Opinions on the MUTS

[Buck Turgidson]

I am soon to sail on my first Princess cruise and my first cruise with a big screen TV in the pool area. What are your thoughts? A welcome addition ? intrusive?

Edited January 11, 2014 by Buck Turgidson

[Frenchymp]

During the day, they show sport and That doesnt interess me so I dont go to That pool! For Movie at night, it si very fun to look at a movie under the star on a cruiseboat!

[Kenswing]

We enjoy it, even on cold nights.. They will give you as many blankets as you want so don't worry about being cold.

 

We also only go for the night time movie. Fewer people running around..

[jean95404]

MUTS was the main thing that my husband and I looked forward to in the evenings. You see the show in the theatre, done. The lounge acts at hit and miss. But MUTS is something so fun, being outside under the stars. They also provide popcorn and later in the movie warm cookies and glasses of milk. The lounge chairs are covered with a snuggly fleece and there are blankets if needed. :D

[cruiseryyc]

I know that I'm in the minority but I hate MUTS.

[TM]

I find it to be extremely annoying during the day. At night it is OK as the pool area is not well used and for the occasional movie I might watch it is enjoyable. But during the day I would much prefer to be able to enjoy peace and quiet around the pool area at least from the perspective of not having MUTS blaring away. Even with headphones on the sound is overwhelming, at least in my humble opinion.

[Bookish Angel]

but the selection of films is severely lacking; I have never seen a subtitled film, documentary, etc.

[akeasley]

I find it to be extremely annoying during the day. At night it is OK as the pool area is not well used and for the occasional movie I might watch it is enjoyable. But during the day I would much prefer to be able to enjoy peace and quiet around the pool area at least from the perspective of not having MUTS blaring away. Even with headphones on the sound is overwhelming, at least in my humble opinion.

 

 

That's why it's nice that most ships have two pools. If you don't want to listen to MUTS, just go to the other pool.

[Husky61]

Individual choice. What's right for you is whats important.:)

[GottaLuvCruising]

We love MUTS. We plan our evening so we can enjoy a movie when the selection suits us.

[eandj]

I agree during the day we find it sometimes annoying. If you don't want to watch..which on sunny days is tough anyways, you can still hear the movie from quite far. Especially if it's an action type with explosions etc. Sometimes they will play video concerts and if the performer isn't one you like, well...you have to live with it. It's LOUD.

But that's our take on it. Some like a lot of background noise and entertainment around them. We prefer a small live band for part of the day at the pool. That's good enough for us. And of course we have the option of sitting further away from the movie pool area.

Haven't done the night thing. Seems it could be a relaxing night if that's what you want to do. Any movies of interest to us are those we have already seen. And we seem to find other things to keep our interest.

It's all about choices.

Edited January 11, 2014 by eandj

[OCruisers]

That's why it's nice that most ships have two pools. If you don't want to listen to MUTS, just go to the other pool.

 

That's what we do! While we don't go to MUTS (except once for a football game), we don't care it's on the ship.

 

LuLu

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[Woobstr112G]

I've seen the same concerts on several different cruises.....

 

Bob

[tarps]

Never got to watch a MUTS on last cruise .... as another poster stated, anything that interested us, we'd already seen. During the day I find it very intrusive. Would also prefer a short period of a live band, but mostly I like to read by the pool, and I find the noise far to annoying.

[JimmyVWine]

When the "S" in MUTS stands for "Stars", then the idea is brilliant. When the "S" stands for "Sun", I don't care for it. During the day, there are too many time-worn concerts (see Bob's comment above.) Has there ever been a cruise without a Tina Turner concert? News flash. Tina Turner concerts from 1986 are no longer relevant. Many people enjoy relative peace while outside. It would be nice if every other day were MUTS -free during the day. Yes, I know that one can simply leave. But consider these two points. First, several ships have no equivalent alternative, (i.e., the other pool is indoors, or in the case of Royal, adults only). Second, if the content shown during the day were shown in the theater instead of on the MUTS screen, fewer than a dozen people would show up to watch it, proving that the content is more background noise than in demand. If the content is simply background noise during the day, passengers should be able to do without it every other day or so.

[bachcruise]

I enjoy the concept but was disappointed in the selection of movies on the Coral recently.

[KaththeTaff]

I know that I'm in the minority but I hate MUTS.

 

You are by no means in the minority. On our Crown Princess cruise, the endless stream of Tina Turner and Christina Aguilera concerts were sufficient to put us off. There were no films that we wanted to watch at all.

 

It's a shame, as we were so looking forward to MUTS and thought it would be one of the highlights of the cruise. But we ended up hating that screen!

[Hlitner]

I am soon to sail on my first Princess cruise and my first cruise with a big screen TV in the pool area. What are your thoughts? A welcome addition ? intrusive?

