Ballroom Dancing Report - QM2

Love this......sure I have seen it before. Which movie is it from?

Enjoy QM2. .she is a beautiful ship.

From a Noel Coward writing of 1924 an English period piece, filmed in 2008 called "Easy Virtue".

Most reviews rated it as totally forgettable.

Por Una Cabeza was also the tango from "Scent of a Woman" and "True Lies".

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penelope-andrew/film-review-of-emeasy-vir_b_203601.html

Itzhak Perlman's version

GCurry, the tango and tune Por Una Cabaza is for Argentine tango, whereas the tango mainly played by the QR orchestra is for Internation (or English) tango, such as in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTvMCEUSsI0

During the orchestra recess, the DJ on recent cruises I've been on have played one Argentine tango, one or two merengue. As for line of dance, it's normal in all the ballroom dances, plus samba, to try to dance following a line of dance in counter clockwise direction. Of course, you sometimes need to move off the line of dance in doing a particular routine, but most dancers try to get back in the general line of dance direction.

Have a good trip on the QM2, a very special liner.

Thanks Tangoll, somehow I missed your post the first time around. I also looked at the other videos from the Queen Vic; which begs the question is the QM2 ballroom the same approximate size and set up and adequate seating around the floor? It has been indicated to me that the floor is likely to be more crowded than that, but we can work with it.:)

The dances on the videos looked fairly pedestrian, so we shouldn't feel too out of place with a bit of elaboration.:rolleyes:

Thanks too about the tip on the DJ, as we dance some Salsa to Merengues.

We have just completed our crossing on the QM2 this past week and I thought to post a few thoughts here about the dancing.

As advertised, the Queen had a large dance floor conducive to line of dance and the ship's Orchestra played most evenings. The Foxtrots and waltz were fine and they did play some Viennese.

Where we ran into some tempo problems were in the Tango which they played as a Quickstep March, and the Rumba which was Bolero slow. Our American Tango is more suited to the Argentine tempo, much slower, and the Rumbas faster. But that was our problem so I'll not complain.

There were three formal nights with two balls. Sadly we had late seating for dinner which threw us late for the start of the music @ 9:45. So by the time we arrived on ball nights to dance, there was little to no seating available. Other nights, it wasn't a problem, although we skipped R&R night.

A British gentleman on an earlier Cunard dance thread had commented about the plodders that moved about as fast as an "Essex Swamp Donkey"!! On the ball nights, everyone who could danced, as did a number of those who couldn't. When you put about 30 couples out there, trying to maintain line of dance becomes impossible.

Probably the best time we had was at a 3:30 Tea Dance, it was well attended, but not overly crowded with good dancers, mostly.

Two more thoughts:

We did get to see a "Sequence Dance" which was interesting, especially as a number of couples were trying to remember the sequence.

Any thoughts of ever becoming a dance host quickly vanished when I saw the real ones. They did dance well enough, and I assume that they were single men as they didn't seem to be overly favored by good looks and a charming personality. I could be wrong of course and will leave that to yer own opinion.:)

Over all, it was the best dance experience that we've had on a ship.

.............

 

 

Where we ran into some tempo problems were in the Tango which they played as a Quickstep March,

 

 

I assume that they were single men as they didn't seem to be overly favored by good looks and a charming personality. .....[v/QUOTE]

 

 

Thanks for the review Gene

 

Is there really a dance in America called a Quickstep March ?

 

Hilarious assumption of the dance hosts as ' single men because they didn't seem to be overly favoured by good looks and charming personalities'. Unlike us married men of course who seem to have it all!

Thanks for the review Gene

Is there really a dance in America called a Quickstep March ?

Sorry Foxy, I should have worded that "Marching in Quickstep" a fast staccato rhythm. We do have a Quickstep March usually as the result of a dietary indiscretion!! :D

Hilarious assumption of the dance hosts as ' single men because they didn't seem to be overly favoured by good looks and charming personalities'. Unlike us married men of course who seem to have it all!

We do have it all Foxy, or at least we're still not out there looking for it!!

Unfair to characterize the dance hosts as "single men (though most are) ..didn't seem to be overly favoured by good looks and charming personalities.."

