My First Cruise

A cornerstone of the tabletop game industy is game conventions, but for years the only conventions I’ve attended are Geekway to the West and the Stonemaier Games Design Day. I work 7 days a week and can play games in St. Louis, so I’ve had a hard time justifying the travel time to play games in a hotel for a few days anywhere else. But I really like the Geekway experience of playing games for a few days with people outside my normal social circle.

It was while considering this catch-22 last year that I realized there might be a solution, a way to expand the Stonemaier community through a convention while also seeing a new part of the world: BGG@Sea. BGG is “BoardGameGeek”, the biggest online website about tabletop games. BGG@Sea is a game convention coordinated and run multiple times each year by Jeff and Kristine Anderson.  The size, length, and destinations vary, though all follow the general concept that up to 200 people convene on a cruise ship (along with thousands of other travelers) to play games in a designated room, eat, drink, and visit new places.

The version of this that captured my attention was a Norway fjord cruise. I really liked the idea of sailing into the fjords and visiting places that are otherwise fairly difficult to reach. So we bought tickets and embarked on the adventure from Southampton.

I talk about the experience in detail on my Stonemaier Games blog (here and here), but overall I was pleasantly surprised by the entire experience. I loved playing games with a variety of wonderful people in a conference room that was much larger than I expected, and I loved waking up every day in a beautiful new place in Norway. It was really nice not needing to pack and unpack every day, and the food options on the boat and at port were plentiful.

A few quick tips I learned about cruises during my first experience on the Royal Carribean’s “Independence of the Seas”:

• Every night there’s a different theme to the meal that corresponds to your outfits (tropical, white shirt, fancy, etc). I didn’t realize this and would have packed differently if I had known.
• It was really nice to escape the 100-degree summer heat in St. Louis to the much more cooler weather in Norway. As a result, the boat didn’t use much air conditioning, but I’ve heard on most cruises they really pump up the AC, so bring some layers.
• Opinions may differ on this, but I was really impressed with the standard food options on the boat (i.e., everything that was included without spending extra): The food in the main dining hall was quite good, and there was a free pizzeria, free sandwiches at the cafe, free fish and chips, free soft serve, and the big buffet hall. As fun as it is to try the on-board restaurants, I’d probably save those extra meal expenses to support local restaurants at port.
• Also regarding the food, you can literally ask for anything. If you want to try all 5 appetizers, order them. If you want 2 desserts, order them. They’re all included. I don’t like wasting food, so I tried to craft my meals around my current appetite. This sometimes meant I’d have 2-3 appetizers and no entree. Also, if you’re curious about a dish or free snack anywhere on the ship, they rotate them constantly, so try it when you see it instead of waiting.
• I was amazed by just how family- and wheelchair-accessible the ship was. There’s so much to do and you’re in a (big) confined space, so you can just let your kids roam free during the day while you relax.

I’ll talk about Norway in my next post–the three places we saw there were absolutely stunning.

Have you ever been on a cruise? How was your experience?