Lesbian Couples who love cruising

[Turtles06]

Turtles06 what does "TA" stand for??

 

Cruise Critic lingo for "transatlantic." But in other contexts, it also means "travel agent." :)

[tpadul]

Cruise Critic lingo for "transatlantic." But in other contexts, it also means "travel agent." :)

 

 

Ah!! Got it!! Thanks ;) still trying to learn all the lingo and abbreviations

[MishelleMcc]

Morning all! I am not an expert but I think NDA's means: "Non-Discountable Amounts" Usually for port charges and fuel cost increase charges. Personally, I think they are just a pad to the fee they want to charge and is misleading/false advertising. Just my uneducated opinion=D

 

Darn it! Rude smokers (like rude drinkers) should just be banned all together!!! We don't like smoking indoors so we wouldn't even smoke in the casinos. If we went to a bar (before they became non-smoking) we would strip in the garage before going into the house! I hate the smell as much as the next person.... *sigh*

[MishelleMcc]

You know, even 5 or 10 years ago gays and lesbians had to be discrete and careful. It's amazed me how many more of us there are! So the need for exclusively gay/lesbian vacations is not as important as it once was...

 

You guys will be fine on a regular cruise!!!!!! AND WE WANT TO HEAR ALL ABOUT IT WHEN YOU GET HOME!!!!!! I loved CruisinMaterial's Norwegian Breakaway review! I hung on every word!!!!! So please share!!!!!!

Edited July 16, 2014 by MishelleMcc

[Turtles06]

You know, even 5 or 10 years ago gays and lesbians had to be discrete and careful. It's amazed me how many more of us there are! So the need for exclusively gay/lesbian vacations is not as important as it once was...

 

You guys will be fine on a regular cruise!!!!!! AND WE WANT TO HEAR ALL ABOUT IT WHEN YOU GET HOME!!!!!! I loved CruisinMaterial's Norwegian Breakaway review! I hung on every word!!!!! So please share!!!!!!

 

Totally agree that the need to sail on lesbian/gay charters is hugely diminished, which is why we haven't cruised with Olivia since 1998.

 

We are quite comfortable traveling as a married lesbian couple on "regular" cruises (and I hope I didn't suggest otherwise in my comment above). Our "regular" cruise on the NCL Jade in the Med in 2010 remains one of our all time favorite trips, and we have (non-gay) friends to this day from that cruise.

[tpadul]

We are certainly hoping this cruise we will meet some nice couples to maybe do some excursions or just hang out with etc.. we pretty much kept to ourselves in Mexico last month simply because we really wanted to be alone and relax and enjoy our time alone together. Most of the people at the resort were families with children or large groups of people there for destination weddings and that really didn't give us much opportunity to interact with many people. Maybe the cruise will be different than the resort.

 

We are still keeping fingers crossed for just one Olivia experience as it is always nice to be in a large group of "family" and not have to worry about someone giving us a cross look or confused looks if they see us holding hands etc.. we were so excited when there was one other lesbian couple on our snorkeling day trip we did in Mexico though we did have some good conversations with some straight couples there.

 

We are both very friendly and personable people and we both like to talk when given the opportunity LOL!!!

[MishelleMcc]

Totally agree that the need to sail on lesbian/gay charters is hugely diminished, which is why we haven't cruised with Olivia since 1998.

 

We are quite comfortable traveling as a married lesbian couple on "regular" cruises (and I hope I didn't suggest otherwise in my comment above). Our "regular" cruise on the NCL Jade in the Med in 2010 remains one of our all time favorite trips, and we have (non-gay) friends to this day from that cruise.

 

Hi Turtles06! My young uncle loves the Med! I don't know if we will ever get the chance! We Won a trip to China which we took last winter (amazing experience) and I think we are cured of any immediate desire to travel long distances! Ha! We figured out that we spent 33 hrs in airplanes over a 9 day period! So this year, we want to avoid long distance flying!! We fly out of Boise ID so there are hardly any direct flights to anywhere! Btw, I read the blog of your Antarctica trip and it sounds amazing! Fantastic pics!

