Jump to content

Same Sex Cruising - Beefs and Bouquets!


Trickie Dickie

Recommended Posts

On another post of mine about same sex marriage, I noticed a great deal of gay cruisers have many stories, good and bad to tell. My spouse and I have been treated like gold for all our cruises. We only had one incident while during a Show on Celebrity Solstice a comedian told a bad gay joke which we and a lovely lesbian couple we had just met at the FOD found offensive. We left the show and reported it to customer service and they took it very very seriously. We were told immediately that they value their gay customers. They had a little chat with that comedian. :D

 

Will you share your experiences?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've had no bad experiences other than the occasional passenger making a snide comment, which has been rare and attributed to ignorance.

 

We went on a cruise in 2009 for my 50th birthday and ended up with a group of 65 friends along. For the night of my birthday, I hosted a dinner at the Crown Grill (we had arranged this ahead of time) and had the entire middle section in the back with plenty of passengers around us.

 

During the dinner, my partner got up and made a speech (the other passengers were listening quite intently) and presented me (in front of our friends and the entire restaurant) with a diamond commitment ring.

 

Many times rest of the cruise, people would stop me and ask if I was the one whose partner had given him the ring. When I said yes, they responded with congratulations, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've never had a bad experience which probably explains why we're at 25 cruises and counting. We're very partial to Celebrity having sailed many other lines.

 

We were on a cruise in 2008 with a group of friends celebrating various milestones. It happened to be our 20th anniversary. Much to our surprise and my embarrassment, our friends arranged for an anniversary cake, the waiters were beaming and I think as excited for our friends as they sang to us. Later the waiter asked how long we had been together, the maitre'd came by to congratulate us. It was a nice evening.

 

I think many passengers are blithely unaware we're a couple. We have often traveled with my in-laws and we hear someone tell my MIL, "you're so lucky to have your boys travel with you" or "your boys look so much alike" or some such comment. And my FIL is totally into helping us "find" the other gay couples on board. It's cute.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've been cruising since 2000, and I can't think of one unpleasant experience. After trying a few different cruise lines, we settled on Princess as our best fit. Being from Southern California (born, raised and will die here) my attitude was quite different from my husbands - he grew up in rural Michigan, didn't get to Cal until 1980 when we met. His attitude has relaxed totally over the course of our years together and Princess has always been supportive. If there have been passengers who objected to our relationship, they had the good sense to keep it to themselves.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Being from Southern California ... my attitude was quite different from my husband's - he grew up in rural Michigan, didn't get to Cal until 1980 when we met. His attitude has relaxed totally over the course of our years together and Princess has always been supportive. If there have been passengers who objected to our relationship, they had the good sense to keep it to themselves.

 

Perhaps my attitude still needs some adjustment. Of the two of us, I'm the one with lingering reticence to closing the closet door behind me. I'm more cautious about when or before whom to refer to my husband as ... well, as my husband. Whether that's from being a few years older, or from being a rural Michigander, I'm unsure. Nevertheless, our cruises, along with the GLBT get-together meetings that most ships provide, have played no small part in our enjoying our lives together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Hello Trickie

 

Nice thread!!! We have been on about 15 cruises, mostly Celebrity and RCCL, but also Princess, NCL, and Carnival. We have NEVER had a bad experience, far from it. We dont kiss and hug out in public but we are obviously a couple, dancing together in the disco etc. Most people really seem to like getting to know us, and we have a great time. I have never even seen anyone so much as give a sneer or dirty look or rolled eyes. I think it is due to much more awareness these days.

 

Kent and Tom

1733125764_OASISStThomasKentTom.jpg.1f01bcd0e605e7b08cce94ffbd432dc8.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've only been on two cruises, both on Carnival. I've had wonderful experiences on both, and have not had one negative experience. The room stewards were kind and respectful, as was everyone else on the ship.

 

I plan on doing more research though, and soon!

 

-Danny

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've only done 2 cruises thus far and had no problems on either. On our first cruise our bed was not connected as we had asked so when we let the cabin steward know he was very apologetic and rectified the situation right away. Maybe he had no idea, but hey we were happy! lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've never had a truly negative experience on our cruises because we're gay. We usually meet a lot of nice people, including staff, and both straight and gay couples.

 

Our first cruise was on the NCLA Pride of America. This was a combination "wedding" and honeymoon for us. We had a commitment ceremony on a beach in Maui on our 3 day of the cruise. We left the ship in our tuxes and had a limo waiting for us. (We could see it from the balcony in our suite.

