Burn the Floor replacing Donna Summer on Prima

[IAcruising]

1 hour ago, luv2kroooz said:

If you enjoy the show 3x over Donna Summer, why would you do that?

 

Do what?

[BirdTravels]

3 hours ago, kasimir said:

The continuous decline of NCL is in full swing... We are just a year or two away to only have game shows and magicians for entertainment on all cruise ships. 

 

This is really sad, as having 1-2 different quality production shows on 7+ day cruises was a major factor why we booked NCL cruises. 

I consider the replacement of Donna Summer with BTF an improvement, not decline. 

[luv2kroooz]

10 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

We saw Donna Summer on both of our Prima cruises. It was kinda a dark show about her hard life including being sexually abused as a child. And having people take advantage of her, her whole life. 
 

Personally, I didn’t care much for it. 
 

 

When did your opinion change? You said you enjoyed it in 2023.

BirdTravels

Posted March 18, 2023

It is a story about her life from a young church choir girl to the pop star. Lots of very familiar music (some from the early days which are not as familiar). Donna Summer led a hard life from being abused as a young child to people taking advantage of her as she became famous. 

 

We have seen the show twice on the Prima and enjoy the vocals of all three Donna's (young, prime, and mature). We also found it interesting to see the cast hanging out together a lot of nights at the buffet. 

Edited August 10 by luv2kroooz

[Grandmafreddie]

Just checked my prima reservation and it shows Donna summer and burn the floor

[kasimir]

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

I consider the replacement of Donna Summer with BTF an improvement, not decline. 

Thats not the point as taste varies. The point is that up to 2022/23 we even had two major production shows on a 7 day cruise (like for example Six and Jersey Boys), next to the comedian(s), deal or no deal and other lighter entertainment in between. 

Now the standard is just one major production show, comedian and a game shows. 

 

If this trend continues at NCL, there will be no more productions left... 

[Crazy planning mom]

NCL's cutbacks in entertainment is very disappointing as it was something that set it apart.  However, if they continue to sell out, they have no incentive to stop cutting.  Looking forward to our upcoming Symphony of the Seas sailing where we will see Hairspray,  Flight, Hiro, and 1977.

[ontheweb]

14 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Not "everyone" has seen BTF.

We have not, and we did see Donna Summer on the Prima.

[EllieinNJ]

I have also been reading that on some nights on the Prima, Rumors is being done in the main theater.  Some sailings people say yes, other sailings people say no.

[zqvol]

10 hours ago, Grandmafreddie said:

Just checked my prima reservation and it shows Donna summer and burn the floor

When are you sailing? Effective date is 8/25

[graphicguy]

On 8/9/2024 at 7:38 AM, IAcruising said:

Maybe it had a bad night, but Donna Summer was terrible. I'll take burn the floor 3 times over every day.

Same...saw it twice.  Not my cup of tea.  The new BTF is excellent.

 

 

[knitlady037]

Loved Donna Summer. Just as good as when I saw it on Broadway. Took my 2 competition dance  granddaughters to see BTF. We left after 10 minutes.

[Firstin87]

8 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

I have also been reading that on some nights on the Prima, Rumors is being done in the main theater.  Some sailings people say yes, other sailings people say no.

that would be a good idea. We were on the Prima's TA last April-May (15 days) and could not get in to see Rumors any of the nights it played.  Venue was jammed an hour before showtime, which caused problems with eating dinner.

[Steff79]

boring change

[shirtboy]

Sad to hear the show is closing. While the cast and music were top notch, the story was so-so. Combine that the the adult themes and Donna's lack of name recognition with younger passengers, it limited the size of the audience it could appeal to. If not enough people rate it highly or not enough people attend (and tap their cards as proof of attendance), this is the unfortunate result.

 

Perhaps the Prima Class of vessel is just too small to support such a large production given it only has about 3000 passengers compared to the other ships in the fleet with 4000 passengers. NCL is very efficient in controlling costs, so when you have a huge cast of 20 performers that can only perform 1 specific show with as little as 8 performances spread out over 6 days in a 3 week period, on a ship that is smaller than most, it makes the economics that much harder to pencil out. 

 

NCL probably made a mistake with the Prima Class by ordering too small of a ship, which is why the next iterations of the ship class are all going to be similar in size to NCLs largest ships.

