apollobeach

On The Conquest in three weeks - thanks for your observations:D

We're on the December 24 sailing of The Brilliance - first Christmas cruise.....I think there might be just SOMETHING to do on board!!!!!:D

Haven't seen a G&L Roll Call for The Golden on August 30, 2014. If I missed it, please advise.

Any other's sailing on this cruise with us?

John (and his ever present traveling buddy, Phil):p

We have just returned home today from our week on The Allure, and want to add our thanks to Radio for all of his postings and pictures........he sailed the week before us; with us following his reports of and pictures of The Allure, when we boarded last Sunday we felt we already knew the ship........Thanks Again, Radio........hope to sail together some time.

While on The Allure we booked The Oasis for next year.

One last thing - Our favorite - the Solarium.

John/Rick

:p

Radio - Just wanted to add our thanks for your great posts on your cruise, and The Allure. We're on The Jewel to Cozumel in December, and now thanks to your posts have two choices for our day pass, Nachi Cocom and El Sid.

We try, like you, to study the ship we'll be sailing on, and read the reviews and posts carefully. Your great posts (and some pretty fantastic pics too:D) have given us a true sense of what to expect when we board The Allure tomorrow.

Again, thanks - fair winds and following seas.

John/Rick

:p

Thanks so much for your reviews; thanks also for the great pictures. We leave on The Golden in 12 days.....second visit to Hawaii; first with Princess.

We've heard so many good things about the Princess cruises we have scheduled our next two Hawaii with The Sapphire and The Grand.

Thanks again for the terrific review!:D

John/Rick

:p

We were told by Carnival that a Medical Evac had been arranged with our Travel Insurance. Once we paid for the transportation to a local hospital, the driver gave us an envelope which stated that the hospital was our final destination. We were lied to by Carnival.

The ship sailed and we had to arrange our own way back home. In addition, In our opinion, both the hospital and our doctor at home

did not feel one of us needed to be landed.

The purpose of the CC boards is to share our experiences. We as an openly Gay were in favorite of Carnival until one of us got sick

and were landed unnecessarily. The issue was our treatment by Carnival. In our opinion, and we have a right to our opinion, the situation would

have been completely differently by another line.

link to another thread: Is Carnival Gay Friendly?

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1206938

Apollo Beach (just South of Tampa) here - I got my Partner hooked a couple of years ago - he now loves cruising as much as I do.....next one is next week.....:D

John(and, Rick)

:p

After reading and rereading these posts, maybe one of the biggest advantages of a Gay cruises is its an environment where being Gay is

a non issue.

As one can see from our profile, we haave traveled (or plan to travel) on a number of cruise lines. Yes, we have had occassions of homophobic

bigotry but it can occur on all lines. The worst we have experienced were by both passengers and a African-American comedian on Holland-America, and by

bigoted American Jews on Azamara.

In the selection of future cruises my Partner and I usually have specific locations we want to visit as a starting point. We also take into account the number of days of the

cruise, the dates, the number of sea days and the departure ports. We have an excellent on-line website (CruisesOnly) which we use for our searches as well as our

TA.

We always request a table for two in the main dining room. On all the cruises we have meet individuals we have had breakfast and lunch with. On some cruises we

have on occasion had dinner, by choice, with others. That being said we have patiently sat and listened while others had talked about their children and grandchildren;

yet when we make a reference to something Gay it is like we said we should not have said.

Regardless of the cruise line one travels on, one will probably encounter comedians who are anti-Gay or pass individuals that make homophobic comments.

In reality cruise lines do not truly respect diversity regarding Gays unless it is a totally Gay cruise; it is about money.

Sometimes we feel we would like to travel/vacation in an environment where being Gay is a non-issue.

This was my first cruise - November of 1975. We were in R-104; one of the four queen bed cabins on The Mardi Gras. We sailed to Nassau; San Juan and St. Thomas.........I remember the big "welcome home" sign when we came back to the ship.

Recently we sailed on The Carnival Miracle. We met The Master of The Miracle, Capt. Volpe, and during our conversation with this warm and friendly gentleman found that he was Second Officer aboard The Mardi Gras when I sailed her some 34 years previous. What a small world.

The Mardi Gras was slightly smaller at 27,970 tons than many ships, but what a beautiful vessel. It would have done Carnival proud to permanently berth her somewhere at The Port of Miami as a reminder of the company's beginnings..

I thought it interesting that the crew wore patches that said....The Golden Fleet.......when there was just the one ship.

It is a great memory of a really wonderful ship.

