Royal Princess Ballroom Dancing

Early reviews of the Royal Princess said that the only location for ballroom (or any other type) dancing was in the atrium, and the tile floor was not really conducive to dancing.

Has this situation improved? We love to dance and finally booked a cruise on the Royal Princess because of the itinerary. On Grand class ships we will dance in the Fusion Lounge, Explorer's, or Wheelhouse Bar, and will catch a dance or two every night, mostly in the Wheelhouse if the band is good.

What are the current opportunities for dancing on the Royal Princess?

Early reviews of the Royal Princess said that the only location for ballroom (or any other type) dancing was in the atrium, and the tile floor was not really conducive to dancing.

 

Has this situation improved? We love to dance and finally booked a cruise on the Royal Princess because of the itinerary. On Grand class ships we will dance in the Fusion Lounge, Explorer's, or Wheelhouse Bar, and will catch a dance or two every night, mostly in the Wheelhouse if the band is good.

 

What are the current opportunities for dancing on the Royal Princess?

Only real dancing venue is the Piazza. There is dancing every evening to a variety of music, including sets of rock, big band, contemporary, Latin, jazz, crooner style, just about everything. The dance floor is well used. The floor is marble. There are a few theme events held in the Vista Lounge where the dance floor is small. Late night there is dancing with a DJ in Club 6. There is no Club Fusion or Explorer's Lounge on the Royal. There is a Wheelhouse Bar with different musical groups, but there is no dance floor.

Does the ballroom/Latin dancing continue on into the night? We'll miss the dance floor in the Wheelhouse bar but hope the Piazza on Royal will make up for it.

Does the ballroom/Latin dancing continue on into the night? We'll miss the dance floor in the Wheelhouse bar but hope the Piazza on Royal will make up for it.

No. It ends somewhere around 9:30 or 10pm to allow for the piano entertainer in Crooner's Lounge. On certain evenings there will be late evening parties with a crowded dance floor. Some evenings the Crooner's entertainer plays earlier, and there is dancing in the Piazza later. It's not like the Wheelhouse Bar on other ships where you have the soft dance music most evenings with the same group.

No. It ends somewhere around 9:30 or 10pm to allow for the piano entertainer in Crooner's Lounge. On certain evenings there will be late evening parties with a crowded dance floor. Some evenings the Crooner's entertainer plays earlier, and there is dancing in the Piazza later. It's not like the Wheelhouse Bar on other ships where you have the soft dance music most evenings with the same group.

Such a shame the Wheelhouse bar hasn't a dance floor like other ships. With the right band the music and dancing in it was excellent.

I did wonder if the Crooners bar music on Royal would interfere with the atrium music. Thanks for clarifying that.

No. It ends somewhere around 9:30 or 10pm to allow for the piano entertainer in Crooner's Lounge. On certain evenings there will be late evening parties with a crowded dance floor. Some evenings the Crooner's entertainer plays earlier, and there is dancing in the Piazza later. It's not like the Wheelhouse Bar on other ships where you have the soft dance music most evenings with the same group.

I guess we will have to go Anytime dining to match our schedule to availability.

I know CD's are different, but was the TYPE of music for dancing published in the patter?

 

I know CD's are different, but was the TYPE of music for dancing published in the patter?

We were on the Royal Princess for 34 days this past winter in the Caribbean. Musical groups that performed in the Piazza and other locations were:

*Party band, playing everything, pop, Latin, rock, dicso, swing, old standards, new songs, everything but rap.

*Classical string quartet for listening

*A pop/rock quartet that played mostly chart songs from the 50's, through the 70's, from doo-wop, Elvis and the Beatles to the Eagles and Jimmy Buffet.

* A steel pan player that basically played background music.

* The Princess orchestra that played sets of Big Band, Dixie, and Jazz.

* A piano player that played soft background music

All the times and groups are listed in the Princess Patter each day. The groups move around and are not always at the same time and location. Some members join other groups for and interesting mix. A few evenings the Princess Theater singers joined in. There was also a concert/dance party with a Beatles tribute band that was very crowded, both on the reduced size dance floor and around the entire Piazza area.

