Ballroom Dancing on Celebrity

[NHBob]

Quite a few of my cruising acquaintances cruise mainly to dance and, therefore, we were interested to learn that the excellent Les DeMerle Band will be playing on Constellation from mid April to mid July. Many of my dancing friends used to cruise and dance regularly on Holland America, but HAL seems to have eliminated big bands and, on the newer ships, reduced dance floor areas drastically. They do have some pretty good musical combos on some of the ships, but some pretty awful ones too! They have also eliminated gentlemen hosts, who attract many solo ladies, on most cruises.

 

A number of us had the pleasure of listening and dancing to the DeMerle band on recent MSC Lirica cruises, but unfortunately, the ship leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand, Cunard and Crystal have some of the best dance facilities afloat, but they are pretty expensive.

 

 

So, we would be interested in feedback from Celebrity regulars who enjoy dancing at sea. In particular:

• Does Celebrity still provide gentlemen hosts to dance with the solo lady guests? I know that they did when I was on Zenith in 2003 but have heard that they have been discontinued.
  
• Do the ships' regular musicians play suitable dance music when there's no big band on board? Do their repertoires include a variety of steps, i.e. smooth, Latin, swing, etc?
  
• Is dance floor space adequate?
  

Thanks in advance for any help.

[mybagsarepacked]

Quite a few of my cruising acquaintances cruise mainly to dance and, therefore, we were interested to learn that the excellent Les DeMerle Band will be playing on Constellation from mid April to mid July. Many of my dancing friends used to cruise and dance regularly on Holland America, but HAL seems to have eliminated big bands and, on the newer ships, reduced dance floor areas drastically. They do have some pretty good musical combos on some of the ships, but some pretty awful ones too! They have also eliminated gentlemen hosts, who attract many solo ladies, on most cruises.

 

A number of us had the pleasure of listening and dancing to the DeMerle band on recent MSC Lirica cruises, but unfortunately, the ship leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand, Cunard and Crystal have some of the best dance facilities afloat, but they are pretty expensive.

 

 

 

So, we would be interested in feedback from Celebrity regulars who enjoy dancing at sea. In particular:

• Does Celebrity still provide gentlemen hosts to dance with the solo lady guests? I know that they did when I was on Zenith in 2003 but have heard that they have been discontinued.
  
• Do the ships' regular musicians play suitable dance music when there's no big band on board? Do their repertoires include a variety of steps, i.e. smooth, Latin, swing, etc?
  
• Is dance floor space adequate?
  

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

 

Hey Bob,

Nice to see you on this board. Ron and I are booked on the April 17 TA from Fort Lauderdale to London. Mary sent an email last night, (I am sure you got it) that said Les DeMerle's Big Band was on that cruise. We had already booked it and just found out it was going to be a dance cruise.

 

We are very excited. This will be our first cruise on Celebrity (Constellation).

 

If Mike's knee wasn't in the process of healing, He and Mary might consider going on the cruise as well. They just came back from the Houston cruise on RCCL - the dance cruise.

 

Hope you are well. Hope to see you aboard a ship with us again someday!

Ron & Stacy

[Busterbunny]

Hello fellow ballroom dancer!

 

I'm not that much of a regular on Celebrity, but the only two cruises I did was with Celebrity. So perhaps that will answer a little bit.

 

 

 

 

So, we would be interested in feedback from Celebrity regulars who enjoy dancing at sea. In particular:

• Does Celebrity still provide gentlemen hosts to dance with the solo lady guests? I know that they did when I was on Zenith in 2003 but have heard that they have been discontinued.
  

 

I'm not sure they're formaly there, but I did see a few Celebrity crewmember around the dancefloor, and they did accept invitation from nice ladies to dance.

• Do the ships' regular musicians play suitable dance music when there's no big band on board? Do their repertoires include a variety of steps, i.e. smooth, Latin, swing, etc?
  

 

During the "ballroom" hour in late afternoon, it's really just a DJ.

