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Crazy idea while bored at work

Me and the almost misses love going on cruises for vacations/holidays and try to do one each year (except this year :( ). That kinda got me thinking.. Do you think a gaming cruise would work, kinda like a small con at sea?

So like, you reserve a big block of rooms (just like you would for a con at a hotel) to get a reduced rate, people come and play their favorite games.. almost every ship has meeting rooms that could be used for events, there’s lounges all over the ships that would be perfect for whipping out a deck of MTG cards or open gaming for rpgs or board games. I think the only thing that might be a challenge is having space for something like a 40k tournament or other minis games due to table size.

The gaming events could be happening while the ship is at sea, so people can do other things at the different destinations. Only thing is it would probably be kind of expensive (could be like $1000 per person give or take depending on your room). But that’s also with meals included, getting to visit a few different cities you probably wouldn’t ever see otherwise and doing fun stuff while at the ports. I guess the caribbean would be the best bet and tends to have cheaper rooms if you can book them farther in advance.

Anyway, would you ever do a cruise/con like that?

I would rather hump splintered balsa wood than go on a cruise of any type.

I've gone on weekends in random crappy campings/rental houses like that. A cruise would be awesome, although I doubt the missus would let me. The cruise she'd love, but the nerd stuff she hates.

That just seems like a bad idea. Unless you plan on living on caffeine pills and barely sleeping you're going to run out of schedule time and have to cut back either the gaming or the cruise activities. And at that point why are you trying to combine them?

Also, going to have to agree with that opinion of " being trapped on a giant floating hotel for a week". That's a lot of money that could be spent on much more appealing travel options.

Why? Just why?

$1000 on cruise... or $1000 on more warhammer...?

Heck no, i find the idea of going on a cruise itself terrifying.

I don't mean to sound a bit daft...but the cruise should be more for the experience of the cruise. I feel like hours and hours spent at a gaming table would be wasting your money you spent on the cruise itself. Also the idea of buying a $6 bottle of water or soda while gaming...is just laughable.

I'd like to attend one of those nice "cabin in the mountains" gaming retreats though. That seems like a fun time.

In short, no I wouldn't. Now, if someone held a gun to my head and forced me onto a cruise...would I mind gaming in that instance? Not at all. I would just never go out of my way to spend extra money to do a gaming cruise (really dislike the entire cruise environment/scheme to begin with).

Gamer Con? Yes

Gamer Cruise? No

Having been on a cruise I can attest that they are a blast, but it seems a waste of a cruise experience to squander all my time with gaming. I can game at my house, for Asuryan's sake.

I think its a great idea but only if the games are held out on the top deck with cocktails and vinos to taste

Given that the main reason people go on cruises seems to be the experience of the ship and the travel around different places, I'm not sure locking yourself up in a bunch of meeting rooms for the duration makes any sort of sense. Seems to be just a much more expensive way of doing a convention, without any real advantages.

I was kinda thinking of it like those gaming retreats or meet-up, not so much of a con so I guess that was the wrong way to put it. It wouldn't be like a con where companies set up booths, there would be no room for that. More like just an area for open gaming, and a couple of fixed events or small tourneys.

Basically, while the ship is at sea, you can play games with other gamers rather than go to the shows or listen to lounge singers or sit and roast by the pool. While you're at a destination, you go do normal vacation stuff, go on excursions, etc.

For me and my fiance, when we have an at sea day, the only thing fun we like to do is go to the casino. We're not interested in anything going on in the theater, and we're not the type to lounge around the pool deck, or go swimming in other kids' pee So I thought having a bunch of other gamer nerds around to play games with instead could be fun (and save me from losing all my cash in the casino).

There is a gamer cruise that is quite popular, GACUCon. I have heard that it is a blast. I am not a fan of cruises myself though. I would rather travel to or a far off convention like in Europe or Japan.

My wife and I are hoping to do the JoCo cruise one year if they keep running it. There's a couple smaller anime convention cruises that we have looked at as well.

I personally think it sounds like a fun way to spend a weekend.

 Necros wrote:
For me and my fiance, when we have an at sea day, the only thing fun we like to do is go to the casino. We're not interested in anything going on in the theater, and we're not the type to lounge around the pool deck, or go swimming in other kids' pee So I thought having a bunch of other gamer nerds around to play games with instead could be fun (and save me from losing all my cash in the casino).

