Holland-America New Ships

[zundert565]

On recent HAL cruises, we experienced ear-deafening show music & singer volume. Also the B&R

bands were blasting their music so loud that we had to leave the areas.

Any cruisers having the same experience or are we, seniors, perhaps too sensitive?

[RuthC]

I have found the music in the show lounge generally too loud for years. 
I haven't been on a ship with Rolling Stone Rock Room, but remember the old disco room as way too loud. BB King's was too loud even as far away as the mid-ship elevators. 
It's not you---it's the people setting the volume. Why they think 'louder' equals 'better' is beyond me. 

[Shmoo here]

39 minutes ago, RuthC said:

I have found the music in the show lounge generally too loud for years. 
I haven't been on a ship with Rolling Stone Rock Room, but remember the old disco room as way too loud. BB King's was too loud even as far away as the mid-ship elevators. 
It's not you---it's the people setting the volume. Why they think 'louder' equals 'better' is beyond me. 

Hear, hear.  

[MAVIP]

8 hours ago, zundert565 said:

On recent HAL cruises, we experienced ear-deafening show music & singer volume. Also the B&R

bands were blasting their music so loud that we had to leave the areas.

Any cruisers having the same experience or are we, seniors, perhaps too sensitive?

Yes, we have. On the Koningsdam I decided not to visit/pass by the surroundings of the BB King bands anymore. And we love jazz etc. music very very much. 

[Krazy Kruizers]

HAL has been turning their attention to loud music which they seem to think will attract more of the younger generation.

 

For us -- HAL is turning us off with all this loud music.  And it started a few years ago with the BB Kings on the Vista Class ships.

[MAVIP]

6 minutes ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

HAL has been turning their attention to loud music which they seem to think will attract more of the younger generation.

Those youngsters will need hearing aids long before our age......

[billbunger]

Another first world problem, how sad.

 

[Hflors]

I agree.  For many years I have avoided the band and show areas for this reason.   The last cruise that we visited the bb king area I couldn't hear out of my one ear for the next two days!   No more bb king for me.  HAL are you listening????

[retafcruiser]

47 minutes ago, Hflors said:

   No more bb king for me.  HAL are you listening????

No. Orlando has his own agenda for HAL.

[Nymich]

I am really surprised that it has taken this long for so many HAL loyalists to see.  BB Kings has been open since 2013.

I knew when BB opened and the first time I saw an All Star Band that it was a Game Changer for HAL and would create an almost complete turnover of the client base.  Those people who were attracted to the ballroom dancing were not going to stay for this.  What was sad was watching some of them trying desperately to ballroom dance to the blues and Motown being played in BB Kings.  They were desperately trying to hang on to the experience they had enjoyed for so many years and it looked awkward...…..at best.

 

Yes BB Kings is fairly loud but the RS Rock Room was much louder.  

[lcand1923]

The only room that was acceptable to me on my last HAL cruise was the room with the pianos. (Sorry, the name escapes me right now.)  Unfortunately, it was across from the Rolling Stones Room.  THAT room blasted me out of the area.  I ended up spending most of my after dinner time in my cabin.  I couldn't even tolerate the Casino because the noise from the Rolling Stones Room carried that far.

[nutensteve]

I really enjoy the BB King group. They are very talented musicians. Yes it is loud but I did not find it too loud and the sound quality was good. I'm looking forward to the R&R group on our upcoming NS cruise.

[Aquahound]

28 minutes ago, Nymich said:

Those people who were attracted to the ballroom dancing were not going to stay for this. 

 

Actually, what I find very odd, is that they actually are staying.  They're whining all the way, but I guess being able to wear a medallion one night trumps a whole cruise of lackluster entertainment and activities.  Don't ask me....I don't get it.    

[cruisemom42]

I don't want to get flamed for this, but.... research has shown that older people do not deal well with certain types of loud music due to a type of age-related hearing change called presbycusis that distorts sound, particularly at lower levels (think bass and drums), that make many seniors consistently "rate" rock music as louder than it really is.

