Production Shows Decreased 😥

[JRock59]

I sailed on Carnival Conquest on May 4th thru 11th and I was very disappointed by the lack of entertainment. Even in the recent past carnival used to have a show in the main show lounge every night of the cruise. Having the ability to go to the main show go to the comedy club and go to karaoke every night if I wish was one of the things that makes carnival my favorite cruise line. On the carnival sunshine in February I was disappointed by the small showroom and the fact that they had only 4 shows during a seven day cruise. But it got even worse on the conquest. They had only three shows during the seven days! The rest of the time in the main showroom they did lame activities like Hasbro the game show (twice!!!), the not so newlywed game and the passenger talent show. I don't mind the passenger talent show because I think it's kind of entertaining to see my fellow passengers perform and their families really enjoy it but it should be only one night not multiple passenger participation in activities masquerading as entertainment during the week.

 

Is anyone who has cruised recently aware of any of the Carnival ships that still offer a production show, karaoke, AND comedy club every night?

 

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Come on over to the Gulf Coast Magic, Triumph, Dream and I think the Elation still have full production shows. :)

[Saltz]

To each his own, the shows you don't like, someone else does. For example, we enjoy the Hasbro and Newlywed shows better than a cheesy song and dance production. Boooooring.

[Jana60]

Come on over to the Gulf Coast Magic, Triumph, Dream and I think the Elation still have full production shows. :)

 

Unfortunately I think magic has started having the game shows instead of the big shows but I discovered something.... all of the 5 day or less cruises have a regular production show every night instead of playlist productions. The regular protection shows involved use of a live orchestra and had multiple singers and dancers. The new play list productions use canned music and only 8 performers who do some movement but no true dance and project other performers onto a screen behind them to make it look like there are larger numbers of performers. The old shows had about 10-12 dancers 2 to 4 main singers and an orchestra and performed every night. The new shows have 8 performers, a projection screen and taped music.

 

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Edited May 31, 2014 by Jana60

[Susie51]

My usual evening includes dinner, then entertainment in the big theater, then the game show (Not so Newly Wed Game, Quest, Battle of the Sexes, Name that Tune, Friendly Feud) which is usually held in the medium-size lounge. Finally, I check out the dance party.

 

If any of these things don't appeal to me then I go to the smaller lounges. Plus there is always shopping, the library, and card room.

 

The cruises I have been on the passenger talent show has been held in the late afternoon in the big theater.

 

In 2008 on Victory, I was able to do my usual thing. Seems like that has changed now in regards to entertainment.

[talkorpi]

I was on Conquest in August and the entertainment was HORRIBLE. There were, as you quoted, only THREE shows for a SEVEN day cruise. And we only went to one. We missed Diva and Latin night. It was raining the night we had British night, so why not. It was AWFUL. I never liked British music but this was just creepy. I never lived in the 60's or 70's so I may just be misinterpreting this but they basically sang in neon pant suits with the fiber optic screens in the background showing hippy rainbow images. Hopefully the entertainment is better on Triumph than Conquest.

 

 

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Edited May 31, 2014 by talkorpi

[Sooner01]

Just off of the Triumph yesterday. 10 piece show band, and shows on 4 of the 5 nights of the five day cruise. Great shows.

[Jana60]

Just off of the Triumph yesterday. 10 piece show band, and shows on 4 of the 5 nights of the five day cruise. Great shows.

 

Thanks for letting me know!

 

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[Waterloomarc]

I agree with most here. I sailed on Fascination in January after probably 18 months away from Carnival (took 1 NCL cruise, and wife got pregnant too so no cruises until baby turned 6 months). As you can see by my cruise history I'm (was?) a big Carnival fan. The difference just in that length of time was evident. I won't go so far as to say I was bored but there was VERY few entertainment options. The shows only happened on 2 nights of a 5 night cruise and they were terrible. I'd read about the Playlist shows but being a skeptic I went in thinking they couldn't be as bad as cruise critic said (let's face it we're a pretty whiny group sometimes ;)). Boy I was wrong, absolutely terrible. In fact I couldn't sit through it and left.