Never been on a cruise, the thought of it never really appealed to me, would rather fly in to a place and explore that place then spend time on a luxury boat that is trying to be like Vegas on the sea. Would like to one day go on one of those tall ship experience trips though, the ones where you go on a few days of a trip on a sail boat.

From what you said there it sounds like you aren't really a fan of cruises either to be honest

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Necros wrote:
For me and my fiance, when we have an at sea day, the only thing fun we like to do is go to the casino. We're not interested in anything going on in the theater, and we're not the type to lounge around the pool deck, or go swimming in other kids' pee So I thought having a bunch of other gamer nerds around to play games with instead could be fun (and save me from losing all my cash in the casino).

Never been on a cruise, the thought of it never really appealed to me, would rather fly in to a place and explore that place then spend time on a luxury boat that is trying to be like Vegas on the sea. Would like to one day go on one of those tall ship experience trips though, the ones where you go on a few days of a trip on a sail boat.

From what you said there it sounds like you aren't really a fan of cruises either to be honest

If you go on the right cruise you get plenty of exploring. My love of exploring old ruins and going to museums is basically entirely due to a Mediterranean cruise when I was going through old greek and roman cities at every port. If I remember correctly that was a 7 day cruise with only 2 "at sea" days.

balmong7 wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Necros wrote:
For me and my fiance, when we have an at sea day, the only thing fun we like to do is go to the casino. We're not interested in anything going on in the theater, and we're not the type to lounge around the pool deck, or go swimming in other kids' pee So I thought having a bunch of other gamer nerds around to play games with instead could be fun (and save me from losing all my cash in the casino).

Never been on a cruise, the thought of it never really appealed to me, would rather fly in to a place and explore that place then spend time on a luxury boat that is trying to be like Vegas on the sea. Would like to one day go on one of those tall ship experience trips though, the ones where you go on a few days of a trip on a sail boat.

From what you said there it sounds like you aren't really a fan of cruises either to be honest

If you go on the right cruise you get plenty of exploring. My love of exploring old ruins and going to museums is basically entirely due to a Mediterranean cruise when I was going through old greek and roman cities at every port. If I remember correctly that was a 7 day cruise with only 2 "at sea" days.

That sounds like fun, though I still think I'd enjoy it more to spend those 7 days travelling around myself, learning about the history myself, finding out where the interesting sites are, exploring them, then going to the pub to meet some of the local wildlife and then back to the hotel for a few hours sleep. I could probably spend a week in a single region of Italy or Greece. Last trip I took was to Poland for about 4 weeks and I spent at the least a few days in each town exploring the local culture, castles, ruins and booze.

Now a cruise I would go on...an older ship with a murder-mystery themed event that runs the whole time. Could thoroughly enjoy a role-playing "how to host a murder" style cruise I think.

So is no one else going to bring up the point that playing a bunch of board games with fiddly pieces, cards, and tokens on a ship that can roll with the waves seems like an incredibly bad idea? I mean yeah I'm sure they don't roll a ton these days but that'd be just your luck that the cruise has some choppy water and a ton of games get ruined. Especially wargames like X-Wing and 40k where placement of models is critical.

Although I've never been on a cruise because I spent all my money on games, I still kind of feel like that's something that would be a bit of a deal breaker. Really board games on anything moving seems like a disaster waiting to happen

I went on a cruise 2 years ago... really couldn't even tell that you were on a boat for the most part. I would imagine 40k would be fine.

There's a lot of other theme cruises so no reason a gaming cruise wouldn't be possible, but it might be pretty expensive compared to showing up at a rented conference center etc. The shipping company is going to want a profit after all, they can't just rent out their ship for less money than they'd make on regular passengers. Playing while hammered isn't a good idea so they'll sell much less alcohol than normal, and the onboard shops can't sell as much other stuff to people that already put all their money on cards, game books and miniatures.

I like it, let me know when we leave!

Only if it was no rules international waters gaming...

FWIW, if anyone wants to recreate the cruise experience but has't got an awful lot of money lying around, you can pay me $50 instead and I'll lock you in a closet with an elderly racist and infect you with Norovirus.