 

In my daily life I almost never am exposed to loud noises or music. But I've yet to attend any kind of show onboard any ship that has struck me as being in a decibel range that would actually damage hearing.

[Tom O.]

My favorite music venue is the Lincoln Center Strings. There is nothing amplified there, all the instruments are played at their natural sound level.

[Nymich]

1 minute ago, cruisemom42 said:

In my daily life I almost never am exposed to loud noises or music. But I've yet to attend any kind of show onboard any ship that has struck me as being in a decibel range that would actually damage hearing.

I would have to agree until the first US HAL NS cruise I was on.  Sitting up close to the band in the RSRR it was really loud.

I am a Detroit guy raised on Seger, Iggy, Grand Funk and The Amboy Dukes so I have a pretty good resume' of loudness lol.

It may have been because it was the first week and perhaps with that low ceiling they have cut it back some because they were getting used to the venue.

Not sure if it could have damaged hearing but it was in real loud for that one venue on that one cruise.  The four times I have been in the BB Kings it was fine.  Looking forward to Nbr 5 in March!

[RJ2002]

Our last HAL cruise was on the Prinsendam in August 2018, so I can't comment on the newer rock venues.  It doesn't seem that HAL is the same cruise line that we once loved.  There is a travel industry website called Travel Weekly, and reading some recent interviews with Orlando, it seems quite clear he is taking HAL in a different direction and trying to appeal to a new generation of cruisers.

[madera1]

We love the BB King groups and prefer this venue over the main stage shows for after dinner. We have not yet experienced The Rolling Stones room but will later this year. Even my 98 year old mother wanted to stay through the final set of the BB King group.

[Mosaic]

HAL certainly needs to step up the music for a younger crowd.  I am a Rocker, but, yes, even for me the music has been too loud at times....

[VMax1700]

Some of the 'loudness' may be due to the changing number of patrons in the area.  People absorb sound, so the less people in the hall, the louder the music becomes.

On Koningsdam last year there was a new BBK band in place and for the first cruise there was a guy from BBK corporate putting them through their paces and mixing the sound.  At the start of the cruise we had a number of musicians but at the end of the cruise we had a band.  😁   I think that the sound mix was left the way he had set it.

[poinsettiaplate]

I am packing ear plugs as part of my dinner attire for my upcoming cruise on the Koningsdam.  Learned my lesson from the last time I was on her -- loved the music venues but didn't enjoy keeping my fingers stuck in my ears.

[sprockie]

22 hours ago, retafcruiser said:

No. Orlando has his own agenda for HAL.

Orlando and I are on the same page.... Bring on the RSRR and other modern rock venues throughout the fleet!!!!  I enjoyed the RSRR immensely on our cruise a few weeks ago.  I don't think I'll book another cruise on a ship that doesn't have the Rock Room.  

[ski ww]

It sounds like each to their own, we all have different taste in type & volume of music. I agree it is to loud for me and I stay clear of that area of the ship at night.

[Vict0riann]

When we were on Koningsdam in October, the Captain was asked the question of why the "music" was so loud, and he said that it was ordered to be that way by the company that supplied the groups.  They were not allowed to reduce it.  We stuck with the Lincoln Centre Stage group!

[Himself]

On 1/4/2020 at 7:58 PM, zundert565 said:

On recent HAL cruises, we experienced ear-deafening show music & singer volume. Also the B&R

bands were blasting their music so loud that we had to leave the areas.

Any cruisers having the same experience or are we, seniors, perhaps too sensitive?

 

 

I call it noise pollution. I will admit that I am not into Jazz or Rock and Roll.  My musical taste has always been ballads and classical. One of my problem with the Pinnacle class is the classical now shares the same venue as the Blues Band and the classical get the short shrift. On the other class ships the classical is back toward the lower level of the main dinning room. I recall the days of the Adagio Strings and that is when it was at its BEST.  The Rosario strings of the late 1990's were also very fine.  Even in my late teens I did not care for Rock or Jazz.