At Sea, Off the Sole of the Boot of Italy, Headed for Mykonos, Greece: So-called "sea days," days the cruise ship is not in port, are a challenge for the Cruise Director's staff. The idea is to have enough things for passengers to do to keep them from getting bored when they obviously cannot go ashore.
A few years ago they'd have had lecturers doing Elderhostel-like talks on a variety of topics. Both of the DrsC did this cruise lecturing, enjoyed it, got a lot of low cost cruising in return, and were well received by our respective audiences. The other DrC did "digital photography for novices" and I did "world affairs" - a combination of world politics, history and cultures overlaid on a base of geography.
Unfortunately we cost the cruise lines money - the fare they could have gotten for our little inside cabin plus the extras they could have sold to those paying pax: photos, art, t-shirts, shore excursions, liquor, etc. Lecturers didn't buy much of that stuff.
Now if anybody lectures they are very likely to be ship's personnel: a chef, a photographer, or somebody trying to sell something (art, future cruises, etc.). In other words, somebody already on board in crew quarters, not somebody taking up salable passenger cabin space.
Alas for those good old days. It was fun while it lasted.
