Has anyone been on a Harley Davidson cruise?

[joeyancho]

I just learned that the cruise I booked on the Explorer for Feb. 5th, 2006, is a Harley Davidson cruise. I guess you can bring your bike on the cruise. The sound of 600 hogs starting up in every port is not exactly our idea of a relaxing vacation. Has anyone been on a Harley cruise? What is it like? We have been on a cruise with 600 Parrotheads and that was fun. But I am not so sure about the Harleys. Thanks for your input...........

[The Big Booper]

I read an article about that in Cruise Travel magazine earlier this year. I guess you could find it in your library. I remember it was on a Voyager-class ship. Sounds like you have the sequel.

 

David

[Davey Interweb]

Here's a good link describing the Harley cruise; it's in its sixth year now:

 

http://www.cruise-eta.com/pr01.htm

 

Apparently, a mere 35 bikes are allowed onboard. Their lucky riders are the first off the ship at every port, and receive priority disembarkation/customs clearance. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me :D

[PTarbay]

Thanks for the article.It was really inteesting.

[joeyancho]

Thanks Davey, now I feel better............

[MAO]

That sounds so awesome! I would love to be on a cruise with a bunch of Harleys and their riders. What a party! I have always enjoyed the sound of the bikes and the work/pride that goes into them. Also the comradery of the bikers is great. Of course that's one persons opinion;) Have a great cruise!

[larkwind]

We were on another ship docked in St Thomas in front of the Explorer and got to watch the Harleys being unloaded and readied. They were a great hit with all the taxi drivers and dock workers and people on our ship enjoyed watching them all get ready for their day. They weren't really loud as they drove off...and it was just for a few moments. Everyone around us thought bringing your own transportation on a cruise was a great idea!

[cpayne]

We were on one of the annual Hogs on the High Seas sailing Nov 2003 while sailing RCL Voyager. We were NOT part of the "convention", but were one of the few (approx 300) non Harley riders. There were approx 1500 Harley riders. We did not find out about this until we arrived at the ship to board. Our initial reaction was OH NO!!!! However, it ended up not being too bad. Please no blasting me, but here are my honest comments about this sailing......

 

Some lounges/areas were closed due to private party bookings. Music played in the various lounges was centered around the majority clientele. If you like dancing there was almost no opportunity for this unfortunately.

 

Most cruisers were not as "rowdy" as we would have expected

 

Dress code was waived in the dining room for the Harley riders, but not for others. They were allowed to wear jeans. The ambiance of the dining experience was greatly affected and not just by the dress code. A different atmosphere just existed all week.

 

Formal night was NOT formal which for us was disappointing! We walked to dinner the first formal night with my husband in his tux and me in full length blue sequence while the lady in front of us had on a black leather bikini top and black leather chaps with literally nothing else. I said to my husband, "geez I feel overdressed". He said, "dear as long as you have underwear on and your a$$ is not hanging out you ARE overdressed compared to her!" Felt the attire of many throughout the entire week was very inappropriate.

 

When exiting the ship each day they had a Harley Davidson bikini team meeting everyone right at the end of the gang plank. If there had been children with us I would not have wanted them to be exposed to this each day as they were barely clothed and the bikers would "show them a great deal of attention" as they got off the boat and they posed for pictures in "unusual" poses.

 

Overall everyone was very friendly. They had a lot of organized activities so at times you did not seem them much.

 

The smoking areas of the ship were out of control. We would purposedly go up/down a floor and around in order to avoid walking through a smoking area.

 

Did the cruise turn out to be as "bad" as I initially thought when we boarded. No, not at all. If I knew in advance that I was sailing with this group would I change my plans, probably. The reason being is that we prefer sailing with a diverse group of people. Having 1500 in one group and just 300 of us "others" created for an unusual make up of cruisers and we did not enjoy this. This would be my answer regardless of who the group was. Has nothing to do with the HD riders in particular.

 

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have other questions.

[Erie Dave]

We were on the Explorer this year when they had the Harley ride. There were 35 bikes, and other than the rumble when they left the ship each morning, it was just like any other cruise. If you were not outside when they left, you would never know you were on a Harley cruise!