shepp

I'd like to add: Numbers by John Rechy.

Hmmm...I love Rechy, but hardly think of his work as "vacation reading."

Actually, if you're into erotica, let me recommend a book I (coming out of the CC closet here) edited, the Lammy-award-winning Homosex: Sixty Years of Gay Erotica.

Wow...Michael Thomas Ford, Cecilia Tan, and Felice Picano are all pals of mine. You guys have good taste!

I have a poly friend who would be welcomed to bring her girlfriend and boyfriend if I'm around.

And yay for polyamory! No matter what Michele Bachmann says...

Sorry for the thread drift...

No problem. Thanks for your support. And Florida may have crummy politics, but you sure have some awesome theme parks down there. :)

Several times we've had non-gay couples at our FOD's. Often, non-gay women also. The reason they asked if they could join was because our group was having fun.

And around we go. My view - previously expressed, to some disagreement - is that there are ample opportunities onboard for straight and LGBT people to all mingle together onboard - at least 23 hours every day.

It's not that I'm heterophobic - hell, some of my best friends are straight ;). And it's not that I think we should keep the secret handshake under wraps, or am anxious that outsiders not discover the details of the Gay Agenda. It's just that...well, let's put it this way. If I came across a meeting for, say, lesbians or gay transmen or African-American gay men, and they were having fun, I would not ask - or even want - to join them; I'd respect their space. I know, I know...I'm old fashioned.

Of course, this is all complicated by the lines usually scheduling queer meets in high-traffic bar areas...less for our convenience, I'm betting, than in pursuit of our bar tabs. Het by-passers, spotting a group of über-stylishly dressed, fabulously witty same-sex couples, might not even know it was a specifically LGBT-denominated gathering. And their asking "May we join you?" puts the queer attendees in a Miss Manners spot. What can you say, "No, it's our treehouse and you can't play?"

FODs are not in fact gay/straight alliance meetings, which generally have political overtones. (And, believe me, I would be quite cheerful if I met a straight passenger who asked, "So if you guys can't get legally married, is there something I could do to help change that?" Hasn't happened yet.) Bottom line: If LGBT meetings become LGBTH meetings, then why have them at all?

Hi Shepp, I'm guessing you meant amusing as in odd? I am het and I do find most people who live "alternative lifestyles" amusing. Or maybe I just find almost everyone who doesn't so boring. What is female-to-male? Do you miss Yardley? I've lived there for 10 years and in the general area for 2 years, and I still haven't decided if I like it or not yet.:)

Not to stir up a hornet's nest, but...there was a query on this board from a straight-identified woman who likes hanging out with gay men, and wanted to know if she'd be welcome to attend LGBT meetings. My feeling was that there are plenty of other opportunities on a cruise to get to know gay guys besides "crashing" (her word, not mine) a queer-specific space. Others here felt differently.

(I mean, my partner and I, stereotypically enough, have tended to bond onboard with middle-aged women traveling without men. That doesn't mean, though, that I'd show up at a Red Hat Ladies' meeting.)

In any case, LGBT meetings aren't exclusive feeling. I remember a mother-and-(cute) son combo who showed up at meetings on a HAL cruise. I could never figure out whether it was a straight Mom supporting her gay son, the straight son of a lesbian mom, or whether both were LGBT...and as far as I know, nobody asked.

A "female-to-male" guy is a transsexual who identifies as male, but was born with female anatomy. He may be on testosterone and/or have had surgery, or may not.

I haven't been to Yardley for more than a brief visit for many decades. I miss a spring day at Afton Pond, maybe a trip to New Hope. Oh, and the relative proximity to Six Flags Great Adventure is a plus for us coasterfans. But my heart's steadfastly in San Francisco. Today it's not even foggy.

And yes, we are fabulously non-boring.

Most lines have scrapped "FOD" in favor of "LGBT," which would include "B," of course. I'd have no problem with you two, though I'm not crazy about avowed hets who come to LGBT get-togethers because they find us amusing. But if push came to shove, you could tell folks you were female-to-male. ;)

BTW, I grew up in Yardley...

If you're the type of person comfortable with independent traveling, it will be very easy to do a Machu Picchu trip on your own, without going on a pricey group tour. M.P. is fully on the main tourist route, and once you get to Lima, it's a piece of cake to take the trip at your own pace.

If you have the time, I strongly recommend you stay in the town of Aguas Calientes the nights before and after your visiting the ruins. That way you can get up there first thing in the morning and not leave till closing time. While Machu Picchu is a truly magical place, the main sites are not overly large. Around mid-morning, when all the groups arrived, some areas were totally clogged with people and the hubbub of guides competing with one another to spread tidbits of dubious information. You'd have to wait on line to take a decent picture of an altar. By mid-afternoon, most everybody was gone, and we and the llamas had the place pretty much to ourselves. Much, much better. And if you're into ruins and the like, it's worthwhile touring the Sacred Valley at a more relaxed pace than most travel agents offer.

Oh, and for high altitudes - M.P., and even more, Cusco - ask your doc about diamox.

So on the Island, is all access to the Sanctuary stairs and therefore the pool closed down after for-pay hours? I'm really fond of moonlight dips on the aft deck.

^ knot, that is the funniest sig line ever!

