How Would You Change the Entertainment Lineup?

[jhannah]

Holland America has some great entertainment offerings onboard their ships. Some great artists/performers amaze us. Some mediocre ones appear as well. There are wonderful, high-energy production shows. Occasionally they are not so spectacular. Everyone's tastes are different. Therein lies the challenge for any cruise line's VP of Entertainment.

 

If you were HAL's entertainment VP, what would you do differently in the way of amusement for your guests? What would you preserve without change? More of. Less of.

[elycelynne]

I would cut down on the frequency of the BB King band in the Queen's Lounge, either by cutting down the shows from 3 to 2 per night or by giving them a couple more nights off per sailing in general. As it stands, the only nights that they're not in there are the one night they have completely off and the night that they're the featured act on the mainstage.

 

I know that a lot of people love them and I'm not disputing that, but the way they're scheduled right now is overkill and severely cuts down on games, karaoke, etc. that would normally take place there. I've also heard that some cruise directors have the initiative to move these events to the Northern Lights disco before it opens for dancing, but apparently not all of them have thought to do this.

 

Just my $.02.

[HELENPSL]

And herein lies the problem of trying to please everyone. I loved the BB King band and was thrilled they were playing almost every night. We were on the NA last year and while my DH was in the casino, I was in the Queens lounge. It was a comfortable place for me to go by myself.

 

We found most of the evening shows to be boring. To us, this was where the ship could use great improvement. Our cruise was very port intensive so we really didn't care since each day was very busy. We met a wonderful group of people on cruise critic and had a fabulous time getting to know all of them better. We were never bored on the ship.

 

So what's a cruise director to do??

 

Helen

[OCruisers]

Wish HAL would offer earlier afternoon live musical entertainment on Sea Days in the lounges.

LuLu

[holacanada]

My question is : for a more sea days oriented cruise, like repo, did HAL «improve» the quality of the shows ? Or just the same as the Caribeean offer for exemple ?

How about a oriented or thematic lecturers ? Did they keep them ?

 

Holacanada

Edited February 1, 2015 by holacanada
Adding

[PathfinderEss]

I would like to have live music in all the bars at night.

[iancal]

Increase the budget.

 

Hire a competent person to lead the entertainment selection group or outsource to a company that specializes in this.

 

More contemporary acts.

 

Fancy costumes and loud sound do not make up for poor acts. Chop the production shows in favor of individual artists.

[kazu]

My question is : for a more sea days oriented cruise, like repo, did HAL «improve» the quality of the shows ? Or just the same as the Caribeean offer for exemple ?

How about a oriented or thematic lecturers ? Did they keep them ?

 

Holacanada

 

On the cruises I have been on, they certainly have kept them.

 

We had several on our last one and they were all very interesting.

 

One other one, one of our roll call members was the lecturer. He was excellent and it was very interesting talking to them about what it was all about.

[OCruisers]

I would like to have live music in all the bars at night.

 

Agree! That would be WONDERFUL! :D

LuLu

[kazu]

I would like to have live music in all the bars at night.

 

oh dear there isn't? Guess I have been spoiled by the P'dam.

 

I was sure there was some on the Maasdam.

 

soon to find out on the Westerdam. I do enjoy live music.

[Wakepatrol]

As the times are changing

As I read on these boards daily.

I think it's time to scrap the magicians and hypnotists

 

The B.B. King Band is now an important factor in us booking a cruise. We love them. The older people love them as well,the dance floor is packed. I even joined in and ruined my wife's shoes.

 

karaoke used to be fun it was 2-3 hours long and they picked 4 or 5 people that battled it out at the end of the cruise.

 

Now it's only an hour then a D.J. Spins records

Really?

 

HALl- you know those $299 per week cabins you give away at the end. Save 2 of them and put a couple of musicians in them and give us some music at dinner. They get a free cruise and have to play some music at dinner. It's a win win.

 

That piped in Kenny G is weak

[mariner]

I guess it depends on the voyage.

 

Dump the Bob Mackey gowns. Carol Burnett has been off the air for 30 years.

 

Live music in the bars makes sense, if people actually drink in them. Doesn't seem to be the case these days.

 

Forget the floor shows. Hire a good singer, comedian and an interesting act.

[kazu]

As the times are changing

As I read on these boards daily.

