Am I the only one who dislikes the 7pm and 9pm show times?

[igraf]

Late seating dinner has been at 8pm on my last three HAL cruises. Thus, we attend the 7pm show and then quickly move on over to dinner. There is no "dressed up with nowhere to go" deadtime, in fact, we often have to rush on over to the dining room. This is actually a very efficient use of time.

 

A 10pm show would actually create a lot of deadtime for the early diners.

 

Another reason for having the show at 9pm instead of 10pm is so that the people in the cabins above the stage are less likely to be bothered by the noise.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

Has anyone considered that if you go to the early show at 7 p.m., then have late seating dinner, at 9:30 p.m. you are "all dressed up with nowhere to go." Your choices then are few: the casino or a bar - both income generating venues.

 

I prefer late seating dinner and really dislike going to the 7 p.m. show. It cuts short your time spent at the pool, spa, gym, etc. in the late afternoon, when those areas become less crowded. For my next Carribbean, or less port-intensive cruise, I will have to investigate the show times before I put down my credit card. It could be a deal-breaker for me.

[Mary Ellen]

A 10pm show would actually create a lot of deadtime for the early diners.

Uh, no. The early diners would have an 8:00 show. The times (prior to this change) were 8:00 and 10:00.

[Bill HaHa]

We are at the early dinner seating......And are happy with the show times. They work for us. We usually have our cocktell hour about 4pm on our veranda watching the seas sail by. Very relaxing

[Virgil]

Put me down as AGAINST the 7PM and 9PM shows. We have fixed dining at 8PM so we can't go to either one. If you go at 7PM by the time you get back to the dining room, you are late and they have started without you. You are never finished by 9PM so you miss that one too. Why couldn't they have them at 7PM and 10PM.

[baggal]

Late seating dinner has been at 8pm on my last three HAL cruises. Thus, we attend the 7pm show and then quickly move on over to dinner. There is no "dressed up with nowhere to go" deadtime, in fact, we often have to rush on over to the dining room. This is actually a very efficient use of time.

 

A 10pm show would actually create a lot of deadtime for the early diners.

 

Another reason for having the show at 9pm instead of 10pm is so that the people in the cabins above the stage are less likely to be bothered by the noise.

 

igraf

 

 

My point is that after you've rushed to dress to go to the show at 7 p.m. and then rushed to dinner by 8, where are you rushing to after dinner? Nowhere. Other than the casino or a bar. So then the rest of the evening is deadtime. Not everyone on vacation is "early to bed - early to rise."

[igraf]

Here are the late night activities from one of my old daily programs:

 

What is often a Filipino rock/pop band : until midnight (my favorite on the last cruise!)

Classical music: until 11pm

Disco: until ???

Movie: starts at 9:15pm

HALCats: until 11pm

Piano Bar : 9pm to 11pm

Casino, various bars until ???

Sometimes an extra like late night comedy or a crew show.

 

I am not seeing the problem! How is it that you are unaware of these activities? I usually take late traditional dining and have experienced the above after-dinner activities first hand.

 

Also, it is the early diners who have to rush to get dressed up as they have to be ready for dinner 5:15pm, whereas I don't need to be dressed up until the 7pm show!

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

My point is that after you've rushed to dress to go to the show at 7 p.m. and then rushed to dinner by 8, where are you rushing to after dinner? Nowhere. Other than the casino or a bar. So then the rest of the evening is deadtime. Not everyone on vacation is "early to bed - early to rise."

[SabreSailor]

Here are the late night activities from one of my old daily programs:

 

What is often a Filipino rock/pop band : until midnight (my favorite on the last cruise!)

Classical music: until 11pm

Disco: until ???

Movie: starts at 9:15pm

HALCats: until 11pm

Piano Bar : 9pm to 11pm

Casino, various bars until ???

Sometimes an extra like late night comedy or a crew show.

 

I am not seeing the problem! How is it that you are unaware of these activities? I usually take late traditional dining and have experienced the above after-dinner activities first hand.

 

Also, it is the early diners who have to rush to get dressed up as they have to be ready for dinner 5:15pm, whereas I don't need to be dressed up until the 7pm show!

 

igraf

 

I'm aware of these options. We do enjoy the strings.

 

If you don't care for a cocktail, then you're right - 7pm is the first event. But if you are like a large number of passengers who take advantage of the bars before dinner, it means being ready at 6pm.

 

Another issue with the 7pm/9pm show schedule that Seattle should take notice of is the loss of revenue in the bars from 7pm to 8pm - when cocktail time conflicts with show time. HAL gets little revenue from the show (the occasional drink) but would likely get a lot more revenue from the bars from 7pm to 8pm.

