SeaTrek
| Convention | |
|---|---|
| Name: | SeaTrek (Cruise Trek, TrekCruise, Trekruise) |
| Dates: | two cruises took place in 1987 under the name "Trekruise East" and Trekruise West." Between 1989-2003, the name of the cruises were "SeaTrek." "SeaTrek" was combined with SlayerCruise in 2005 and 2007. |
| Frequency: | |
| Location: | |
| Type: | for profit |
| Focus: | |
| Organization: | |
| Founder: | |
| Founding Date: | |
| URL: | fan run community Facebook page[1] |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
SeaTrek was a series of for profit conventions in the 1980s through early 2000s that took place on board cruise ships. These events were reported in fan-produced newsletters and letterzines. On occasion, the organizers would release videotapes of the activities. Many sailed from Florida, but a few departed from Los Angeles, CA.
Two cruises took place in 1987 under the name "Trekruise East" and Trekruise West." Between 1989-2003, the name of the cruises were "SeaTrek." "SeaTrek" was combined with SlayerCruise in 2005 and 2007.
A list of the past guests is archived here.
1987
East (May 1987)
Guests were Grace Lee Whitney, Jimmy Doohan, Mark Lenard, George Takei (in his lobster hat!), Majel Barrett, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, Robin Curtis, Deforest Kelley, Sonni Cooper, as well as many of the celebrity's family members, including Takei's mom.
Gene Roddenberry was a planned guest but he did not attend, citing his work on Star Trek: The Next Generation; he was replaced at the last minute by David Gerrold, who by some fan accounts, didn't interact much with fans and instead hung out with his roommate.
There was an extensive write-up in Starlog. That article includes Takei in his lobster hat, posing with his mom, as well as many other color photos.
photo from the October 1987 issue of StarlogFrom the October 1987 issue of Starlog, reporting on a Star Trek cruise weekend in the Bahamas. The entire article is so bonkers that I suggest you head over to the Internet Archive and read the whole thing. [2]
Trust me. It includes things like Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett judging a “Mr. Legs” sexy legs contest, DeForest Kelley playing a joke on Dr. Ruth, Robin Curtis making fun of herself as Saavik, Grace Lee Whitney singing her own Trek filk music, and more. [3]
East (May 1987): Con Reports
The trip was all I hoped for, and more. It's a good thing I'd seen or spoken to all the actors before; newcomers were practically catatonic with delight. (My oldest teenager refers to them as "freshmen fans." I like that a lot better than "neos.") The highlight was being introduced to DeForest Kelley by his wife!
[...]
[David Gerrold] was a last-minute replacement for Gene Roddenberry on the cruise, but didn't have much to say except for talking about the new characters. The rest of the time he was by himself except for his roommate; no one ever seemed to be approaching him.
The sad part is that people kept trying to bait everyone with questions on Shatner, hoping for some mudslinging. Mark Lenard was beautiful, saying all sorts of complimentary things. Even Jimmy Doohan cleaned up his act, and only let a few innuendos slip by. Personally, I'm delighted that we have two forms of new Trek in the making, with TNG on TV and still ST V with our old friends (especially Harve Bennett as producer; I may not always agree with some of his choices, but he always gives us one hell of a story).
The only disappointment on the cruise was the dealers room — only 4 dealers, packed wall to wall with shoppers (Lincoln Enterprises, Intergalactic Trading Co., ST Movie Fan Club, and Bloom County T-shirts). All I bought were T-shirts and some pro-zines (American Cinematographer and Cinefantastique have some beautiful photos and articles on ST IV). Most of the zines for sale were K/S (referred to as the "kinky" ones), just plopped out in a box for anyone, including kids, to go through. Does anyone else object to this as much as I do? There is enough controversy over the genre without inviting more. If an age statement is required to sell a zine, there should be an equal amount of discretion in table sales. [4]
I'm all topsy-turvy having just got back from the Star Trek "supercruise" on the SS Emerald Seas out of Miami. After having little sleep the past 3 nights, I came back to Miami to spend the night...and I'm wide awake. I brought along my last 2 INTERSTATs and decided to read them to keep me company, and as usual, they got me all fired up to write, so this time I'll really DO it. I'll try to limit my comments.
