Miss Neecerie said:Some thoughts on this.
First of all, while people may think there is an unfair advantage to being always held on the west coast....that would lead one to believe that people closer by would participate. Since, in all honesty that did not happen, and even the 'locals' for the most part came for one meal instead of the whole weekend, really does not pan out that it gave a large advantage to locals.
Part of the allure of the QM is to -stay- in basically one place with your fellow loungers....to -talk- and socialise. This is something that an event in almost any other place would lack, due to the 'oh lets go see this, quick everyone in a cab' or almost everywhere else.
I say this with the pedigree of having been to the New York event in 06, (see people -do- travel for these things!) and having spent quite a bit of the weekend herding around, instead of relaxing socialization. It was lovely, but it was not the easy everything in one -classy- place of the QM. In essense, it was a different event.
The joy of the QM is that it is not -conventiony- feeling, for the most part. One can come aboard, and not leave for the weekend, and pretend it is the Mid Atlantic 1937. That ability to spend the weekend in the time travel machine we all keep clamoring for...is -why- the QM event is -the- Event...rather then a rotating Shriners convention.
What she said, with an added: shore excursions could be arranged for those cursed with boredom aboard the ship, similar to this year's jaunt over to Ft. Mac or previous year's trips to Disney or shopping.