Finding Geocachers on Cruise Ships

[+Calypso62 28]

I searched the forums but couldn't find any information to help me.

 

Shortly, I'm going on a cruise and really looking forward to that. I'll be doing some geocaching in the ports I'll be visiting. My question is, what's some ways I can identify/contact fellow geocachers who may be on the cruise also? Is there a notice board on the cruise ship where I can put up a sign? I did think of hosting an event the night before we sail. I'm travelling on a Princess cruise ship. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[+Goldenwattle 1658]

Do they know a pirate is boarding?

[+HHL 657]

1 hour ago, Calypso62 said:

Is there a notice board on the cruise ship where I can put up a sign?

You'd better ask the cruise line's service personnel.

[+colleda 872]

On 8/27/2019 at 5:55 PM, Calypso62 said:

I searched the forums but couldn't find any information to help me.

 

Shortly, I'm going on a cruise and really looking forward to that. I'll be doing some geocaching in the ports I'll be visiting. My question is, what's some ways I can identify/contact fellow geocachers who may be on the cruise also? Is there a notice board on the cruise ship where I can put up a sign? I did think of hosting an event the night before we sail. I'm travelling on a Princess cruise ship. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

This is a question I responded to recently on Cruise Critic

. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/564-australia-new-zealand-cruisers/

I've done about 20 cruises over the last 7 years and have never yet come across another geocacher on the same cruise, ocean and river cruises in Europe, US, China, Australia and New Zealand.. I did meet up with one geocacher in Dunedan, from another ship in port the same day.

If you go to the above you can find a link to a Roll Call for your cruise (which one are you doing). You can use the roll call to get acquainted with other cruisers and/or organise private tours or found out if if anyone is a geocacher. On many cruises there are meets and greets for Cruise Critic posters. BTW Cruise Critic recently joined up with  Trip Advisor.

Edited August 31, 2019 by colleda
Sub'd Trip for Travel - oops

[+VAVAPAM 165]

3 hours ago, colleda said:

BTW Cruise Critic recently joined up with Travel Advisor.

I always head to Cruise Critic to research before and after booking a cruise.  Absolutely love it.  I hope it remains as uncensored and useful after the merger.

I'll mull over whether to add to the roll call since we usually are with a group already.

Thanks!

[+TeamRabbitRun 526]

8 hours ago, Calypso62 said:

I searched the forums but couldn't find any information to help me.

 

Shortly, I'm going on a cruise and really looking forward to that. I'll be doing some geocaching in the ports I'll be visiting. My question is, what's some ways I can identify/contact fellow geocachers who may be on the cruise also? Is there a notice board on the cruise ship where I can put up a sign? I did think of hosting an event the night before we sail. I'm travelling on a Princess cruise ship. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

There IS the 'Secret Sign' that all Premium Members are supposed to know and use to identify each other in public, although I haven't seen it referred to in the forums for quite a while.

 

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/209023-secret-signword/

 

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/148892-secret-sign-or-phrasepassword/

 

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/54261-the-new-secret-sign/

 

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/204965-greeting-other-cachers-in-the-wild/

 

[+kunarion 2698]

41 minutes ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

There IS the 'Secret Sign' that all Premium Members are supposed to know and use to identify each other in public, although I haven't seen it referred to in the forums for quite a while.

 

 

"When you see a possible geocacher you are to yell "Ho! Are ye a geocacher" The proper response is "Yay, a geocacher am I".  Once you get the proper response you stand facing each other and put your right hand on the other geocacher's left shoulder.  You then skip together in a circle while loudly repeating in unison, "Geocachers are we, runny munny mee. Ha ha ha, Tee hee hee" This should continue for no less than 5 minutes."

~ briansnat

 

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/182395-is-there-a-secret-greeting-of-cachers/&do=findComment&comment=3256362

 

[+The A-Team 1861]

5 hours ago, kunarion said:

"When you see a possible geocacher you are to yell "Ho! Are ye a geocacher" The proper response is "Yay, a geocacher am I".  Once you get the proper response you stand facing each other and put your right hand on the other geocacher's left shoulder.  You then skip together in a circle while loudly repeating in unison, "Geocachers are we, runny munny mee. Ha ha ha, Tee hee hee" This should continue for no less than 5 minutes."