 

I have the Dream booked for September and am hoping I get the Carnival I'm used to there. If not it seems I'll look elsewhere for my cruises. I've enjoyed both NCL cruises I've taken, and their free entertainment beat Carnival in the dirt, so it might be time to move on. I'm no longer Carnival's target, no harm no foul.

 

It's kind of like your first car though, you're always gonna have a soft spot for it.

[Texasl8dy]

We are just off an 8 night Liberty cruise. They had 2 productions shows with dancers and music. One night it was a ventriliquist. Very disappointed in the showroom entertainment!! Bring on the Broadway shows.

[WindsorFred]

Miss the live music too!!! We loved the Freedom...in fact it is our favorite ship so far! It was in 2012 (before it was in dry dock) and it was out of FLL then. Looks like the same itinerary as when you went in early 2013. We were surprised with how much live music they had on that cruise.

 

Have fun...hope it's the best cruise ever for you!! :)

 

Love the Freedom also. As you can see we have been to all the ports already but there is always something to do that we missed the first time. Looking forward to the 2.0 ugdates and hope live music is still aboard. Will see. Enjoy your next cruise also. We were looking at the Dream, B2B, as an option as I have family in NO but decided on the Freedom instead.

Edited May 31, 2014 by WindsorFred

[jwalk03]

I like the Newlwed game and even enjoy the game shows. Most of the big production shows are awful. The only 1 I have ever enjoyed on a Carnival cruise was Ticket to Ride. Most others I can't even sit through the entire thing.

 

Karaoke on my last cruise on the Valor was also TERRIBLE. Only like 10 people attended and of them about 2 sang. The staff member running it was begging people to sing, and the same guy just keep going over and over again. He wasn't bad, but I never heard of any of the songs he was singing so it really wasn't enjoyable.

 

I will say that I love the Comedy Club. This is by far the best entertainment that Carnival offers.

 

We took a Disney Cruise this year and there main shows were AMAZING! Blew Carnival out of the water. I did miss not having the comedy club though.

[Jana60]

We took a Disney Cruise this year and there main shows were AMAZING! Blew Carnival out of the water. I did miss not having the comedy club though.

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If they could keep the karaoke and the comedy club I'd be all for having the shows from Disney on Carnival. But since Disney cost about 2-4 times more than carnival I don't think that I'd be able to afford to cruise as often. I don't really hold carnival to the same standards for production shows as I would a company that makes movies but I do expect them to be as good as our local community theater in Oklahoma City. And they're not!

Edited May 31, 2014 by Jana60

[Jana60]

Just off of the Triumph yesterday. 10 piece show band, and shows on 4 of the 5 nights of the five day cruise. Great shows.

 

I booked back to back cruise on the Triumph next month because they still have the regular shows and not the playlist productions. I found a new personal vacation planner with carnival and she was able to check and make sure that the cruise has the old shows not the new play list productions. Evidently a lot of people have told her they disliked the new shows.

 

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Edited June 26, 2014 by Jana60

[dcikon2]

We were on the Freedom (June 1-9) and we're very impressed with the 80s production. A lot money was put into this show. I have never seen a production like this on a ship.

[WLHyatt]

We watched the "broadway" shows before the Conquest got the 2.0 updates. Having nothing to compare it to, I never understood the draw. Frankly it was boring.

We also watched the newer shows (or at least, Latin Nights) on the Conquest post-2.0, and again found ourselves bored.

 

We went to a real broadway show after we got off the Dream in May, and were really impressed with the show. It was an actual theatrical production. If they did those kind of shows I might be interested. I can not lament the loss of the band-and-dancers shows because we never really enjoyed them.

 

It would be one thing if they ever had real broadway style theatrical productions, but to watch 6 guys and 6 girls kick and walk up and down steps and things just did not do it for us.

[Jana60]

It would be one thing if they ever had real broadway style theatrical productions, but to watch 6 guys and 6 girls kick and walk up and down steps and things just did not do it for us.

 

The last time I was on triumph they had really good shows with some legitimate dance, and in my opinion the shows with the 10 piece band are better than the ones with canned music or worse yet game shows.

 

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[near the beach]

We use to have to choose between the show in the main lounge or a comedy show. Now we don’t need to. There still seems like always there is something to see or do every night.

