Most people have heard about speed dating, which is a phenomenon that started around 10 years and is still going strong. The concept is that lots of single people turn up to a bar or other venue and then each person has a mini-date with all the other people individually in a round robin style event. The dates often last no longer than 5 minutes and people are encouraged to ask lots of questions very quickly. The downside of this style of dating is that people are very rushed and often do act as they would when they were more relaxed. These issues have apparently been solved by a new ‘cruise-dating’ format.
New York based company, ‘Moving Love’ are in the final stages of planning for their next singles luxury cruises following the success of their first trip. For the time being you need to be a single person to get a ticket for the cruise and must have evidence to back up your occupation. “That is all that we ask of our passengers” states Mike Flemming, MD of Love Works. “They have the whole trip to get to know the ins and outs of the other holiday makers, which is typically 4 week long enough to get know someone pretty well we think.” The original cruise was around the Indian Ocean and took place over 3 weeks, catering for more than 2500 singles. The cruise was a definite success according to the company, who have said that over 350 couples got together on the cruise and some are already planning to get married. Plans are already in place to run local river cruises and one is already scheduled to take place in Germany next year on one of the Rhine river cruises
Flemming has commented that the success of the new dating cruises comes from the fact people are more relaxed on the boat as they treat it as a holiday and they also are not forced to act quickly when meeting people as there is plenty of time for everyone.