Polka Cruise

[VAWCB]

   An outfit called “Jimmy Sturr / Mollie B Polka Cruise” is soliciting people to go on the January 13, 2024 Sky Princess Caribbean cruise.  Apparently a similar 2023 cruise on Regal Princess had 600 participants.  I have nothing against polka music (in small doses) but am not sure I want to spend a week with 600 polka musicians, dancers, and enthusiasts.  Has anyone been on a polka cruise and did you find that the group overwhelms the ship or changes the dynamics of the cruise?  I do realize that 600 people represent only one-sixth of the capacity.

[jeromep]

Last time I checked I don't recall Princess opening up their ship for specially themed "charters".  This is something that Norwegian and RCI and even Carnival do rather frequently.  I've always wanted to go on a Star Trek cruise, but the timing has never been good for me, the itinerary is usually a shortie, like 5 days, so "not worth it" to me, and the ship is usually one of the older ships of whatever cruise line is offering the "charter".

 

This doesn't feel like one of those charters.  It feels like an affiliated TA has blocked out cabins for the polka cruisers, and Princess will provide an entertainment space or two for them through the day.

 

https://www.jimmysturr.com/cruise

 

I have no clue if it will really adjust the vibe on board a lot, but I wouldn't be surprised if the polka band was up on the Lido playing rather frequently.

[VAWCB]

   It is definitely not a charter as a number of people on the Roll Call seemed surprised and troubled to learn about the polka group.  I agree that the polka band will be playing frequently, and probably loudly, so I moved my reservation to a February cruise with an identical itinerary.

[Dothan1952]

We booked this  cruise because of the Polka bands, only Polka music in lower Alabama is via the internet. The performances in question are open only those that booked thru Jimmy Sturr travel..The only inconvenience others should experience is an occasionally closed public room.

[palolake]

We were on one a few years ago.  We were very inconvenienced. They shut down Take 5 more nights than it was open.  We've been on a few cruises that had special groups on it and this group was the worst. Only because of shutting down Take 5.

[skynight]

I have been on similar group cruises. It isn't fun. The groups not only have sections of the ship closed for their special sessions, but members of the group tend to dominate other activities. Princess needs to advise all that a large group will be on board, and not hide it.

[Phoenixfu003]

8 hours ago, skynight said:

Princess needs to advise all that a large group will be on board, and not hide it.

Has that ever happened?

[skynight]

36 minutes ago, Phoenixfu003 said:

Has that ever happened?

Not to my knowledge. I try to search for theme cruises before I book in an effort to avoid them. Theme cruises tend to be the 7 day kind. If you book longer trips you have a better chance to avoid them.

Edited April 26, 2023 by skynight

[Honolulu Blue]

On 3/14/2023 at 5:27 PM, VAWCB said:

   An outfit called “Jimmy Sturr / Mollie B Polka Cruise” is soliciting people to go on the January 13, 2024 Sky Princess Caribbean cruise.  Apparently a similar 2023 cruise on Regal Princess had 600 participants.  I have nothing against polka music (in small doses) but am not sure I want to spend a week with 600 polka musicians, dancers, and enthusiasts.  Has anyone been on a polka cruise and did you find that the group overwhelms the ship or changes the dynamics of the cruise?  I do realize that 600 people represent only one-sixth of the capacity.

 

I haven't been on a polka cruise (sounds nightmarish, except for Weird Al 🤣 ), but I've been on music themed cruises that, unlike this one, were FULL charters.  No one was there that wasn't aware of the theme and paid the price to be there.

 

Princess has also run some 80s themed cruises that weren't charters, but they chose the theme and transmitted it to the passengers in advance. I've done two of these. The 80s theme ran through much of the entertainment such that much of the trivia, most of the main theater shows, and all of the background music was 80s themed.  I was too busy partying like it was 1989 to notice if any of the other passengers were inconvenienced. 😃

 

On 3/14/2023 at 7:53 PM, jeromep said:

Last time I checked I don't recall Princess opening up their ship for specially themed "charters".  This is something that Norwegian and RCI and even Carnival do rather frequently.  I've always wanted to go on a Star Trek cruise, but the timing has never been good for me, the itinerary is usually a shortie, like 5 days, so "not worth it" to me, and the ship is usually one of the older ships of whatever cruise line is offering the "charter".

