Reply To: Guest / Entertainment Announcement
It seems like the “When do we get an entertainer announcement?” topic comes up sometime in the summer/fall before each cruise. I don’t actually remember how many entertainers had been announced when I booked before the first cruise. It could have been all of them. It could have been none. What I remember is mostly “A JoCo cruise? Sounds awesome! Wait … con crud and norovirus in the same place!?!?! Whatever. Worth it!”
(AT least, after I talked myself into it financially, having saved a tiny bit out of my paycheck specifically for vacation purposes for months at that point, but never having taken one.)
I absolutely get that specific entertainers can be a big selling point for people when it comes to a vacation this big and expensive. I really, really do. But the comparison I always draw is MaxFunCon. MaxFunCon generally goes on sale on or around Black Friday. It occurs in the late May/end of June timeframe. It costs $800 or so per person, plus travel to the L.A. area. And, normally, it is sold out before any entertainers or instructors at all have been announced. The actual class lineup is maybe a month out, which is months after all the tickets have been sold.
People pay that much money, up front, without knowing who is actually going because:
- The atmosphere and attendees of MaxFunCon are a huge selling point, just like with the JoCo cruise.
- Everybody trusts the MaxFunCon staff to source and book a selection of people who are amazing … just like with the JoCo cruise.
That’s how I look at the JoCo cruise as well. The entertainers and the nightly shows are a tiny part of the whole experience, and at this point there’s a proven track record of their being great.