 

As we left, the concierge asked if that was our limo at the pier, and congratulated us. When we got back many hours later, the steward had the room arranged with romantic lighting and towel animals on the bed, two swans with their necks and heads together forming a heart.

 

At the beach we received applause from the few people nearby when the minister finished the ceremony and we kissed. We had great conversations with the other couples that sat near us in the VIP section of the luau we attended afterward to celebrate. (not the ships luau)

 

On one Caribbean cruise we met several other men, and almost always met for cocktails in the evening. The staff in the bar was great. The food and beverage director was great too. We all had dinner together 3 nights on that cruise, and the meal in the specialty restaurant was comped once. There were about a dozen of us.

 

When we went on a one nighter on the same ship a few months later, many of the staff remembered us and chatted with us for a few minutes. We ran into the food and beverage director later and he offered to get us into one of the fully booked restaurants, but we'd already eaten.

 

So we've had some really great experiences on a couple of our cruises.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that this is a great thread!

 

My husband and I have been on 4 cruises together and have never had a negative comment or look sent our way. We travel with Pied Piper on their group cruises and there are usually between 400 and 900 "Family members" on board.

 

I have heard of some issues with our large groups (although I have not witnessed these events I thought I would share one with you all)

 

IT was a couple of years ago, on a RCCL ship (not sure which one only because I did not witness the incident and am not sure which trip it was on as I heard about it after the cruise was done).

 

There was guy at the customer service desk complaining about the group on board and he started to get angry when he was not given the answer he wanted. He proceded to yell and scream at the staff and demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor came out and told the guy in no uncertain terms that RCCL was gay friendly, that our group had the right to be on board that that he had violated the passenger conduct policy. They escorted him to his cabin, and he was put off the ship in the next day in port. RCCL sometimes get a bad rap because they do not publish FOD meetings in their daily, but I will continue to sail with them as they are my favorite line and they respect the rights of all passengers on the ship!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That was an interesting event, colocop004. I can imagine that "put off" passenger was more than put off when he was put off. I'd hate to see that happen, but there's always that chance when traveling ... all sorts of people have difficulties getting along.

 

Hope you and your hubby continue enjoying your cruises.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 years back, my partner's ex and I turned 50 and 40 respectively, so we took a cruise out of Port Canavaral with 35 friends to celebrate. (our birthdays are 10 years and a day apart......creepy, I know.....) :D

 

We used a gay travel agent out of DC that we had found on the internet, and he thought it sounded like such a good time that he also booked the trip...

 

The crowds on trips out of Central Florida seem to be a bit more middle America than the crowds out of Miami and FLL, so evidently, our group was quite the topic of conversation throughout the ship....

 

Our TA was walking through the lobby one night when he overheard a more mature woman say to her husband, "Oh look! That's one of the gay boys!", to which the TA went up to her to thank her, since it had been so long since anyone had called him a boy!

:p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Partner and I enjoy taking cruises and have meet so many wonderful people and have had tons of memorable experiences.

 

We read with interest when individuals state that they have never had any unpleasant experiences or overheard anti-Gay comments.

Cruises mirror the demographics and attitudes of society. Yes, we have had numerous looks and comments made.

 

In addition, we have had comedians who clearly crossed the line in their comments regarding Gays. We addressed these situations

on board but honestly feel a double standard exists. In our opinion, if the same comments were made regarding other groups it would be

offensive but regarding Gays it is acceptable.

 

Before taking a cruise, we have put a roll call for the cruise in the Gay/Lesbian CC roll call thread with no responses. We have also

attended the Friends of Dorothy meetings but rarely meet anyone to socialize with.

 

We always request a table for two in the main dining room. On a number of our cruises we have requested larger tables

when individuals have wanted to dine with us.

 

On all of our cruises the majority of the crew has been very Gay friendly (if not Gay themselves). For whatever reason the only negative/hostile crew members we

have encountered have been individuals who were from India.

 

On our Europe cruise this past summer, we spend several days in Copenhagen before and after the cruise. It was so wonderful for the first

time in our lives to be in an environment where being openly Gay is non-issue. We did not want to return to the United States.

 

And, as for the current "hot topic" - bullying - bullying comes in many forms, among them being hurtful and hateful speech. We have heard some of the most hateful speech on or travels, and no longer ignore it.

 

Rick/John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That was an interesting event, colocop004. I can imagine that "put off" passenger was more than put off when he was put off. I'd hate to see that happen, but there's always that chance when traveling ... all sorts of people have difficulties getting along.

 

Hope you and your hubby continue enjoying your cruises.

