Dance Floors w/ Bands?

[UKRoger]

I am back from the cruise and my report on dancing on dancing can be summed up in two words. Forget it.

The Piazza is a large area and wonderful decor which would have made it the grandest ballroom I have seen. The problem is that it is not a ballroom because you cannot dance properly there.

Probable over half the floor is aken with tables and chairs leaving just the central circle which is a design feature available to dance on. They did move the inner ring of table back to the second ring around the centre which gave about an extra metre of width. If that ring were removed completely and the outer ring of tables pushed back a little there could have been as much as around 1.5 extra metres and still leave pleanty of room to pass by. 2.5 extra metres would make the floor of a dancable size.

Having moved the tables back we then had the waiters deciding to walk across floor as a short cut when people were trying to dance.

The band in the Piazza that played dance music were rather quiet and tended to be drowned by other noise around. On the first floor of the Atrium where te Piazza is there was a guy who played the piano and sang and had a great deal of banter going on with the guest in that lounge which meant he could not be on whilst the dance quartet were on. There was also another chap in the wheelhouse bar playing a piano and having banter with the guests there.

The final condemnation of the Piazza as a dance venue come by way of the floor itself. Inlaid into the floor is brass piping that stands slightly pround of the marble floor which if say dancing a quickstep and catching the strip with your heel would send you sprawling on the floor. This to me is dangerous.

The other areas for dance are considered Club 6 which is minute and oddly shaped, The Vista Lounge which is about 2 metres wide and crsent shaped. The Princess Live Theartre has a small floor that Is was able to practice on when it was not in use but this was small but we were able by breaking down our routines to small segments train to keep ourselves up to speed for our return to training this week.

The was also an outside area on the top deck that could be used for dancing when not in use for the fountains but we were told no one wanted to dance there but it was chained off so no one could dance there anyway. The fountain pool was to me the biggest waste of space there was on the ship because it had so little use.

As I said at the start of this report forget dancing on the Royal Princess because it just aint going to happen properly. The ship did not even attempt any proper dance classes which are usually on all Princess ships which goes to show this ship is not for dancing. I am now currently looking at P & O, MSC, Holland America and Cunard for future cruises so I can dance but these lines do not necessarily go where I want to go so may have to go on a Princess ship and not dance.

I hope this helps all dancers even if it is so negative but the ship is big and beautiful and has some very nice features. We had a good holiday but we were disappointed by the cruise which could have been more and it certainly could have been spectacular which it was not, in my eyes, for a maiden voyage.

[Shogun]

Hi All

Dancing, or lack of places comes down to what market Princess is looking at,

Princess is not looking for those that enjoy more tradional dance styles,

while I would not want to call zumba a dance the atirum was cleared to

allow around 30 or 40 people to shake their bits, it was not cleared

gain until a mid night disco, Vista has a nice dance floor but is just to

narrow not sure why they did not make it wider, the fountains was used

by the Princess dancers for for shaking their bits, style of show, so

sorry to say those that like to dance, the Royal is not the ship for you,

unless you can stay within a small area,

yours Shogun

[arlito]

Thanks for the update Roger. I'm glad we've switched to the Crown. We at least know we can find some dance venues for our West Coast Swing practice on the Crown as we've cruised on her before.

One thing I find interesting is this link showing a 'Dance Group' going on the Royal in February. I wonder if Princess is setting up some special venue for them to do their lessons and practice. If I was part of that group and experience what you did while on the cruise, I would not be too happy. I wonder if anyone from that group checks reviews here on CC. Hopefully they do.

Thanks again for your input Roger.

[url]http://www.dancingatsea.com/upcoming-cruises-2/february-02-2014-royal/[/url]

[rolfecms]

[quote name='UKRoger']I am back from the cruise and my report on dancing can be summed up in two words. Forget it.[/quote]

Thanks for the report UKRoger. My wife had wanted to try Princess, so if we ever do, it certainly will NOT be on the Royal Princess.

It amazes me that with all the years of experience Princess has in ship design that they could make such a glaring omission when building such a huge ship that had plenty of opportunity and promise for an appropriate dance venue.

"Best ballroom dancing at sea"? What a disappointing joke.

[Times Prince]

Thanks for the reports UKRoger and Shogun.

At least Princess still has viable ballroom dancing options on other, smaller ships than the Royal Princess class. We are "social" ballroom dancers and find those ships to lend to a very enjoyable cruise for us.

[PunkiC]

Thank you Shogun and UKRoger for confirming my suspicions that the Princess claims of "The Greatest Ballroom at Sea" were just so much hot air.

I honestly would have felt better about the whole thing if they had been upfront and just said that ballroom dancing is not a priority on the Royal. That way dancers would have known up front that she was not the ship for them.