[MishelleMcc]

tpadul "We are both very friendly and personable people and we both like to talk when given the opportunity LOL!!! "

 

Yup! That would be us too!!!! Sounds like the Mexico resort was a bit chaotic!

 

So my DW and I are up in the air as to what to do: Start researching all the cruise lines from the beginning and find a ship with the amenities we love and a cabin with easy access to a designated smoking area? Or should we proceed to book HAL and hope they still allow balcony smoking by the time we sail. (Starboard aft) … DW even suggests we might be non-smokers by then! (we are always trying to quit…) Ha!!!!

[Turtles06]

Hi Turtles06! My young uncle loves the Med! I don't know if we will ever get the chance! We Won a trip to China which we took last winter (amazing experience) and I think we are cured of any immediate desire to travel long distances! Ha! We figured out that we spent 33 hrs in airplanes over a 9 day period! So this year, we want to avoid long distance flying!! We fly out of Boise ID so there are hardly any direct flights to anywhere! Btw, I read the blog of your Antarctica trip and it sounds amazing! Fantastic pics!

 

Thanks for the very kind words about my Antarctica photos. It was indeed the trip of a lifetime!

 

Amazing that you won a trip to China; how fantastic! (What cities did you visit? Did you have any time on the Yangtze?) It's definitely a long fight over; we had three internal flights on our trip there, so quite a lot of flying in a couple of weeks. After that, the flight to Buenos Aires (the start of our Antarctica trip) didn't seem so long. :)

 

Our TA on the Silhouette this fall starts out with a week in the Med (Civitavecchia [Rome], Livorno, Toulon, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca), followed by the crossing itself, one of the main reasons we picked this particular itinerary. It's a two-fer!

[JennN]

Hi Jenn,

 

I see you have gone on Carnival Valor twice. I am actually booked to sail on her in May. What do you like about that ship? anything on her a MUST see or do?

 

 

I was spoiled and was on some really new ships before the Valor...the Valor *is* older. It is also smaller. However, the itineraries made it for us. We like the decor enough - "Americana" though some things are French? - but it doesn't "feel" tropical. I like the Bronx Bar, being born and raised in the Boogie Down Bronx. I love the adults only pool in the aft of the ship too. Plus, it has a cover so if it rains (and I think at night) it is always covered. No one ever swam after 7pm so I'd go in with my MIL after dinner :)

 

Have a blast!!!

[Lipz]

I was spoiled and was on some really new ships before the Valor...the Valor *is* older. It is also smaller. However, the itineraries made it for us. We like the decor enough - "Americana" though some things are French? - but it doesn't "feel" tropical. I like the Bronx Bar, being born and raised in the Boogie Down Bronx. I love the adults only pool in the aft of the ship too. Plus, it has a cover so if it rains (and I think at night) it is always covered. No one ever swam after 7pm so I'd go in with my MIL after dinner :)

 

Have a blast!!!

 

Thanks for the info Jenn.

I'm born and raised in Manhattan but I've lived in the Bronx for 24 years now.

 

I actually chose the Valor for it's port intensive sailing. Three of the five ports will actually be new to us and that was the big draw since we've been visiting the same ports just on different ships. I am so looking forward to seeing new places.

 

The tidbit on the pool is awesome. I've only been on one ship with a pool roof but luckily for us it did not rain that sailing.

[MishelleMcc]

Thanks for the very kind words about my Antarctica photos. It was indeed the trip of a lifetime!

 

Amazing that you won a trip to China; how fantastic! (What cities did you visit? Did you have any time on the Yangtze?) It's definitely a long fight over; we had three internal flights on our trip there, so quite a lot of flying in a couple of weeks. After that, the flight to Buenos Aires (the start of our Antarctica trip) didn't seem so long. :)

 

Our TA on the Silhouette this fall starts out with a week in the Med (Civitavecchia [Rome], Livorno, Toulon, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca), followed by the crossing itself, one of the main reasons we picked this particular itinerary. It's a two-fer!

