Sometimes the performers said thing like 'take it away boys '. One guy even said that's Max on the sax after a solo, yet we saw nobody.

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:
Here's a strange thing. The music which accompanied the performances in Norwegian Jades theatre was CLEARLY taped music. We never saw the so called 'Orchestra' and sometimes the taped music even started a little late missing the cue.

Sometimes the performers said thing like 'take it away boys '. One guy even said that's Max on the sax after a solo, yet we saw nobody.

The Daily News always said 'An Absolutely Live Orchestra'. So why do NCL feel the need to lie about it?

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When I sailed the SSNorway in 2001 they had live music everywhere including the shows. At the time, the entertainment was excellent! Alvy Rose and Jean Ann Ryan were the top acts.

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Originally posted by desirod7:
...what is the NCL advantage?

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The NCL of 2001 is quite different now. The overall experince is not unlike RCI - FIRMLY mass market. However, it was not all bad.

Peopl eever seem to love or hate Freestyle dining. Personally it worked really well for me. I thought I was a traditionalist, but I did enjoy the flexibility. I have no problem booking a table if I wanted a specific time. I can't think of another class of ship with so many dining choices - 13 options, if you include room service!

The ‘surcharge’ dining rooms are intimate and have very good food and service (I tried most of them). Food in the 'free' dining rooms was inconsistent ranging from good to poor, but never excellent, although the service was generally pretty good.

The Lido buffet (& Great Outdoors) was good at all times - in fact much better than 'Queen Victoria's' in January.

On my particular cruise NCL had attracted various ages groups, but the 'Grey Pound' was in the majority, a lot being from the North of England. There were too schools of though onboard amongst the Brits:

1) I've paid my cruise fair so why should I pay any extra surcharges for food

2) The surcharge dining rooms were very good and well worth the extra cost

There were some excellent musicians onboard Jade in some of the lounges (including W T Greer if you have ever seen him) but tape music was used in the theatre. (I bet few pax even noticed!) There were singers (well they tried) who danced (well tried), but not any dedicated dancers as such within the onboard entertainment troop.

Its ‘swings and roundabouts’: I paid quite a low fare as the cruise was a little off-season, but probably spent more onboard that normal, mainly due to surcharge dining. Wine seemed very expensive to me for a mass-market ship and the excursions always are.

Disembarcation was the best that I have ever experienced.

If RCI are the market leaders in innovative ship design, NCL are in second place in my opinion. NCL are a good alternative to Carnival and RCI if the fare is good. They are not Cunard or Celebrity, though!

[ 06-17-2008: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

Now is this a regular occurrence? Are NCL just very generous to their crew or were they trying to address a low-moral problem? It's important to note that Jade had almost a complete change of crew earlier this year when she transferred from NCLA to NCL. I also understand that the implementation of Freestyle 2.0 had increased some staffs workload.

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:
Here's a strange thing. The music which accompanied the performances in Norwegian Jades theatre was CLEARLY taped music. We never saw the so called 'Orchestra' and sometimes the taped music even started a little late missing the cue.

Sometimes the performers said thing like 'take it away boys '. One guy even said that's Max on the sax after a solo, yet we saw nobody.

The Daily News always said 'An Absolutely Live Orchestra'. So why do NCL feel the need to lie about it?

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Being a musician of 30 years I found this disapointing as well. On our NCL cruise in Dec music was dubbed and suplemented with a sax and trumpet playing along. I would prefer live to dubbed but would even prefer dubbed to trying to combine the two. For me this was the most disapointing aspect of the cruise.

[ 06-17-2008: Message edited by: timb ]

Cost cutting cost cutting cost cutting........ I am getting to a stage I never ever go to the shows anymore.

The best shows I've seen were on RCI Brilliance of the Seas. And P&O Cruises

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Originally posted by oslo dutch:
It's exactly the same on HAL Zuiderdam of Celebrity Century. It was bad quality canned music and most of the singing was lips inc. Very bad and extremely boring. The cruise line managements must think we are stupid or something. The Vista class stage doesn't even have a proper orchestra pit build.

Cost cutting cost cutting cost cutting........ I am getting to a stage I never ever go to the shows anymore.

The best shows I've seen were on RCI Brilliance of the Seas. And P&O Cruises

Reint

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Reint they have an orchestra pit. But they cane cover it. Saw it a/b the Oosterdam. When they where set up the orchestra stand.

It's the same fore Costa Romantica also no orchestra in the show lounge. Bad sound and loud.

a/b the Zaandam there was on occasion an live orchestra. The taped/digital music was quite good and never went wrong. The performers singing live but where not excellent. The Explorer Lounge band was excellent.

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:
Hi timb, I'm not a musician but I do enjoy LIVE music. So you say that there was a live element (sax and trumpet)? They never appeared on stage?

If there had been a whole 'Orchestra' they would have played in other parts of the ship at times and I would have seen them at some time. Musician and instruments cannot hide!

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Originally posted by timb:

They did appear on stage and from what I could see and hear were used more for the visual effect as they were costumed and in the middle of everything

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