Why indulge in false advertising only to disappoint?

[B DAVID]

The main reason my wife and I go on cruises is to be able to dance every night. We also partake of all of the dance lessons and have a great time. However it seems that Princess and other lines are squeezing out dancing on board. Maybe they feel it takes away from getting passengers into their bars and stores and spending more money. However we will just move on to other cruise lines that look to accomodate dancers. Their loss.

However we find the older ships in the Princess lines to be much better for dancing such as the Coral Princess,Island Princess, Emerald (et al) and Golden Princess are great.

We heard from dancer friends that the latest ship The Royal Princess is a total washout when it comes to dancing. Time to move away from the newest Princess offerings.

By the way what the heck did they do to the Wheelhouse bar for dancing? They took it from a small dance floor to tiny making it almost as bad as the Epic where they filled it up with tables to accomodate their overbooking.

That also goes for the the Norwegian Epic, Celebrity Silouhoutte and the like. The Constellation and Costa cruises are still tops for dancing but the food sucks on Costa and the Constellation is old.

We loved the Aqua class on Celebrity but the dancing on marble in the atrium lobby was terrible. They don't care anymore then Princess.

My brother is part of a 1,200 member dance club and they are out looking for a more sympathetic dance venue then Princess.
Let me know what good dance ships you find.

[B DAVID]

[quote name='SeagoingMom'][COLOR=darkred]I am following this thread with interest. We are dancers, too, in our 50's. Perhaps this makes us representational of the "next" generation of cruisers who want to spend the next few decades enjoying ballroom/swing dancing on cruise ships, rather than the generation which has been fortunate enough to have already been enjoying it for decades![/COLOR]

[COLOR=darkred]We are not professionals, competitive amateurs, nor even skilled at dancing -- we just love to do it, and will choose a cruise line and ship based on the opportunities we think we will have to dance. We look for dance lessons during the day and a dance floor (and we aren't fussy about that either :rolleyes:) to practice our steps in the evening. We are OK with a small combo, or any other source of music as long as it is danceable.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=darkred]We have danced on Celebrity and HAL. On the former, there was a small dance floor which was quite crowded for our taste, but the music (combo) was fine for us. On HAL, the floor was again quite small, and the band small but fine. We were one of only two or three couples dancing on our Panama Canal cruise, which surprised and scared me, as I fear that HAL will give up having dance bands if the number of people dancing is so small.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=darkred]I have been considering cruising on Princess for several reasons, but I did not realize that opportunities to dance should have been one of them! From reading this thread, it seems that Princess is a very good choice for us, although I would be intimidated dancing with the sort of dancers that it sounds like some (all?) of you are -- competitive, at the very least.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=darkred]So if anyone can give me their views on the best ships for dancing for us "hobbyists," I would appreciate it.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=darkred]I have heard that NCL has dancing of all types somewhere on board. I have no particular interest in NCL, but I might consider it if we could dance![/COLOR]

[COLOR=darkred]At this stage, we can't afford anything beyond the "mainstream" cruise lines, so I would appreciate hearing anything anyone can tell me about any of them, including the lesser-discussed lines such as [/COLOR][COLOR=darkred][COLOR=darkred]MSC, Costa, P&O, even Azamara [/COLOR][/COLOR][COLOR=darkred][COLOR=darkred][COLOR=darkred](which would be a stretch for us), or Cunard, which [/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][COLOR=darkred]we might be able to swing (no pun intended). [/COLOR]
[/quote]

We were on the Epic. They bill the Manhattan room as a fantastic place to dance with its own private band and a two story wall of windows overlooking the rear of the ship. A great concept however they overbooked it by some three hundred passengers. They filled the Manhattan Room (dance floor) with extra tables to accomodate the overcrowded ship and when we asked them to remove them so we could ance they said that would mean that other passengers would have to wait for dinner. They don;t care about dancers at all. Save your money!!!!!!!
At least on Princess ( Coral, Island Princess) you can dance at the Wheelhouse bar and have a great time.

[teabags2]

We noticed the lack of a dance floor in The Wheelhouse and decided not to book the Royal until we had confirmation of the dance venues it would have.

The only reason we cruise is so we can go dancing every night.[/quote]

Same thing noted on Carnival. Great venues with wooden floors but utilized for comedy club, karaoke, & art auctions. Dancing relegated to the corridor next to the casino with marble floors & through traffic. What a waste. Please any suggestions.