On my March 2016 cruise on QE from HK to Kobe, one tall, elegant dance host who danced very well, had been a UK Royal Protection officer guarding the Queen, and had once danced a quickstep with Her Majesty. Another had been Golden Gloves champion in welterweight class for New Jersey. There are many others who were very friendly, though danced their own style -- Zach, Brendon, Paul Ho, Bob Arney, Roger, etc etc.

One former host even married an Aussie heiress, and now they are one of Cunard's top cruisers, having done over 150 cruises.

Don't knock them dance hosts.

Unfair to characterize the dance hosts as "single men (though most are) ..didn't seem to be overly favoured by good looks and charming personalities.."

On my March 2016 cruise on QE from HK to Kobe, one tall, elegant dance host who danced very well, had been a UK Royal Protection officer guarding the Queen, and had once danced a quickstep with Her Majesty. Another had been Golden Gloves champion in welterweight class for New Jersey. There are many others who were very friendly, though danced their own style -- Zach, Brendon, Paul Ho, Bob Arney, Roger, etc etc.

One former host even married an Aussie heiress, and now they are one of Cunard's top cruisers, having done over 150 cruises.

Don't knock them dance hosts.

Thanks Tangoll, regrettably, the one's you described weren't on our cruise, otherwise I might have worded it different!!

They certainly did yeoman's duty keeping the ladies on the dance floor.

I used to comment infrequently on your previous thread here on the Cunard site.

Glad to see you had a chance to dance on Cunard.

We continue to cruise and dance and we keep trying to find ships that provide good dancing environments.

We have been mostly disappointed. We just completed a 7 night cruise on the RCL Oasis. It was easily the worst cruise for dancing in our years of cruising. There were several nights were there was no dance music available of any type. Hard to believe. Some nights for short periods they had a band in the Bolero's club which as you would expect played latin music, though in the time we spent there I only heard one bolero. Mostly played salsa's, all at the same tempo.

We had a similarly disappointing experience recently on the Celebrity Reflection, though they at least had a small band playing in their forum with a very small circular floor most every evening for an hour or so. Unfortunately one floor up in their open atrium they had a hip hop DJ playing very loudly and easily drowned out the tempo from the band at the forum. On formal night they advertised a "ballroom dance band" in the forum. We showed up at the advertised time and they had two thirds of the very small floor blocked off so their photographer could take pictures of the couples in formal wear against the decorations in the lobby!!

Sadly I conclude that RCL lines are not interested in attracting ballroom dancers. They show no interest in providing reasonable opportunities to dance.

Our next cruise is back on the QE in August going to Iceland. We have been on the QE several times and are looking forward to some good ballroom dancing again, though for selfish reasons I hope there are not 6 dance hosts. Even the Cunard floors can get crowded pretty quickly.

I used to comment infrequently on your previous thread here on the Cunard site.

 

Glad to see you had a chance to dance on Cunard.

 

We continue to cruise and dance and we keep trying to find ships that provide good dancing environments.

 

We have been mostly disappointed. We just completed a 7 night cruise on the RCL Oasis. It was easily the worst cruise for dancing in our years of cruising. There were several nights were there was no dance music available of any type. Hard to believe. Some nights for short periods they had a band in the Bolero's club which as you would expect played latin music, though in the time we spent there I only heard one bolero. Mostly played salsa's, all at the same tempo.

 

We had a similarly disappointing experience recently on the Celebrity Reflection, though they at least had a small band playing in their forum with a very small circular floor most every evening for an hour or so. Unfortunately one floor up in their open atrium they had a hip hop DJ playing very loudly and easily drowned out the tempo from the band at the forum. On formal night they advertised a "ballroom dance band" in the forum. We showed up at the advertised time and they had two thirds of the very small floor blocked off so their photographer could take pictures of the couples in formal wear against the decorations in the lobby!!

 

Sadly I conclude that RCL lines are not interested in attracting ballroom dancers. They show no interest in providing reasonable opportunities to dance.

 

Our next cruise is back on the QE in August going to Iceland. We have been on the QE several times and are looking forward to some good ballroom dancing again, though for selfish reasons I hope there are not 6 dance hosts. Even the Cunard floors can get crowded pretty quickly.

