Do These Type of Sea Days Exist?

[jtwind]

We've been on 6 different cruise lines.  The port talks on all 6 were heavily shopping focused.  Not our thing.  Our preference would be more focused on the culture and history of a place, tossing in a few recommendations on where to find local dishes, and throw in some basic language and customs lessons.  On sea days, we'd be interested in having 4-6 hours of talks such as this.  Is this available on any cruise lines?

[cruisemom42]

It's a good question...  Like you, I really like lectures on board that are geared toward the itinerary, not just "random" guest lecturers. (I've heard enough lectures about the Titanic and about ocean liners of old, btw...) And I don't want to attend lectures shilling for either shore excursion sign ups or local shopping; it's fine if they are offered, just please clearly identify them as such.

 

For about 10 years I frequented a niche cruise company called Voyages to Antiquity. With only 1 ship (carrying 350 passengers) it was certainly unique. Their itineraries were themed around certain time periods or ancient cultures. Each cruise included 2-4 lecturers (most were retired college professors and good speakers) that would talk about the period -- history, archaeology, culture, art, etc.  Sometimes there would also be a naturalist onboard.

 

I really loved that line and its premise. Unfortunately it seems to have ceased operations; leasing its one ship to the Road Scholar operation (which offers a similar model, if you are interested).  I also read that VTA has some kind of agreement with Fred. Olsen lines out of the UK to offer special groups on some of their cruises going forward (e.g., when cruising resumes) -- I'm looking forward to more info on that. FO also sails with smaller, older ships. FO caters largely to a British customer base; VTO was majority British also but with a healthy helping of US, Canadian and Australian passengers as well.

 

Most mass market lines offer nothing like this, really. Holland America offers lectures but only on their longer cruises (more than 14 days) and the quality can be variable. Some of the premium and luxury lines offer enrichment lectures (Crystal notably) but they are not always related to the itinerary. Same with Cunard.

 

I'm not sure about Viking -- maybe someone familiar can chime in. I'm thinking that, based on their Viking TV offerings, they might feature itinerary-related lectures...

 

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by cruisemom42

[1025cruise]

Depends on where you are cruising. Alaska might have a useful port talk, but it won't be hours. Europe/Mediterranean cruises might also have more useful talks.

 

The Caribbean, it's not a port talk if Diamonds International isn't mentioned multiple times 🙂

[lenquixote66]

53 minutes ago, jtwind said:

We've been on 6 different cruise lines.  The port talks on all 6 were heavily shopping focused.  Not our thing.  Our preference would be more focused on the culture and history of a place, tossing in a few recommendations on where to find local dishes, and throw in some basic language and customs lessons.  On sea days, we'd be interested in having 4-6 hours of talks such as this.  Is this available on any cruise lines?

We were on a Celebrity cruise to New England and Canada.They had a person giving a lecture about Canada. Four people showed up.My thinking is that there would be standing room only for a port shopping lecture.

We never go to them.

[ldubs]

2 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

We were on a Celebrity cruise to New England and Canada.They had a person giving a lecture about Canada. Four people showed up.My thinking is that there would be standing room only for a port shopping lecture.

We never go to them.

 

It has been a long time since I've seen a port lecture that wasn't tied to excursions or shopping.   We don't go to those either.   

[cruisemom42]

4 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

Alaska might have a useful port talk, but it won't be hours. Europe/Mediterranean cruises might also have more useful talks.

 

When I cruised Alaska with my son, back in 2003, Princess had a fantastic lecturer/naturalist onboard. Not only had he lived for a period of time on an isolated island in the Inside Passage, he had written several books about the area. He gave at least 4 lectures on our cruise and they were all just about standing room only.

 

[lenquixote66]

14 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

It has been a long time since I've seen a port lecture that wasn't tied to excursions or shopping.   We don't go to those either.   

Not on the ship ,but when we went on a shore excursion in St.Thomas a few years ago the Tour Guide told us that he is only in the island 6 months.

He gave us a “lecture” about his other job which was a pro basketball player .

[CruiserBruce]

7 day cruises don't typically have serious lectures presented because there typically aren't many sea days on a 7 day cruise. As mentioned above, HAL does lectures on longer, more unique cruises, as there are typically more sea days. Many cruise lines going through the Panama Canal will have Canal related presentations on sea days leading to transiting the Canal.

[navybankerteacher]

The only mass market cruise I recall on which there were cultural/historic talks was on a HAL sailing from San Diego to Hawaii.  Cunard usually has non-shopping talks - and I recall at least one on one of our recent QM2 crossings - with so New York City background (non-shopping) but it was pretty superficial.

[ontheweb]

In 2007 we did a Baltic cruise and the cruise director was John Lawrence, who I believe has long since retired. For each port he gave a lecture not only on the ship's excursions, but also what you could do on your own. On the next to last day he gave a lecture on what you could do in the disembarkation port, Copenhagen.

[cruisemom42]

Just now, ontheweb said:

In 2007 we did a Baltic cruise and the cruise director was John Lawrence, who I believe has long since retired. For each port he gave a lecture not only on the ship's excursions, but also what you could do on your own. On the next to last day he gave a lecture on what you could do in the disembarkation port, Copenhagen.