It isn't like the times spent in the Wheelhouse Bar where a few dancers show up each evening to dance from 9 to midnight with the same group. But, the new system seems to have more passengers dancing than I ever witnessed on other Princess ships.

 

It isn't like the times spent in the Wheelhouse Bar where a few dancers show up each evening to dance from 9 to midnight with the same group. But, the new system seems to have more passengers dancing than I ever witnessed on other Princess ships.

I'm liking the sound of that as we would dance in the Wheelhouse bar every night and if we can do the same in Royal's atrium to different bands I'll be a happy bunny.

The band in the piazza on Royal Princess is not as good as the band on Regal Princess. The male singer needs to be replaced. His song list is limited and always sings the same songs every night.

I like the Rhumba Duo in the Wheelhouse Bar.

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The band in the piazza on Royal Princess is not as good as the band on Regal Princess. The male singer needs to be replaced. His song list is limited and always sings the same songs every night.

 

I like the Rhumba Duo in the Wheelhouse Bar.

Comparison to the Regal didn't help as we haven't been on either of the new ships. However if the one band in the Piazza has a poor singer, that would impact our enjoyment. Hopefully there will be a new set of entertainers as the ship returns to the Caribbean.

Previous posts about the Royal Princess said there wasn't really a dance floor in the Wheelhouse Bar, and what they had was significantly smaller than on Grand/Crown class ships. Is there one that would accommodate around 8 couples dancing?

 

Comparison to the Regal didn't help as we haven't been on either of the new ships. However if the one band in the Piazza has a poor singer, that would impact our enjoyment. Hopefully there will be a new set of entertainers as the ship returns to the Caribbean.

The dance floor in the Royal and Regal is gone. They made it a piano bar for those who like to buy drink and listen to piano music. I think Princess tries to convert all the Wheelhouse Bar into a piano bar. When a ship goes to dry dock, they will do this. So, you can only go to piazza or Vista lounge to dance.

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We were on the Royal on her maiden Caribbean voyage. We were able to dance in the Atrium before dinner every night (we had late seating) but there was not usually a dance band there after dinner.

While the Atrium floor is bigger than other ships, you do have to contend with a lot of foot traffic including waiters and kids. We also decided that more than 5 days on marble would be bad for our knees.

Because of that, and the lack of a promenade deck (where we actually practice in the afternoons), we are charter members of the "Royal Princess - great ship - never again" club.

We had two weeks aboard Royal Princess last month and danced almost every night in the Piazza.

As we were on second sitting we only danced after and fortunately kids were noticeably absent then. Only on the penultimate (party) night was the floor packed out. Otherwise we were able to dance, Tango, Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Samba and Jive with like minded dancers.

We did manage a last Waltz on the tiny tiled circle next to the Wheelhouse bar's piano. Two other couples joined in so we obstructed the walk way through to the Live lounge! The band however really appreciated the participation to their music.

We missed the Explorers lounge and Wheelhouse bar dance floors found on other ships, but not enough to stop us going back on Royal Princess again.

I personally like the band and the male singer on Regal Princess. The singer can dance. He dances very nice Samba and Jive. He is classy too, not like the male singer on Royal Princess. Hence, I don't mind returning to Regal again.

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No dance floor in the Wheelhouse Bar unless you count the carpet in front of the Piano. This is a photo from the Regal, but the Royal should be the same.

 

We had two weeks aboard Royal Princess last month and danced almost every night in the Piazza.

 

As we were on second sitting we only danced after and fortunately kids were noticeably absent then. Only on the penultimate (party) night was the floor packed out. Otherwise we were able to dance, Tango, Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Samba and Jive with like minded dancers.

I personally like the band and the male singer on Regal Princess. The singer can dance. He dances very nice Samba and Jive. He is classy too, not like the male singer on Royal Princess. Hence, I don't mind returning to Regal again.