I know INTERSTAT had an "official" reporter, Doris Ferguson, on the cruise, since it was my pleasure to have her as one of my table-mates. But I'm sure INTERSTAT readers wouldn't mind hearing about it from another source. It’s well. Simply put, it was like I'd died and gone to heaven. (Heaven Con.) Well, it would've been even more perfect for me if Gene Roddenberry, and/or some of my personal Trekfan friends, had been along, but I can't have everything. This was enough for a good long time to come (although around half of the Trek fans on Cruise East came off the ship looking for where they could sign up to go on Cruise West, which as of 5/18 , was only half-booked). In a word, NON!
Besides Gene and Jane Wyatt, all the stars promised were there -- Mark Lenard and Deforest Kelley were in my life boat drill group. I got to go on a tour of Coral World with George Takei and Nichelle Nichols, and we ALL got special treatment from the manager of the place (in Nassau). George particularly was really fascinated by it and asked a lot of very intelligent questions. Nichelle appeared to enjoy it tremendously and was presented with a pearl straight out of an oyster (they have a sort of "Oyster Bar" there where you get to pick one, for $9.00, "guaranteed" to have a pearl in it -- and they all do). On Sunday we went snorkeling with Mark and George, and had fun on the beach with Nichelle, Majel, Grace Lee Whitney, and Robin Curtis judging the Emerald Seas Mr. Sexy Legs and "debonaire derriere" contests.
Nichelle put up a great show of "resistance" to entering in the sack races, but in the end she joined in like a good sport, and her team won. Walter Koenig was also "persuaded" to enter the "sexy legs" contest. Saturday night Jimmy Doohan and his family were in the audience with us at the Cable Beach Casino Show, and we saw George and his Mama in the casino. George seemed to be having an especially good time the whole trip -- he came to midnight buffet every night and was very congenial to the fans (not to say any others weren't; it's just that from what I saw, George was out there with us more than anyone else). He even came around at the star intros wearing a red foam lobster hat (darn, I wish my camera hadn't just run out of film at the moment).
Mark Lenard signed autographs and posed with fans on the pool deck Monday as we all waited for debarkation proceedings, and Majel, Robin, Jimmy, and Grace Lee Whitney were particularly willing to sign autographs at any time during the cruise. We met George’s Mama, Jimmy's wife and 2 sons, Robin's mom, Mark's daughter, and of course Caroline Kelley was along.
Sunday night both Grace Lee and Nichelle performed for us -- the real show-stopper was Nichelle's solo special Star Trek version of "If They Could See Me Now." Despite some real technical difficulties with the mikes, I think Nichelle has really improved her singing since we her at Space Trek last July. She even gamely tried to sing "Beyond Antares" but didn't have the words or music with her, so I guess we'd better stick to her record for that. I'm planning to get her tape, "Uhura Sings" -- what copies were available on the ship were sold out immediately.
Grace Lee has also put together a tape of Trek songs she wrote with her husband. They even had a Dealer’s Room with Lincoln Enterprises and the Intergalactic Trading Company, and of course , there were T- Shirts (not one, but two) specially designed for the Star Trek Cruise (I got one of each) . The EMERALD SEAS ' very beautiful T-shirt that comes with the snorkeling adventure package also says "Sea Trek - come explore inner space" on it.
These are just some of the highlights of the Trek aspect of the cruise -- of course there were also all the amenities of cruise life, Nassau, and Little Stirrup Cay, where we went snorkeling, available as well. It was my first cruise and I enjoyed that, too, especially the food. So I personally urge anyone who CAN do it to GO—Cruise East was only 75-80% booked and we need for it to be 100% booked so they'll do it AGAIN. My own personal kudos and thanks to Joe Motes and his staff pulling this phenomenon together. We truly are a fandom blessed. [5]
The ship set sail to the Bahamas, via Miami. The special guest stars were: Grace Lee Whitney, George Takei, Mark Lenard, Walter Koenig, DeForest Kelley, Majel Barret, Jimmy Doohan, and Robin Curtis. Gene Roddenberry was not there due to the filming of "The Next Generation," the new Star Trek tv series.
