On Location: Enrich & Entertain
On her recent Canada & New England cruise aboard Maasdam, guest Sharon Johnson enjoyed a variety of enrichment presentations and local entertainment courtesy of Holland America Line’s “On Location” program.
The evening of our Halifax call we were treated to a very special “On Location” program, a Cape Breton Fiddle Concert. Gillian Head and Cape Breton guitarist Decota McNamara presented the lively music that is traditional in Cape Breton. Many of the reels and jigs that she played were tunes that are played in local céilidhs all over Cape Breton. Gillian told us that she had never played with Decota before their performance that night.
Decota played an unusual two-necked guitar which enabled him to easily change chords. Gillian stomped out the beat and thus knowing the melody, Decota easily could follow Gillian. You would never have guessed that they hadn’t played together before tonight’s performance. Toward the end of the electrifying performance, Gillian danced a Scottish jig to Decota’s playing. It was a great ending to a wonderful day.
Captain Arno Jutten, Sharon and Cruise Direct Michael Harvey.
One afternoon we attended another “On Location” presentation presented by our Cruise Director Michael. Michael is a Canadian so he had prepared a talk about his home country. We learned that Canada comes from the Huron-Iroquois word, “Kanata” which means village. He showed slides of the various Canadian flags that have been used. He talked about the Royal Canadian Mint which not only produces coins for Canada, but for many foreign countries also. And he talked about the history of Canada and lastly gave us some phenomenal statistics on the size of Canada.
And on other Canada and New England cruises that call at Halifax, two local performers from the Citadel might come onboard for the day and perform throughout the ship as part of the “On Location” program.
No matter what destination you choose, keep your eyes and ears open for enriching and entertaining experiences onboard that are all part of the “On Location” program.
