My wife and I are (social) ballroom dancers. We've just returned from a cruise on the Holland America ship Oosterdam and had a wonderful time dancing. However, we realize that we were lucky in that there were few dancers aboard. If there had been even a handful of dancers aboard, the dance floors would have been woefully inadequate. I understand that the three Cunard ships have large dance floors, but we would like to know if there are other cruise ships which have adequate sized dance floors and tend to cater to ballroom dancers. Thanks for your help.

The Costa Magica is reported to have a decent sized floor. I assume it's sister ship (????) would too.

OB

Costa is the other line with a good sized dance floor. We sailed the Magica twice and are sailing the Fortuna, in a few weeks. They are sister ships. The first 2 cruises, we stopped dancing because we were wore out every night.

They have a ballroom with a good sized and unobstructed dance floor. This room is in the center of the ship, so it is pretty stable also. On our cruises they had 4-7 hours of music in the ballroom. They had a latin lounge with a small dance floor, 2 piano bars with dance floors. Latin lounge and piano bars had music all night. Each of these 4 rooms had 2 or 3 sets of performers, who would switch off, to provide pretty much continuous music. A few times in the ballroom, we did not even notice they had switched musicians.

They also had a big lounge with a small dance floor, were the ships band and singers performed a few evenings, later at night.

There always seemed to some people in each lounge and at certain times, a lot of people.

They played primarily contemporary ballroom music in the ballroom. They played mostly smooth, since latin and swing was available in other rooms. They adjusted the music to the situation and the dancers. Dance floor would get crowed for 30-60 minutes some nights, but most of the time is was 4 or 5 couples. Giving everyone lot's of room to dance.

Please be sure to tell us about the cruise. I'm wishing to talk hubby into a cruise where we can dance lots, but we mostly stick with Waltz.

kai,

We're taking a group to Las Vegas Ma9 for 5 days dancing (we went in November to scout locations the locals go to like Step by Step and Manny's Sunday Afternoon Tea Dance at the Gold Coast.

Then we're catching the Sapphire Princess from Los Angeles for 3 days back to Vancouver. Princess boats are OK to dance on but definitely not full tilt ballroom although we were able to Quickstep on the Sun Princess.

OB

http://www.dancingdragon52.com

Thank you. I hope Dennis also responds. I'd like to hear about the Fortuna. That way I'll know better which ship to be looking for when I decide hubby is ready for a dancing cruise!

Fortuna was excellent. It was pretty much identical to the Magic. Including some groups that performed for both of our Magica cruises, were now on the Fortuna.

We got spoiled by the large floor in the main lounge and spent most of our evenings in that room. Trio in that lounge was excellent, duo was pretty good. There music was very good, but song songs were a bit difficult to dance to. Before we sailed Costa, I never expected to do so many waltts, foxtrots and quicksteps on a cruise ship. main dance floor had plenty of rom for the smooth dances.

One difference was the added a second level to dance floor in the large back lounge. All the other dance floors, were identical to the Fortuna. There was quite a bit of dancing occuring in 4 different areas. One piano bar had a large dance fllor ( for a piano bar ) and some people would do some swing there.

My wife and I had a great time dancing on the Oosterdam as we danced often and late. The ship had a band of four muscicians named "Counterpoint" which played very dancable music. However, as I said before, we were lucky in that there were only a few ballroom dancers on the ship and if there had been more, there dance floors would have been far too crowded.

We have done a lot of dancing on Celebrity Century small floors but alright if you pick the right time. The music is good for ballroom. We go to the first sitting for dinner so that there is more space and time to dance.

ok ok, i admit it.....im the best person to ask about dancing on cruise ships!! The verdict...some of the costa ships do have reasonable dance floors (although most of them are a circle)but the quality of the dance music is very hit and miss. They dont play much ballroom, more a mix of latin, salsa, and german leg slapping type dances that no one has ever heard of except Italiens! Queen Mary 2 really has the best ballroom although the band only play at American tempos...not International style music. P&O Ships Aurora and Oriana are excellent for ballroom and latin dancing. The worlds best and biggest company for dancing holidays on cruise ships is 'Cruise & Dance' - check out thier website on: www.zigzagdance.co.uk which is run by Warren Bullock & Jane Phillips who are former British number 1 couple. Their dancing cruises feature workshops and general dancing specially arrange with the ship for anyone who books with them. There is also lots of pics on their website which are interesting.