Dancing on the High Seas
Cruise Lines cater to clients swept up in dance trend.
One fun place to learn how to dance is on board a cruise ship. While luxury lines have offered dance classes for years, dance fever has now gone mainstream. Following is a sampling of premium and contemporary cruise lines that will teach you how to swing, sway or salsa while at sea.
Celebrity Cruises will roll out a new interactive entertainment event called "Everybody Dance!". It will debut on Summit and then be extended fleetwide. Celebrity's production team members will pair with guests to compete in ballroom and modern-style routines, with winners chosen by a panel of judges and a live audience. A similar event is being introduced for teenage cruisers.
Separately, Celebrity Cruises is rolling out another dance program; onboard activity staff and production casts will teach at least four instructional classes in ballroom, modern, Latin, country and hip-hop.
Princess Cruises newest dance event is aptly called "Ballroom Blitz". Onboard guests learn the basics of ballroom dancing with special lessons throughout the cruise. Guests may show off their moves in a series of evening competitions. At the conclusion, passengers who have best mastered the dance moves will be crowned as winners.
On 14-day or longer cruises, dance hosts sail onboard Holland America and the line's dance team teaches ballroom dancing on longer Grand Cruise voyages. On shorter cruises, dance classes are sometimes offered on sea days or as part of '70s and country music nights.
Royal Caribbean is expanding it's "So You Think You Can Dance" series. Eight new line dances are being introduced. Royal Caribbean's fleetwide Explorer Academy program also offers dance classes in salsa, swing, and hip-hop. On select ships, guests may take instruction from professional ballroom and Latin dancers.
On select Caribbean sailings, Costa Cruises offers "Tarantella Dancing". This traditional Italian dance is characterized by the rapid whirling of couples and is a favorite traditional dance at celebrations throughout Italy.
Guests on Carnival Cruise Lines' ships will find many fun dance venues for hoofing it on their own. Also, varying by ship, Carnival at times offers swing, rock 'n' roll, hip-hop and country line dance classes, as well as Austin Powers and Saturday Night Fever dance classes.
Finally, all Norwegian Cruise Line's repositioning cruises and 10 to 14 day programs feature dance instruction. Most recently, the Jean Ann Ryan Productions dance duo has been teaching onboard guests the dances with a contemporary flair. NCL guests may also book private lessons with the duo at an additional charge.
