What can be done to address crowding at the Punchliner?

[Micahs Grandad]

I love the comedy club. I was told before that it wouldn't work out having it in the main lounge. I call bollocks to that. When I cruised on Princess they had a comedian in the main lounge one night and it was packed and he was very funny. And it was great.

 

Agree with you 100%. Sad that they refuse to make a change to allow more of their customers to see the show.

[BallFour4]

On the Fantasy class ships, such as the Elation, Punchliners is not held in the main theatre...

 

It was on the Ecstasy, Fantasy, Elation dating back before the Punch moniker. We’ve been on 36 of em since the Mardi Gras and will make diamond in August. Might have seen it.

[stevefrisco]

There is one other option. "Free" tickets you pick up in advance of the show. This way they don't have to worry about overcrowding' date=' and you can come last minute to get a seat somewhere.

 

 

For a couple of shows, overcrowding was an issue. They had to stop letting people in because it reached capacity.

 

 

If they go with the tickets, they can limit you to having tickets for 1 show at a time (after you use the tickets, you can request more for future shows). This would make sure everyone gets a chance to see a show, and prevent hoarding.

 

 

To deal with no-shows, there can be a wait-list line. If ticket holders don't arrive within 5 minutes to showtime, they can fill the theater with those in line to get in. If tickets are gone, you can go to the club 5 min to show time and see if you can get in.[/quote']

 

 

Someone should tell that weirdo Heald about this!! Maybe hit up shaq too. Sounds like a great plan!

 

It would also be cool to have another option for entertainment at night that is as high quality as the comedy club. I think all cruise lines are missing an oppurtunity not pushing the musical acts for either included or for an extra fee.

[Knights Templar]

Have the comedy show in the main auditorium. Post security outside of auditorium to check ID's for age. Simple solution

 

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Jordan, i think that is a great idea and really wish Carnival would do something about enforcing the age restriction for the 18+ comedy shows. While it wouldnt help all that much as far as thinning the crowd, I think it would help the atmosphere of the show. What i mean is I have seen some comics seem to hold back because there are young kids in the audience (you will typically have a few parents that have to sit upfront with the family). Then you get the comic that seems to relish "new meat" to pick on. Some of these comics are very funny, and very raunchy. I remember at one of these 18+ shows there was mom, dad and 4 girls who i assumed were their daughters. Now maybe one of the girls were 18 but the other 3 definitely looked younger. The Mom apparently thought she was going to be funny and heckled the comic....Bad move Mom, it was game on for the comic. He starts really cutting into the Mom and the girls HARD (looked at the Dad and said something like "package price for the 5 of them or was it pay as you go). Yeaaaaaaaaaaa, they left real quick....Thats another mindset that amazes me, is your snowflake is 16, do not take the snowflake into the show, do something else or let the snowflake go to the teen club while you attend the 18+ comedy show. Not a hard concept

[evandbob]

I've been on ships where you need to book a reservation for a show. That system worked fine, and it was no more trouble to book a show than to make Steakhouse reservations, whether pre-booking on line or once on the ship. Carnival will eventually catch up..

 

Electronic change is inevitable. We will not go back to a system where the cruiselines physically mail you your boarding tickets and luggage tags. It's called progress.

 

When the idea of having a cruise app was first floated a few years, many die hard old timers pooh poohed the idea, saying they won't carry a phone around on a ship. When I look around on Lido deck now, the majority of guests seem to be using their phone or have it readily available. And it's not a Princess phone either.

[Knights Templar]

I've been on ships where you need to book a reservation for a show. That system worked fine, and it was no more trouble to book a show than to make Steakhouse reservations, whether pre-booking on line or once on the ship. Carnival will eventually catch up..

 

Electronic change is inevitable. We will not go back to a system where the cruiselines physically mail you your boarding tickets and luggage tags. It's called progress.

 

When the idea of having a cruise app was first floated a few years, many die hard old timers pooh poohed the idea, saying they won't carry a phone around on a ship. When I look around on Lido deck now, the majority of guests seem to be using their phone or have it readily available. And it's not a Princess phone either.