We prefer the productions shows that have a live band to the Playlist shows. Another advantage of having shows with a live band is the band plays at other parts of the ship when not playing for shows.

[Silverspringcruiser]

When we on our cruise last month my father-in-law (who cruises frequently and on multiple lines) told me that some ports restrict the type of nighttime entertainment the ship can offer, Nassau being one of them. Sure enough, that was the newlywed game night.

[Linerguy]

I think all of us platinum and diamond passengers who cruise frequently should write to carnival and express our feelings so that maybe they will change these practices.

 

You're assuming that all Platinum and Diamond members agree with you. No matter what Cruise Critic would like you to think, the number of actual cruisers who post here is very small.

[sjcruiser]

The nightly shows in the theater have been lacking, and often we choose to attend based on the description or title in the FunTimes. If its a show we've seen and enjoyed before we'll go, if not we'll hang out longer at dinner, or go the another lounge, karaoke, the lobby bar, or the piano bar. On the Breeze last summer, one of the shows was better than previous cruises, but that was the only one. I'm not interested in a magician, juggler, etc. Carnival use to bring pretty decent singers or groups in one the cruises as entertainment for one of two nights, and I don't think I remember this on the Breeze. One group was like the Temptations, and were really good, could be seen around the ship participating in other activities when they were not performing, and interacted with the passengers. Another guy did ballads, and I think his mentor or idol was Frank Sinatra (although he reminded me of a young Cab Calloway), and he was good also. I usually sit in one of the first rows of the balcony, and during other shows he would come to the theater, and watch or support the other performers onboard including the Carnival orchestra and dancers.

[SmogMonster]

Just got off the Glory this past Saturday so I will chime in on this. We found the playlist shows to be mediocre at best. The quality of the both the dancing and singing has really declined.

 

There were three shows on our 7 day cruise. Latin and Divas was horrible. They started ths show with one of the performers and CD warming up the crows asking us to name famous Divas. Of course we came up with stars like Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Cher, Whitney Houston etc. the show begins and none of these performers songs are played at all. Apparently carnival's definition of Diva does not include these stars!

 

One of the male dancers had a paunch belly and unfortunatly, he was the lead dancer for a couple of the songs which required his shirt to be unbuttoned. Yuck!

[nealstuber]

I can't speak on the Carnival Conquest, but I can relate to you. I am a frequent cruiser and have notice the decrease in entertainment when I sailed on the carnival breeze earlier this year. They had the same comedian for each day and they had all the same activities that was on the dream. They could at least change trivia up a little. It's the same trivia with the same questions and answers. If this was someone's first cruise it could be fun, but when you are a frequent cruiser, it kinda gets boring. This is why I'm now considering doing one of NCL New ships.

 

 

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If you are looking for great shows - try RCCL's Oasis or Allure. We've made just about every production show on each our 23 cruises - and the three best shows we've ever on a cruise were on the Oasis last week. The 4th production show (Hairspray) was also very well produced - we just did not care for the story. I'll still continue to post here, but its obvious that Carnival has decided not to compete on this front (or ship design and décor) and as its always been a big part of our vacation so I don't see us sailing them again any time soon.

[golfadj]

Shows are not a draw for us. People watching on deck, sightseeing, relaxiing and being on vacation are our desires and why we cruise. If we wanted a show we would go to a venue that specialized in them. Our last cruise we did not attend a single one and don't feel we missed out on anything. IMHO it's a vacation, a time to relax and recharge.

 

We all go for different reasons. We have always cruised as we enjoy the nightly entertainment. Sadly we dont enjoy it as much as we used to.

[golfadj]

You're assuming that all Platinum and Diamond members agree with you. No matter what Cruise Critic would like you to think, the number of actual cruisers who post here is very small.

 

From what I have seen her and on JH's fb page think the majority of cruisers think playlist is a step down from the older production shows.

 

Did our first Princess cruise in May and they had much better entertainment than Carnival and from what I hear RCCL and NCL are way ahead as well.

[NicNac4498]

I'm sorry, but even on Royal and Norwegian there are only 2-4 main big production shows on a seven day cruise.