DCL comedy is great and very clean. But are they the only clean comedy out there?

[Snowwhyt]

I’ve spent much time with Jo from the Wonder. She’s great.
And a comedian you find on the Disney ships can give a very clean show and still be funny. But many of your seasoned sailor’s might have insights to other clean lines out there. I had a recent RCCL that was sex and menstruation for comedy. Yes I’m older but George Burns, Bob Hope, J Leno, can all give a good show. The late night shows always have clean comedy David letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel,..
Disney definitely has it, but to others?

 

[Julia M]

We've been on two Carnival Cruises. One, the comedy was so raunchy we walked out. A different night, not so raunchy but not funny. A different cruise, a little raunchy (bit not offensive to us) and all the shows were so funny. We went to every one. So I'm not sure you can know line to line, ship to ship or even perhaps, cruise to cruise.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I believe that in Carnival there is a warning either outside or in the description on some to the effect if you think you will be offended, don’t come.

I went to one Princess Comedy show and there were some potty jokes that weren’t particularly funny. It was pretty sad IMO, and that was the main entertainment for the night, not some after hours little show.

 

[belle032]

Carnival offers both "family-friendly" and "adult." They make it EXTREMELY clear which shows are adult, so skip them if you are easily offended or just don't want to be in the audience. The comedians are some of our favorite entertainment onboard. I don't mind a raunchy show, but don't think it's 100% necessary to be funny. But comedy & comedians are very subjective...what's funny to you may not be as funny to someone else. It's kind of one of those things that really only you can decide if you find the show worth it or not.

 

[KashasMom]

Both Royal and NCL have had family friendly on the cruises we've done with them.

 

[Snowwhyt]

I would be fine listening to Epstein jokes, or other political figures that have been caught doing the nasty. But I’m never going to find menstruation jokes funny unless I was watching it with an all female audience.

Both Royal and NCL have had family friendly on the cruises we've done with them.

Royal was where I had our poor experience. Maybe I just got a bad egg, twice in the same week. I’ll go again, but wonder who I can ask about comedy bartender? Someone else?

 

[Skywalker]

The comedians on both my Holland America cruises were 100 % clean and also hysterically funny. My son (21) says the one guy was the hardest he laughed in his life. Now if I could only emember either of their names!

 

[KashasMom]

I would be fine listening to Epstein jokes, or other political figures that have been caught doing the nasty. But I’m never going to find menstruation jokes funny unless I was watching it with an all female audience.

Royal was where I had our poor experience. Maybe I just got a bad egg, twice in the same week. I’ll go again, but wonder who I can ask about comedy bartender? Someone else?

There were specific family shows - very early in the evening. We love all the shows on the Royal Oasis class ships - every night something family friendly. NCL on the other hand literally had the one family friendly comedy show (a couple times a week - small venue and reservations only so we never even got in). All of the other NCL shows were not family friendly. We had too much time at night with nothing to do!

 

[Snowwhyt]

There were specific family shows - very early in the evening. We love all the shows on the Royal Oasis class ships - every night something family friendly. NCL on the other hand literally had the one family friendly comedy show (a couple times a week - small venue and reservations only so we never even got in). All of the other NCL shows were not family friendly. We had too much time at night with nothing to do!

We were on Voyageur class when we experienced our problems. Well now I’m not sure I want to go on NCL. If I’m not gonna be able to find anything to do at night. Ugh

 

[PrincessShmoo]

The comedians on both my Holland America cruises were 100 % clean and also hysterically funny. My son (21) says the one guy was the hardest he laughed in his life. Now if I could only emember either of their names!

The only issue I have with the comedians on HAL is that, often, their humor is geared toward "aren't we old now? Remember when...." comedy. I don't think younger people would find it as humorous . But, I agree the comedy on HAL is generally more "family friendly" than on Carnival.

 

[ImprovGal]

What DCL labels as "comedy" is usually really a "comedy and..." act (...magic/ ventriloquism/ juggling/ music). I've seen very few traditional comedians on DCL, and only on longer sailings with very few children onboard.

