Really miss the Lincoln Center experience

[Roz]

In another post I mentioned that the assistant hotel manager said that licenses for things like LCS are increasingly expensive.  He said that HAL wants to bring back classical music and is working on it. 

[Roz]

Just to clarify,  are passengers wanting classical music or does it specifically have to be Lincoln Center Stage?

[cruisemom42]

28 minutes ago, Roz said:

Just to clarify,  are passengers wanting classical music or does it specifically have to be Lincoln Center Stage?

 

I've thought about saying this previously, as there have been references to the previous classical groups, Adagio Strings, that HAL used to have onboard.

 

It doesn't have to be LCS, but there should be a level of quality that is rigorously ensured. I remember hearing some Adagio groups that were not all that good....

 

I guess, in short, what I'd say is this:  Doesn't have to be LCS, but does have to be musicians capable of a high quality of performance.

 

 

[ExArkie]

30 minutes ago, Roz said:

Just to clarify,  are passengers wanting classical music or does it specifically have to be Lincoln Center Stage?

For me, classical music. While Lincoln Center has some amazing resident performers, that is not the only place where good classical musicians are employed. 

[OlsSalt]

30 minutes ago, Roz said:

Just to clarify,  are passengers wanting classical music or does it specifically have to be Lincoln Center Stage?

 

I suspect HAL was trying to offer more across the fleet consistency when it started offering branded activities:  America Test Kitchen, the Oprah franchise, Lincoln Center., Microsoft labs.  Lack of consistency across the HAL brand had become an ongoing complaint, often registered here.

 

Adagio had become hit or miss some excellent, some just going through the motions. The "culinary" offerings had reduced themselves to jokes on some prior crushes - an officer's girlfriend hired who admitted she did not know anything about cooking??

 

So the recent "branding" was a good proposal to reach more consistency, but a also added very stale and too often repeated offerings compared to some genuine creativity and talent offered in the past - but sadly not always. 

 

File these recent  branded experiences  under the HAL just can't win category. But thanks for trying. As they still try to find the Goldilocks solution.  Consistent, but not canned or boring. 

[cruisemom42]

19 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

So the recent "branding" was a good proposal to reach more consistency, but a also added very stale and too often repeated offerings

 

Is this really fair to say?  For the two weeks that LCS were on my Westerdam trip, they did not repeat programs except when there were 3 shows a day (2 of them were usually the same).  I think two weeks of repertoire (given a day off here and there) is pretty darn good.

 

How often have I strolled by the piano bar and heard "Sweet Caroline" and "Piano Man"?  My guess would be once an evening.

 

Or how often do the BB Kings groups play "Sweet Home Alabama" on a given cruise?  Answer: Plenty!

 

[foodsvcmgr]

Doesn’t have to be Lincoln Center branded.

The old piano and violin duos were fine with me.

Anything larger or better would just be a bonus.

[OlsSalt]

Brahms Hungarian Dance for Violin and Piano - time for a musical interlude - always a crowd pleaser:   (Sorry about any ads you need to click past) 

 

[RuthC]

3 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

How often have I strolled by the piano bar and heard "Sweet Caroline" and "Piano Man"?  My guess would be once an evening.

Too often if you ever hung out in the Piano Bar all evening (when HAL had real piano bars, that is). One cruise, there was a man who wanted to hear Piano Man every time he came in. Didn't matter how many times that evening it had already been played. 

If I never hear either of those songs ever again, it will be too soon. 

[taxmantoo]

4 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

It doesn't have to be LCS, but there should be a level of quality that is rigorously ensured. I remember hearing some Adagio groups that were not all that good....

 

Sort of like the HalCats, some were good and some were not ...

Sort of like the comedians on the World Stage, some are good and some are not ... 

Sort of like Cruise Directors, some are good and some are not ...

Usually the ones we like are good and the ones we don't like are not that good 🙂

 

[Torquer]

Yes, bring back the classical music.  LCS was uniformly excellent, but we heard excellent performances from Adagio and the piano/violin duets after that, along with some weaker performances.

 

One point that has not been mentioned is the beverage sales.  On the non-Pinnacle-class during LCS performances there were no beverage waiters since the space was so limited.  Before LCS on these ships, many people were being served drinks during the performance since the spaces were more spread out.  Seems like a money-making opportunity for HAL.

[Blackduck59]

1 hour ago, Torquer said:

Yes, bring back the classical music.  LCS was uniformly excellent, but we heard excellent performances from Adagio and the piano/violin duets after that, along with some weaker performances.

 

One point that has not been mentioned is the beverage sales.  On the non-Pinnacle-class during LCS performances there were no beverage waiters since the space was so limited.  Before LCS on these ships, many people were being served drinks during the performance since the spaces were more spread out.  Seems like a money-making opportunity for HAL.

While the concept of bar service would bring in money, I think it would be impractical. Could you imagine the "Look" you would get if you dared order a drink during a performance? Keep in mind they had "Quiet Please" signs in the open passage at the Explorer's lounge on Zaandam during performances. Even then you got the stink eye from some of the faithful if you dared walk through there.

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, Torquer said:

One point that has not been mentioned is the beverage sales.  On the non-Pinnacle-class during LCS performances there were no beverage waiters since the space was so limited.  Before LCS on these ships, many people were being served drinks during the performance since the spaces were more spread out.  Seems like a money-making opportunity for HAL.

 

In this new era, where so many people have beverage packages, we are approaching the point where HAL will make more money if they actually DON'T serve more drinks. They have our $$$ already, the farther we are away from our 15 drink minimum, the more they make....

 

[Torquer]

46 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

While the concept of bar service would bring in money, I think it would be impractical. Could you imagine the "Look" you would get if you dared order a drink during a performance? Keep in mind they had "Quiet Please" signs in the open passage at the Explorer's lounge on Zaandam during performances. Even then you got the stink eye from some of the faithful if you dared walk through there.

That is exactly what used to happen before LCS.  The waiters were pretty good, and generally only came around to take drink orders between pieces, although they did deliver the drinks while music was being performed.  I actually found it pretty unobjectionable and I am pretty sensitive to distractions during classical concerts.

 

However @cruisemom42 does have a good point about the ubiquity of beverage packages.  Maybe HAL should close some of its bars to make more money....I wonder if they are thinking about that in Seattle:-)