Powwow Cruise

[WhoMe]

I was just reading an article in Indian Country Today. One quote mentions Standing Horse, winner of powwows.com Powwow Idol contest:

"This year Standing Horse, 2008 national best drum Powwow Idol contest winners on www.powwow.com, will be the host drum on the September West Coast Cruise, which was one of the contest prizes."

Read the whole article: Floating pow wow offers unique vacation | Indian Country Today | Business


Whatcha' think of a powwow on a cruise ship?

Anyone gone on the powwow cruise???

[Coyot_In_The_House]

Remember this tune.....

"For a 3 Hour Tour......."

JK!

[eap7]

Paul and PowWows.com were nice enough to treat me and my friend Steph to the East Coast Powwow Cruise in Feb. 2008, while serving as Miss PowWows.com. I'd never been on a cruise, so I did not know what to expect and don't have a point of comparison, but it was a fun time. We left from Miami, stopped in Key West for half a day, and then went to Cozumel, Mexico for a day. I don't think I'd go on another cruise in Feb., because we spent a lot of time on the ship and it was too cold to swim or even lie on the deck for very long.

I think I probably posted a review of the cruise already, but here's another. The first day, there was an orientation meeting with the Powwow Cruise group, which numbered about 35. Aside from the other couple who won the Red Earth special and were sponsored by Powwows.com, and Steph and I, the other powwow cruisers were primarily older folks. The orientation was kind of frustrating, because we learned that Carnival Cruise Lines had interrupted the plans for our powwow. This is also when we learned that we were on the "Motley Cruise", which was a reunion cruise for Motley Crue and fans. Apparently on any cruise, there may be several theme groups- on ours, the overwhelming majority (I think about 80%) of the ship were Motley Cruisers, then there were several family reunions who liked to wear matching t-shirts, and the Powwow Cruise group. Carnival informed the Powwow Cruise organizers that we had to hold our powwow in a small, indoor room that wouldn't really work and with only 1 mic because the Motley Cruise needed the resources. This unexpected development could have ruined the powwow, but the organizers managed to get us space on top of the ship with 1 mic that the drum and MC shared.

Other Powwow Cruise activities:
1) One benefit of being a theme group is that as the Powwow Cruise group, we sat at tables near each other at dinner. It was fun to meet the other 6 people we shared our dinner table with, including an Indian reporter, the Red Earth couple, and 2 elder sisters from Canada (who were hilarious).
2) We enjoyed a musical performance night with Joann Shenandoah, her sister and daughter, and Michael Bucher. I'm sorry that I forgot his name.
3) When we got to Mexico, about 12 people from the Powwow Cruise group went on a joint tour of the ruins at Tulum. This was informally organized, and Steph and I had some trouble getting connected with the group to go on the tour. We actually just ran into them getting off the boat. Otherwise, we would have been on our own. One suggestion is to organize this tour group in advance with a meeting place and information about admission and transportation cost (we took a ferry and a van ride to get to Tulum). This was the best part of the trip- Tulum was awesome. I really think it should be advertised as a main event, not an informally organized group that most of the Powwow Cruisers missed.
4) During the "day at sea", the powwow was held for about 4 hours on top of the ship next to the golfing area and the water slide. It was a little strange, because the ship was rocking and it made dancing kind of impossible (for me at least). I felt like I was falling over! There were about 12 dancers, all women except for MC Dennis Rogers who also performed the hoop dance and northern traditional. There was a brief grand entry and then exhibition dances. The drum group was from New Orleans. I hadn't heard of them before and can't remember their name. The rest of the Powwow Cruisers were spectators, along with random other people from the cruise. It honestly was kind of bizarre seeing people pass by in bikinis holding beers to check out the powwow. The MC did a good job trying to explain what was going on, but I think its possible that many random cruisers thought we were part of scheduled Carnival entertainment or something similar.