 

E&B. I too have been on cruiselines where they utilized the reservation system. IIRC, it wasnt so much for the comedy shows, it was more for the main musical show for the evening. You would basically log in thru the TV in your room and pick a timeslot where you wanted to go.. The downside to that, we got on later in the afternoon and tried to book a spot and it was night 3 before we could get a reservation in the theatre. As you entered the theatre, you would slide your card and that would confirm you reservation. They did have a standby line so if people with reservations didnt show up, they would let the standby's in until the venue was full. They were smart for the cruisers looking for a loophole.....the reservation system wouldnt let you book the show everynight in a row. You had to complete your reservation time first before going into the system and rebooking the same show. Overall, even tho it was night 3 before i got to see the show, it was a good idea. Now, the Comedy Club on that ship was a complete nightmare....Small venue that they wouldnt open until approx 15 mins before the show. The line had to be a few hundred people long that extended basically down the promonade of the main deck, past bars, shops, etc. I walked over to one of the people standing toward the front of the line to confirm this was the line for the Comedy Show (you never truly know on a Cruise ship, people seem to love lining up for any reason :')), he said it was. I asked him how long has he been waiting and he answered about 90 mins. This was one of the newer/bigger ships at the time. My overall experience is that crowds are a nonfactor on the smaller ships

[Keys2Heaven]

So, basically this thread has turned into what has worked on other ship or other's experiences, knowing full well that whatever is said in this thread won't really matter in the long run. The cruise line is going to run their venues however they see fit and it would appear that Carnival has no intention of changing their policy any time soon.

 

Not trying to be snarky here, but what does this thread prove? Is is just an outlet for folks to vent about how crowded it is? As I said earlier, if you really want to see the show and you don't want to stand in line, get there early. I don't see any other options at this point.

[Knights Templar]

So, basically this thread has turned into what has worked on other ship or other's experiences, knowing full well that whatever is said in this thread won't really matter in the long run. The cruise line is going to run their venues however they see fit and it would appear that Carnival has no intention of changing their policy any time soon.

 

Not trying to be snarky here, but what does this thread prove? Is is just an outlet for folks to vent about how crowded it is? As I said earlier, if you really want to see the show and you don't want to stand in line, get there early. I don't see any other options at this point.

 

The thread asked what can be done to help alleviate crowding at Punchliners....I know i tried, and i know other posters shared possible solutions. The show up early solution is the most obvious. Reservation system, move to a larger venue, cover charge, etc were all thrown out there. Why the Carnival brass doesnt do anything, your guess is as good as mine. I can only imagine that since they are not changing the venue, they are happy with how its working out. Maybe there is a logistic that we dont know about or understand that would prevent them from moving it to the larger main theatre venue. The one correlation i see is that the comedy show venue size is roughly the same across all classes of Carnival ships. So on a Fantasy Class ship, you have 2000 (rough numbers, please dont get all granular on me) passengers. On a Dream/Vista class ship, you have roughly 3500-4000 passengers. So rough numbers, you have nearly twice as many people possibly attending the comedy show in roughly the same size venue. Its kinda obvious that crowd size will be an issue on a bigger ship concerning the Comedy shows

[Keys2Heaven]

The thread asked what can be done to help alleviate crowding at Punchliners....I know i tried, and i know other posters shared possible solutions. The show up early solution is the most obvious. Reservation system, move to a larger venue, cover charge, etc were all thrown out there. Why the Carnival brass doesnt do anything, your guess is as good as mine. I can only imagine that since they are not changing the venue, they are happy with how its working out. Maybe there is a logistic that we dont know about or understand that would prevent them from moving it to the larger main theatre venue. The one correlation i see is that the comedy show venue size is roughly the same across all classes of Carnival ships. So on a Fantasy Class ship, you have 2000 (rough numbers, please dont get all granular on me) passengers. On a Dream/Vista class ship, you have roughly 3500-4000 passengers. So rough numbers, you have nearly twice as many people possibly attending the comedy show in roughly the same size venue. Its kinda obvious that crowd size will be an issue on a bigger ship concerning the Comedy shows

 

All true, yet I just don't see Carnival brass visiting CC to get ideas on how to run their company from threads like this. Sure, we all have ideas on what we think should be done, but I don't see it going anywhere. It's about the same a John Heald posting a poll over on FB. ;p