounge, but we spent a lot of time there considering I didn't care for them.

[JNLROSE]

When we were just recently on Mercury and I found some of the entertainment not to my expectations, I had a chance to chat with Julian, the CD & when we were talking about it, his comment was "you really can't expect the same quality of entertainment on the smaller ships that you see on the M class ships"!!! :confused:

We had fair to poor entertainment on the Century then we had excellent entertainment on Summit then the Mercury experience, all within the past 2 years.

Just thought I'd share Julian's comment as I found it interesting! ;)

[fireguy091]

Listening to complaints about the entertainment is like listening to movie reviews. I can't believe some of the movies that are winning academy awards. The best movies I've seen got terrible reviews,lol.

Who cares about the ships entertainment, the ship is the entertainment... :D

[OCruisers]

...."you really can't expect the same quality of entertainment on the smaller ships that you see on the M class ships"!!! :confused: Just thought I'd share Julian's comment as I found it interesting!

 

Thanks for posting this! Oh Well! :confused:

 

While we have very much enjoyed all of our Celebrity cruises, there is one thing we wish they would consider: Having more entertainment in the bars/lounges between 5 - MidNight!

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[A Sixth?]

Over sixreen years later and the debate continues! ;):p

[florisdekort]

When I first joined Cruise Critic 12 years ago, if you believed everything written here, everything was slipping. 12 years later and everything is still continuously slipping [emoji849]

 

 

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