[wbierbra]

I am sooo upset that Princess removed the dance floor at the Wheelhouse, and have reduced the number of dance venues. Over the past decade I have taken dancers to different itineraries and on different cruise lines, to offer variety, and ALL said they wanted Princess for the future cruises due to the dance venues. We went on the newer Celebrity ship this past year and hated the marble atrium floor (small and with structures) and then the only other floor was also marble but was used for their special nights (60's 70's, etc.)

Princess, you have made a horrible decision!!!! We will not book the new ships because of this.:confused::(

[Ahhh]

[quote name='PunkiC']Thank you Shogun and UKRoger for confirming my suspicions that the Princess claims of "The Greatest Ballroom at Sea" were just so much hot air.[/quote]

AMEN! Suspicions confirmed! :( What a shame.

[Dancer Bob]

arlito mentioned a specific dance group. I know a couple of ladies who've traveled with that group, they will not be going back (they didn't volunteer details and I didn't ask).
I'll be checking out P&O Oriana in November, MSC Divina in January, Costa neoRomantica in April. Otherwise, I'm planning to be on Costa Luminosa three times next winter- I was on Deliziosa, its sister ship, this spring (review posted). For all its faults, I haven't found any better value-for-money than Costa.

[sunsetbeachgal]

I was in the Royal in July and there are only two dance venues: Club 6 which has a DJ and no live music as far as I can tell, and the Piazza, which have various live groups, string ensemble, etc. This is where they had dance lessons and evening dancing at various times, Wheelhouse had a pianist, but no dance floor...it is also much smaller that Wheelhouse on other ships as it adjoins the Crown Grill.

[UKRoger]

[quote name='sunsetbeachgal']I was in the Royal in July and there are only two dance venues: Club 6 which has a DJ and no live music as far as I can tell, and the Piazza, which have various live groups, string ensemble, etc. This is where they had dance lessons and evening dancing at various times, Wheelhouse had a pianist, but no dance floor...it is also much smaller that Wheelhouse on other ships as it adjoins the Crown Grill.[/quote]

Well I feel totally let down by Princess because while we were on board the Royal for the maiden voyage there was no dancing and no lessons. I have to say that dancing on the Piazza floor would not a good anyway with the metal strips standing proud of the floor could have brought my wife and I down with a bang if we were doing our quickstep at full speed and caught a heel on the strip. Any other dance, Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot or Viennese or for that matter some of our Latin dance would have been difficult. We very much doubt we shall ever sailed with Princess ever again. The dancing was a big minus, many of the many of the staff we encountered fell well below expectations.

[Dancer Bob]

UKRoger provided enough details that I have great confidence in his opinion, When sunsetbeachgal mentions "dance lessons" and "evening dancing"- what material was taught, at what level? Were the teachers members of a recognised UK society or US organization? What tempo of music was played in the evening? What hours? What was the floor like?

[BRANDEE]

[quote name='Dancer Bob']UKRoger provided enough details that I have great confidence in his opinion, When sunsetbeachgal mentions "dance lessons" and "evening dancing"- what material was taught, at what level? Were the teachers members of a recognised UK society or US organization? What tempo of music was played in the evening? What hours? What was the floor like?[/QUOTE]
Sailed on Royal July 5th. Wheelhouse Bar was made very small to make room for a larger Crown Grill and Wine Room, another alternative dining. There was a piano player, Live band and dance floor...gone. If your a re cruiser with Princess, remember the Explorer Lounge that featured bands and shows, with a dance floor..gone. Where to dance? Club 6 featured DJ music, reminded me of the Skywalker Clubs on the other Princess ships. Piazza ground floor had a live band at 10pm. I think it was for one hour, but I never stayed. Piazza floor is marble with metal strips crisscross. Room for eight to ten couples, depending on the dance style. Three floors of cruisers hawking over the rails "judging" the dancers. Since my husband is not a Dancing with the Stars type of guy, we never danced. This was one of many disappointing parts of the cruise, we like to dance and Princess ditched it for the more profitable specialty restaurants or the new and improved photo gallery right in the middle of the Atrium. And don't think about having a romantic stroll around the promenade deck. That's gone, too.

[Dancer Bob]

Thanks BRANDEE, that seems pretty consistent with UKRoger. I have no objection to DJ's per se, there's a lot of nice contemporary latin out there, but I find they usually play recycled engine room noise. I've already had one couple ask about Royal Princess, I told them to stay away, sounds like that was the right advice.

[UKRoger]

The lack of dancing aboard the Royal seems to be remaining and I see no change in the situation coming from Princess. I really do think the cruise line has lost its way purely to make more money through specialty dining, selling photos and adding more features to part your from your hard earned cash. Whilst I am not against companies trying to make more money because we need companies to be profitable I do think they need to realize there is a limit to what their customers will accept in the drive to make more money. Princess have for me gone that step to far and I am now taking my hard earned pounds and will be spending them elsewhere. Princess are not satisfying my needs so they will not get my money. If there are other taking their spending elsewhere Princess will actually make less money and eventually regret the design of the Royal.