 

During the evening, depending on the theme, there will be quite a decent band, but we found it was mainly swings (simple swing, rock and roll and triple swing) and latin. We never saw an actual modern-style dance band. Well, we did, but not on the usual dancing spot, but rather on formal nights, near the lobby, and there's not much room to dance.

 

• Is dance floor space adequate?
  

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Ergh, yes for latin dancing? :| On the plus side, there's no one during the ballroom hour in the afternoon, so even if the dance floor is relatively small (even on the Solstice), you'll be able to foxtrot and tango on it. I don't think those are very good floors for a Vienese waltz, nor for a bolero or a Quickstep.

 

Or, and it's a circle shaped dancefloor, nothing squarish. So that would create a mess if there was alot of folks in there.

 

I guess the conclusion is that dancefloors are more suited for latin than modern, and that live bands are not often present for modern. And even for latin, you won't be able to go into movements that are very wide (like an elaborate cross body lead or something like that).

 

I hope this helps!

[hajekfam]

There are only two dance floors on the Millennium class ships and they are very small. And with more and more dancers on the floor, you usually only have a very small space to dance in. Forget foxtrot and rumba where you move around the floor. Most people dancing do not move (or mover the wrong direction) so you are constantly being blocked.

We find that going very early (when the band starts playing) or staying very late (starting about a half hour to full hour after late seating) gives us the best dance experience -not too crowded.

The Rendez-vous lounge usually has the best dance band (although there have been some of our cruises on Celebrity where there wasn't a good band at all) but forget dancing between the dinner seatings. We found there is barely enough room for a "Y" dance (our dance instructors term for the simple swaying with no movement - Why dance?)

It's amazing that as more and more people are doing ballroom and the dance floors on ships are becoming more crowded, the cruiselines are cutting down on the number of dance floors on their new ships.

[kitty9]

Celebrity stopped using dance hosts a couple of years ago. And I do agree that the dance floors in the Rendevous Lounge and the Bar at the Edge are way too small to do any kind of latin dancing.

[Busterbunny]

Well, you can minimally salsa on them, no? I mean, not an over-elaborate salsa, but still...

[NHBob]

Hey Bob,

Nice to see you on this board. Ron and I are booked on the April 17 TA from Fort Lauderdale to London. Mary sent an email last night, (I am sure you got it) that said Les DeMerle's Big Band was on that cruise. We had already booked it and just found out it was going to be a dance cruise.

 

We are very excited. This will be our first cruise on Celebrity (Constellation).

 

If Mike's knee wasn't in the process of healing, He and Mary might consider going on the cruise as well. They just came back from the Houston cruise on RCCL - the dance cruise.

 

Hope you are well. Hope to see you aboard a ship with us again someday!

Ron & Stacy

 

Good to hear from you guys. I'll be most interested to hear your thoughts on Constellation, since my only Celebrity cruise was six years ago. Some of the other posts replying to my questions don't seem to be very encouraging, but I'll look forward to your views. Feel free to e-mail me if it's easier for you (or if you want to say something that you'd prefer not to post).

 

I haven't cruised with HAL since our March '08 transatlantic, and Crystal has become my main cruise line. Mary has probably told you about our December big band cruise on MSC Lirica - I seem to recall that you were booked on that one at some point. My reaction was "great band, so-so ship." Actually I was lucky in that my dining room experience was a lot better than Mary's and Mikes.

 

As much as I like Crystal, I would like to have some alternatives, as their itineraries are fairly limited with only two ships, hence my questions about Celebrity.

 

I'm booked on two Crystal T/As this year, Miami-Lisbon (Glenn Miller Orchestra) and Lisbon-Miami (ballroom dance theme) plus a Thanksgiving Holiday/jazz cruise with the Duke Ellington Alumni combo.

 

I'm sure you'll enjoy the Les DeMerle Band. They play a lot of swing, but also some waltzes, foxtrots and Latin, especially if requested. In addition to being talented, Les and his wife Bonnie are nice people.

 

You probably remember Arno Marsh, lead tenor sax with the Harry James band. I received an e-mail from Les saying that Arno would be joining him for an MSC cruise in February, but I don't know if he'll be doing the Constellation cruises.

