Ballroom dancing - ship recommendations

[kitchens]

Hi, I just wondered which P&O ships are the best for doing a spot of ballroom dancing, any recommendations?

[Host Sharon]

Definitely Oriana and Aurora. Ventura, Oceana and Azura only have a small marble dance floor in the main atrium - a bit like dancing in the hall with people coming and going all around!! Artemis was wonderful but it's too late to try her now. Arcadia was OK but has a small floor.

[Jo and Rob]

We went to the ballroom dancing lessons on Oceana which were held at Starlights. I did see some dancing in the evening in the Atrium but it didn't seem very well attended.

[billyelliot]

Do they have dance lessons on Ventura? I would love to drag my DH along:p

[southwinds]

Oriana is popular as they hold lessons and evening events in Harlequins and many regulars prefer the lovely dance floor in there. Aurora has Carmen's and this is popular.. but can be used for shows...

I would say Oriana / Harlequins is the best..

[Suzieanna]

We have just been on Azura and there was plenty of ballroom dancing. Every night there would be dancing in the atrium and on a lot of the nights there would be dance evenings in one of the bigger rooms hosted by the dance instructors - Paul and Carole Anne.

 

There was a lot of sequence dancing - however, it was a lot of the same. It seemed to be restricted to the more well known dances, ie rumba one, mayfair quickstep, sally ann cha cha so everyone could join in. When there are so many to choose from it is a shame that its always these three.

 

In the modern section, you could dance lots of foxtrot, a couple of waltzes and maybe one quickstep - which is fair enough because most of the dancers were quite old and i think more than a couple of quicksteps would have been too much effort! Lots of rumba, and the occasional cha-cha and jive.

 

There was one couple who were well into their eighties i would guess, and they were amazing - he was throwing her around like she was a little doll!

 

The dance instructors are lovely on Azura. I wish they were my permanent teachers.

[kitchens]

Thanks for your comments - we are really looking forward to it!

[Dancer Bob]

A dance group from Toronto I travel with is planning an Oct/Nov cruise. We' re looking for a ship which offers dancing, although we're not dancesport fanatics. For various reasons, we're looking around for alternatives.

Oriana and Ventura seem to be getting some good comments, but P&O seems to pride itself on not providing any information to us over here. Can anybody offer some more details? Has anybody had any experience booking a group from North America?

[Slow Foxtrot]

A dance group from Toronto I travel with is planning an Oct/Nov cruise. We' re looking for a ship which offers dancing, although we're not dancesport fanatics. For various reasons, we're looking around for alternatives.

Oriana and Ventura seem to be getting some good comments, but P&O seems to pride itself on not providing any information to us over here. Can anybody offer some more details? Has anybody had any experience booking a group from North America?

 

Probably the best P & O ships for dancing are Oriana and Aurora. The style is generally International Ballroom & Latin dancing with also a small number of Sequence Dances included for good measure. Bands and tempos are good.

There is a dance-band called Natural High which sometimes plays on Oriana and they are without question one of the best (if not the best) dance-bands at sea. The floor on Oriana is rectangular and the floor on Aurora is circular. The dance floors are not as big as the QM2 but they are bigger than most ship's.

As for group bookings; surely any good travel agent would be pleased to arrange this? Incidentally, we chatted with some Canadian dancers on Oriana last year.

 

Foxy

[Denarius]

We went to the ballroom dancing lessons on Oceana which were held at Starlights. I did see some dancing in the evening in the Atrium but it didn't seem very well attended.

On Oceana last December they had ballroom dancing to CDs in the Atrium almost every evening. It was not particularly well supported, usually only 3 or 4 couples. Some passengers felt that it spoiled the atmosphere in the Atrium, which used to be a quiet place for conversation with a cocktail pianist.

[Invincible]

We were on Oriana in April, Harlequins has a dance floor for ballroom and sequence dancing , we did the dancing lessons with Simon and Julie Curtin who were fantastic the one hour lessons nearly always ran to one and a half hours or more and they were so helpful and patient with those of us who struggled a little. As a consequence of the lessons which had around 90 people there each day the dance floor was full every night with a combination of experienced and novice dancers dancing to live music every night.

