i just found out that the cruise we are booked on is the pin trading cruise! i don't trade pins! will this mean a much more crowded ship?

will it mean good things like fewer kids on board or less crowded pools?

i own a total of two pins and i have no desire to start trading. how will this affect my cruise?

uh-oh!! I don't know if it'll be more crowded, but the ship will be full of people wearing lanyards. Make sure you wear your life vest at all times, as all the extra metal from the pins may sink the boat! :p

I'm not a pin trader, I'm a pin keeper so I totally understand.
Good news: hard to pin trade and get a massage at the same time thus spa appointments should be easier to come by.
I think the trading is done in designated areas at certain times -- so there will be "breaks" -- just steer clear of those areas at those times and you should be fine.
Plus, you go through a metal detector in each port (they'll have to keep taking them off and putting them on).

uh-oh!! I don't know if it'll be more crowded, but the ship will be full of people wearing lanyards. Make sure you wear your life vest at all times, as all the extra metal from the pins may sink the boat! :p
:p

niwel - that's nice about the spa appointments. i'm hoping that all the pin people will congregate together and leave the rest of the ship uncrowded. i can dream can't i? :p

Yikes! You poor thing! You truly have my sympathy.

(I'm saying this just because I've literally been physically attacked by 3 rabid pin traders at DL. :()

will it mean good things like fewer kids on board or less crowded pools? I haven't been on a pin trading cruise, per se, but I have been on a cruise with a LOT (450) of Disneyana collectors.

I don't think it necessarily holds that there will be fewer kids on boards, although that definitely was the case with our group. (It was an expensive convention, and most people with kids left them at home)

You might want to get an itinerary of their events, so you know when the ship is less likely to be crowded. If they are all at some presentation, you know the pools are going to be empty! :D

From what I have heard about the last pin trading cruise, the trading pretty much spreads around the ship. There is a "pin trading lounge," but people can go wherever they wish.

Based on my cruise, there are two things I can warn you about - the line to get into the ship's store on the first day will be longer than you want to deal with, and there will be large crowds whenever they release a new pin.

But the good news, as Shana said, you can't wait in line for a pin and get a massage, so enjoy the times when the traders are distracted.

AVP