 

We won the trip through Conde' Naste Travel. It was all Ritz Calrton! I don't even own nice enough clothes to walk into the Ritz - let alone have the ability to afford such luxury!! Coach airfare was included. We were in Beijing, Shanghai and Sanya... ( 2 nights, 2 nights, and 3 nights respectively.) It was such a quick trip that we really didn't get to explore much. But we did hire a private tour guide and driver for the Great Wall and The forbidden City. It was our biggest expense but thought it was worth it. Our Guide's father was a 7th generation Feng Shui master (surviving the revolution) and she had a lot of insight to their culture and history that we could not have appreciated without her!

[Pinklover954]

Anyone doing a short January - March cruise in 2015? Looking to surprise the babes with a little short something around that time. Wouldn't mind tagging along with others, as it will just be us 2.

 

 

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[Lipz]

Anyone doing a short January - March cruise in 2015? Looking to surprise the babes with a little short something around that time. Wouldn't mind tagging along with others, as it will just be us 2.

 

 

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We are cruising early 2015 but are doing a 7 day. It's an older ship but we booked it more so because 3 of the 5 ports will be new to us (see photo below for itinerary). Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Kitts all new, St. Thomas we've done once and St. Maarten is on our Explorer or the Seas sailing in 3 weeks. We're booked for May but I'm changing it to April when we get back from our upcoming sailing. My wife is going back to school so May will interfere will her classes.

 

 

 

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[Pinklover954]

We are cruising early 2015 but are doing a 7 day. It's an older ship but we booked it more so because 3 of the 5 ports will be new to us (see photo below for itinerary). Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Kitts all new, St. Thomas we've done once and St. Maarten is on our Explorer or the Seas sailing in 3 weeks. We're booked for May but I'm changing it to April when we get back from our upcoming sailing. My wife is going back to school so May will interfere will her classes.

 

 

 

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Ok, we've actually looked at this itinerary before and we also have never been to St. Kitts, Barbados, or St. Maarten. We've been to St.Thomas twice and to San Juan once. I remember we were torn because of the lack of 2.0 upgrades on this ship, but those ports are really awesome! I know I personally would be able to take the older ship, I'll just have to question her about sailing on an older ship to get better ports.

 

More than likely, we'll be sailing with you all lol. Yay! We have NEVER met another lesbian couple that loved to cruise, so this will definitely be fun. Most of the time they either don't have the funds to vacation or the relationship fails before we even head out to sea! Rofl! Eeeeek!

 

Which sail date in April are you looking into?

[Lipz]

Ok, we've actually looked at this itinerary before and we also have never been to St. Kitts, Barbados, or St. Maarten. We've been to St.Thomas twice and to San Juan once. I remember we were torn because of the lack of 2.0 upgrades on this ship, but those ports are really awesome! I know I personally would be able to take the older ship, I'll just have to question her about sailing on an older ship to get better ports.

 

 

 

More than likely, we'll be sailing with you all lol. Yay! We have NEVER met another lesbian couple that loved to cruise, so this will definitely be fun. Most of the time they either don't have the funds to vacation or the relationship fails before we even head out to sea! Rofl! Eeeeek!

 

 

 

Which sail date in April are you looking into?

 

 

 

 

I wasn't sure about the ship only because we had sailed each new ship that Carnival, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean has to offer. Norwegian now has another new one, Getaway and Carnival has updated the Sunshine but the opportunity to sail to new ports is out weighing me wanting to book any of those.

 

I'm looking at April 19th but when I went on the site today it wasn't showing any available balconies. I'm not going to bother looking into changing our booking until we come back from our 9 day sailing in a few weeks. It will cost me a fee to make a change and I don't want to spend the money on that until after we get back. I'll post the new date here once we change it.

 

 

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[Lipz]

Ok, we've actually looked at this itinerary before and we also have never been to St. Kitts, Barbados, or St. Maarten. We've been to St.Thomas twice and to San Juan once. I remember we were torn because of the lack of 2.0 upgrades on this ship, but those ports are really awesome! I know I personally would be able to take the older ship, I'll just have to question her about sailing on an older ship to get better ports.

 

 

 

More than likely, we'll be sailing with you all lol. Yay! We have NEVER met another lesbian couple that loved to cruise, so this will definitely be fun. Most of the time they either don't have the funds to vacation or the relationship fails before we even head out to sea! Rofl! Eeeeek!