I have not decided on my next cruise but we are looking and when Princess has been suggested by our Travel Agent we have said no thank you without further thought. It will take something really spectacular to change our minds. Ballroom dancing is a must for us especially as we are competitive dancers and disco is not for us although we will visit one occasionally. As for the disco on the Royal there were very few actually using it on the maiden voyage. There were in fact more crew there not drinking than there were guest who were also not drinking so not a good money making venue.

[Mapu]

Having sailed on the Queen Elizabeth last year, it seems to me that the TV Studio would make a perfect ballroom. On the Queen Elizabeth the dance floor was always filled with people dancing and listening to live bands,

[cafeDB]

AARGH! I just paid my deposit this afternoon for a Baltic cruise in June 2014 on the Royal Princess and then I found this thread!!!!! I can't believe my stupidity in basing my decision on past Princess cruises, false advertising about the Piazza being "the grandest ballroom" and reviews of other Princess ships!

We're keen but amateur ballroom and latin dancers and we cruise to dance (besides the itinearary, of course). We will dance anywhere when we can get danceable music, even if it's from the iPhone in my husband's breast pocket, with 1 ear bud in each person's ear! From the Queen Victoria Queen's room (best floor we have had), to a public park in Shanghai (post cruise), and we don't care if we're the only ones on the floor. For the benefit of the bean counters from the cruise lines monitoring this thread, we have single handedly kept quiet lounges open, by giving people something to watch while they sip their drinks!
I don't mind 3 floors of gawkers ( we kind of enjoy the compliments we get as we walk around the ship and are recognised as "the dancers")
But we can't dance if there are idiotic waiters and unthinking guests using the floor as a short cut, and I certainly don't want to risk twisting my ankle on raised brass strips inset in metal floors.
This is really bad news......I may call my agent to see about stopping my deposit ( before the US wakes up tomorrow morning) and switching to a Cunard, NCL or Oceania ship sailing the same itinerary. Does any one know if the Oceania Marina is any good for dancers?

We're in our early 40's and I just introduced 3 pairs of dancers (similar age) to cruising who booked along with me for a cruise on Queen Mary in April 2014. We will be loyal Cunard customers for at least another 4 decades. Offering outstanding ballroom dancing IS a way to attract new customers who may never had thought of cruising as a holiday, especially if you want to enter the Asian market. This again for the benefit of the powers that be on Princess.

[UKRoger]

cafeDB I have been told Dancing on Queen Victoria is fabulous because it has a great floor but I have also been told dancing on the Quenn Mary is even better. The floor is batter and the room is bigger. Have a wonderful dance cruise and I hope you manage to stop your deposit with Princess.
Dancing on the Royal is a big NO NO and you would be very disappointed. I wil also be interested in hearing what those groups who have booked a dance cruise on the Royal think of it because they will not be able to dance or at least dance properly.

[rolfecms]

[quote name='cafeDB']AARGH! I just paid my deposit this afternoon for a Baltic cruise in June 2014 on the Royal Princess and then I found this thread!!!!! I can't believe my stupidity in basing my decision on past Princess cruises, false advertising about the Piazza being "the grandest ballroom" and reviews of other Princess ships![/quote]

The sailing is far enough out that you should be able to cancel it and re-book on another more suitable line. Good luck.

[cafeDB]

Thank God we managed to put a hold on the deposit. We will probably use it to pay for the QM cruise and think a little bit more about which ship to use for our Baltic cruise. The more I read about the Royal Princess , the worse it sounds!

[PunkiC]

When I originally looked at the floor plan for the Royal, the first thing I did was check out the size of the dance floor in The Wheelhouse, only to find that there wasn't one. :( I immediately called Princess to discuss and was informed that there would be lots of dancing venues on their new ship. NOT!

The only conclusion I can draw is that ships like Carnival and NCL who typically only have "shake your booty" dancing make more money, urging Princess in their direction. Ugh. We thought we would be loyal to Princess forever but, since this has happened, we have booked a HAL cruise and a Cunard cruise. The exciting thing we have discovered is that we get many of the same benefits on Cunard that we received on Princess. Cunard may well become our new line of choice.

[UKRoger]

Cunard and P&O are looking like becoming our cruise line of choice if we want to dance. Maybe if Princess start loosing many loyal customers they may have a rethink and become loyal to those who have kept them in business for so long.

Business do seem to loose sight of the fact customers decide where to spend their hard earned money and they have no right to think loyal customers will spend it with them if they stop providing them with what they want.