(Un)Conventional Voyages?—<i>Star Trek: The Cruise</i> and the Themed Cruise Experience

Despite its relevance for the industry, cruise ship tourism has so far received a surprisingly little amount of academic attention. It is a central example of what has been described as “post-tourism,” a tourism that presupposes “a consumer who embraces openly, but with some irony, the increasingly inauthentic, commercialized and simulated experiences offered by the tourism industry” (Macleod et al.). Even though the term “inauthentic” is somewhat problematic and has sparked heated discussions in this context, the turn toward the commercialized and simulated described here is nevertheless a notable characteristic of tourism after the 1970s. Concepts such as George Ritzer's McDonaldization and Alan Bryman’s Disneyization (which builds on Ritzer) have been applied to many tourist destinations since these concepts were introduced. Disneyization means that the Walt Disney Company's underlying principles used for their theme parks have increasingly found use outside of their origin and now permeate several commercial sectors. These principles are theming (the design of a space following a central narrative idea), hybrid consumption (bringing together different forms of consumption, such as staying in a hotel or shopping), merchandising (branded goods), and performative labor (the requirement of workers to act as part of their job, whether playing character roles or just performing friendliness). Even though Disney itself entered the cruise ship market in 1998, Alan Weaver has shown that Disneyization played a role in that sector long before: The advent of Carnival's Fun Ships in the 1970s made the ships as much a destination as the ports they visited (“Disneyization” 389). Today's cruise ship industry developed over the 1980s and 1990s, with more and more diversified offerings in all respects: different cruise lines catering to different clientele, bigger and bigger ships with more entertainment and activities, and more and more destinations visited on route. Reflecting this development, yearly passengers increased from roughly 500,000 in 1970 to 10 million in 2000 (Weaver, “McDonaldization” 346). Thus, cruise line tourism, “once considered the preserve of the wealthy elite, became comparable in price to mass-market resort holidays” (Weaver, ”McDonaldization” 347). Part of this diversification of the market is also the catering to niche audiences—what has also been called “Post-Fordist customization” (Weaver, “McDonaldization” 349). One of the earliest instances of this phenomenon in the cruise ship industry was a biannual jazz cruise hosted by Holland America between 1974 and 1979.1 Despite such early forays into the market, the idea of the themed cruise only fully came to fruition in the 2000s, and since then, cruise lines have begun to offer a variety of these experiences: whether for foodies (such as P&O Cruises's “Food Heroes Sailings”), history buffs (American Cruise Line's Civil War-themed Cruises), the LGBT community (Atlantis's self-described “Largest European Gay Cruise” on Royal Caribbean ships), or fans of country music (the “Outlaw Country Cruise” organized on Norwegian Cruise Line). Within a larger context of fan tourism, some of these themed cruises cater to fans of pop culture: Star Trek: The Cruise is a fruitful case study. Run by an independent company, Entertainment Cruise Productions (ECP), but officially licensed by CBS, the first Star Trek: The Cruise took place on the Norwegian Jade in 2017, chartered from Norwegian Cruise Line for the purpose. After two back-to-back sailings in 2018, the third cruise (also called Star Trek: The Cruise III) took place January 4-10, 2019, leaving from Miami, Florida. This voyage serves as the case study for this analysis. The themed cruise experience poses several productive questions in the larger context of fan tourism: How much does the physical space matter for the fan experience, particularly in comparison with other sites such as filming locations? How central is the role of theming for this placemaking? How does the closed-off space of a cruise ship foster an immersion in the fandom and thus community building that may be superior to the visit of a regular convention? Does the fan engagement with other fans and series actors, as well as performing cosplay, still count as an immersion into the original text, in this case, Star Trek? And, most centrally, within the framework of secular pilgrimage, does the unique role of the ship as both location and transportation vehicle lend another dimension to that experience? In light of these questions, themed fan cruises, as evidenced in Star Trek: The Cruise, emerge as an important, but so far understudied, part of the consumer–capitalist industry that is fan tourism. The study of fan tourism has been firmly established as a subcategory of both fan and tourism studies over the last few years, even if it is not usually called that. Sue Beeton's 2005 Film-Induced Tourism established the titular term for those tourists who visit film destinations, whether publicly accessible filming locations, studio tours, or theme parks. Despite providing a comprehensive study, including a list of these destinations, Beeton does not discuss cruise ships (10–11). Other scholars have built on her concept, expanding it to “media tourism” or “mediatized” tourism so that other media forms, such as fiction books or television series, might be included (Reijnders, Places 4–5; Månsson). “Fan tourism,” however, might be a more precise term to describe these forms of tourism, since it places more focus on the agency of fans, rather than on the medium they consume. Roger C. Aden, who builds on Victor Turner, has argued in his influential work that fan tourism can be framed as a pseudoreligious experience, a form of secular pilgrimage. The cruise ship, as a curious hybrid of destination and journey, can be seen as taking its travelers on a secular pilgrimage, but it potentially complicates this theoretical approach. As Aden argues, “pilgrimages … are ritual journeys that separate us from our homes, immerse us in a liminal experience as we visit a sacred place … and reaggregate us at home with a new perspective” (81). Fan tourism serves this purpose, as it is “embedded in a longer process of the imagination … . When the media tourist finally makes his or her journey, this trip more or less represents a realization of an earlier imaginary journey” (Reijnders, “Stories” 673). Fans immerse themselves in the story worlds of the media products they love and, more importantly, their own imaginary versions of and emotional connection to these worlds. As studies have