I met some new friends on the cruise ship S.S. Emerald Seas, a girl all the way from Alaska, told me it cost her $1,000.00 to fly from Alaska to Miami.
On Friday night, I watched Jimmy Doohan win a lot of dollars at the roulette table. We had a midnight buffet with Grace Lee attending in the p.m., I ate most of my meals with her since she sat at our table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I also had midnight buffet with George Takei, and Sonni Cooper, who is a Star Trek novelist, on Saturday and Sunday evening.
On Saturday we we docked at Nassau in the Bahamas, but not before we had our life boat drill everyone had to be on deck in their life preservers. After the drill they had different tours that you could take. My roommate and I went to a little island, and stretched out on the beach all day, while Grace Lee went to see the sights of the Bahamas, shopping, ect.
Saturday night some of us went to a night club in Paradise Island for some local night life. We went with George Takei, his mom, Walter Koenig, DeForest Kelley, and Mrs. Kelley. After the show, a new friend that I sat next to at the club and I, rode back in the limo with Walter, about five of us from the ships had gone to the night club, we all went back to the ship together, then the ship left the Bahamas for Little Stirrup Kay in the early morning around 4:00 a.m.
On Sunday we arrived at Little Stirrup Kay, a private island owned by the Emerald Seas. Most of us went to the island except for De, he might have come, though I didn't see him. Mark Lenard was in his bathing suit, as we all were. I tried not to get to much sun. Nichelle judged the best buns contest and then they had a limbo contest. George was doing the limbo as I left the Island that afternoon. I did want to get some rest for photograph session and the things to corrie later in the evening.
The photograph session on board the ship was about a half an hour late due to the stragglers arriving via the last boat. Grace, Mark, De, Walter, George, Majel, Nichelle, Robin and Jim all had their pictures taken about 850 times, them in a group, with each one of us separately, something I will keep forever!
Grace Whitney and Nichelle Nichols both sang on Sunday night, on board the ship, live. If you ever get a chance to hear these lovely ladies sing then do. During Nichelle's act, she mentioned that we were all "family" before and after the cruise, we all were!
Monday morning came too fast! As the ship was going through customs, we were saying good bye I went to find my friend from Alaska, we exchanged our addresses. Then the cruise was over, said goodbye to "our family," Grace Lee Whitney, Jimmy Doohan, Mark Lenard, George Takei, et al., and the new friends we had made. Our weather was beautiful and the ocean blue. [6]
West (September 1987): Con Reports
It was also not a "charter cruise," at least not by my definition. My understanding of "charter" is when a private group hires a public carrier (ship, bus, plane, whatever) and sets up an itinerary tailored specifically for the benefit and particular interests of the members of that group. A "theme cruise" (which is what Cruise West was, despite advertisements to the contrary) is an entirely different critter. It was only while standing in line at embarkation that mutual (and in some cases, horrified) realization dawned. (Mundane: "Who are those people wearing weird clothes?" Trekker: "Why are people staring at my UFP T-shirt?") There were also major problems in organization. Formal presentations by guests were limited to 20 minutes apiece (!), there were no participation panels, no attempt was made to seat Trekfen together at meals, and the "dealers room" was a joke. The costume call overlooked many outstanding Trek-related costumes and chose to award first prize to a pair of scantily-clad tap-dancers from the ship's crew. Insult was added to injury in the costume call when several women were verbally groped or denigrated, depending on whether they met Mr. Motes' standards of feminine pulchritude. Moral of the story is this — if you like "Creation Cons" and/or "Vul-Kons," and if you had several hundred dollars to blow on one, you'd have loved Cruise West. Otherwise, you'd have felt ripped off and imposed upon. I don't have a gift of foresight, so I can't tell you Seatrek 89 is going to be more of the same. I only know I'm not planning to attend. Can anybody recommend a good Trek convention to attend instead? [7]
1989
May 12-15, 1989.
