Transatlantic Entertainment

[cmukid87]

I thought about pulling the trigger on a 15 day transatlantic next summer.  Our biggest concern is repetitive entertainment options.  We are used to 7 day Caribbean sailings where I think it's about the exact amount of trivia, karaoke, specialty nights, etc.  

 

For those who have done the transatlantic or at least the longer Journey's cruises, what has been your experience?

[pcvtmom]

We haven't done a transatlantic, but we've done a 14 day Hawaiian cruise and a 14 day repositioning cruise.  There were many more activities, such as lei-making, hula and ukelele lessons, dance classes, "lecture"-type sessions, extra comedians, more live music opportunities, and more trivia. We never felt bored with the many options provided. We also had "throw-back" days, with retired Carnival activities such as frog racing, horse racing, etc., three elegant nights, and an extra past guest reception (not just Diamond/Platinum, but the old past guest one).

[Saint Greg]

They have some different things. Some special entertainment. More comedians. They rotate that sea day brunch with theme lunches. But at some point it definitely did feel repetitive and I started spending more time in the room. Watched some movies. Things I wouldn't normally do on a cruise. I'd do it again. But I'd definitely prefer do it on a newer ship with more stuff to do/eat vs. one of the smaller, older ships Carnival typically sends over to Europe.

 

Edited June 13 by Saint Greg

[JimmyTheSaint]

We've done three Transatlantics and have another one booked on the Mardi Gras for Oct 2025. The entertainment onboard in the theatre and Punchliner is not repetitive. They fly on different singers, entertainers and comedians at all the ports of call. The ship will also have the Production playlist team doing shows and the usual Cruise Director shows in the main theatre. The bars will have the other musical acts that are part of the onboard Carnival team.

 

There are a lot of day time activities especially during the sea days e.g dance classes, trivia, pool parties, themed party nights, etc. You will not get bored.

[cruisinqt]

No it’s not repetitive at all. We've done quite a few long journeys cruises including transatlantic ones and they do a lot of different stuff to keep you entertained. Personally I love the Q&A sessions with different staff members the most. One day it was with housekeeping staff, another time it was with the playlist production staff, and they even had one with all of the officers. I loved learning all of the behind the scenes info. And they will bring a local expert on board to do lectures (usually with Q&A’s) that’s pretty fun too. On our Hawaiian cruise they explained all about Hawaii’s culture, where to shop, where to eat, and where to go. On our Alaskan cruise there was a local expert we really liked too. And they also do themed days, when they do the 80’s throwback day that’s my favorite. They decorated the ship, the staff dressed up, there were photo booths and props, and even the food was from the 80’s. They go out of their way to make it interesting so there’s no repetition in the entertainment. 
 

That being said, I will say that you need to be prepared for all of those sea days. I saw a number of people working on puzzles together. There were people playing dominos and card games. There were a number of knitting and crocheting groups around the ship. Personally, I downloaded a ton of books on my kindle and really enjoyed catching up on some uninterrupted reading. My husband is a movie buff so he downloaded over a dozen movies to watch in our cabin. He found this little compact projector and projected the movie onto the wall across from our bed. So we had late night movies every evening before bed. If you come prepared you’ll really enjoy yourself. I saw some unfortunate souls who didn’t come prepared and they were bored sometimes. But we loved it. 

[Gumbo4Life]

Great advice above.  We did the TA last year to Barcelona then back from Rome.  Entertainment options were numerous without duplication.  I enjoyed some of the special speakers they had on various topics.  Prepare for the sea days as noted above.  We did a lot of walking, my DW did a lot of reading and we did download a bunch of movies but didn't watch any of them, lol! BTW, we just booked both of the TAs on the Mardi Gras in 2025, we enjoyed the trip that much! 

Edited June 15 by Gumbo4Life

[cruisinqt]

1 hour ago, Gumbo4Life said:

Great advice above.  We did the TA last year to Barcelona then back from Rome.  Entertainment options were numerous without duplication.  I enjoyed some of the special speakers they had on various topics.  Prepare for the sea days as noted above.  We did a lot of walking, my DW did a lot of reading and we did download a bunch of movies but didn't watch any of them, lol! BTW, we just booked both of the TAs on the Mardi Gras in 2025, we enjoyed the trip that much! 

I forgot to mention that we liked our transatlantic cruise so much that we booked another one too. We are on the Mardi Gras Barcelona cruise in 2025 as well. 

[jimbo5544]

On 6/13/2024 at 10:44 AM, Saint Greg said:

They have some different things. Some special entertainment. More comedians. They rotate that sea day brunch with theme lunches. But at some point it definitely did feel repetitive and I started spending more time in the room. Watched some movies. Things I wouldn't normally do on a cruise. I'd do it again. But I'd definitely prefer do it on a newer ship with more stuff to do/eat vs. one of the smaller, older ships Carnival typically sends over to Europe.

 

interesting take.  We have done 5 long cruises but not a TA (had two cancelled with Covid).  Still on our list.  It sure is hard shuffling in additional new comedians mid Atlantic.  Appreciate the color on the differences and making the most of it.

[Saint Greg]

26 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

interesting take.  We have done 5 long cruises but not a TA (had two cancelled with Covid).  Still on our list.  It sure is hard shuffling in additional new comedians mid Atlantic.  Appreciate the color on the differences and making the most of it.

We had multiple days of fog and fog horns as well.  One of the guys on our cruise had done another TA over and said they had even more fog days on that one than ours.

 

Edited June 15 by Saint Greg

[kdr69]

Last TA they were always bringing on new entertainment at each Port until you start the last leg to cross the Pond.  At the last Port before that they "stocked" up  so to say.  Needless to say it wasn't repetitive.

[Saint Greg]

29 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

interesting take.  We have done 5 long cruises but not a TA (had two cancelled with Covid).  Still on our list.  It sure is hard shuffling in additional new comedians mid Atlantic.  Appreciate the color on the differences and making the most of it.

we didn’t swap comedians mid-Atlantic obviously but we had 4 port stops before the the long crossing. We swapped a couple times in there. Then again in Halifax. I know we had 8 total for 15 days.

 

[jimbo5544]

10 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

We had multiple days of fog and fog horns as well.  One of the guys on our cruise had done another TA over and said they had even more fog days on that one than ours.

 

fog horns add a certain mystique to cruising.  You start listening to see if they come more frequent you wonder if you are about to hit something.

[jimbo5544]

10 hours ago, kdr69 said:

Last TA they were always bringing on new entertainment at each Port until you start the last leg to cross the Pond.  At the last Port before that they "stocked" up  so to say.  Needless to say it wasn't repetitive.

good feedback

[jimbo5544]

10 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

we didn’t swap comedians mid-Atlantic obviously but we had 4 port stops before the the long crossing. We swapped a couple times in there. Then again in Halifax. I know we had 8 total for 15 days.

 

Huh, that works.

[Saint Greg]

5 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

fog horns add a certain mystique to cruising.  You start listening to see if they come more frequent you wonder if you are about to hit something.

We went through periods where they were every few minutes.

 

[jimbo5544]

Just now, Saint Greg said:

We went through periods where they were every few minutes.

 

Our Greenland cruise had that for a couple days.....got pretty old.