 

 

 

Which sail date in April are you looking into?

 

 

Hey again, I officially finally changed our Carnival Valor sailing date so that it doesn't conflict with my wife (Sharine) going back to school. The new date is:

 

April 19, 2015.

 

I also upgraded from Upper deck on 6 to the lido deck on 9 so now we are close to the FOOD lol, oh and pools lol. I had to pay a $100 change of date fee, but since the April date was cheaper than the May date I only ended up paying $33.58 more! I still have my $100 OBC too. I am going to bed HAPPY!!

 

Let me know if you decide to join our sailing.

 

All are welcomed!!

 

 

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[Pinklover954]

Hey again, I officially finally changed our Carnival Valor sailing date so that it doesn't conflict with my wife (Sharine) going back to school. The new date is:

 

April 19, 2015.

 

I also upgraded from Upper deck on 6 to the lido deck on 9 so now we are close to the FOOD lol, oh and pools lol. I had to pay a $100 change of date fee, but since the April date was cheaper than the May date I only ended up paying $33.58 more! I still have my $100 OBC too. I am going to bed HAPPY!!

 

Let me know if you decide to join our sailing.

 

All are welcomed!!

 

 

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I'm definitely going to try my best to make it happen ASAP. I wanted to share with everyone a repositioning cruise with Carnival around the October-November 2015 timeframe. Some awesome ports are on the itinerary. We are looking at these as well.

Those ports are just too great to pass up! Couldn't keep the good info to myself :-)

 

 

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[Lipz]

I'm definitely going to try my best to make it happen ASAP. I wanted to share with everyone a repositioning cruise with Carnival around the October-November 2015 timeframe. Some awesome ports are on the itinerary. We are looking at these as well. [ATTACH]319985[/ATTACH][ATTACH]319986[/ATTACH]

Those ports are just too great to pass up! Couldn't keep the good info to myself :-)

 

 

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Those itineraries really do look nice. The first photo only shows one new port for us: Martinique. The second photo has a host of places that would be new for us: Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada! I couldn't even think about planning anything like that right now though. We have a 9 day cruise in about 2 weeks, then the Valor in April 2015 and the Oasis of the Seas in August 2015. My wife would kill me if I mention tanager cruise at this point. We are still paying for the May 2015 & August 2015 one!

[Pinklover954]

So we abruptly decided that we will be sailing for our birthdays this year. We're moving into a new place in September and need a stress reliever. Our birthdays are 10/9 and 10/13, so it looks like we may be sailing on the Sunshine again this year.

 

Anyone sailing on 10/12/2014?

[Lipz]

So we abruptly decided that we will be sailing for our birthdays this year. We're moving into a new place in September and need a stress reliever. Our birthdays are 10/9 and 10/13, so it looks like we may be sailing on the Sunshine again this year.

 

Anyone sailing on 10/12/2014?

 

 

As a teacher I would never be able to vacation in October. That's why April, May

and August are when we vacation. My wife's a little more flexible with her dates

but that may change. She's leaving her current place of employment before the

year is out. Good luck with your move!

Edited August 6, 2014 by Lipz
errors

[Pinklover954]

As a teacher I would never be able to vacation in October. That's why April, May

and August are when we vacation. My wife's a little more flexible with her dates

but that may change. She's leaving her current place of employment before the

year is out. Good luck with your move!

 

 

We're still looking to sail in April as well with you all. Trying to convince the babes to sail on a ship with no 2.0 upgrades. She was so irked by the Ecstasy sailing earlier this year to the point that she is scared to do it again lol. She's saying she may consider if we can eat at the steakhouse every night. [emoji52][emoji765][emoji765]I'll be ok as long as I can get the Cheers package. We shall see!

[Lipz]

We're still looking to sail in April as well with you all. Trying to convince the babes to sail on a ship with no 2.0 upgrades. She was so irked by the Ecstasy sailing earlier this year to the point that she is scared to do it again lol. She's saying she may consider if we can eat at the steakhouse every night. [emoji52][emoji765][emoji765]I'll be ok as long as I can get the Cheers package. We shall see!