Guests were George Takei and his mom (who appears to have mostly hung out in the casinos), Gene Roddenberry, Majel Roddenberry, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, Grace Lee Whitney, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis, and Wil Wheaton.
The guests in attendance vary slightly from the description below.
From a newspaper article published in 1988 about the cruise:
"Seatrek 89 is scheduled for May 12-15, 1989, aboard the S.S. Emerald Seas, which will be chartered from Miami-based Admiral Cruises. Ports of call will be Nassau, capital of the Bahamas on New Providence Island, and Little Stirrup Cay, a Bahamian out-island for the exclusive use of Admiral Cruises.In addition to traditional cruise activities, there will be photo and autograph sessions with the stars, costume and talent shows, beach parties, panel discussions and other special events. Seatrek 89 (formerly known as Trekruise) is the third cruise to bring ``Star Trek`` fans and stars together.
In addition to Roddenberry, "Trek" celebrities planning to sail include Majel Barrett ("Chapel"), Robin Curtis ("Saavik"), Jimmy Doohan, ("Scotty"), Walter Koenig ("Chekov"), Mark Lenard ("Sarek"), Nichelle Nichols ("Uhura"), George Takei ("Sulu") and Grace Lee Whitney ("Rand"). Joining them from the "Next Generation" cast are, among others, Michael Dorn ("Worf") and Jonathan Frakes ("Riker"). Additional names will be announced. Also scheduled to appear are "Trek"-related guests, such Andy Probert, designer of the Starship Enterprise.
Rates for the cruise begin at $475 a person, double occupancy, plus port charges. A free brochure is available from Seatrek 89, c/o Exclusively Cruises, 14107 S. Dixie Hwy., Miami, Fla. 33176. Paramount Pictures is in no way associated with Seatrek 89, which is produced by Seatrek Enterprises Inc."[8]
This cruise appears to have been much larger than previous ones, and much more highly-managed and less organic.
About 700 people attended a pre-cruise banquet gala the night before it sailed. It featured many fan club participants, many in costume, in a procession. Takei, in his own con report in G.H.T. Journal #20, states there were over 1000 fans on this ship. Takei wrote about the tight management of the autograph line:
All of the actors were arranged in grandstand fashion with the center seat left vacant. The passengers would be lined up in what seemed like an interminable queue and as stewards kept barking out, "move it along please," move it along," they would scurry to the seat, have their photo snapped and then be rushed out so the next subject could be hurried in. It took a stead flow of libations to the actors to keep the smiles warm and vibrant. On examining the pictures later, some said that they looked like silly grins. Actually, they were expressions of drunken bliss. [9]
Some more commentary from Takei:
[At the end of the cruise], the sight of the skyline of Miami on Monday morning was a bittersweet herald of a glorious weekend coming to a close. Fond farewells were exchanged and vows of we shall "live long and prosper" so that we can again gather for another cruise were frequently heard. I wonder if Vulcans know how we Earthlings have usurped and so corrupted this gracious greeting? [10]
1989: Con Reports
a handwritten con report by George Takei, printed in G.H.T. Journal #20
a handwritten con report by George Takei, printed in G.H.T. Journal #20
a handwritten con report by George Takei, printed in G.H.T. Journal #20
a handwritten con report by George Takei, printed in G.H.T. Journal #20
a handwritten con report by George Takei, printed in G.H.T. Journal #20
a handwritten con report by George Takei, printed in G.H.T. Journal #20
1991
1991: Con Reports
From "WHAT I DID ON MY HOLIDAYS: SEATREK '91 - A REPORT" by Helen White in IDIC #17:
"Ten months ago, Jo said to me, "Let's go on Seatrek next year. My initial response was that I couldn't afford it, Seatrek being a convention-on-a-cruiseship, and furthermore being sited in Florida. USA. Somehow, however, we ended up .....getting up at the ridiculous time of .i.15 am in order to catch a flight to the States and the best holiday that any of us have ever had (unanimous verdict.).....As all con-attendees will know, a regular feature of any can is the queue (or line, if you're from the US/Canada) and this one was no exception. lye stood in a tiny. unventilated, very very stuffy corridor for 2 1/2 hours, at which point we could just about see the booking desk - and we had got in the queue early! At this stage, we had to go and attend Lifeboat Drill (compulsory), and we were given tickets so that we didn't lose our places, otherwise we'd probably all have refused to leave. lye found ourselves standing in front of Jimmy Doohan for Drill, so we were kept well-entertained with Various silly remarks - he's a very funny man. After the Drill, it was back to the queue, and half-an-hour later, we finally got the trips we wanted. After dinner, we went to the ballroom to have all the guests introduced to us, and I managed to have a chat with George (Takei), I did try to speak Japanese to him, but after three words. my brain seized up.....
