Evening Entertainment really steps UP!

[LoveHAL]

My wife and I returned home yesterday from the MS Zaandam's South America/Antarctica 22-day cruise. I usually not all that impressed with HAL's mainstage evening entertainment, often finding it dull. BUT, on this cruise, I found the guest entertainers, a variety of singers, dancers, musician, comedian, juggler, and magician were fun and quite entertaining. As an aside, many of the entertainers were from South America. In my opinion, they were far and away the best that I have ever seen on HAL.

 

Again, my opinion only, the Cast Shows were the same old same old... a group of talented singers and dancers that had to deal with less than imaginative choreography and song selection. Of course, the small stage doesn't give much room for the dancers to move around much. There were only four of these shows, so there were plenty of evenings to really enjoy, and I did.

 

The band in the Ocean  Bar was quite good, but the BIG win was the Piano Bar, featuring JAMM. He is amazing. He did share that, when the ship went into dry dock in the near future, The Mix/Piano Bar would be enlarged and go to the Billboard on Board style of two pianos (in the few times I have seen the concept, it was mostly "fixed sets" of music and not as much interaction with the audience.

 

The Explorer's Lounge Adagio classical group of Violin and Piano were not the best duo we have heard on the "smaller ships", and certainly no where near the enjoyment of the Lincoln Center Stage groups my wife and I have heard on the larger ships. The number of people that seemed to attend the performances seemed to be far from "Standing Room Only".

 

All of the above is just one person's opinion. But I departed the cruise with a very positive feeling about the post-dinner hours on board the Zaandam.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Thanks for the report. Ships without the Music Walk use the main showroom more. I agree about the singers and dancers. They often have material that's well below their abilities. Sometimes I think the person who makes up the shows doesn't know much about music.

 

Did you have any of the groups that are supposed to rotate through the fleet? Post-Modern Jukebox, Step One, and a 4-man singing group (forget the name)

[Cruising-along]

47 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

4-man singing group (forget the name)

The Runaround Kids -- they put on a great show!

[Shmoo here]

2 hours ago, LoveHAL said:

I usually not all that impressed with HAL's mainstage evening entertainment, often finding it dull. BUT, on this cruise, I found the guest entertainers, a variety of singers, dancers, musician, comedian, juggler, and magician were fun and quite entertaining.

Unless you're on a 28 night cruise with the shows being a ventriloquist, a singer, a comedian (who plays the piano), a singer (not great), an accordian player (really), a singer, a ventriloquist/comedian, a comedian who does magic, a oboe player, a comedian who sings, a ventriloquist, a singer, a magician who plays a keyboard, a singer, a comedian who plays guitar, and (guess  what) a ventriloquist.  Most of whom did shows on 2 different nights.

 

2 hours ago, LoveHAL said:

Again, my opinion only, the Cast Shows were the same old same old... a group of talented singers and dancers that had to deal with less than imaginative choreography and song selection. Of course, the small stage doesn't give much room for the dancers to move around much.

While I, on the other hand, appreciate a singer/dancer musical revue type show.  It's quite possible to have good singers and dancers that elevate mediocre productions.  And it does give some variety.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Shmoo here

[TAD2005]

1 hour ago, LoveHAL said:

The band in the Ocean  Bar was quite good, but the BIG win was the Piano Bar, featuring JAMM. He is amazing. He did share that, when the ship went into dry dock in the near future, The Mix/Piano Bar would be enlarged and go to the Billboard on Board style of two pianos (in the few times I have seen the concept, it was mostly "fixed sets" of music and not as much interaction with the audience.

 

 

 

 

I agree with you about the abandonment of a traditional Piano Bar for the fixed format Billboard Onboard.   I have been on most of the Vista class ships before and after the "upgrade" to Billboard.   The very talented single piano bar musicians were versatile and in many cases, they brought additional instruments like harmonicas, alto sax, and a sideman for percussion and bass.   They interacted with the crowd, played exactly what the mood of the audience dictated, and also stayed around between sets to chat with the people.   Billboard Onboard musicians are usually hit or miss.  In many cases, the 2 musicians have never performed together before boarding the ship.  And their knowledge of a variety of music from the 60's to the 90's is very restricted.   Sure, they all can perform Billy Joel's Piano Man, or Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline, and of course the Beatles.   But their ages are usually so young that they weren't born until 1980 or 1990, so their repertoire of music favored by the typical HAL customer is limited to a play list from Billboard Corporation.   

