Viking Entertainment on cruises with multiple sea days?

[C-sea]

We are thinking of cruising with Viking to Hawaii. There are five sea days each way. How well does Viking entertain on sea days? Will there be additional lecturers and onboard headliner entertainers?

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, C-sea said:

We are thinking of cruising with Viking to Hawaii. There are five sea days each way. How well does Viking entertain on sea days? Will there be additional lecturers and onboard headliner entertainers?

 

The 2020 WC started with 8 sea days and we had different entertainment every night. They had the welcome show on the first night, then one of the Viking shows, or guest entertainers.  I believe we had 3 guest entertainers from L/A to Papeete, which was 10 days. Each guest entertainer does 2 different shows.

 

For lecturerrs, we had the resident historian, the whale/dolphin chap and about 6 additional lecturers. I believe we had 3 lectures every day.

[Jim Avery]

And then Andy is very entertaining too.🍺😎

[Peregrina651]

15 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

The 2020 WC started with 8 sea days and we had different entertainment every night. They had the welcome show on the first night, then one of the Viking shows, or guest entertainers.  I believe we had 3 guest entertainers from L/A to Papeete, which was 10 days. Each guest entertainer does 2 different shows.

 

BUT that was the World Cruise and some things are done differently on the WCs than on the shorter voyages.

 

We are booked on the Hawaii cruise and I do not expect anything more than the normal evening entertainment while at sea. I hope that there will be local guest entertainers in Hawaii, as I have seen done in other ports (such as flamenco in Barcelona and opera in Rome).

[Clay Clayton]

On our first Transatlantic, we had The Virginia Gentlemen (Glee Club from the University of Virginia) aboard. They did a short (2 or 3 song performance) twice each evening in the Living Room as well as two full shows in the Theatre.  These augmented the regular shows (ABBA, Beatles, Frank, Dean,& Sammy, and whatever the girls show was. 
 

On the following two transatlantics, there were no special guests so we just had the same musical shows but they were augmented with individual shows by the singers. After we turned around mid-Atlantic in 2020 due to Covid, they also added several musical shows early afternoon in the Living Room.  
 

Frankly, after seeing ABBA, Beatles, etc several times, we really enjoyed the more individual performances rather than the usual shows.  It’s one of the few things we have listed on all our cruise surveys-time for some new shows. 

[KBs mum]

We aren't keen on the band playing next to the bar, we can't hear ourselves drink🥴

[Heidi13]

8 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

On our first Transatlantic, we had The Virginia Gentlemen (Glee Club from the University of Virginia) aboard. They did a short (2 or 3 song performance) twice each evening in the Living Room as well as two full shows in the Theatre.  These augmented the regular shows (ABBA, Beatles, Frank, Dean,& Sammy, and whatever the girls show was. 
 

On the following two transatlantics, there were no special guests so we just had the same musical shows but they were augmented with individual shows by the singers. After we turned around mid-Atlantic in 2020 due to Covid, they also added several musical shows early afternoon in the Living Room.  
 

Frankly, after seeing ABBA, Beatles, etc several times, we really enjoyed the more individual performances rather than the usual shows.  It’s one of the few things we have listed on all our cruise surveys-time for some new shows. 

 

Clay - on the WC we had similar entertainment in the LR with the Cruise Directors and singers. They used a different theme each day. Probably had a performance every 1 to 2 weeks, after we stopped getting shore leave.

 

Only thing missing was moving the Afternoon Tea down from the Wintergarden.

Edited September 27, 2021 by Heidi13

[Clay Clayton]

21 hours ago, KBs mum said:

We aren't keen on the band playing next to the bar, we can't hear ourselves drink🥴

For us it wasn’t a band, it was the singers or a single singer singing.  And it was a short set.  Under 30 min. 

[Twitchly]

We loved the local musicians (from Barcelona and Bergen on our trip), though I imagine they’re less likely to perform during sea days. Couldn’t sit through Abba or the Beatles, so we tended to avoid the theater most nights in favor of listening to individual musicians and trios elsewhere on the ship. Lots of talent there. 

[Azulann]

On  our TA with six sea days in a row, we had Opera from the Met twice in afternoon in theater.

A movie night around the pool. The Beatle show was also at the pool  after a great grill buffet from World Cafe  outside by infinity pool..

 Music trivia in the Explorer lounge , at least three lectures a day. Resident Historian even  held "office hours", small group morning discussion in Wintergarden.   It was attended by about 15 folks from US, UK, Australia and Canada. We had a some  retired professors on board that made for lively discussion.   