Spare a thought for the single ladies who like to dance!

Sent from my SM-T230 using Tapatalk

Spare a thought for the single ladies who like to dance!

Good to see you again Long Time, you Plano Texan!! You are right, even on what was billed as a dance cruise out of Galveston RCCL disappointed.

We've found that Princess and HAL make more of an effort to provide a dance venue on their ships. Dare I say it, but one line that has made an effort is Norwegian. On a recent cruise, we found the Getaway to have a fair sized floor in the main dining room that had a good dance combo nightly. We were able to get in a quick Rumba or Foxtrot between courses. Also, you do have a captive audience which can contribute to a better performance.:)

We take your point, and wish you more dance partners at sea as well as in life.

 

Good to see you again Long Time, you Plano Texan!! You are right, even on what was billed as a dance cruise out of Galveston RCCL disappointed.

We've found that Princess and HAL make more of an effort to provide a dance venue on their ships. Dare I say it, but one line that has made an effort is Norwegian. On a recent cruise, we found the Getaway to have a fair sized floor in the main dining room that had a good dance combo nightly. We were able to get in a quick Rumba or Foxtrot between courses. Also, you do have a captive audience which can contribute to a better performance.:)

Good to have contact with you again Gene. I miss the old thread. There use to be a lot of good feedback on cruise dancing in that one thread.

We have a cruise on the new HAL ship, the Konigsdam, scheduled for November. We also have found that HAL does make an effort though their floors are usually pretty small. The Konigsdam purports to have a " Queens Room" though the description of how they use it is not very promising. They talk about it as a great dance venue then mention jazz and "modern" dancing, which is OK, not just what we consider ballroom.

Thanks for the heads up on the Gateway. We cruised on the NCL Star a few years back and enjoyed it. In fact our son got engaged on that cruise, married the young lady and they are now the proud parents of two of our four grandchildren. We shall have to give the Gateway a try.

Good to have contact with you again Gene. I miss the old thread. There use to be a lot of good feedback on cruise dancing in that one thread.

 

We have a cruise on the new HAL ship, the Konigsdam, scheduled for November. We also have found that HAL does make an effort though their floors are usually pretty small. The Konigsdam purports to have a " Queens Room" though the description of how they use it is not very promising. They talk about it as a great dance venue then mention jazz and "modern" dancing, which is OK, not just what we consider ballroom.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the Gateway. We cruised on the NCL Star a few years back and enjoyed it. In fact our son got engaged on that cruise, married the young lady and they are now the proud parents of two of our four grandchildren. We shall have to give the Gateway a try.

I reread this post and realized the last couple of lines could be read differently than I intended. It's not that they are not proud of their other two children, it's that these other two grandchildren are by our daughter and her husband.

Good to have contact with you again Gene. I miss the old thread. There use to be a lot of good feedback on cruise dancing in that one thread.

I still maintain a friendship and email communications with Slow Foxtrot in England, and Mumsie in Brisbane, good people and good dancers are world wide.

We have a cruise on the new HAL ship, the Konigsdam, scheduled for November. We also have found that HAL does make an effort though their floors are usually pretty small. The Konigsdam purports to have a " Queens Room" though the description of how they use it is not very promising. They talk about it as a great dance venue then mention jazz and "modern" dancing, which is OK, not just what we consider ballroom.

Thanks for the heads up on the Gateway. We cruised on the NCL Star a few years back and enjoyed it. In fact our son got engaged on that cruise, married the young lady and they are now the proud parents of two of our four grandchildren. We shall have to give the Gateway a try.

Never doubt but what the quality of yer grandchildren are equal to or perhaps far superior to the progeny of other grandparents. If you ever question that, just ask grandma!!:D

Over on the Sequence Dancing thread, there's a post that Danceafloat in the UK is now providing hosts? Maybe Sixth Star has lost the contract? Anybody heard about this?

We are about to take our first QM2 and very excited about the dancing. Reading this thread I did see a few posters discussing dancing on other lines. Did not see Crystal mentioned so I did want to say a word - we have really enjoyed dancing on Crystal. They don't have the huge floor that QM2 has, however they tend to attract a "small but mighty" group of regular dancers, they have good (male) dance hosts, and they have an excellent sextet who play proper tempo ballroom and latin, and take requests. Their "show" band also plays for the captain's parties and they play TERRIFIC swing and foxtrot. So I am sure it is not up to Cunard standards, but it's another good option for cruisers who like to dance (and maybe enjoy the shipwide luxury service). I promise to report back once I can speak intelligently on "Crystal vs Cunard" for dancing!