[ChiefMateJRK]

On 8/9/2024 at 1:55 PM, cruiseny4life said:

I haven't! By choice. 

Why not?  Did you read something that drove you away?  I'll try anything once.  I sat through (most of) Priscilla and Six.  Even made it through Kinky Boots once and a half.  I would prefer to know that something sucks instead of just taking somebody else's word for it.  Somebody else's word often sucks.😎

[david_sobe]

11 hours ago, shirtboy said:

Sad to hear the show is closing. While the cast and music were top notch, the story was so-so. Combine that the the adult themes and Donna's lack of name recognition with younger passengers, it limited the size of the audience it could appeal to. If not enough people rate it highly or not enough people attend (and tap their cards as proof of attendance), this is the unfortunate result.

 

Perhaps the Prima Class of vessel is just too small to support such a large production given it only has about 3000 passengers compared to the other ships in the fleet with 4000 passengers. NCL is very efficient in controlling costs, so when you have a huge cast of 20 performers that can only perform 1 specific show with as little as 8 performances spread out over 6 days in a 3 week period, on a ship that is smaller than most, it makes the economics that much harder to pencil out. 

 

NCL probably made a mistake with the Prima Class by ordering too small of a ship, which is why the next iterations of the ship class are all going to be similar in size to NCLs largest ships.

That's what I used to love about NCL entertainment.  Sometimes it could be dark or made you think.  I think I am in the minority when it comes to cruise line entertainment.  I would never or rarely have interest in seeing a Broadway style show on land.  But on cruise ships I enjoy them because they are out of my comfort zone.  I love it when people complain about curse words or drug use in Rock of Ages and the drag queens in Priscilla and Kinky Boots.  You are at sea, go see something out of your comfort zone.  Kinky Boots had a dark side too. I applaud that where shows make you think instead of just singing along.  I love it that NCL did not go the Disney route and make all their entertainment "kid friendly."

I think this thread has drifted into another zone though.  We all like different things.  Whether you loved or hated Donna is not really the point.   The point is NCL is closing down their most expensive shows and replacing them with double duty and multi tasked performers.  While NCL was a pioneer in cruise ship entertainment, they seem to accept the fact they don't care to compete with other lines in that area.  NCL is betting the newer cruise passengers Gen Z and millennials are perfectly fine with game shows.

When I was on Epic in 2010, I was blown away with the entertainment.  It was like going to Vegas.  Blue Man brought down the house.  Legends in Concert direct from the Vegas strip. Cirque Dreams was outrageous.  It was so outrageous that when I sailed Epic 3 years later the show changed considerably and was far less dangerous and edgy.  Looking back along with Howl at The Moon, Mystery theater lunches, etc it truly was like Las Vegas.

Since Legally Blonde was yanked from Getaway, Rock of Ages yanked from Breakaway,  Kinky Boots was yanked from Encore, and Donna yanked from Prima, does it not make sense that Beetlejuice will also get the hook?  Would it not be strange that sister ships Prima and Viva would not have similar entertainment?

[graphicguy]

8 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Why not?  Did you read something that drove you away?  I'll try anything once.  I sat through (most of) Priscilla and Six.  Even made it through Kinky Boots once and a half.  I would prefer to know that something sucks instead of just taking somebody else's word for it.  Somebody else's word often sucks.😎

Saw all 3...Priscilla, Six (when I sailed with you) and Kinky Boots.  I'm happy to hear they've changed out all 3.  None of them were shows I'd have made it through all the way without having drinks (yes, plural) help me through them.

[sharonann24]

We saw Donna Summer last summer on the Prima and did enjoy it.  We have never seen BTF and I will look forward to it.  We are traveling with my 95 year old father and he really enjoys the shows so I think he will like this.  I don't get the appeal with the game shows however other than it is probably a cost issue.  Bring back Bingo (even though that is overpriced too!). I personally hate magicians, but again one performer rather than a group.  Get better singers!!

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, sharonann24 said:

We saw Donna Summer last summer on the Prima and did enjoy it.  We have never seen BTF and I will look forward to it.  We are traveling with my 95 year old father and he really enjoys the shows so I think he will like this.  I don't get the appeal with the game shows however other than it is probably a cost issue.  Bring back Bingo (even though that is overpriced too!). I personally hate magicians, but again one performer rather than a group.  Get better singers!!

