PHOTO: The World Stage features a two-story, 270-degree, 250-foot-long LED screen. (Courtesy of Holland America Line)
Holland America Line is partnering with New York's Lincoln Center and music magazine Billboard to create new live entertainment venues on its ships.
The Lincoln Center Stage will feature a chamber music quintet performing three times nightly six evenings per week and afternoon recitals on sea days. The musicians and the music performed will be curated by Lincoln Center, Holland America executives announced at a press conference at Cruise Shipping Miami.
Lincoln Center Stage will debut on the Eurodam in January and on the new Koningsdam, scheduled for delivery in April 2016. It eventually will be expanded to more ships.
The Billboard partnership will create an interactive show with two pianists, a guitarist and a DJ who will perform songs centered on music history as chronicled by Billboard, the magazine that operates charts such as the Hot 100.
Billboard Onboard will "showcase all genres of music" and encourage guests to sing along, said Bill Prince, Holland America's director of entertainment. It will debut on the Koningsdam.
What's more, Holland America is extending its partnership with Memphis-based B.B. King's Blues Club. Musicians and singers from the club will perform in the Queen's Lounge on the Rotterdam starting in April and on Koningsdam next year, making them the seventh and eighth ships to feature the blues band.
The B.B. King All-Star Band performs six nights a week.
On Koningsdam, the three music venues will be located near each other and collectively will be called Music Walk.
The partnerships will help the premium cruise line reach new customers who are familiar with Lincoln Center and Billboard. "We're expanding our net," Prince said.
The new Koningsdam also will feature a new main theater with a changeable stage that functions as a traditional stage or in the round. Called The World Stage, it will feature a two-story, 270-degree, 250-foot-long LED screen. "It's going to be a game-changer for us," Prince said.
The Koningsdam, which will enter service in April and spend the summer in Europe, will move to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale in for the winter of 2016-17, the company announced. It will operate seven- to 14-day cruises throughout the Caribbean and Bahamas.
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