Solo Gay on Celebrity?

[BarleyJack]

Looking into a solo trip (eastern med) on the equinox for next year--any one done this? advice? tips?

 

btw, yahoo for NY!! :-)

[BarleyJack]

Really looking for advice. I see many views but no responses, what gives?

[MeHeartCruising]

I'm not sure what kind of advice or tips you're looking for, but I'll be happy to answer questions for you. I just did 2 back-to-back 12 day cruises on Royal Caribbean on my own out of Rome that were both Eastern Mediterranean itineraries. I travel solo a lot (including previous cruises) and am a gay man in my late 40s. Anything specific you're wondering about?

[BarleyJack]

I'm not sure what kind of advice or tips you're looking for, but I'll be happy to answer questions for you. I just did 2 back-to-back 12 day cruises on Royal Caribbean on my own out of Rome that were both Eastern Mediterranean itineraries. I travel solo a lot (including previous cruises) and am a gay man in my late 40s. Anything specific you're wondering about?

 

I appreciate the response, thanks guy Was wondering mainly: how gay friendly is X? Are personal dining options available (meaning I'm shy and get nervous eating with strangers)? Any must see excursions, particulary in Athens?

 

Thanks so much, apologies for being vague earlier

[MeHeartCruising]

I can't comment on how gay friendly X is since I haven't cruised them yet. Although, I am sailing with them in a few weeks on a Norwegian Fjord cruise. I'm also going solo on that one too. So maybe I'll have some comment after I return in August. On my recent Royal Caribbean Med trips, they did not post Friends of Dorothy (LGBT) meetings in the daily newsletter, but they had a "bulletin board" type thing posted in a very prominent area of the atrium floor where anyone (passenger or crew) can post a sign indicating informal gatherings. By the end of the first day, someone had posted a FOD meeting for a specific time and location to be held every evening. I'm pretty sure it was a crew member who put the sign there since it was written in heavy black magic marker and there was also a "Friends of Bill" sign in the same handwriting and pen. But there are only pencils supplied at the bulletin board. I stopped by the FOD meeting a few times thru the first couple days and there was never anyone there, so I stopped going out of my way to check it out. My gaydar detected maybe 4 or 5 gay couples on the ship, but they never seemed to organize anything together as far as I could tell. I have no idea if there were other gay solos on the ship. European itineraries tend to be a more mature crowd than Caribbean cruises with the average age probably in the 50s.

 

As for dining, I'm not a dining room fan when I travel solo. I prefer to dress casual the entire cruise and I'm also not fan of eating with strangers and also like to eat whenever I want, so I usually eat all my meals in the buffet restaurant. But I'm sure many solo travelers enjoy being seated at a table with others and find that a rewarding part of the trip. You can certainly give it a try and see if it works for you or not. When you book Celebrity, you will need to sign up for a style of dining. They offer 2 seatings in the main dining rooms (like at 6:30pm and 8:30pm or something like that). They also offer a flexible dining option where you can decide what time you want to eat in the dining room each day. I'm not sure if they will seat you at a 2-person table by yourself, but they might. I just prefer to not deal with any of this stuff and that's why I do the buffet. Technically, I'm signed up for the 6:30 dining option but I will probably never use it.

 

As for Athens, you most certainly want to see the Acropolis. Maybe the Agora. Maybe the new Acropolis Museum. And probably just walk around the neighboring parts of the city around these things. These are all very close together and you can walk them. I'm not a fan of ship tours or even organized travel guides. I prefer to do ports on my own. I usually figure out my own transportation to the locations or if it's complicated, I might use the ship's "On Your Own" excursions where they provide you the transportation to the city center and then turn you loose on your own for several hours before they pick you back up. Athens is very easy to do on your own if you want to do a little research. A 20 minute walk to the train station and then a 10-15 minute ride will take you right to the popular things you want to see. What other stops are on the itinerary?