[KBs mum]

On 9/28/2021 at 2:55 PM, Clay Clayton said:

For us it wasn’t a band, it was the singers or a single singer singing.  And it was a short set.  Under 30 min. 

We aren't actually that bothered by the music, it's subjective, some we like, some we don't. 

We did create a bit of confusion off Australia, the band was next to the bar, the cruise director invited the audience to join in the singing. We did, waltzing matilda and yellow submarine. We did the Barmy Army version. All's fair in love, war and Ashes years. Forgot that most US people don't understand why some of us Pommie Bastards and The Convicts get exited about cricket. Oops! 😁

Still, the Indian barman seemed to appreciate our efforts, they and Australia were in a test series at the time. 😊

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, KBs mum said:

We aren't actually that bothered by the music, it's subjective, some we like, some we don't. 

We did create a bit of confusion off Australia, the band was next to the bar, the cruise director invited the audience to join in the singing. We did, waltzing matilda and yellow submarine. We did the Barmy Army version. All's fair in love, war and Ashes years. Forgot that most US people don't understand why some of us Pommie Bastards and The Convicts get exited about cricket. Oops! 😁

Still, the Indian barman seemed to appreciate our efforts, they and Australia were in a test series at the time. 😊

 

Haha reminds me of our 2015 World Cruise R/T from Sydney, with most of the pax from Aus. The 2015 ashes series didn't go to well for most of the pax, so I enjoyed the bragging rights.😁

 

Good memories, but will probably cost me a beer when we get to Sydney on the 22/23 WC.

[KBs mum]

12 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Haha reminds me of our 2015 World Cruise R/T from Sydney, with most of the pax from Aus. The 2015 ashes series didn't go to well for most of the pax, so I enjoyed the bragging rights.😁

 

Good memories, but will probably cost me a beer when we get to Sydney on the 22/23 WC.

KBs Dad congratulates you on your timing, and is cackling in a gleefull manner. 

We were on a river cruise with some Aussies during the Trent test, rest of pax couldn't understand why we insulted each other all day, then happily shared a table at dinner. 

Great fun

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, KBs mum said:

KBs Dad congratulates you on your timing, and is cackling in a gleefull manner. 

We were on a river cruise with some Aussies during the Trent test, rest of pax couldn't understand why we insulted each other all day, then happily shared a table at dinner. 

Great fun

 

We had a brilliant table, with the same table mates from Aus for the entire 104 days. We had some great banter, as we were onboard for the entire 5 tests. Our table Stewards were from India, so they also joined in.

[lesliedrew]

Little mention of lecturers … comments?  Interested in LA to Hawaii and return.  Thanks.

[Heidi13]

9 hours ago, lesliedrew said:

Little mention of lecturers … comments?  Interested in LA to Hawaii and return.  Thanks.

 

On sea days they scheduled at least 3 lectures per day, plus the resident historian had small group round table discussions. If they had other special interest lecturers, they also were available for small group chats.

[KBs mum]

We had two on board lecturers and a guest musician, there were also quite a few good documentary programmes on demand on the TV. 

[Twitchly]

You can also watch past lectures on the TV anytime. There was one lecturer on our cruise whom I really enjoyed, but his voice was so soothing it always put me to sleep! Rather embarrassing. So I ended up watching his lectures on the TV  afterward from the safety of our room. 

[Mich3554]

We had a lot of sea days on the South American cruise.  For that cruise, they brought on a bridge instructor who had classes on sea days.  
 

Then we got off the cruise and covid hit before I could practice what I learned.  I now need remedial bridge!

[Clay Clayton]

6 hours ago, Twitchly said:

You can also watch past lectures on the TV anytime. There was one lecturer on our cruise whom I really enjoyed, but his voice was so soothing it always put me to sleep! Rather embarrassing. So I ended up watching his lectures on the TV  afterward from the safety of our room. 

Fixed it for ya. 😂

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, Mich3554 said:

We had a lot of sea days on the South American cruise.  For that cruise, they brought on a bridge instructor who had classes on sea days.  
 

Then we got off the cruise and covid hit before I could practice what I learned.  I now need remedial bridge!

Thanks for the reminder. We had a bridge instructor on one of our transatlantics. 

[Twitchly]

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Fixed it for ya. 😂

Er, hem, well, yes. And I never did make it to the end of one of his lectures! (My loss because he really was quite interesting.)