Cruise Performers
Creating memories of a lifetime for young performers onboard Cruise Ships
Cruise Performers set out to give dance schools an individual, extraordinary performing experience
For over 30 years, dance schools in the UK have been able to apply to perform at some of London’s major theatres such as His Majesty’s Theatre, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Sadlers Wells and The Royal Albert Hall. Disneyland Paris has become a regular performing venue for thousands of dance schools each year as they progress and look for new challenges abroad, and schools are now even able to perform on Broadway, in Las Vegas, Disneyland Florida and Salou Spain through agents who offer these venues as a further stepping stone to enhance performing opportunities.
The problem with the above venues, is that they tend to offer a single 20-30 minute performance opportunity, with very little rehearsal time and with multiple schools performing one group after the other. This often results in performers feeling unprepared before being put on stage, not to mention the entire experience whizzing by in the blink of an eye. Over the years, dance teachers have expressed how these performing venues can feel nothing more than a “conveyor belt” of schools with audiences made up solely of family members; so it’s unsurprising that many are now looking for something different.
What’s different about Cruise Performers?
From the very first school performing on MSC Armonia in May of 2005, Cruise Performers have been committed to:
Allowing just one dance school per sailing — no juggling of stage time between multiple schools; the time is dedicated to your school alone.
Offering a number (4) of performing time slots — schools work hard to prepare their performance; they should have more than one opportunity to share it!
Providing multiple rehearsal opportunities onboard — students (and teachers!) can feel fully prepared before performances and present their best work.
Arranging a Q&A session with industry professionals for pupils — students can gain an understanding of what life is like as a dancer at sea, should they choose to work towards a career in performance.
We set an age range from 10 to 18 years for performers, with an occasional exception of 9 year old if the pupil is talented. All schools perform with a main cast of mid to late teens and using younger pupils in the choreography with care.
More importantly, we vet and audition every school that applies to come on-board to entertain passengers, resulting in performances of higher, more consistent production value.
Sound good?
Get in touch with a member of our team and see how we can help you plan your Cruise Performers trip
How does it work?
School decides which cruise date they would like to take and a leaflet, designed by us, is distributed to parents to gauge interest.
If the interest is good then Cruise Performers can visit your school to give a powerpoint presentation to parents. We are unique in offering this and it gives the parents a chance to ask any questions they might have.
After the visit, there is 10-14 days to send Cruise Performers the initial cabin request form - this details family names, number of children, adults and cabin type anticipated, allowing us to take allocation from MSC Groups.
10-14 days after this, we ask all families to use the online booking form to send in their details and book their cabin, this goes directly to Ponders Travel.
Ponders Travel send all parents an email reiterating the terms of booking and confirming deposits are ready to collect. Parents can then call Ponders to make payment or pay by bank transfer.
An interim payment will be due between the deposit payment and the balance payment.
Balances are collected approximately 19 weeks prior to sailing, by Ponders Travel.
Important things to note:
You as the teacher are not required to process forms, collect deposits or chase balances. If a family wants to book a pre-night cruise hotel then refer them to us, if they want a price for a suite we can give this… the idea is to remove as much paperwork (and stress!) from teachers as possible.
Cruise Performers run a free ship visit, for two people, to join us in Southampton. This gives you not only look around a cruise ship, but also to meet both Grahame and Maxine and our partners at Ponders Travel.
Cruise Performers will need to see your choreography via youtube, facebook or video file as evidence of your schools work.
Case study: Starlets School of Performing Arts
Kerry at Starlets School of Performing Arts contacted Cruise Performers back in September 2023 as she was keen to explore the idea of her students performing on cruise ships. Having decided on a cruise date, Starlets forwarded a couple of showreels to us demonstrating the schools abilities - in return, they received prices which could be then distributed to parents.
After receiving a good response from the families, Cruise Performers organised a free visit to Starlets where parents were invited to a presentation and Q&A session; giving parents ample opportunity to discover all they wanted to know about — not only the school's involvement — but also what holidaying on a cruise ship can be like.
Starlets then sent us their list of families (initial cabin request form) so that we could get to work allocating cabins. Within 14 days, the families completed an online booking form and within the agreed time, parents were contacted by Ponders Travel to pay their deposits of £150pp.
Kerry and her Husband, along with other school principles, joined us in Southampton for a free ship visit onboard MSC Euribia. The visit gave Starlets a chance to take a good look at the ship, to meet the Cruise Performers team (and our travel partners Ponders Travel), get an idea of how everything works onboard and take a peek at cabins, restaurants, bars, swimming pools and importantly - the theatre! They were even able to enjoy lunch in one of the ships restaurants.
14 weeks before travel, all balance payments for the cruise were collected by our agent, Ponders Travel. Having our agent take care of the admin results in each family being treated individually, and any questions or issues being dealt with efficiently without adding to the workload of Kerry or any of the Starlets teachers.
2 weeks prior to sailing, Kerry received her rehearsal and performance schedules — detailing the times when Starlets would rehearse in the theatre, when their scheduled shows were, and information regarding the Q&A/industry chat session with her students.