[HeatherInFlorida]

One of the reasons we choose late dining is to have more daytime hours to enjoy. If our show is at 7:00, then what's the point? We might as well go to an earlier dinner and enjoy the 9:00 show.

 

Also, from reading these posts a lot of the early dining people go to the 7:00 show (which is really designed for the later eaters either in AYW or traditional). I would think this would make for a jam packed show with the 9:00 getting far fewer. That doesn't seem fair to the late diners either.

 

I thought they'd discontinued this practice and I'm very disappointed to read they're still doing it. I'll hope for the best for our upcoming cruise!!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Put me down as AGAINST the 7PM and 9PM shows. We have fixed dining at 8PM so we can't go to either one. If you go at 7PM by the time you get back to the dining room, you are late and they have started without you. You are never finished by 9PM so you miss that one too. Why couldn't they have them at 7PM and 10PM.

 

 

We have fixed dinner at 5:45. On our one cruise we wanted to Joel Mason so we just had an entree and went to the 7 PM show. We have seen his show before -- when it was at 8 PM and it usually ended at 9:15. At 7:45 Joel apologized that he had to end the show early because people needed to get to the 8 PM dinner on time. We never made it to a production show but I did ask around -- yes -- even the production shows ended by 7:50 giving people plenty of time to get to the dining room.

So -- yes -- you can go to the 7 PM and make it to dinner on time at 8.

[Copper10-8]

The 7:00 and 9:00 pm show times pretty much suck when you have the 8:00 dinner seating because they will force you to go to a pre-dinner show. That, in turn, means rushing instead of relaxing after a day of shore excursions. HAL has been pretty inconsistent in their show times. Back in NOV on Zaandam the show times were 7:00 + 9:00 pm. For New Years on Westerdam, they were 8:00 + 10:00 pm. Sure would be nice if they would move them to the 8:00 + 10:00 pm slots permanently fleet-wide

[igraf]

There is some coordination between the shows and dinner. If the show runs a few minutes longer, then they will seat for dinner that much later. Nobody has to miss late dinner because they watched the early show.

 

igraf

 

 

 

We have fixed dinner at 5:45. On our one cruise we wanted to Joel Mason so we just had an entree and went to the 7 PM show. We have seen his show before -- when it was at 8 PM and it usually ended at 9:15. At 7:45 Joel apologized that he had to end the show early because people needed to get to the 8 PM dinner on time. We never made it to a production show but I did ask around -- yes -- even the production shows ended by 7:50 giving people plenty of time to get to the dining room.

 

So -- yes -- you can go to the 7 PM and make it to dinner on time at 8.

[igraf]

As I said previously, early show/late dining offers extra time for daytime activities. More than 1.5 hours difference.

 

I did not notice large crowds in the early show (due to early diners) on my last two cruises, and also did not notice a lot of people entering during the show. There really was no problem in this regard.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

One of the reasons we choose late dining is to have more daytime hours to enjoy. If our show is at 7:00, then what's the point? We might as well go to an earlier dinner and enjoy the 9:00 show.

 

Also, from reading these posts a lot of the early dining people go to the 7:00 show (which is really designed for the later eaters either in AYW or traditional). I would think this would make for a jam packed show with the 9:00 getting far fewer. That doesn't seem fair to the late diners either.

 

I thought they'd discontinued this practice and I'm very disappointed to read they're still doing it. I'll hope for the best for our upcoming cruise!!

[m steve]

shows were 8 and 10. Last night there was a cabaret at 9 as well. Wish they had more of that type of entertainment rather than comedians and magicians.

[Krazy Kruizers]

There is some coordination between the shows and dinner. If the show runs a few minutes longer, then they will seat for dinner that much later. Nobody has to miss late dinner because they watched the early show.

 

igraf

 

Not on a couple of ships we have been on.

Especially the Zuiderdam. If you were not at your assigned table (fixed seating) within the 15 minute time limit -- they give your table to someone from the open seating.

We saw this happen a couple of times in our area. One couple arrived at 6:05 -- their table was gone!!

[HeatherInFlorida]

As I said previously, early show/late dining offers extra time for daytime activities. More than 1.5 hours difference.

 

I did not notice large crowds in the early show (due to early diners) on my last two cruises, and also did not notice a lot of people entering during the show. There really was no problem in this regard.

