We crowd sourced ideas for the Cruise Edition from our epic community and then went on a cruise to test them out!
We get asked all the time for a Cruise Edition of the Getting Lost Game. Having never been on a cruise myself I felt decidedly out of my comfort zone with this one. Luckily for us we have an amazing community of over 100,000 adventurers (that’s you guys!) who help us craft every game we make.
Talking to the cruisers amongst them it quickly became apparent that the problem to solve was not finding things to do on a cruise. There is so much to do, and most of it is included in your package. The problem was which of the amazing things to do! With so many things to do it seemed the biggest regret that people had was not trying more things outside of their comfort zone (which is where we - as your wingman and issuer of challenges come in).
We had hundreds of suggestions back from our community and these were all about pushing you out of your comfort zone or experiencing and exploring more on your cruise. We learnt a huge amount about life on a cruise ship just from reading about what everyone wrote - but really, you have to test these things out don’t you!!
And so we, my husband James and our three teenage daughters, embarked on our first cruise from Auckland to Fiji. We had double the amount of cards we knew we’d need for a pack so my job was to take out the ones that didn’t work, adapt any that needed to be adapted for a game, add some new ones and of course keep all our favourites.
For us we had the drinks package so we had all you can eat and drink - plus the added advantage that our kids had all made friends and were off exploring or at HQ so we could mooch around and explore bars just the two of us.
My favourite cards became the ones around asking someone else to recommend food, drink or activity. When it is all included there is nothing to lose and there were so many things that I discovered that I didn’t know I would like. As an interesting consequence I’ve found myself doing the same thing when out to dinner now which not only alarms the waiter but also has a lot more consequences when you are paying for it!!
Another thing I found the Cruise Edition great for was getting me to try things that I thought I wouldn’t like. One of these was Bingo. We had a really funny suggestion for a card which was to attend Bingo and then, if you were feeling brave, yell Bingo and run. I went along to a Bingo game to see what it was all about and it was hilarious. I see why you’d want to run because if you accidentally shout Bingo you have to get up on stage and do the chicken dance. I wasn’t brave enough to try a Bingo shout but I did love going to a Bingo game (and took the whole family along for another).
There was a whole bunch of things we’d never heard of before we started designing this edition - like towel animals and ducks (and no, we didn’t add pineapples), that made their way into the Cruise Edition too and gave you extra ways to play.
And we made sure that we prioritised making time to find and enjoy the things like sunrises and sunsets (James was so sweet one morning waking me very gently at 5am because there was the most magical sunrise as we came into Fiji (our first sight of land in 2 days).
There were some cards that didn’t make it in that we had thought were great prior to the cruise. We had one about watching the ocean for half an hour to see what you can spot - nothing, that’s what you’ll spot, nothing! Another about getting the brightest colour cocktail which after extensive testing we concluded the brightest coloured cocktail is almost always the grossest!!
We knew already from our Getting Lost cruisers that the Cruise team was a really important part of the experience and it blew our mind how many different nationalities there were on board so we added in a card to help you find and chat to people from different countries (trust us - it’s really worth it!)
Our cruise blew any misconceptions I had about cruises out the window!
I’d kind of thought it was for older people but the mix of people on the boat was really broad! Our 3 daughters (aged 15, 16 and 18) reckon it’s the best holiday they’ve ever had (our 15 year old and the friends she met on the cruise are already saving for their next cruise). Their camera roll would look utterly different than ours (I was only allowed to see the edited ones and defintiely not to post them!). And with teenage kids that was a big part of the magic that we were able to be independent and catch up for dinners so everyone had their perfect holiday.
Once you get over the shock of paying all your money in one lump sum it’s actually a really cheap holiday because it includes all your food, accommodation, entertainment and drinks (if you get the drinks package which we did and I’d recommend).
So, if you are on the fence about a cruise - do it! And take the Cruise Edition of course. If you love cruising then you’ll love this to give you a nudge to get even more out of your next cruise.