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Dance cruise?


cruiseelady
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Not sure exactly what you mean by "latin", but have you looked at Stardust? They do mainly weekends in the Catskills but also cruises.

 

 

With a name such as yours Mr. Bob I think you know what "Latin" dances mean :)

 

Salsa, Bachata, Merengue. But I like learning others as well.

Edited by cruiseelady
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With a name such as mine, I know that the same word is often used to describe radically different things. I thought you probably didn't mean ISTD Latin. We do do those dances, plus Argentine Tango, which I refer to as "Latino" to avoid confusion. I have seen cruise offered, but can't vouch for whether they actually deliver what they promise.

Costa might be a good fit just as a regular cruise (Luminosa is based in Pt Everglades this winter) but it is very different from American cruise lines, it's not for everyone.

Edited by Dancer Bob
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  • 2 weeks later...

Classes at all levels, primarily American style. Although they say ballroom, they do a lot of things like Argentine Tango, Salsa, Hustle. Primarily weekends in the Catskills, lots of people from NYC, but they get people as far away as Detroit & Boston (lots of people from Toronto, which is about 8 hrs drive), you could try a weekend before deciding if you wanted a cruise with them.

Edited by Dancer Bob
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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

There is a large group of people from the Buffalo area who regularly attend the weekends at Stardust in the Catskills. They also do cruises however I have never known anyone who has attended them.

 

My wife and I are ballroom dancers and love to dance on our past cruises. We have been a bit disappointed by the lack of room on many of the dance floors. It always seems like there is great music however. Also, we have found that all of the bands/orchestras really respond favorably to having dancers in the room and cater to those who request specific dance music.

 

Currently 2 degrees F in Buffalo. We will see wind chill temps around -20 F on Saturday. A cruise is sounding pretty good right now.

 

-Jim

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  • 1 year later...

And now for something completelydifferent ;-)

Working with MSC, we areplanning a Line Dancing cruise 1st October from Southampton on MSCMagnifica on one of its European Itineraries. Entertainment provided by the multi award winning Country Singer RichardPalmer and up and coming new kid on the block Clare Thomas. Combine this with award winningchoreographers Steve and Clair Rutter and the well-established Mike Stringer,this will be a fun filled cruise. MSChave given us access to Balcony cabins at a great price of £788 per person(based on doouble occupancy) which includes an All-inclusive drinkspackage. This price is for limited timeand includes food, normal ships entertainment PLUS a special itinerary ofEntertainment, workshops and dance classes.

Contact Claire on 07527 621051 /Mike on 07715 554918 / Email linedancecruise@yahoo.com

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  • 3 months later...
Now are these Stardust cruises for accomplished dancers- or will beginners also be on board?

 

I've actually performed at their dance weekends with my pro partner. If the cruise is anything like those events, they have a huge mix of total beginners, to near pro level amateurs dancing there.

 

They're a very inclusive group and the organizers make sure everyone has a great time.

 

"Dancers at Sea" is another one to look up, they're based out of Florida. I've been a pro as part of their workshops every now and then.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm with the Stardust cruise right now, I can confirm there are quite a few beginners. Stardust has its own private sessions as well as plenty of classes at various levels, and Costa Deliziosa also has lots of music for dancing plus one of the best dance floors at sea.

Dancers At Sea I found to be rather expensive, although the host/passenger ratio is higher, and they use ships with a lot less non-group dancing.

There are a few other groups but I haven't met anyone with recent first-hand experience.

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I'm with the Stardust cruise right now, I can confirm there are quite a few beginners. Stardust has its own private sessions as well as plenty of classes at various levels, and Costa Deliziosa also has lots of music for dancing plus one of the best dance floors at sea.

Dancers At Sea I found to be rather expensive, although the host/passenger ratio is higher, and they use ships with a lot less non-group dancing.

There are a few other groups but I haven't met anyone with recent first-hand experience.

 

This is great to hear. How do they run their workshops at sea? Is it exactly like their weekend events up in the Catskills? Do they book a private room during the day?

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Strong family resemblance. No Saturday night show, but lots of dancing, both private sessions and ship. Space is limited, but they usually manage to get 3 sessions running plus instructors using odd corners for private lessons.

Classes A beginner, B intermediate, C advanced. Linda and I have agreed to disagree, I think "beginner" should be beginner, not full Bronze, and with such a diverse group, instructors should plan their lessons and stick to syllabus material, whether American or International. Too many beginners show up for intermediate, which are effectively Silver, and I don't like the way they rotate partners every minute or two.

One oddity- all the women refuse to dance in closed hold. only Latin or even 12" apart. Makes it really awkward, have to constantly adjust for larger turn.

