ABOARD THE KONINGSDAM — What passengers love on Holland
America Line’s new Koningsdam is the presentation of BB King’s Blues Club in
the two-story Queen’s Lounge.
But a new
evening restaurant in the ship’s Culinary Arts Center is still in search of
customers.
Those were some
of the takeaways from a Q&A session held by senior officers on the
Koningsdam, a month after the ship first put to sea.
Lincoln Center Stage is a venue where HAL says it has "raised the bar" for classical music at sea.
On the drawing
boards since 2012, Koningsdam has many features new to Holland America,
although cruise director Johnathan Rogers emphasized its continuity with HAL’s
previous Vista and Signature class ships.
Rogers said the
area of the ship that’s really finding an audience is the Music Walk, in which
BB King’s, the Lincoln Center Stage and the Billboard Onboard venues are
clustered together.
Some of the
presentations in the 148-seat Lincoln Center Stage are standing room only.
“What we’ve done
with classical music has really raised the bar, because there’s just nothing
else like it in the cruise industry,” Rogers said.
Elsewhere, some
of the newer venues will need to be marketed more to be understood or
discovered, hotel director Don Habets said.
“The things that
people don’t know from other ships, they’re underutilized, like the Culinary
Arts Center restaurant,” Habets said. “People think it’s only cooking shows at
night.”
HAL says the Culinary Arts Center restaurant has been underutilized.
The restaurant,
which serves a farm-to-table menu for $39, was meant to have two seatings an
evening but has been cut back to one, Habets said. “It’s not as popular as we
would want it to be,” he said.
New York Deli
& Pizza, a new complimentary eatery on the mezzanine level of the pool
area, is also underused, “because it’s out of the way and people have not heard
about it,” Habets said.
“I’m sure in a
year’s time those places will be busier,” he said.
Rogers said
there are a few things Holland America knows it wants to change already on the
next Koningsdam-class ship. One is an open spiral stairway between two decks
that joins the Music Walk area to the casino.
“Someone hits it
big on the slot machine and it makes a whole bunch of noise while the string
quartet is finishing on a very low tone,” Rogers said. “But remember, the
partnership with Lincoln Center came long after the design decisions were made
on how to build the ship.”
“Going forward
we can be more mindful about how we design their performance space,” Rogers
said.