How is the music and entertainment on rcl, no more carnival

Hello everyone,

It's been 8 months since we last cruised RCL. We have really have enjoyed every single of our RCL cruises. We have not enjoyed our past two Carnival cuises to the point where Carnival has now lost our business.

The two things we love about cruising are the live bands and the nightly entertainment. All three cruise lines used to win in these categories, but Carnival has failed.

NCL still has some amazing bands, fly-on acts, and shows. NCL seems to still has great calypso bands on each ship (a must for us for cruising), great party bands - at least one per ship (another must), and fabulous entertainers, and RCL did and always have all this as well. Carnival has cut much of the above, and they have therefore lost our business.

RCL is worth a few dollars more to us. How has entertainment and the live bands been for you recently? Do you love it on RCL as much as we do and will continue to do?

Unfortunately for the first time, we're limiting our cruise lines to only two, as Carnival has crossed the line with their cutbacks and lack of entertainment. Good job RCL (and NCL), see you soon.

Which ship are you considering?

We're just off Explorer, and we thought the entertainment was outstanding! The calypso band at the pool, One Love, was the best of all the cruises we've been on.

I have not been impressed with much of the nightly big shows in the theater on any of my cruises. I am looking forward to the big production shows on Allure this December. I don't know, they are just so tacky and amateur.

That said, I have ALWAYS enjoyed the ice shows.

The performers in the Irish pub (on ship with a Promenade) have typically been pretty entertaining.

I am going to respectfully disagree with Twiggers. We have always enjoyed the shows on RC. But, we are easy to please and enjoy live shows. The singers and dancers do a really good job in the production shows and the other entertainers, singers, magicians, jugglers whatever, have always entertained us.

We, too, were disappointed in the shows on Carnival, although the Comedy Club was very good.

I was happy that Donna K enjoyed the Calypso band on Explorer. They can really put you in vacation mode while sitting out by the pool.

You will have a great vacation if you choose RC.

We've been on both lines several times in the last 2 years and here's our view:

RCCl has better entertainment in the main theatre and ice show.

Carnival has better entertainers in their bars - their piano bar is great.

Music at the pool - don't know or care, it's usually too noisy for us

It's been 8 months since we last cruised RCL. We have really have enjoyed every single of our RCL cruises. We have not enjoyed our past two Carnival cuises to the point where Carnival has now lost our business.

 

Unfortunately for the first time, we're limiting our cruise lines to only two, as Carnival has crossed the line with their cutbacks and lack of entertainment. Good job RCL (and NCL), see you soon.

Just remember that what you have compained about on CCL, some have had the same complaint here. It is all about personal choice. Being you have sailed RCCL 8 months ago, one would think not all that much has changed. If you liked that one, you'll probably enjoy the next!!;)

I have not been impressed with much of the nightly big shows in the theater on any of my cruises. I am looking forward to the big production shows on Allure this December. I don't know, they are just so tacky and amateur.

 

That said, I have ALWAYS enjoyed the ice shows.

 

The performers in the Irish pub (on ship with a Promenade) have typically been pretty entertaining.

I think you might find the Allure shows to be entertaining but I understand what you mean by tacky and amateur. I'm very much a fan of high caliber entertainment productions such as Cirque du Soleil and broadway such as Wicked. I have been to Vegas many times and became a huge Cirque fan. I was really disappointed to see that the Aquashow on the Allure used the same music from Cirque's La Nouba and Zumanity. But, the show did its job by entertaining.

Now as for Blue Planet, this one is subjective! This show was very amateur in my opinion. There's a section of the show that uses trampolines that you might find impressive. I didn't.....I've seen this act before elsewhere.

If your question is whether there have been any major entertainment-related cutbacks on RCI in the last year the answer is no. :) I was on Oasis a couple of weeks ago and the shows were outstanding, so was the (full, 4-piece) calpyso band, and there were so many entertainment options available at night that I couldn't get to all of them!

Enjoy!

I think RCLs house bands are one of the most underrated things on their ships...they are ( in my experience on more ships than I care to count) uniformly excellent. On Jewel the house band opened the farewell show with Chicagos, "feeling' stronger" that brought the house down...everything after it was a let down:D. Even my teen daughters were saying " they should have just had the band play as the show!".

The pool/calypso bands sometimes don't have steel drums, which some people miss, and I find the pool band can get repetitive with their sets, but even they are very good. On Jewel they did a set with the 2 RC singers ( from their production shows) that was great.

On Navigator we particulary liked the Latin Band in Boleros...Boleros is more of a "pocket lounge" open to the edge of the Royal Promenade and as soon as that band started with the Latin beats, it was impossible not to move! Pretty soon everyone was clustered on the stairs swaying and watching the Latin couples dance...they were great!

Dont get me started on Oasis...there is a live combo (or piano man, giutar player) in every lounge and all are top quality ( though id love the jazz to be a little less Frank Sinatra and more Miles Davis...but that's just me;))

I think you would be very happy with the entertainment on Royal...and make sure you wet your whistle in the lounges, because you will want a little something to take your mind off the food in the dining room:rolleyes: