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Whether you're a digital photographer, Linux programmer, Web surfing senior or Mac fan, there's a specialty cruise setting sail with a shipload of like-minded participants.
By DAVE GUSSOW
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 7, 2002
It was a gorgeous day to savor the sights at Glacier Bay in Alaska from the cruise ship Volendam. Yet what Maggie McQueen remembers about the moment was a group on deck, gazing at their laptop computers.
"I was just amazed," said McQueen, 50, of Orlando, who at least left her laptop in her cabin.
She shouldn't have been that surprised. McQueen and the others were, after all, on a Geek Cruise.
For McQueen, the cruise meant seeing the scenery of Alaska while participating in Mac Mania, with presentations and seminars on topics from digital photography to software and hardware. Sure, she missed a few sights, such as whale watching, but her geek week more than made up for it.
"In the evenings, everyone was doing e-mail" in the library, said McQueen, who describes herself as an intermediate-level techie. "The poor presenters couldn't get away from us. It was so so cool to sit there and interact. I learned so much."
Geeks at sea is one of the latest themed cruises, which offer special-interest topics ranging from investing to educational trips to professionals taking a cruise as a working vacation.
Initially tech cruises were targeted at information technology professionals catching up on topics such as Java and Linux. Now, cruises are beginning to cater to consumers, with offerings such as digital photography and Senior Surf for older cruisers.
Usually a company such as Geek Cruises (www.geekcruises.com) or Digital Photo Corner (www.dpcorner.com) reserves blocks of rooms on a ship from an operator such as Carnival Cruise Lines or Holland America. At sea, participants are at seminars. At ports, everybody is on vacation.
It's more expensive than a regular cruise. Conference fees can add $800 or more to the regular cost of the cruise. (Spouses, significant others and kids can go for the cruise without paying the seminar fee.)
"It's been a tough business in this economy, but remarkably we're doing pretty well," said Neil R. Bauman, "captain" and CEO of Geek Cruises in Malibu, Calif.
Bauman took his first cruise in 1998 -- a voyage with a Star Trek theme -- and enjoyed the combo of cruising and seminars. "I still am a computer programmer, and the idea struck me to combine a couple of the things I really love," he said.
So Geek Cruises set sail on Memorial Day 2000. Bauman's first Mac Mania cruise in May attracted more participants than any of his previous events. "So my market may not be IT professionals, but general end users."
He cites a number of advantages to seminars at sea, compared with landlocked sessions: more access to speakers, as McQueen noted, and really getting away to focus on the topic.
"When you're in a land-based conference, you're still tied to the land," he said. "You're still tied to the troubles, worries, problems and needs of your office. You're tethered there by beeper and cell phone, neither of which works when on a cruise."
Bauman is a hands-on director. He showed up at "every single one of my classes," McQueen said. "It was a smoothly run program."
McQueen thought the trip was pricey but worth it. Bauman suggests that because food is included in the cruise price, participants may pay less for everything than if they go to seminars on land.
Chuck Hoole, who went on a Digital Photo Corner cruise, thought the price was reasonable, particularly because it included a photography package, with the traveler's choice of a camera package, a photo software package or an accessory package. Sponsors say each "gift" package is worth about $1,000.
Hoole, 72, a retired engineer from Oak Ridge, Tenn., enjoyed the first cruise so much he's going again.
"The thing I got most out of the class was the confidence" that the instructor gave him, said Hoole, who describes his photo skills as modest. "He was able to critique my work without criticism."
And that's exactly what the instructor, Arthur Bleich, says he intends for the cruises, which started in 2000 and will resume in December.
Participants, who range in age from 19 to 80, bring their photos to the seminars for critiquing and printing. Bleich has added a session on Adobe Photoshop software for editing.
"They'll get all the digital photography theory that they'll ever want," said Bleich, whose resume includes jobs as feature editor of Digital Camera magazine, writer and college instructor. "The emphasis is how to see picture opportunities and how to take pictures that have people saying, 'Wow, this is a great picture.' "
Bleich, who works out of Miami, came up with the idea for a cruise-seminar while working for a photo-sharing Web site just when digital photography was going mainstream. "I felt a lot of people were confused and could be helped by learning about it and in a more relaxed environment than just going to a workshop where you sweat all day."
Though the photo cruises have space for only 30 participants, Bleich has lined up an impressive list of sponsors that contribute to the gift packages and other needs on the trip.
"There are going to be other people who will be exposed to the experience by osmosis, just by (people) running around taking pictures," said Sally Smith Clemens, product manager for Olympus America, which includes one of its cameras in a gift pack. "It's certainly a good venue for us to have exposure, a great place to take a digital camera."
Beverly Shulz of Houston is taking her mother on the cruise as a 70th birthday present, and both will attend the seminars. Shulz, 44, teaches digital photography classes online, and her mother has been a photographer for years.
"With digital photography, things change so quickly, software, equipment, things you can buy," Shulz said. "The opportunity it gives me is to be with people who are aware of the new technology, the cutting edge things, things I'd like to be up to date on that I'm not."
And McQueen of Orlando says the benefits of the trip she took in May continued. She went to learn about digital cameras and recently bought one. Now, she gets help by e-mail from some of the people she met on the cruise.
"It was just a wonderful way to mix," McQueen said. "It was just really fun."
- Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4228.