On a Rotterdam cruise a few years ago, we had a very talented piano bar musician named Paul C McD.   He was great.  I asked him during a break if he was considering joining Billboard so he could continue entertaining on HAL ships.  He said he did apply, but Billboard told him "sorry, but you are too old for us".  Paul was 58.   That tells you something !! 

[RiciRicardo]

Totally agree with you, we were also on the Zaandam and always closed the evening at the Piano Bar with Jamm. The singers and dancers were great. The guest entertainment was excellent. We really enjoyed Akos Laki, Iris Kroes, Gaston Quieto, the Flyrights, Mario d’Andrea and the guitar duo, Duo Sigueiro Lima were all fantastic. The second to last night in the Piano Bar where we had a Sound of Music sing along was a hoot! We are getting on the Oosterdam tomorrow heading to San Diego should be an interesting contrast. Evidently they have a duelling piano bar along with a rock room and the BBKings. 

[earlydiner]

We were on the January 5, 2020 Nieuw Statendam cruise and loved the Billboard on Board.  Both guys were great on the piano and good singers.  They often got the crowd into what they were playing and singing.  It was the fourth week they had been together.  We also loved the quintet on Lincoln Stage.  We got off the Nieuw Statendam and got on the Adventure of the Seas.  They had more "shows" in the theater and a really great guy in the piano bar.  We thought different ship would be a different venue and different menu.  Loved  both ships.  Guess we have never had a bad one in thirty cruises.  Must depend on your attitude.

 

Edited February 5, 2020 by earlydiner

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sounds like HAL is having the better shows, acts, etc., on the longer cruises.

 

Sad to see that the piano bar will become dueling pianos and people can't sing along.

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for your report.

[grest]

would like to go back to really good production shows....

 

[fatcat04]

On 2/2/2020 at 5:00 PM, TAD2005 said:

I agree with you about the abandonment of a traditional Piano Bar for the fixed format Billboard Onboard.   I have been on most of the Vista class ships before and after the "upgrade" to Billboard.   The very talented single piano bar musicians were versatile and in many cases, they brought additional instruments like harmonicas, alto sax, and a sideman for percussion and bass.   They interacted with the crowd, played exactly what the mood of the audience dictated, and also stayed around between sets to chat with the people.   Billboard Onboard musicians are usually hit or miss.  In many cases, the 2 musicians have never performed together before boarding the ship.  And their knowledge of a variety of music from the 60's to the 90's is very restricted.   Sure, they all can perform Billy Joel's Piano Man, or Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline, and of course the Beatles.   But their ages are usually so young that they weren't born until 1980 or 1990, so their repertoire of music favored by the typical HAL customer is limited to a play list from Billboard Corporation.   

On a Rotterdam cruise a few years ago, we had a very talented piano bar musician named Paul C McD.   He was great.  I asked him during a break if he was considering joining Billboard so he could continue entertaining on HAL ships.  He said he did apply, but Billboard told him "sorry, but you are too old for us".  Paul was 58.   That tells you something !! 

^^^^ This. That is one change I really dislike. Have yet to have a Billboard experience that even comes close to the fun and entertainment of the traditional solo piano bar entertainers we have had the pleasure of cruising with. We lament the loss every time we just pass Billboard by on our way to BB Kings.

 

One very memorable cruise the piano man and the jazz trio's lead teamed up for a rip roaring great evening in the Mix. We still talk about that cruise. If I could bottle memories for sharing, that would be one of them. 

[RuthC]

1 hour ago, grest said:

would like to go back to really good production shows....

 

I'm with you there. And I'll add I would like to go back to really good piano bars. 

[Hlitner]

4 hours ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

Sounds like HAL is having the better shows, acts, etc., on the longer cruises.

