What if you could mix your favorite activity, hobby or interests with all of the amenities a cruise has to offer, to create a special cruise designed just for you? Well, that’s pretty much the idea behind theme cruises, which highlight a specific activity or interest, making it the focal point of an entire cruise itinerary.
Offered on vessels of all sizes, theme cruises can be created from just about any activity, interest, group or desire—meaning cruise lines are open to just about any theme as long as it’s not obscene.
There are literally hundreds of theme cruises in existence today and many popular theme cruises are offered on a regular basis on most ships. While no reasonable theme is out of the question today, the following list represents only a fraction of the types of theme cruises on the market today.
Art, Epicurean/Food Wine, Broadway/Theater at Sea, Murder Mystery, Solar Eclipse, Holiday, Pearl Harbor, Maya Equinox, Cartoon/Action Figures, Health & Fitness, Gay/Lesbian, Motivational/Self Improvement, Personal Finance, Silver Screen/Hollywood Film Festival, Adventure, Natural History/Ecology, Literary, History/Cultural Heritage, Sports/Olympics, Spiritual/Gospel, Golf, Singles, Latin/Salsa, Couples, Country & Western, Booze Cruises, 50’s Sock Hop, Polka/Square Dancing, Christian, Rhythm & Blues, Big Band/Swing, Classical Music/Opera, Contemporary/Dixieland, Jazz, Gambling, Luxury, Glacier, Bridge Tournaments, Family Reunion, Military and some of the smaller vessels even offer Nude Cruises.
One of the leaders in theme cruises is Crystal Cruises. Not only does Crystal Cruises offer jazz, golf, film festival, health and food & wine theme cruises, these cruises typically travel to exciting places such as the Caribbean and places like Monte Carlo, London and Aspen. A typical golf theme cruise aboard the Crystal Serenity will sail from Rome to London, a transatlantic jazz cruise is not uncommon or how about a Mediterranean/Black Sea food & wine theme cruise?
Cruise West features a variety of food & wine theme cruises and Clipper Cruise Line highlights educational themes and military theme cruises, to name a few. Carnival Cruise Lines is popular for casino theme cruises and Disney Cruise Lines is popular for film festival theme cruises.
Whether you’re interested in spending days or even weeks at sea surrounded by health & fitness types, film buffs or country & western fans, many cruise lines offer set dates for these types of theme cruises, so feel free to book directly through the cruise lines. If you’re interested in creating your own special theme cruise on your own time, most agents can help you through the planning process.
A great place to start your search for theme cruises is cruisemates.com. Cruisemates.com features a lengthy list of cruise lines along with each cruise lines’ list of theme cruises, dates and destinations, from A-Z.