That’s Entertainment!

The Grand World Voyage has numerous options for entertainment:

• Queens Lounge Evening Shows
• Daytime Guest Lecturers
• Enrichment Classes
• Casino
• Cruise ship Games
• Movies
• Card Games

The focus for this post was the Entertainment in the Queens Lounge. More on the other options later.

I put together a 3 minute 30 second video showing highlights from 34 different acts on this world cruise.   Here’s the video.

I have also added the name of every entertainer or event next to the date on the page called “Itinerary, Menus, On Location and Entertainers” under world cruise reference on the blog. So if you want to scan the names of the entertainers you can do so easily here.

Every night, with only a few exceptions, there was live entertainment in the Queens Lounge. The exceptions being when the ship was on an overnight as in Sydney or Hong Kong or if the ship’s departure was late – past 8 pm. In these cases, they would generally show a movie, and it was normally one of the more popular recent releases e.g. Spectre, The Martian etc.   On nights when they used the Queens Lounge for a grand ball, they would also not have a live show.   On a few occasions, they would have a “Spotlight show” which would start at 7:15 or 7:30 so as to accommodate both early and late seating.

On most nights, the shows would start at 8:15 and 10 pm.   The 8pm show was usually close to full, but there were always some seats available, but maybe not in the best locations.   The late show attracted about 50 regulars.   Our table went every night and we always sat in the balcony to the left of the Sound Booth.   Occasionally we would go to the main floor in the first row if we have had the entertainer for dinner or otherwise got to know them. We jokingly referred to the first 3 rows in the balcony as the “Presidents Box”

Unlike most cruises, the Cruise Director has significant input into the selection of the guest entertainers on this Grand World Voyage.   We were told that on previous World Cruises, a significant portion of the entertainment budget was used to book a well-known celebrity – for example Desmond Tutu.   For a variety of reasons, there wasn’t any “big name” celebrity available this year so they allowed the Cruise Director to use the budget set aside for this “Big Name” to book higher quality (more expensive) acts than may have otherwise been the case.   This was a brilliant move and with only a few exceptions, all the entertainers on this cruise were outstanding.

Nevertheless, the quality of entertainers’ is VERY subjective and sometimes people would unfairly criticize an act because they didn’t like the type of entertainer rather than the quality of the performance itself.  Some people don’t like jugglers, comedians, magicians, you name it, but if you don’t like that type of entertainment you are better off finding something else to do rather that sit thru a show you know you won’t like.  Judy and I made it a point to go to every show and she succeeded in sitting through every minute of every show.   (Except those when we were on overland’s.)  I missed parts of 3 or 4 shows when I was so exhausted I couldn’t stay awake.   We love the HAL cast shows and even though we have seen most of them before, we love going again and again because live entertainment is always different and exciting.

Live entertainment on a cruise ship represents a unique opportunity to sample various types of performers you would never otherwise see. We would never get in our car in San Diego and drive to see a Harmonica Player, but we would gladly walk the length of the ship to see one on the world cruise.   We always tried to do things on this cruise, or any cruise, that we can’t do anywhere else.   We can always catch up on old movies at home but we can’t see someone play a Hammer Dulcimer except on a cruise ship.  Nevertheless, one of the joys of cruising is to do whatever you would like.  I encourage future travelers to take advantage of those opportunities that are probably only available on a Grand World Voyage.