Onboard entertainment

[Nanner]

Just off the Prinsendam, and we experienced the new entertainment providers for the first time. I must say we were underwhelmed.

 

Some things haven't changed. Sound Wave, the replacement for the HAL Cats, continues to have a lead female singer who can't sing well. I've usually been of the opinion that they find the female singers for the band in the alley, looking for toms.

 

The Band itself still has some excellent musicians that also provide back up for the guest performers. They often impress us with their skill.

 

Adagio is now just a violin and piano, and this duo was rather poor. I am no musician, but I don't have a tin ear and can tell when notes are off.

 

The cast has changed. Even on the small stage of the Prinsendam we had 4 singers and 4 dancers (2 of each sex). There is a marked prevalence of eastern Europeans in the cast, and I wonder if that is true on other ships.

 

This was a good thing for the dancers, who were better than most we've seen on HAL in the past. I do wish they would do something with their facial expressions, as they tended to exaggerate their smiles and mug for the crowd to the point it distracted from the dancing, at least for us. Some of the costumes are strange. There's a lot of bare chested dancing by the guys, and one outfit they wore put me in mind of Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

 

The cast singers were not wonderful. For a while HAL seemed to be upgrading the voices on the cast members, but no more. This quartet all lacked the range to sing some of the songs they were expected to handle. The men were better than the women, but none were as impressive as some of the voices we've heard on HAL in the not too distant past.

 

The guest entertainers also seemed to be a bit lower on the scale. None were worthy of a standing ovation from us, and I am quite certain that is a first.

 

We don't cruise for the entertainment, but on a cruise with a lot of sea days, it could be a real downer to have nothing worth attending most nights. We have one upcoming cruise with HAL, and it will be the longest yet. I hope we have a better impression of the entertainment on the Maasdam.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for the information.

When HAL cut back to just 2 people for the Adagio Duo a couple of years ago, we went to listen to them -- and left within a few minutes. Totally off key.

We did have "The Band" and thought that they were a big improvement over the screaming HAL Cats.

We don't do the shows anymore.

[3rdGenCunarder]

On our recent cruise, the Adagio duo spent way too much time shuffling through their music between numbers. Don't they make a playlist for their set? Mumbling "what should we play next?" to each other is unprofessional.

 

The band on Veendam, whoever they are, played for the shows and in one case, they were much better than the guest performer.

[Nanner]

I thought of a few more points I wanted to make, but didn't want the OP to get too long.

 

While I was very tired of the "Listen to the Music" show, it was strange to have NO show on the first night of either cruise leg. I also thought it odd to not showcase the piano player/Adagio/Sound Wave so new cruisers might frequent the other venues if impressed. It just seems cheap to not offer a show on both the first AND last night on the ship. Many mentioned how bored they were the first night, so it wasn't just us.

 

We did like the update to the songs in the show lounge. A bit of Adele, John Legend and others is overdue. Not to mention that more Beatles/Stones/Simon and Garfunkel tunes are also welcome.

 

Those bare chested dancers are also manscaped. If you must show male chests, must they all be prepubescent? Can't adult males and females look like adults?

 

While this may vary by ship, on the Prinsendam the Band's music often overwhelmed the singers/guest performers. It was bad when you could barely hear the guest pianist/flautist/violinist at points due to the volume of the accompaniment. I think I forgot to make that point on my survey :(

[sunsetbeachgal]

That is a shame. We sailed on the Prinsendam September, 2014 and the singers were all British and probably the best we have seen in many years of cruising. There were two Ukranian dancers who were excellent. The Adagio duo were also fantastic, the pianist was best we have seen too.

[take us away]

Oh my - looks like the entertainment is still hit or miss. Was so hoping for an overall improvement.