Theme Cruising Gains Popularity

By Marilyn Green
There are wine fanatics, bridge aficionados, fitness addicts, baseball nuts, music lovers, scrapbooking devotees, motorcycle enthusiasts, passionate gardeners, tireless dancers, avid poker players, dedicated golfers: name an interest, and there’s most likely a theme cruise organized around it. There are annual chocolate cruises, Zumba cruises, faith-based cruises and a host of wine and culinary sailings. Some include everyone onboard but most have their own branded activities within the larger passenger mix.
The theme cruise trend is growing rapidly according to Jo Kling, president of travel agency Landry & Kling and an expert on events and special-interest cruises at sea.

“Coupled with heightened awareness about the cruise experience and more clients adding cruises to their bucket lists, the timing to capitalize on this trend has never been better,” said Kling.

Generally, theme or special-interest cruises fall into one of three types: those generated by the cruise line and available to any passenger booked on a certain cruise date or dates; those generated by a third-party partner, such as Sixthman or Men’s Health, and which usually can be booked by travel agents; and those created by agents and booked exclusively through them for their clients.

“With social media a theme or special-interest cruise the longing to cruise crosses paths with an interest the person already has.” Theme cruises can be built around a radio or television program, gathering people from all over a region united by their loyalty to a particular show. Kling mentioned a group of 800 people — 80 percent of whom had never cruised before — who sailed together to hear early country music stars on Liberty of the Seas. The fans came for Larry’s Country Diner and Country’s Family Reunion, which did a series of performances with their sets onboard. Kling said church groups also draw well; a recent one brought together 800 women for inspirational workshops, church music and fellowships on a five-night Caribbean cruise.

The lure of theme cruising has become so strong and the products so complex that entire websites are devoted to them. On www.ThemeCruiseFinder.com, for example, agents, cruise lines and other entities can post their offerings. Cruise Critic also has a large listing, as do some of the major consortia.

There is also a site run by Landry & Kling called www.Seasite.com that takes travel agents through everything that they should know about setting up groups and charters for special-interest cruises in a form that is easy to navigate — all free to the agent. Travel agents can enter their needs — size of group, where and when they want to cruise, how long the cruise should be and what facilities and types of accommodations they need — and receive competitive information from one source. Agents can also fill out a form describing their theme cruise, duration, projected number of participants, geography and their prospectus is delivered directly to cruise line executives, who contact the agent to offer options.