All cruise lines and all cruise ships are not the same. Carnival Cruise Line and Princess Cruises have begun operating more and more in the Caribbean. They are both known for their fun dance cruises and entertainment. But, neither offers as many opportunities for ballroom, Latin, or tango dancers. Single ladies are more likely to find dance partners with dance hosts than single men, although some ships provide dance hostesses, as well.
Wendy Olsen’ s Dancers at Sea is in its 19th year. It is the longest running program, offering dance lessons, parties, and more formal or controlled, mostly ballroom-style dancing. But, it is an industry leader in the nontraditional genres including nightclub social dance, salsa, salon tango, bolero, etc. They organize roughly ten dance cruises a year. They are also known for having contracted teachers for their tango themed cruises, rather than having the classes taught by lesser qualified dance entertainers.. These cruises have one of the best ratios: one dance pro or host / hostess for every three passengers.
John Ranivand, founder of Dancing at Sea, organizes four to five dance themed cruises a year for sixty to ninety guests on a variety of cruise lines. Some Dancing at Sea cruises have a special tango focus, Tango. All are taught by the group’ s instructors, typically two to four per cruise.
Most Europeans love to dance, so you’ ll find the dance floors busy on European lines like Costa Cruises and MSC Cruises. These ships feature more dance space, too. While American lines tend to have larger casinos than dance clubs, European ships divide up their space the opposite way.
America Line regularly sails the Caribe offering dance hosts, but not alwayss dance hostesses. These partners are not always experienced dancers, although all of the ships do require at least a knowledge of the basic steps of the social ballroom dances. Mostly, they dance standard ballroom variants of foxtrot. waltz, tango, swing, rumba, cha-cha, and sometimes salsa. The salon tango, Argentine style, is not a high priority on most cruises for the hosts or hostesses, even when there is a live band playing tango, Tango, on the Holland America Line ships, is considered featured, or special entertainment.
Crystal Cruises offers more upscale Caribbean cruises with a Ballroom at Sea program. The evening dance is set at various lounges with orchestras. Dance classes are mostly American ballroom style. They have had tango teachers on board. But, they are not part of the normal program. They are contracted for special Dance Theme cruises. Although Crystal Cruises does not have as many of these cruises, they do offer one of the highest rated, and longest, music and dance cruises to the Caribe.
Tango is enjoying an ever-growing audience of enthusiasts and dancers. And, it is growing throughout the Caribbean. Visiting artists are helping expand the number of dancers and the audience for tango. As long as there are tango dancers ready to dance, the cruise ships of the Caribbean will be ready to sail them away to the crystal isles.
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