JoCo Cruise Crazy 2: Get excited and talk about things!

[chicazul]

Since the 2012 cruise was announced there’s been a lot of discussion on Facebook and Twitter, but not everyone can see those posts. Rather than continuing to bury all the new comments on page 15 of the original cruise thread, lets put some of the excited chatter in a shiny new topic!

The Cruise

JoCo Cruise Crazy 2 is a Southern Caribbean cruise scheduled February 19-26, 2012. This is a seven-day cruise, which means an entire extra day of awesome!

A number of Sea Monkeys have hypothesized it will be this Holland America cruise, but there are no official details yet.
EDIT:Booking for the cruise will open on June 16, 2011 at jococruisecrazy.com.

The only people who have confirmed they will be there are Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm, but more will be announced!

The Plans

On the inaugural cruise, many of the best events were based on suggestions from the forums. The Moustache Formal, JoCo Karaoke and Rock Band, the Fancy Pants Parade, the iPhone Handbell Choir, crashing the disco–that was all us, talking about what kind of things would make the best cruise ever.

So what do we want to do next year? Is there any way to make this even more fun?

Updated Details

Now that the official website is up and running, we have more information about planned events. Returning from last year are:

• JoCo Karaoke!
• Q&A Session!
• Paul F. Tompkins Memorial Moustache Formal (now with bonus Fezstravaganza, as suggested in this thread!)
• Gaming room/nerd central, now open 24-hours!
• Opening and closing cocktail parties with complimentary cocktails!

[MJPM]

As suggested on Twitter, if it is possible to bring on board:

The I Crush Everything First Annual Bubble Social. Because ICEFABS makes a better acronym than my earlier suggestion.

So say we all!

[villicious]

I know a bunch of us have started/made progress on some creative projects since the first cruise. And I hope anyone who didn't go on the first but is going on the second would have similar results!

So what if we had some kind of creativity show-and-tell for which I have not thought of a clever name at all?

[Angelastic]

So for ICEFABS, do we all wear bubbles just above our top lips? Does a squid have to be brought on board?

I mentioned somewhere that given how many talented regular sea monkeys there were on the boat, it would be cool to have one of the concerts just being us; each person gets a certain number of minutes to do/show something cool. Sort of a talent show. But on the other hand, we could just have another awesome professional entertainer, and then nobody would have to get stage fright.

And I still think it would be good to make use of the scenery to make a video for The Captain’s Wife’s Lament.

[ghalidrim]

I’m all for the talent show idea, though I have accomplished next to none of the things I wanted to after the last cruise. Also, ICEFABS I pretty much have to attend due to Twitterings about it.

[origamislayer]

<blockquote>I mentioned somewhere that given how many talented regular sea monkeys there were on the boat, it would be cool to have one of the concerts just being us; each person gets a certain number of minutes to do/show something cool. Sort of a talent show. But on the other hand, we could just have another awesome professional entertainer, and then nobody would have to get stage fright.</blockquote>

So what you're saying is Open Mic Night instead of karaoke one night in the Culinary Arts Center (or similar)?

I'm most interested in a Twitter-like service on the ship. As a member of the Temperance brigade I didn't miss the internet, what I missed was a way to find people and organize things that didn't involve a piece of paper on deck 1. I think Merlyn had something in mind for that, so I can hope.

Edit: Also, wasn't there talk of a fez-related event? Should I order one now?

[Theanderblast]

A Fez Fete has been proposed.

[hasselhofford]

First! Oh wait, never mind….

I agree that on-the-fly event planning was lacking something–mainly real-time social media. (I missed the disco crash because I was unaware it was happening.) “Morning announcements” were as entertaining as they were informative, but lacked the up-to-the-minute updates our Twitter addictions require. I’ve brainstormed quite a bit on the subject, so I’ll have to see if Mr. Schwartz does have anything planned…

Open mic night sounds like a better idea than commandeering a concert night. Events like karaoke and Rock Band were nice optional events for those interested. EVERYONE is interested in the concerts (they’re kind of the point of the whole trip). I’m sure the entertainers would even make appearances beyond just hosting an open mic night.