John

:p

I have noticed that Carnival tends to be the 'red-neck' line, mainly because it is the cheapest and the (lol) trailer trash can afford it... They always tend to be the haters. So your best bet is to find a "Friends of Dorothy" group on the sailing and stick around like minds. :eek:

 

If not - Holland America would definitely be the way to go. Most of the crew officers are from the Netherlands and are very GLBT friendly from my experience.

 

Carnival is fine if you aren't going with expectations of having a gay-ole-time. We have enjoyed our sailings on Carnival, but Ray and I are both very low-key people. It really depends on your tastes I guess. We love HAL, but don't like we have to travel to NY or FL to cruise so we stick with whats more local to VA...

My Partner and I view cruising as a total experience to be enjoyed on all levels. When we book a cruise we always get deluxe suites because this is what we prefer. In our opinion we have observed that due to last minute deals, web specials and deals by TA's individuals who may not

have been able to afford to cruise can. On the one hand, it is good that individuals have the opportunity to broaden their horizons so to speak. In our opinion, the present behavior of some individuals clearly crosses the line. Since Azamara is one of the more up scale lines and does not offer basement prices, we selected it for our up coming European cruise.

At the end of March we traveled on the Carnival Miracle. The level of service and food in the Main Dining Room was not at the outstanding level we experienced on the Carnival Spirit. There were areas that needed definite

improvement.

Based on our cruises first would be Carnival, then Royal Caribbean & Holland

-America. Just took our second Carnival cruise and the food was still the best

of the lines we have traveled on.

FYI: the buffet on the Coral Princess is really bad; service the leave-overs

from lunch at dinner

On one of our cruises (I believe it was Holland-America but don't quote me on it), a woman was rather loudly telling everyone about the

"TOWEL- AY-PEA-AY" she had for dinner. We both were very polite and carefully listened to her without laughing. She had tilapia for dinner.

We traveled on Holland American. The crew is very welcoming. The demographics of the other passengers made us feel like we were traveling

on a floating nursing home!!!

Traveling on the Holland America's Zaandam was like sailing on a floating nursing home.

On the Holland America's Zaandam in April of 2009, my Partner and I

were subjected to unwelcome comments. On day in the buffet restaurant

as one of us walked by a table of several women who were looking directly

at one of us, one woman said: "those boys make me sick".

On our first cruise, we were blessed with a call from the "upsell fairy" and moved into the OS.

It did not take us long to love the suite life, Cagney's being our favorite perk.

We had breakfast and lunch there every morning, and loved the attention to detail and the great service. Each time, we were seated at the same window table.

We loved Cagney's so much that we ate dinner there 5 nights...always receiving the same table.

On the 5th night, Cagney's was crowded (Unusual). When we arrived (having reservations), there was a young couple there waiting to be seated. There were two tables open, one way in the back by the kitchen, and "our" table. We were immediately met by the concierge, who proceeded to escort us to "our" table. I quietly asked him to go ahead and give the table to the other couple and that we would be happy with the table by the kitchen.

With a smile the concierge nodded and escorted the other couple to the window table. As they passed us, the young "lady" looked at me and said, "Well, it's about time you rich bastards eat by the kitchen!"

 

My DW and I still laugh over that when we are seated near the kitchen.

Both of you sound like individuals who have a lot of class. You were certainly coming from the right

place and most people would have been very appreciative. My partner and I would have probably

done the very same thing had we been in your situation. We are not wealthy but have also done

kind deeds and have been viewed as being wealthy our acts viewed with contempt. Yes, we have

also had rather nasty personal insults leveled towards us.

My Partner and I believe in passing it forward (doing random acts of kindness to strangers/young people).

One sincere "Thank you" and/or words of appreciation far outweigh the negative responses.

Rick & John

Not all of us who vote are ignorant....enough said on that one.

Based on the cruises we have taken, here are our ratings:

For the best would be Carnival; the food and service in the main dining room was outstanding.

Tied for second, is Royal Caribbean and Holland America. The Italian themed specialty restaurant on Royal Caribbean was outstanding.

Coming in last, is Princess. The food was quite ordinary. On the occasions when we had dinner in the buffet restaurant (Horizon Court) we were quite disappointed. The food at dinner was simply food left over from lunch. Items served that night in the main dining room were not served in the buffet restaurant as they stated. The Italian themed specialty restaurant was outstanding in both food and service.

We are an openly Gay male couple and we are getting ready to take our second Carnival cruise. In our opinion, we found most of the staff of Carnival to be very welcoming to Gays and Lesbians.