Possible Destination for an interstellar cruise ship?

[Flyndaran]

I like the idea of setting adventures on an interstellar cruise ship. But I'm having trouble imagining where it would stop.

I get every X year events like Mardi Gras or other festivals. But I want something that only a starship cruise could offer.

Thanks in advance.

[Anaraxes]

How fast is your cruise ship, and what's interstellar civilization like?

Some of the stops would be astronomical oddities -- say Beta Lyrae, UY Scuti, or (sticking with current knowledge, which would in "reality" no doubt be superseded) TRAPPIST-1, Niven's fictional Jinx. Some spectacular sights in our sky, like a lot of nebulae, wouldn't be more impressive up close, so no reason to visit those. Some stops would be non-astronomical entertainment -- Canto Bight in Star Wars, Space Vegas, the Planet of Perfect Beach. There's a RL market for historic or cultural enrichment, so visits to notable planets in the setting's future history (possibly including exotic Earth, birthplace of mankind!), or the preserve planet of that one alien race humans encountered while overrunning the rest of the Milky Way. Shopping is popular, for whatever reason, so a tour might include places that produce some famous product or substance. "Why yes, that's actual Hagal Quartz. I picked it up on my last tour through the Herbert Sector." If the trade laws are anything like RL Earth duties, then there will be a lot of products sold in duty-free shops for personal consumption just to skip the import duties through the regular retail channels, which could be nearly anything, but usually expensive/luxury items to be worthwhile -- liquor, drugs, jewelry, foods, etc.

[Flyndaran]

I'm agoraphobic, so have never traveled very far from where I was born. If it wasn't in an episode of The Love Boat or about Risa from Star Trek, I probably won't know about it. lol

[Phantasm]

Someplace with an impressive view. Get up close with the Orion or Coalsack Nebula, a giant star like Arcturus, or a planet with an impressive ring system like Saturn.

[Tyneras]

A Matryoshka Brain, each ticket includes one complimentary question that will be answered, if possible, with priority by the gigantic mile high face used for in-person communication.

A flat Earth, which would be a serious engineering challenge in all but the most over the top settings. Completely physically possible, but definitely something done for spectacle rather than practicality.

A Smoke Ring. Imagine a giant, hollow tube completely encircling a star like a ring world. The inside is filled with atmosphere, giving you a gigantic zero-g environment to play in.

[whswhs]

An amusing note would be to have a cruise to the original home of humanity—a planet orbiting some star other than Sol, either one that's fairly close (but far enough so we can't rule out its having a life-bearing planet!) or one in some entirely other sector of the galaxy with a made up name.

[Donny Brook]

Risa for some of that sweet jamaharon.

[Astromancer]

Many cruises make the ship itself the main attraction. Why not a ship that is seen as a cross between Mardi Gras and Spoleto. Parties, parades, performances, gallery showings, grand balls, and a wild mixture of social and cultural events. The ship mainly travels to keep the festival/carnival/celebration going. No one location being able to support the eternal celebration.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I get every X year events like Mardi Gras or other festivals. But I want something that only a starship cruise could offer.

That's one of the persistent problems with making interstellar trade sound reasonable - there just isn't much genuinely different stuff to trade in.

The [superlative] Whatzis - the biggest, oldest, most famous, most visited, least visited... whatever - those are always popular, but not really that [different]. Alien biospheres, which have stuff you haven't seen before, at least in the details, seem like your best bet.

And of course there could be unique experiences to be had in the actual flight "Passengers may wish to set your viewports to open - we've entered the Enlightenment Cloud, the sole known region of hyperspace humans can look directly on and [not] go irreversibly mad. Be sure to use the viewport timer, many people do have paralyzing mental experiences, and we will be exiting the cloud in just over 70 minutes...."

[Anthony]

I think a core problem for cruise spaceships is that looking at a spectacular sight through a window (or worse, a viewscreen) on a ship is not that different from just seeing it on a screen, what really makes visiting something in person different is the sense of actually being there. This means that you really want to target sights where it's possible to get off of the ship (cruise ships, because they have an open deck where you are exposed to things like weather, give more of a sense of presence).