Entertainment on P&O Ships

[Interestedcruisefan]

Anyway Sir Les Patterson gets a mention above

 

Sad day today. He's passed away today (Barry Humphries)

 

Ended up sat next to him and his wife at a restaurant this time last year. Nobody else was in there 

 

He was performing in the theatre next door later that night in an evening with show

 

The young staff clearly had no idea who he was. I was  in awe of being sat next to a legend. Which he undoubtedly was 

 

Anyway he was cantankerous all through the meal. Rude to the staff but in a kind of lovable old fashioned way!

 

When they did the usual asking if the meal was ok (he had a curry dish)

 

He replied 

 

"No it's totally bland and tasteless!"

 

Lol

 

Basically he said perhaps what others think sometimes but dont say. 

 

Him and his wife were lovely too us when I told him he was a true legend and good luck with his show tonight before we left. (We weren't there for the show but do wish I'd seen him)

 

Sir Michael Parkinson said he had lost a "dear friend of many years", describing Humphries as a "cultured, highly intelligent, fascinating man who just happened to create, in Dame Edna Everage, one of the everlasting comedy characters of all time as well as one of my favourite guests on my talk show."

"In a time when the word is bandied around far too easily, we have truly lost a genius," Sir Michael added. "I shall miss him and the Dame in equal measure. So will we all."

Edited April 22, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[wowzz]

25 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Rarely do we decide to pop along to a bar to listen to some bloke banging on about the old days, or how he prefers Fred ,or Saga...

Strangely enough, we have never met those sort of people !

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Anyway Les Patterson gets a mention above

 

Sad day today. He's passed away today (Barry Humphries)

 

Ended up sat next to him and his wife at a restaurant this time last year

 

He was performing in the theatre next door later that night in an evening with show

 

The young staff clearly had no idea who he was. I was  in awe of being sat next to a legend. Which he undoubtedly was 

 

Anyway he was cantankerous all through the meal. Rude to the staff but in a kind of lovable old fashioned way!

 

When they did the usual asking if the meal was ok

 

He replied 

 

"No it's totally bland and tasteless!"

 

Lol

 

Basically he said perhaps what others think sometimes but dont say. 

 

Him and his wife were lovely too us when I told him he was a true legend and good luck with his show tonight before we left. (We weren't there for the show but do wish I'd seen him)

A very clever man and a sad loss. Sir Les Patterson was my favourite of his creations. The best quote I ever heard was when he said he had just returned from holiday “I didn’t know whether I should be lying on the beach, looking at the Sheila’s, or lying on the Sheila’s looking at the beach” 😂 

 

That being said, it’s always a shame when you actually meet, or see, famous people and their behaviour is less than acceptable. In a previous life I met quite a lot of famous people. Some were absolutely lovely and others were quite unpleasant. Often the real life persona is very different from that which they like to portray. 

[mrsgoggins]

I don’t like alcohol so have no interest in the bars (love a good tea/coffee venue however) but we usually go to the theatre unless it’s a magician.  I can accept it’s clever stuff, I personally don’t find it entertaining.
 

On the other hand, we’ve seen many acts I would pay handsomely to see in a theatre; (the Shamrock Tenors spring to mind), but mostly I enjoy seeing talented, enthusiastic young people working their socks off and applaud the band of great musicians who make up the ship’s orchestra. And I don’t even mind seeing some cast shows a number of times, no matter how weird (Celebrity excels at weird, P&O less so IMHO 😁). I accept that the chances are high that on each cruise I’m likely to hear Uptown Funk or Bring him Home yet again but I can still enjoy the performance. Maybe I’m weird!

 

I find it to be a pleasant evening to dine, visit the theatre and mosey on straight back to the cabin (usually) to read before bed. Perfect …… but I’m quite happy that others find this puzzling and choose more meaningful ways (to them) to spend their evenings.

[Interestedcruisefan]

So where's all the bingo players and quizzers?

 

Must be somewhere?

[Megabear2]

3 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

So where's all the bingo players and quizzers?

 

Must be somewhere?

In Brodies fighting for a chair for the latter!  Isn't bingo in the afternoons, I'm sure I saw someone yesterday asking about it on one of the recent threads. I was going to direct him to Yorkypete but thought better of it!!!