 

John Lawrence was a treasure; there are few if any cruise directors like him around....

[ontheweb]

1 minute ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

John Lawrence was a treasure; there are few if any cruise directors like him around....

I totally agree. I do not remember the name of any other cruise director, but still remember his despite it is not 13+ years since he was our cruise director.

[jtwind]

I would hope that expedition cruises would be pretty good about this.  Are they?

 

The best "talks" we ever had were on our bike and barge trip on the Danube.  In ½ hour each evening, the tour guide was able to help us mark up our route booklet so that we wouldn't miss the best historical sites and the best local drinks and dishes.  Detailed descriptions were in those booklets, which we had with us as we rode.

[evandbob]

Perhaps river cruises on small ships, Cunard or HAL ocean liners among the mass market lines, and Galapagos or Tahitian Island cruises might suit the OP's preferences?

[lissie]

Cunard last year had some excellent talks on sea days relevant to the itinerary - particularly a talk by the Great Barrier Reef pilot. 

 

Just came back from a small (50pax) expedition style cruise - and their lecturers were excellent speakers, leaders, and zodiac drivers! No paid extras so no shopping involved 

[Aquahound]

3 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Most mass market lines offer nothing like this, really. Holland America offers lectures but only on their longer cruises (more than 14 days) and the quality can be variable.

 

 

Not true.  Ever since HAL switched out their traditional cruise directors for EXC hosts (or whatever they're calling them), they are offering regular port and destination lectures.  In Sep 2019 on a 7 night AK cruise, I attended lectures about the gold rush, Tlingit tribe, and local wildlife.  The lectures were, at least, every other day.

[jocap]

I do know of a port lecturer who covers both Saga and Fred Olsen lines- I don't think there will be any shopping mentioned except in a general way, such as where you might find a pharmacy or local food or drink.

I have only been on 2 Fred O cruises, but both times there was a naturalist on board, talking about the wild life; we also had guided sailings through the fjords and around volcanic islands with commentary from a speaker on the bridge.

On the larger ships, it's been rare to have lectures on short cruises - I think under 12 days was once mentioned- except for port lectures, which I usually watch in the cabin. I've not been aware of any "plugs" for shoppers, but we've mostly been on UK based lines.

[cruisemom42]

9 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

 

Not true.  Ever since HAL switched out their traditional cruise directors for EXC hosts (or whatever they're calling them), they are offering regular port and destination lectures.  In Sep 2019 on a 7 night AK cruise, I attended lectures about the gold rush, Tlingit tribe, and local wildlife.  The lectures were, at least, every other day.

 

I think the EXC concept halted even before the shutdown started....

 

It was only fully implemented on one ship (Maasdam) and incompletely on a few others.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We gave up on 'port' lectures after a couple tries because it was all focused on shopping, which is not of interest to us.

 

I have been to several very good lectures that were not port focused, the best by a cruise director who used to work at the Australia Zoo with Steve Irwin when  he was alive; informative, funny and touching.  Most real lectures are on longer cruises but vary wildly in quality.  Some I wonder how the heck the person got a lecture gig at all!

[sfaaa]

 Panama Canal cruise has all day lecture about canal history and its operation on ship TV and PA system. Guarantee you will learn something new and interesting.

[Sea42]

Oceania had great lectures on our Easter Island/South Pacific cruise. Always one in the morning and several times 2 in the afternoon. But there were also many sea days on this cruise. 5 to start the cruise before we arrived at Easter Island. 2 of of speakers were location focused. The other I want to say was cyber security related topics.

On cruises that are port intensive, our Med. cruise had 18 ports in 21 days, they were offered on HAL but we took those days to relax. But the speakers in Alaska were very good.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Sea42

[neverbeenhere]

Want 4 to 6 hours of cruise specific talking. Look for the oldest cruiser, who is of sound mind and ask that person, Have you ever been to this port before?

[Aquahound]

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I think the EXC concept halted even before the shutdown started....

 

It was only fully implemented on one ship (Maasdam) and incompletely on a few others.

 

It was fully implemented on Eurodam and from reading the boards, it was pretty widespread across the fleet.  

[cruisemom42]

13 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

 

It was fully implemented on Eurodam and from reading the boards, it was pretty widespread across the fleet.  

 

Only basing it on what I also have read on the HAL boards, such as ...

 

On 1/4/2021 at 2:19 AM, bcummin said:

Actually, EXC faded before the coronavirus pandemic.

HAL's exquisite EXC In Depth Maasdam cruises were watered down to less than they had been.  When capable port experts were eliminated, the EXC label was tacked onto shore excursion speakers and then combined with the cruise director responsibilities.  HAL destroyed its own golden goose.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/shore-excursions.html

(found this link, but previous link posted was far better)

 

Barbara

 

[Aquahound]

39 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Only basing it on what I also have read on the HAL boards, such as ...

 

 

Perhaps I never really understood what full EXC really was.  HAL no longer refers to their CDs as "cruise directors," but rather EXC hosts.  They basically wear both hats.  Regardless, my original point is still true. They are still providing destination lectures regularly....much more so than I've seen on any other line. My 7 night cruise had, I think, 4.  In fact, it was the main show one night in the theater.