[Dancer Bob]

Thanks for the info. Getting a group of dancers to agree to anything is like herding cats. The travel agent we use (he's taken dance lessons, so he speaks our language) isn't sure how much cooperation he'd get from P&O UK or whether he'd have to find a reliable UK partner.

[Sheppie 2]

We went to the ballroom dancing lessons on Oceana which were held at Starlights. I did see some dancing in the evening in the Atrium but it didn't seem very well attended.

 

We sailed the Britannia in October 2015 and the venue in the Crystal Room is of reasonable size. If you are experienced dancers, as we are, you may have to tone down your routines at times. Of course on formal nights the numbers swell and this makes it difficult and frustrating. We did think there was too much sequence. The instructors seemed to favour sequence but when the band was on, it was just ballroom and latin.

 

We have "danced" on atrium venues, but forget it. They are just rights of way for other passengers.

 

The Queens have large floors and years ago we were reasonably happy with the dance floor on the Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Seas.

 

If you read one of my other reviews, you will find my thoughts on dancing on other ships.

 

Happy Dancing!

[Sheppie 2]

On Oceana last December they had ballroom dancing to CDs in the Atrium almost every evening. It was not particularly well supported, usually only 3 or 4 couples. Some passengers felt that it spoiled the atmosphere in the Atrium, which used to be a quiet place for conversation with a cocktail pianist.

 

Dancing is VERY difficult to do in an Atrium, for more experienced dancers and also less experienced ones. I agree with you (Denarius) that an Atrium should be a quiet place for conversation, but for keen dancers when an Atrium is the only venue on offer, they become desperate. Your comment about the Oceana Atrium not being well supported and with usually only 3 or 4 couples, I would think would be because Atriums are always undersized for dancing and in our experience 3 or 4 couples would fill the area! Our thought from having TRIED to dance in an Atrium, and managed only to do so in a very frustrating way (if we were "lucky" that is) is that such an area is barely large enough for TWO couples, and only bearable for one. We have been in an Atrium where on formal nights the photographer and all his equipment and passengers waiting to be photographed have exacerbated the problem by encroaching onto the floor.

[miniyorkie]

Hi. We have just returned from a cruise on Oriana, which has a dedicated ballroom - Harlequins. It was used every evening with ballroom/sequence either to the live band or the dance instructors hosting the evening with disco music afterwards. We really enjoyed this facility, having tried dancing within Atrium restrictions on Oceana and Ventura. It is a definite plus for anyone who enjoys their dancing. We were often wanting to be in Harlequins and the theatre at the same time so made for very busy evenings. Lovely venue.

[jeanlyon]

The main trouble for me as a ballroom dancer is that it is mostly sequence which I think is really boring and not for me, so unless it's an ordinary waltz, foxtrot or jive, we don't bother.

[Esprit]

If you think the atriums on P&O ships are bad then you will definitely not like Celebrity's Solstice class ships. Absolutely useless with the main staircase dropping people onto you.

 

We liked Britannia's Crystal lounge but when busy you have to have good floor craft.

[Magician's wife]

On Aurora the ballroom dancing was in Carmens which was great. There was recorded music early in the evening and a live band later. There was a good mix of ballroom, Latin and sequence. It was December 2014 when we were on there though so it may have changed but we really enjoyed dancing on Aurora.

 

We were on Azura a couple of weeks ago and the dancing there was in the atrium. It was packed and we gave up as there was no room. They did a Couple of sequence dances but not many - rumba 1, Mayfair quickstep and saunter together I think. We also thought the dancing started a bit late - 9.30pm when we would have preferred before dinner.

 

Waiting to see what Britannia is like in a couple of weeks and Arcadia in August.

[mummsie]

we were on the Aurora a few weeks ago. Carmens is the place to be. The dances were very well attended and Anne and Roger were great hosts. They also held 2 classes a day (on sea days) to teach all the dances they were going on the cruise - we learnt the Saunter Together. They also taught loads of other dances - the full range of modern and latin dances. They then incorporated them into the night programme. They even put on some 'New Vogue' for us Aussies. Best dancing we have had on 15 cruises.

mummsie