 

 

Yeah, I'm not thrilled about sailing with no 2.0 upgrades but since we will spend

5 of 7 days in a different board I can deal with it. This will be our 10th cruise so

we are more excited about having 3 new ports to visit with this sailing. At times

it seems like we are running out places to see since we mainly sail from the east

cost.

 

Today was my last day of work. I am officially on vacation. We are cruising next

week on our longest sailing to date, 9 days. This is the family and friends cruise

we give every year. We have 14 cruisers this year. The group cruise for next

summer is already booked too, that has 28 guest and we are doing the Oasis

of the Seas which is better than any 2.0 upgrade. If your up for it, you and your

other half should join this sailing it is going to be better than the Valor one as

far as the ship goes. We cruised the Oasis sister ship last August, Allure of the

Seas. FABULOUS !!!

Edited August 9, 2014 by Lipz
typo

[Pinklover954]

Yeah, I'm not thrilled about sailing with no 2.0 upgrades but since we will spend

5 of 7 days in a different board I can deal with it. This will be our 10th cruise so

we are more excited about having 3 new ports to visit with this sailing. At times

it seems like we are running out places to see since we mainly sail from the east

cost.

 

Today was my last day of work. I am officially on vacation. We are cruising next

week on our longest sailing to date, 9 days. This is the family and friends cruise

we give every year. We have 14 cruisers this year. The group cruise for next

summer is already booked too, that has 28 guest and we are doing the Oasis

of the Seas which is better than any 2.0 upgrade. If your up for it, you and your

other half should join this sailing it is going to be better than the Valor one as

far as the ship goes. We cruised the Oasis sister ship last August, Allure of the

Seas. FABULOUS !!!

 

 

Ahhhh yes, we have heard nothing but awesome reviews about both of those ships. My gf Nakia actually researches everything about RCL ships, so I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time before we are rebooked again. We were actually booked for the Allure of the Seas this year, but winded up canceling the booking because of our upcoming scheduled move that has now ended up not even happening. Ugh! The agony and the pain that now fills my soul! Rofl.

We hope to add RCL and Norwegian to our "Previously Sailed" list soon. We actually just got into sailing in 2012(we're young) and have been racking them up every year since then. Can't wait to see what our sailing history looks like 5 years from now [emoji1]

 

I'm still interested in that April Valor itinerary though, she's just a tough cookie when comes to the older outdated ships. I'm more interested in the ports so soon we shall see!

[Lipz]

Ahhhh yes, we have heard nothing but awesome reviews about both of those ships. My gf Nakia actually researches everything about RCL ships, so I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time before we are rebooked again. We were actually booked for the Allure of the Seas this year, but winded up canceling the booking because of our upcoming scheduled move that has now ended up not even happening. Ugh! The agony and the pain that now fills my soul! Rofl.

We hope to add RCL and Norwegian to our "Previously Sailed" list soon. We actually just got into sailing in 2012(we're young) and have been racking them up every year since then. Can't wait to see what our sailing history looks like 5 years from now [emoji1]

 

I'm still interested in that April Valor itinerary though, she's just a tough cookie when comes to the older outdated ships. I'm more interested in the ports so soon we shall see!

 

 

Awww darn, how have you been able to carry on since missing that Allure sailing lol.

Sorry your move didn't work out. We got in on that RCCL 50% off second guest

promo that was happening for the last few weeks. Most of my 28 guest, including

myself saved a few hundred dollars on next year's Oasis sailing. This was especially

good for us because we have to spend money on airfare to sail out of Fort Lauderdale.

 

 

As for the Valor it was so cheap that I don't even mind it not having the 2.0 upgrades.

I already have excursions in mind for the 5 ports and that will also make up for it.

I really feel that less time will be spent on this ship so I won't miss the 2.0 upgrades

that much.

 

We actually started cruising in 2004, but it was 5 years later that we took the second

one and another 2 years for the third one. Although we now have 8 cruises under

our belts, we still won't be high ranking members since we jump from cruise line

to cruise line. We have no favorite and just sail on the ship and/or itineraries we like.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Lipz
typos