The Welcome Aboard Variety Show has been very good every time we have been on board. The people who do this show will have cabaret shows the next couple of days - so this is a preview if you want to see them again. The cabaret shows are one for the family show and a second one later in the evening for adults. Unless you are very, very, very sensitive you will not be offended during the adult show. I would have been comfortable with DS(13) attending the adult shows (and he's a sheltered child).
We now have seen Dan Reily in it 3 times and he has had some new material each time. DS(13) saw it for the first time and really enjoyed it. Dan says his job is: "to take other peoples perfectly good music and change it around a little - for profit". He plays the acoustic guitar very well, does pariodies of a wide range of songs from the intelegable version of Aerosmiths "Walk this way" to Linda Ronstats "Blue Bayou" (or as he sings it "Blew By You"). He also is a comedian with some very good material.
We saw Rich Purpura again (last year at the Farewell Variety show, this year at the Welcome aboard show). He's a magician and comedian. Once again very funny and very talented. Very enjoyable.
I would always attend the Welcome and Farewell shows. They are a lot of fun.
About skipping the main evening shows to try some of the "other" offerings is not an option for us. We like all of the shows. I even liked Morty this year (and I really didn't care for it last year). One of the advantages to late seating dinner is that you can go the the family caberet show at 7:15 and still make it to dinner on time. If you have early seating and want seats near the front of the Walt Disney Theater you kinda have to skip the activites at 7:15.
Back to the nightly main stage shows: I would not skip either Dreams or Herc because they both are very good. In "Herc" the strength of the Muses voices can make the show. They always have strong singers but this years were not quite as good as in previous years. Pain and Panic pretty much stole the show whenever they were onstage. Then there is Disney Dreams, I'm a "tough guy" but it brings tears to my eyes every time I see it. Then there is Who Wants to be a Mousekatter. If you like Disney Pins jump up and down and be crazy when they as for people to be on the pannel. Me, I would rather be up on the Hot Seat answering the questions for the Cruise. Both times I have seen this show, the folks picked randomly out of the audience really haven't had much of a clue - have a hard time answering the first three "gimme" questions, never mind the slightly more difficult ones later on. Finally, there is a movie in the Walt Disney Theater one of the night. Frequently its Disney current release and maybe even a Prem-ear at sea like for Finding Nemo and Pirates of the Caribbean.
For my family, we really enjoy the shows. Kids under 10 probably could care less about the Variety shows and Mousekateer. They seem really like Herc and Dreams - duh - it's about the characters.
As far as which shows your kids would like better, I personally think the Hercules show is excellent because there's always a little ad-libbing, and it's always very funny.
