How to Get a Free Cruise
from
January/February 2007
by Randy Myers
You’re far too sophisticated to believe that anything is ever really free. But if you and your significant other are considering a cruise anytime soon, bear in mind that many cruise lines are constantly on the lookout for speakers. The coming season, for example, includes cruises featuring newsman Walter Cronkite, former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal, and retired astronaut Walter Cunningham. All will be speaking on topics near and dear to them and fielding questions from their fellow passengers. Businesspeople deliver lectures too, among them former Southwest Airlines CEO Howard Putnam, 69. Now a motivational speaker on leadership and ethics, Putnam has been a featured lecturer on Celebrity cruise ships three times, with a fourth appearance scheduled for December 2007. Before and after his lectures, he says, “we go to the pool”—referring to himself and his wife, Krista, who travels with him—“and if somebody wants to visit, we visit.” Putnam, who booked his first engagement aboard a cruise ship four years ago, usually speaks about twice per trip, finishing with a question-and-answer session. His talks aboard Celebrity ships typically draw an audience of 300 to 400 passengers.
Lecturing on cruise ships can be a sweet deal for a corporate board member with deep and passionate expertise in a given subject, a flair for public speaking, and a love of travel. The cruise lines typically provide complimentary passage for the lecturer and a guest. Cash compensation? Forget it. Tipping permitted? Not with you as the beneficiary. But you will be expected to dispense tips (to your steward, restaurant staff, and others), pick up your own travel expenses to and from the ship, and pay for your own drinks.
Getting a gig can begin with a simple phone call to a cruise line: Ask how to reach the person in charge of its “enrichment” programs. “They could e-mail me directly,” says Linda Givens, who books lecturers for Royal Caribbean Cruises (lgivens@rccl.com). She says she sometimes signs up lecturers sight unseen on the basis of a phone call, although she likes to see videos of them speaking and, when possible, meet them in person. Sometimes, she says, the lecturers she hires are people who don’t have a lot of professional speaking experience but are knowledgeable in their fields and excited about their subject matter. “But the big thing is personality,” she says. “They have to be people persons.” University professors are popular choices because of their expertise, plus their seasoned ability to speak in front of groups.
The Oceania line books speakers directly. (Send videos of yourself in action to Entertainment Manager, Oceania Cruises, 8300 NW 33rd St., Suite 308, Miami, FL 33122.) Other cruise lines prefer to use agencies. These include Posh Talks Inc. in Palm Springs, California (760-323-3205), To Sea With Z in Aventura, Florida (305-931-1026), and Sixth Star Entertainment & Marketing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (954-462-6760). Agencies often charge a fee to place you on a cruise, usually $50 a day.
Once you’re booked, expect to give anywhere from two to four lectures during a seven-day cruise. To Sea With Z owner Diane Zammel says each talk should run about 45 minutes and include, when possible, a PowerPoint presentation.
If that sounds suspiciously like work and you’d rather be in the audience, take a look at these pages for a sampling of scheduled cruises that feature speakers. Who knows—what you hear may spark an urge to step onto the podium the next time you go cruising.
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Who’s Speaking Where
A sampling of cruises that feature guest lecturers |
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| Cruise |
Cruise line
Ship |
Sailing Dates | Itenerary | Speaker | Price Range | More information available from |
| Ultimate Caribbean Cruise |
Celebrity
Constellation |
1/19-1/29 | Fort Lauderdale to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, round-trip, with stops at 10 Caribbean ports | Irving R. Levine | $1,260-$6,770 per person |
Celebrity Cruises
www.celebritycruises.com |
| 2007 Gold Cruise |
Crystal
Sympony |
2/25-3/4 | Los Angeles to Los Angeles round trip, with stops at Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlán, and Puerto Vallarta | Multiple newsletter editors, including Brien Lundin, president of Jefferson Financial | $4,840-$13.14 per couple |
InterShow
www.intershow.com |
| 11th Forbes Cruise for Investors and Collectors |
Crystal
Symphony |
4/6-4/20 | Beijing to Shanghai to Nagasaki to Osaka to Hong Kong | Steve Forbes, money manager Ken Fisher, and others | $10,690-$33,490 per couple |
InterShow
www.intershow.com |
| Transatlantic Eastbound |
Celebrity
Century |
4/26-5/9 | Miami to Amsterdam | Walter Cunningham | $889-$2,749 per person |
Celebrity Cruises
www.celebritycruises.com |
|
2007 World Cruise
(Voyage 3709) |
Silversea
Silver Shadow |
4/27-5/8 | Alexandria, Egypt, to Lisbon, Portugal, with stops in Greece, Italy, Capri, and Spain | Walter Cronkite | $5,916 per person and up |
Silversea
www.silversea.com |
|
2007 World Cruise
(Voyage 3710) |
Silversea
Silver Shadow |
5/8-5/22 | Lisbon, Portugal, to New York City, with stops in Gibraltar, Morocco, Portugal, the Azores, and Bermuda | William F. Buckley Jr. | $7,271 per person and up |
Silversea
www.silversea.com |
| Mediterranean Legacies |
Celebrity
Millennium |
6/18-6/30 | Venice to Barcelona | Irving R. Levine | $2,199-$6,149 per person |
Celebrity Cruises
www.celebritycruises.com |
| 14-Night Transatlantic Canary-Islands Cruise |
Celebrity
Millennium |
12/2-12/16 | Barcelona, Spain, to Fort Lauderdale, with stops elsewhere in Spain, the Canary Islands, and Haiti | Howard Putnam | $999-$2,399 per person |
Celebrity Cruises
www.celebritycruises.com |
