Cruising Toward the Azores – A Day of Art and Entertainment

Our eastward journey across the Atlantic continued today under cloudy skies and steady winds. There’s still a gentle but noticeable motion on deck — enough to remind us we’re far from any shore. The forecast suggests calmer weather tomorrow, our final sea day before reaching Ponta Delgada in the Azores.

Morning Coffee Chat with Ron Houtman

At 10 a.m., I headed to the Ocean Bar for the daily Coffee Chat, hosted by Cruise Director Jayme McDaniel. His guest this morning was Ron Houtman, the ship’s Food and Beverage Director.

Ron, originally from Amsterdam, has been with Holland America for fifteen years. Over that time, he’s held a variety of positions — from provisioning and inventory accounting to assistant beverage manager and restaurant operations manager — before stepping into his current leadership role.

He began working in hospitality at the age of sixteen and went on to earn degrees in international hospitality management and wine studies. Today, he oversees all aspects of the ship’s food and beverage operations — restaurants, bars, galleys, and the complex provisioning that keeps everything running smoothly.

Ron spoke about the unique challenges of managing dining on long voyages. It often takes guests a few days to settle into routines, and most prefer early dining and tables for two. With only twenty-eight two-top tables in each dining room, this can occasionally lead to short waits, especially early in the cruise. It was a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the logistics of feeding an entire floating city.

Watercoloring Class in the Art Studio

Later in the morning, I stopped by the Watercoloring Class at 11:30 in the Art Studio. The room was nearly full, but I managed to find a seat in the center. Today’s theme was Landscape: Mountains.

The instructor displayed the example painting at the front and encouraged us to take a quick photo on our phones for reference. Each person had two brushes and shared a watercolor palette with their neighbor. The instruction focused mainly on composition and the recommended order for painting, rather than color mixing or brush techniques — so a bit of prior experience was helpful.

Even so, it was a relaxed, low-pressure way to experiment with watercolor painting, and the half-hour session went by quickly. If you want to guarantee a seat, it’s best to arrive at least fifteen minutes early.

Evening Entertainment: David and Dawn Meyer

This evening’s main show featured David and Dawn Meyer, returning for their second performance of the cruise. David is an incredibly talented musician who plays a unique electronic instrument called a xythlosynth — a digital xylophone that can be played with either mallets or hands.

Their program was an energetic blend of classical and contemporary music. David performed Sabre Dance, music from Riverdance, the Peanuts theme, and a lively mashup of Beethoven and Rossini favorites — all with his signature speed and precision on the mallets.

For Dvořák’s New World Symphony, he set the mallets aside and used his hands to play directly on the keys — a fascinating and visually impressive technique.

Dawn later joined him on stage for a striking rendition of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, and together they closed the evening with a medley of Tchaikovsky hits that had the audience cheering. It was a high-energy, entertaining finale to our second-to-last sea day before reaching the Azores.   More about David HERE