Royal Princess vs. X Eclipse- Entertainment

[luv4cruises]

So much of what we discuss on CC is based on our personal point of view.

I will list some facts in my comparison of entertainment on the Royal Princess vs.The Eclipse.

 

I sailed both ships last year and present here the evening entertainment on both ships as listed in the Princess Patter and Celebrity Today

 

Royal Princess

11/23/2014

 

*Princess Theater

Production Show- Spectacular

7:00, 8:15, 10:15 ( 3 times per evening)

 

*Vista Lounge

Specialty Act Magic and Illusion David Cats 9:15, 11:00

 

*Piazza

Trevor Cole. 6:30

Big Band Ballroom 7:45

High Energy Acrobatics. 10:00

Party Band 10:15

 

*Wheelhouse Lounge

Nadia Smith Pianist 7:00, 8:30

Inner Mood quartet. 10:00

 

*Princess Live

Trivia. 8:15

Are you Smarter than the Cruise Staff 9:15

Pop Star Grand Finale 10:30

 

*Movies Under the Stars. 7:00, 9:30

 

*Fountain Pool

Fountain Show. 9:15

 

*Club 6

DJ. Motown 11:00

Late night dance party. 12:00

 

*Crooners. 11:00

Captain and Kory Simon

 

21 events

...........................................,,

Celebrity Eclipse.

2/21/2015

 

*Eclipse Theater

Celebrity Showtime. Eclipse-The Show 8:30, 10:30

 

*Ensemble Lounge

Classical String. 7:00

Jazz Quartet. 7:45

Jazz 9:30

Guitar, Vocalist. 11:00

 

*Celebrity Central

Movie. 6:00, 9:00

Game Show He Knows, She knows 11:30

 

*Grand Foyer

Big Band Ecliose Orchestra. 7:30

 

*Quasar

Karaoke. 10:30

Tux and dress party 11:00

 

*Sky Lounge

Ballroom. 7:15, 9:30

Dance Party 10:45

 

Cellar Masters

Perry Grant - 9:30 ( can no longer count this because Perry is on the Royal Princess now!

 

The Royal Princess offers 21 events in several beautiful and varied venues.

compared to 16 events on the Eclipse. Take away Perry as he is now on the Royal Princess and there are 15 events on the Eclipse compared to 21 on the Royal.

 

Also Princess offers 4 Production Shows performed 3 times per evening on a 10 day cruise compared to the Eclipse offering 3 Production Shows 2 times per evening on a 14 day cruise.

 

The Eclipse has no cabaret like venue like the Vista lounge to host comedians and specialty acts on a staggered time slot, often after they have appeared in the Princess theater, giving guests a second chance at seeing a performance they may have missed.

 

The Eclipse has no piano bar( they took away Michael's club and have reserved it for suite guests only), as evidenced by the fact that they had to house Perry in a dingy, cramped corner of Cellar Masters in 2014 and 2015.

 

Also Royal's light and bright enormous multi-leveled Piazza hosts lively and varied entertainment all day and night, including the art auctions which are great fun to watch from any level of the Piazza, even if you are not a collector.

 

If you compare the Princess Patter to Celebrity Today you will easily see how much more there is to do on the Royal vs. The Eclipse.

 

The facts support a definite win for the Royal Princess in the category of Entertainment!

 

Now -

IMHO the entertainment on the Eclipse is more somber and sedate than that on the Royal Princess. In fact on one of my Eclipse Cruises there was only one comedian, one show on a 14 day cruise. Whether or not you are a Perry Grant fan, his loss to the Eclipse will take away for me one of the few spots on that ship where guests laughed heartily, sang out loud to familiar music, and listened to a good entertainer play the piano, sing and tell sometimes all too familiar jokes.

 

I am not a one cruise line loyalist. I have been fortunate to cruise on 20 different ships on 6 different cruise lines and have enjoyed all of them, some more than others.

[PLW0520]

We are going on the Eclipse next year and it will be out first time on Celebrity. I am so disappointed about there being no piano bar. We have always been more into the lounge type of entertainment rather than the big production shows. Is there any venues that have this type of entertainment except late at night?

[LF2C]

We have just been on Eclipse.

Great entertainment every night during our cruise and no Perry Grant.......result!!!! Princess are welcome to him.

The Ray Brown jazz quartet (Ella Fitzgerald's stepson) performs most nights in the Ensemble Lounge most nights and occasionally down in the Grand Foyer. A class act

Edited October 27, 2015 by LF2C

[WestLakeGirl]

We love Ray Brown but miss the piano bar entertainment, it was always a highlight and seems to be gone now

[uktog]

The entertainment on Princess is just not my cup of tea. Much prefer the Celebrity offerings apart from the loud Miami DJ boom boom junk

[luv4cruises]

There is no piano bar nor cabaret type lounge on the Eclipse.

As you can see from my Princess Patter and Celebrity Today in the original post there is much more variety in entertainment and there are more entertainment venues on the Royal Princess.

 

By the way, my favorite piano bars are on HAL's Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam.

Now I don't want to add another layer to this discussion- so let's not discuss HAL.

