To gay cruise or not to gay cruise

My bf and I just got back from a wonderful week at sea.  We went to Cozumel, Costa Maya, Belize and Grand Cayman.  It was nice but when we got back he started looking into the RSVP cruises. Saying, "Wouldn't it be nice to cuddle on deck and hold hands?"  My take is you pay 2x the price for the same cruise.  Just to be on a totally gay populated ship.  Oy veh!

So, anybody been on a gay cruise?  What was it like?

On to my vacation... having lost 100+ lbs, it was amazing to be able to actually swim in the ocean, walk on the beach and enjoy a vacation without being exhausted.  I had wanted to lose weight to be able to participate in the game of life again and that is exactly what is happening.  What a difference 100 lbs can make!

I posted some pictures on my photobucket.
 

I'll be watching this post too, because, ya, the gay cruises are so expensive.  Yet, the regular cruises are so, well, I'm not sure I could just say Who cares, and cuddle with my sweety.
So I'd like to know if they are worth it.  I've looked at Olivia and the R Family cruises.  Some good deals on now, but still.......

Sounds like you had a great time though, I can hardly wait for beach weather this year!
Bren

If you search utube for olivia cruises or rsvp cruises, there are lots of people who post videos of their cruises which is pretty cool.  I'm interested in first hand experiences though.

I have to be careful with this one.. I often get on a soap box with this subject. I have MANY friends who have done the Gay Cruise (Olivia...) and they all LOVE it..

BUT I have been on a straight cruise adn LOVED it and got a suite with my own deck where I watched the dolphins ride the waves of the ship.. for less than they paid for a inside state room...

SO.. My point is. They are taking advantage of the gay community. I don't want TV shows, just because they are "gay". My time is to precious to watch bad TV just because they are gearing it to "my" community. Also my money is to precious to spend twice the price for the same product just because it's "gay...". Now my friends and partner argue me all the time about "supporting" the community... But isn't them that are not supporting us???

Ok I guess I did get on my soap box a little bit.. And yes I would walk on a straight cruise and hold my girls hand and snuggle right up.. Screw the general population...

Never took one, but at some point we could attempt to find a cruise we'd like to do and invite folks from this board to go. Thus potentially making a GLBT WLS survivors gang on a straight cruise.... or maybe I'm being too ambitious!?

Mick,

Brett and I love cruises. About 4 years ago we found Pied Piper Cruises from NYC. Pied Piper is a LGBT group cruise tour agent. They take groups of LGBT people, families and friends on traditional cruises. We went to Alaska with them with a group of 150. We did a two week Hawaiian cruise with about 100 folks. Last Thanksgiving we went on their biggest cruise group each year, about 450 on that trip.

They add no extra charges to the normal cruise charge. It is not an all gay cruise but a large group of LGBT folks. They have always been excellent times. The group is diverse. The majority of folks are men about our age. I would say the group is usually 80% gay men, 10% lesbians, and 10% friends and family. We have NEVER had any issues with us being gay group on a traditional cruise. Folks are very friendly. The cruise line is very very welcoming to our group. We have had employees tell us that they look forward to LGBT groups. We are better tippers and have more fun.  On our last cruise we had cruise staff come to our parties and have a ball.
 
I highly recommend Pied Piper. They are excellent planners. There is usually some special event each day on ship. They also charter shore excursions for the group. Each cruise has mixers and usually a midnight party. There is always a movie night, this time a sing-a-long Hairspray. They have Newlywed, Not So Newly Wed game. A Pied Piper Idol completion is also fun. They pack a lot into the week. And.. this is part of the cruise charge. No extra charges except for the excursions.

We are returning to this year's Post-Thanksgiving cruise. It is the Western Caribbean. Pied Piper already has 400 signed up for the cruise. That is about 20% of the ship. I can tell you with that large a percentage it seems like an all-gay cruise. They are expecting about 900 in the group. That will make it quite gay!

Look into it and join us this fall. On every cruise we have made great friends. Many are returning with us to this cruise. We look forward to seeing folks again. I hope this answers your question. Feel free to email me. Here is the link to my pics from this past cruise so you can see the folks that cruise with Derek and Pied Piper.

Tom

WOO HOO!!!!!!!! The hag could go on this and not feel funny (as in odd man out).

LOL! You know our cruise groups has always seemed to adopt non-gay folks. On this last cruise a gay couple brought one partner's mother and father. They were the hit of the cruise. The mother almost won the Pied Piper idol contest. On our Alaska cruise, a Swiss couple brought their moms. They loved the gay boys. One lesbian couple had a college reunion of sorts with gay and non-gay folks. Many times, we see whole families come with thetheir LGBT familiy members. We actually like it being mixed. You meet so many different people. In the disco late night, it is almost totally gay. The folks who stay are pretty accepting and loved the gay atmosphere. Like I have said, It just works nicely.  Hey, we definitely would love to see our hag on the cruise. I forgot the name that Aaron gave Tia instead of hag. hehehe -- Tom

We love our wonderful hag!

My Mom and her partner of 28 yrs could go and still pretend they are just 'business' partners - like any fool in their right mind believes it.

There are some naive people out there that might.