No more production shows?

[Umbarger]

I just hope HAL reads this forum and realizes they are losing business to MSC and other cruise lines.  

 

Hello.....HAL????

[UPNYGuy]

36 minutes ago, Umbarger said:

I just hope HAL reads this forum and realizes they are losing business to MSC and other cruise lines.  

 

Hello.....HAL????

 

 

It isn’t just MSC for us, but usually has been for the last few years. Next month we are going on Carnival Sunrise, and this will be our 4th Carnival cruise. We have done 9 or 10 with NCL, 3 with Carnival, a bunch with MSC (think 8 or 9), and 2 each with Royal and Oceania.  Degradation of service mixed with cutbacks at Holland America makes us realize as a 3 star there is no reason to stick with one particular cruise line. We haven’t been loyal to HAL since we had dreadful service on the Statendam. However we have been pretty loyal to MSC and so far that is likely to stay. At this point, we can get better service on Carnival than with HAL. 

Edited September 11, 2019 by UPNYGuy

[rkacruiser]

For a very long time, there have been issues in the Seattle office with the entertainment's  head honcho's opinions as to what entertainment ought to be.  Particularly related to the Showroom at Sea, the Mainstage, or whatever it's called.  He has been in his "perch" for years.

 

I have seen the main showroom's entertainment go from live music and production shows, canned music with production shows, back to live music and production shows, now to what we are witnessing now:  dance companies, individual performers (which, of course, there have always been in the past of varying quality), and, at least on the Nieuw Statendam--in my opinion--a TOTAL waste of the money spent on the ship's Showroom's high tech abilities, and its 270 degree screen.  

 

Having sailed in July on Westerdam, the main showroom entertainment presented was good.  In comparison to my return cruise on Coral Princess, not so good.  Coral Princess has an aft lounge called the Universal Lounge.  One evening during the cruise--with 3 different performance times required-- a show called On the Bayou is performed.  What a different show!  And, how much the guests enjoyed it!

 

This Seattle official needs to be shown the door if he is not yet ready to retire.  Stein Kruse did not/was not able(?) to do so.  Orlando Ashford has also not been able to do so.

 

I have to wonder why.  The complaints/comments about HAL entertainment in the ships' main showroom have been an on-going source of discussion since at least 2002.

 

 

[Umbarger]

47 minutes ago, UPNYGuy said:

 

 

It isn’t just MSC for us, but usually has been for the last few years. Next month we are going on Carnival Sunrise, and this will be our 4th Carnival cruise. We have done 9 or 10 with NCL, 3 with Carnival, a bunch with MSC (think 8 or 9), and 2 each with Royal and Oceania.  Degradation of service mixed with cutbacks at Holland America makes us realize as a 3 star there is no reason to stick with one particular cruise line. We haven’t been loyal to HAL since we had dreadful service on the Statendam. However we have been pretty loyal to MSC and so far that is likely to stay. At this point, we can get better service on Carnival than with HAL. 

You should give Celebrity cruise lines a try. We really like them.

[UPNYGuy]

We have thought about it (and are all about more options)

[rkacruiser]

When I sailed on a 14 day Caribbean cruise on Celebrity Eclipse, of the 3 main theater shows that were offered and I attended, two of them I thought were "weird" and I did not enjoy.

 

Otherwise, the music in the various venues was excellent.

[Cruzaholic41]

3 hours ago, Umbarger said:

I just hope HAL reads this forum and realizes they are losing business to MSC and other cruise lines.  

 

Hello.....HAL????

 

Pretty much everyone had better entertainment than HAL even before they cut production shows. Now, it’s just pathetic. 

[rkacruiser]

21 hours ago, Cruzaholic41 said:

Now, it’s just pathetic. 

 

In my opinion as both a HAL guest and a CCL shareholder, what's pathetic is the total waste of much money on developing "state of the art" theaters on the ships at the time they did--and still are, I think--and having them so poorly utilized with the "entertainment" now provided.

[BarbarianPaul]

3 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

In my opinion as both a HAL guest and a CCL shareholder, what's pathetic is the total waste of much money on developing "state of the art" theaters on the ships at the time they did--and still are, I think--and having them so poorly utilized with the "entertainment" now provided.

 

I thought the exact same thing until I was on the Nieuw Statendam this summer and saw both Post Modern JukeBox and two shows by the One Step Dance Company.