...We then visited the dealers' room (no escape even on a ship), where we found that there was no tax payable on items. because we. were in international waters hooray, and where we spent A Lot Of Money, boo. I finally found a copy of Concordance for $15 (about £40), which I've been looking for for ages.....
...Dinner; the conversation got sillier every night, and tonight the topics of conversation included Klingon scuba-diving....
...The last panel of the day was Gene , Bob Justman and Majel (again!) I never thought that I'd ever get the chance to see Gene. and there I was, gosh, Interesting bits: Gene would like to see Trek emphasizing humanity rather than machines; he developed Trek 'very slowly' - he was tired of writing about 'nothing'; he never wanted to appear in the series on the screen; he had total script-approval tor STVI; Starfleet is not military; t here's not a female first officer on TNG because 'we can't do everything! '; a low point during the original
series was doing the third season, and a high point was coming to do TNG (Bob agreed) ; they still get censorship in TNG but not as much as it used to be; the next film will be a TNG one; maybe when TNG runs it's course to the end we'll get a 'third generation' (this was Majel's question): and finally, Gene said that it felt 'great' that TNG was now in t he slot that killed original Trek and was doing extremely well!
Another report from a group of English fans published in IDIC #20:
"The crew had not been informed that the next sailing was a private hire, so they were not expecting what they got, and as the whole ship seemed geared up to part you from as much money as possible in the shortest possible time there were some culture clashes. The prime example of this was the ruling that one could not buy a drink on board for money. You had to sign up for a V.I.P. card and have your drinks charged to a credit card. plus, naturally, a mandatory 15% tip of the total cost. We soon figured out that V.I.P. stood for Very Inflated Prices and became particularly caustic on the subject after we had queued up for 1 hour and 15 minutes to get a card. (1000 passengers all needing a card and only 3 stewards handing then out.) Don't forget the temperature at this time was 92 degrees and you needed to drink to replace fluids lost and 'Ne had had to queue for nearly two hours just to get on the boat!Wil Wheaton was doing a video for himself of the trip and I regret to say he talked to us just after we had finally got our drink cards. We must have sounded very bitter - sorry about that! The other reason that we wer'e not particularly happy was we had inspected our coffin - sorry, cabin. It was an internal one, we knew this, but we didn't know that it would be 6 ft x 15 ft, for three of us! There were two double bunks in there, four wardrobe lockers, two chairs and a built in dresser. The operative word was cramped. The bunks were just 2ft Bins wide and having been selected to have the top bunk I discovered that there was just 2 feet of clearance from the bunk to the ceiling.
Even so, we were lucky. Some of the English contingent were In cabins well below the waterline. One of the entertainers unwisely informed them that they were in what used to be crew's quarters until the crew complained so much that they were moved to better accommodation!.....