Edited April 22, 2023 by Megabear2

[AnnieC]

6 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

So where's all the bingo players and quizzers?

 

Must be somewhere?

I'm a quizzer, but only during the day.

 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Strangely enough, we have never met those sort of people !

Perhaps they only book themselves on the same cruises as Zap99!😁

[wowzz]

47 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Perhaps they only book themselves on the same cruises as Zap99!😁

Or because we mainly cruise with Princess.

[Snow Hill]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

In Brodies fighting for a chair for the latter!  Isn't bingo in the afternoons, I'm sure I saw someone yesterday asking about it on one of the recent threads. I was going to direct him to Yorkypete but thought better of it!!!

I always thought bingo was in the afternoon,  never played it on a cruise and no intention of doing so. 

[Denarius]

5 hours ago, wowzz said:

As per Sharon's instruction, I am opening a new thread devoted to entertainment. 

To get things moving, can I ask why going to the theatre is such a big part of cruising for so many on here ?  I just don't see the attraction.  Why the need to be entertained every night ? It almost appears as if the entertainment is of more importance than the cruise itself.

Nothing like a contentious post to get things started !

I very much agree.

When I started cruising in the 1990s passengers did not expect to be entertained after dinner, they expected to socialise. And socialise they did, in the ballroom and in the bars. Nowadays they expect to be enterained and rarely socialise.

[zap99]

3 hours ago, Denarius said:

I very much agree.

When I started cruising in the 1990s passengers did not expect to be entertained after dinner, they expected to socialise. And socialise they did, in the ballroom and in the bars. Nowadays they expect to be enterained and rarely socialise.

Nowadays folk can multi task and do both.  On Azura the silent disco provided entertainment for the participants and entertainment for the folk watching. Did they have a silent string quartet in the 1990s ?🤣

[Harryjacobs]

12 hours ago, Denarius said:

I very much agree.

When I started cruising in the 1990s passengers did not expect to be entertained after dinner, they expected to socialise. And socialise they did, in the ballroom and in the bars. Nowadays they expect to be enterained and rarely socialise.

Im glad the world has moved on and we expect more for our dollar.  Im not sure I would want to spend thousands in order to listen to boring Bob drone on about the good ole days.

[mrsgoggins]

12 hours ago, Denarius said:

When I started cruising in the 1990s passengers did not expect to be entertained after dinner, they expected to socialise. And socialise they did, in the ballroom and in the bars. Nowadays they expect to be enterained and rarely socialise.

 

I was genuinely surprised by the above. Never once have I considered going on a cruise to socialise and would slot into the 'rarely socialise' camp! We have met some interesting people along the way of course, but that has been accidental and not by design. We cruise largely for the destinations - but sometimes just the weather (eg Caribbean or Canaries), ease of travel, and R&R in nice surroundings. The after-dinner entertainment is just a small part, which we largely enjoy.

[Josy1953]

14 hours ago, Denarius said:

I very much agree.

When I started cruising in the 1990s passengers did not expect to be entertained after dinner, they expected to socialise. And socialise they did, in the ballroom and in the bars. Nowadays they expect to be enterained and rarely socialise.

We started cruising in the early 80s but there was always entertainment on the ships and IMHO it was a lot better entertainment than we see now.  We do not go on a cruise to socialise, we go to enjoy ourselves.  We do chat with other passengers and have met some very interesting people some of whom we now consider to be friends and are still in contact with.  We cruise because we feel that it is a safe, easy way to visit interesting places.

Edited April 23, 2023 by Josy1953

[Dermotsgirl]

56 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

I was genuinely surprised by the above. Never once have I considered going on a cruise to socialise and would slot into the 'rarely socialise' camp! We have met some interesting people along the way of course, but that has been accidental and not by design. We cruise largely for the destinations - but sometimes just the weather (eg Caribbean or Canaries), ease of travel, and R&R in nice surroundings. The after-dinner entertainment is just a small part, which we largely enjoy.

I was thinking the same, socialising is way down my list of cruise activities. 
 

Anyway, I expect there was music in the ballrooms and bars, which counts as entertainment!
 

Plus, the older ships that I’ve been on have all had a theatre or show lounge, so entertainment must have been a feature, even in the 90s! 