~ briansnat

 

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/182395-is-there-a-secret-greeting-of-cachers/&do=findComment&comment=3256362

 

 

Oh darn, I've been putting my left hand on their right shoulder. That must be why muggles look at us funny.

[+Calypso62 28]

Well, some of the answers to my question certainly made me laugh!!  Thanks to all who responded!

[Ewe&Me 21]

Hopefully you can find other geocachers on your cruise ship but if not you may just have to introduce some new ones to this wonderful hobby!  

[+Calypso62 28]

1 hour ago, Ewe&Me said:

Hopefully you can find other geocachers on your cruise ship but if not you may just have to introduce some new ones to this wonderful hobby!  

 

Absolutely Ewe&Me!!!! 👍😀👍

[+Goldenwattle 1658]

I am going on a cruise on the Ovation of the Seas over Christmas and I left a message on Cruisefinder asking if there are any other geocachers aboard who would be interested in caching. I hope I find someone, or sigh, I will be caching by myself. My travel companion is not physically able to accompany me. We will be visiting Nouméa, Mystery Island in Vanuatu, and Auckland. I plan to catch a taxi to the end of a trail of caches in Nouméa and walk back, following the caches back to the boat. I have already found all three caches on Mystery Island and many in Auckland, but there are still some to find in Auckland.

 

In February I will take the Queen Elizabeth to Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately no caches where we call in Papua New Guinea, but the ship also calls into Brisbane and Cairns and I will cache there. Closer to the date I will check if there are any geocachers on that ship.

[+colleda 872]

3 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I am going on a cruise on the Ovation of the Seas over Christmas and I left a message on Cruisefinder asking if there are any other geocachers aboard who would be interested in caching. I hope I find someone, or sigh, I will be caching by myself. My travel companion is not physically able to accompany me. We will be visiting Nouméa, Mystery Island in Vanuatu, and Auckland. I plan to catch a taxi to the end of a trail of caches in Nouméa and walk back, following the caches back to the boat. I have already found all three caches on Mystery Island and many in Auckland, but there are still some to find in Auckland.

 

In February I will take the Queen Elizabeth to Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately no caches where we call in Papua New Guinea, but the ship also calls into Brisbane and Cairns and I will cache there. Closer to the date I will check if there are any geocachers on that ship.

I see you've already posted on CC. I saw there was another from Canberra on that cruise but could not see any from N America, which is unusual.

[+tribble_eater 6]

Ummmmm, I don't know who came up with the sign shown below, but in American Sign Language, that's the sign for "lesbian".   I don't know if anyone has ever pointed that out before, however, to be culturally relevant and sensitive (and to avoid some potentially awkward encounters!) it might be time to rethink that. Or perhaps just accept the fact that different gestures mean different things in different cultures and hope you never run across Deaf geocachers or ASL interpreter while out caching. 

Quote

 

 

Edited September 4, 2019 by Keystone

[+luvvinbird 26]

18 minutes ago, tribble_eater said:

 

 

I doubt either one of those two had any idea that the universal hand on chin sign for "hmm, let me think" was also ASL for lesbian, lol. 

[+tribble_eater 6]

 

3 hours ago, luvvinbird said:

I doubt either one of those two had any idea that the universal hand on chin sign for "hmm, let me think" was also ASL for lesbian, lol. 

 

It's not just these two guys. They are saying that what you call the "universal sign for let me think" is the universal geocacher sign. Which also happens to be the ASL sign for Lesbian. 

[+TeamRabbitRun 526]

13 hours ago, tribble_eater said:

 

 

Tribble_eater -

 

My friend, you've made a mistake. I doubt that it was intentional, but you need to be aware of it.

 

You quoted a post of mine, but completely replaced MY words with your own. The effect for readers is that I said what you wrote.

 

There's a reason that quoted text shows up in a shaded box; so that readers can properly attribute. You don't change someone else's words or misquote them except to add emphasis or redact, hopefully notating the changes in both cases.

 

Ordinarily, I'd send you this in a private note, but since this forum has continual traffic, many people will read your comment as mine, and I felt I should post this disclaimer as soon as possible.

 

On this site as opposed to most on the net, we observe a decorum. We stay away from insults, we stay away from sex, we stay away from attacks (usually), we stay away from politics (usually). No matter how much we bicker and argue, we recognize our commonality and fraternity in our hobby. This 'family-oriented' hobby supports this 'family-oriented' forum. My kids are here.

