GCurry

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.

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

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.:)

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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

Our travels to London and a "crossing" on the QM2 are fast approaching. A question about dancing as we do American Smooth and Latin, is line of dance conducive to open holds crossovers etc.?

Tango, is it line of dance or do we need to move outside of that for a number of steps? Can you request certain music such as Por Una Cabaza?

Any observations would be appreciated. Do they play Merengue for salsa dancing? What time does the music start as it looks as if we might have late dining, so dancing before and after dinner?

As I can relate being one my self. I've posed the Quick Step question on our board West bound on the 10th of May although there are a number of folks on this board who should be able to answer it with authority!!:D

In our area there are pro/am events as part of competition dancing, something to consider if you've not done it.

For those who knows Mambo, Salsa, the Cumbia music is great :-)

Cumbia and Salsa fit hand in glove and here's a good example our of South Texas!!

Just returned from a holiday sailing on the QM2, the QRO Andrew Hiller, together with the vocalist Alberto Bernet, did a wonderful job. Its Alberto’s first contract, and he is just so wonderful, we all wrote to thecruise line and hope they will hire him back. Not only is his voice very good, he is so friendly, talk and smile to passengers, and even got on the dance floor once or twice (same as Andrew Hiller who went on the dance floor twisting with us for about 20 seconds and nearly broke his hips ....) Their music is very clear, and although not 100%, but close to 90% great dance music, and on a cruise shhip, that was phenomenal

Thank you for that report, we'll be doing our first Cunard and first crossing in May West bound, so news like this is a big help

We are part of Vivian’s group (about 35 of us), most are dancers, and many accomplished, both international and American styles. We met so many familiar faces, some remembered me on the QV or QE, its like a big family reunion. Some even told me I should be the social hostess :-)

A couple of nights they scheduled sequence dances but no one showed up. Ballroom dancers were usually there just to keep the seat warm so they got an early start :-)

All is good, one tea dance, better than none on the QV and QE.

Our very own "Slow Foxtrot" is currently on the Queen Vic and will perhaps favor us with a dancing report if the mood strikes.

We're strictly social dancers and we probably get it wrong half the time, but since the Latin dances are all "on the spot" i don't think it matters to others whether you merengue, salsa, cha-cha or whatever (I don't know cumbia). as long as your hips are swinging, you're having fun, and you're not in the way of other couples, pick your thing and do it. But merengue music is FAST so you must be very fit if you can pull of the salsa steps at that tempo! (I confess we are guilty of sometimes picking out "half the beats" of a samba and doing the salsa, since we've never mastered the samba adequately to try it in public)

In our neck of the woods, salsa is taught in Mambo, Merengue, and Bachata; we favor the Merengue as it's deceptive with just up and down feet and a lot of upper body moves, so you aren't killing yerself..

Both the Samba and Cumbia are parade dances meant to move down a street or hall as the case may be.

The Cumbia is seldom seen outside of Hispanic countries, as Texas isn't far from becoming one.

Carnival in Rio, Samba central, do you do botafogos??

Thank you for the very fast and helpful response. Guess I should seriously look at other options that maybe go from the US - which will also reduce my flight times and costs. I was origionally attracted to the Strictly Cruise as I am a dance tragic and loved to watch the Pros having seen one of them here in Oz. My own dancing days are somewhat curtailed due to metal knees etc. However I can still do fleckerals and the Vienesse Waltz given the right partner and really want to be able to dance if the opportunities are there.

Sadly, there is very little ballroom on American lines, nor single men who dance and the last dance hosts we've seen on an American line was years ago.. We've done a number of cruises on most of the main lines, Carnival Corp. RCCL & Norwegian and are usually the best dancers on board; and these days we're not even good amateurs. Yes, we dance American smooth and Latin which has a lot of open holds and Boleros to many of the slow tempo International Rumbas.

There are, however, dance cruises that you might enjoy, here is a link to one such.

http://www.dancersatsea.com/

Small oddly shaped lounge floors on most of the lines; you end up dancing out on the carpeting many times.

It will be a treat to dance in a real ballroom with a real orchestra!!

