• by Karl Greenberg , Staff Writer, June 5, 2015

I would never take a cruise. Never wanted to. I perceive it as spending days stuck in an immense, floating hotel with swimming pools, endless food and obnoxious people.

My perception of cruise lines was formed, in part, by my visit to Mexico’s Playa Del Carmen years ago, before it was ruined by hotels and tourist traps. I had taken a side trip to Tulum. I was on the beach there, admiring the ruins. I strolled up to the water's edge and there was a sad juxtaposition: crystal clear waters fringed with garbage, detritus from a cruise ship, or many cruise ships. I knew this because there were ship-branded plastic cups for booze, packaging bearing ship logos, and things that clearly came from off-boat tourists who: get off the ship to shop for souvenirs, drink, eat, and return to the ship post-haste, with memories of gift shops. It only takes one or two encounters to leave an indelible impression. Mine was of a pair of besotted travelers, an experience I won’t go into.

Cruising, I’m convinced, appeals not a bit to people looking for an immersive experience where they actually learn something and come away changed, and not in body mass index. I think, from studies I've read, and from my own instinctive feel for what people want — I mean people cruise ships would love to convert — that younger folks, like adventure, experience and getting away from Americana on the high seas. Or American anywhere. They don’t want to eat at Wolfgang Puck’s joint on deck three.

Carnival Cruise Lines, the biggest of the bunch, knows this. They are launching a major initiative, “Fathom,” that constitutes a combination of cause marketing and savvy pitch to that growing psychographic of people who recycle, shop organic, are probably GMO abstemious, like eco-tourism and donating with action more than cash. People who like the idea of volunteerism. My wife and I ran into an actor friend, a recognizable movie actor, and current star of a TV show, at Kennedy Airport, returning from a volunteer gig in Thailand. He could have gone anywhere on the five-star plan, too. I thought that was amazing. I remember it. 

So, Fathom is kind of a tourism Peace Corp that would appeal to someone like him, an early 40’s guy into “social impact travel,” Carnival’s term. Their program begins in the Dominican Republic next April, and will, they say, expand worldwide. 

Travelers — the company is expecting maybe 700 per trip, initially — work directly with local communities around education, economic development programs and the environment. They will work alongside leading organizations on the ground to help their programs have greater impact. Given Carnival’s money, this could end up making a difference, as much as I hate that expression. Fathom is Carnival's 10th brand in a company with 700 ports and 10.6 million guests per year, a lot of business. 

Tara Russell, an entrepreneur in the space between economic development and social causes as workable business plans, and leader of the new Fathom brand, said these travelers will get training on board before arriving at their destination, where they will do activities developed by local partners on things like teaching English, water filter production and delivery, reforestation, cultivation of cacao plants and working in local nurseries, and in local chocolate production.

Carnival says it will bring in people who have never cruised before and between the ages of 20 and 55. The ship is also not the usual behemoth, which should have really major appeal. It is the 710-passenger Adonia, from Carnival's U.K. operation under the P&O flag. Carnival's taking registration now via a $300 deposit, refundable, to reserve a spot on a future Fathom trip: seven days to the Dominican Republic, starting at $1,540 per person. That’s not a bad deal. I just dropped that much on my airline ticket alone for an overseas trip. 

And it does come with an exterior cabin with a window, all meals on the ship, onboard social impact immersion experiences, three on-shore social impact activities and related supplies, taxes, fees, and port expenses. The price is in line with other similar kinds of immersion trips. Now, will people do it? Will people want to? I think so. When Russell asked audience members at the United Palace Theatre up in the Dominican area of Harlem, many raised their hands. I’d do it.