halemu

Aside from Cunard, are there any cruise lines (or specific ships) that offer regular ballroom dancing (ie, daily)?

ira

Hi H,

Try asking your question at www.cruisecritic.com.

bonniejns

My husband and I started ballroom dancing lessons when we were both 7 years old. They didn't end until we were in high school. We met when we were 13 and eloped when we were 17, 48 years ago! Needless to say we love to dance especially ballroom. At one time, when we were younger, we had been asked if we were professional dancers! We ballroom dance to ANY kind of music- we half time or double time the music, if we have to, to dance to it. You will find music you should be able to dance to on just about any ship.

halemu

bonniejns - you have had wonderful experience with ballroom - we are newcomers, having taken a few lessons 20 yrs ago - so far, of our 3 cruises, only the Queen Mary 2 had a ballroom and regular music to dance ballroom to - Carnival was a big disappointment, as was a cruise in the Mediterranean, so we wondered if any other ships had anything even close to Cunard in the way of ballroom and dance music nightly?

LLindaC

We were on the Indep. of the Seas (RCCL) last January and had a fabulous time dancing. They had professional dancers Dima and Olga Sukachov on board for the shows and for private dance lessons. Google them, they beat most of the pros from DWTS. We took a daily lesson for $40 which was a great deal as it was private and you could specify which type of dance you wanted to work on. I think many RCCL ships have added this.

halemu

LlindaC-- Many thanks - how were the dance floors and bands? that is, were the floors big enough for those wanting to dance and were the bands devoted to ballroom dancing?? And was ballroom dancing available every day??

Aleta

Crystal cruises has nightly dancing, before and after dinner. They always have a professional dance couple to give group and private lessons, and 4-5 dance hosts. There are 2 places to dance: The Palm Court which is a very large dance floor and a very adequate one for silver level dancers at the second place. A 5 piece combo plays most of the time, although at least once in the cruise the orchestra that plays in the shows will play dance music.

d958558

Costa offers dance floors that are just as large as Cunard, music policies which are far superior, at a better price.
Cunard provides the music for the orchestras, and it's abysmal. Worse, when I was on QM2, there was an adamant refusal to play recorded music for dancing; on QV, the recorded music was picked by a stage technician who had no idea. Any advice from the dance professionals was clearly ignored.
I'm spending 5 weeks on Costa Fortuna in January for about the same price as ten days on QM2. There will have to be radical changes at Cunard before I go back.

halemu

d958558 -- Many thanks for the suggetion of Costa - had not even HEARD of them!!! I assume you do mean Ballroom dancing - and not disco??? If so, we'll be looking at them hard.

halemu

d958558 - Have looked at Costa - look like nice ships but I find no ballrooms, at least on the fortuna - which ship had you gone on that had a ballroom like the QM2??

vickiebypass

Just returned from 10 days on the Queen Mary 2 and they now play strict-tempo recorded music in the Queens Room each night from 8:30 - 9:30 (between the live sets). Wide range of dances - from latin to smooth. The live band was much improved from the Queen Victoria band - more in tune and on the beat. Dance pros (Pollyanne & Giorgi) give very popular and successful group classes, as well as private lessons, and do two shows during the fancy balls.

d958558

The Conte de Savoia lounge has a dance floor that's almost as large as QM2, although it's circular. As far as I know, all of Costa's ships have large floors. There are two live groups, til 01:30, which will play requests. At 11 PM, there are 5 live dance places, as well as the disco.
All of Cunard's hype about dancing, and they can only come up with an hour of dance music! And that after years of complaints from dancers!