LGBTQ+ - No Partying

[Chrisp5]

I would take a look at Vacaya. They do full ship charters and there are lots of parties but it doesn’t feel like it focuses as heavily on the party as Atlantis.  Lots of people never attend those parties and have a blast.  I happened to wander by the piano bar at the time of one of the big parties and it was also packed with people enjoying a performance.   I went with a friend who has done gay group cruises before, he’s already booked for another cruise next year.   I’m not huge into the scene but being on a ship where everyone is LGBTQ is just such a positive experience.  

[CDNPolar]

8 hours ago, Chrisp5 said:

I’m not huge into the scene but being on a ship where everyone is LGBTQ is just such a positive experience.  

 

I imagine that it is and would be a positive experience...

 

I came out in the late 70's and then to me being in a 100% Gay party, bar, or environment was a big thing.  You could be yourself and not worry what anyone thought.

 

My husband is younger than me and has never been part of any gay scene at all.  Never been to bars, or gay parties, etc.  We have gay friends, but they are a minority of our friend circle.

 

I have talked to him about a gay cruise and his question is always the same:  What would be the advantage to us to do that?

[fshepinc]

Your husband is a lucky man indeed if he has always been 100% free to be his authentic self, never holding back a kiss or a touch, nor feeling unsafe because of other people or his surroundings. That definitely wasn’t the world in which I  came of age. A gay cruise is, first and foremost, a cruise. But it is also a week or so of freedom from heteronormativity, its attitudes and constraints.

[starri]

5 hours ago, fshepinc said:

But it is also a week or so of freedom from heteronormativity, its attitudes and constraints.

More so than the parties, the thing that's freeing for me about Atlantis is that it's a week where I don't have to apologize for being myself.

[CDNPolar]

20 hours ago, fshepinc said:

 But it is also a week or so of freedom from heteronormativity, its attitudes and constraints.

 

I guess that I don't feel this kind of constraint?  We have so far only cruised Viking together and of 930 guests on Ocean and 180 on River, we are lucky if there are 2 or 4 others from our camp on the ship.  We don't feel any constraint at all, and just go about our time on board as we do at home.

 

14 hours ago, starri said:

More so than the parties, the thing that's freeing for me about Atlantis is that it's a week where I don't have to apologize for being myself.

 

Kind of same answer as above.

 

BUT, I get it.  I personally have the history of the bars and the parties and the need to gather together to be who we are... but I guess I just don't feel the same need to do that today.

 

Perhaps I will push my husband to try a gay cruise.  Who knows, it may be more liberating than I am giving credit.

[ScottC4746]

On 7/13/2023 at 6:27 AM, Cdn_Traveller said:

I have been searching and I have to say it is hard to find a cruise that is LGBTQ+, but not a party ship.

 

I do not want to go on a cruise that is just a party.

Mainline cruises are getting more and more LGBT friendly.  HAL had a meet up a couple times on a 7 night, Celebrity in 2022 had a nightly meetup.  Mind you these meetups were in the schedule but not hosted by the cruise line.  DH and I have not had a problem getting a two top, which was a giveaway to everyone else we were a couple, we would get traditional couple poses in the photos, beds together and no one batted an eye.  On Celebrity they had an LGBT night in one of the bars.  A few of us attended just before it started and left.  It was for a younger crowd than we were, music wise and volume wise.

[fshepinc]

Just off a two-week cruise on Celebrity. There was an LGBTQ meet-up every night, but after the first few nights no one attended. People just socialized together around the ship.

 

[CDNPolar]

10 hours ago, ScottC4746 said:

Mainline cruises are getting more and more LGBT friendly.  HAL had a meet up a couple times on a 7 night, Celebrity in 2022 had a nightly meetup.  Mind you these meetups were in the schedule but not hosted by the cruise line.  DH and I have not had a problem getting a two top, which was a giveaway to everyone else we were a couple, we would get traditional couple poses in the photos, beds together and no one batted an eye.  On Celebrity they had an LGBT night in one of the bars.  A few of us attended just before it started and left.  It was for a younger crowd than we were, music wise and volume wise.

 

We cruise almost exclusively Viking both River and Ocean.  

 

Beds together, table for two for meals, and no one every gives us a glance.

 

Crew are welcoming and open.  Guests are open and welcoming, or they just keep quiet as we have never encountered even a sideways glance.

 

Cabin Stewards have no issue whatsoever on Viking.

[ScottC4746]

11 hours ago, fshepinc said:

Just off a two-week cruise on Celebrity. There was an LGBTQ meet-up every night, but after the first few nights no one attended. People just socialized together around the ship.

 

Our cruise on X we went every night.  This time in 24 days, not that I am counting, we will go the first one or two evenings and then on our own.  They had our meetup at 5 PM we would rush to the MDR around 6 to get finished in time for the evening shows.  That group would get together for an hour.