 

 

Oh we will, that was their issue, not ours!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Out of all of our travels, we have found that cruising by far has been the best way to travel. We have met some of the greatest people onboard our cruises.

 

The funniest thing that happens occasionally is that we are referred to as Father/Son.... Which at times has it's advantages... DH is almost 14 years older. We usually just set the record straight and move on. Life is too short to worry about the spoil sports and sour pusses in the world!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The funniest thing that happens occasionally is that we are referred to as Father/Son.... Which at times has it's advantages... DH is almost 14 years older. quote]

 

 

Well we're always asked if we are not only sisters, but TWINS!?!?!? :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On another post of mine about same sex marriage, I noticed a great deal of gay cruisers have many stories, good and bad to tell. My spouse and I have been treated like gold for all our cruises. We only had one incident while during a Show on Celebrity Solstice a comedian told a bad gay joke which we and a lovely lesbian couple we had just met at the FOD found offensive. We left the show and reported it to customer service and they took it very very seriously. We were told immediately that they value their gay customers. They had a little chat with that comedian. :D

 

Will you share your experiences?

 

We had the same experience as you on HAL except for two important differences. It was the cruise director who made the joke and nobody would apologize or acknowledge it was wrong. He was actually boo'd from the crowd and he said "c.mon, you know I'm just kidding." I doubt he'd have substituted black, Muslim or Jewish" for gay in his joke.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Comedians, simply board the ship in one port, stay on for a night or two and then leave. In our opinion, cruise ships are like society in general: if a comedian does not feel there are any Gay onboard...laughs at the expense of Gays are acceptable.

 

Our first bad experience was on HAL. We addressed what occurred, only to receive excuses. This past spring on the Carnival Miracle we walked out

when the comedian said: "I need to use an anti-Gay disinfectant". When we addressed this: we again simply got excuses from the Cruise Director.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hope you don't mind me contributing to this thread people.

UK Straight couple (with gay daughter) who tend to gravitate towards gays on board, more by coincidence than design, as we just seem to get on particularly well with gay people.

More extrovert, more fun, and we tend to enjoy our cruises more with them.

Spent last years Mariner OTS ex-LAX with two guys Craig and Jack. They made our cruise.

 

I get very frustrated by this "them" and "us" philosophy. It's all about going away and having a good time. Orientation is a total irrelevance.

 

Simple as!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My husband and I absolutely love cruising. We have never done a "gay cruise." We love meeting other passengers on-board and have rarely had any problems. As others have reported, we've had comedians make comments and we had a cabin steward who was a bit cold to us on one cruise. But for the most part the crew have always been warm and welcoming and we've met some absolutely wonderful people, both straight and gay in our travels.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've only been on two cruises, both on Carnival. I've had wonderful experiences on both, and have not had one negative experience. The room stewards were kind and respectful, as was everyone else on the ship.

 

I plan on doing more research though, and soon!

 

-Danny

It's the short "booze" cruises you need to be a little careful on. These cruises cater to lower income(and less tolerant folks). That's when I've heard complaints about Carnival/NCL/RCCL. Other than that these lines are totally gay friendly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

We've been cruising since 1993 and have done RSVP (9 of them), 2 Pied Piper and the remainder regular cruises - total 45+ (l've lost count!). On the whole, we've not experienced any issues except for the odd passenger comment or look but screw them, I'm on vacation! We did have an experience on an RSVP cruise to Greece. A group of us were on a tour in Delos when we passed a large German group. One of the men in the other group made comments in German that caused their group to laugh not realizing that one of our group spoke German. The guy in our group who spoke German immediately gave it right back to him in German and loudly and forcefully - the group slinked away.

 

On one HAL cruise, we were placed at a table for 10, of which 8 people showed up, including us. Four of them said very little and it was apparent they were uncomfortable - with us or not, I don't know. The 2nd night, we were down to 6. The 3rd night it was just 4 of us. The remaining couple stayed and we had a good time the rest of the cruise. One of the couples that left we ran into on HMC (HAL's private island) - he made it a point to tell us that it wasn't us as to why they moved to early sitting - but it was obvious it was. Too bad - we're fun to talk to! The last few nights we invited a Dutch woman who was sailing alone and sat at a table for 4 to join us. She did and it was fun - she didn't speak much English (she was an oncologist) and we don't speak Dutch so it was trying but interesting. She was grateful we asked her to join us.