In other news, it might be cool to claim a pavilion in the Bahamas for a Land-Lubbing Sea Monkeys picnic in paradise. 🙂

[villicious]

I agree with Hasselhofford on the on-the-fly planning. I'd also forget what was said at morning announcements by the time the show was over. So, some way of keeping track of that stuff and other stuff would be just amazing.

[origamislayer]

Oooo, here's one piece of the puzzle.

Status.Net client for iPhone
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/statusnet/id392231302?mt=8

and for Android
http://status.net/android

[Grimoire]

So, some way of keeping track of that stuff and other stuff would be just amazing.

Oooo, here’s one piece of the puzzle.

I think it would be a good idea to have some way to communicate last minute changes/events better. I know I missed a couple of events because of this.

Any type of mobile client would require a server of some sort to connect to. This would mean needing to connect to the Internet. This is somewhat problematic because on ship Internet is a) dodgy and b) expensive.

One option would be that one or more people bring wireless routers and run a webserver that people could connect to and load up a simple status page. A little awkward, as it would require a number of people to do this with the same info, since I suspect WiFi doesn’t travel well through a steel ship.

Would like to hear other ideas, both high tech and low…

[chicazul]

We had discussed the idea of a localized Twitter-like service on the cruise, and Randal Schwartz had implied it was possible; he was confident he knew a way to set up a WiFi service independent of the internet packages. However, this second cruise is being organized a little differently than the first one; Randal told me he might not be there. I don’t think we can plan on having the access to ship’s services that his suggestion seemed to require.

I’m looking into it too, and running a server and our own wireless access points may be the only way to make a messaging service. We wouldn’t necessarily need multiple servers–in theory we could use repeaters and signal boosters, although the resulting network would still be limited in reach. Perhaps we could make it accessible in certain public locations, so everyone could go to those spots to get updates?

The lowest tech solution is something like the analog Twitter board from the first cruise, but better advertised and regularly updated with important information. Analog Twitter saved my bacon (or at least my Fancy Pants) so I appreciated it, but I know most people didn’t get much use out of it because few people even knew where it was. If nothing else, having a known place where you can go to find out where other people are likely to be is going to be invaluable.

[CKL]

I go to quite a few science fiction conventions, and standard practice for most cons is a daily newsletter, printed nightly and available for pickup at a central location every morning. Anyone can submit updates or reports on panels/parties/etc., but there’s always a section dedicated to schedule and programming changes.

Here’s an archived example (the paper copies have better formatting): http://www.orycon.org/orycon18/dz2.html

We were able to print many copies of puzzles for the 2011 joco cruise treasure hunt, so it should be possible to pay for newsletter printing every day–if it’s done through official channels, maybe we could even get the crew to drop them at everyone’s door (since they do that with announcements and other paper notices anyway). Or somebody could schlep a portable printer and a few reams of paper on board. 🙂

Anyway, that’s one idea. I agree that real-time electronic notification would be ideal, but this is a tried-and-true fallback option.

[Angelastic]

If I recall correctly, once you’re connected to their WiFi, you can see anyone else on the WiFi, whether or not you go to the web page and log in to use internet time. I’m pretty sure I saw some people’s shared folders etc before I was logged in. So we have a free local network. I don’t know about other operating systems (it looks like they all have something like zeroconf, but I don’t know whether they’d work together)but on Mac it would be possible to use Bonjour to chat.

[kate]

Thank you, Sara, for adding this thread.

I actually enjoyed being "unplugged" on the boat.

But, I do agree that some sort real-time communications among Sea Monkeys would be helpful. I loved the Morning Announcements, and as far as I know, did not miss any. But, I can see where it could be confusing if a person were to miss an announcement (due to illness, sleeping-in late, etc.).

At the same time, the "flexibility" of it all was exciting and appropriate-for-vacation-time, in itself.

-Kate

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