 

Some are glad to see Perry go- but Celebrity had no one else in their entertainment line up the last three times I sailed the Eclipse who could get the audience laughing and participating.

 

As I said IMHO the entertainment is more somber and sedate on the Eclipse.

 

I very much prefer the entertainment on Princess.

[BosoxI]

The one thing I do not cruise for is the entertainment. The production shows seem full of college kids screaming at the top of their lungs. But every now and then I am pleasantly surprised. On several X cruises we were lucky to have a fellow who played a lead in the LA production of Les Miserables. Beautiful voice and a real professional. Cunard had a trained opera singer on one cruise. What a difference in her ability. There have been other instances but all too infrequent. I do a usually double time through the lounges where there are some really bad performers. My wife says I expect too much. Perhaps so, but I wasn't blessed with a tin ear, I reply.

[LabGuy64]

Not sure what the point of this thread is......it's pretty well established that entertainment is the weak spot of Celebrity....so Ok...you flogged the dead horse...what are so saying?.....you like Princess because you found the entertainment better?

 

 

 

 

 

So much of what we discuss on CC is based on our personal point of view.

I will list some facts in my comparison of entertainment on the Royal Princess vs.The Eclipse.

 

I sailed both ships last year and present here the evening entertainment on both ships as listed in the Princess Patter and Celebrity Today

 

Royal Princess

11/23/2014

 

*Princess Theater

Production Show- Spectacular

7:00, 8:15, 10:15 ( 3 times per evening)

 

*Vista Lounge

Specialty Act Magic and Illusion David Cats 9:15, 11:00

 

*Piazza

Trevor Cole. 6:30

Big Band Ballroom 7:45

High Energy Acrobatics. 10:00

Party Band 10:15

 

*Wheelhouse Lounge

Nadia Smith Pianist 7:00, 8:30

Inner Mood quartet. 10:00

 

*Princess Live

Trivia. 8:15

Are you Smarter than the Cruise Staff 9:15

Pop Star Grand Finale 10:30

 

*Movies Under the Stars. 7:00, 9:30

 

*Fountain Pool

Fountain Show. 9:15

 

*Club 6

DJ. Motown 11:00

Late night dance party. 12:00

 

*Crooners. 11:00

Captain and Kory Simon

 

21 events

...........................................,,

Celebrity Eclipse.

2/21/2015

 

*Eclipse Theater

Celebrity Showtime. Eclipse-The Show 8:30, 10:30

 

*Ensemble Lounge

Classical String. 7:00

Jazz Quartet. 7:45

Jazz 9:30

Guitar, Vocalist. 11:00

 

*Celebrity Central

Movie. 6:00, 9:00

Game Show He Knows, She knows 11:30

 

*Grand Foyer

Big Band Ecliose Orchestra. 7:30

 

*Quasar

Karaoke. 10:30

Tux and dress party 11:00

 

*Sky Lounge

Ballroom. 7:15, 9:30

Dance Party 10:45

 

Cellar Masters

Perry Grant - 9:30 ( can no longer count this because Perry is on the Royal Princess now!

 

The Royal Princess offers 21 events in several beautiful and varied venues.

compared to 16 events on the Eclipse. Take away Perry as he is now on the Royal Princess and there are 15 events on the Eclipse compared to 21 on the Royal.

 

Also Princess offers 4 Production Shows performed 3 times per evening on a 10 day cruise compared to the Eclipse offering 3 Production Shows 2 times per evening on a 14 day cruise.

 

The Eclipse has no cabaret like venue like the Vista lounge to host comedians and specialty acts on a staggered time slot, often after they have appeared in the Princess theater, giving guests a second chance at seeing a performance they may have missed.

 

The Eclipse has no piano bar( they took away Michael's club and have reserved it for suite guests only), as evidenced by the fact that they had to house Perry in a dingy, cramped corner of Cellar Masters in 2014 and 2015.

 

Also Royal's light and bright enormous multi-leveled Piazza hosts lively and varied entertainment all day and night, including the art auctions which are great fun to watch from any level of the Piazza, even if you are not a collector.

 

If you compare the Princess Patter to Celebrity Today you will easily see how much more there is to do on the Royal vs. The Eclipse.

 

The facts support a definite win for the Royal Princess in the category of Entertainment!

 

Now -

IMHO the entertainment on the Eclipse is more somber and sedate than that on the Royal Princess. In fact on one of my Eclipse Cruises there was only one comedian, one show on a 14 day cruise. Whether or not you are a Perry Grant fan, his loss to the Eclipse will take away for me one of the few spots on that ship where guests laughed heartily, sang out loud to familiar music, and listened to a good entertainer play the piano, sing and tell sometimes all too familiar jokes.

 

I am not a one cruise line loyalist. I have been fortunate to cruise on 20 different ships on 6 different cruise lines and have enjoyed all of them, some more than others.

[luv4cruises]

Not sure what the point of this thread is......it's pretty well established that entertainment is the weak spot of Celebrity....so Ok...you flogged the dead horse...what are so saying?.....you like Princess because you found the entertainment better?