I think it's time to scrap the magicians and hypnotists

 

The B.B. King Band is now an important factor in us booking a cruise. We love them. The older people love them as well,the dance floor is packed. I even joined in and ruined my wife's shoes.

 

karaoke used to be fun it was 2-3 hours long and they picked 4 or 5 people that battled it out at the end of the cruise.

 

Now it's only an hour then a D.J. Spins records

Really?

 

HALl- you know those $299 per week cabins you give away at the end. Save 2 of them and put a couple of musicians in them and give us some music at dinner. They get a free cruise and have to play some music at dinner. It's a win win.

 

That piped in Kenny G is weak

 

+1 - so agree

[mariner]

The one thing that stands out is the competition has entertainment in many other forms: Divers. Mickey and Minnie. HAL just keeps plodding along.

[RMLincoln]

I love the singers and dancers cast shows. I often see here that folks don't like them much but I notice that these shows are always full or overfull. The Showroom at Sea format has better singers - a good move forward - and fewer dancers, oh well, I miss the dancers.

 

I've sat through quite a few shows of hypnotists, ventriloquists, magicians and jugglers and say that they do better than I can. But the last few years I've been leaving mid-show more often.

 

Comedians are a big draw if they get the demographic of their audience right and don't demean the passengers. I won't sit through a show if the paid entertainer belittles the passengers who are paying for them. I don't find it funny one bit.

 

I miss the string quartet and am reading that Cunard and Oceania still have them. Hmmm.

 

I thought there was live music in all the bars. I guess I only go to lounges that have live music.

 

I try to make it to as many lecturer presentations as possible and find them usually quite enlightening but not so very well attended. But maybe that's not the type of entertainment this thread is about. Same with the Digital Workshops... which prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

 

Thanks for asking. m--

[Hlitner]

What would we change? First, we would jettison all the so-called HAL Cats and move back to real bands. We would bring back the classical quartets and get rid of these lower priced classical duets that often have us wanting to find our ear plugs.

 

And then we get to the major HAL production shows. Some of them are pretty decent when new, but after 4 years (and seeing them on too many cruises) it does get old. And these production shows are often the same ole format....broadway music or movie music. The BB King thing was a good move, but enough is enough. Probably the most fun entertainment we ever had on a HAL ship was on a cruise when they had "Recycled Percussion" which had even the oldest HAL cruises banging on their pots and pans. The theater was packed, normally sedate HAL cruisers were dancing at their seats, and it was so unlike HAL that everyone seemed shocked. Of course some of the traditional HAL customers did complain to the CD because they missed their usual show of the same Broadway music they have heard for the past 60 years.

 

The problem is that most cruise lines, including HAL, keep their production shows for 3-5 years. Folks that do a lot of cruising quickly memorize the shows, know the numbers better then most of the singers/dancers, etc. On one HAL cruise (a few years ago) we heard "Don't Cry for me Argentina" more in a couple of weeks then we had heard that number in our entire lives (and we are seniors). Les Mis is full of great music, but if you cruise you will quickly know 2 or 3 of the numbers and never hear anything else!

 

So when we go on long HAL cruises we now find ourselves skipping many production shows (that we have seen several times) and just sitting in the piano bar. We still enjoy the "Guest Entertainers" although we now find that many of the HAL Guest Entertainers have been on several of our crusies and seem to make a living moving from HAL ship to HAL ship. Surely there are more then a handful of entertainers that are willing to accept a contract to work on HAL.

 

As to lecturers, we think that this is an area where HAL provides some amazing folks. Most recently we did a long trans pacific cruise where we were totally enchanted by the lectures (and personal contact) of Alan Wright. But HAL seems to be cutting back on their amazing lecture program since they do not generate any onboard revenue for the cruise line. At some point we wonder if they will start charging admission for lectures. In the past 5 years we have had multiple cruise directors and lecturers ask us to tell Seattle not to cut-back on the lecture program. On the recent Oosterdam crossing from Seattle to Auckland, Alan Wright (an astronomer lecturer) packed-in standing room only crowds for most of his 9 lectures and received a standing ovation from a full house after his last talk. None of the shows on that same cruise were near full, and they did not get standing ovations.

 

Hank

[Hflors]

oh dear there isn't? Guess I have been spoiled by the P'dam.

