Production Shows on Alaskan Cruises - Grand in Particular

[Nightowl11]

We will be sailing for the 4th time on the San Francisco Round Trip to Alaska.  We LOVE Alaska!  The Princess Patters were just posted from the most recent cruise.  Why do they still have the same old production shows on this ship?  It lists British Invasion and Stardust.  British Invasion has been on the Grand since 2010.  The Princess website doesn't even have these shows listed anymore and haven't for a very long time.  I was excited to see a new lineup of productions shows, "Born to Dance", "The Secret Silk", "Encore", "Fantastic Journey" etc. on the Princess website.  Princess even states this:  " And with every season, Princess finds exciting ways to deliver something new so that you’ll come back dazzled."  Well, there's nothing new on the Grand, hasn't been for years and we aren't dazzled anymore 😞   Does anyone have any insight on whether the Grand will ever get new shows? 

[fishywood]

The newest productions shows are designed for the newest ships. With each new class of ship the composition of the company of singers and dancers--plus the complement of live musicians--can be tailored to the planned future production shows. Updating the hiring criteria of the entertainment department on older classes of ships seems to be more trouble and expense that Princess wants to go to. Just a few years ago the most elaborate of the new productions (such as Magic to Do) were designed specifically for the Crown/Emerald/Ruby ship class. But with a fourth Royal class ship coming this fall and a fifth next summer that is where you will find the newest shows. Conversely with Golden and Star scheduled to leave the fleet over the next two years there is even less incentive to update the entertainment on Grand (and Caribbean).

 

...but really, if you are going to take the same itinerary on the same ship for the fourth time this decade you had better be able to live with lots of repetition and redundancy in all aspects of the cruise. If you truly do LOVE Alaska perhaps you should try a Voyage of the Glaciers open jaw cruise--or even two back-to-back to make a 14 day round trip Vancouver sailing. But that would probably cause you to regret having sailed round trip San Francisco more than once with its dreary wasted sea days at the beginning and end.

[Dani24]

 

 

1

7 hours ago, fishywood said:

...but really, if you are going to take the same itinerary on the same ship for the fourth time this decade you had better be able to live with lots of repetition and redundancy in all aspects of the cruise. If you truly do LOVE Alaska perhaps you should try a Voyage of the Glaciers open jaw cruise--or even two back-to-back to make a 14 day round trip Vancouver sailing. But that would probably cause you to regret having sailed round trip San Francisco more than once with its dreary wasted sea days at the beginning and end.

 

Such an "eye of the beholder" statement. Personally, I LOVE the sea days on the SF R/T. It helps that we live near the port and don't have to fly to get there. If we did one of the other itineraries, we'd spend those 2-3 sea days traveling to/from the port anyway. And have to hassle with luggage restrictions, TSA, airports, hotel stays, finding our own food, etc. Stuff that's all fine in certain circumstances, but when compared to relaxing on a ship with all of my food, entertainment, etc. all laid out form me for those 3 days, and knowing I only had to check in to a room once, there's no comparison! 🙂

[partybarbie]

The newest show on the Grand is "Born to Dance".  Sometimes we skip the production shows and hang out in the Piano Bar in Crooner's. 

 

[masterty]

11 hours ago, Nightowl11 said:

We will be sailing for the 4th time on the San Francisco Round Trip to Alaska.  We LOVE Alaska!  The Princess Patters were just posted from the most recent cruise.  Why do they still have the same old production shows on this ship?  It lists British Invasion and Stardust.  British Invasion has been on the Grand since 2010.  The Princess website doesn't even have these shows listed anymore and haven't for a very long time.  I was excited to see a new lineup of productions shows, "Born to Dance", "The Secret Silk", "Encore", "Fantastic Journey" etc. on the Princess website.  Princess even states this:  " And with every season, Princess finds exciting ways to deliver something new so that you’ll come back dazzled."  Well, there's nothing new on the Grand, hasn't been for years and we aren't dazzled anymore 😞   Does anyone have any insight on whether the Grand will ever get new shows? 

Born to dance was on the last cruise. As for the others 😞

the stage is all new. Each game show while the same has new props and stages. The back of the grand princess theater stage is one continuing video screen. While the same show they are on all new sets. Having seen past shows the 2019 Alaska shows felt new and much better. There were 8 dancers along with 4 singers and 6 member orchestra.

FWIW. 

[masterty]

2 hours ago, partybarbie said:

The newest show on the Grand is "Born to Dance".  Sometimes we skip the production shows and hang out in the Piano Bar in Crooner's. 

 

The piano bar was the biggest disappointment on this last voyage for us. Hardly cruise ship worthy. More like drunken karaoke. Huge disappointment. .

[Spideysmum]

1 hour ago, masterty said:

The piano bar was the biggest disappointment on this last voyage for us. Hardly cruise ship worthy. More like drunken karaoke. Huge disappointment. .

Agree. Usually a nice place to unwind, but the guitarist who was constantly there was 1) irritating because his speakers were too loud and 2) his repertoire seemed all over the place with amateurish renditions of John Denver, Credence Clearwater or Johnny Cash.  

 

Not a fan. 

[Cruiserkenn]

I like British Invasion, Stardust, and Motor City, and I like seeing them over again.

i have been on 14 Alaska cruises.

 

Enjoy!  🙂⛴🐳🐋⚓️🛳🌅🌈🐬🚢🌠🙂

[bemis12]

13 hours ago, fishywood said:

If you truly do LOVE Alaska perhaps you should try a Voyage of the Glaciers open jaw cruise--or even two back-to-back to make a 14 day round trip Vancouver sailing. But that would probably cause you to regret having sailed round trip San Francisco more than once with its dreary wasted sea days at the beginning and end.

 

And here I was wishing my upcoming cruise had one more sea day!  Thank you for setting me straight!

[karatemom2]

I don't think Secret Silk will be showing on any of the West Coast cruises - not sure about Alaska, maybe a current Royal cruiser can report back. I have a good friend who works at the Princess corporate office in Santa Clarita and I had asked her about the new shows on the Royal before going on our most recent cruise. Secret Silk had been showing and I was really excited to see it - but they pulled it from the West Coast cruises and are in the process of reworking it due to the fact that it extensively uses an R Kelly song (I Believe I can Fly). Given his current legal troubles and the fact that it is perceived that West Coast residents, particularly those from California, are more PC and aware regarding these sensitive issues, they opted to discontinue it until such time as they can revise the score. So my guess with the Grand going out of San Francisco, they won't be adding that one for awhile until it is updated. We did get to see Encore and it was excellent - very dramatic and featuring a good deal of opera, in particular a gloriously talented soprano singer. It was a very different show then any I have seen on Princess before and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[oskidunker]

My wife did not go to any shows on the Grand claiming they are old.  One was new.