 

So, please edit your post to remove your comments from under my byline. If that doesn't happen, if there's a moderator on board, please remove that post.

 

Thanks,
...Bill

And, welcome to the hobby! I see you've only been with us for a short time, and brand new on the forums. I hope you stick with both.

[Keystone 3458]

1 hour ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

... if there's a moderator on board, please remove that post.

 

 

I fixed the quotey thingy.

 

The "symbol" was an early avatar used by Jeremy Irish, co-founder of Geocaching.com, in the 2003-2005 era.

[+cerberus1 3334]

16 hours ago, tribble_eater said:

Ummmmm, I don't know who came up with the sign shown below, but in American Sign Language, that's the sign for "lesbian".   I don't know if anyone has ever pointed that out before, however, to be culturally relevant and sensitive (and to avoid some potentially awkward encounters!) it might be time to rethink that. Or perhaps just accept the fact that different gestures mean different things in different cultures and hope you never run across Deaf geocachers or ASL interpreter while out caching. 

 

Sorry, that's been used by thinkers way before I was around (a simple google search...), and I'm an old fart .  

I feel only someone with an agenda would have to bring this silliness up as anything else.

Most I know enjoy this hobby to get away from people finding issue with the simplest of things...  I want to relax...

[+TeamRabbitRun 526]

38 minutes ago, Keystone said:

 

I fixed the quotey thingy.

 

The "symbol" was an early avatar used by Jeremy Irish, co-founder of Geocaching.com, in the 2003-2005 era.

 

Thank you, Keystone. That 'symbol' has been a source of fun reference here for years in the spirit of what we're all doing.

 

[+tribble_eater 6]

Cerberus1 (and others),

 

I apologize if I offended you. I can't send you a private message since your account does not accept them, but I wanted to reach out. 

 

I didn't mean to stir up any trouble. I'm an interpreter and thought it was just something I might mention. I actually thought it was a really humorous coincidence. Didn't mean to be political or anything. I have no agenda. 

 

I was telling a caching friend about the conversation on the forum (she's Deaf) and she showed me where the sign coincidence has been mentioned before. 

 

So I'm not the first to mention it. But I didn't realize it would be perceived so controversially. Again, I apologize for any offense. 

 

Edited September 5, 2019 by tribble_eater

[+cerberus1 3334]

5 minutes ago, tribble_eater said:

Cerberus1 (and others)...

 

It's okay.  In line with a thread you started elsewhere, I gave a rep point for actually coming back. 

We're kinda used to some "starting things", then never returning.

Even when meaning well, unfortunately "tone" is hard to decipher and often misread at times too. 

[+ecanderson 595]

Um .. back to the topic at hand:

 

Yes, Cruise Critic (and one or two other sites) have either  a "roll call" for each cruise, or something similar.  There, you will find people who be on your specific ship on the same dates.  A post there may well find another cacher or two, or you may be able to 'create' one or two in the process.

 

Yes, ships often have bulletin boards posted near the gangway / lobby area.  Ask at the concierge desk and there's a good chance they'll let you post a note there.

 

My last cruise was a Danube run from Amsterdam to Budapest, and I discovered quickly that I was traveling with another cacher and his son.  We caught a few in various ports together and compared notes on what we'd found if we went at different times.

[+Super_Nate 0]

A couple things I did on my recent Alaska cruise that worked:

 

1) Wear a geocaching shirt while on the cruise. We had a cacher introduce themselves to us while in the dining hall.

2) Host an event at one or all the ports you will be visiting. We did this, and met some cachers on another cruise ship that was at the port at the same time.

[+Calypso62 28]

Since I first posted my question, I've been on two cruises. The most recent was from Buenos Aires to Santiago beginning mid-February. We were fortunate enough to be able to complete our whole itinerary before Covid-19 had any real impact in the regions we visited.

 

About halfway through the cruise, I decided to visit the Passenger Services Desk to enquire how I might go about contacting other geocachers that may be on board. Of course, I first had to explain what geocaching was to the fellow. He was mildly interested. He said he would contact the people that put the daily schedule together and see if a non-hosted (by entertainment crew) get together could be scheduled into the program for an upcoming day when we would be at sea and not visiting any ports. I kept an eye on the program and a few days later, my geocaching get together appeared, scheduled for 1pm in one of the lounges.