We also saw Donna Summer on the Prima last summer. We liked it, but both of us felt it was not something that we would have paid for to go see on Broadway. We did like several of the singers and guitar players who played in the small lounges.

[geneticfreak]

13 hours ago, david_sobe said:

 

When I was on Epic in 2010, I was blown away with the entertainment.  It was like going to Vegas.  Blue Man brought down the house.  Legends in Concert direct from the Vegas strip. Cirque Dreams was outrageous.

Epic entertainment was the best during the inaugural season. I agree all three of those shows were great. I also miss Rock of Ages - it really takes you back to the 80, which is perfect for Gen X. I think that’s also why Choir of Man is so popular, plenty of 80s and 90s music done in a fresh way. 

[cruiseny4life]

On 8/11/2024 at 12:34 AM, ChiefMateJRK said:

Why not?  Did you read something that drove you away?  I'll try anything once.  I sat through (most of) Priscilla and Six.  Even made it through Kinky Boots once and a half.  I would prefer to know that something sucks instead of just taking somebody else's word for it.  Somebody else's word often sucks.😎

I'm not into dancing. It's boring to me. I'm not a dancer - trust me, my moves would make everyone blush given how bad I am. I'm also not an enjoyer of watching anyone dance. Personally, I think dancing is stupid - but I don't judge those that enjoy it. It's not my thing, just like playing soccer isn't everyone else's cup of tea (I do love me some tea), but there's nothing wrong it.

 

I did get through about 30 or 40 minutes of Donna and just walked out. It just wasn't enjoyable to me. It seemed others really loved it - the theater was absolutely jam packed and folx were most definitely applauding loudly. I was more interested in going back to the thermal suite. 

 

But, Burn the Floor? I'll pass. 

 

On 8/10/2024 at 12:56 AM, kasimir said:

Thats not the point as taste varies. The point is that up to 2022/23 we even had two major production shows on a 7 day cruise (like for example Six and Jersey Boys), next to the comedian(s), deal or no deal and other lighter entertainment in between. 

Now the standard is just one major production show, comedian and a game shows. 

 

If this trend continues at NCL, there will be no more productions left... 

I think the trend is going to continue, given the direction NCL is headed with entertainment. They've been fairly transparent (though not blunt) about entertainment changing drastically to be "innovative and exciting." 

 

I did enjoy Price is Right and would probably enjoy watching that multiple times, whereas I walked out of Donna. I really, really enjoyed Million Dollar Quartet on Getaway, but probably wouldn't go back to watch it. I would go watch Broadway Unplugged over and over. So, you do have customers like me who are cool with watching a show, but don't really need it. Honestly, entertainment isn't important to me on a ship. I can entertain myself with views of the ocean, the thermal suite, my husband, in-room movies, and the sun deck. I guess I'm easy to please.

 

Here's a 2023 article laying out the vision of NCL's entertainment future: https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/NCL-venturing-beyond-Broadway-in-an-entertainment-overhaul

[schmoopie17]

5 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

I'm not into dancing. It's boring to me. I'm not a dancer - trust me, my moves would make everyone blush given how bad I am. I'm also not an enjoyer of watching anyone dance. Personally, I think dancing is stupid - but I don't judge those that enjoy it. 

. 

You've eloquently captured my feelings in a nutshell, my friend. Great minds...

[JetsetCruiser]

Being innovative and creating new shows takes time. What kind of show, how long, which ship to assign it to. Broadway shows are nice, but can get a bit long. Some shows are worth seeing more than once and others are not. Broadway shows though don't come cheap with license fees etc. So there is a lull in type of entertainment, sometimes that's just how it is, that's show biz baby.

[EllieinNJ]

If NCL would hire some good non budget breaking acts like those from America's Got Talent (some other cruise lines do) and have entertainment every night (not game shows) it would be a little more palatable to lose the Broadway shows.

[cheersforbeers]

1 hour ago, EllieinNJ said:

If NCL would hire some good non budget breaking acts like those from America's Got Talent (some other cruise lines do) and have entertainment every night (not game shows) it would be a little more palatable to lose the Broadway shows.

What’s the percentage of cruisers that cruise for entertainment?  We cruise to get away from everyday hassles !!!!