You may have noticed this week that a new river cruise was announced for knitting enthusiasts. The new cruise will include tuition sessions while you sail the sights of the Danube in 2015. And this got me thinking – what other pastimes, hobbies and more would make for a good cruise? So here are my suggestions. Take them as seriously as you think is appropriate.
#1 Murder Mystery
Murder mystery cruises already exist, but usually on more intimate ships. It’s not very common to see one of the major cruise lines go for a theme such as this, but the space available on some of the larger ships would really open up the opportunities for fun and excitement. The best murder mysteries are the ones that involve actors, and getting a company involved who could draft a script around the features of a ship would be thrilling. Maybe the script suggests a cut cable on a rock wall, or there was an accident on a waterslide where not everything was as it seemed?
#2 Football stickers cruise
Football stickers have always been a big thing with kids, and I’ve noticed a few adults starting collections these days for nostalgic reasons. And one thing I remember from when I used to collect stickers as a child was the announcement of big swap events, where you could turn up with your pile of swaps (swapsies, spares, dupes etc), tightly wrapped in an elastic band and carefully ordered by number, along with a sheet of paper with your ‘needs’ written down, to help fill in any gaps in your collection. Imagine holding one of these events on a cruise ship, making it part of your holiday with maybe some older collections on display too. I think it could be popular for adults and families alike.
#3 Geocaching worldwide
If you’ve not heard of geocaching then let me explain. It’s a new hobby that began around the turn of the millennium, an advance on traditional orienteering. It revolves around find ‘caches’ that may be a simple box or may contain items to trade, using GPS devices. There are geocaches all around the world, so a themed cruise that took you to various locations and encouraged passengers to hunt for them would be great fun – provided people didn’t miss the sailing time as they were too busy hunting.
#4 Video games
Video games are quickly becoming as big a market as film and TV, a fact that has been reinforced by the recent E3 event where the newest consoles were fully revealed. Already cruise ships utilise video games – you can play Nintendo Wii on a giant screen on NCL ships, many ships have arcades and some have consoles in the kids clubs. However hosting a major event or tournament at sea could be a big draw, especially if it was themed further – retro gaming is growing in popularity and organising an event with old arcades and consoles on-board, with meet-ups and competitions, would definitely grab the interest of a large and growing market.
#5 Parkour
The only reason I’ve included this is to repost this cool video that Thomson Cruises put together, showing off the new features of the Thomson Dream. Imagine letting parkour fans loose on a ship for a holiday? They’d love it.
By Ian Lewis
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