For those who enjoy ballroom/Latin dancing on HAL ships....

[CruiseLady88]

We sailed on Koningsdam in 2016 and hoped that we could do the excursion during  the day time and dance after dinner or theater shows. The bands there were not knowledgeable on ballroom music tempo. If you like disco music, or just move your body on the dance floor, BB King Blue band is for you. But not for us. So, we had the most boring cruise in our experience and we swore that we would not go back to Koningsdam. We told our dance friends not to bother with this ship although the food offered in the MDR was not bad.

 

HAL has a new ship, Nieuw Statendam in 2018. I notice that HAL made some changes and anticipate some changes made. I talked to my DH and thought that we may try the new ship since I really like the dance floor on the Queen's Lounge.

 

After I read this CC review on Nieuw Statendam, I don't think we will try the new ship. It seems that HAL didn't change at all. I share his frustration.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=653027

 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

Sadly, ballroom dancing is being relegated to the dustbin on most cruise lines.  There is just not broad enough interest to devote the resources to offering a live orchestra, dance floor space and instructors.  If it is something that is a priority I'd suggest looking at Cunard as they seem to be the last major holdout, or search for group cruises focused on ballroom dancing. 

[SilvertoGold]

Noordam had something called Ballroom Blitz at 5 pm in the BB Kings with recorded music, I think.  Seems to have been a pax-lead freestyle dance and lessons hour.

[taxmantoo]

On our February 30-day cruise to Lima and back from San Diego on the Volendam, a trio played every day in the Ocean Bar from approx 4:30 pm on to nearly midnight, alternating 45-minute sets with a solo pianist.  The trio, although not playing strict tempo ballroom music, did play music that quite a few regulars danced ballroom style to.  There always seemed to be 10 to 12 couples on the floor with varying degrees of ballroom expertise, from clearly beginners to advanced ballroom dancers. 

[Sir PMP]

Yes, the big ships don't deliver big..

[CruiseLady88]

1 hour ago, SilvertoGold said:

Noordam had something called Ballroom Blitz at 5 pm in the BB Kings with recorded music, I think.  Seems to have been a pax-lead freestyle dance and lessons hour.

 

 

In which case, HAL may need to consider bringing Ballroom Blitz in the Queen’s Lounge with recorded music. It doesn’t cost HAL anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DeepWaterMariner]

The Grand cruises still have ballroom dancing with dance hosts and teachers.  The 2018 Grand Asia had a good Ocean Bar trio and the great Station Band in the Crow's Nest for dancing.  Unfortunately, the normal HAL cruises have turned their back on ballroom dancers.  You can always request dance music from the Ocean Trio and you might get lucky.

 

We did a 28 day cruise on Princess in 2017 that had a surprising amount of ballroom dancing.

[Krazy Kruizers]

You may have to do a World Cruise to get ballroom dancing -- complete with hosts.

 

I know on our Westerdam cruise a couple of years we had no music at all in the evenings in the Ocean Bar.

[billbunger]

We have been on more than a dozen HAL cruises of various lengths. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of ball room dancers we have seen on those cruises and I should add I didn't need all my fingers to count.

I mean no disrespect, but ball room dancing has been toast on HAL for a number of years now and it isn't coming back and the small number of ballroom dance cheerleaders on this board need to get on with something else.

[Palm Bay Cruise Couple]

We were on the Rotterdam for 14 Days in March, and for 14 Night the 4 piece combo played in the Ocean Bar and alternated with a Pianist during breaks and they were all fantastic.  We were in Ocean Bar pre-dinner and after dinner.  The music played was enjoyed by all it seemed.  Pop Music and Latin and Samba.  We will be on the Volendam in March and I hope the same type of entertainment will be offered in the Ocean Bar.  This type of entertainment would actually work quite well in the Ocean Bar on the Koningsdam and Nieuw Statendam instaed of the sole Pianist.

[billbunger]

1 hour ago, Palm Bay Cruise Couple said:

We were on the Rotterdam for 14 Days in March, and for 14 Night the 4 piece combo played in the Ocean Bar and alternated with a Pianist during breaks and they were all fantastic.  We were in Ocean Bar pre-dinner and after dinner.  The music played was enjoyed by all it seemed.  Pop Music and Latin and Samba.  We will be on the Volendam in March and I hope the same type of entertainment will be offered in the Ocean Bar.  This type of entertainment would actually work quite well in the Ocean Bar on the Koningsdam and Nieuw Statendam instaed of the sole Pianist.

Nice thread high jack. What does your message have to a do with ballroom dancing?

[SetAnOpenCourse]

There was ballroom and Latin dancing on my two Princess cruises (2018 & ‘19).  You could enquire on their boards.

