Dancing

[Raburgardt]

My husband and I love to dance ( swing, waltz, cha cha, rumba, disco etc) on the ship.  We are thinking about booking a cruise a year from now on Sky Princess.  Is there any of this dance opportunities on that ship?  One of the places where they had a lot of this type of dancing was in the WheelHouse and Explorers Lounge on the other Princess ships we have been on.  I noticed they don’t have these two venues on Sky Princess.

[dreaminofcruisin]

This question sounded really familiar....

 

I found a similar thread for you:

 

 

[DaveB42]

In the past the best ships for ballroom/social dance are the ships of Cunard, all three have actual ballrooms. They tend to have dancing every night, and lessons every day.

this is of course B.C. Gods only know what the post COVID world will hold in store.

[skynight]

Ballroom dance locations on the Sky are limited. No real dance floors. The main area is the Piazza (atrium) on marble floors. There will be times throughout the evening where there is live dance music. Music styles will vary. My experience on the Royal Princess is that the party band dominates the dance sets with a variety of music. There may also be dancing in the Take Five Lounge. This area will have a small dance floor. Music is advertised as jazz. A few years ago on the Royal there were dance sets in the Vista Lounge. The Vista Lounge on the Sky is designed more like Club Fusion. I would expect some live music there throughout the evenings. The Crown Grill Bar probably will have some easy listening live music. I have seen some dancing in the small area which is really in the walkway. The Wheelhouse Bar and Explorer's Lounge which were so popular on Grand Class ships were not built on Royal Class ships. 

[brucedodge]

Raburgardt,

FWIW I posted recently on this topic.  Here's the post:

 

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• 930 posts
• July 6, 2004
• Tucson, Arizona

• #9   
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Posted Thursday at 11:36 AM

My wife and I love to dance on cruises, and we find it ironic that as main stream cruise lines build bigger and bigger ships, they reduce the dance venues, both in size and numbers.

The best Princess ship for dancing is the Coral.  The Island is okay too, but they did away with the Vista Lounge as one of the venues.  The Grand Class ships are reasonable, but not as good, and the mega ships are worthless.

We used to cruise on Celebrity, but the same thing:  the Century Class ships (now all sold) were good for dancing.  The Millennium Class are okay, but not near as good, and the Solstice Class ships are worthless.  So we've long since stopped cruising Celebrity and we had a very high status.

The Queens, of course, have huge ballrooms, and the two Crystal ocean going ships each have two spacious dance areas, so these five ships are among our favorites.

FWIW,

Bruce

[Raburgardt]

Thanks for all of the replies so far.  Just a foot note:  We have sailed on the Emerald, Crown and Grand Princess ships but was not sure if there were dance opportunities on the newer Princess Ships.  We have to book our cruise on Princess due to a credit we need to use up.

[jwattle]

Sometimes dance space, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. My husband and I have found the Solstice class ships to be quite danceable, and I see the Royal Class ships to have some nice dance spaces as well.🍷😊Happy sailing and happy dancing!

[hobbyfarmer2]

22 hours ago, Raburgardt said:

My husband and I love to dance ( swing, waltz, cha cha, rumba, disco etc) on the ship.  We are thinking about booking a cruise a year from now on Sky Princess.  Is there any of this dance opportunities on that ship?  One of the places where they had a lot of this type of dancing was in the WheelHouse and Explorers Lounge on the other Princess ships we have been on.  I noticed they don’t have these two venues on Sky Princess.

We were on a Sky TA in late 2019.  There was dancing going on in the Vista lounge forward on many nights.

[trbarton]

23 hours ago, Raburgardt said:

My husband and I love to dance ( swing, waltz, cha cha, rumba, disco etc) on the ship.  We are thinking about booking a cruise a year from now on Sky Princess.  Is there any of this dance opportunities on that ship?  One of the places where they had a lot of this type of dancing was in the WheelHouse and Explorers Lounge on the other Princess ships we have been on.  I noticed they don’t have these two venues on Sky Princess.

If it’s anything like the Majestic the main dancing venue was the atrium & upstairs at the pool deck. . 
 

Here’s some photos. 

