So you booked a cruise, planning on sailing through the Caribbean for several fun and sun-filled days, only to find out that on board with you was a huge group of (enter name of topic you do not care for)-lovers and it really turned you off. What to do?
Easy answer: Ignore them and go about your business as planned. Cruise lines can and do book partial charters, choosing to lock in sold cabins in one swooping booking rather than market them to individuals throughout the booking cycle. Who wouldn’t? We can’t really blame them. A farmer selling oranges on the side of the road is happy if, at the end of the day, he sold them all. If someone comes by early in the day, buys all of them and drives off, he’s ok with that too. Such is very much the case with partial charters which feel very much like Princess Cruises second Cruising For A Cause.
The theme is heart health and those on board for the 5-night sailing got a hefty dose of it right up front. The round-trip Port Everglades itinerary sails to Grand Cayman and Cozumel with two days at sea. It is those days at sea when the majority of the heart-specific programming occurs, much like any other themed sailing or charter group. That leaves plenty of time for passengers to get off the ship while in port and plenty of time on board for whatever the theme is to play out.
The first day at sea on the heart cruise brought a variety of events including a cooking demonstration, book signing, CPR class and more. If it is true that a nicely choreographed cruise experience enables us to Come Back New as Princess promotes, stacking themed events on top of what they already do can be looked at in a couple different ways.
If someone happened to wander in to the Princess Theater on the first programming day, they would have come away with some interesting information.
- Pulled Pork can be healthy and tasty? Sure,Chef Marc Anthony Bynum showed them in a cooking demonstration full of lifestyle tips that can have a positive effect on heart health, if not life in general; “We should eat to live, not live to eat.”
- I don’t have to drop dead of a heart attack like my dad did?Nope. World-class heart surgeon Dr. Kathy Magliato gave specific ways to avoid heart disease. “Why are you in here rather than out there?” Magliato asked the audience, answering her own question “Oh, you want to live.”
- Want to live longer? “What if this cruise could save your life?” asked Cookbook Author Diana Wentworthwho penned Love Your Heart: Follow The Red Theread To A Heart Centered Life, extolling the virtues of nurturing women’s hearts, a result of her own heart attack.
On board also are passengers and invited guests who are passionate about their personal heart experience and/or what they can/are doing to promote the prevention of heart disease, the number one killer of women in America. In addition to a ship full of Come Back New elements that, if engaged, can bring back passengers with a refreshed, renewed outlook on life, the heart-specific content accelerates the process.
On the heart cruise, everyone was invited to take part in the heart-themed events, regardless of if they booked specifically for them or not. On a partial charter, those themed events are usually only for those who booked into the group.