 

 

I actually started this thread because of recent entertainment comparisons between the Royal Princess and the the Eclipse since Perry Grant debuted on the Royal on 10/11/15 , and because of

negative comments about entertainment on the Royal Princess and Perry Grant.

I have been following a few threads since Perry Grant made his debut.

 

I am not as avid a Perry fan as many others, but am nevertheless a fan. I would not book a cruise just because he is on it as so many others do. However, I will miss him on my 4/3 Eclipse sailing!

The recent comparisons and Perry bashing in some posts got me to do a comparison based on daily planners.

 

For me entertainment is one of the parts of cruising that set it apart from a land-based vacation. There is always something to do if you so choose. When there is a choice of ships with the same itinerary entertainment will factor into my choice,

Having cruised on two small ships where entertainment was at a minimum I realized that it is an important factor for me. Would I cruise on those two smaller ships again- in a heartbeat- for me Tahiti trumps everything else.

 

Judgements on entertainment like those on food are subjective. My attempt was to make a list- no judgements, then state my opinion. I did not expect mean-spirited remarks about Princess or Perry.

 

The point of my thread was to show that there is much much more to entertainment on the Royal Princess than just Perry Grant. One poster said he/she would never sail Princess again because Perry was there. Really? He is currently on one contract on one ship. For me Perry's absence on my 4/3 Eclipse sailing will leave a real void. There will be no option to occasionally sing along to familiar music and laugh heartily to his somewhat too familiar routines So far as I know the Eclipse offers nothing as light hearted as an occasional evening with Perry.

 

That got me to thinking to actually compare the entertainment on the Royal and the Eclipse. IMHO Princess entertainment is better!

Edited October 28, 2015 by luv4cruises
Mistake

[stevenr597]

We had sailed on both the Royal Princess and Celebrity Equinox (on Celebrity several times) and quite simply, there is no comparison. Celebrity wins hands down. While it is true that there are 3 shows on the Royal Princess/night compared to two, the two venues cannot really be compared. We found the shows on Royal Princess to a shadow of what they used to be.

 

To be specific, the shows on the R.P. were fairly short in duration with a small number of entertainers. In comparison, the shows on Celebrity simply took our breath away with the duration of the shows, number and skills of the entertainers and the gymnastics.

 

All the cruise lines are making cutbacks and adding surcharges. However, this has affected Princess to a greater degree than Celebrity. Maybe there is a larger variety on Princess, but the quality certainly goes to Celebrity.

[LabGuy64]

Again,

 

what's the point.....i am sure that most would say that Princess had better entertainment before Perry left.....just a bit of restating the obvious...no offense

 

 

I actually started this thread because of recent entertainment comparisons between the Royal Princess and the the Eclipse since Perry Grant debuted on the Royal on 10/11/15 , and because of

negative comments about entertainment on the Royal Princess and Perry Grant.

I have been following a few threads since Perry Grant made his debut.

 

I am not as avid a Perry fan as many others, but am nevertheless a fan. I would not book a cruise just because he is on it as so many others do. However, I will miss him on my 4/3 Eclipse sailing!

The recent comparisons and Perry bashing in some posts got me to do a comparison based on daily planners.

 

For me entertainment is one of the parts of cruising that set it apart from a land-based vacation. There is always something to do if you so choose. When there is a choice of ships with the same itinerary entertainment will factor into my choice,

Having cruised on two small ships where entertainment was at a minimum I realized that it is an important factor for me. Would I cruise on those two smaller ships again- in a heartbeat- for me Tahiti trumps everything else.

 

Judgements on entertainment like those on food are subjective. My attempt was to make a list- no judgements, then state my opinion. I did not expect mean-spirited remarks about Princess or Perry.

 

The point of my thread was to show that there is much much more to entertainment on the Royal Princess than just Perry Grant. One poster said he/she would never sail Princess again because Perry was there. Really? He is currently on one contract on one ship. For me Perry's absence on my 4/3 Eclipse sailing will leave a real void. There will be no option to occasionally sing along to familiar music and laugh heartily to his somewhat too familiar routines So far as I know the Eclipse offers nothing as light hearted as an occasional evening with Perry.

 

That got me to thinking to actually compare the entertainment on the Royal and the Eclipse. IMHO Princess entertainment is better!

[Cruzaholic41]

We had sailed on both the Royal Princess and Celebrity Equinox (on Celebrity several times) and quite simply, there is no comparison. Celebrity wins hands down. While it is true that there are 3 shows on the Royal Princess/night compared to two, the two venues cannot really be compared. We found the shows on Royal Princess to a shadow of what they used to be.

 

I totally agree with you. When it comes to venue, Princess' new ships cannot touch Solstice Class.

[Cruzaholic41]

By the way, my favorite piano bars are on HAL's Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam.

Now I don't want to add another layer to this discussion- so let's not discuss HAL.

 

Well you said it, so I'm also going to give an opinion. I think those are some of the worst piano bars in the entire cruise industry. The chairs face in awkward directions, there's divider walls that block the view of the piano, and the room is just off the smoky casino.

 

When it comes to piano bars, I think Carnival has the best entertainers and RCI has the best venues.