retlawv

My spouse and I have been on both, we have been on 4 atlantis cruises and while I enjoy being surrounded by all men on an atlantis cruise and love the parties.. I have also become fond of all straight cruises with a few on board gay couples. We tend to be very out in our daily lives and that extends to our travel as well and have found that the straight people on the cruises in general are very receptive.. We though have had a few mild negative experiences like some people won't sit next to us or they are bit reserved with conversation till they loosen up a bit. We have also had negative experiences on an all gay cruise where guys did not think you were up to their standards would not talk to you, so its no different. We went on a few straight cruises and then had an atlantis cruise this past march just for one last time and we decided it was our last time after that cruise as the cruise format and entertainment is about the same as always. We are getting older and the parties are too late for us to fully enjoy them and when we travel we look to sightsee a lot and so often want to go to places that atlantis does not cover or at a time of year that we cannot go. Plus there is the cost, we are Canadian and have to pay everything in American dollars which can be costly, there are no freebees like drink packages or free gratuities.. so last year we booked a straight cruise for 14 days from Singapore to hong kong and it was cheaper than our 7 day atlantis cruise round trip to Puerto rico. I think I will be sticking to the straight cruises in the future. I do not mind being amongst a bunch of straight people. My husband and I have been fully out in our lifestyle in our community for many years and I am comfortable being out in a straight community on board a ship.

Hi guys

We are Steven(59) and Walter(58) and will be on this cruise as well. We live just east of Toronto, Canada. We are arrive in Auckland on the 6th. We have been together 33 years and been legally married for 11 years. Its always nice to meet other gay people on these cruises.

It depends on what you are looking for in a cruise if aqua class is for you or not. In addition to concierge class, you do get access to the Persian garden, which In my case I did not use. For me the big bonus and selling feature was access to the Blu dining room. This is the first time that we had booked aqua class at the recommendation of my travel agent and I would book it again, just to access the blu dining room. Dining there provided a more intimate experience, the wait staff began to know everyone dining in blu and you began to get specialized service over the course of the cruise. The blu dining room is not as noisy as the main dining room giving the feel of a specialty restaurant. On our cruise we did eat in the main dining room once and decided that we did not like the experience and returned to blu. We also ate in blu for breakfast whenever we could as we liked the fresh made to order breakfasts that this dining room provided. We were on the celebrity infinity and blu was part of the ship refurbishment. According to other guests that had booked aqua in the newer ships they said that blu was a larger venue in the newer ships and in the celebrity infinity it was a smaller venue. We often when to dinner around 7:30 and because of the size of the dining room often had to wait 10-15 minutes to be seated. We retreated to cellar masters and enjoyed a glass of wine while we waited and the maître de would find us an seat us when the table was ready. We had heard that in the newer ships there was little or no wait for a table so that might be a consideration. For us the wait did not bother us. Another big bonus in blue is the every night is dressy casual including formal nights so there is no need to lug a suit with you.. Formal nights is the one big turn off for me for cruising and I know for a fact that more people would select a cruise holiday if there were no formal nights.