THE COUNTRY MUSIC CRUISE

Your Next Adventure At Sea

Written by: Jack Collier

Where can you enjoy the country music that you love - both old and new – in a whole new way? Start with this ship! The Country Music Cruise heads out for a 7-day trip into the Caribbean Sea on Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam every year, replete with fresh country songwriters, singers and musicians that are innovative and exciting, as well as those from a generation ago who still pack a traditional punch on stage.

This year’s cruise featured 50 unique performances, Q&A sessions, bourbon samplings, performer cooking demos, theme nights, off-ship excursions in Dutch, French and American ports, and LOTS of food and sun. Classic acts such as The Oakridge Boys and Moe Bandy showed off their country music chops, and a generous slice of newer performers like The Malpass Brothers and 50 Shades of Hay rounded out the excitement.

Sound like fun? Then let’s get started!

What To Expect

Sailing for over a decade, The Country Music Cruise features performances from mid-morning to near midnight. There is a main stage, for a thousand-plus people, and smaller side stages dot the rest of the ship. You get an assigned seat in the auditorium for the big evening shows, easing the anxiety to rush. Servers bring drink orders to your seat.

Texas native Neal McCoy starts the day at sea with the Pledge of Allegiance, which he had done on social media for years. McCoy can grab you, mixing his stories with music—a Las Vegas-meets-roadhouse type of performer. He is also in the ship’s gym every morning, where he will chat you up. McCoy has performed for American troops around the world – he is a stand-up guy with a great show.

There were other sidebar cruise events such line-dancing lessons and a karaoke sing-off that filled out the packed agenda. The winner opened the final night at sea for Pam Tillis, daughter of the legendary Mel Tillis and a great performer in her own right.

On the Nieuw Amsterdam, a city-sized ship that checks in at 936-feet and features eleven decks, you will find saunas, health instruction and other amenities, including 24-hour cabin service. It is a relaxed atmosphere – we even saw a retired California preacher that we had met receiving a cosmetic injection on the ride.

There are no cash transactions, all purchases are on the cabin card you wear on a lanyard around your neck. But remember, to be prepared for The Country Music Cruise, or any sailing, get in the mindset of organizing things in advance, as following a few simple procedures and processes will ease you aboard.

Work Before Play

While the point of any cruise is to have fun, be ready - scroll the Internet, read reviews, ask around - do anything to learn about the cruising subculture, which has its own language and fans. Rule Number One should be that someone oversees all the details. In our case, it was Wendy, my travel companionthe relentless navigator. In our travels, she points, and I go – it is a system that works well with us. Documenting our trip was my job, and I filled up notebooks in doing so. Yes, there is that much happening on The Country Music Cruise.

This year’s cruise featured 50 unique performances, Q&A sessions, bourbon samplings, performer cooking demos, theme nights, off-ship excursions in Dutch, French and American ports, and LOTS of food and sun. You'll find saunas, health instruction, line-dancing, and other amenities.

Wendy used Holland America’s website and its travel app to upload passports and Covid test results. Holland’s HAL Navigator app is very helpful – for example, it streamlines things with digital boarding - so following Holland America’s instructions allows you to glide through boarding, to schedule events and excursions, and to get your plans in good order. On this trip you will need a passport. Be sure to plan 6 – 8 weeks out for it to arrive if you do not have one on hand. Do not hesitate on your documents, because without them your trip on the water is going to be on an inflatable pool ducky.

An easy way to learn about a cruise is to join or read Facebook group postings, which can be found by searching your social media. Several dozen cruisers on our sailing posted updates months ahead of our ride, asked questions, had good feedback for others, and shared happy thoughts the night before boarding. Many had been on multiple cruises, so their advice was solid. Most also met up the first day aboard. Again, plan. It will pay off at dockside arrival, which in the case of this cruise was the Port Everglades terminal in Fort Lauderdale.

Then Things Take On A Country Tilt

If your family comes from the hills as mine did, fiddles and mandolins and harmony are as natural to me as breathing, and nothing matches the excitement of experiencing a live show with performers that you know from way back. Seeing so many acts all in one place, you may be skeptical as to how they can perform at their peak and entertain a full ship of country music fans.

Worry not - the music on this cruise is amazing. Listening to the likes of Jimmy Fortune, the former Statler Brothers member, shows that this man still kills it into his 60’s, singing like the songbird that he is. Then The Oak Ridge Boys hit the main stage. Oh, boy, you might think, are these guys past their prime? But as each man’s old motor cranked over and they launched into the body of their one-hour show, it became evident that the four performers can still rock.