 

 

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Was this the band from Barbados? The lead singer allways wore a hat. If it is, they were there when we were on board. They were great.

We are dancers and the marble floor on the Royal and Regal are HORRIBLE for dancing any type of dance other than freestyle.

You can see the marble dance floor and size on Royal Princess from this line dance I captured using my iPhone.

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We were on the Royal on her maiden Caribbean voyage. We were able to dance in the Atrium before dinner every night (we had late seating) but there was not usually a dance band there after dinner.

 

While the Atrium floor is bigger than other ships, you do have to contend with a lot of foot traffic including waiters and kids. We also decided that more than 5 days on marble would be bad for our knees.

 

Because of that, and the lack of a promenade deck (where we actually practice in the afternoons), we are charter members of the "Royal Princess - great ship - never again" club.

We may be joining that club... after we do our TA on the Royal in 2017... we like to dance and like a promenade deck... shows like we may like you miss both... we will give it a try... we usually cruise on a ship only once anyway...unless we really like the ship... have done the Ruby 2x, the Westerdam x2, the Queen Victoria x2, only exception is the Grand because it is in our home port, San Francisco... now on our 4th cruise.

We normally bring ballroom dance shoes (which have a suede sole), but have never tried these on tile, only wood dance floors. Would you envision any problem with dancing in the atrium with these?

You may find it to be a bit slick. Be very careful.

We are dancers and the marble floor on the Royal and Regal are HORRIBLE for dancing any type of dance other than freestyle.

It wasn't that bad and we've been ballroom/Latin dancing for 15 years now. OK so it's not quite the same as dancing in the QM2 ballroom but I never noticed that much difference compared with the dedicated dance lounge abroad Britannia (The Crystal Lounge).

If you enjoy dancing that much you put up with what you've got and get on with it! Be thankful you can dance. Many people comment saying how they would love to dance the way we do.

It wasn't that bad and we've been ballroom/Latin dancing for 15 years now. OK so it's not quite the same as dancing in the QM2 ballroom but I never noticed that much difference compared with the dedicated dance lounge abroad Britannia (The Crystal Lounge).

 

If you enjoy dancing that much you put up with what you've got and get on with it! Be thankful you can dance. Many people comment saying how they would love to dance the way we do.

Respectfully disagree. It wasn't bad for a five day cruise, but it would be a problem on a long cruise I think. Also, on the other ships, you can count on a band in the Wheelhouse, or other venue throughout the evening. On the Royal, we didn't have dance music at all after dinner.

Hi all, we spent last week on the Royal (Athens to Rome) and here's the dance situation:

a. The Wheelhouse has been redone and the back half of it, where the dancefloor was, is now part of the 'Crown Grill' - bummer. There is still live music, sometimes bands, or more often piano or single acoustic guitar. The photo above captures this, however not captured is a small marble dance circle in the hall right next to the band. We danced here dodging passengers working their way past us in the hall. We still had a good time there.

b. We often danced in the Piazza if the band was the one we followed around. Plenty of room - totally on display from three decks of balconies.

c. We also danced in the Vista when the band was in the Vista. Sometimes we where the only ones there though.

So those are the 2.5 places to dance on the Royal. To us the bigger consideration was finding the one band we liked and just following them around (Prestige Band). The other band (Pentatonics) was more 'rock', loud, and less dance oriented. If it wasn't for the Prestige band dancing would have been really limited.

So you have to find your band and make your own party. You can't be shy about dancing in hallways etc (we also squeezed a few dances in the piano bar). You can also introduce yourself to the other small acts e.g. we danced to the accordion player and even did some basic tangos when the string quartet preformed a tango concert in the Piazza - they where fabulous! These musicians generally loved it when we danced and were very accommodating.

Note the Royal is in dry dock right now - so the above might change this month. I believe the Prestige band will be back after dry dock.

Note 2: I've been researching the Holland America Eurodam this week and it looks like they have removed 2 of the 4 dancefloors they used to have. We dancers need to stick together and keep pressure on the cruise companies to keep dancing alive! Give high marks to the dance bands.