 

I was sure there was some on the Maasdam.

 

soon to find out on the Westerdam. I do enjoy live music.

 

We were just on Westerdam. The Ocean bar has live ballroom music every evening. Mix has a combination of a guitarist early evenings and piano player after nine and of course the Explorers Lounge has the violin/Piano duo every evening. We very much enjoyed listening to each of these entertainers. The crows nest featured the Helcats, but we didn't go there but once or twice. Just thought you would like to know.

 

I myself would like to see more lecturers onboard. I wish hal would print a schedule at the beginning of the cruise giving the days and times that the lecturer will be speaking.

[InTheWASide]

We were just on Westerdam. The Ocean bar has live ballroom music every evening. Mix has a combination of a guitarist early evenings and piano player after nine and of course the Explorers Lounge has the violin/Piano duo every evening. We very much enjoyed listening to each of these entertainers. The crows nest featured the Helcats, but we didn't go there but once or twice. Just thought you would like to know.

 

 

 

I myself would like to see more lecturers onboard. I wish hal would print a schedule at the beginning of the cruise giving the days and times that the lecturer will be speaking.

 

 

Rewind... Mix is on Westerdam now?!?!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Forums

[GUT2407]

As the times are changing

As I read on these boards daily.

I think it's time to scrap the magicians and hypnotists

 

The B.B. King Band is now an important factor in us booking a cruise. We love them. The older people love them as well,the dance floor is packed. I even joined in and ruined my wife's shoes.

 

karaoke used to be fun it was 2-3 hours long and they picked 4 or 5 people that battled it out at the end of the cruise.

 

Now it's only an hour then a D.J. Spins records

Really?

 

HALl- you know those $299 per week cabins you give away at the end. Save 2 of them and put a couple of musicians in them and give us some music at dinner. They get a free cruise and have to play some music at dinner. It's a win win.

 

That piped in Kenny G is weak

 

 

This must be a bg headache for lines I love magicians and hypnotists and would like more of each, don't get the attraction of karaoke let alone 3 or 4 hours worth. You just can't please everyone.

 

But I admit entertainment isn't even on the radar when book a cruise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I would cut down on the frequency of the BB King band in the Queen's Lounge, either by cutting down the shows from 3 to 2 per night or by giving them a couple more nights off per sailing in general. As it stands, the only nights that they're not in there are the one night they have completely off and the night that they're the featured act on the mainstage.

 

I know that a lot of people love them and I'm not disputing that, but the way they're scheduled right now is overkill and severely cuts down on games, karaoke, etc. that would normally take place there. I've also heard that some cruise directors have the initiative to move these events to the Northern Lights disco before it opens for dancing, but apparently not all of them have thought to do this.

 

Just my $.02.

 

 

We also are not fans of the BB King groups.

Agree that having them play so many shows is taking away from other game shows, etc.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We miss the production shows that HAL did years ago. They lasted an hour -- scenery was great. And as you entered the show room you were given a program.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We were just on Westerdam. The Ocean bar has live ballroom music every evening. Mix has a combination of a guitarist early evenings and piano player after nine and of course the Explorers Lounge has the violin/Piano duo every evening. We very much enjoyed listening to each of these entertainers. The crows nest featured the Helcats, but we didn't go there but once or twice. Just thought you would like to know.

 

I myself would like to see more lecturers onboard. I wish hal would print a schedule at the beginning of the cruise giving the days and times that the lecturer will be speaking.

 

 

 

Where is the MIX located on the Westerdam?

We were on her in 2013 and I don't remember the MIX.

[syesmar]

On our last few cruises, a movie was shown one night instead of having a show (not talking about late sail away nights, we were sailing). I know it would probably be a logistical challenge, but it would seem more reasonable to schedule one of the crew shows at that time instead of just showing a movie.

Edited February 1, 2015 by syesmar

[Wakepatrol]

Don't know if it's really an issue? I was on the Amsterdam for Christmas and New Years. The late show in the theater had a total of 29 people in it every night.

I felt bad for the performer (s)

[cruisemom42]

Count me as another that would like more lectures, especially related to the itinerary being followed.

 

Apparently HAL does not always have lecturers on shorter cruises -- I have not had any on my HAL cruises (none longer than 12 days).