Of course we're all dancing Hip Hop over here, open this link to see how popular it's gotten!!:D

http://watch.worthytoshare.com/put-together-perfectly-watch

I love the idea of female dance hosts. While I try to translate what the gentlemen dance hosts have shown me to my DH, I am spectacularly unsuccessful. It would be so nice to have a lady that knows what she's doing help demonstrate and practice some of the lessons the instructors teach. We try, but all we seem to do is get in the way of the pros. What a great idea.

We had a woman dance instructor for a number of years, and yes she danced both parts, and would have no problem dealing with the egos of the men.

After all, she subdued mine!!:D

Er, not quite right Gene. We have been alternating between P & O and Cunard since the days of the Canberra and the Queen Elizabeth! For many years P & O's Oriana has been the ship of choice for most British ballroom and sequence dancers because of a decent dance floor and the excellent strict-tempo music.

Sorry Foxy, by expressing a half truth, I realize that there is still hope for me becoming a politician!!:D

For example, 99% of British dancers have never heard of the Cumbia and I suspect that 99% of American dancers have never heard of the Tango Serida!

Now, as to a Tango Serida, no I've never danced it, but, I'm sure that I've always wanted to!!:rolleyes:

Hello

I was also on this crossing, and while not an expert dancer really enjoyed the ballroom and the orchestra most especially the Big Band Ball. It was especially fun dancing with one of the RADA actresses. As far as I know there are no other cruise lines that offer ballrooms and orchestras for dancing on a regular basis as does Cunard. It is one reason I keep coming back. I cannot imagine they would ever cut back on this very popular activity. And yes, it would have been marvelous if there had been one more tea dance. I have been on crossings when the entertainment director scheduled two.

This past May, we sailed on NCL's getaway out of Miami and were pleasantly surprised by a large dance floor in the main dining room, and a good combo playing dance music nightly.

We contrast that with our fall cruise 11 days on Carnival Triumph where the only good music aside from the Capt.'s reception with the ship's band, was a combo from the Dominican Republic who played Latin, Salsa and Bachatas. As there were a number of Texas Hispanics on board my Cubias got a workout.

Sadly, the lounge was a smoking & cigar bar which eliminated us after a dance or so.

As a great bonus, the British National Orchestra was also on board this crossing and performed three concerts which were hugely popular. I am very hopeful they will be back this Summer. It would not bother me a bit if they replaced the Jazz Crossing on 8/1 which I am avoiding like the plague.

Deck Chair

We are looking forward to this as an ultimate dance cruise, or at least the best at sea.

GCurry and his little wife Susan are booked on a crossing East to West on QMII in May. It's her college semester break and as she also works for NASA, her off time is limited. But as a crossing on a Queen and dancing the Queen's ballroom is on my "Bucket List", she thought to indulge me before I got too old to enjoy it.

I've been in contact with my old friend "Slow Foxtrot"; who has finally switched from P&O to Cunard for dance reasons, for sage words of advice as to dancing on a crossing, and he had several. But, recognizing some of you from a previous thread "Ballrooms at sea" and seeing that you were still pontificating on yer ballroom dance addiction, I thought to perhaps benefit from yer sagacity as well!:D

Question: the Merengues, anybody doing any Salsa dancing to that?

As the only Gringo in Texas to dance Cumbia that might be too much to ask?

---and sharing with all the members of the family going along on a social media site.

What makes harmonica a little different is you have to change harmonicas to change keys. Much like you have to retune a banjo.

Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett both use a harmonica player to good effect.

Dancing (ballroom) did you seen any??

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others. - Groucho Marx

Mr. Marx was perhaps a role model for "Lord" Archer. You folks can't defrock a peerage?? Not that it matters, if we ousted every president that had had an affair starting with George Washington, the count would be much much higher than it is.:rolleyes:

Safe travels Punki, good cruises everyone.

!Hasta Luego! (as I'll be saying in Mexico next week)

Now, this is a question you might not be able to answer; but taking everything into account, which line is better? Cunard or Princess?

