Hepcats!

From October 3rd-10th, 2026 Mike & Mary were on the Holland America Line (HAL) ship Zuiderdam, for a 7-night Canada and New England cruise. 

This cruise was organized by Tom Pecena at Ahoy Vintage Cruises (the same as our July 2023 and May 2025 cruises), and we were a part of a group of about 70 people.  The theme for this cruise was “Let’s Get Away From It All – A Big Band Cruise”.  The cruise was marketed as a 1930’s/40’s theme cruise with lots of great big band music.

Although this was not an Ahoy “vintage” cruise, Mary and I wore our 1930’s/40’s vintage clothes a lot on board the ship, and we received lots of compliments.  When people get dressed up, especially on a cruise ship, it definitely adds a wonderful feel, vibe and ambience.  Having said that, the overall vibe on the Zuiderdam for clothes was a lot more casual than the Queen Mary 2.

There were some very nice ports of call on this cruise:  Portland and Eastport, ME; and Halifax, Sydney and Saint John, Canada.

Of course, a big feature and draw of this cruise for me and Mary was the daily dances, dancing to Big Band music, provided by the Dan Gabel Orchestra.

On Dan Gabel’s web site, several “endorsements” are noted that the band has received:

o  “The real deal!”

o”The champion of authentic Big Band and vintage jazz” – Syncopated Times.

o  Hailed by the Boston Globe as “The read deal…[a band] that looks and sounds just like the 1940s”.  Dan Gabel and his Bands have entertained three Governors, a Four-Star General, sold-out concerts, and performed for countless dances, weddings, and fundraisers.  Based in Central New England, Gabel’s arrangements and compositions have been commissioned and performed across the U.S. by professional Orchestras, Big Bands, and also student ensembles.

o  Gabel Music features a roster of accomplished and internationally-acclaimed musicians who have performed in prestigious venues all over the world.

o  “See and hear the difference live music can make at your next event!”

I would also note that Dan Gabel serves as President and CEO of the American Big Band Preservation Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving, promoting, and performing the sounds and history of the Big Bands, with an emphasis on education and keeping this art form in schools.  Kudo’s are certainly in order for Dan Gabel’s efforts in that area!

To Dan Gabel’s credit, about 2-3 months before the cruise embarked he sent out a survey form asking for specific band/artists and specific songs one would like to hear.  Mary and I both provided input; generally that input was along the lines of …… since the cruise was advertised as a 1940’s/40’s big band cruise, we wanted to hear, and dance to, music of the great big bands of the 1930’s/40’s.  We also provided other specific input on artists/songs.

On the first night of the cruise, there was a reception/cocktail party for our group, to include the band’s musicians.  I had the pleasure to meet most of the musicians, to include Dan Gabel.  Dan noted the input to the survey Mary and I had provided, and he stated that he thought Mary and I would be pleased with the music for this cruise.

Our group had its own dance every day from 4 – 6 pm, six dances total.  Each set the band played was about 45-50 minutes long; in total, that required quite a few arrangements for all six of the dances.  Note:  Mary and I understood the band wasn’t just playing for us, that the band leader also had to select songs that other people preferred.  We were just hoping to get 3-5 decent songs out of the 10-15 songs that were played each set.  Was that too much to ask for a cruise marketed as providing music of the 1930’s/40’s?

So, what about the music for the dances?  Was it the real deal?  Was the music authentic?

In general, the music was not very good; a vast majority of the music was what I call “mayonnaise and white bread” kind of music, a disappointment to say the least.  Now, I certainly want to add that Dan Gabel, the band members and vocalists were all very good, very professional musicians.  And the music they played, they played it well.  The band certainly had the talent and chops to play a lot 1930s/40s swing era arrangements by the great big bands of the swing era, but, alas and alack, they didn’t. 

Overall the band played a lot of fox trot, ballads and ballroom type music – – not a lot of swingin’ arrangements for Lindy Hop and Balboa, especially for a cruise with a daily dance for six nights.  After the second of the six dances the music got tiresome and repetitive.

It would have been great to see the band break out of the mold of the “same old, same old” arrangements I imagine it plays for a lot of its gigs and play some really swingin’ arrangements of the great big bands of the 1930’s and 40’s:  Chick Webb, Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, etc….

Even though the music was lacking, Mary and I had a great time and really enjoyed this cruise.  The Zuiderdam is a very nice ship (although not quite as nice as the Queen Mary 2), and the crew was very professional; we would definitely go on another cruise on the Zuiderdam, or one of the other Holland America Line ships.  We meet a lot of nice people, had some good ports of call (the Maritime Museum in Halifax is especially worth noting!), and the weather, although a bit on the warm side, was very pleasant.  An overall fun and relaxing trip!

Postscript 1 – and permit me a bit of a soapbox.  I read that the late Gunther Schuller, author of the book “The Swing Era:  The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945″, said “Any music that isn’t heard live must ultimately die”.  That’s probably true.  And that’s one of the main reasons I have worked with the Kentucky Jazz Repertory Orchestra (KJRO) over the years to bring great big band music by artists such as Benny Goodman, Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Fletcher Hender, Harlan Leonard, Duke Ellington (just to mention a few) to the Lexington, KY area via the Hepcats Swing Dance Club.

KJRO and the nightly dances by the bands at Lindy Focus are the only bands that I know in this general geographic area that are helping keep alive the hard swingin’ music of the aforementioned bands.

There seem to be a whole lot of bands “out there” keeping the mayonnaise and white bread music alive of what were called “mickey mouse” bands of the swing era.  For this cruise, the Dan Gabel Orchestra had an opportunity to help keep alive some great, hard swingin’ music from the “hot” bands of the swing era.  For whatever the reason(s), that didn’t happen.