 

We absolutely HATE the Princess Muts and it is the primary reason we have avoided Princess for the past 4 years despite being long term Princess Elite cruisers. We are venturing back onto Princess this spring, but will probably pay the big bucks for the Sanctuary in order to stay far away from Muts during the daylight hours.

 

So, guess we should explain. When Princess first installed MUTS on their ships, it was intended as a place where one could enjoy movies after dark (hence the "Movies under the Stars" name) and we loved it. They then tried an experiment on one ship where they used it during the daylight hours, but had no speaker sound. Those that wanted to hear what was on the screen used small radio receivers (with ear buds) that were provided in every cabin. But this quickly ended and they started using MUTS during the daytime...often with blasting and annoying sound. For DW and I, it made it impossible to relax in a deck chair with our books and perhaps quietly listen to our own music (on our iPods). We found it made the central pool area essentially unusable for anyone who wanted some peace and quiet during the day. Just trying to have a friendly conversation in the pool became an effort with the football game (or kids movie) blasting in the background.

 

We do acknowledge that some others love Muts in the daytime. I will even admit when they had the "short" of the surfboarding dog it would make me smile....but that was only for the first 50 times we saw that short!

 

Hank

[bigenna]

Add me to the muts haters during the daytime. Like others have said, the sound carries way too far and takes away from my being able to "escape completely" with my book or just to have a quiet conversation. If I wanted blaring loud music I would sail on carnival.

At night its a different story. Although I have not often partaken of the evening movies it is a unique concept and I did enjoy it.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Forums mobile app

[MaisonRose]

I haven't experienced this outdoor movie thing yet, on a cruise. But several times, i.e. snorkeling excursions out of Key West, I have noticed that despite mostly elderly clients, the CREW enjoyed the heavy metal music a lot. Since I am approaching the curmudgeon age, LOL, I have asked the crew to either change the music or turn it WAY down. It never occurs to 20-something's that their music is not our music.

[Mr_Astro]

I find it to be extremely annoying during the day. At night it is OK as the pool area is not well used and for the occasional movie I might watch it is enjoyable. But during the day I would much prefer to be able to enjoy peace and quiet around the pool area at least from the perspective of not having MUTS blaring away. Even with headphones on the sound is overwhelming, at least in my humble opinion.

 

I totally agree with you. I find myself driven away from the pool by the intensity of the film(s) and often there are not other options if want pool and sun and quite(ish) times.

 

At night you can choose to see a movie or not and utilize what would otherwise be an unused revenue stream for the ship (the bar is open).

 

Daytime= no, night time= ok.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

I absolutely love MUTS! Normally during the day we don't swim in the pools anyway and if we do- we tend to use the indoor pool because it is warmer or go to the hot tubs up on deck 16 (Grand, Sapphire, Caribbean Princess) and enjoy complete peace and quiet. Even during the day though, MUTs isn't loud and annoying IMO

 

I love the movies at night. It's fantastic. If it's really cold, I'll get in the hot tubs for a while and then bundle up on a chair. I do recommend bringing hoody sweat shirts, sweat pants and thick socks because it can get cold at night.

[Hoosier-Cruiser]

One of my favorite memories from my anniversary cruise back in 2008 was laying on the deck chairs (squeezed together), watching Batman while enjoying a Caribbean shower. It was fun, unique and definitely memorable.

[JimmyVWine]

I absolutely love MUTS! Normally during the day we don't swim in the pools anyway and if we do- we tend to use the indoor pool because it is warmer or go to the hot tubs up on deck 16 (Grand, Sapphire, Caribbean Princess) and enjoy complete peace and quiet. Even during the day though, MUTs isn't loud and annoying IMO

 

I love the movies at night. It's fantastic.

It seems from your post that you love MUTS at night. Many do. And it seems that during the day, you don't find it annoying. But do you need it during the day? Could you live without it? You start out by saying that you absolutely love it, but it reads as if during the day you are indifferent toward it, which more or less echoes the thoughts of many people who are somewhat critical of it. I'm not sure I've ever seen a post by someone saying that they hate MUTS at night. So the more pertinent question is: What is your opinion of MUTS during the day? From what I can tell, there are those who are ambivalent and those who are opposed. But few if any who are wildly enthusiastic about daytime MUTS.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

I was responding to the OP. As for the daytime, as I said it doesn't bother me but I am busy during the day with trivia and games! I'm not usually lounging by the pool so it doesn't effect me one way or another. I sometimes eat lunch by MUTS during the day and it doesn't bother me but again- I like to watch movies at night more than during the day. If they shut it off during the day- I certainly wouldn't care.

 

Let me say that I HATED the movie by the pool on my last cruise on Enchantment of the Seas- it was Football all day and night and LOUD! If it there was a break in the football it was LOUD music concerts. It was so annoying but I wasn't bothered on Princess because there are lots of pools to enjoy. There is the indoor pool, the little pool on Aloha deck and the huge hot tubs on deck 16.

Edited January 12, 2014 by rebeccalouiseagain