Same Sex Cruising - Beefs and Bouquets!

[Trickie Dickie]

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.

Will you share your experiences?

[CruiseAholic]

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.

[jbandkb]

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.

[Borrego]

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.

[Ringtail]

Originally Posted by Borrego

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.

[CruiserKent]

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

[MiamiSpartan]

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.....)

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!

[apollobeach]

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

[Schplinky]

Originally Posted by Trickie Dickie

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.

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.

[apollobeach]

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.

[Greghouseo]

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!!!

[northwestbear]

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.

[ozboys]

We had one bad experience on a South Pacific cruise out of Sydney on Dawn Princess. There was actually a large G&L contingent aboard, about 18 came to the LGBT drinks and a gay entertainment member managed to get us free champagne each time. However one night we went to go see the late show of a cabaret entertainer we knew from gay pubs in Sydney. We arrived to find out the show was cancelled and when we asked a staff member why we were told the show was too "gay" and that Princess was a family line and didn't go for that thing.

After a number of complaints the cruise director came and made a not very sincere apology, made up for only by the fact that he brought more free champagne.

Otherwise we have always felt wlecomed by both staff and other cruisers, whether on activities or dancing together at the nightclubs. We've done one Atlantis cruise and met many who had only ever been on gay cruises and said that is all they would ever do, but we have made many good friends both gay and straight from all over the world and would never give up that opportunity.

[marcopolo1125]

The only issue my partner and I have had when going on a cruise (which we've now been on 4 together now) was requesting our beds together and when getting to our room them being separated as 2 twins instead of 1 queen. It's happened twice because we assume they see 2 men on the manifest for the room and assume incorrectly that we aren't a couple. Bad assumption but better than snide comments... those have not happened to us (at least to our knowledge.)

[GriffinAlexander]

Lol @ the overalls comment. I know what you mean though. I lived in NYC for many years and got a big dose of culture shock from day 1. Figured it's all good as long as the individuals' intent is good.

[GriffinAlexander]

Originally Posted by GaNavy

Never a problem on any of my cruises, regardless of with whom I was cruising. The only weird vibe I ever got was on one cruise, from another gay couple at that, perhaps because my partner and I were an interracial couple (but since I didn't ask, I can't say for sure, maybe they just got up on the wrong side of the bed for 10 consecutive days ). It wasn't an isolated incident either; every time they saw us their body language got very withdrawn and defensive. But it didn't affect our enjoyment of the cruise; after about the second incident, we thought it was funny.

Cruise ships are about as gay-friendly an environment as I've encountered.

Lol. There was a gay FOD cruiser that some of the FOD bunch didn't find to have the most appealing personality, but while I'm certain those that didn't mesh well knew so, everyone for the most part kept it courteous and polite enough that it wasn't unbearable when situations put us all together. We all still had support for each other though, even those whom had personalities that could use an update.


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