Lucky Fluke on the Zaandam or is the Entertainment Getting Better?

[HALFans]

We got off our third Zaandam Hawaii cruise the 8th of this month, and I have to say I'm impressed.

 

The quality of the shipboard entertainers is MUCH better than on our previous cruises.

 

The members of the ship Cast had the range to sing their parts in all the shows we saw, and had very nice voices and sang on pitch.

 

The Adagio duo violinist was very good and the pianist played very expressively - not just banging out the music.

 

The Neptunes all played well together even though they were a new grouping, and a couple of them traded off singing so it wasn't the same voice all the time.

 

The HalCats (or whatever they're called these days) had a male lead for once, and sometimes a female singer too... both had nice voices and I don't miss 'Screechy' at all!

 

Heck, even the organ in the atrium had been serviced fairly recently; it was in tune, and the cipher that plagued its performances on our prior Zaandam cruise had been fixed.

 

The costumes for the production shows weren't nearly as flashy as the old Bob Mackie ones but were still decent.

 

I was a music major in college, and I must say I've been disappointed with the quality of the shipboard entertainers pretty much from our second or third cruise on HAL. This cruise was WAY better!

 

(I do have to say that the sound 'technician' must have been hard of hearing - or had no idea what he was doing. NONE of the stage shows went smoothly or were balanced well.)

 

So here's my question... is this a fleetwide improvement that HAL is doing, or did we get a 'music magic' cruise that's a one time deal?

Edited October 23, 2015 by HALFans

[InTheWASide]

Hopefully a sign of things to come. Thanks for the feedback and details

[solocanadian]

Thanks for posting. Hope it's just as good next May. Will be on Zaandam for 14 days and my neighbour is joinging me. It will be her first Hal cruise. I'd much rather introduce her to Hal on an R class ship than a Vista ship.:)

[kazu]

The Adagio was excellent on both the Westerdam & the Prinsendam.

 

A big improvement over what we had heard on the Maasdam, IMO.

 

Same with the cast in the shows.

 

It does appear that things may be changing for the better.

 

At least, with your report, that is three ships with improvement in entertainment ;)

[HALFans]

...

At least, with your report, that is three ships with improvement in entertainment ;)

 

Hopefully we'll get some input from recent cruisers on more ships too!

[Sue from Canada]

We got off our third Zaandam Hawaii cruise the 8th of this month, and I have to say I'm impressed.

 

The quality of the shipboard entertainers is MUCH better than on our previous cruises.

 

The members of the ship Cast had the range to sing their parts in all the shows we saw, and had very nice voices and sang on pitch.

 

The Adagio duo violinist was very good and the pianist played very expressively - not just banging out the music.

 

The Neptunes all played well together even though they were a new grouping, and a couple of them traded off singing so it wasn't the same voice all the time.

 

The HalCats (or whatever they're called these days) had a male lead for once, and sometimes a female singer too... both had nice voices and I don't miss 'Screechy' at all!

 

Heck, even the organ in the atrium had been serviced fairly recently; it was in tune, and the cipher that plagued its performances on our prior Zaandam cruise had been fixed.

 

The costumes for the production shows weren't nearly as flashy as the old Bob Mackie ones but were still decent.

 

I was a music major in college, and I must say I've been disappointed with the quality of the shipboard entertainers pretty much from our second or third cruise on HAL. This cruise was WAY better!

 

(I do have to say that the sound 'technician' must have been hard of hearing - or had no idea what he was doing. NONE of the stage shows went smoothly or were balanced well.)

 

So here's my question... is this a fleetwide improvement that HAL is doing, or did we get a 'music magic' cruise that's a one time deal?

 

Was your shore / excursion ambassador on board "Kainoa"?