shown, immersion in a story only happens through such an imaginative, intellectual, or emotional connection (Hofer and Wirth 167). Generating such a connection has been essential to the design of theme parks, for example, and helps in their promotion of media companies’ intellectual property. Such efforts can be highly successful, as exemplified by the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios (Waysdorf and Reijnders). Themed cruises work under the same premise, since they engage their passengers in a familiar narrative space. In contrast to a theme park, however, they are more closely targeted to a specific audience and narrow in what they can offer. Whereas a theme park is usually an amalgamation of diverse themes and media properties (usually simply called IPs, intellectual properties, in industry jargon) appealing to a broad audience, themed cruises have to focus on one very specific media property and its fans. Star Trek: The Cruise, for instance, relies on a franchise that has existed for over fifty years and spans several highly varied television shows and movies, but, despite the scope, it could never appeal to more than Trekkies/Trekkers.2 It promises to immerse this specific fanbase in the Star Trek world, and for this, the fans are willing to treat the cruise ship as a Star Trek voyage. The real crux of the experience is not so much the theme as the sense of community, or communitas, which, not coincidentally, is also an integral part of the pilgrimage experience. The central importance of community makes themed cruises closer in form to conventions than other variations of fan tourism—a dimension also acknowledged by Star Trek: The Cruise's tongue-in-cheek billing of itself as an “unconventional voyage.” Conventions, even if an integral part of fandom since at least the 1970s (San Diego Comic-Con had its humble beginnings in 1972), have grown significantly in importance over the last decade or so, and some have expanded to become massive commercial ventures. Scholarship on them frequently situates them as secular pilgrimage sites. In an influential essay, Jennifer Porter analyzes Star Trek conventions within this framework, outlining how the meetings provide an opportunity for fans to step out of their everyday lives, making possible a connection with kindred spirits to form communal bonds in the liminal space of the convention site. As Lincoln Geraghty argues, conventions are “sacred sites where fans can immerse themselves in a text through rituals of performance, consumption and worship; making the text all the more real and creating a mythology” (94). A curious marker of how conventions differ from other sites of fan tourism is their essential placelessness: They are usually held at nondescript convention centers or hotels and may change location from year to year. Gil Rodman has argued that this placelessness is something that particularly haunts the Star Trek fandom, since its locations are almost exclusively studio built and usually not accessible to the public. (Historically, Star Trek TV series have been filmed in Paramount Studios, Los Angeles, while Star Trek: Discovery is shot at Pinewood Studios in Toronto.) Hills has pointed toward the (now defunct) Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas as an attempt to counteract this (156). Although sites like these and others, such as the James T. Kirk birthplace (Geraghty 94), somehow fill that void, they are ultimately not as important for the fandom as similar locations might be in other fandoms. Conventions remain integral to the experience of being a Trekkie/Trekker, also exemplified by the fact that there are many long-running conventions solely built around the franchise, such as Star Trek Las Vegas, Destination Star Trek at multiple locations in the United Kingdom and Germany, and FedCon in Germany. The latter was originally a Star Trek convention but has since expanded to all science fiction over its twenty-year-long run. That these are annual events, usually around the same dates, also reaffirms their status as pilgrimage sites, since attending them becomes for many a ritualistic act. In many ways, then, Star Trek: The Cruise is just another Star Trek convention, but contrary to other such events, the cruise banks much more on the use of enclosed, “immersive, shared spaces in which fannish pursuits can become codified, reinforcing both the behaviors and significance of fan practice” (Gilbert 319). Communitas remains at the heart of all of these experiences: It is about meeting other fans as much as it is about meeting the actors (and, occasionally, the writers and producers) of the franchise and creating a communal, shared space that allows for an emotional bond between all of its members. Yet, at regular conventions, most fans interact while waiting in long lines or in packed convention halls, ultimately leaving only limited time to do so. Although some conventions also host nightly parties, these are not always well attended, prohibited by tired feet and the often-attached extra charges. Interactions with actors are also ultimately limited, as photograph sessions are quick affairs and leave no room for conversation. Autographs might occasionally make one-on-one exchange possible, but depending on the popularity and schedule of the guest, fans may not get more than a few minutes of access to them at best. Fans can also ask questions at panels, but to do so requires the courage to speak up publicly, and time and access are also limited in this context. The experience on Star Trek: The Cruise differs from this quite significantly. One of the most obvious contrasts between the cruise experience and a regular convention is the length of the event: over five full days of events versus the standard convention length of one weekend. While Star Trek Las Vegas currently runs almost as long as the cruise, most celebrity guests do not attend the whole length of the event, and its offerings are much less diverse. 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It is thus important for scholars of this to more to this unique of not only but, more importantly, fannish Themed cruises a of with fan conventions they are less specific to spaces for instance, to film locations or theme parks. While theming still a role in the cruise guests into a their from a sense of community fans, as well as fans and the of a for more or with the latter is also a central and almost unique of cruises to the convention at Such a sense of community as well as the and of the cruise ship in and out of also the themed cruise experience as another of a secular pilgrimage, a framework to the of fan tourism. 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