Dance cruise

[Sugar&Buddy]

I m looking for cruise lines offering dance cruise to Panama Canal or other interesting locations.

[Dancer Bob]

Dance cruises offered by cruise lines are mediocre at best and don't go to interesting places. There are various organisers who do more interesting itineraries, but you pay a considerable premium. Is that what you're objecting to?

[Sugar&Buddy]

I m not objecting to anything just looking for  a goid dance cruise.

[Dancin_Traveler]

I saw that Cunard has some ‘hardcore’ ballroom dancing going on! At least two of the ships apparently have huge dance floors. 

[Sugar&Buddy]

Thank u

[Dancer Bob]

Cunard would certainly be a better choice than a fully American cruise line. (It's disputed how authentically British Cunard is.) But for a dance cruise, don't get your hopes up. The Orchestras are mediocre at best, with a limited playlist (a lot of Quickstep). If you're used to an American dance studio, the floors are not large at all, Cunard stopped advertising that a decade ago. Strict tempo is a toss-up, sometimes not much scheduled and conflicting with meals. A few months ago somebody posted a picture of dancing on board. One couple seemed to be doing Argentine Tango- I've never heard AT on Cunard. The rest looked to be just stumbling around and drunken flailing. Pretty pathetic.

Cunard's newest ship Queen Anne is still months away from sailing, but the speculation about dancing isn't hopeful.

 

[Sugar&Buddy]

Thank u for this wealth of information 

[Dancin_Traveler]

Hi Sugar&Buddy. 
I’m curious. What are your top 3 types of dance? You, too, Dancer Bob?

[Sugar&Buddy]

My favorite ECS, hustle & cha cha.  I would be setting up cruise for friends liking a variety of dance styles.

[Dancin_Traveler]

Cool! I was thinking about the same sort of thing. My faves are WCS, country round dances, and can hold my own in basic ECS, cha cha, NC2Step, & simple waltz. I'm oddly starting to like line dancing since it's 'solo'. On my recent NCL cruise, I got 1/2 a song of ECS in as my only partner dance on the cruise!  

 

So, for NCL Encore, there were two spots with small dance floors: Sugarcane lounge and the Social (disco).

 

I cruised with Seabourn a long way back and I recall that they had a very decent dance floor and they actually encourage some social partner dancing. They offered a dance lesson at some point. The image below is not how I specifically remember on my ship (Sojourn), but it is indicative and seems to have a good surface.

 

https://www.theluxurycruisereview.com/nightlife/seabourn-odyssey-nightlife/

 

[Dancer Bob]

I describe myself as bronze in Standard, silver in Latin, ISTD syllabus. I use DVIDA for Rhythm, there is considerable overlap. I don't do Smooth for a number of reasons, especially floorcraft on a crowded floor (which Cunard can be).

As a general rule, the more expensive the ship, the bigger the disappointment. Several ships have decent facilities but little interest from passengers, so not much is scheduled.. Organising your own group can get tricky, especially booking a room with an adequate floor. The ship can also get picky over music licensing issues.

[Dancer Bob]

On the Cunard board, Sdancer has posted that after getting information from experienced dancers, she has cancelled her 2024 bookings on Cunard.

[Dancin_Traveler]

Thank you for the update. I’ll pop over to take a peak. 

[Dancer Bob]

Just got off Sky Princess. Unsatisfactory, not recommended.

[sonoma03]

Chiming in late here; just found this thread.  I've been on a number of cruise ships on Princess, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, NCL, HAL, and Carnival over the past 20 years, and I'm booked for my first Cunard cruise next month.  I've found that while some ships definitely have more suitable space for dancing than others, all of the cruise lines have greatly reduced the opportunities to do partner dancing by scheduling other events in the rooms with dance floors and/or putting bands playing unsuitable music there.  In the past I enjoyed dancing on Princess ships, especially in the Wheelhouse, Explorer, and Club Fusion lounges.  But on my most recent Princess cruise last year, they frequently had performers that didn't play danceable music in Wheelhouse, and they used Club Fusion for game shows and trivia contests, so there wasn't much dancing there.  I was on Celebrity Edge earlier this year, and the few danceable bands played in the Grand Plaza which has a very small dance floor that is also used as a walkway to get from one side of the room to the other, so it was very difficult to dance with more than a few couples on the floor. Music was conducive to swing, cha cha, NC 2-step, maybe rumba.  Certainly no room for waltz/foxtrot. There was a nice small dance floor in Eden but only my husband and I danced there.