Nightlife on Eurodam

[dvg1027]

I keep reading about how there is not much to do in the later part of the evening on HAL.

 

My DH and I usually stay up until 2 or 3 when we are on RCCL. After the shows we usually hit the casino, go for a few drinks, hit the casino, go to one of the bars to listen to music, hit the casino, LOL.

 

Do the bars stay open late, how about the casinos, are there any late evening shows?

 

We are going on Eurodam because my parents are elderly and we were told by many people that HAL would be good. But we will be out after they go to bed and like to know ahead of time what if anything is available. Thanks.

[John Reid]

On our January 2011 Eurodam cruise. . .

 

First, the entertainment hours:

 

Second production shows started at 10:15/over by 11:30.

Ocean Bar- Dance music of the 40's, 50's, and some 60's/6:30 - 11:30

Piano Bar - Michael went from 9:00 until just after midnight with no breaks.

Explorer's Lounge - Adagio Strings/6:00-11:00

Crow's Nest - Guitarist/6:00- 9:00

Ship game entertainment shows usually started between 8:00 and 9:00. They would last about an hour. Yes, I wish venues went an hour later!

 

Northern Lights Disco with a DJ kept later hours. We never saw more than 5 people in there when we peeked in.

 

Don't know when the casino closed. We were in there as late as 1:00 a.m.

 

Bar closing times:

Lido Pool Bar - 10pm

Seaview Pool Bar - 11pm

Ocean Bar - 12am

Crow's Nest, Casino, Piano Bar, and Northern Lights just listed as "until closing"

Atrium Bar - 9pm

Silk Den - 12am

Explorer's Lounge - 11pm

Pinnacle Bar - 11pm

 

Other than the possibility of the casino, I don't think you will find anything much past 12:30-1:00.

We choose from HAL, Celebrity, RCL, and Princess when we cruise. I find that there are distinct differences among them, each having a particular style. We enjoyed our two RCL cruises and our one HAL cruise. We cruise HAL again next January. HAL's style is not RCL's style. For us, it is an enjoyable difference.

[trophy_23]

We found the nightlife to be better on the ships with dancing in the crows nest. The Northern Lights was dead and we were in bed by midnight on our Eurodam cruise, which was fine for us because we were exhausted with all the ports!

[tinkerfenwick]

We were on Eurodam a couple of weeks ago around the Baltic and compared to RCL after 10pm there is not much happening.

The pianoman usually stops around 12 – but to be honest, we didn’t favour this bar as compared to other piano bars, this guy used backing tracks rather than just using a piano and the sound quality was poor.

The queens lounge usually has something happening till about 11pm – or later when the HAL cats are on, who are great as they play fabulous live music....

The Casino (when at sea) is buzzing well after midnight.

Nightclub – great between 11pm-midnight as it’s happy hour (buy one get one for $1) and usually busy until about 2am but mainly with ships staff, who were welcoming and friendly with guests.

Being in our 40’s, we used to watch the early show, have dinner around 8.30pm, a drink or 6 in the Queens lounge then head into the nighclub next door for happy hour then stay till about 2am…

One thing I did notice was that most of the guests in all the bars didnt really drink much - and especially in the Queens lounge, guests would sit at tables with no drinks at all just enjoying the band or entertainment.

[YYC F/A]

Caribbean does tend to lend itself to a few more folks staying up a bit later. Folks in the Med are typically cruising for the ports/itinerary and it's a busy schedule.

 

Caribbean is more relax/sun/getaway and usually at least 2 sea days in addition to port days that aren't nearly as hectic.

 

That said, even in the Caribbean - other than during holiday sailings, myself and friends have always been the ones shutting down the ship - and shutting down as in 1am, and rarely, closer to 2am.

 

The Casino will typically stay open until 2am if there are enough folks playing, and on one cruise on HAL were there was a steady late night crowd they let us play til 2.30ish. I don't believe HAL ever "rolls", in fact I believe only NCL, RCCL and CCL will "roll" - i.e. have the Casino stay open all the way through the night and into the next sea day.

 

HAL is definitely more sleepy than RCCL, NCL or CCL. Even on Princess and Celebrity I've found it's fairly similar to HAL with an earlier to bed crowd.

 

The Northern Lights is a great concept, keeping the Sports Bar, Casino and late night club all grouped close by together - which make sense seeing as these there are the three late night venues. As others have posted, it can be hit or miss whether there's actually a crowd in there though.

 

I did not know about the 11pm-Midnight happy hour! Though usually we're drinking the special HAL crew cocktail. Great bargain for 6 (yes, that's SIX) shots of liquor and suprisingly tasty :D

[elycelynne]

The pianoman usually stops around 12 – but to be honest, we didn’t favour this bar as compared to other piano bars, this guy used backing tracks rather than just using a piano and the sound quality was poor.

 

 

Sounds like Michael is still there. I wasn't a fan of the backing tracks either, and audience participation wasn't strongly encouraged -- in fact, he didn't do the music trivia contest because he didn't believe in them (although they would have been hard to do with the backing tracks). There's no denying that he's a talented musician and singer, but it was made clear that he was the performer and we were the audience. I prefer it when the pianists are part performer and part facilitator.

[Protseq]

"We were on Eurodam a couple of weeks ago around the Baltic and compared to RCL after 10pm there is not much happening."

 

I can second that comment. When a daily program says open till close, to me it usually means when the management deems it too quiet to continue. Just off of the the June 3rd Fjord and Highlands cruise, and those port intensive days are not inducive to late nights. Passengers may have been more inclined to stay up later when following day was a sea day. Tom

[cruise2rejuv]

I can second that comment. When a daily program says open till close, to me it usually means when the management deems it too quiet to continue. Just off of the the June 3rd Fjord and Highlands cruise, and those port intensive days are not inducive to late nights. Passengers may have been more inclined to stay up later when following day was a sea day. Tom

Our last two cruises on HAL were pretty dead for late night entertainment. :(

Good job on your review Tom.

[lovetocruise2020]

We are 32 and 31, and last Oct was our first HAL Caribbean cruise.

We were so tired each port day that we were back in the cabin right after dinner and watched a DVD from the library.

 

On ship days, it was pretty much the same thing! Retreat all day, rest all night.

 

I didn't find myself missing the night life on RCCL, the ship the food and atmosphere was so elegant and upscale compared to what we were used to. I even missed the dessert extravaganza!

 

This October we will not miss the dessert extravaganza or the happy hour in the Crows Nest!!

 

We ended up watching both seasons of "Rome" in 6 nights.

 

It was a very relaxing. Best cruise ever.

 

The two things we missed from RCCL:

1. Was the strings/piano duo and trio on the Radiance class chips. No vocals, very elegant.

2. Dueling Piano/Rocking Piano show

 

I did not care for the stings with vocals on the Eurodam that performed in what I would call the romantic dancing hour. I do not remember where it was. :( We had looked forward to it, but stayed about 5 minutes.

 

When it came to activities and nightlife, that is honestly all that we both missed compared to RCCL.

 

You will have a great time!