Ballroom dancing

[traveld]

What are the dance floors like on the Insignia? Are they decently sized? Are there nightly opportunities for dancing? Do the bands play real dance music?

[orchestrapal]

If you use the Search Function on this page I believe this has been discussed several times!

[coldinreno]

Traveld...We are avid ballroom dancers & have cruised with Oceania 6 times. There are 2 dance areas on each ship, Horizons & the main Showroom. Horizons has a small dance floor used as a disco late at night, it also offers some dance time before & during the early dinner time most evenings. Music is provided by 4 of the ships 8 piece orchestra. Since there are not many dancers aboard is is possible to do some Latin & Swing during that time. The main Showroom has a decent size dance floor ( by ship standards) & it is possible for accomplished dancers to move out & do some nice Waltz, Foxtrot & so on. The 8 piece Orchestra will play most evenings around 30 to 45 minutes prior to the show, tempo at times is way off but for the most part it is an enjoyable experience. In our opinion Oceania currently offers a pretty good opportunity to do some ballroom dancing, 100% better than others such as HAL.

[traveld]

Thanks for the feedback. We just returned from Celebrity Century and the dancing on board was dismal. The floor barely accommodated 4 couples and the "dance" band did not play music to dance by.

[KathyPet]

Sorry posted on wrong thread

[happy cruzer]

Traveld...We are avid ballroom dancers & have cruised with Oceania 6 times. There are 2 dance areas on each ship, Horizons & the main Showroom. Horizons has a small dance floor used as a disco late at night, it also offers some dance time before & during the early dinner time most evenings. Music is provided by 4 of the ships 8 piece orchestra. Since there are not many dancers aboard is is possible to do some Latin & Swing during that time. The main Showroom has a decent size dance floor ( by ship standards) & it is possible for accomplished dancers to move out & do some nice Waltz, Foxtrot & so on. The 8 piece Orchestra will play most evenings around 30 to 45 minutes prior to the show, tempo at times is way off but for the most part it is an enjoyable experience. In our opinion Oceania currently offers a pretty good opportunity to do some ballroom dancing, 100% better than others such as HAL.

 

I agree with you appraisal of O's dance options. except we found Horizon's to have plenty of space for social dancing most nights including all the ballroom dances. However regarding HAL depending on the ship there are just as many good options for dancing. The only liablility I found on a couple of HAL ships is that there were many more dancers crowding the floor which really is a good thing in my opinion the more the merrier because I don't see any line besides Cunard (and possibly Crystal)really setting aside alot of dance space.

[coldinreno]

I agree with you appraisal of O's dance options. except we found Horizon's to have plenty of space for social dancing most nights including all the ballroom dances. However regarding HAL depending on the ship there are just as many good options for dancing. The only liablility I found on a couple of HAL ships is that there were many more dancers crowding the floor which really is a good thing in my opinion the more the merrier because I don't see any line besides Cunard (and possibly Crystal)really setting aside alot of dance space.

 

We have not sailed on all HAL ships, only Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Westerdam, Noordam, Ryndam , Statendam & some others no longer in the fleet. None of these ships have a dance floor as big as the main Showroom floor on all 3 Oceania ships, I would be pleased to learn of any HAL ship with a dance floor as large as Oceania. You are correct about Cunard, they attract more skilled Ballroom Dancers than any other line because these dancers prefer some space, most avoid ships with tiny dance floors.(see long running thread on the Cunard board) I do not know the skill level of the original poster but if they are quite good dancers I think they will have more opportunity to enjoy in the main showroom (rather than Horizens) where they can do a proper quickstep & so on. I realize most cruise ship dancers are not dedicated students of ballroom dance but my thinking is that someone starting this thread is more than a casual social dancer, perhaps I am wrong. After over 200 days with HAL we have given up because of tiny crowded dance floors, fortunately we have good options with Cunard & Oceania. We hope we don't bump into you on the dance floor!!.

[happy cruzer]

We have not sailed on all HAL ships, only Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Westerdam, Noordam, Ryndam , Statendam & some others no longer in the fleet. None of these ships have a dance floor as big as the main Showroom floor on all 3 Oceania ships, I would be pleased to learn of any HAL ship with a dance floor as large as Oceania. You are correct about Cunard, they attract more skilled Ballroom Dancers than any other line because these dancers prefer some space, most avoid ships with tiny dance floors.(see long running thread on the Cunard board) I do not know the skill level of the original poster but if they are quite good dancers I think they will have more opportunity to enjoy in the main showroom (rather than Horizens) where they can do a proper quickstep & so on. I realize most cruise ship dancers are not dedicated students of ballroom dance but my thinking is that someone starting this thread is more than a casual social dancer, perhaps I am wrong. After over 200 days with HAL we have given up because of tiny crowded dance floors, fortunately we have good options with Cunard & Oceania. We hope we don't bump into you on the dance floor!!.

 

I now see you feel very strongly on this one. I yield to your excellent memory.

 

My experience on HAL's Rotterdam and Noordam was there was dancing on the showroom stage for brief periods of time approx. the same amount as in the showroom on O. On HAL there is additionally dancing in the Ocean Bar and the Crow's next. So that's why I mentioned not to count HAL out for dancing. Each cruise did have varing hours and locations so our experiences probably varied. and all lines seem to be cutting back on live music which will mean older reports are not as accurate as current ones. A pity.

 

An aside, on my first recent cruise on Carnival, posters told me there was no ballroom dancing on the older small ship Ecstasy so I had a difficult decision whether to go and not dance or pick another ship. Happy surprise, there was ballroom dancing on the stage at the Captain's welcome party and the repeat cruiser's part. So I did get to dance.

 

I am just trying to share my experience even if it was a bit OT because I know many folks that cruise O consider HAL as an option.