Reading this thread makes me wish I could dance. I have 2 left feet and DH has 3 so we really just 'walk' round the floor rather than dance :) Perhaps we should invest in a few lessons before our trip in December and then the 'walk' may become a slight 'jog' :D

For foxy, Tangoll or whoever- have you any experience with the new WDSF syllabus? Not available in North America and horrendously expensive to order from Europe. Rumour has it there are now 37 figures in VW and that Tango has been withdrawn for a re-write.

A couple of other points- my experience on Crystal Serenity was the opposite, good floors but woeful music and a disdainful Cruise Director.

My travel agent, who has done a number of dance cruises, was on one of Holland America's refurbished ships. He says unsuitable for dancers and he won't be booking any more dance groups.

We are about to take our first QM2 and very excited about the dancing. Reading this thread I did see a few posters discussing dancing on other lines. Did not see Crystal mentioned so I did want to say a word - we have really enjoyed dancing on Crystal. They don't have the huge floor that QM2 has, however they tend to attract a "small but mighty" group of regular dancers, they have good (male) dance hosts, and they have an excellent sextet who play proper tempo ballroom and latin, and take requests. Their "show" band also plays for the captain's parties and they play TERRIFIC swing and foxtrot. So I am sure it is not up to Cunard standards, but it's another good option for cruisers who like to dance (and maybe enjoy the shipwide luxury service). I promise to report back once I can speak intelligently on "Crystal vs Cunard" for dancing!

Wow, I'm quite sure that it is comparable as you are paying a premium for the privilege!!:)

The floor won't be as big, but the quality of what you are getting has to be high for the price, or it should be mentioned.

As regards HAL, they make an effort, but their dance floor design doesn't offer much hope. We've had good music on HAL where the floor could handle a few couples but a crowd, not so much.

We did one "Dance Cruise" with RCCL out of our home port of Galveston, what a waste of money. One "Star" who played soft rock is not going to cut it in a ballroom crowd.

For foxy, Tangoll or whoever- have you any experience with the new WDSF syllabus? Not available in North America and horrendously expensive to order from Europe. Rumour has it there are now 37 figures in VW and that Tango has been withdrawn for a re-write.

Hi Bob,

Not had much experience of the World Dance-Sport Federation so not too interested in the 'new syllabus'. If 37 different figures in the Viennese Waltz is an example then I have even less interest! Why would you want their new syllabus? If dancers want ever-more dance movements and amalgamations there are hundreds freely available on Youtube, many demonstrated by top international dancers. Generally speaking, information on official syllabus movements is mainly required by potential medallists and teachers taking the various dance-medal examinations. Is this your angle? We enjoy our dancing and take it seriously (but in a social context) and find that too much worry about

rules and technicalities can undermine the enjoyment.

Foxy

Hi Bob,

Not had much experience of the World Dance-Sport Federation so not too interested in the 'new syllabus'. If 37 different figures in the Viennese Waltz is an example then I have even less interest! Why would you want their new syllabus? If dancers want ever-more dance movements and amalgamations there are hundreds freely available on Youtube, many demonstrated by top international dancers. Generally speaking, information on official syllabus movements is mainly required by potential medallists and teachers taking the various dance-medal examinations. Is this your angle? We enjoy our dancing and take it seriously (but in a social context) and find that too much worry about

rules and technicalities can undermine the enjoyment.

Foxy

I think the 37 different figures in VW is a typo from Dancer Bob. There are only six figures, same number as before but deleting the Left and Right Fleckerls, and substituting with the Left and Right Foot Backward Changes:

"Natural Turn

Reverse Turn

RF Forward Change Step Natural to Reverse

LF Forward Change Step Reverse to Natural

LF Backward Change Step Natural to Reverse

RF Backward Change Step Reverse to Natural"

Good luck in mastering the 40+ figures in the other Ballroom dances.

