Travel with The Boys
Crochet Cruises, developed in 2013, has been ‘Hook’n The High Seas’ since our inaugural crochet cruise in 2014. Eighteen crochet cruises have happened.
Hosted by Michael Sellick & Daniel Zondervan, aka Mikey & Diva Dan from The Crochet Crowd. Crochet Cruises was retired in March 2022 ready for the new Travel with The Boys concept for 2023.
New Beginning
With the Crochet Cruises behind us and the crochet conferences on the ships are now put aside, we have always wanted to enjoy a less stressed vacation to sit and gossip with you instead of being ‘ON’ all the time. Michael and I have over the years with the crochet cruises have enjoyed ourselves so much by just having casual conversations stitching and b*&^hing with lots of laughter in the background. PLUS, we also learned a heck (hell of) a lot of fun crochet gossip.
Those that got to know us over the years would say we are just everyday people. We have feelings and we get exhausted from being ‘ON’ all the time. When we do sit and gossip, we do swear a little. Oops…but we are having fun. It is exhausting trying to be perfect when the world is expecting us to do so and yet the world itself will never be.
More Personalization than Mass Entertainment
We love cruising but we also love land adventures as well. Travel with The Boys now could be anywhere and anything. A cruise, resort, villa, ski resort, or even a train ride through the orient. There is a whole world to explore. Cruise ships only take you to a very small piece of that adventure and usually at a less appealing shipping yard. As Anthony Bourdain once mentioned, “it’s all Mass entertainment”. Three to six thousand people will get the same treatment. We are thirsting for more of an adventure. We would love for you to join us so you can meet new friends, CROCHET and shop for yarn in new locations around the world. If this excites you, then come and be part of Travel With The Boys.
Does this mean no more cruises? Of course not. Sherry, our travel agent, and I are working on some cruises too. We are seeing many more options for cruise ships and companies than ever before. AND… a lot of new ones! We want to try them out. Imagine jumping on a National Geographic cruise and seeing Canada’s Arctic or sailing through some of the smaller ports of the Mediterranean. You see, there are many more options with different varies costs similar to what the Crochet Cruises cost today.
Bring Your Own Yarn
What about all the sponsored yarn? Because we are no longer teaching and hosting a conference, we no longer have the stress and additional work to provide yarn for our trips. Shipping pallets of yarn is an enormous cost and is limited to where it can go. For Travel with The Boys, you can bring your projects with you. We might even have a theme and we can all work on something together for charity.
Current Tours
What do you have coming up?
Now that COVID vaccines are out and restrictions are slowly being lifted, travel will be commencing with eager anticipation. Here at home, we are now looking ahead. We don’t want to push our luck. We believe that COVID is here to stay, it’s a dark reality and no one will be able to predict if countries will open or close. Who thought gas prices were going to skyrocket to the rear? RIGHT!?
At the moment we have only one major trip but Sherry and I are really excited about the future adventures that are not announced yet.
Christmas Markets on Ama Waterways River Cruises. Starting on Nov 30th, 2023
Travelling in the first week of December 2023, we are on a river cruise from Switzerland to the Netherlands visiting Christmas Markets along the River Rhine. Many of our traditions are European based and to see them at the markets during the season will light up and be so much fun. Our plan on the ship is to make Christmas decorations for our personal Travel with The Boys Tree on the ship itself plus more crochet holiday ideas. We have booked three-quarters of the ship. There is still room, but we are 70% sold out. A Christmas celebration with love, yarn and friends!
Travel with The Boys – Christmas Markets on the Rhine River – Jingle Balls Tour
There is also a Zoom meeting about this trip. April 11th at 7:00 PM Eastern Time. Here is the link to sign up and be part of this educational zoom meeting. If you are interested in a river cruise in Europe but want to inform yourself before booking, this zoom meeting is for you. Please take part.
You are not obligated to say yes to the adventure by attending the Zoom but you can have your questions answered and the group tour will be presented as we know it today.
Zoom Meeting: April 11, 7:00 PM Eastern Time
Australia and New Zealand – UPDATED
May 29, 2022
You might have heard about Australia and New Zealand. Mikey will be attending the cruise portion of Australia to New Zealand. It is better to go with people that you may know or even as a group of naughty crocheters. If you want to crochet and have this dream vacation, talk to Sherry and see if you can make it happen. It’s always so much fun.
- Boys Not Included – The Outback 2 Week Adventure in Australia
- Mikey Only – Knotical Cruise from Australia to New Zealand and Back
How do we sign up for Travel with The Boys?
Right now, check in with The Crochet Crowd Website. We have a section called Travel with the Boys.It will have the latest information and it will always be updated when new information is announced. You can also contact Sherry, her information is at the bottom of this blog. If you wish, she can add you to her emailing list so you can get the fastest updates.
We also have a Mystery Crochet Adventure. What is that? We give you clues, you decide. More Information in the future will be provided on the Travel with the Boys Facebook Page.
To help us more, we created a casual survey to get an idea of what you are looking for in a vacation. If you love surveys help us out. ALL information is kept confidential and that information is only for us to hear what sparks your interest in a vacation
Help us out: Do the Survey
Will there be limitations?
When we think of travel, many automatically gravitate towards large vacation resorts but there are so many more little vacations that can be experienced all over the globe where they are less known and almost little hidden gems. With many of the little gems though, there are limitations and expectations that have to be altered.
For some of the locations we have planned and will be shared publicly, there might be limits on the number of guests. Though we wish we can have a large group as we had before, we are looking at personalization more than overwhelming our senses with a huge crowd of crocheters. We want it more intimate for the group sizing.
If there are any, having mobility issues is a strong factor in not booking the adventure. Usage of walkers, canes or scooters will restrict a guest. We cannot stress this enough. Think about it, can you use a scooter to go up a Himalayan cliffside or push a walker over stones and boulders as you visit someone’s home? It’s not to be exclusive but to be realistic to experience unique adventures where the adventure isn’t a massive tourist location. Things such as the following should be considered:
- Ability to walk over cobblestones and uneven surfaces.
- Usage of ancient stairs that may not include a railing to hang onto.
- Ability to carry your own luggage up and down stairs without an elevator to assist.
- Ability to use ladders going up and down.
- Ability to walk extended paths or up and down steep slopes.
- Ability to step overboard a ship and onto a dingy style smaller boat for transporting to land.
We are used to extended washroom facilities and space. Some locations may be limited in spacing in general and may not be something you are used to. It’s focused on the experience and some washrooms may just be a water closet. We could end up staying in a castle or village on the seaside. We could be on a yacht or catamaran moving around from location to location.
This is considered a vacation and we are inviting you to come along with us. Seeing this is a vacation, we are not going to be doing conference-style activities. Meet socially to hang out, maybe hook or just stargaze. We are not looking for guests who are chronic complainers but are open-minded to new adventures. Expect the unexpected and roll with it. Expect sudden changes on the fly and be flexible.
You may be expected to change the locations of the hotels during the vacation to shift our group from one location to another.
In collaboration with Sherry Leybovich, franchise owner of Cruise Planners™ based in Florida as our partner in the event planning. The Crochet Cruises has become a staple event travel dedicated to the art of crochet and, more importantly, the crochet community for an extended travel vacation.
Remembering The Crochet Cruises
Agent Contact
Sherry Leybovich ECCS, LCS, CTA. Sherry is in Florida & works on Eastern Standard Time Hours.
Toll Free 888-464-1827 ext 101
Local (Florida), 813-657-0844, fax 813-657-0854
Email: [email protected]
