Cruising Reunions by Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Over the last couple of decades, as Executive Director of
Nautical Options, I have arranged a wide variety of events
on cruise ships. Many participants have experienced the
wonders of cruising for the first time when we organized
their friends and family reunion at sea. Often it had been
held at a resort or some family members’ house. We helped
them take ‘it to sea’. In almost every case the reunion,
once taken to sea, remains at sea year after year.
There are a whole raft of reasons why this seems to be the
case. Here are just a few:
1. Ease of organization: Reunions typically depend upon one
or two individuals who bear the burden of organizing and
coordinating the schedules of widely dispersed family
members. Even if the reunion is held at a resort, the
coordination of air and ground transportation can be
daunting at particular times of the year. Then there is the
issue of arranging menus, meeting rooms and having the
resort accommodate the scheduling needs of the group. Cruse
based events are comparatively simple to organize –
particularly if you employ one of the companies like
Nautical Options which specializes in them
2. Cost: Two things quickly become apparent after you have
decided to take a family reunion to sea. The first is how
much less expensive the event is. If you go through an
organization which specializes in such events and can access
the best rates, the cost of a cruise based reunion will be
somewhere between 60 and 70% of the cost of the same event
on land. The second thing you will notice is that a cruise
based event is, by and large, a one line cost. By that I
mean a single payment buys the cabin, all you can eat and
unlimited, high quality food (watch out for the midnight
chocolate buffet!) and all the distractions and
entertainment that one could wish for. For the most part
individual travelers will end up paying for their drinks,
shore excursions, gambling losses and purchases in the many
ports of call.
3. Onboard Entertainment: Cruise ships provide a wide range
of on board activities. Every evening there is a
Broadway-class show in the main lounge. In addition there
are always musicians in the various smaller venues. Each day
all sorts of organized activities are on offer. These range
from dance classes and wine tastings to trivia games, art
auctions, bingo, lectures on the next port of call and a
myriad of others. In short, there is never a shortage of
things for members of your group to do while onboard.
4. Meeting Rooms: This is where a company which specializes
in organizing crews based events can really shine. At
Nautical Options we handle all the arrangements for the
meeting rooms as well as the arrangements for catering,
entertainment and special events. We have managed birthday
parties complete with cakes, karaoke competitions, special
lectures and a whole range of other activities.
5. Ports of call: A cruise ship is a resort hotel that
changes location every night. Each morning you wake up in a
different place than where you went to sleep. Some mornings
you wake up to a day at sea and the wonderful experience of
enjoying the ship. On others you wake up in a new port of
call and to all the amazing options that are available.
Cruise lines organize a wide range of shore excursions in
every port. All of the vendors are carefully screened and
the shore excursions are carefully reviewed. In other words,
you don’t have to worry the cruise line has already done the
worrying for you. In each port your group will disperse –
some on shore excursions, some just heading for the beach
and others looking for bargains that are always available in
the shops. Dinner becomes a wonderful sharing of experiences
and a chance to wear that new shirt or goofy hat that you
just could not pass up.
6. Having fun and building memories: Memories that live on
and on: over the years I’ve noticed one thing above all
else. There’s something about the experience of having a
reunion on a cruise ship that keeps the memories alive year
after year. I have had clients tell me that five or six
years into a series of reunion cruises they still reminisce
about the first ones. Other groups post their pictures on
the internet and share them with friends and family.
Cruising is an amazing experience by itself – but, with your
friends and family members, a reunion makes memories that
endure.
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