Live music in the MDR?

[Tin]

will there be someone playing live music during dinner on the Silhouette

[ghstudio]

No....that was discontinued at least two years ago on all celebrity ships

[Karynanne]

It's a shame that Celebrity discontinued it. We really enjoyed it on Formal evenings.

[Tin]

on the Allure last year, there was live music in the MDR for couple of nights. I will miss it for sure.

[blueboro]

I found the music was hard to hear anyway because of the noise level in the dining room. Now, trust me there will be all kinds of piped-in music around the other parts of the ship to the point of being very annoying.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I find the piped in music in the dining room annoying. Just means you have to talk louder to be heard by your tablemates, therefore upping substantially the noise level in the dining room. Which is noisy enough without piped in music.

[NJ Fred]

Alas, another time-honored tradition of cruising that went the way of the before dinner chimes and theme nights in the main dining room.

 

Expect formal nights to meet a similar demise shortly. As one bean-counter analyst I know pointed out: the probable elimination of formal wear from passengers's luggage mean less weight of the vessel and, thus, increased profits via fuel savings.

 

The charm, the traditions - rapidly vanishing.

 

Shame.

[We're The Groupnors]

The only time we heard live music in the MDR on our Millennium cruise earlier this year was for the Grand Brunch Buffet and for the Elite Elegant Tea. For both of those events the string quartet was playing.

[dkjretired]

Alas, another time-honored tradition of cruising that went the way of the before dinner chimes and theme nights in the main dining room.

 

Expect formal nights to meet a similar demise shortly. As one bean-counter analyst I know pointed out: the probable elimination of formal wear from passengers's luggage mean less weight of the vessel and, thus, increased profits via fuel savings.

 

The charm, the traditions - rapidly vanishing.

 

Shame.

 

I disagree, as long as Celebrity keeps their specialty restaurants at smart casual they will draw in more customers who will pay. There are many people who post on these boards that they go to the specialties to avoid dressing formally.

[miched]

I disagree, as long as Celebrity keeps their specialty restaurants at smart casual they will draw in more customers who will pay. There are many people who post on these boards that they go to the specialties to avoid dressing formally.

 

That presents a great money making opportunity for the cruise lines. Have a $5 cover charge for the MDR on formal nights. If you are dressed formally the fee is waived. I am sure that many will pay the cover to avoid packing the formal clothes.

 

Another great idea would be to have the dining split when you make your reservations. Have one time designated for those that want to dress formal and the other for those that don't. That way no one will feel offended. The people that are dressed formal will be dining while those that aren't will be in the theater or lounges and then those that are dressEd formal will be in the theater or lounges when those that aren't will be dining. Every one will be happy.

 

 

.

[Dave85]

I disagree, as long as Celebrity keeps their specialty restaurants at smart casual they will draw in more customers who will pay. There are many people who post on these boards that they go to the specialties to avoid dressing formally.

 

I agree with you. I've met many people (and observed quite a few more) on my cruises who dine in specialty restaurants on formal night to avoid having to dress up for formal night in the MDR. I'd be curious to see a statistical analysis of how specialty dining bookings on formal nights compare to non-formal nights fleet wide (a juicy document we'll never actually see :p).

 

Also, lets not forget all of the other misc. revenue that formal night generates, notably PHOTOS... formal nights are the biggest formal portrait nights of the entire cruise. Also, just based on my own observations, people seem to drink and gamble more on formal night as they get into the "mood." Curious if others agree. I can't see the lines eliminating formal night anytime soon when it's such a profit generator for them.

 

Now, other lines (looking at you, Carnival) have greatly scaled back formal night but that's for different reasons -- namely, passenger disinterest in formal night.

[ghstudio]

The only time we heard live music in the MDR on our Millennium cruise earlier this year was for the Grand Brunch Buffet and for the Elite Elegant Tea. For both of those events the string quartet was playing.

 

Was that the same string quartet that included an accordion?

[We're The Groupnors]

Was that the same string quartet that included an accordion?

 

Might have been. I saw them in Cellar Masters, but don't remember if the accordion was with the strings in the MDR.