Oosterdam vs. Celebrity Summit Enterainment Comparison - Alive vs. Boring

[ken4556]

I just returned from a 9-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on theCelebrity Summit. Having sailed on theOosterdam on a 7-day Western Caribbean in December, I posted how boring the Oosterdamwas with lack of evening entertainment. Ithought I would share the entertainment options between the two trips to seethe difference between the Celebrity Summit that had life and the Oosterdamthat was boring.

 

 

Here is the comparison for the first sea day/formal night:

 

 

Oosterdam

2:00 pm Lincoln Center Stage stringplayers

5:00 pm Piano Classics with Solo Pianistin Ocean Bar

7:00 pm Lincoln Center Stage

7:30 pm Dueling piano players ***** 3

8:00 pm Showtime with dancers only ? No orchestra,taped music

8:00 pm Piano Classics with Solo Pianistin Ocean Bar

8:30 pm Dueling piano players on 3

8:45 pm B.B. King?s All-Stars in QueensLounge

9:00 pm Lincoln Center Stage

9:45 pm B.B. King?s All-Stars in QueensLounge

10:00 pm Showtime with dancers ? No orchestra,taped music

10:30 pm Dueling piano players

10:45 pm B.B. King?s All-Stars in QueensLounge

11:30 pm DJ in Queens Lounge

 

CelebritySummit

 

12:15 pm Piano entertainment in Caf? on 5

1:15 pm Piano entertainment in Caf? on 5

2:15 pm Soloist guitar in Martini Bar

3:00 pm Jim Beam house band, pool side

3:15 pm Lado strings Duo in Caf? on 5

4:15 pm Soloist guitar in Sunset Bar

5:00 pm Lado strings Duo in Caf? on 5

5:15 pm Soloist guitar in Sunset Bar

5:15 pm Piano entertainment in Rendezvouson 4

6:00 pm Lado strings Duo in Caf? on 5

6:15 pm Soloist guitar in Sunset Bar

6:45 pm DJ in Martini Bar

7:00 pm Jazz, Soul, & R&B with AndreaLisa Band in Rendezvous on 4

7:45 pm Lado strings Duo in Grand Foyer

7:45 pm Acoustic duo in Sunset Bar

7:45 pm Meet of the Officers/Photos withCaptain

8:00 pm Jazz, Soul, & R&B with AndreaLisa Band in Rendezvous on 4

8:30 pm Celebrity Showtime with singerand dancers and live 7-piece orchestra

8:30 pm DJ in Martini Bar

8:45 pm Acoustic duo in Sunset Bar

9:15 pm Jim Beam house band, Revelationson 11

9:30 pm Jazz, Soul, & R&B with AndreaLisa Band in Rendezvous on 4

9:45 pm Acoustic duo in Sunset Bar

10:15 pm Celebrity Showtime with singer anddancers and live 7-piece orchestra

10:30 pm Jim Beam house band, Revelations on11

10:30 pm Karaoke in Rendezvous on 4

11:30 pm Late night comedy show

11:30 pm Jim Beam house band, Revelations on11

11:45 pm Jazz, Soul, & R&B with AndreaLisa Band in Rendezvous on 4

12:15 am DJ, Revelations on 11

 

Thedifference is pretty amazing in just the number of musicians that the Summithand compared to the Ooosterdam. Theresults were full lounges on the Summit before dinner compared to the Oosterdambeing pretty dead before dinner. TheSummit orchestra was used for all three productions shows and two guestentertainers. The Oosterdam productionshows all used taped music.

 

Theproduction shows on the Summit were all between 50-55 minutes long compared to 33and 35 minutes long on the Oosterdam. There was also no comparison in the quality of the shows, the Summitsingers danced like they were part of the dance team and had a couple that did arielacts as part of the show. The Summit singerand dancers also put on two late night interactive shows where the Oosterdamsingers and dancers did nothing beyond the two short production shows (exceptfor the dance classes).

 

The Summitalso had two guest speakers that spoke each morning on the sea days. HAL had no guest speakers.

 

Of interestis that I did not see much difference in the age demographic between the twocruises. But the difference in the shipswas pretty amazing. One had life and onewas dead.

 

 

Happy toanswer any questions and post comparison on other nights of the cruise. This Celebrity Cruise just confirms how muchHAL has cut back on the entertainment. The sad part is that I am not sure they care.

[OlsSalt]

But ..but ..but .. did Celebrity have free champagne art auctions, acupuncture and herbal marketing, teeth-whitening, and lots of cheap wrist watches for sale?

[dogo88]

But ..but ..but .. did Celebrity have free champagne art auctions, acupuncture and herbal marketing, teeth-whitening, and lots of cheap wrist watches for sale?

 

 

I'll let you know in Nov. ;) We're back on the Oosterdam next week and the Celebrity Equinox in Oct.

Dan

[Sequim88]

For Alaska we're not so worried about Oosterdam's entertainment but it would be nice to have options and this and a bunch of other posts are a little concerning. Looking at the difference in the lists I wonder how much the cost per cruise to the line would be to add a few more offerings. Sneaking in a $20 fare increase would yield almost $40,000 in added revenue per sailing (at capacity) - that would buy a bunch of entertainment.

[iancal]

Yes but HAL has those wonderful Mariner embarkation day lunches and snazzy lapel pins (much nicer than RCI).