Tom
 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by trbarton

[Esprit]

We dance ballroom/Latin too and enjoyed dancing in the atrium every evening aboard Royal Princess. I agree though the Wheelhouse bars on the Grand Class ships were excellent venues, particularly for Latin.

 

We are booked on Enchanted Princess and really looking forward to the new Jazz lounge bar which will host a variety of dance themed nights.

 

I concur that the Celebrity ships were poor for dancing by comparison, except the Edge, which has a huge floor in its night club venue.

 

The Crystal lounge aboard P&O's Britannia is dedicated to Ballroom/Latin dancing too.  

[Tsunami2]

We love waltz dancing and looking for  a cruise on the Pacific coast round trip from Vancouver.   Took cruise this spring to Alaska again on Koningsdam and disappointed at only bouncy bouncy to rock and BB King.   Looked spastic.

I hear Coral Sea is good?  Any comments?

[Rick&Jeannie]

LOL! The Coral Sea was a WW2 aircraft carrier! 

Regardless...welcome to Cruise Critic!

[skynight]

8 hours ago, Tsunami2 said:

We love waltz dancing and looking for  a cruise on the Pacific coast round trip from Vancouver.   Took cruise this spring to Alaska again on Koningsdam and disappointed at only bouncy bouncy to rock and BB King.   Looked spastic.

I hear Coral Sea is good?  Any comments?

Coral Princess will probably offer evening live music suitable for ballroom dancing in the Wheelhouse Bar. There is normally a small group there. The Wheelhouse has a smallish wooden dance floor. Selections would vary. Some may be 3/4. Others could be swing, Latin, top 40 classics, and so on.

It's also possible that there could be some ballroom in the Universe Lounge and Explorer's Lounge. Crooner's is basically a piano bar/lounge, no room for real dancing. The main atrium area on the Coral Princess is small, but there could be some there. Check the event listings each day. 

I will mention that the party bands are popular and attract a good crowd. That is why you see them all around the ship.

Edited June 20 by skynight

[cr8tiv1]

The Grand/Crown/GEM class ships may still have some dancing venues.  I would not expect to see any wooden floor dancing on the Royal/Sphere ships.

 

If it is a longer cruise, you can always request the canned music hour to be more ballroom.  These are usually held in the aft venue.  If you have a Wheelhouse with a band, you will have much more luck.  The party band in the Explorers Lounge is more free dance.  

[TBfrPH]

21 hours ago, Tsunami2 said:

We love waltz dancing and looking for  a cruise on the Pacific coast round trip from Vancouver.   Took cruise this spring to Alaska again on Koningsdam and disappointed at only bouncy bouncy to rock and BB King.   Looked spastic.

I hear Coral Sea is good?  Any comments?

We have not been on the Coral Princess yet, but from what we can find on the web, there could be a decent number of dancing opportunities.  It has the Wheelhouse Bar, Explorer's Lounge, and Universe Lounge.  We're looking forward to sail on her in January 2025.  

 

Unfortunately dancing on nearly all mass-market cruise ships will very soon be reduced to  "bouncy bouncy/spastic."  They take up much less room that could otherwise be dedicated to revenue generation through liquor sales.  I believe it was Celebrity who introduced silent disco, and now Princess has apparently copied that on the new sphere class Sun Princess, which appears to have done away with all meaningful dance spaces except for the Piazza, where one can spaz wearing a headphone streaming music of one's choice. 

 

Aside from Coral, the older Princess ships that still have Club Fusion are your best bet for being able to do an honest waltz.  Even on these ships, the daily program has begun to shift away from live music for dancing to "family" activities like street performers and games (paper airplanes, pin the tail on the donkey, water pong, etc.).  I am seeing a very conscious effort to be more like Royal Caribbean- or at least compete with it-  to attract younger cruisers with kids.  Ballroom dancing does not fit in that initiative.  Enjoy what's left of it while you can.  It's all going away soon.

[Tsunami2]

T   If you are right (and I hope not) this will be our last cruise.   I can get all the spastic jumping at our local Legion for nothing.  

[leck57]

37 minutes ago, Tsunami2 said:

T   If you are right (and I hope not) this will be our last cruise.   I can get all the spastic jumping at our local Legion for nothing.  

 

Hmmm. Your second post and hopefully your last.