 

This doesn't feel like one of those charters.  It feels like an affiliated TA has blocked out cabins for the polka cruisers, and Princess will provide an entertainment space or two for them through the day.

 

https://www.jimmysturr.com/cruise

 

I have no clue if it will really adjust the vibe on board a lot, but I wouldn't be surprised if the polka band was up on the Lido playing rather frequently.

 

The "official" Star Trek Cruise is 7 days and has been for a while.  It's true that TSTC and all the music charters I've been on have been on smaller, older ships.  They have their reasons, and I enjoyed the particular ships they were on.

 

Princess is not, as far as I can tell, a big player in full charters, but I've heard about some "partial" charters like this polka cruise.  They're not going to tell you about them, which is one reason they can be a big problem for the average cruiser who's not part of the group.

[Dothan1952]

This Polka cruise was reasonably priced, just out of curiosity we priced next years  Star Trek cruise ( also  7 day ) its was very expensive- at least twice the cost of similar  cruise , would be fun but not at that price!

[MissP22]

3 hours ago, skynight said:

I have been on similar group cruises. It isn't fun. The groups not only have sections of the ship closed for their special sessions, but members of the group tend to dominate other activities. Princess needs to advise all that a large group will be on board, and not hide it.

It will never happen. People would avoid booking & it would lead to a loss of business.  

[donaldsc]

Imagine a cruise w people playing accordions all over the place. One or 2 accordions at times would be OK but hundreds of them!!!

 

DON 

Edited April 26, 2023 by donaldsc

[Colorado Coasty]

34 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

Imagine a cruise w people playing accordions all over the place. One or 2 accordions at times would be OK but hundreds of them!!!

 

DON 

The cruise from hell.😁

[voljeep]

$4000 for an aft balcony with PLUS - then get on board with that ???

[Bollycats]

I just found out my cruise later in the year has a very large group on it. Our deposits were nonrefundable and it's hard to change weeks now because of work. How horrible is it when you dread taking your vacation!!

[beg3yrs]

1 hour ago, Bollycats said:

I just found out my cruise later in the year has a very large group on it. Our deposits were nonrefundable and it's hard to change weeks now because of work. How horrible is it when you dread taking your vacation!!

Just remember, In Heaven There Is No Beer, so, Roll Out The Barrel on your vacation and have as much fun as you can!

[MissP22]

We were on board with a large group & other than a large group arriving in the DR at the same time every night there were no other problems. 

[Dothan1952]

amazed how so many people are freaking out about this Polka cruise. These thing occur all the time , one time on the QE2. William H Miller had a cruise group about the golden age of transatlantic cruising, would have loved to attend some of his lectures but it was closed to the general public. Another time there was a cruise group hosted by G Gordon Liddy, his talk were also closed to the public - got a good laugh when anyone under 40 was asking each other who this Liddy follow was .There is no way that there are going to be hundreds of accordions , there will be at most 5 polka bands so maybe the could be 5 accordions max. Most likely most or all of the music was be restricted events - otherwise it defeats the purpose of drumming up business for jimmy Sturr travel.

[ldubs]

TA-RA-RA-BOOM-DE-AY

[donaldsc]

Could be worse.  You could be on this cruise - https://pipersdojo.lpages.co/dojo-university-bagpipe-cruise/.   Make February 6th the beginning of a life-long memory by attending the world's only Bagpipe-School-Vacation Combo.

 

Again I like a good bagpipe but a ship load of them.  

 

DON

 

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

Could be worse.  You could be on this cruise - https://pipersdojo.lpages.co/dojo-university-bagpipe-cruise/.   Make February 6th the beginning of a life-long memory by attending the world's only Bagpipe-School-Vacation Combo.

 

Again I like a good bagpipe but a ship load of them.  

 

DON

 

Cute find. Thanks. I notice that this cruise was supposed to sail in February 2021 and is still taking registrations. We know that one didn't sail and it doesn't seem to have been replaced. The 2019 video was interesting... Until they started playing. 😱

[Danshere]

Spoilt my cruise.took over

 

ship will not be back