Yes, it did. I have such a crush on you right now. . .

We can't go on meeting like this.... ;)

O The selection you chose[Goddard/Behrens/Nakita] are excellent artists and world renown.

Not to seem snotty or burst anyone's bubble - after all, if you like something, you're entitled to like it - but the reason Godard is "world renowned" is because he churns out vast quantities of product, much of which then gets sold on cruise ships or in the fine arts capitals of Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and because he excels at self-promotion. He is not famous because reputable museums are clamoring to add him to their collections, or because critics and art historians regard him as anything more than a kitschmeister, or because he has anything more to say with his art than the unknown painter of the poker-playing dogs did.

By all means, enjoy your pictures of drunken olives. But please don't confuse them with actual investment-quality "fine art" in the generally accepted definition of the word.

My, that did sound snotty, didn't it?

Wow, you really need a vacation!

Actually, thanks, but just had one. On board the still-MUTSless Sapphire, where I was able to hang out by the pool or eat lunch outdoors on Lido deck without having to filter out the omnipresent soundtrack of the last half hour of some banal Jennifer Aniston rom com that I would never, ever want to see.

But I do stand corrected; apparently a great way to see a serious (or even semi-serious) film is with people constantly walking in front of you, the soundtrack being interrupted by captain's announcements, yelling kids splashing in the pool, and a waiter asking if you want anything to drink. :)

I'm curious why you'd want to know that. After all, until you get the Patters, you won't be able to plan your day around specific movie showings anyway. So are you planning not to rent those films or see them in theaters before your cruise? To me, MUTS is one of the worst ways to view a film that I really want to see. In the daytime, sunlight often washes out the screen. Even at night, there are often plenty of distractions. And the sound is booming but iffy. The only things I've enjoyed seeing on MUTS are rock concerts (and Princess does seem to show the same few ones over and over and over again) and what I'd call "enjoyable junk," like Mamma Mia! The rest is just background noise.

I was in Jamaica for the third or forth time a few weeks ago. I did not find the Jamaican attitude any different than most other poor Caribbean islands.

 

I walked from the ship to town by my self and never felt a moment of apprehension.

Kind of like you, I strolled through Ocho Rios all alone a few years back and really enjoyed it...but then, I've spent a lot of time in places like India, so I'm used to developing-world hassle.

However, it's well documented that the Jamaican attitude toward GLBT people is an entire order of magnitude more horrendous than other Caribbean homophobia, and until that changes, I ain't going back.

Second thoughts here: After posting above regarding "the only time I had a problem," I remembered a comedian who'd been on a Princess cruise that me and my partner took. He did a number of gay-oriented jokes that would have been fine in a mostly queer crowd, but felt very alienating when surrounded by straights in the middle of the ocean. (And I'm not hyper-sensitive about these things, though you'll have to take my word on that.) I spoke with him later, and he seemed genuinely surprised. He told me he was bi himself, that he'd never gotten complaints before (understandable, since approaching him and his wife on deck was a bit intimidating), and that he'd rethink his act. FWIW.

I have to say the only time I had a problem was on a HAL ship, the Zuiderdam, out of FLL. Shoot me for stereotyping, but there was a big group of name-tagged SOutherners onboard, though who they were I have no idea. After we'd docked next to a gay cruise, the CD made a kinda snarky joke at the show that night, and then when the Elton John impersonator made a joke about "tonight all being happy and gay," there were actually audible shouts of "No!" Later in the cruise, the second FOD luncheon was moved to a less visible spot in the dining room supposedly because (this is just hearsay) other pax complained. And an older man traveling with his younger bf told me we was given a whole lot of attitude, and ostracized by other passengers. At no point did HAL attempt to smooth things over. Could just be the CD, or the luck of the passenger-manifest draw, but the whole experience left a bad taste. I was traveling with my elderly Mom, a PFLAG type, and she found it all pretty disturbing, as well.

It is simple to me. An event that happens during a cruise is a happenstance of fate or just plain bad luck. A defect in the propulsion system that is known, but not disclosed in the ordinary course of business, is just plain deception. The former is fate, the latter is deliberate.

For me, the real crux is taking unanticipated risks.

You take a bargain Caribbean cruise in hurricane season, you know you may end up with an altered itinerary. Going to Grand Cayman? There's a good chance you won't be able to tender in. But I'd bet the vast majority of people have no idea of M-class problems when they book a cruise. Of course, I understand the company not publicizing their problems. But even cruise-ship books tend to say that there were originally problems with the pods, not that it's an ongoing issue. When I decided to cruise Celebrity to Alaska, where ports are very important to me, what I learned on CC was one of the factors that led me to choose the Mercury over Infinity. (Well, that and getting 14 nights instead of 11 for the same price. :))

This is the first time I've booked a cruise for myself, and price was a deciding factor in my even deciding to sail just now. I found an online agent who not only beat Princess' bargain inside-guarantee price by 5%, but threw in an additional $50 pp OBC, making for a 12% total discount over direct booking. We've now been assigned to a cabin 6 categories above our guarantee, the agent is always there for me when I call and is almost overwhelmingly pleasant, and all my requests have been forwarded to Princess correctly. So I guess the biggest gift she's given me is making booking such a great experience. Fine with me if I don't get a free bottle of wine...