[BarleyJack]

I can't comment on how gay friendly X is since I haven't cruised them yet. Although, I am sailing with them in a few weeks on a Norwegian Fjord cruise. I'm also going solo on that one too. So maybe I'll have some comment after I return in August. On my recent Royal Caribbean Med trips, they did not post Friends of Dorothy (LGBT) meetings in the daily newsletter, but they had a "bulletin board" type thing posted in a very prominent area of the atrium floor where anyone (passenger or crew) can post a sign indicating informal gatherings. By the end of the first day, someone had posted a FOD meeting for a specific time and location to be held every evening. I'm pretty sure it was a crew member who put the sign there since it was written in heavy black magic marker and there was also a "Friends of Bill" sign in the same handwriting and pen. But there are only pencils supplied at the bulletin board. I stopped by the FOD meeting a few times thru the first couple days and there was never anyone there, so I stopped going out of my way to check it out. My gaydar detected maybe 4 or 5 gay couples on the ship, but they never seemed to organize anything together as far as I could tell. I have no idea if there were other gay solos on the ship. European itineraries tend to be a more mature crowd than Caribbean cruises with the average age probably in the 50s.

 

As for dining, I'm not a dining room fan when I travel solo. I prefer to dress casual the entire cruise and I'm also not fan of eating with strangers and also like to eat whenever I want, so I usually eat all my meals in the buffet restaurant. But I'm sure many solo travelers enjoy being seated at a table with others and find that a rewarding part of the trip. You can certainly give it a try and see if it works for you or not. When you book Celebrity, you will need to sign up for a style of dining. They offer 2 seatings in the main dining rooms (like at 6:30pm and 8:30pm or something like that). They also offer a flexible dining option where you can decide what time you want to eat in the dining room each day. I'm not sure if they will seat you at a 2-person table by yourself, but they might. I just prefer to not deal with any of this stuff and that's why I do the buffet. Technically, I'm signed up for the 6:30 dining option but I will probably never use it.

 

As for Athens, you most certainly want to see the Acropolis. Maybe the Agora. Maybe the new Acropolis Museum. And probably just walk around the neighboring parts of the city around these things. These are all very close together and you can walk them. I'm not a fan of ship tours or even organized travel guides. I prefer to do ports on my own. I usually figure out my own transportation to the locations or if it's complicated, I might use the ship's "On Your Own" excursions where they provide you the transportation to the city center and then turn you loose on your own for several hours before they pick you back up. Athens is very easy to do on your own if you want to do a little research. A 20 minute walk to the train station and then a 10-15 minute ride will take you right to the popular things you want to see. What other stops are on the itinerary?

 

Thank you so much for the informative response! The trip I'm looking at visits (in addition to Athens):

 

Ephesus, Turkey

Rhodes, Greece

Santorini, Greece

Mykonos, Greece

Naples, Italy

and Sicily

 

Starts/Ends in Rome, will likely add on a stay there either after/before

 

Thoughts?

[MeHeartCruising]

Thank you so much for the informative response! The trip I'm looking at visits (in addition to Athens):

 

Ephesus, Turkey

Rhodes, Greece

Santorini, Greece

Mykonos, Greece

Naples, Italy

and Sicily

 

Starts/Ends in Rome, will likely add on a stay there either after/before

 

Thoughts?

 

It's a great itinerary. Ephesus is very cool if you're into ruins. You'll probably need to book an excursion with the ship or a local company to see it. Options aren't great for doing this on your own. I recommend trying to book a tour that includes the "Terrace Houses". Not all of them do. The Terrace Houses is a separated area of Ephesus under a roof that they are doing extensive excavation on right now. It's quite impressive.

 

Rhodes is a port where you can just walk off the ship and walk around a great medieval "old town" area. Or if you want, you can research Lindos. Lindos requires a 45 minute drive, so you'll need a rental car or tour to get you there and it's a very cool set of ruins at the top of a hill that you climb up. It's another Acropolis.

 

Santorini is probably my favorite Greek island. Very beautiful views. Be sure to get to the town of Oia. You can do it on your own if you want using rental car, taxi or bus. Or you might want to book a tour since it can get crowded when multiple ships are in port on the same day.

 

Mykonos I have never been to. But I hear it's a great port to do on your own.

 

Naples is an OK port. You'll most likely want to go to Pompeii and you can either do this on your own using the train or a tour group. You might also want to tie this in with the nearby town of Sorrento or a quick trip over to the island of Capri.

 

What city in Sicily? If it's Messina, you probably want to book an excursion with someone to get you to Taormina. It's a 30 minute drive or so away and is pretty much the hotspot to go in this port. It's a quaint little town with great views. If they offer it, I'd do the "on your own" tour from the ship. It's not the type of town that you need a tour guide for. Just get there and then walk around on your own. It's small.