 

They both utilize all the technology available in the theatre and are spectacular, and are better and bigger than their past production shows. 

 

But they’ve got to get versions of these shows onto their other ships as well, where your comments are still valid.

[colonialinnkeeper]

Like many other things, entertainment is subjective.  We saw the One Step Dance Company performances and were very disappointed in them.  The first, Humanity was okay, mostly because of the use of the up-to-date technology the new theaters have.  The second, Stages was not at all enjoyable to us and we would have walked out but didn't want to disturb the many other passengers to each side of us.  We love HAL for many things but their cutback in activities and great shows is a real disappointment and making us more open to testing other cruise lines.

[3rdGenCunarder]

14 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

In my opinion as both a HAL guest and a CCL shareholder, what's pathetic is the total waste of much money on developing "state of the art" theaters on the ships at the time they did--and still are, I think--and having them so poorly utilized with the "entertainment" now provided.

 

Not state of the art, but one of the Vistas (Westerdam ?) had some kind of flatscreens at the back of the stage, which they integrated with at least one of the shows. It was three modernized fairy tales/kid stories. Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, and one other. I remember Alice because when they got to the part where she eats mushrooms and gets big and then small, they changed the size of the images on the screen to make her grow and shrink. And they used the song "When You're Strange." Several years ago and I still remember it because it was so clever. So show design has been using tech for quite a while. HAL just isn't spending the money to do it.

 

The LED screens on the K are wonderful if they're programmed correctly. They had images of paintings to show when a pianist played, but they were all out of sync and very distracting. I think the LEDs are too bright. I had to leave one of the dance shows because the lights were giving me a headache. And I was at the back--I'd have been in serious pain if I'd been up front. I had to close my eyes a lot and what's the point of going to a dance performance if you can't watch it????

 

I always sit toward the back at shows in case I need to escape. 

[BarbarianPaul]

4 hours ago, colonialinnkeeper said:

Like many other things, entertainment is subjective.  We saw the One Step Dance Company performances and were very disappointed in them.  The first, Humanity was okay, mostly because of the use of the up-to-date technology the new theaters have.  The second, Stages was not at all enjoyable to us and we would have walked out but didn't want to disturb the many other passengers to each side of us.  We love HAL for many things but their cutback in activities and great shows is a real disappointment and making us more open to testing other cruise lines.

I do agree that the second dance show was not as good as the first, but I did think the first one was sensational, and the second pretty good, and both better than HA’s older production shows. And we found Post Modern JukeBox really fun, with great performers.

 

The problem for me is that I believe these shows can’t be found on non Pinnacle Class ships. Which leaves what? Nothing! Nada. Zilch. The rest of the main stage entertainment is almost always disappointing. They even had a magician on the Nieuw Statendam that was pretty embarrassing. We like the music walk, but it’s presence shouldn’t drain the entirety of their entertainment budget.

 

 

[mcrcruiser]

We sailed on Koningsdam  back Match 17th  & the dancers were fabulous on the new World Stage ,we also had   all the music walk  music to listen to . Thus ,we prefer sailing on this class of ship  .Even the Eurodam had great entertainment 

[3rdGenCunarder]

One of the best shows I remember on HAL was the guy who played the turkey baster. Has anyone seen him? He played a wide variety of instruments and was very funny. 

 

[taxmantoo]

12 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

One of the best shows I remember on HAL was the guy who played the turkey baster. Has anyone seen him? He played a wide variety of instruments and was very funny. 

 

I heard they only hired him for the Thanksgiving cruises  Now here's an idea ... dueling turkey basters in Billboard Onboard 

[cruisemom42]

After reading this thread carefully all the way through, I've learned a lot. 

 

No, really. As a more casual HAL cruiser who also sails other lines, I had read a lot of conflicting (seemingly) info on other threads about "no more production shows". Now to me, a production show means any show with sound, lights, and generally more than one performer. Thus, to my mind it sounded as though the main show lounge was going dark every night, unless there was a solo act like a magician or comic. So glad to realize that's not strictly true. 

 

On the other hand, I am also surprised to hear so much support for production shows when literally for YEARS on this forum I've read virtually no positive comments about them and only negative ones -- the singers were terrible/amateurs, the music was too loud/canned, the timing was bad, the shows were too short/too long, the same shows were recycled over and over, and so on. 

 

Perhaps HAL does listen. Just be careful what you wish for....

