Lately, the focus of themed cruises has been on popular musicians like rock star musician and reality TV star Bret Michaels, Taylor Swift and Kid Rock among others. Themed cruises appeal to groups of people varying from broad interests like “motorcycles” and “rock music” in general to smaller, more specific interests like Harley-Davidson motorcycles or a specific band like KISS. Gaining in popularity, promoters book huge blocks of cabins on existing sailings or charter entire ships to meet the demand and cruise lines are paying attention.
Beatles Tribute Cruise (BTC) 2012 is on sale now and filling up fast. That’s prompting offers from other cruise lines looking to woo the annual event away from Royal Caribbean and a call to invite one of the remaining Beatles along for the ride.
“It’s a bold move….what’s happened is that the cruise’s popularity has initiated some amazing–and I mean AMAZING—offers from other cruise lines to “jump ship” and sign on with them, and they are asking if we could get Ringo or Paul to join us!” BTC promoter Woody Lifton told Examiner.com.
What would cruise lines offer to get the Beatles cruise and Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr on board?”Basically anything they wanted, I suspect” said Lifton adding “With a private ship and (the) high quality cruisers we get on BTC, they would have a really nice time with the ability to interact with fans to the extent they wanted, in a safe atmosphere with whatever security they would need.”
An annual event, the 2011 Beatles cruise was a fundraiser for Thrive/Survive Los Angeles to support young adult cancer survivors. On-board, a raffle was held with close to 100 Beatles-related item given away during the sailing. Beatles Cruise 2012 sails from Ft Lauderdale on 2/4/12 aboard Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas and set to coincide with the 48th Anniversary of The Beatles first U.S. Television appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
Will Beatles Tribute Cruise 2013 or 2014 be able to land the biggest fish of all, Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr?
“Yes we feel we could make this happen” concluded Lifton “and as with all of our past cruises I’m sure we’ll exceed everyone’s expectations”