Nighttime entertainment

[melissy123]

Trying Holland America again after a long absence. Have been spoiled on Celebrity by the amount of options to do at nighttime. Bu Holland America seems to be pretty quiet at night.  We booked Niuew Statendam for a pretty port intensive itinerary so not worried about that.  Plus lots of music options on that ship.

 

BUT in looking at Zaandam ,where there’s a fair number of sea days. Maybe there’s a game show one night and maybe a comedy show another night. Not much going on during the day for sea days as well.  Pretty boring IMHO. Is this pretty normal for HAL?

[CruiserBruce]

The smaller ships don't have as many venues for night time entertainment. Simple as that. No Celebrity ship is near the size of a Zaandam.

[julia]

1 hour ago, melissy123 said:

 Pretty boring IMHO. Is this pretty normal for HAL?

Yes, it is 100% normal.  HAL cruisers are typically a bit older, and well cruised, who can entertain themselves quite well on sea days/evenings. They cruise more for the relaxed ship atmosphere, without the blaring movies on a big screen, or noisy pool games, or annoying announcements. They cruise for the interesting itineraries and not late night discos.  Yep... all pretty boring.

[Sir PMP]

1 hour ago, melissy123 said:

Trying Holland America again after a long absence. Have been spoiled on Celebrity by the amount of options to do at nighttime. Bu Holland America seems to be pretty quiet at night.  We booked Niuew Statendam for a pretty port intensive itinerary so not worried about that.  Plus lots of music options on that ship.

 

BUT in looking at Zaandam ,where there’s a fair number of sea days. Maybe there’s a game show one night and maybe a comedy show another night. Not much going on during the day for sea days as well.  Pretty boring IMHO. Is this pretty normal for HAL?

Yes, that's normal for Hal, so you have a choice, poor service and food on Celebrity or great service and food and marginal entertainment on Hal.

[melissy123]

I didn’t mean movies. Or discos. But live music. Singers. Production shows with a theme like Broadway or Motown.  And having something every night. Not just one every three days.  We’ve had the best food and service on Celebrity. Even Princess didn’t come close, we just got off a Princess cruise in Australia. 

[crystalspin]

3 minutes ago, melissy123 said:

I didn’t mean movies. Or discos. But live music. Singers. Production shows with a theme like Broadway or Motown.  And having something every night. Not just one every three days.

I think you will be happy enough on Nieuw Statendam with its Music Walk. No more production shows on HAL. 

[Nickelpenny]

12 minutes ago, melissy123 said:

I didn’t mean movies. Or discos. But live music. Singers. Production shows with a theme like Broadway or Motown.  And having something every night. Not just one every three days.  We’ve had the best food and service on Celebrity. Even Princess didn’t come close, we just got off a Princess cruise in Australia. 

There is something every night whether it might be singers, pianist, dancers, etc. no big Broadway type production shows. 

[Riversedge]

If you love the entertainment on Celebrity you will be disappointed with HAL.   There’s not much to do but at least since this is your first cruise you will see entertainment for the first time instead of over and over across the years like the rest of us.  Go and have fun in the ports and enjoy the service.  That’s what HAL does well.  

[REOVA]

3 hours ago, Nickelpenny said:

There is something every night whether it might be singers, pianist, dancers, etc. no big Broadway type production shows. 

Except on the "state of the art" World Stage that may be dark or show a movie one (or more) of those nights. HAL got rid of production department in 2019 and went with third party agencies and brand named license contracts. You may see a dance group (Step One), or a singing group, which on a long itinerary or B2B may repeat shows. There's a history/documentary of HALs 150 years or virtual ship tour, a BBC documentary, maybe a magician or comedian. Fortunately since you haven't sailed HAL in the past 3 years you may not have seen them before. Their music walk consists of 3 bar/lounge areas close together so the sound competes if they are on at the same time (for BB King and Rock Room but pianist will alternate time with Rock Room). The artists can be excellent to chalkboard scratchy quality and may repeat songs each night so you have the option to watch the BBC movie on off nights. HAL entertainment took a reverse direction from its prior years and still below Celebrity or others if you are looking for production stage shows like it used to have. But the ship is nice and Dutch Cafe is a nice addition on the Pinnacle ships. You should be able to find something or enjoy new acquaintances. 

