THEME CRUISES- A RECIPE FOR A GOOD TIME?

These days, it's seemingly no longer enough for cruise lines to offer all the fun and frills that go with a conventional cruise. Several lines now cater to what they know will be large denomination fan groups to offer themed cruises, built around everything from food to fashion, jazz to ju jitsu, and everything else in between. Entertainment and on board lecture programmes are usually tailored to the theme of each particular cruise.

Generall, these voyages come in two formats; there is the full ship charter, where the entire vessel is chartered to one special interest group, such as the gay-themed Atlantis Cruises, or these is a special, on board theme concocted by the cruise line itself, and offered on sale right across the general public. In general, whole ship charters tend to come with a higher per person fare, mainly to pay for all the extra, specialised entertainment that the company needs to supply.

Depending on your level of addicition to any particular hobby or programme, this could be either heaven or hell. You can be a devout sci fi fan, but wanting to spend between four and seven nights on a ship full of ardent Trekkies, for instance, is not a commitment that you can just beam out of at will. You really have to be very deeply ingrained in the whole psychology of that universe as a whole.

And, as time progresses, the appetite for theme cruises are getting more diverse, with even swingers getting in on the act with a couple of themed, couples only cruises for, ahem, 'alternative lifestyles'. Also popular are wine and food themed cruises- something that Crystal Cruises, for one, does particularly well. Special star gazing cruises can take you out into the vastness of the Pacific, or as far north as Norway to seee the surreal beauty of the Northern Lights.

There seems to be no end to the variety and sheer ingenuity of these themed trips. Lines such as Saga and Fred. Olsen now offer 'Mystery Cruises', where passengers are told only the length of the voyage, and not the names of the ports that they will be visiting. Despite the lack of any actual information, these cruises have actually been enormously popular, and have actually become a staple of each line's yearly cruise programme.

As cruise lines seek to offer ever more diversity across a relatively conformist product, expect these themed cruises to get more and more popular and imaginative. Companies will seek ever more ingenious ways to funnel money out of your pocket. But on the other hand, it's now literally an ocean of choice out there. Happy travelling.