In Dan's absence (well, he's around somewhere, just not online), I'll post a few answers from my perspective...

"I have never been on a cruise before and it sounds as if you haven't been on one either."

This is also my first cruise...

"I like the idea of being somewhere interesting and checking every area out I can, fully immersing myself. A cruise doesn't sound like something I would like."

It's definitely not the type of vacation where you can spend two weeks getting to know a local community. On the other hand, it's a great way to see a number of destinations in a relatively inexpensive manner. In seven days, we've been to Tampa, Key West, Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. If we had tried to do this flying with hotels, I imagine the costs would have been higher, especially if we had ordered dinners at restaurants to match what's served aboard the ship.

Add in the hassle factor of booking multiple airlines, multiple hotels, arranging local transportation, dealing with luggage every day, and a cruise really starts to make sense. I almost view it like a sampler tray at a restaurant -- we get to try out a few vacation destinations and decide if we'd like to come back for a longer stay in the future. Personally, I found Belize amazing and we've now added it to our list of places we'd like to visit for a "real" vacation in the future.

"So, on a cruise, you get to your destination, leave, pig out for a few days, land again etc."

Well, it's more like you get one full day in each destination. Arrival and docking is typically complete by 7:30am, and you need to be back on board at 4:30pm. You don't have to sign up for an excursion package, either -- you could simply go ashore, and use local transportation methods to check the area out for eight or so hours. You won't, however, get to experience any of the local nightlife, as that's when you sail.

"So anyway, as far as the geek part of the cruise is concerned, any interesting gadgets or the like? Everytime I see an article such as this, "geek cruises" or "Mac camps" I keep expecting to read all about the cool new software and hardware you are seeing, but you and Rob don't really mention anything."

That's not really the point of either Geek Cruises or MacCamp -- and having been to both, there's really not a lot of cool new hardware to be seen. Most folks are travelling with just three tech-toy things, it seems: a portable Mac, an iPod, and a digital camera. So really, it's not like going to a trade show where the point is to look at new hardware and go "oooh." There's really not a lot to report on on that front.

On the software side, I think we've all found a few apps that other people are using that look interesting. Dan and I, in fact, spent 2.5 hours presenting over 40 interesting apps that folks might not have heard of before -- many can be found in Dan's MacGems blog right here on Macworld.

The main point with Geek Cruises and MacCamp is education and kinship with other Mac users. You get to learn about new things, and talk to people from different Mac backgrounds. Each night, for instance, the speakers sit with a new group of attendees at dinner, so you get to talk to a wide range of people every night.

Hope that clarifies things a bit...I've actually had a lot more fun that I thought I was going to have. That's not to say that I wasn't looking forward to this, but like you, I've never thought of myself as one who would enjoy a cruise. I've found out, though, that it's a generally pleasant experience, and much different than what I had expected. And the Geek Cruise portion of the trip has been great -- it's been a lot of fun interacting with so many Mac users from so many different corners of the world...

-rob.