greetings everyone
I am sorry that I didn't catch this thread earlier. I am currently cruising on a Viking Ocean cruise that is a combination of back to back cruises from Bangkok to Bali/Bali to Sydney/Sydney to Auckland (arrive in Auckland on Jan 10). While I agree that the service, food and facilities of Viking are top-notch and deserve a #1 rating, we have not had the same experience around LGBTQ issues. My husband and I have been together for 24 yrs, married for 15 yrs--we are part of the aging LGBTQ gen (67 and 75 y.o.--our gen has been through a lot). I have been a community organizer in social justice most of my working life. I did not want to do any "work" on this 45 day cruise--the longest vacation that we have ever taken. We have done Viking Rivers previously. While each leg of the trip has a different personality (because the turnover in passengers is quite large)--we have encountered more than the "cold shoulder" from some passengers, who tend to be middle-class, white, dominant culture, heterosexual, and not diverse in terms of ethnicity (I am a person of color and my husband is white). Perhaps that is natural in the world, that one tends to be more friendly and open to people who look or seem like you. Personally, I have not had that privilege in life. It has affected how much we feel "included" in the trip and the "community" of the ship. "Inclusion" is more than just not having barriers. The feeling of being welcomed and also some feelings of safety are also important...at least to me. While the service staff were spectacular, the customer service/excursion people were less so. The cruise director kept using an offensive term towards gay men when referring to a shipboard game they offered (as entertainment), which I hope was not intentional or conscious. I finally wrote a complaint (after hearing it for 20 days), and gave them the google definition of the term as evidence. They removed the reference from their vocabulary. But staff was clearly not trained in LGBTQ sensitivity. One tour guide in Jakarta referred to sodomy as a funny thing that a local politician was involved with. Again, I had to write a complaint to Viking customer service that their guides needed to be trained in LGBTQ issues, if they were going to be sensitive to the potential of an LGBTQ "market" or clientele. Lastly, initially no LGBTQ group was offered on any of the 3 legs of the cruise. I had to advocate for them each leg of the trip--not what I wanted to spend my time on. And we only got one meeting on each of the first two legs (Bangkok to Bali, and Bali to Sydney). I am in the middle of the third portion of the cruise and we finally got 2 meetings (after more advocacy)...we will see if there are more. While it might seem that I am complaining as a "minority" person vis-a-vis the dominant culture--I am also complaining as a person who dished out a lot of money for a 45 day cruise with business class tickets that Viking arranged. I expect competence that is good enough, not perfection, as a client passenger. In the larger perspective, their level of LGBTQ competence was not good enough for me. The trip is great, we are having a good time despite all this because the destinations are wonderful. And I didn't consciously pay money to get irritated by micro-aggressions. If there is a future destination on my bucket-list that only Viking goes to, I might consider taking them...but I would know that I would have to do my own self-advocacy while on the trip. In addition, I am balancing levels of comfort. I am very aware that most luxury cruise lines (including some of those who are reviewed as most LGBTQ-friendly) have lifted their covid vax requirements in 2023. Viking has not. That also makes a difference in my future cruising choices. Thanks for reading (I am on a sea day--can you tell?)
