Dancing On The Seven Seas - comprehensive guide to dancing facilities and services on board cruise ships

Cruise Travel, Jan, 2001 by Lois Donahue

If dancing the night away is part of your dream cruise, do your homework before you go, and you won't be disappointed

A friend of mine says that dancing is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Is that "joy unconfined"? Whatever your joy of dance might be, from swing to waltz, shipboard dancing can be one of the highlights of your cruise vacation. Knowing the steps can enhance the fun, but since the music onboard is so versatile, there is usually something to dance to for everybody.

In the past, the common wisdom of cruise executives was that few passengers got up to dance when the music played. But times change, and baby boomers with the means to go cruising want in on the dance action. There is an increasing interest in dancing these days, not only as a pleasurable recreation, but also as a good cardiovascular workout. Health-wise, it makes good sense to dance.

If you feel that your dancing skills might be a little rusty, there are plenty of places to do some brushing up. Many community centers offer group or private dance instruction. Check your local paper or phone book for a good nightspot where you and the spouse (or friend) can rekindle the dancing feet before your cruise. In any event, not to worry, many people who go on cruises haven't danced in years, so you're all in the same boat (quite literally).

Groucho Marx once quipped that, "Wives are people who feel they don't dance enough." So taking a cruise is your chance to get up on the dance floor and get going. Swaying to forgotten love songs or stepping out with the beat can do wonders for your soul, not to mention your figure. How else can you pleasantly burn up some of the calories the cruise lines serve so wonderfully? Think dance floors, not exercise rooms. Are you getting the picture?

Cruise-ship dance facilities are as varied as the dancers and the styles of dancing. The age or the size of the ship is not indicative of the dancing area or the dance floor. (See accompanying chart on pages 47-49 for cruise line responses to our questionnaire.) Dance floors are often irregular in shape. Some are round, oval, crescent, or semicircular, and some have columns in awkward places.

Charles Rittenhouse, from Brentwood, New York, a former cruise-ship dance instructor, told us about one illogical problem for serious dancers when he reflected, "Some ships have cigar smoking areas that are larger than the dance areas." Mr. Rittenhouse, in sizing things up, believes a good dance cruise should have well qualified male hosts on every sailing, flat wooden dance floors of sufficient size to dance comfortably on, and ample time allowed for dancing.

Ham Granland, a ballroom dancer from Seattle, raised some interesting issues about booking a dance cruise from a brochure. He cautioned that finding a good one could be problematical, saying a descriptive phrase like, "large space with a dazzling dance floor," is too vague and not much help for earnest dancers. Another dubious experience was booking a so-called "big band" cruise that "attracted so many couples they had to dance in the aisles."

The message we kept heating over and over from dance hosts, cruise dance instructors, and past passengers was a preference for the traditional liners with spacious ballrooms. Are you listening cruise lines? Professional dance instructors Tom and Orelynn Golson teach ballroom dancing on cruise ships. Orelynn describes Norwegian Cruise Line's Norway as a "classic ship" with good dance floors and great music for dancing.

Bruce Good, director of corporate communications for Cunard Line, describes the Queen Elizabeth 2 and Caronia as classic liners having the only true ballrooms afloat. In particular, the Queens Room on the QE2 has a dance area in the grand old tradition of floating ballrooms. Regal as the Queen herself, reminiscent of an era when ocean-liners steamed the privileged across the Atlantic, the Queens Room is an elegant and spacious place to dance.

Special cruises for ballroom dancers offer an alternative choice for serious dancers, such as the group arrangements meticulously planned by Marion Hoar of Dance-At-Sea. She not only personally inspects every ship she books, but also provides dance instructors. Going all the way, she even furnishes a professional DJ whose vast music collection spans the popular ballroom styles. Sponsored by the U.S. Amateur Ballroom Dance Association, Marion's dance-filled cruises are three- to four-day "value-priced packages."

"Dancing at sea is wonderful, but from my experience you have to be careful that the facilities on the cruise ships and the personality of the cruise line are a good fit for you," said Triangle Cruise & Travel agent Betsy Hockaday. Professional dance instructors and dance hosts enhance the special seven-day Caribbean and Alaska itineraries her company offers. On some voyages a 1,000-square-foot portable wooden dance floor is delivered for the exclusive use of the company's guests onboard.

What solo lady sailor has not heard of the wonderful gentlemen who host on a variety of cruise vessels? Whether they be called ambassador hosts, gentlemen hosts, or dance hosts, the idea of having an accomplished dancer who can whirl a single lady around the dance floor is becoming an industry standard. As one single passenger put it, "What could be worse than sitting there with the music playing, your toe a'tapping, and no one asks you to dance? It's like an engine revving, waiting to shift into high."