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New LGBT charter company launched


Boytjie
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After 11 years of sailing with RSVP, we are jumping ship to a new venture in the LGBT vacation world: Vacaya. (The company launched this week).

 

Their inaugural cruise will be on the Celebrity summit, sailing from New York (OK, Bayonne New Jersey!) for a seven day cruise to Saint John, New Brunswick, Bar Harbor, Maine; and Provincetown, Massachusetts. The ship will overnight in P'Town for it's Carnival, a major LGBT event. This is an exciting itinerary and we will not have to fly to the port and stay in a hotel, it will be an Uber/Lyft ride away. clear.png?emoji-smile-1742

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After 11 years of sailing with RSVP, we are jumping ship to a new venture in the LGBT vacation world: Vacaya. (The company launched this week).

 

Their inaugural cruise will be on the Celebrity summit, sailing from New York (OK, Bayonne New Jersey!) for a seven day cruise to Saint John, New Brunswick, Bar Harbor, Maine; and Provincetown, Massachusetts. The ship will overnight in P'Town for it's Carnival, a major LGBT event. This is an exciting itinerary and we will not have to fly to the port and stay in a hotel, it will be an Uber/Lyft ride away. clear.png?emoji-smile-1742

 

Thanks for the info. Is this a full charter or group on a regular sailing? What date is the cruise?

 

Thanks

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Thanks for the info. Is this a full charter or group on a regular sailing? What date is the cruise?

 

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Full charter. (The land vacations also take over the whole resort).

 

The cruise is August 11-18, 2019.

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  • 3 months later...

Carnival 2019 has been announced for August 22nd. This cruise will be arriving the week before. They have been promoting this as a cruise to be in Provincetown over Carnival. There are going to be some very pissed off people who booked this cruise.

 

 

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Carnival 2019 has been announced for August 22nd. This cruise will be arriving the week before. They have been promoting this as a cruise to be in Provincetown over Carnival. There are going to be some very pissed off people who booked this cruise.

 

 

Since Vacaya announced the cruise, organizers decided to chang the dates of Carnival 2019.

 

“Carnival – Thursday, August 15th, 2019 – Saturday, August 25th, 2019 – Parade, Thursday, August 22nd, 2019”

 

They made Carnival Week more than a week and changed the date of the parade. From what I have heard, on parade day the place is packed to the gills - and apparently P’town’s old sewage system has a tough time coping with the flood of people.

 

On Facebook reactions to the change have been low key and understanding.

 

There is a lot going on other than just the parade that one day. Fun will still be had.

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From the Vacaya website:

 

 

“The Ptown Carnival Flag has made its way across the United States via land, air, and sea from West Hollywood, CA to Washington, D.C., up to New York, and finally to Ptown with us on the Summit. It will be raised high above the town today, signaling the official Kick-Off to Carnival”.

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So is the cruise going to be as advertised during Carnival or no?

 

 

The ship arrives the day Carnival starts, so of course it can! The flag that is used in the official Carnival kick-off event will be arriving via the ship. The ship will not be there on the day of the parade (since it was moved a week later), which may sound disappointing now but might not be a bad thing after all.

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The ship arrives the day Carnival starts, so of course it can! The flag that is used in the official Carnival kick-off event will be arriving via the ship. The ship will not be there on the day of the parade (since it was moved a week later), which may sound disappointing now but might not be a bad thing after all.

 

 

 

Thanks for all the info. I looked on the PTown Business Community site and it looks pretty empty right now for events on the 15th, 16th.

 

I've never been to PTown or Carnival, so it would be good to know if we would be going during a quieter time or be in a melting pot of celebration activity. I'm sure the area will be bracing for the parade a couple weeks prior including the kickoff.

It is just hard to set any expectations as Carnival has always been one week vs. two, and as this is the first time the cruise charter customer will be doing it. Those cruise tickets are not cheap.

 

 

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Thanks for all the info. I looked on the PTown Business Community site and it looks pretty empty right now for events on the 15th, 16th.

 

I've never been to PTown or Carnival, so it would be good to know if we would be going during a quieter time or be in a melting pot of celebration activity. I'm sure the area will be bracing for the parade a couple weeks prior including the kickoff.

It is just hard to set any expectations as Carnival has always been one week vs. two, and as this is the first time the cruise charter customer will be doing it. Those cruise tickets are not cheap.

