Farscape Guests On Sci-Fi Cruise?

[whocruiser]

I run The Sci-Fi Sea Cruise, where we do a celebrity/fan vacation trip every year or two aboard a luxury cruise ship. Kind of like being in a real-life episode of "The Love Boat", except all the celebrities are from your favorite sci-fi/fantasy related TV shows, and YOU are there with them in person. We're booked on a full sized cruise ship with all the entertainment, recreation, and relaxation facilities you's expect, and a couple of thousand other passengers aboard, but our own private little group will be limited to a size that's still small enough for everyone, celebrity & fan alike, to get to know one another on a comfortable first-name basis. We set an official maximum limit of no more than 100 fans so things will never get crowded, but realistically we expect to have somewhere between 30 and 60 fans turning out this year. This February is going to be our eighth voyage since 1988, and while our main interest every year has been centered around the BBC-TV series Doctor Who (the event originally started as a one-off celebration of that series' 25th anniversary, and has grown from there) we do include stars & fans from various other shows from time to time, having already featured such programs as Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5 & Crusade, and Forever Knight. I've wanted to include Farscape for several years now, but the show's filming dates and/or the relatively high cost of airfares from Australia to the USA have both made that impossible in the past. With the show now on hiatus (I refuse to use the "c" word - it WILL be back...) The cast members are fairly likely to be available on or around our 10-14 February 2003 dates, and some may already be in the USA at that time, either traveling bewteen weekend con gigs (we are a mid-week Mon -Fri event, and CAN sandwich a guest between two weekend con appearances if plane connections allow) or perhaps looking for acting work in LA (Feb is pilot season for US network TV...) I also understand that Virginia Hey now lives in the Los Angeles area (and will already be attending our sister event, the Gallifrey One convention in LA, which starts up right across town the same day we get off the ship!), and that Ben Browder may be back in the USA while the series is out of production, making them both obvious priorities as potential guests of honor (although I must stress that at this time I am only just beginning to make celebrity contacts, and no firm offers have been made yet. This could easily change in a week or two if enough interest is shown...) The bottom line is, if I was able to get one or more of the Farscape cast to come along on our cruise, how many of you out there in Fandom would be ready, willing, and able to come out and support them by coming on the cruise yourselves? I's a volunteer-run event, I'm not making any profit off of it, and we keep the costs as low as we can, so I'm pretty sure I could afford to stretch the budget enough to cover adding a Farscape guest if even as few as 7-10 additional fans signed up to take the cruise as a result. Let's have a virtual show of hands here on this forum (and please also copy any comments directly to me by e-mail as well) over the next few days and see what the level of interest is like. I made similar proposals last year to fans of Red Dwarf, and several years ago to fans of Hercules & Xena, and was "underwelmed" by the lack of fan interest, hence we did NOT have guests from those shows on board. Somehow I think the response from the 'Scapers will be a LOT better... You can check out all of the details on this year's cruise, the what, when, where, and how much, as well as look at our photo gallery from the seven previous voyages, at our web site (http://members.aol.com/sfcruise/index.html), also listed in my sig lines below. Go give it a look and let me know if you'd like to come along with us and add a Farscape guest or two to the mix. Unlike the people at the no longer so well named "Sci-Fi Channel", I actually AM listening to you, and your comments WILL make a difference!

Cheers - Dan Harris, cruise organizer.

[Kithlyara]

I would LOVE to go, especially if you have Farscape celebs on board!

[MediaSavant]

I know companies like yours thrive on feedback, so I'm giving it.

I travel a lot, but I have a very negative view of cruises. You couldn't get me caught dead on a cruise.

I like to take active vacations where I'm walking, biking, or moving around somewhere. Cruises are too passive for me.

I recently took a Backroads vacation hiking in Lake Como, Italy. Now, if Backroads said they had Ben Browder lined up for an active vacation, I'd be the first person lined up. Given that Ben is athletic, it seems to suit him more anyway. I somehow can't imagine him doing a cruise.

[katyaz]

Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun!!! I too would love to go if you get some Farscape guests on the cruise :aok:

(Although it might be a little hard for me to get to the west coast from Boston... Still, it would be worth is, for a cruise like this :) )

edited to add: MediaSavant, I just read your post, and I've got to say, I know a lot of people who love more active vacations (I love them too, a lot of the time), but a cruise can be nice, too. I've never been on a cruise before, but several of my friends have been to a few, and they all loved it... From what I've heard, a cruise is a good way to relax if you are worn out from work and just want to rest a little bit, without doing too much. (I mean, I loved most of the more active vacations I've taken to Europe, for example, but lot of the time, I ended up coming back home even more tired than when I'd left. It would be nice to take a more relaxing trip once in a while :) )

Besides, if it's a more active vacation, then we won't have as much time to interact with the other guests there, would we?