A Dark Shadows Cruise? / merged /w DS cruise update

The fest is a non-profit organization but clearly it does better financially when DS is on the air and in syndication.  The festivals traditionally attract larger crowds when the show is playing somewhere. That translates into taking in more money and being able to spend more money.   If the Johnny Depp movie pans out that will attract new people into the fandom and maybe fans whose interest dropped off will come back into the fold.

Okay, I understand about higher attendance translating into larger revenue.  I thought you might have been saying in your original statement that money would come directly from those outside ventures.  Thank you for explaining!

why does the almighty god of the festival have to bless this idea? the cruise can be organized independently and the 2 stars can be contacted through their websites. if the stars want to attend they will decide on their own.

Yes, indeed!  I'd go on a Dark Shadows cruise to Martinique whether or not any of the stars came along.  I'm envisioning a room showing Dark Shadows episodes 24/7 (with a 2am break for House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows), another room with people playing Dark Shadows Charades, and Dark Shadows Shuffleboard out on the deck.  I'm not sure how you play shuffleboard, but I think it involves a hoelike implements, disks, and a grid.   We could have squares on the grid marked "phoenix" and so on, and when your disk hits "phoenix" you have to torch yourself.

And what better way to see Martinique than with a bunch of fellow Dark Shadows fans?  Are there any old mansions left there to tour?  "This was Josette's room, this was Natalie's room, and this was where Barnabas met secretly with Angelique..."

But, that doesn't mean that I don't see WHY JP and the fest committee are doing that.

Hi Brandon,

Just to let you know, there is no Fest "committee". There is the chairman and then there are the Fest "staffers". There are and never were any committee meetings where group decisions were made. I say this with no malice... the chairman has done a fantastic job. I do, however, continue to hope that he will be more open to constructive criticism/suggestions as there is always room for improvement.  :-

SDP

why does the almighty god of the festival have to bless this idea? the cruise can be organized independently and the 2 stars can be contacted through their websites. if the stars want to attend they will decide on their own.

Yes, indeed!

I think what borgosi meant was getting in touch w/that travel agent I mentioned who specializes in cruises to get the ball rolling as they say.  I don't think he/she meant contacting Jim or any of the Fest ppl to either have them organize it or sanction it or whatever.  None of us needs permission from Jim and company to organize our own fan events.  None of them have exclusives on ANY of the stars.  Ed Lambese didn't work w/them for his Halloween partys.  

Just to let you know, there is no Fest "committee". There is the chairman and then there are the Fest "staffers". There are and never were any committee meetings where group decisions were made. I say this with no malice... the chairman has done a fantastic job. I do, however, continue to hope that he will be more open to constructive criticism/suggestions as there is always room for improvement.

Yes, this is true and I must say I'm glad they've started referring to themselves, at least in this year's program, as STAFF rather than COMMITTEE.  That was confusing.   

I think what borgosi meant was getting in touch w/that travel agent I mentioned who specializes in cruises to get the ball rolling as they say.  I don't think he/she meant contacting Jim or any of the Fest ppl to either have them organize it or sanction it or whatever.

Yes, you,re right. I'm going to try and make contract with the cruise people. I'll try and have them come here and let us all know how something like this would work. It's my guess that a cruise line has entertainment booked on each cruise. If that is the case I don't see why they couldn't book a couple or more Dark Shadows stars and/or crew as entertainment. Then we just sign up as we like. Anyway that's how I plan to go about it.  Wish me luck.

Wish me luck.

That I do!

I made the call and Helen Samaras will be stopping by here to let us know what we need to do, if anything to make this happen. She did say that this has been tried before and it didn't work out. She's a fan like the rest of us so I'm sure she'd be as happy as we would be if we could work this out. Even if it's a Dark Shadows theme cruise without the stars.

Now, I don't know if this would apply; probably not, but maybe something along the lines can be accomplished in a roundabout way, so here goes.  I've been involved in, or participated in, cruises that were done as fundraisers for non-profit groups, such as church groups, charitable groups, etc.  The entire ship wasn't booked, but a certain portion of a particular cruise would be allocated for the organization's participating passengers.  When this was done, the cruise lines (everything from Princess to Celebrity to others) was very receptive.  Apparently, many of the lines do this.  The cost of the cruise was very inexpensive, much lower than what the other passengers paid, and a percentage went to the non-profit group sponsoring it (it was, after all, a fund-raiser).  There were many perks, such as having some public rooms, or sections of them, reserved for the participants at certain times for various activities.  The main organizers received their cruise for free (or, in one case, I and a friend who coordinated a fund-raiser cruise were given the option of getting the lowest grade stateroom for free, i.e., a free cruise, or pay the lowest fare stateroom and get upgraded to the one of the highest - we did that on that particular cruise and got a suite with separate bedroom, living room, dining room and marble-lined bathroom with its own jacuzzi...wow!).  There were some stipulations, the main one being that there had to be a minimum number of people participating and this flucuated with the cruise lines; one required a minimum of thirty, another required more than a hundred.  The thing is with that, the "kick-back" of money going to the non-profit only started with the passengers over that number.  If thirty were required and only thirty sailed, the non-profit got zilch.  If ninety went with a thirty minimum, then a chunk of money from the sixty-more passengers went back to the group.