 

 

[pastis]

Just back from sailing on the Koningsdam and I can say, without a doubt, that the entertainment on this cruise was much better than any production show that I've seen in the past.  From the performers in the World Stage theater to the musicians in Lincoln Stage, BB King's, Rolling Stone and Billboard, there was something for everyone.  

[Shmoo here]

On 9/12/2019 at 8:36 PM, BarbarianPaul said:

two shows by the One Step Dance Company.

 

They both utilize all the technology available in the theatre and are spectacular, and are better and bigger than their past production shows. 

 

On 9/13/2019 at 6:01 AM, colonialinnkeeper said:

We saw the One Step Dance Company performances and were very disappointed in them.

I agree.  That is not a "production show".

 

While what usually is offered on cruise lines as production shows are often not all that great, I appreciate the singing & dancing involved in such shows.  

 

I miss them.

[BarbarianPaul]

44 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

 

I agree.  That is not a "production show".

 

While what usually is offered on cruise lines as production shows are often not all that great, I appreciate the singing & dancing involved in such shows.  

 

I miss them.

Of course I miss the production shows too.  They were always fun, sometimes a little quirky, and usually met my substantially lowered expectations. But since they're not around anymore, the Step One Dance  shows and Post Modern JukeBox are the next best thing. And at least, for me, the singers in JukeBox are a higher quality than those featured in the old production shows.

 

Though we can all debate these two new offerings, they’re basically all we’ve got. All the other featured main stage performers are either boring, bad, embarrassing, or, sadly, all three combined.

[coffeebean]

On 3/31/2019 at 3:06 PM, terrydtx said:

I can not believe how many are saying they really will miss the production shows. At best they were just a notch above amateurish and not really worth fretting over their demise. If you want to see a big Broadway type production stay home save your money and go the  nearest big city theater when shows like this are in town.  Are you really going to use this issue as a reason to not sail with HAL?

I have seen many Broadway shows when we lived in NY and NJ. We love live theater. For the best Broadway type production shows, we have found NCL and Royal Caribbean have the best shows. The caliber of talent is very much on par with Broadway. . The sets may not be quite up to Broadway caliber but just under and not a big detriment.

 

We saw "Hairspray" on NCL Epic and it was out of this world. I saw the OBC of Hairspray on Broadway and believe me, the NCL cast was just as good. In fact, NCL offered an evening with the two main cast as themselves in an intimate setting. It was absolutely fabulous. NCL is one of the best cruise lines for entertainment. Royal Caribbean is right behind them. We recently saw "Grease" on Royal ship and it was fabulous!

[coffeebean]

On 4/1/2019 at 7:40 PM, oaktreerb said:

The best entertainment on many HAL ships is the piano bar with a pianist that enjoys interacting with the guests.  I have read that the piano bar is also on the way out.

 

Most if not all mass market cruise lines have a piano bar. NCL also has "Dueling Pianos" on their larger ships. Now THAT is a great time and entertainment!

Edited September 15, 2019 by coffeebean

[coffeebean]

On 4/1/2019 at 7:26 PM, Hlitner said:

Are we going to use the lack of production shows as a reason to not sail with HAL?  Probably not.

Hank

We booked our up coming HAL cruise and THEN I discovered production shows are a thing of the past on HAL ships. In the future we will not be booking HAL because of their lack of production shows in the evening. The main shows are something we look forward to every evening before dinner.

[Shmoo here]

20 minutes ago, coffeebean said:

Most if not all mass market cruise lines have a piano bar. NCL also has "Dueling Pianos" on their larger ships. Now THAT is a great time and entertainment!

On HAL, they have Billboard Onboard.  It's a dual piano venue (not "dueling", "duel", as in 2 pianos).  They alternate playing and often, accompany each other during the other player's turn.

 

I've not actually been to a dueling piano venue, but I don't think I'd like it.  The dual piano venue with really just a piano bar style venue with two piano players.  More the style I prefer.

 

 

[coffeebean]

On 4/5/2019 at 1:14 PM, Copper10-8 said:

 

Here's a good one with some great voices 

 

 

Great stuff!

[RuthC]

1 hour ago, coffeebean said:

NCL also has "Dueling Pianos" on their larger ships.

I have no idea how NCL presents its 'Dueling Pianos', but HAL's Billboard is nothing like a real piano bar. For the most part, they choose the selections, and the songs played have to be on the 'approved' list.