Holland America has revealed Bar 1873, a new bar and live music venue that will open first on Oosterdam when she returns from her refit next autumn.
The name is the year the line was founded. Each ship in its Evolution refit programme will get its own version, built around a different chapter of the company’s history.
Arcadia is on that list. Holland America says Evolution will extend to the Vista-class ship it is taking over from P&O, so British cruisers’ old favourite should eventually get a Bar 1873 of her own.
A christening, a tulip and 200 objects
Oosterdam’s version is themed on ship christenings and the godmothers who have launched Holland America ships. It takes its story from Queen Juliana of the Netherlands naming Rotterdam V in 1958.
The bar fills two decks of the ship’s atrium, from Deck 2. At its centre is an illuminated tulip sculpture three metres tall, a nod to the Netherlands’ national flower and the line’s orange tulip logo.
London design firm SMC has filled it with more than 200 heritage and repurposed objects, a timeline of the company’s history and vintage-style maps.
The fireplace is modelled on the line’s original headquarters in Rotterdam, now the Hotel New York. A rug takes its design from a clock in the first-class dining room of the SS Rotterdam.
What you’ll drink and hear
The signature cocktail is called May She Be Blessed, after the christening theme, and you choose an “essence” to personalise it.
A pianist plays through pre-dinner drinks and into the evening, with appearances from singers and the line’s Vivace musicians.
Beth Bodensteiner, Holland America’s president, calls Bar 1873 one of “the most exciting examples” of what Evolution is trying to do.
The Crow’s Nest, the observation lounge at the top of the ship, is being reworked too. It gains daytime talks and activities, and live music from the 1970s onwards in the evenings, with room to dance.
When you can see it
Oosterdam goes into dry dock in Marseille, and her first sailing afterwards leaves Rome on 31 October 2027. That is a 10-night cruise to Trieste, calling in Italy, Greece, Montenegro and Croatia.
Holland America brought the refit forward by five weeks, cancelling a run of sailings between September and December 2027 to do it.
Her sister Zuiderdam is next through the programme, and her first post-refit summer is already on sale.
The bottom line
Holland America has always sold itself on its Dutch past, and Bar 1873 turns that history into the room you’ll be drinking in.
The version worth watching for British cruisers is Arcadia’s. Which chapter of the line’s history she gets, and when, is still to be announced.