I doubt if that would work with a DS cruise (saying it was to raise funds for homeless vampires probably wouldn't cut it), but maybe a cruise line would still offer a discount, such as when a hotel has a conference rate, maybe not as much if it were a fundraiser.  Who knows?  It would be worth looking into.

Gerard

I doubt if that would work with a DS cruise (saying it was to raise funds for homeless vampires probably wouldn't cut it), but maybe a cruise line would still offer a discount, such as when a hotel has a conference rate, maybe not as much if it were a fundraiser.  Who knows?  It would be worth looking into.

Perhaps the cruise could be held on behalf of the Women's Care Cottage or the Alzheimer's Foundation or one of the other charities that the DS Fest has supported in the past.

I'm really getting excited about this now that the wheels are turning and it seems like more of a possibility rather than people merely saying, "I wish the Fest would do a cruise".    I certainly intend to book a passage.

ProfStokes

I was going to "cut and paste" the entire reply that I got from Helen but the board either won't let me or I don't know how. If anyone would like to read it send me an e-mail and I'll send it to you. Anyway, in short, she doesn't think this can be done. I'm in a bit of a hurry and may post more about what she said later but what's the point? You know?

If anyone would like to read it send me an e-mail and I'll send it to you. Anyway, in short, she doesn't think this can be done.

Why does she say it won't work?

She's says that it was tried in the past and they weren't enough people that wanted to go to make it worth it. She said that less than 20 people signed up last time.

If you'd like to send me your e-mail address I'll send you a copy of her entire reply.

The following is the complete reply that I got about the cruise.

"The information that I could give you to post is this. It would be diffcult to get a group together with actors. One of the big things is that rooms would have to be provided for whatever stars you wanted to take. The cruise line would charge for them. The actors would expect not to pay for this as they would be invited quest. So the price of the rooms would have to be tagged on to each person's ticket, it's great if you have alot of people going as the tag would not be that much but if there were just a few people it would be alot of money.

I had mentioned (on the phone) that there was a DS cruise a number of years back and if they got 20 people that was a lot. I don't know how the actors would feel about being on a boat with fans. You can't sign up under an assumed name like you can at a hotel. There are legal manifests and with terrorism as it is those list are scrutinized. You have more freedom in a hotel to escape people but even on the biggest ship there isn't any place you can really "hide". Don't misunderstand, the actors do socialize. I have spent many an evening over drinks in the lounge with them, but there comes a time when they do need time to themselves or for private conversations and many fans don't understand.

You had said that you wanted a cruise to Martinique. There are itineraries that do this but it is only 1 day out of 7. There isn't a shorter cruise that would take in this port. You would only be spending hours in this port. Plus on the show there is no specific destination on the island where you would go to visit. It isn't like in Tarrytown and going to the masion that they used in the two films. Or going to Essex and see what was used as the Evans Cottage, The Collinsport Gaol or Collinsport Inn. Or go to Newport and see Seeview Terrace that was used as Collinwood., so there is no physical place in Martinique that you could do."

Of course any of you are free to try other people that you know and I'd be pleased if you found a way to do this. I'd still love to go.

Thanks very much for posting that, borgosi.  After you originally said the answer was no, I googled on Martinique to see what there was in the way of cruises there, and of points of interest on the island.  I didn't find all that much to interest me.  If there's interesting historical stuff to visit, I didn't come across it, so I guess there would be no fantasizing about "It was right in this very spot that Barnabas and Josette had tea together" and "It was right in this very spot that Barnabas and Angelique had sex together" and "It was right in this very spot that Barnabas and the Countess had...well, something together".

I keep seeing this topic and mis-reading it as "Dark Shadows Curse" and hearing Julia scream:  "WILLIEEEEEE!!! get me the stake, NOW!"

*cheeky grin*

G.