My non-DCL sailing experience in the last few years was limited to a couple of NCL cruises (1 Epic 7-nt W caribbean, 1 Pearl full charter). From what I remember on Epic, the standup comedy sets were repeated a few times during the cruise and the family-friendly one was designated as such. You might see the same "comedy and..." acts onboard, but they would most likely be described as their "and..." rather than as a standup.

In the meantime, I am very familiar with an improv group based out of RI who performs a family-friendly improv show on zoom/youtube every friday night at 7pm ET (Not-so-family-friendly at 9pm ET).

 

[spacecanada]

Even the ‘clean’ comedy show I saw on NCL was making fun of people with disabilities. I was extremely offended and walked out, and the comedian was then making fun of me for being so easily offended. Not okay. (I happen to have the invisible disability he was making fun of; and nobody should make fun of anyone’s medical condition.)

Royal was hit or miss, but the family shows were clean enough to enjoy. Carnival was appalling; they only had 18+ shows on the cruise we went on, but I never expected raunchy humour full of swearing. We left that show super quickly. Disney’s adult comedian shows are mostly tasteful and swear-free, at least.

 

[tvguy]

Comedian on our Disney cruise crossed the line. Racy content. I would have to find our Navigators to find his name. Apparently it was the last week of his contract and he was not happy about it not being renewed. An apparently he was put off the ship at the first port. He was supposed to be on board the whole week, but that was all rumor

 

[DCLMP]

What DCL labels as "comedy" is usually really a "comedy and..." act (...magic/ ventriloquism/ juggling/ music). I've seen very few traditional comedians on DCL, and only on longer sailings with very few children onboard.

My non-DCL sailing experience in the last few years was limited to a couple of NCL cruises (1 Epic 7-nt W caribbean, 1 Pearl full charter). From what I remember on Epic, the standup comedy sets were repeated a few times during the cruise and the family-friendly one was designated as such. You might see the same "comedy and..." acts onboard, but they would most likely be described as their "and..." rather than as a standup.

In the meantime, I am very familiar with an improv group based out of RI who performs a family-friendly improv show on zoom/youtube every friday night at 7pm ET (Not-so-family-friendly at 9pm ET).

Agreed. I've been on twenty-something dcl cruises and have never seen a traditional comedy act.

 

[ImprovGal]

Agreed. I've been on twenty-something dcl cruises and have never seen a traditional comedy act.

On past Panama Canal sailings, I've seen Maryellen Hooper and Wayne Cotter. Troy Thirdgill was on a transatlantic sailing.

The strangest one I saw was on the Magic's very first Panama Canal sailing when they had Bob Saget onboard for a mainstage show. While he had worked for ABC on Full House and AFV, his standup work is generally for adult audiences only. Since I had second dinner seating, i saw the first show. The cruise director got so many complaints from that first show that his monolog time in the second show was reduced tremendously to basically introducing the Muppets.

 

[Snowwhyt]

On past Panama Canal sailings, I've seen Maryellen Hooper and Wayne Cotter. Troy Thirdgill was on a transatlantic sailing.

The strangest one I saw was on the Magic's very first Panama Canal sailing when they had Bob Saget onboard for a mainstage show. While he had worked for ABC on Full House and AFV, his standup work is generally for adult audiences only. Since I had second dinner seating, i saw the first show. The cruise director got so many complaints from that first show that his monolog time in the second show was reduced tremendously to basically introducing the Muppets.

Ouch, that had to hurt. And yet supposedly he did most of the jokes for his AFV show so he must have the chops for a family audience.

 

[MrsInsG]

The comedians on both my Holland America cruises were 100 % clean and also hysterically funny. My son (21) says the one guy was the hardest he laughed in his life. Now if I could only emember either of their names!

I agree! If I remember correctly, they offered a show that was clean and one that was clearly billed as "adult".

The only issue I have with the comedians on HAL is that, often, their humor is geared toward "aren't we old now? Remember when...." comedy. I don't think younger people would find it as humorous . But, I agree the comedy on HAL is generally more "family friendly" than on Carnival.

I cruised HAL at 33, 34, & 36 and found their comedians funny. Maybe it was just the ones who were on board when I was, but there were jokes about age as well as many other things. YMMV.