Possible Destination for an interstellar cruise ship?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by 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.

This.
Lot of good ideas on sights or attractions to visit but the trouble is you would get similar from recordings as you would looking out of a viewport - even a big one.
I would still make a spiffy observation deck with huge windows or screens.
But great ship amenities and tourist stops seem the best attraction.
In my Star Heist setting I have time in subspace helps to bring out latent psi powers (think the galactic barrier in Star Trek) so thats the big reason and the attractions help while away the time on ship.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by whswhs

There are people like tornado chasers who find it a thrill to get close to a natural phenomenon that could kill them. Conceivably you could have war chasers. Or supernova chasers who sign up for tours that place them close to a star that's scheduled to self-destruct.

John Varley wrote a story "The Funhouse Effect" about a tour on a comet that is making a close approach to the sun, for the amazing views of stuff. But something goes wrong. And something else goes wrong. And things get worse. And even worse than that, etc.

Actually it is all a fake, no one is ever in real danger, but the passengers don't know that...

[Sir Tifyable]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Have there been cruise ships uncomfortably close to war zones? That sounds both plausible and incredibly foolish.

Maybe not cruise ships, but there were definitely picnic parties that went out to watch battles in the American Civil War. And think what a large market there is for military memorabilia now.

So there's the cruise theme: "Land on a recent battlefield of the Klong-Deepal War! Hear about the battles from those who were - and still are - there. You can keep any souvenirs you can pick up (regulations about the carrying of weapons and explosives aboard permitting)!"

if you're lucky, you'll arrive during another battle and can hook into the military comms of one side - on a listen/watch only basis of course! - to have the full immersive experience from the luxury of your suite.

[Flyndaran]

That's wonderfully crazy enough to sound like at least someone would try it in the far flung future. And thanks for reminding of the wacko picnic parties during the civil war. Civilians have always been rather callous toward war.

[Tyneras]

The American Civil War was also a dramatic change in war technology and tactics, those picnics would have been a bit safer a generation prior.

Which also gives us an avenue for why a cruise ship might blithely wander into a war zone: It thinks it's safe, but was has changed and suddenly the cruise ship realizes it's not nearly as safe as it thought!

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

The American Civil War was also a dramatic change in war technology and tactics, those picnics would have been a bit safer a generation prior.

Not really, picnics in the war of 1812 wouldn't have been a great plan either. The main issue was that people in the summer of 1861 didn't really take the war seriously.

[Pursuivant]

The idea of a cruise ship traveling along a circular route is a good one, since it allows the ship and its crew to have a home port and allows passengers from various different worlds to mingle as they travel to the next. It also allows the cruise ship to act as an ordinary passenger liner, possibly gaining subsidies for linking various worlds together if passenger operations normally aren't profitable.

For astronomical points of interest, don't forget that there are likely to be particularly impressive planets to look at. Even if it's "just" another planet in the same solar system it's still a potential adventure to see it up close.

As for the ship itself being the destination don't forget that the once a ship leaves the territory of a particular world, it's reverts to whatever laws apply to it when it's in interstellar space. Those laws might be the laws of its home port, the county or planet where the ship is registered or the laws of some interstellar state.

In any case, in addition to the usual "duty free" merchandise racket the laws that govern the ship might allow various vices which aren't legal on the planet it just left. The ship could be a giant casino, drug den or brothel, or all of the above. It might allow blood sports or activities which 21st century Westerners don't think of as crimes like recreational sex, overeating, plastic surgery or dressing to please yourself rather than the local morality police.

If the ship is big enough, the "adult activity" areas might be carefully separated from the "family friendly" areas so that people looking for one sort of activity never know the people looking for the other sorts of activities are even aboard.

Another thing an interstellar cruise ship will have is volume - assuming that it doesn't make planetary landings and the massive hull can withstand the acceleration and deceleration forces.

If contragravity technology isn't available, the ability to experience different gravity levels within spin-gravity habitats will be a draw for adventure tourists. The ship can also have all kinds of low-G and microgravity activities, all available within an air-filled, radiation protected, supervised environment. Even in a setting where interstellar travel is real, most people are still likely to be plane-bound so the chance to experience Free Fall in a tourist-safe setting might have its appeal.

A massive ship might also be a colossal engineering achievement and the massive spin habitats might be works of art in themselves. Habitats might take on any theme - historical recreation, wildlife park or amusement park creating another attraction.