 

So at 1pm on the day I arrived at the spot and waited to see if anybody showed up. I wasn't overly hopeful as I had found a few caches while visiting ports and didn't see any logs from finders on the same day. Still, I persisted and at 1:15pm, two people turned up. One was a young lady from the entertainment crew who had heard about geocaching and wanted to know more. The other was a passenger from the USA who was in the same boat (excuse the pun) as the crew lady. So for 15min or so, I explained the game and answered questions. The crew lady had to go back to work but I continued talking to the passenger. She told me that both she and her husband were quite keen to learn more and that they were travelling with another couple who also wanted to find out more about geocaching. I suggested the five of us meet up on the next sea day and I would conduct a short exercise that would give them some idea of what it's all about. 

 

I devised a simple "multicache" around the ship involving three "waypoints" and the final GZ. I called it appropriately, "Lost At Sea". They had to use the clues to find "Kevin the Koala" and his mates who had become lost. Because the ship was moving, I couldn't use coordinates, so I just gave clues to various locations they had to get to. At one waypoint they did some object counting. At the next waypoint they converted a codeword into a value using the code A=1, B=2, C=3.... Z=26.  At the third waypoint, they needed to find the number of letters in the name of the ship's Godmother. Once all the numbers were discovered, they did some simple maths that gave them a cabin number (which happened to be mine).... but on which deck? This was determined by a riddle. At each cabin on the ship, there is a mailbox or slot where items such as programs, notes, invitations, etc, can be left. I had a mint tin with me so I placed a log inside and duct taped it to the mailbox along with some small, clip-on koalas that I had brought from Australia.

 

Well, they found Kevin and his mates and signed the log. They took the koalas home as a souvenir. All four really enjoyed hunting for the clues and finding Kevin. Both couples said they would join up to geocaching when they got home. I've since received an email from one couple who did join up and have found 6 caches so far. At the moment they are stopped from going out due to Covid-19 restrictions. This couple particularly enjoys hiking in the wilderness and will probably seek out some of the more adventurous geocaches. I've also sent a Friends Request which they have accepted. 

 

Overall, it was a most enjoyable experience. On my next cruise, I'll go to the Passenger Services Desk soon after I board at the beginning and see if I can get a couple of unhosted scheduled geocaching meet ups into the program. 👍😀

 

 

 

[+Goldenwattle 1658]

28 minutes ago, Calypso62 said:

We were fortunate enough to be able to complete our whole itinerary before Covid-19 had any real impact in the regions we visited.

I went on two cruises just before the Covid-19 impact. One over Christmas to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and New Zealand. And then one that left in February  and returned to Sydney in early March. It was one of the last ships without any Covid-19 aboard. We were so lucky. That ship visited Australia and PNG ports. There was some impact with the virus in PNG, as we were not allowed to land Rabaul, but no problems with the other three PNG ports and the two Australian ports.

[+colleda 872]

What a great idea and sounded like fun. I was also on a cruise in February - New Zealand. I spent a week driving around the north island pre cruise but didn't do much caching.  I really wanted to grab a cache or three on Stewart Island as I had never been the before but as it was a tender port we could not leave the ship due to strong winds. Ah well, maybe next time.  There were a lot of Americans on our cruise and anyone coughing was given a wide berth however I reckon people were more worried about picking up a flu virus. We arrived back in Sydney on 19/2. Dodged a bullet there.

[+ras_oscar 91]

To the op, aside from the silliness in post 6 above ( which brings up old and fond memories) in the field I usually just hold my GPS and tilt it toward other potential cachers. On a cruise, maybe you'll get some replies if you walk to walking around deck just before a port call with a GPS hanging around your neck?

[+NYPaddleCacher 1832]

20 hours ago, ras_oscar said:

To the op, aside from the silliness in post 6 above ( which brings up old and fond memories) in the field I usually just hold my GPS and tilt it toward other potential cachers. On a cruise, maybe you'll get some replies if you walk to walking around deck just before a port call with a GPS hanging around your neck?

 

I was walking down a street in Monterey, California heading toward a cache a couple of blocks away, and a group of people were walking in the opposite direction.  I had my GPS on a lanyard hanging around my neck and when they passed me one of them said, "geocaching?".