[jeanlyon]

We go to the theatre at home when we can, probably every couple of months.  Lucky to have the Theatre Royal in Plymouth and have seen some great shows.  So we like the Headliners, not always, but mostly.  Usually find the comedians or solo singers a bit dire, so sit near the back and escape if we don't enjoy it.  One thing I always find is that everything is far too loud.  The theatre on Aurora is quite a nice one in my opinion.

 

So because we don't do it at home every night, we do like a bit of entertainment on a cruise.  Late sitting, late show.

 

Bingo, definitely not.  Quizzes - nope.

 

I first sailed on a ship in 1967, so no entertainment, but there was dancing after dinner which was nice.

Edited April 23, 2023 by jeanlyon

[Angel57]

58 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I was thinking the same, socialising is way down my list of cruise activities. 
 

Anyway, I expect there was music in the ballrooms and bars, which counts as entertainment!
 

Plus, the older ships that I’ve been on have all had a theatre or show lounge, so entertainment must have been a feature, even in the 90s! 

I started cruising in 1992 on P&Os Sea Princess/Victoria and entertainment was held every night in the International Lounge. It was provided by either a guest artist, the Stadium Theatre Company and/ or the Entertainment Officers. The EA officers participation was always a highlight for me as they were generally very good and, being a small ship with only 700 passengers, you knew them and they knew you.

[P&O SUE]

I like going to the shows but I only go if I think it would be interesting to me. We were on a cruise one time and a Madonna tribute was on, several people walked out within the first ten minutes, she was dressed in the conical bra top (she changed halfway through) We couldn’t help thinking these people didn’t look like Madonna fans so we couldn’t understand why they were going to the show! 
 

We were just getting to the stage where we’d seen most of the Headliners shows so didn’t always go. There seems to be more new ones now but we just haven’t been able to cruise much lately but I shall look forward to new ones.

 

We also go to bars that might have a piano player in or the limelight club if on Britannia.

 

We’ve never done the quizzes, bingo or casino on board. I always imagined we’d have leisurely dinners when we first went on a cruise and was shocked how quick we were out of the restaurant but then we found we wanted to be if we wanted to see the show and possibly another act in the show lounge.

 

We’re all different, we all like different things.

[Britboys]

17 hours ago, Denarius said:

I very much agree.

When I started cruising in the 1990s passengers did not expect to be entertained after dinner, they expected to socialise. And socialise they did, in the ballroom and in the bars. Nowadays they expect to be enterained and rarely socialise.

There was certainly plenty of entertainment on the ships in the second half of the 90's. Our first was 95 on QE2 and then Victoria in 97. On both of those there was plenty of entertainment in the evenings, even though Victoria only had a level-floor, single-storey show-lounge. Obviously the shows were very different then.

[Britboys]

19 hours ago, mrsgoggins said:

I don’t like alcohol so have no interest in the bars (love a good tea/coffee venue however) but we usually go to the theatre unless it’s a magician.  I can accept it’s clever stuff, I personally don’t find it entertaining....

 😁

Have you tried the mocktails on board? Some of them are really nice and of course some of the bars have some decent live music being played too.

[Ilovemygarden]

On Azura in February two Welsh brothers Richard and Adam (they were originally on Britains Got Talent I think) did two shows.  They were absolutely fabulous - the songs they sang from Les Mis were outstanding - has anyone else heard them?  

[Vampiress88]

We do go and see something after dinner if we can. I find on p&o that majority of the nights we went out either to the theatre which was for magic and comedy. Or the club house for pulse and a different comedian. 
I missed this when we were on two msc ships as I didn’t find there enough entertainment in the evening so watched films on our iPads. 
 

I don’t drink and the kids get bored quick sitting and drinking in bars. I wouldn’t really sit and chat with random people and I fear for the people when my kids get talking. 

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, Ilovemygarden said:

On Azura in February two Welsh brothers Richard and Adam (they were originally on Britains Got Talent I think) did two shows.  They were absolutely fabulous - the songs they sang from Les Mis were outstanding - has anyone else heard them?  

They are regulars on P&O we have seen them at least twice.

 

[carlanthony24]

28 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

They are regulars on P&O we have seen them at least twice.

 

Very good singers.