 

igraf

 

Maybe I wasn't clear. We dine at 8:00 so we have more time during the day and can then have some leisurely time in the Ocean Bar or Piano Bar before going to dinner at 8:00. If we want to go to the show, the whole thing is haywire. We'd have to go for a drink at 6:00, the show at 7:00 and dinner at 8:00. The whole reason for late sitting goes out the window. Not to mention as someone else said ... dinner and a show is more fun than a show and dinner. It's just backwards.

 

Plus it's crowded because as KK pointed out some people at the 5:45 dinner go to the 7:00 show when they are meant to go to the 9:00.

 

I agree with Copper. It should be consistent fleetwide so we know what we're getting. If it changes ship to ship they should say so; it really would affect which cruise I book.

 

shows were 8 and 10. Last night there was a cabaret at 9 as well. Wish they had more of that type of entertainment rather than comedians and magicians.

 

That's great news! Hopefully they'll stick to that on Westerdam for the next few weeks:)

[Ship's Wake]

The 7:00 and 9:00 pm show times pretty much suck when you have the 8:00 dinner seating because they will force you to go to a pre-dinner show. That, in turn, means rushing instead of relaxing after a day of shore excursions. HAL has been pretty inconsistent in their show times. Back in NOV on Zaandam the show times were 7:00 + 9:00 pm. For New Years on Westerdam, they were 8:00 + 10:00 pm. Sure would be nice if they would move them to the 8:00 + 10:00 pm slots permanently fleet-wide

 

I agree. I regret to say that we now avoid sailing HAL if there are other cruise line choices available on a similar itinerary. The past 4 cruises we have booked have been with other lines that actually deliver enjoyable entertainment later in the evening, because we don't know what we're getting with HAL.

 

HAL entertainment is not what it used to be.

 

Joe

[SabreSailor]

Wow! Didn't think I would stir up all that controversy, but that's great.

 

Let me try to sum up what I've heard.

 

Second (late) (main or whatever) fixed sitting seems to almost unanimously dislike the arrangement of 7pm and 9pm shows. First sitting seems to think it's OK - but then again they can have their show immediately after a quick dinner or a couple of hours later and they've can choose to imbibe just before dinner if they choose - so they have the best of both worlds. AYWD also thinks it's OK since they can time their dinner and drinks.

 

So it looks like our second/main/late diners are the ones that are getting the short straw....thanks for all your input - too bad Seattle doesn't listen.... or at least too bad there isn't some predictable consistency!

[TLHB70]

DH and I choose the second/main fixed dining. We prefer the show at 7 PM. We do not stay up much later after our dinner. We are early risers (I like to be in the fitness center when it opens.) so we go to bed earlier. If we had to do a show at 10 PM, we would skip it! We definitely prefer the 7 and 9 PM shows.

I know that everyone has differing opinions on this issue. I thought I would share mine since others have done the same.

[MrsMuir]

I just have to get my 2 cents in here. We missed ALL the shows on our last 12-day cruise on HAL because of the show times, except for the crew show, which was later. Yes, we were second fixed seating. Sitting in a theater before dinner is, for us, not the way to make new friends, discuss the day's adventures or just relax with a drink. And after spending all that time tarting myself up for the evening, who can see the results in a darkened theatre?

[pmcp]

I also really dislike the 7 & 9 pm shows. We also choose the early dining & it was great to go straight to the 8 pm show. Now waiting around til 9 for the show does not work as well to me.

[m steve]

The cabaret," Broadway to Queens" was a great innovation and should be offered on more ships and several nights. It is just like a night club with drinks but no smoke. It also showcases the talent in the shows without all the props and costumes.

[Copper10-8]

The cabaret," Broadway to Queens" was a great innovation and should be offered on more ships and several nights. It is just like a night club with drinks but no smoke. It also showcases the talent in the shows without all the props and costumes.

 

Agree 100%! They've been doing that off and on now for about two years. It involves the four lead singers from the ship's cast given a jazz-like concert accompanied by the HAL Cats. On the four Vistas and Eurodam, it takes place in the Queen's Lounge and on the "S" and "R" class ships, we've seen it done in the Crow's Nest. Hoping it will become a regular event

[Cinder Again]

I just got off a 33 day cruise on the Rotterdam, and have late seating for dinner. I thought I would hate seeing the shows at 7, but as it turns out, it was great! We went to happy hour 4-5 in the Crows Nest, stumbled back to our cabin to change for dinner, got to the show lounge in time to get a good seat, ordered a before dinner cocktail to sip while watching the show, then stumbled to dinner afterwards. We still had time to hit the casino/piano bar after dinner before calling it a night. Like anything new, once we got used to the new schedule it worked for us. I will say the entertainment was a lot better than my last few cruises. The movies were pretty bad on the trip, though, and the movie times were inconsistant day to day.