If the ship is big enough, it might have permanent residents, forming a unique culture which draws from all the planets the ship visits. While most permanent residents will perform "behind the scenes" jobs to keep the ship running, the extroverted community members will do their best to foster a tourist town/traveling circus atmosphere with a "24 hour party" atmosphere.

Regardless of whether the corporate culture is more like Disneyland or Las Vegas, the permanent residents/crew will all be professional tourist wranglers trained in customer service and public safety who know how to keep paying customers happy.

[Varyon]

I could have sworn there was a thread about this some time ago, where it was similarly determined that the primary draw would likely be the ship itself, but I can't find it now.

One thing that could be an option, if inhabitable planets with Earthlike moons can be found elsewhere, would be a cruise to go see a total solar eclipse - speaking from recent experience, watching video of a total solar eclipse and actually experiencing one simply cannot compare. If you get lucky on the timing, there might be an instance where there are multiple eclipses on multiple planets in a short period of time, and a cruise ship that goes to each in turn would probably be booked up years in advance. Note this would involve using the cruise ship to get to the destination, then using an interface craft of some flavor to actually go to the planet. Unless, of course, your cruise ship is capable of landing on its own.

And if you have the technology for that, you could go further and have a spaceship that can also serve as an ocean liner and/or submarine. So you travel to a watery planet of interest on the ship, then go into the ocean and turn into something more akin to a traditional cruise ship... or go under the ocean and explore there.

Some people might also pay good money to get close enough to a black hole for the time dilation effect, allowing them to essentially travel some time into the future to discover the wonders there. There's no way to get back to their own time, of course, but it's a potential draw, at least for people who wouldn't be leaving anyone they care about behind. I could also see it being used for shorter time jumps - maybe an election doesn't go the way you want, so you jump to the next election, skipping the intervening years.

There may also be other phenomena - particularly in a superscience/space opera setting - that need to be experienced rather than viewed. Pods of psychic spacewhales who sing in your head if you're in range, Negative Space Wedgies that cause a deeply personal spiritual experience when you pass through them, etc.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

The idea of a cruise ship traveling along a circular route is a good one, since it allows the ship and its crew to have a home port and allows passengers from various different worlds to mingle as they travel to the next. It also allows the cruise ship to act as an ordinary passenger liner, possibly gaining subsidies for linking various worlds together if passenger operations normally aren't profitable.

Not interstellar, but in a single system you could have an Aldrin Cycler that functions like a cruise ship for its passengers.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

If contragravity technology isn't available, the ability to experience different gravity levels within spin-gravity habitats will be a draw for adventure tourists. The ship can also have all kinds of low-G and microgravity activities, all available within an air-filled, radiation protected, supervised environment. Even in a setting where interstellar travel is real, most people are still likely to be plane-bound so the chance to experience Free Fall in a tourist-safe setting might have its appeal.

Low-gravity parkour would be an experience, to be certain.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Some people might also pay good money to get close enough to a black hole for the time dilation effect, allowing them to essentially travel some time into the future to discover the wonders there. There's no way to get back to their own time, of course, but it's a potential draw, at least for people who wouldn't be leaving anyone they care about behind. I could also see it being used for shorter time jumps - maybe an election doesn't go the way you want, so you jump to the next election, skipping the intervening years.

That sounds a lot more like James Cemeron's solo trip to the Challenger Deep than something where there's enough demand to take a large liner with a capacity of hundreds of passengers.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by johndallman

That sounds a lot more like James Cemeron's solo trip to the Challenger Deep than something where there's enough demand to take a large liner with a capacity of hundreds of passengers.

An interstellar civilization is likely to have an exceptionally-large population, and I could see there being sufficient demand for going 5, 10, 100, 1000 years into the future for a large liner. There is the problem that, particularly for longer trips, you're probably talking about retiring the liner once the journey is done (simply because it's rather outdated by the end). So you might want to do this with liners that are near the end of their lives anyway.

Certainly, a wealthy eccentric who is capable of piloting the ship personally or can find a pilot willing to take the journey might opt for a one- or two-person trip (or maybe have a few wealthy passengers, like the Titan but less implodey). But if the demand exists, you could have something like the above. Heck, maybe there's an ancient cruise ship (retrofitted with then-modern amenities innumerable times over the course of the last millennium) that has been in continuous operation, with much of the original crew still serving, for the last 1000 years... but said crew has only experienced a few years' time on board, as they make frequent journeys around a nearby black hole. They might do some non-dilation runs, where a big part of the experience is interacting with the crew (people from the past) and seeing olde-timey artefacts that are still in largely-pristine condition.