 

 

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I live in Provincetown. The activities normally start on the Sunday before the parade which is on Thursday. There is normally a pride flag raising, a boat cruise in the afternoon and a costume party that night. Most visitors don’t arrive until Saturday as the majority of vacation rentals run Saturday to Saturday. So while they have moved the official dates of Carnival to start on the Thursday prior to the parade day it’s seems they are only doing that because of this cruise. I would not expect any of the big events like the boat cruise or costume contest to get moved up as most of the visitors who come here yearly for this event will not have arrived yet. They will likely move the Pride flag raising ceremony to Thursday and some of the local clubs will probably try to cash in on this cruise ship business by adding some themed dance parties but that’s about it. The real Carnival events won’t start until the weekend. Everyone here in town was expecting the Carnival parade to be on the 15th as it is normally the third Thursday in August which is why I’m sure that the group targeted the cruise for that date. This move surprised us. The week before the normal Carnival Week is typically a bit quieter as it falls between theme weeks.

 

 

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Since Vacaya announced the cruise, organizers decided to chang the dates of Carnival 2019.

 

“Carnival – Thursday, August 15th, 2019 – Saturday, August 25th, 2019 – Parade, Thursday, August 22nd, 2019”

 

They made Carnival Week more than a week and changed the date of the parade. From what I have heard, on parade day the place is packed to the gills - and apparently P’town’s old sewage system has a tough time coping with the flood of people.

 

On Facebook reactions to the change have been low key and understanding.

 

There is a lot going on other than just the parade that one day. Fun will still be had.

 

 

 

Fun can always be had here regardless of Carnival but this cruise was clearly set up to arrive on the parade day which is the signature event for Carnival Week. It can draw up to 100,000 people into town for that day. The addition of 3,000 more people from a cruise ship would be a negligible increase to the sewer. There is a core group of people in this town who object to cruise ships though and it really feels like they moved the Carnival parade date to get away from the cruise ship to avoid objections from locals but then added these extra early days so that the charter company can still say they are technically coming here during Carnival. Again, I would be highly irritated if I had booked this cruise and this change happened.

 

 

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There is a core group of people in this town who object to cruise ships though and it really feels like they moved the Carnival parade date to get away from the cruise ship to avoid objections from locals but then added these extra early days so that the charter company can still say they are technically coming here during Carnival.

 

That is not my understanding: there parade was expected to be on the 15th when Vacaya chartered the ship. Vacaya launched the beginning of May and they must have arranged the ship charter and dates sometime before that. The organizers then decided to make changes to Carnival - making it 10 days rather than a week.

 

 

How many cruise ships have called on P'town previously that it would draw negative reactions from many locals?

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That is not my understanding: there parade was expected to be on the 15th when Vacaya chartered the ship. Vacaya launched the beginning of May and they must have arranged the ship charter and dates sometime before that. The organizers then decided to make changes to Carnival - making it 10 days rather than a week.

 

 

How many cruise ships have called on P'town previously that it would draw negative reactions from many locals?

 

I know you're question wasn't for me, Peter, but I just did a quick google search and apparently there is indeed some resistance from locals regarding the influx of cruise ships. You'll also find harbor master information and details of fees raising from the increase of ships.

"Cruise ships boosting Provincetown economy — for better or worse" by Katy Ward

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That is not my understanding: there parade was expected to be on the 15th when Vacaya chartered the ship. Vacaya launched the beginning of May and they must have arranged the ship charter and dates sometime before that. The organizers then decided to make changes to Carnival - making it 10 days rather than a week.

 

 

 

 

 

How many cruise ships have called on P'town previously that it would draw negative reactions from many locals?

 

 

 

Yes. I said that in my other post. All of us locals expected the parade on the 15th as it is usually the third Thursday of August. The cruise company likely expected the same thing. Then the Provincetown Business Guild decided to have the parade on the fourth Thursday (the 22nd) instead. The question is why? Carnival has always been a week of events at maximum. Them extending it to start on the Thursday prior to the parade (the 15th) doesn’t make sense unless they are trying to tie it into the cruise arriving that day.

 

 

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At the end of the day, I agree, it is misleading that Vacaya is advertising this as a PTown Carnival cruise, but not false. It implies that the guests would at least be in the middle of the height of the action of Carnival.

I do hope that they are successful as a company. Atlantis Events/RSVP needs to have a valid competitor in the industry. At least an alternative full ship charter company, as the office end at Atlantis is disorganized and well-known for it. Give them a run for their money @Vacaya! :cool:

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