 

I took my first NCL cruise a few weeks ago, a Bahamas three-nighter, and there was a two-man Latin-music band, rotating to different venues, where people danced.

 

I would sort of expect ballroom or Latin to eventually become common again on HAL.  These are timeless, whereas the styles that took their place of late are more for a crowd that will age out.

[3rdGenCunarder]

31 minutes ago, billbunger said:

Nice thread high jack. What does your message have to a do with ballroom dancing?

 

I'm not the one you're accusing of hijacking the thread, but I can tell you that when there was a combo in the Ocean Bar on the Vistas, they did play sets of ballroom dancing music, and people did dance to it. Some obviously had had a lot of lessons and were Very Serious about it. Others less proficient but still enjoying it. With the popularity of shows like Dancing With the Stars, there is an increased interest in ballroom dancing. 

 

I'm not a dancer, and I preferred it when the Ocean Bar combos played jazz, but all the music they played, including dance music, was well done. 

 

 

[ontheweb]

16 hours ago, SetAnOpenCourse said:

There was ballroom and Latin dancing on my two Princess cruises (2018 & ‘19).  You could enquire on their boards.

 

I took my first NCL cruise a few weeks ago, a Bahamas three-nighter, and there was a two-man Latin-music band, rotating to different venues, where people danced.

 

I would sort of expect ballroom or Latin to eventually become common again on HAL.  These are timeless, whereas the styles that took their place of late are more for a crowd that will age out.

One can also find ballroom dancing on the Carnival Fascination when she sails out of San Juan, Puerto Rico, a Latin band playing Latin dance music.

[ew101]

On ‎5‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 8:29 PM, billbunger said:

Nice thread high jack. What does your message have to a do with ballroom dancing?

The Rotterdam in March had a lovely four piece combo in Oceans.  Viewing an empty dance floor they would play jazz.  If you pestered them they would play Foxtrots, Rumbas, Waltz, and Tango (i.e. Ballroom), or if you asked Latin also.   We had fun with Bachata and Salsa.   In our recent experience the number of ballroom dancers aboard HAL, NCL and RCCL ships has been correctly estimated as few.  This may be/is cart and horse- if you assume no dancing music /venues - dancers stay home or sail elsewhere.    Presented with a lot of dancers, most cruise ship bands know dance music.  A Music Director on NCL told me they study early each voyage and see if they need to move bands and or play lists around

 

If you are fussy about tempo- Cunard.  In the Queens Room on QM2 they usually use a metronome.  If you are super concerned about tempo- "strict tempo" - recorded -is played on Cunard in the afternoons.  

 

We actually had an epic time dancing on HAL- the smallish floor was uncrowded.  On QM2 + QV three times recently the floor was so full you could hardly move.   The hard core dancers went to the recorded afternoon sessions.  

 

But be careful- some HAL + other ships as has been correctly pointed out don't have the bands or dance floors left any more.  We carefully read posted daily programs to see if there is even hope.    

 

Safe bets: RCCL- Boleros (Latin), Cunard (dedicated ballroom + orchestra), a few of the HAL ships (Rotterdam + Veendam), a new NCL ship or two (some bigger MDRs have a dance floor still).   

[CruiseLady88]

We have been to Cunard’s QM2 twice. Love their dance floor and the music. But the ship’s staterooms need update. The public area is well maintained though. So, sometimes I do want to try new ships. But it is so unfortunate that HAL management changes their old traditional entertainment and does not accommodate the ballroom dancers any more. Otherwise, we and our group of dance friends would love HAL’s new ships.

[ew101]

19 hours ago, CruiseLady88 said:

But it is so unfortunate that HAL management changes their old traditional entertainment and does not accommodate the ballroom dancers any more. Otherwise, we and our group of dance friends would love HAL’s new ships.

There is a stampede industry wide toward newer larger ships with "more to do"- I prefer a ship with less to do for my vacation.   If you are HAL, you have to say oh- we have a smaller fleet- maybe, just maybe our target market can include the dwindling number of cruisers who like the older features.   If I ran HAL I would tell passengers say on the Veendam or Rotterdam- don't worry, there is dancing every night, and we did not tear out the dance floor.  The idea is to drive demand for the older ships.    Put a coded message out for dancers.   This flies in the face of an industry "rule" - make the fleet the same.  I think HAL should break that rule and allow the individual ships to do things differently.   So they become a "collection" rather than a fleet.   And the marketing message is to "collect" the whole set of ships.  I think there is a correlation between ships with an identity and high guest ratings.  

On the RCCL Vision of the Seas recently, they have a huge dance lounge - they put on a recorded ballroom session- ten people showed up.  So there is not a conspiracy at work here.    

Edited May 26, 2019 by ew101