Anyone here in the Archives Forum planning on going to this cruise festival next year?

I've not been before, but if the state of the world allows it to happen in January 2023, I'm all in.

I've been twice in the past. It's a stupid good time, no matter what the lineup is like. That said, I'm probably not going to do it next year unless covid is pretty much gone. As we've seen the big spikes are always in January so that's a recipe for disaster.

I would love to go to this someday, but I doubt it

I’d love to go but in the past it seemed like you had to have gone on a prior cruise to get a ticket. I’ll keep an eye on it for sure. Maybe enough people will be scared of Rona and I can get in finally.

I've been on every 70000 Tons cruise since they switched to the bigger boat in 2015. It's the most fun I've ever had in my life, but it can also be super exhausting drinking around the clock and staying up watching bands until 6am. It's also a pretty expensive trip. The ticket alone costs over $1000, then add airfare, alcohol, and a hotel before the cruise on top of that. I'm not sure yet if I'll be back in 2023. It'll depend on the lineup and the exact dates.

Dates have finally been announced.

January 30 - February 3.

I would still love to go, but I'm leaning harder now towards using my vacation time to visit Bavaria and Bohemia in December instead.

If the cost ends up being about the same, definitely do the Europe trip. That part of the world is fucking magical in December.

So I have heard! I went to the Czech Republic in June a few years ago and absolutely loved it. I can only imagine how it will be in the winter.

P.S. I was actually just up in Portland this last weekend (I see you are from PDX). Apparently I brought the San Diego Sun with me! Haha

Usually the cruise would have announced at least a few bands by now as tickets typically go on sale in September. Planning this sort of thing must be nightmare, especially given the current covid surge, so I wouldn't be surprise if they end up canceling.

Well, I was wrong! It's happening end of January, Miami to Bahamas. But no bands announced yet: https://70000tons.com

I'm surprised there are still no announcements yet.

Either way, I decided to go to Bavaria in November. I'll end that trip with a Kreator/Lamb of God show in Munich, though!

I've been on the 2014 edition, absolutely loved it, the review can be found somewhere here . But, as said, expensive. We hadn't been there before and didn't really book early, so we spent $ 1,200 each just to board, then € 700 for flights, not the cheapest hotel in Miami, went to see Amon Amarth in Fort Lauderdale and had a blast a few days after the cruise in Miami itself. Roughly a month before this edition will be my 12th consecutive Eindhoven Metal Meeting, never missed a day there; Europe is great in winter! Ruhrpott Metal Meeting is, for once hopefully, this year the same weekend as Eindhoven Metal Meeting; up to now it had been quite worth it to be in Oberhausen early December.

Six bands announced so far as of 11/2:

Insomnium
Kamelot
Korpiklaani
Månegarm
Nightwish
Rotting Christ

Even though it's 8 years ago already, I've noticed that many people on board don't come for the bands (or can name only a few bands performing). Every year the line up is wide, from Bonfire to Terrorizer and Satyricon (2014). But for the numbers: On 'my' edition there were some 500 band members (40 bands, roadies), some 800 staff and crew, and around 1,500 visitors. Of those visitors there are a lot of concert- or festival-organizers, sponsors, fanzines and the likes, so that's one of the reasons the 'normal' paying visitors don't come in cheap. On the other hand, people who attended before get cheaper cabins and are notified earlier than the regular sale starts. Gold members can board for some $400, I've heard.

I must recall, it's quite an adventure, especially if you go in a group and have some time and money to spend. My friends Jeroen and Marloes of Izegrim performed in 2014 and instantly booked for 2015, just to experience the fun again.

With these 6 names, I definitely won't go. Yet

I've been twice and I didn't meet a single person who wasn't a die hard metalhead and familiar with the majority of bands.


The discount for gold members is 10%, and the cheapest rooms are $800 before fees. Absolutely no one is paying $400; even when I went way back in 2012 the cheapest rooms were $666. These were the cheapest rooms available for the 2019 sailing:

Quad Room Rate / Person +$833.00 USD
Gold Discount (10% off) -$83.30 USD
Taxes and Fees +$448.00 USD
Grand Total $1,197.70 USD
https://70000tons.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6610

More added:

Fallujah
Kreator
Novembre
Uli Jon Roth

More: Obscura, Warbringer, Oceans of Slumber, Melechesh

Already a pretty solid lineup and they still have 45(!) more bands to announce. I would maybe be considering it if I didn't have a work trip that week. But still curious if we're gonna get another huge covid spike after xmas like we usually do. Because if that happens and it's a new variant that could be a disaster.

Public tickets on sale tomorrow. The absolute cheapest tickets this year are $1,400, with most in the $1,800 to $3,000 range.

I'm kind of bummed I'm not going this year. It's always fun and I live in FL so I can usually decide to go last minute, but we just put on a new roof and getting solar installed next month, so money is a bit tight. We also are doing a Greek Isles cruise in 2023 so that's going to take up a decent chunk of PTO.

Hell yeah, enjoy your trip! I did that about a decade ago. Naxos was understated and lovely, Paros was a bit boring, Santorini was gorgeous but extremely crowded even in the off-season.

Nice! I'm excited! I've been to Europe many times, but never Greece and we got an insane deal for the cruise (it's a Disney cruise and we were supposed to be on one of the first sailing of their newest ship (Wish), but they had to push the dates back and gave us 50% off any cruise through the end of 2023. So we decided to go all out and book the 11 night one and upgrade to a veranda. We still had a lot of credits left over from multiple COVID cancellations, so after all that I think we paid like $2-3k.

They announced Vektor and the backlash was so severe they dropped them 12 hours later

Kind of bummed I won't be able to make it this year. Money is just too tight, and the dates don't work at all with my schedule. I would have loved to see The Crown and even bands I've seen before like God Dethroned, Jungle Rot, and Melechesh. I might do 2024 if the cruise still happens. I'm getting the sense that sales are a bit slower this year than in the past.