My first SOLO cruise (gay man's perspective) on Emerald Princess

[JasonTehGreat]

I am a 31 year old gay man and took my first SOLO cruise a few weeks ago. I have cruised several times before but this was the first solo and the first time I have been to any of the LGBT activities onboard.

 

For the majority of my previous cruises I had always booked the first seating in the Main Dining Roon. This often conflicted with the LGBT/FOD meetings so for this cruise I booked second seating in the MDR.

 

The LGBT get together was every day at 5:30PM in one of the bars (usually the wheelehouse but was once in Explorers). 5:30PM is also the first dinner seating so this worked out wondefully.

 

Another reason I never went to the LGBT get togethers is because I usually travel with my straight cousin and didn't want him to be uncomfortable. He is not homophobic at all and has no problems with gay people. The only problem really is that people almost always assume he and I are a couple. Just as I would like to meet single guys onboard he would like to meet a few ladies which is hard to do if he is always with gay men.

 

I think in our future travel we will probably go our separate ways during the LGBT meetings and hopefully he can find a singles group or something.

 

I am also usually quite shy around other gay guys (a little self conscious I guess) but I was determined that I was going to go on this cruise, go solo and attend the LGBT get togethers and I am so glad I did!!

 

I had a blast. I met another CC member (jeffdal) and his partner 3 other guys. One guy only came the first night but was really nice. We all seemed to look forward to our little meetings every day and also usually planned night time activities like going to the Princess Pop Star (two of the guys from our group made the final) and/or to the club later in the night. I had probably the best time on a cruise I have ever had.

 

The crew were all nice and friendly and I did not get even the slightest indication of any homophobia or hostility towards gays. All of the servers in bar were really nice and chatted with us. My only complaint and it's more of a suggestion than a complaint is that I, and so did some of the others in the group, thought that Princess should have had a crew member host the event. There were plenty of gay crew members (and some that needed to be lol) so one of them could have easily hosted it for 30 minutes or so in the evenings. I think that would have made it an excellent experience.

 

Overall I was very happy with this cruise and am looking forward to a few more (2 booked for September).

 

If any of y'all have any questions, ask away.

[GUT2407]

Glad it was all OK for you, hope you and your cousin can work something out that will let you travel together and each meet people that suit you.

[JasonTehGreat]

Glad it was all OK for you, hope you and your cousin can work something out that will let you travel together and each meet people that suit you.

 

We don't have any problems with it. We're going on 2 cruises later this year. It works out. I just think from now on I will go to the LGBT get together and let him go to a singles meeting or somewhere else to meet women (idk where else to find them lol).

[Wayneair]

Glad you had a first great solo cruise experience.

 

I have done 2 solo cruises (19 total) with the third one booked for this coming October. This will be a 15 night transatlantic and really looking forward to it. I am pretty outgoing and have no problem talking to "strangers". On my last solo cruise I opted for the anytime dining (which is good so you get different people each night) and my first night I basically ate with the Golden Girls. We had a blast and made arrangements to eat dinner together a few more nights. Don't let my avatar picture mislead you, I'm a young black guy and dining with the Golden Girls created a number of stares as to how I fit in with the group. That made it even better.

 

Another advantage is most staterooms are already small enough but for one person it works great.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Wayneair

[medousa1979]

Sounds like a good time! I'll be cruising solo in December, before joining friends on an Atlantis charter in March.

 

Sounds like meeting some folks on board won't be an issue! :)