 

I'm sure our paths will cross again one of these days.

Bob

[NHBob]

It's amazing that as more and more people are doing ballroom and the dance floors on ships are becoming more crowded, the cruiselines are cutting down on the number of dance floors on their new ships.

 

I have a theory, or actually two:

• Dance floors don't generate as much revenue as other spaces
  
• All of the cruise lines except the premium lines are looking to attract a younger clientele, most of whom wouldn't know the difference between a tango and a polka, to fill the space on the larger and larger ships they are building.
  

I wrote to Carnival Corporation a few years ago accusing them of having adopted a policy of not worrying about my generation because, after all, most of us will probably be dead in another 10 to 20 years. Naturally they denied it.

 

Thanks to all who have responded to my original post.

 

Bob

[Busterbunny]

Hi NHbob!

 

I think you are mistaken a little bit on the generation issue.

 

It's a small sample, of course, but I'm taking courses at Arthur Murray in Montreal, and from what I can see, most people there are between 14 and 35. With a few exceptions being older.

 

As well, I think this revival of ballroom dancing comes from some of the TV shows about dance. Dancing with the Stars and the likes.

 

Around here, it is not seen as cheezy as it once was, and it is making a comeback.

 

Cheers and regards!

A 32 yo ballroom dancer

[hajekfam]

I have a theory, or actually two:

• Dance floors don't generate as much revenue as other spaces
  
• All of the cruise lines except the premium lines are looking to attract a younger clientele, most of whom wouldn't know the difference between a tango and a polka, to fill the space on the larger and larger ships they are building.
  

I wrote to Carnival Corporation a few years ago accusing them of having adopted a policy of not worrying about my generation because, after all, most of us will probably be dead in another 10 to 20 years. Naturally they denied it.

 

Thanks to all who have responded to my original post.

 

Bob

I also have to disagree with you about the generational issue. At the independent studio where we take lessons, there are more and more younger people each year. Also, the kids classes are full and they are even teaching ballroom in the schools.

Also, when we first started cruising back in 1992, the dance floors were pretty empty. We have noticed that they have become more and more crowded each year starting in about 2001 to the point that on our last cruise this year, there wasn't a whole lot of room to dance on the floor - in fact many couples danced in the walkways.

I wouldn't take a Celebrity cruise that featured a specific dance band that has a good dancer following especially on the Millennium class ships (Millennium, Infinity, Summit, and Constellation) because they only have two small dance floors. At least, the Century and Mercury have 3 dance floors.

[NHBob]

I agree that there is a renewed interest in ballroom among the younger generation - we are seeing quite a few young people, even some teenagers, at the studio where I take lessons. However, I still believe that they are, at least for now, a very small minority of that age group.

 

I know that at my son's wedding reception a couple of years ago, there weren't more than a dozen attendees out of about 300 who knew even a basic ballroom step or two, all of them over 60. I hope this is changing, but in the meantime I think we can expect mass market cruise lines to use available space for everything from ice skating rinks to rock climbing walls to water slides to attract a lot of younger cruisers, rather than dance floors.

 

Nevertheless, I can't help wonder why Celebrity and MSC would go to the expense of booking a big band on a ship for an extended period on ships with the minimal dance floor space described by other posters on this thread.

 

Bob

[Busterbunny]

That's a good question. Let me tell you, however, that on the Solstice, during the formal nights, they had a 5-men band, playing songs you could easily foxtrot, quickstep and waltz on, and despite the lack of dancefloor, people liked to sit around and appreciate the music.

 

Few actually danced on the minimal improvised dance floor there. Admitedly, it took quite a while for me to go dance in front of an unknown public.

 

Anyhow, it's nothing like what you find here:

 

http://queenmary2.cunard.co.uk/ Click on "Bar and Lounges" and then "Queens Room - Ballroom"

[NHBob]

Anyhow, it's nothing like what you find here:

 

http://queenmary2.cunard.co.uk/ Click on "Bar and Lounges" and then "Queens Room - Ballroom"

 

You are certainly right about that. Most of my early cruise experience was with Cunard on QE2 and Vistafjord/Caronia, plus one cruise on QM2, mostly before I took up dancing. I think it's pretty well accepted that their dedicated ballrooms offer the best dancing at sea.