 

And of course those much sought after medallions.

[OlsSalt]

Looks like Celebrity has a more live solo and duo groups - assume they are scattered around the ship which would certainly add to a sense of liveliness, if this is what one is looking for.

[Skoogs]

What...? Another cruise line has better entertainment than HAL! Say it isn't so! I'm crushed...Just kidding, I'm pretty sure every cruise line has better entertainment than HAL. I do enjoy going to the shows at night, we always have fun and I think the entertainers do a great job.

I went on a NCL cruise a couple of years ago and they pumped in club music all the time, it's 6am and I'm in the lido trying to have a cup of coffee and the music was just blasting. No thanks. Never again.

 

 

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[RuthC]

I'm pretty sure every cruise line has better entertainment than HAL.

Not every one. I was on another line a couple of years ago. There was nothing to do after dinner.

This was a line that's purported to be better than HAL, and is definitely a lot more expensive. Boring.

[Aquahound]

I'm pretty sure every cruise line has better entertainment than HAL.

 

Very, very true! Of the lines I've sailed (6 lines), HAL is clearly the worst in this area.

[RenaeInCA]

We haven't been on a cruise for almost 4 years now, and our last one was on Celebrity Silhouette, so it will be interesting to see the "change" in entertainment on HAL. I would never recommend HAL to anyone who was big on entertainment, especially in the evening. We love the quiet atmosphere of HAL, though, especially during Spring Break cruises. Our Celebrity cruise was during Spring Break and we would never do it again during that time. It was too chaotic and noisy for us.

[lvz2cruz]

We have not been on Oosterdam, but have done 3 HAL and 2 Celebrity cruises in last 14 months.

DH commented that X had more offerings but they were not things we were interested in.

Last week on Eurodam we enjoyed BB Kings, the dueling pianos, and the shows in the theater. The first two were standing room only most if not all nights, so HAL is doing something right.

The Lincoln Center was almost mostly full every time we passed.

[Cindy]

We were hesitant about booking the Westerdam for the Med for this reason -- the last time we were on the ship was a late season cruise to Alaska and the entertainment was almost non-existent. Even my mom, who was 82 at the thought the ship was incredibly boring.

 

We finally decided that the most important thing to us for our upcoming trip is itinerary, and HAL's is (in our opinion) clearly superior to anything else we looked at at a price we thought was fair. We only have one sea day on a 12-night cruise, which really helped sway our decision. I would be more concerned with entertainment if we weren't going to be off the ship almost every day. We also have two overnights and two late evening departures, when I'm sure we'll be enjoying life on shore and not seeking entertainment on the ship.

 

 

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[ken4556]

We have not been on Oosterdam, but have done 3 HAL and 2 Celebrity cruises in last 14 months.

DH commented that X had more offerings but they were not things we were interested in.

Last week on Eurodam we enjoyed BB Kings, the dueling pianos, and the shows in the theater. The first two were standing room only most if not all nights, so HAL is doing something right.

The Lincoln Center was almost mostly full every time we passed.

 

 

During our cruise on the Oosterdam, the Dueling Pianos guys were fantastic and played to standing room only crowd. That is the part of the problem, the area only holds maybe 150 to 175 guests. The Queens Lounge where BB Kings played was also very well attended, but the Queens Lounge only holds 425 people. Lincoln Center Stage holds, at most 100 people.

 

So the three lounges that offer music hold approx. 700 passengers of the 1,848 on-board. That is around 37% of the ships capacity. Where are all the other passengers supposed to go before/after the production shows?

 

Also, you have one lounge that holds 250 passenger having music before dinner. I guess the rest of the 700 passengers on first seating dinner are just out of luck in finding music before dinner. This is why I am a complete lost about HAL decision to take all music from the Crow's Nest.

[bluesplayer]

Quantity does not always beat quality. We sailed on the Equinox last spring, many of the musicians were bad. So bad that while waiting in Ft Lauderdale airport was chatting to a couple who was on our cruise. We agreed most was lovely.. then she brought up the terrible singers that could not hold a tune. Looked at my DH and said.. it wasn't just us who thought the bands were terrible. We have always liked musicians on HA; felt they were excellent. We don't attend the theatre shows but really enjoy live music on HA ships.

[cruisemom42]

I have to say that we really enjoyed the quality and variety of entertainment on our Celebrity Silhouette cruise (New Years) about 3 years ago. The listed entertainment above matched pretty well what I remembered from that trip.

 

We also tried Princess for New Years this year (after an absence of a few years onboard). To their credit there was a big variety of live music onboard, from classical strings to a cover band (popular hits) to steel drums and also a great orchestra that supported all the shows. BUT we also noticed the shows are shorter and there was less variety of entertainment in the evenings than we remembered. (No late night comedy act, for example...)

 

Another unpleasant change on Princess was the degree to which shopping onboard (and in ports at "authorized" stores) was emphasized. My son and I joked that we fully expected to see the words "Sponsored by Effy" (one of the jewelry designers) underneath the ship's name on the bow. All the hype and "special events" were a real turn-off.

 

Honestly, I don't expect a lot from HAL in the entertainment department; I would only sail HAL for the itinerary. (In other words, not for a TA or a Caribbean cruise.)