An affiliate relationship is a good thing. Two businesses enter into an agreement as they know that the relationship will benefit each other and their customers, and that is what took place between the Porsche Club of America and Princess cruise lines 3 years ago. Since then, PCA members have enjoyed a nice discount on Princess cruise bookings and even better, the Treffen at Sea event was born!
The first Treffen at Sea was a cruise to the Caribbean in 2023, and about 700 PCAers attended. Last year, the cruise moved to Alaska, and attendance grew to 800. For 2025, the journey was a New England cruise, and attendance topped 900 PCAers, including the Coes from Connecticut. Since retiring a couple of years ago, my wife Sheryl and I have done a few cruises, so when the PCA cruise was set to take place in our “backyard”, we had to sign up. I’m so glad we did, as we had a blast.
The cruise was one week in length, leaving out of Brooklyn, NYC, and visiting four ports of call. We made our way to the pier on Saturday and were greeted by many people looking to board the Enchanted Princess ship. Fortunately, we spotted the special ‘PCA only’ boarding sign as it was the first of many special benefits due to that affiliate relationship.
Once on board, we found the PCA check-in area, signed in, and started to meet and talk with other PCA members.
One of the many PCA activities that I decided to participate in was the diecast model car show competition. I had brought one of my scale model 968s, so we dropped the car off and then off we went to work on the next competitive event, the cabin door decorating contest.
Once we were all checked in, we met on the deck for a bon voyage party, and it was time to set sail!
The first day was a sea day with no port stop. On a regular Princess cruise, sea days are full of numerous activities scheduled throughout the day, but we were lucky to have additional PCA activities on top of those. For our first day, we had seminars on the Porsche market along with watchmaker TAG Heuer (sponsor). I attended those while Sheryl competed in the chocolate Porsche car painting competition! As the activities ramped up, we continued to meet many of the friendly PCAers. We take beautiful New England for granted, but many PCAers had traveled from the West Coast and Texas so that they could see the area for the first time, including New York City, and they were very excited.
On day two, we hit our first port, Boston. It was great to be greeted by the Northeast region at the port, along with a number of their fine Porsches. After saying hello, we headed out to see Boston.
When you travel on a cruise, you can book Princess-sponsored excursions at each port or, if you like, you can set out on your own. My wife and I had visited Boston before and chose to do our own excursion; Quincy Market, walking the Freedom Trail, and a stop at Fenway to see a game, as the Red Sox were in town. It was an awesome day.
Over the next three days, we hit three additional ports. We took Princess tours that stopped at Portland, Maine, St John’s, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. All three ports offered interesting history, great architecture, and amazing natural beauty. All the while, we were very fortunate to enjoy fantastic weather at each stop. The Arcadia region met us at our Canadian stops, so there were even more Porsches to see. Peggy’s Cove in Halifax was breathtaking.
And speaking of PCAers, we had a small contingent of eight CVRers present on board, including Dolly and Joe, Jackie and Ron, Ann and Steve, and Sheryl and I. Go CVR!
The PCA activities went on all week. We had a special PCA dinner on Tuesday, sponsored by Pirelli (they gave away two sets of tires during the cruise), and the diecast model car concours was held on Wednesday. The competition was fierce, but I was excited to learn that my 968 took third in class! The Diecast 1st place winner got a free cruise!
The PCA crowd “owned” one of the ship’s lounges and we had seminars and social gatherings there all week, including a 50s sock hop and a groovy 70s party. The PCA Treffen staff did such a great job organizing events all week and utilized the WhatsApp application to keep everyone informed on what was going on and where things were happening. We had such fun.
One piece of advice we would offer anyone attending a cruise is to join a “share” table for dinner. This is typically a table for eight and you’ll meet other guests from around the country. It is fascinating to learn about your dinner companions and where they are from and by the end of the week you will all be great friends. Add in the additional trait of Porsche ownership and there is much to talk about and learn. We met so many great people throughout the week.
Before we knew it, the week was up and we were headed back to the port in New York City. We had a farewell party on our last night and said goodbye to all our new friends. Princess did a great job and the service and the food were excellent. Kudos to PCA for partnering with such a great company like Princess. I can’t say enough about what a great event the Treffen at Sea was except that I can’t wait for my next one!