I had a fun time but expected more dancers. The organizers told us that they've had up to 100 Powwow Cruisers before (although I'm not sure how many dancers that would be- remember, there were about 35 in our group but less than half danced). I'd guess that many of the Powwow Cruisers were non-Indian spectators and powwow enthusiasts. At the orientation,there was a discussion about who can go to a powwow and whether one needs Indian heritage to participate or spectate. I was surprised, because the people having this conversation had booked their trip through the Powwow Cruise, so I'd think they would be familiar with powwows. People were very friendly and excited to have the powwow, even in the face of Carnival's miscommunication about location and equipment.

I don't know if I would go again. I was nervous about bringing my dance outfit, and I didn't bring any feathers or fan. The Red Earth special couple didn't bring their outfits for the same concern- outfits take up space, concern about handling (you don't bring your luggage to your room, only your carry on bags), traveling internationally, etc. The powwow was really short, and it was a rocky day. It seemed that the top floor of the ship was the worst place to be for getting sea sick! My recommendation to the Powwow Cruise would be to ensure that the details for the powwow are set. I have to admit that the powwow mood was affected by the confusion and uncertainty.

I'd also suggest that the cruise be promoted as a Native Cruise. The Tulum visit was amazing, and our tour guide was excited to meet indigenous people from the US and Canada. He told us how the Mexican tourism board hires Mayan people as a way of having indigenous people present their own heritage to the world. He showed us a lot of pictures of different eclipses and taught us about the history and meaning of Tulum to the Mayan world. It was also beautiful, and we got to go in the ocean!

The powwow definitely wasn't the highlight. A theme cruise for Indians is a nice idea, because you get to meet people from all over, but I think people were kind of disappointed by the brief, small, rocky powwow. Advertising it as an Indian themed cruise is one suggestion that would better represent the cruise theme group.

Final review of the cruise as a whole- the food is all inclusive, and all you can eat (buffet style at breakfast and lunch, and sit down dinner). You can even order room service for free! You pay for alcoholic drinks and soda, and those drinks are overpriced. There are different tours at each point of embarkment that Carnival organizes, but they were too expensive for Steph or I to afford. You can also go to the spa, but that costs extra as well. I didn't check that out, so I can't comment. Each night on board the ship, there are different shows, including a dance show, a comedy show and an R rated hypnotist show. Those were a lot of fun to watch. At one of the shows, they announced the group that made the most noise cheering would win a bottle of champagne, and between myself, Steph and the Red Earth winners, we were the noisiest!

[Coyot_In_The_House]

The Recent Titanic Movie Tune keeps popping in head.....



Oh....! I'm kidding....Just in case anyone takes this serious or may be offended....

[Paul G]

I was just reading an article in Indian Country Today. One quote mentions Standing Horse, winner of powwows.com Powwow Idol contest:

"This year Standing Horse, 2008 national best drum Powwow Idol contest winners on Powwow Water Company, will be the host drum on the September West Coast Cruise, which was one of the contest prizes."

Read the whole article: Floating pow wow offers unique vacation | Indian Country Today | Business


Whatcha' think of a powwow on a cruise ship?

Anyone gone on the powwow cruise???

Kelli and I went a few years ago. We had been on one cruise before--our honeymoon. It happened to be the same route we did for our honeymoon. We loved the first one and loved the Pow Wow cruise. We just love crusing!!

Cruising is a great vacation. Like eap7 said, it's all inclusive. You don't have to worry about paying for meals or entertainment. Just sit down and eat, and eat and eat!

The great thing about the Pow Wow Cruise is that you go on a cruise with a built in group to hang out with, visit with, eat with etc. When Kelli and I went on our honeymoon cruise we both said we would enjoy the cruise even more with a group of friends. And that's the case with the Pow Wow Cruise. The Pow Wow itself was just a small part of the week. And I agree with eap7, it should probably be called a Native Cruise. The concert was great. If you are thinking about cruising, this is a great trip!