Royal Caribbean Gay Get together questions

I know this question has been asked time and time again, but I can't find the thread and times are a changin'! So I thought I would ask again.

I'm sailing on the Royal Caribbean Empress of the Seas, 4/16. It's a ship that's coming back to Royal Caribbean after being with one of their subsidiaries for many years. LGBT gatherings are sort of up in the air, as is a lot of other things to expect with the ship at his point.

I feel like they are doing things similar to how they do on other ships. So could you all inform me: does Royal Caribbean do LGBT gatherings on other ships? How is posted? How do I find out about it? How do you feel about them?

I am travelling with my parents, so it's not as if this is my only hope, but it would make things nice to make friends with other LGBT cruisers while on board. Maybe this means searching them out besides an LGBT gathering or not, we'll see!

Any words of advice are appreciated, and happy sailing!

You are right in that this has been majorly discussed. There is an active thread about the FOD meetings going on right now.

I was on Anthem in December, for 7 days, 6 of them had a LGBT get together listed right in the cruise compass with a time and location. The only night that didn't have one listed was the night of the Quest, because all of us silly queers were there doing weird things.

The more important questions is, who goes? This varies from sailing to sailing. My BF is EXtremely outgoing, so his personal mission is to heard all the gays on the ship to that location. He even gets crew and command staff there.

I have seen the gathering with as little as one and as many as 14. Depends on the sailing.

On the RCI Voyager of the Seas we took earlier this month, LGBT gatherings were in the Cruise Compass each day, and we saw separate gatherings named 'Friends of Dorothy' on the Community Noticeboard.

We didn't go to any but I had a laugh when I passed a group of people at one point who were trying to work out who 'Dorothy' was! :D

We used to look for the "events" but gave up a long time ago. Just sitting at a bar and having cocktails, you'll meet family. On an excursion, you see them there too. Our last cruise we counted 5 male couples in the specialty dining room so fear not!!

The notices for organized gatherings seem to vary from ship to ship. I suspect it's up to each ship's cruise director staff how they handle it. Most of the time you will find a notice for a Friends of Dorothy or LGBT gathering or something similar in the daily paper that it left in your cabin each day. If you don't see it there, look for a bulletin board near the guest services desk. Royal Caribbean usually has these for people to post their own notices for things. Sometimes someone from the ship's crew will post things here as well. But as the previous poster said, also just pass thru the various bars. The gatherings tend to happen on their own quite a bit.

I've never attended any of the "official" LGBT meet-and-greets, but my friends and I have never had any difficulty at all finding fellow LGBT cruisers to socialize with. It always seems to start out with one or two gregarious types identifying each other, then just sort of snowballs into a happy group as others see us all having fun together on or off the ship.

Have a great cruise :-)

I've never attended any of the "official" LGBT meet-and-greets, but my friends and I have never had any difficulty at all finding fellow LGBT cruisers to socialize with. It always seems to start out with one or two gregarious types identifying each other, then just sort of snowballs into a happy group as others see us all having fun together on or off the ship.

 

Have a great cruise :-)

So very true:)

on the Vision transatlantic the FOD get togethers were listed on the Compass

from a friend currently on Rhapsody

On RCI'S Explorer OTS and someone posted a LGBT lunch notice on the bulletin board. They gave time and day with instructions to meet outside the main dining room. We had 26 people show up and they put us at 3 tables in the same section. We went around and gave our name and where we live. While we only got to chat with our table mates (which was very good conversation) when we saw others around the ship we felt comfortable in saying didn't we see each other at the lunch?

It was a great idea and worked wonderfully well. We plan to do it again, especially on longer cruises.

On RCI'S Explorer OTS and someone posted a LGBT lunch notice on the bulletin board. They gave time and day with instructions to meet outside the main dining room. We had 26 people show up and they put us at 3 tables in the same section. We went around and gave our name and where we live. While we only got to chat with our table mates (which was very good conversation) when we saw others around the ship we felt comfortable in saying didn't we see each other at the lunch?

It was a great idea and worked wonderfully well. We plan to do it again, especially on longer cruises.

do you know if somebody arranged it or was that lunch purely organized by the ship?

Sounds like a great idea.

do you know if somebody arranged it or was that lunch purely organized by the ship?

 

Sounds like a great idea.

This does sound like a good idea, and it sounds like it was just done by a passenger, not arranged by the ship. Anyone can post an announcement on the board at the guest services desk announcing a meeting or get-together.

This does sound like a good idea, and it sounds like it was just done by a passenger, not arranged by the ship. Anyone can post an announcement on the board at the guest services desk announcing a meeting or get-together.

that's my thought as well. Still nice.