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Also, on non-group cruises, Costa does not have dance hosts per se, but the cruise staff do dance with passengers. Right now they have one woman who's very good, probably silver level, who also does their dance classes. The male staff are generally good enough for the average passenger.

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I talked to some local dancers who were on the

Costa cruise in January. They said that Stardust had a problem with providing enough dance hosts for the singles that were on the cruise.

 

I would have thought that with Stardust’s experience in this type of cruise, plus their dance weekends at their home locations, that would never be an issue. It can be very frustrating for singles who want to practice what they are learning when there are not enough hosts to go around.

 

Overall impressions were favorable for the cruise but this one issue was is a deal-breaker for many who are considering their options for future dance cruises.

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A bit more detail about these local dancers please. Stardust doesn't provide hosts for the single guys, only for women. So these local dancers were single women? Stardust only provides male hosts at their weekends too.

How much do these women think hosts should be paid, and are they willing to pay it? Do they want the couples and single guys to subsidise them as well?

10 days is extremely exhausting for a host, it's no vacation for them.

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Hi Bob, the dancers were, of course, females. Stardust does not provide hosts for male leaders.It wasn’t an issue of how much the hosts should be paid since the amount paid for the cruise included the dance hosts as advertised by Stardust and reinforced on the cruise by the management during the cruise. They had already paid for the service ( of the hosts) when they bought their ticket for the dance cruise. Since it was explained to every one ahead of time that hosts are included in the price of the cruise, it does not become an issue of the other participants subsidizing those who will utilize the hosts. I am sure that Stardust does not want to lose a significant number of single female participants by not providing hosts.

I agreee that 10 days of being a dance host is a lot but that is what they have signed up for. A very good friend of mine who is a dance host for the cruise industry tells me that he is most frequently assigned to cruises that last an average of 25 days. Those cruises typically have the larger number of single (widowed, divorced) women traveling. You have to remember also, that the (official) dance hosts who sign up for the dance cruise are being compensated for their time as well as getting a “free” cruise out of the deal.

Any single woman who attends a cruise like this and is serious about learning new steps, needs to practice those steps while they are fresh in the mind in order to build muscle memory. I can imagine how frustrating it is for someone who wants to dance at the events on a dance cruise and has no partner (even if is for a few dances) to participate.

Take a look around at the next dance that you attend. If your local dances in the GTA are like they are here in Buffalo, I’m sure that you see a larger number of single women than single men. That’s great if you are a man and you want to dance. It’s terrible for the single ladies who are there to dance but have to wait until a single man asks her.

Speaking of that, I think that all dance venues should have a protocol making it easy for single dancers to get together. I attended one venue where the protocol was for anyone wanting to dance to stand on the side of the floor in a designated area to signify that they were available and willing to dance. Any other person could then approach the other (male or female) and politely ask for that dance with them. This works very well and I can’t understand why it is not done at more venues.

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A full discussion would take many pages, so just some simplistic one-liners.

As I read it, single guys and couples should subsidize having enough hosts to keep single women happy. How many hosts and how much money? What changes would make hosting more popular?

Review of group classes, that's the point of lesson planning and syllabus material.

I've already posted about refusing to dance in closed position. There were a lot of women not nearly as good as they think- that's basics like posture, frame, footwork. Private classes- no comment.

As far as I know Linda makes it clear about the host ratio when singles book. The Dubai cruise is primarily a destination cruise, there are 7 women for each guy including hosts, that's been made clear to everyone booking.

30-Up club in Toronto has hosts. I don't know how well it works, all the single women sign up even if they're with a group and are dancing. The numbers never work out even but I've been there when there's extra guys. Westway, I don't go as frequently, but the numbers aren't much different.

I do International style, figuring out how our styles overlap is difficult on a crowded floor. There were a number of times I was sitting in the lounge with no partners, would have been a great time to practice.

Costa is the only cruise line you can hope to find partners on a non-group cruise. Cunard, the good dancers stopped when they joined the race to the bottom a decade ago. American mass-market ships, hopeless.

Edited by Dancer Bob
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Also, on non-group cruises, Costa does not have dance hosts per se, but the cruise staff do dance with passengers. Right now they have one woman who's very good, probably silver level, who also does their dance classes. The male staff are generally good enough for the average passenger.

 

One of the men on the Animation team is a very good Argentine tango dancer. He'd certainly be in the advanced classes at my school.

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  • 4 months later...

I'm going on a Ceroc (Modern Jive Cruise) in a weeks time on the MSC Magnifica. Ceroc,com do a cruise every year, last year was the caribbean, this year Norweigen ffiords , next year possibly the Meditarranean.

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