 

We've sailed HAL (our favorite for ambiance and smaller ships), Princess, Cunard, Carnival (once on an RSVP charter), NCL and a few that have since gone under. The staff and crew have always been great. We usually join a CC rollcall and have met great people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember on one of the pied Piper post Thanksgiving cruises (2003 or 2003) there was some incident in the disco that led to a security presence there the rest of the cruise. For our own reasons (No fault of Pied piper, they do a great job.) we decided we're more comfortable on mainstream cruises, and have never had a problem worth mentioning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

Thanks for posting this thread! I just won a 7 day cruise on NCL, and I originally had some concerns as to whether or not my partner and I would have any issues with passengers on board when we embark. However, it seems that things will likely be pretty cool.

I can handle myself, and I'm also a former comedian (I'm disabled now, doesn't mean I'm not funny anymore), so I can retort pretty scathingly if need be. But the way I look at it is that if we are paying for a balcony room or suite for a week (ocean view certificate was free from Hard Rock, but the upgrade will cost $$$), then I don't want to have to deal with any negativity if at all possible.

As someone who has done stand up in NYC, I'm fine with comedians making jokes about anything as long as it doesn't get too bad. Gay jokes and ethnic jokes are ok in my opinion as long as they aren't demeaning. Pointing out the differences in people and cultures is what makes the joke. Putting them down because of it is actually what bad comedians do. A lot of ethnic comedians until recently had a free pass on that, but it seems to be changing as of late. One of my best jokes was a little bit I used to do about Richard Simmons and Sally Struthers and how she'd make a great spokesmodel for him because she's heavy and cries a lot. I overplayed the effeminate way he speaks and the crying stuff she did in her "save the children" ads, but it was a funny bit, which really wasn't hurtful toward anyone or offensive, but still mentioned gays, heavy people, and obsessive deal a meal customers. One thing I've learned over the years though is that someone making negative comments about gays is usually the same guy that will try to check out your junk in the public rest room. It's a way for someone who is afraid of being found out of hiding their latent homosexuality. Once that is realized, and understood, I find it easier to deal with those who would make a negative comment about me. Of course, me being me, I'd likely bug the offending person until they jumped off the ship. I'm disabled with 8 herniated discs and a bunch of associated other disc problems as well as migraines, but before I was hurt I worked out regularly, and unless I'm using my cane, I look like a muscular guy who can kick ass. More than once I've told a straight bigot that if they keep it up they will have to go home and tell their wife that a fxx kicked their axx.

I wanted to thank you for your thread, and just mention that indeed it's ok for a comedian to bring up the differences between black n white or other cultures, or gays and lesbians and straights, as long as it's not done in a demeaning way. I don't think gay people should get a free pass at gay jokes nor should a black guy get a free pass at all racial jokes. I know that most blacks don't want to be called the "n" word, and so they shouldn't feel that because they're black they have a free pass to call me a cracker, whether it offends me or not. After reading through all the posts in your thread, I'm not worried at all about any stress or discomfort from the other guests on the cruise my partner and I will be taking in March, April or May of 2012. If there's an odd bigot or two on board, I'll deal with them as I need to, but hopefully it won't even come up. If it does, I'll probably go out of my way to embarrass them enough that they don't ever try to insult another gay person again without thinking twice first. lol. (One easy way is to simply point out that with overpopulation of the planet and test tube babies, straight people are no longer required in order to reproduce any more. Another is just to seek out the offender, sit near them and hold hands, kiss, cuddle, and do all the things I don't normally do in public just to watch their face turn red. Yet another is to walk up to them when their with other people and insist you saw them a few weeks back on a gay dating website-these are just methods for dealing w/ bigots, not how I would normally behave, rest assured).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have sailed Carnival for years now with either gay friends, boyfriends, or tricks de jour (just kidding, truly just kidding, especially if my bf happens to find this thread) - I have had exactly 0 trouble with anyone on the boat. In fact last thanksgiving the partner and I were on a cruise and the first night he outs us all to the entire boat at the Welcome Aboard Show. Well that made dinner FUN! At our table were 2 in the closet gays (deeply, so far in fact that the doorknob was their only friend), 1 we think was a gay guy, us, and then a family of father/mother, and 3 BEAUTFIFUL girls. They just kept right on going throughout the entire dinner being just as nice as it can be to us. In fact many times during the cruise they would find us on board - stop, talk, hang out. The daughters found us one night int he disco when they were having a little creap out with some guys there and hung onto us both.

 

I have never had any problems and on that same cruise we met a LOT of other Cruise Critic members that knew up front we were a couple and were just truly wonderful!

 

As I have said several times before - and any good CD will tell you - you will never see these people again in your life - have a BLAST!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...