 

Unfortunately for me, as a solo traveler, Cunard sold their last two ships with single cabins (Caronia and QE2) and I simply won't pay current 75% to 100% single supplements when Crystal only charges me 25%. Would still like to try the Victoria or the new Queen Elizabeth due in a couple of years, so will keep looking for promotional reduced single supplements.

 

Bob

[Busterbunny]

On the plus side, I'm sure as a single traveler, finding someone to dance with is quite easy, if I base myself on the men/woman ratio at my dance school :D

[NHBob]

On the plus side, I'm sure as a single traveler, finding someone to dance with is quite easy, if I base myself on the men/woman ratio at my dance school :D

 

You're right about that, especially on Crystal and other lines with gentlemen hosts, who attract a lot of solo lady travellers. There seem to be fewer solo ladies on HAL since they dropped the hosts and, more recently, on MSC.

 

On my last Crystal B2B cruises I was one of only two solo men who danced regularly and, as an added bonus, the lady half of the dance team came into the dance club most nights - didn't have to, just loved to dance. Since the gentlemen hosts can only dance with paying guests, that meant the other solo gentleman and I had to take turns dancing with Beverly and also the Spanish teacher, whose husband didn't dance, all evening. Tough work, but somebody had to do it!

 

Ron and Stacy, still hope to see you on Crystal one of these days. Yes, it's expensive, but worth it - how about the November Lisbon-Miami ballroom dance theme transatlantic? Seriously, if anybody reading this should decide to book it, let me know as I still have two sponsorships available under Crystal's share the experience program, which will get some shipboard credits for us.

[C 2 C]

I've been complaining of the trend towards Jazz in most of the music offerings offered by Celebrity for their dancing venues.

I was excited about the possibility of going on a dance cruise on Constellation but I'm sorry to say this band is not to my taste.

 

[eden]

Just back from the Constellation and there was a very good group ( called Countdown ) in the Rendez-vous lounge. Although the dance floor is small there were lots of good dancers and great dance music. The band is there until mid April.

[gpeters93]

Good to hear from you guys. I'll be most interested to hear your thoughts on Constellation, since my only Celebrity cruise was six years ago.

 

We were on the Constellation two New Years ago. The Bar at the Edge had a decent sized dance floor, but the music was recorded (at least during the post-dinner hours). The upside was that we could tell the dj what dance styles we wanted and he would adjust the music to fit. The downside of course was that it's just not the same as a live band. I'd say the dance floor was about a 24ft. diameter circle - suitable for most ballroom steps.

 

I've heard only some rumors about Celebrity undoing the Cirque design of the space so it may not be the same dance floor as we had. Liked the Zuiderdam better anyway.

[d-dfoster]

I can tell you that the main orchestra plays every so often in one of the atrium type areas..(at least they did back in Jan) not many people were dancing but there was plenty of room.. not a true dance floor per se.. but better than nothing.

 

I agree tho.. most ships have puny dance floors.

 

~Donna

[hajekfam]

But hubby and I have found places to dance - on one of our Celebrity transatlantics there was a Spanish guitarist that played at the aft bar outside the buffet area in the evenings. We often went up there to dance even though there wasn't a dance floor. He even played a few paso dobles (as he did some flamenco music) that we were able to dance to.

We have also been known to be walking though the pool area when the party band is playing a good song during their afternoon poolside session and we stop to dance to the song.

[lovespositano]

My recommendation is to try Princess. I know - I am on the Celebrity thread. But Princess has fairly large dance floors and three live bands on every cruise on their Grand class ships. Plus two paino bars and a DJ (Skywalkers). Plus the Princess Orchestra plays big band dance music several times during the day, usually. And there is lots of latin, rock N roll, whatever you like in the Wheelhouse.