Actually, I really don’t like the idea of “commercial cruises” either, but my husband and I have now taken six! The difference is that the cruises we’ve taken have been “Geek Cruises”, the ones offered by Insight Cruises. (Five of them, anyway, were Insight. They were Apple focused. The sixth was about PCs. My husband taught at that one. It was shorter and not as well done. Because it was PC based I didn’t like it as much!) The Insight Cruises were set up with classes you could chose to attend while we were at sea. They were offered during the “first shift” time, and if you didn’t take classes or were outside of the time they were offered you could chose to do anything you wanted. Spend timed doing something that the ship offered or socialize with other passengers, swim, do whatever you wanted. When the ship was “docked” at port we either went ashore and went on excursions or did whatever we wanted. The PC cruise was only four days, was on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship, was in the Caribbean and docked in the Bahamas. It wasn’t nearly as much fun, and the classes were offered wether or not we were at sea. Four of the Mac cruises were one week long, on went to 1) the Caribbean (I forget the ports!) on Holland America 2) Hawaii- it was on NCL, docked in Honolulu, Maui, and one other port. 3) the Caribbean again, but with other ports, back on Holland America and 4) the west coast of Mexico. It went to Cabo San Lucas, Matazlan, and another city. (I forget which one!) on Holland America 4)The latest one we were on was with Holland America again. It lasted twelve days and started in Buenos Aries, Argentina. It docked in two other Argentina cities, on the Falkland Islands, and in three cities in Chile. After we got off the ship the people on the Apple cruise could go up to Machu Picchu. You could have gone to see the Igazu Falls if you wanted to, but my husband and I chose Machu Picchu instead. (Both side trips cost more.)
There were many different choices offered on the ships, from swimming and tennis, running, to spa services and movies. You could also chose to spend time in the library, go to classes offered on the cultures of the ports, card games, trivia, movies, dancing… Depending on the ships and the nature of the cruises there were lots of things you could chose to do. Like I said before I don’t know what I would chose to do if I wasn’t part of the Insight crowd. The classes were interesting but if you didn’t want to you didn’t have to go, it was your choice. With Insight Cruise, you could chose the type of cruise you wanted to take. They have a website, the offer more than just cruises for Apple Computer people. InsighCruises.com.
No, I’m not their PR person, I just believe in what they do! :o)