 

Sad to see that the piano bar will become dueling pianos and people can't sing along.

We have always enjoyed the old HAL Piano Bar format and will miss that venue on our next HAL voyage.  It is something that we can still enjoy on Princess, but the format has disappeared from many lines.

 

Hank

[Ken the cruiser]

@LoveHALI'm glad to hear you had a great entertainment experience on the Zaandam. We were recently on the Maasdam for 40 days around Australia and some the New Caledonia Islands and were quite surprised how good the evening entertainment was in the main theater. To be honest we had pretty much given up on HAL, as we do like to be entertained while on the ship when we're paying $300+ pp/day for a balcony cabin, and part of that is going to the evening shows in the main theater.

 

But maybe they're starting to realize they had cheapened out a little too much over these past few years in the main theater evening entertainment area and are trying to bring it back up to a higher quality. Hope so as that was pretty much the only reason we have jumped ship over to Princess and Celebrity.

[CruisingAndDiving]

2 hours ago, RuthC said:

I'm with you there. And I'll add I would like to go back to really good piano bars. 

Ditto 100% to this!  the right entertainer in a great piano bar can make a cruise for entertainment!

[Shmoo here]

6 hours ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

Sounds like HAL is having the better shows, acts, etc., on the longer cruises.

 

Sad to see that the piano bar will become dueling pianos and people can't sing along.

Define "longer".  Our 28 night cruise we only had two "production" shows and neither were particularly good.  LOTS of individual entertainers in the main show room, but you can get really tired of the limited comedian/magicians/ventriloquists/singers performing, basically, every night.

 

The piano bar format is not DUELING pianos, but DUAL pianos.  That is, each piano player is playing different songs, but not trying to outdo each other.  They rotate playing, that gives each player the opportunity to plan what to play next.  The piano players we had on our cruise were great.  It was the end of their contract together so they had lots of time to get familiar with each other's skills.

 

 

 

 

[Cruising-along]

2 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

The piano bar format is not DUELING pianos, but DUAL pianos.  That is, each piano player is playing different songs, but not trying to outdo each other.

Agree.  I much prefer this over the piano bars on the smaller ships.  

[Shmoo here]

1 hour ago, Cruising-along said:

Agree.  I much prefer this over the piano bars on the smaller ships.  

Well, my one experience with Billboard Onboard was great.  It was much like a "typical" piano bar, but with 2 pianos.  Only issue that seemed to crop up - if the songs requested were never in the Billboard top 100, they didn't play it.

 

Since that started in 1958, older songs were not on the playbill.

[RuthC]

3 hours ago, Shmoo here said:

That is, each piano player is playing different songs, but not trying to outdo each other.

It could be a lot of fun if they played counter point, since they are both up there to play. But I expect that is something we will never hear. 

3 hours ago, Shmoo here said:

They rotate playing, that gives each player the opportunity to plan what to play next.

Each one should come into the evening with at minimum a plan of what they will be playing, and they should have conferred with each other about selections beforehand. These plans should be flexible, so that the choices of the people attending that night get to rule. 
Real piano bars used to be participatory, and loads of fun. 

[Shmoo here]

1 minute ago, RuthC said:

It could be a lot of fun if they played counter point, since they are both up there to play. But I expect that is something we will never hear. 

Each one should come into the evening with at minimum a plan of what they will be playing, and they should have conferred with each other about selections beforehand. These plans should be flexible, so that the choices of the people attending that night get to rule. 
Real piano bars used to be participatory, and loads of fun. 

I found the Billboard Onboard dual pianos on our cruise to be no different than a "real" piano bar.  The players would play what people asked for.  Unless the music requested never made it on the Billboard top 100 list.  They also played some things together. 

 

The sets were typically advertised as a specific theme, but most times, the theme was sidetracked by the people there to listen.  

 

 

[RuthC]

1 hour ago, Shmoo here said:

Unless the music requested never made it on the Billboard top 100 list. 

And therein lies a BIG problem with the concept. How DARE a paying customer ask for something that isn't on the 'approved' list. 
Ah, not my jam.