It's official. Production shows are back!!

[Hlitner]

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I don't know, Oceania isn't all that bad. It's just different. They have a theater show every evening, trivia and professional lectures on sea days, an awesome outdoor dining area up at the Terrace Cafe with pretty tasty food to include a grill where you can get steak and lobster every night, and some pretty unique itineraries. 

The Vista has 4 restaurants (no add ons), plus a Lido plus a main dining room, plus 2 other grills (Aquamar and Waves) plus a coffee place with bakery.  Lots of different steaks, whole Maine Lobster, etc.  HAL never had food quality and options like this, in its best day.

 

Hank

[TRLD]

9 hours ago, Hlitner said:

The Vista has 4 restaurants (no add ons), plus a Lido plus a main dining room, plus 2 other grills (Aquamar and Waves) plus a coffee place with bakery.  Lots of different steaks, whole Maine Lobster, etc.  HAL never had food quality and options like this, in its best day.

 

Hank

Considering that they say that half of their shipboard staff is dedicated to dining, they certainly have locations, but their food in the GDR and Terrace Cafe is really not that much better than HAL. About the only real difference is the grill to order lobster and steaks. One can get Maine lobster in the specialty restaurants, but not the GDR. Though we and several others canceled our later reservations to Toscana and Polo specialty restaurants because they were not that good. Have had better meals on HAL.

 

Then again this topic is about entertainment, where Oceania seems a bit lacking in variety.

 

While Oceania certainly has a coffee shop the offerings there are pretty limited. Their iced mochas are made with nestle cocoa, if the person on duty even knows how to make them and certainly no trapped or blended mocha.

 

Oceania does have some nice food options such as some decent ice cream available in the afternoon when the waves grill is open until 4. Their dining hours are a bit more limited. But now under their new simply more base fare where you are forced to pay a higher fare that includes beer and wine at meals and excursion credits (the trip we are on would have cost up about $80 per day more than what it cost before they went to simply more as their new base fare).

 

Certainly Oceania does a number of things well, service in the dining rooms is quite good. But variety of entertainment is not one of them and food is not the best at sea. It is a bit better than Celebrity, Princess, and HAL on average, but maybe a bit less in variety.

 

 

 

 

 

[jeh10641]

The last few posts were interesting about Oceania and other luxury cruise ships. However, they had nothing to do with production shows on HAL which was the original thread. Focus people.

Jim

[jeh10641]

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[cruiseaholic78]

Just returned from the show “All That” on the Nieuw Statendam, we really enjoyed it and hope HAL continues with this type of show in future.

 

 

Edited April 22 by cruiseaholic78

[BermudaBound2014]

Production shows returning is good news ONLY if the shows are high caliber.

 

 You get what you pay for.

[Sea42]

59 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Production shows returning is good news ONLY if the shows are high 

And if you actually like production shows. I don't but will be happy to hang out and listen to the band in Rolling Stone. Something for everyone!

[mcrcruiser]

2 hours ago, cruiseaholic78 said:

Just returned from the show “All That” on the Nieuw Statendam, we really enjoyed it and hope HAL continues with this type of show in future.

 

 

We love to be able to see a production show before or after dinner  .It has been a very long time since HAL has had them  .

[BermudaBound2014]

13 minutes ago, Sea42 said:

And if you actually like production shows. I don't but will be happy to hang out and listen to the band in Rolling Stone. Something for everyone!

 

 

Well, Rolling Stones band needs to be ‘good’ too. On my last cruise, I thought they were just ‘ok’. Not enough to keep me hanging on all night (and I love that genre). I could sing the words to nearly every single song, but some I even didn’t recognize until the chorus. They also had a terrible habit of playing a couple of dance numbers (get the floor jamming), and then jump into Hendrix. Now, I like cowbell just as much as the next girl, but not for dancing. In their defense, the band in Rolling Stones isn’t really a ‘band’. It’s a group of musicians that are put together by an outside company. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s a work in progress. 

 

Like you, I’m not too into production shows, but if they are high quality they are entertaining for me. NCL used to pay big money for their entertainment and even though I am not one to go see Rock Of Ages on Broadway, I loved it at sea. NCL offers some top rate caliber production shows (but it costs $$$). We saw Choir of Men in January and that show was terrific!! It was the exact same cast as is played around the world, not substitutes.

 

My point being, the only venue I would personally consider “high quality’ on my last HAL cruise was BBKings. That band was excellent. The classical artists were also good. Neither are my first choice in music, but I ended up spending most of my time in BBKIngs for the energy.

 

Entertainment has to be high quality and quality costs. Of course, quality is also subjective so there’s that :). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 22 by BermudaBound2014

[Sea42]

2 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

 

Well, Rolling Stones band needs to be ‘good’ too. On my last cruise, I thought they were just ‘ok’. Not enough to keep me hanging on all night (and I love that genre). I could sing the words to nearly every single song, but some I even didn’t recognize until the chorus. They also had a terrible habit of playing a couple of dance numbers (get the floor jamming), and then jump into Hendrix. Now, I like cowbell just as much as the next girl, but not for dancing. In their defense, the band in Rolling Stones isn’t really a ‘band’. It’s a group of musicians that are put together by an outside company. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s a work in progress. 

 

Like you, I’m not too into production shows, but if they are high quality they are entertaining for me. NCL used to pay big money for their entertainment and even though I am not one to go see Rock Of Ages on Broadway, I loved it at sea. NCL offers some top rate caliber production shows (but it costs $$$). We saw Choir of Men in January and that show was terrific!! It was the exact same cast as is played around the world, not substitutes.

 

My point being, the only venue I would personally consider “high quality’ on my last HAL cruise was BBKings. That band was excellent. The classical artists were also good. Neither are my first choice in music, but I ended up spending most of my time in BBKIngs for the energy. Entertainment has to be high quality to work and quality costs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We loved the BbKing bands on our last few cruises! Unfortunately, on the Oosterdam, only Rolling Stone is offered. I'll hope for the best.