[Dancing Shoes]

6 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

Yes, that's normal for Hal, so you have a choice, poor service and food on Celebrity or great service and food and marginal entertainment on Hal.

We had great service and good food on Celebrity.  Cafe Bianco in the morning the staff was amazing. Yes, Hal is much more laid back.  

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, REOVA said:

Except on the "state of the art" World Stage that may be dark or show a movie one (or more) of those nights. 

OP is asking about Zaandam,  which doesn't have the "state of the art" stage. That is the 3 Pinnacle class ships. 

[Sir PMP]

9 hours ago, Dancing Shoes said:

We had great service and good food on Celebrity.  Cafe Bianco in the morning the staff was amazing. Yes, Hal is much more laid back.  

If you go a couple of pages back, page 5, you'll hear a different story.

 

[REOVA]

10 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

OP is asking about Zaandam,  which doesn't have the "state of the art" stage. That is the 3 Pinnacle class ships. 

Yes I realized after posting that I was responding to OPs NS cruise instead of Zaandam but couldn't delete it.

 

That's totally different....Never mind. 

[taxmantoo]

10 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

OP is asking about Zaandam,  which doesn't have the "state of the art" stage. That is the 3 Pinnacle class ships. 

I have a bit of a problem with a "dark" stage one night, a "movie" stage one night, a HAL Infomercial stage another night and a "comedian" stage one night on a 7-night cruise being called a "state-of-the-art" stage.  Just saying ...

[Ken the cruiser]

If I might ask. Here is our normal evening ritual when we're on either a PCL, Celebrity, or NCL cruise as well as a HAL cruise before the Music Walk entertainment strategy was implemented back in 2019.

 

We go to dinner when the MDR opens, usually between 5 and 5:30 pm. After dinner we go to the evening show in the main theater, whatever it happens to be, usually around 7-7:30 pm. Then it's off to the nightly game show for an evening laugh, usually around 8:30 pm. Finally, we will then head back to our cabin to chill and play on our computers until it's time for bed, unless there is a late-night production show around 10 pm featuring the ship's singers and dancers. What can I say, we're in our early 70s and have formed a few habits when we're on a cruise. 😂

 

Will we be able to follow a similar evening entertainment strategy when on a 21-day or longer HAL cruise, regardless of which ship we're on? If necessary, we can swap out the evening laugh at 8:30 pm for dancing to some 70s Queen/Elton John/Billy Joel era music along the Music Walk. 😀

 

Edited March 11 by Ken the cruiser

[Roz]

17 hours ago, julia said:

Yes, it is 100% normal.  HAL cruisers are typically a bit older, and well cruised, who can entertain themselves quite well on sea days/evenings. They cruise more for the relaxed ship atmosphere, without the blaring movies on a big screen, or noisy pool games, or annoying announcements. They cruise for the interesting itineraries and not late night discos.  Yep... all pretty boring.

I'm a "bit older", but haven't yet developed the skill of entertaining myself on cruises in the evening.  Entertainment is HAL's weak spot, in my opinion. 

[albingirl]

Not much happening in the evening, except for music walk on the Pinnacle class. Even that gets old fast. The only cruises that interest me any more with HAL are the long ones that are port intensive. We get tired after a long day and really don't care about evening entertainment. Yes, it would be nice if they had something to jazz up the evenings, but sadly, they don't. We have long, lingering dinners for the most part.

[LetItSnow]

On 3/10/2024 at 4:33 PM, julia said:

Yes, it is 100% normal.  HAL cruisers are typically a bit older, and well cruised, who can entertain themselves quite well on sea days/evenings. They cruise more for the relaxed ship atmosphere, without the blaring movies on a big screen, or noisy pool games, or annoying announcements. They cruise for the interesting itineraries and not late night discos.  Yep... all pretty boring.

Couldn't have said it better!  That describes my cruising style completely and I can't wait until my next HAL sailing.  I'm ready for some relaxation 😀

 

[2LoveBikes]

I think you will be happy with the music venue on Nieuw Statendam.  Lots of dancing opportunities with the BB King All Stars.  If you haven't seen the Step One dance performances before, you will enjoy them, especially Humanities and Musicology.  Go to the cruise and travel director's talks in the theater; they are interesting and well done, especially the Origin Story.  Food and service and friendliness of crew are superlative.  Enjoy your trip!