The philosophy of Princess is “Big ship choice, small ship feel.” To accomplish this, entertainment becomes something of a three ring circus, where you simply can’t see everything happening in one cruise. This philosophy reigns even at the pools. While a reggae band may be playing by one pool and another pool is relatively quiet, a large movie screen by the pool in between may be showing a Tom Jones concert or a movie like “Pirates of the Caribbean.” It’s amazing that the sound doesn’t bleed between the venues.
The screen by the pool also shows “Movies Under the Stars,” which competes against the nighttime entertainment with a diverse choice of movies accompanied by free popcorn.
The main showroom featured a couple of great production shows, with my personal favorite being “The Piano Man,” which featured songs of Elton John, Billy Joel and others with terrific dancing and singing. This show has the same emphasis toward rock rather than show tunes and more Frank Sinatra-type music featured in the past with Princess. This change has caused some older passengers to feel like the entertainment has declined in recent years, but most people on our cruise loved the shows. The quality of the entertainment remained high throughout, and as a result, night after night the showroom filled up, requiring arrival fifteen to thirty minutes early in order to grab a good seat.
An act like comedian Steve Morris, a sort of comedy musician who parlayed some time performing with the Beach Boys into a solid career, would star in the main showroom one night and then, performing in the Explorer's Lounge, be competing against a different main show another night. The biggest problem with this was that the Explorer’s Lounge simply wasn’t large enough to seat all the people who wanted to see that show. In short, there often seemed to be more of a shortage of seats for the live shows than I’ve seen on most cruises. The result of a packed house is actually very strong audience reactions, which pushes the performers on to truly great performances, but it also leaves a lot of disappointed people wandering off in search of alternative entertainment.
Since this was a summertime cruise, it contained lots of active people, which undoubtedly had an impact, whereas an itinerary when school is in session would have more senior citizens likely to go to turn in early.
Of course, there are also dance bands, game shows and other fun entertainment, including big parties out by a swimming pool. I’ll tell you about some of the entertainment requiring more active passenger participation next time.
Aren’t you ready to get away from the day to day humdrum and enjoy a great vacation?
The screen by the pool also shows “Movies Under the Stars,” which competes against the nighttime entertainment with a diverse choice of movies accompanied by free popcorn.The main showroom featured a couple of great production shows, with my personal favorite being “The Piano Man,” which featured songs of Elton John, Billy Joel and others with terrific dancing and singing. This show has the same emphasis toward rock rather than show tunes and more Frank Sinatra-type music featured in the past with Princess. This change has caused some older passengers to feel like the entertainment has declined in recent years, but most people on our cruise loved the shows. The quality of the entertainment remained high throughout, and as a result, night after night the showroom filled up, requiring arrival fifteen to thirty minutes early in order to grab a good seat.
An act like comedian Steve Morris, a sort of comedy musician who parlayed some time performing with the Beach Boys into a solid career, would star in the main showroom one night and then, performing in the Explorer's Lounge, be competing against a different main show another night. The biggest problem with this was that the Explorer’s Lounge simply wasn’t large enough to seat all the people who wanted to see that show. In short, there often seemed to be more of a shortage of seats for the live shows than I’ve seen on most cruises. The result of a packed house is actually very strong audience reactions, which pushes the performers on to truly great performances, but it also leaves a lot of disappointed people wandering off in search of alternative entertainment.
Since this was a summertime cruise, it contained lots of active people, which undoubtedly had an impact, whereas an itinerary when school is in session would have more senior citizens likely to go to turn in early.Of course, there are also dance bands, game shows and other fun entertainment, including big parties out by a swimming pool. I’ll tell you about some of the entertainment requiring more active passenger participation next time.
Aren’t you ready to get away from the day to day humdrum and enjoy a great vacation?
