Taking a Byte Out of the Cruise Market

Here’s an idea that computes: ship trips for the byte-obsessed, shamelessly dubbed Geek Cruises. A new outfit in Doylestown, Pa., is launching . . . er, powering up . . . its first venture: Perl Whirl 2000, a weeklong sojourn through Alaska’s Inside Passage departing Vancouver, Canada, on May 29, 2000. The cruise is named for the Perl programming language.

We’re not sure how much the cyber-sailors will savor the glaciers, given the riveting on-board seminars: “The History and Culture of Perl,” “Packages, Objects, References, Modules” and “Advanced CGI.” Geek Cruises president Neil Bauman has been quoted as saying he expects the main attraction to be “spending 10 or 20 hours hanging out with other geeks.”

So far, most of those signed up for the newly advertised cruise are single men, said Charles Datin of Cruise Trek in Agoura Hills, Calif., the exclusive agent for the group, which is cruising on Holland America’s Volendam. Prices start at $1,399 per person, double occupancy, plus $475 for the seminars. Tel. (818) 597-2940. Geek Cruises’ Web site is https://www.GeekCruises.com.