Different products for different demographics same corporation as is Holland America, Carnival, Costa etc etc. Or the mega ships of RCCL targeting American families. Or Norwegian the Wal Mart of cruising, price driven. Cunard, P&O, and Fred, Benny Hill,whomever very British oriented. Take em as you get em and don't waste a lot of time looking for the difference, life's pretty short, it's a big world and cruising is an easy way to see a lot of it. JMHO:D

Kristiansand is considered the Beach City of Norway a lot of our Sister City party in Stavanger went down there, we opted for Bergen and Eurorail.

Thanks for the review Punki, we'll work our way out to Seattle eventually.

Song by Jimmy Buffett, and August/September are our prime times.

We're currently rivaling Mumbai for heat and humidity, so we go from heavily air conditioned homes to heavily air conditioned cars and back. Energy costs are not an issue. We have two seasons, HOT and cold separated by days of indecision. About half of Texas was settled by Germans, Czechs, and Poles as good land was cheap and available (comfort not included). This is why our people enjoy a visit to European Summer which we best describe as winter with leaves!!:)

A cruise is really a great way to see a very expensive part of the world, and if you can afford the classic luxury sold by Cunard, so much the better. My wife and I dance ballroom (don't tell the neighbors), and there are no finer ballrooms at sea than offered by Cunard.

Yes, it is somehow normal. The north of Germany is at the same geographical level as southern Alaska. So the sun has the same intensity if visible. The difference to Alaska makes a 21C warm water stream in the Atlantic Ocean called the Gulf Stream. This equalizes extremely cold temperatures with an effect reaching app. 300km in land. If winds send the hot air from Africa we will have hot temperatues like we had in June and July. If the wind changes and brings Polar cold we have a situation like now.

Significant differences between water- and airtemperatures causes strong winds, but only very occasionally a tornado. Right now the water is 21C andC warmer than in an average summer due to the early heatwave this year.

Summer is not guaranteed at our beaches.

 

But overall its acceptable because winters are usually mild at the southern Baltic.

 

No global warming effect is involved.

We toured and cruised down from Alaska based on weather, in early June.

You made me laugh...we moved to a small town near the Texas hill country 30 years ago. The town was settled in the early 1830's by German immigrants and many people still spoke German at home. The town was a friendly but a very close knit community. We were told if you weren't born here you would always be an outsider. Well, 30 years later, we are still here and love it, but it took a long time before we broke the local ice!

Thanks for the info on Warnemuende, put it in my Baltic file. I have read that there are interesting places to see nearby without doing the long ride into Berlin. One of these days we will do the Baltic again.

My question is the weather, is this normal?? I came through the area from Bergen to Amsterdam on Eurorail some years ago in June and it was beautiful for three weeks. Being in the Energy Bidness for a long career, I know of the North Sea, but thought the Baltic wouldn't enjoy the same weather What say you cunardadiict?

Once said when asked to join Rotary," that he would never join a club that would have him for a member!!"

PunkiC wrote: "I suspect, cunardaddict, that you too might belong to the same social minority that we belong to—the one to which most people aspire." What is the social minority that you suspect cunardaddict and you belong to and that you feel most people aspire?

G.Curry, How's the water...we are almost neighbors.

Our Texas beach water is running about 87 F so come on down. We just booked a five day Carnival Cruise out of Galveston for Labor Day weekend (Aug. 30 through Sep. 4) down to Mexico, Coz and Progreso (Merida); Texas heat for Mexican heat although cheaper than flying anywhere cool. The wife who works at NASA is also a college student and wants a trip on her semester break. She has condescended to take me with her!!:D

I'll work on my Spanish for as a UTEP grad, and reading the Cunard board, I find that I'm illiterate in two languages!!:rolleyes:

Merida will be interesting as it's the Paris of Mexico. When the US bought Louisiana from Spain, the Spanish and a number of French in New Orleans relocated to Merida; but, you knew that!!

A ship doing a Western Caribe can't pass Cozumel without pulling in, it's much like St. Thomas in that regard. I've seen 8 ships and 13,000 cruisers there in one day. I believe that it's a port of call for Cunard.