There were other problems on the cruise, not the least of which was that the Trek content of the days tended to be fluid, with no provision at all for anybody who was not going ashore. What program there was seemed to suffer from constant and un-notified revisions and changes of venue. The ships' announcer had great difficulty when making a Trek announcement - once, fast and mumbled - but none at all when it came to ship'S business. Wil Wheaton, after long hours of persistent negotiating, managed to secure for viewing on the cruise a copy of his latest film, Toy Soldiers. Unfortunately the film company gave him the wrong size film. He was not happy with that at all.....
One show [B] and I did squeeze in to see was the Final Gala....This had Wil juggling, Marina Sirtis singing, Carel Struycken playing the piano and Eric Menyuk hosting a battle or the sexes between Wil Wheaton and Robin Curtis. As this is a family zine I will merely state that the actual battle involved the use of two sticks of french bread and leave the rest to your imaginations. Needless to say, the humour was very broad, and Robin won.
One of the highlights of the cruise was the group photo. This is a carefully orchestrated event where the entire cast gets to have their picture taken 1000 times, each time with a different Trekkie sitting beaming at the camera from the centre of the front row. You are strictly warned on the way in not to waste any time. Go in, sit down, smile - flash - get up and leave. The entire process takes something less than 15 seconds per Trekkie."
From a group of Klingon fans published in the Agonizer #3-3:
"We participated in the mandatory life-boat drill in the casino where we ran in to George Takei and his mom.She's a tough old bird. She would make one great Klingon-mama-san!
[At supper] we met many different folks from all corners of the globe. Our food was served in portions fit for a warrior. Kai Britanis chefs!
[In the ballroom of the ship] we were introduced to all the Trek guests. Hosted by Laura Banks, there were "thank you's" and tributes galore ...
Jimmy Doohan was his lecherous old self, Walter told an awful joke, Eric Menyuk is probably one of the funniest men alive, Wesley introduced us to his Valley Girlfriend Holly and his entire family, Carel is an extremely shy fellow, Eric Stillwell is representative of the guy who was a fan who sold a script to ST:TNG and is now ranking script supervisor for the show. Marina was charming and slightly annoying with her animal rights crusading, Majel Barrett is one classy lady and her nubbins Gene was, despite his health setbacks (he had recently suffered a stroke), in strong spirits. Nichelle was a crowd pleaser ... and was stunned to tears when she was presented with an enormous portrait of herself. The unusual thing about this portrait was that it was worked in cross-stitch.
[There were midnight buffets, photo sessions with the stars, panel discussions, lots of cheerful imbibing; a Sexy Men's Legs Contest" which K'hack did not win (a frightful failure of taste!), swimming, sunburning bathing, costume events, spying on the Federation to fill out personnel dossiers, shore leaves at various ports of calL]
The last Q &A ended on a high note when Gene was asked how he felt [about the fact] that in some television markets Sf:TNG does so much better than the current crop of prime time network shows. He responded that he was extremely pleased that there is justice in this world. The crowd applauded that final response with a very long ovation ... . . .1 had an incredible time, which I'm sure we will repeat in 1993 when Sea Trek will journey to Jamaica and the Grand Cayman rslands. SeaTrek organizers Ruthanne Devlin, Joe Motes, Carol Paige and their tireless staff did an incredible job of putting
this all together. KAI SeaTrek '91!
1995
June 10-17
flyer for 1995
1997
Seatrek 1997 was called "Voyage To The Blue Pacific" and was held JUNE 15-22, 1997. It traveled from Los Angeles to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan & Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Their website is archived here.
References
- ^ archived link.
- ^ This article used to be there, but was removed by Starlog. Boo hiss.
- ^ George Takei in a lobster hat - Trekkie Feminist, Archived version
- ^ by Vel Jaeger from K/S & K.S. (Kindred Spirits) #26
- ^ from Interstat #116
- ^ from Khan Reports #4, also in G.H.T. Journal #14
- ^ from an letter submitted to Interstat #129-130
- ^ Scotty, Chekov Set For Trekkies Cruise In `89 - tribunedigital-chicagotribune, Archived version
- ^ from G.H.T. Journal #20
- ^ from G.H.T. Journal #20