We then met The Malpass Brothers, Chris and Taylor—a young rockabilly combo with a killer set of originals and cover songs—and our minds exploded. They were also funny, in an old radio-comedy sort of way. These boys are invited back in 2024.

Also appearing were Texan headliner Clay Walker, the original Urban Cowboy Johnny Lee, and Alabama’s founding member Randy Owen, as well as other top-notch acts such as T. G. Sheppard/Kelly Lang, Janie Fricke, and Moe Bandy. We even met Moe’s veteran piano player,

Tommy Rials, who had a super loose personality and stories to share over lunch at our table.

Another unique aspect of The Country Music Cruise is that the performers make themselves available to the passengers throughout the trip. In the buffet lines and around the ship, they chat up their fans. The ageless Janie Fricke sat for a quick interview with us before jetting to do onboard promotions for a country TV broadcast. Her manager/husband Jeff Steele sipped coffee and smoked outside the next morning. He told delightful stories of his time in show business.

Many of the artists paid tribute to classic performers such as Elvis over the seven days of cruising from Fort Lauderdale to Saint Maarten and back. Karen Hester, for example, does a great Dolly Parton show. How, you might wonder, do people end up impersonating others? They are simply mimics at heart. Elvis is the most imitated performer ever, and several artists on our trip did an admirable job covering the King.

Side bar: Remember that boats float. There was a slight tilting as our ship surged through Atlantic chop that seemed light but was in fact 10-foot rollers, providing an odd sensation in the enclosed auditorium. The pink boo-boo patch you see behind passengers’ ears is for motion sickness, so be sure to check into this and purchase motion patches in advance of boarding if rolling seas make you woozy, as the prices we checked on the islands were super expensive.

FOOD, PEOPLE, AND KARAOKE CHAMPS

No question about it - music and nostalgia are two big reasons that we sailed on The County Music Cruise. Themed cruises are huge in travel, and StarVista LIVE has other such adventures available as well: The Big Easy, Flower Power, Soul Train and more.

Cruise ships in 2022 generated about $18 billion for the various lines. That breaks down to about $215 per day in ticketing, another $100 per day onboard. Pulling into port with four of these giant liners docked in Saint Maarten, you get an idea of just how huge the business is. Tourists literally pour from these boats as water from a jug. Yet what you get in exchange is beyond measurable. A cruise ship’s secret sauce is simple—exotic travel, plenty of food, and service - as in really, really good service. Our cabin had two stewards, friendly men always with a smile and greeting. Our starboard-facing cabin was faultless and clean with plenty of hot water to wash. The crew was super friendly, as well.

At feeding times, there were food stations, each with servers who know what they are doing. It was a pleasure to be treated with such respect and quality. There were also dinein options, some that cost extra. We laughed as passengers hovered 15 minutes before serving times, peeking behind opaque curtains as meticulous chefs checked food temps and exact plating arrangements.

Most importantly of all, you will be entertained on The Country Music Cruise, not just by the musicians but by your fellow passengers. We met Arthur Hammons, the afore-mentioned retired pastor, who was interesting and colorful. And M. Neil Browne with his rainbow hair and his wife Nancy Kubasek. They told us that it was their 75th time at sea and were sweet and adventurous people. We met Barbara and Jerry Donahoo, our seatmates in the auditorium. She was like a friendly Texan personal playbill, with a wealth of information on the performers that she shared with us.

This surprising “hidden value” to the cruise was so pleasurable, in fact, that I recommend a fat notebook to track your new friends and adventures on The Country Music Cruise.

Looks like you might want to plan well ahead or get a person with magic fingers working the Internet though, because next year’s sailing on The Country Music Cruise is already booked full. But do not forget, there other such themed cruises with StarVista LIVE, the entertainment brand affiliated with Dick Clark Productions. So those magic fingers should hunt for cancellations for the January 2024 country cruise or check out one of the others below.

StarVista LIVE has other such music cruises, like the New Orleans-themed Big Easy Cruise, which sails in November. And there are other genre cruises - disco, rock, outlaw country and R&B, for example - all with cool stopovers in South Florida and into the Caribbean. These experiences come with crazy-good service, spas, gyms, fun amateur shows, and simple relaxation. Picture adventures in the cobalt Atlantic, a refreshing sea breeze easing your mind, flying fish gliding the water’s surface and strange birds darting after them miles from shore, under a canopy of stars away from the loud lights of Florida. Do not forget that you can relive your Country Music Cruise on a “souvenir reel” at StarVista LIVE’s YouTube channel too.

And of course, there is always 2025 to plan for! FCM

Roundup

StarVista LIVE, starvistalive.com Holland America Line, hollandamerica.com