The underlying question is "What figures does my partner know, how do we describe them, what does she expect from me?". For example in American, there's a pretty good overlap in latin/rhythm, but standard/smooth gets really confusing when she takes off on her own and I don't know what will happen next. Sticking to the syllabus is a quick way to remember partners, eg. " this lady does ISTD bronze except fan".

Don't know how accurate any of my information is because I haven't seen anything myself. When I heard 37 figures in VW that got my attention- wow, dance studios will be able to make a lot of money teaching that, which has an unfortunate ring of truth about it.

According to my travel agent, HAL took away the Queens Lounge dance floor to make BB Kings and (Crows Nest?) for classical music on their remodelled ships (he was on the Eurodam I think), the music is totally revamped.

The underlying question is "What figures does my partner know, how do we describe them, what does she expect from me?". For example in American, there's a pretty good overlap in latin/rhythm, but standard/smooth gets really confusing when she takes off on her own and I don't know what will happen next. Sticking to the syllabus is a quick way to remember partners, eg. " this lady does ISTD bronze except fan".

Don't know how accurate any of my information is because I haven't seen anything myself. When I heard 37 figures in VW that got my attention- wow, dance studios will be able to make a lot of money teaching that, which has an unfortunate ring of truth about it.

According to my travel agent, HAL took away the Queens Lounge dance floor to make BB Kings and (Crows Nest?) for classical music on their remodelled ships (he was on the Eurodam I think), the music is totally revamped.

I agree Foxy and when you follow the money, it certainly goes back to the studios. This, of course, should only apply if you compete which means that you can bear the expense and benefit from the experience.

That's interesting about HAL, as we've had some good dancing on their ships. The music has changed how??

Our next two cruises are on Princess, a Sea of Cortez in Jan. followed by a Med, Barcelona to Rome by way of Gibraltar .

Didn't pay much attention after dance floors but from what he said, BB King is jazz, being rolled out across the fleet after refurbishing, very popular with couch potatoes/old geezers but not for dancers. He's done enough dance cruises to know what we want,

Was on Ruby Princess (Grand class). Club Fusion dance floor was almost as large as QM2 (can't find my notes about actual size of QM2), but music was deficient, staff tried hard but didn't know what they were doing, it was obvious management didn't care.

I'm on Costa Diadema in December, liked it enough last year (review posted) I'm going back, 100 euros/day. Also on Costa Pacifica, also 100 euros/day, back to Rome 05 Nov, same day QV leaves for Southampton. I'm completely fed up with Cunard's pricing games, two can play, I'll offer them 100 euros/day, if they would rather sail with an empty cabin than match Costa's prices, so be it (Cunard has better food, Costa has better music).

We'll be on the Ruby Princess next Jan., Sea Of Cortez, and the Royal next June, Barcelona to Rome.

Were they featuring ballroom in the Fusion, as we've always found it in the Wheelhouse lounge? The trios they had playing were pretty spotty, Ole Foxy might be advised to bring his horse whip!!:D

Hopefully, when my wife gets out of college in Dec., we can get back to lessons, as there is a lot that we have lost.

That is interesting as to your comments about Costa VS Cunard, as they seemed to care on Cunard about proper tempo; either that or Foxy had visited with them about that issue. Although, it was International and not American Smooth, so I would have placed well in the Olympics with the footrace that they were calling Tango.:D

From what I have read, and please feel free to correct me, (usually never a problem on this board:)), Costa brings to mind cigarette smoke and the Poseidon Adventure.

...The trios they had playing were pretty spotty, Ole Foxy might be advised to bring his horse whip!!:D

 

That is interesting as to your comments about Costa VS Cunard, as they seemed to care on Cunard about proper tempo; either that or Foxy had visited with them about that issue.....

Never been on a Princess cruise Gene but if their dance-trios are 'pretty spotty' as you describe then of course they deserve a good whipping. It's the only language they understand!

Nice to agree that Cunard bands now pay more attention to correct dance tempos. We were on Queen Victoria yet again this year and the Queens Room orchestras were all okay. All Cunard needs to do now is make the dance-floor twice the size and it should then be suitable for around 2500 passengers! Bigger floors may then even catch on with other cruise lines!