 

And definitely try to do at least 2 or 3 days in Rome to see the major sites.

[BarleyJack]

Wow, what great tips, thanks guy/girl (whichever the case may be LOL)

 

The Sicily port is Messina

 

I'm a total foodie and looking forward to excursion related to food! Hopefully the onboard gym/treadmill/excursions will keep my waistline in check LOL

[MeHeartCruising]

Cool. I'm a guy. You won't go wrong with a Med cruise. I'd do another one in a heart beat. And probably will some day. But for now, I'm turning my attention to other geographies that I haven't been to yet. Have a great cruise.

[2ChicagoGuys]

My boyfriend an I are both 31 an going on the cruise you mentioned. I am a total foodie as well while my boyfriend has more basic tastes. We have tried to find other gays to meet up with for a drink but none have materialized on these boards yet. We leave in 10 days an is be happy to share any info you want after the cruise, just let me know.

[johhnnyt]

Its a very small percentage of the cruise line population that even know about cruise critic, let alone the gay boards. Best piece of advice I can offer you is check down at guest relations once you get onboard. You'll see a bulletin type board down there announcing Friends of Bill, Friends of Dorothy, Friends of Whoever.

Usually you can find about 4-20 people at the Friends of Dorothy meeting each night meeting for pre or post dinner drinks at the scheduled venue.

[pisces1948]

Hi, I am gay man who has traveled on Celebrity several times, most recent being transatlantic from Ft Lauderdale to Barcelona. My opinion is that they are very gay friendly. On Celebrity go to guest services area to find posting of hosted and non-hosted LGBT meetings. In addition to these, martini bar is often the meeting point. Transatlantic had so many gay travelers that we commandeered a disco one night for a party (with help of Celebrity dj). Basically I think you'll find a number of ore gay men along with gay crew members.

By the way, go online and search for gay beaches in Mykonos. There is a website that will tell you all about all the beaches.

As for dining, usually a lot of options that include buffet, but you might meet some fascinating people if you go to dining room. My paner and I met mistress of George C. Scott on a cruise. She was really a great person and we are still in touch.

One more general hint for looking for other gay cruisers is a site called ******************. It's specifically for LGBT cruisers looking for who else will be on their cruise.

Have a great time. My partner and I are doing eastern med at end of August on Celebrity Equinox

 

Dave

[cherylroslyn]

Hi, I am gay man who has traveled on Celebrity several times, most recent being transatlantic from Ft Lauderdale to Barcelona. My opinion is that they are very gay friendly. On Celebrity go to guest services area to find posting of hosted and non-hosted LGBT meetings. In addition to these, martini bar is often the meeting point. Transatlantic had so many gay travelers that we commandeered a disco one night for a party (with help of Celebrity dj). Basically I think you'll find a number of ore gay men along with gay crew members.

By the way, go online and search for gay beaches in Mykonos. There is a website that will tell you all about all the beaches.

As for dining, usually a lot of options that include buffet, but you might meet some fascinating people if you go to dining room. My paner and I met mistress of George C. Scott on a cruise. She was really a great person and we are still in touch.

One more general hint for looking for other gay cruisers is a site called ******************. It's specifically for LGBT cruisers looking for who else will be on their cruise.

Have a great time. My partner and I are doing eastern med at end of August on Celebrity Equinox

 

Dave

I agree with Pisces1948.... I'm not gay but I am a huge Celebrity fan and a huge fan of cruising in general.

 

On my last cruise with Celebrity (Summit May 2011) there were a few gay couples and solos.... I was solo, but I had made tons of friends on our roll call for the cruise....so I had a big group of friends. We had "standing dates" in Martini Bar pre-dinner and Michaels Club post-dinner each night. Two of the gay couples and two of the solos on board had met us while we were out and we told them to meet as at "our spots". They met us there almost every night and we had a fantastic time....

 

I think outside of a gay charter Celebrity is as good as it gets for a gay friendly atmosphere....and open minded passengers. In my opinion it is the open mindedness of the passengers which will make or break the situation....the crew will be accomodating no matter what your persuasion......

 

Just a note....the Friends of Dorothy or LGBT mixers are no longer advertised in the daily newsletter....but they are posted on a sign in the lobby near guest services. That is true of the Friends of Bill W. and the Church Worship Services as well.....so it is not directed at the LGBT cruisers :)

 

Also, I agree with Johhnnyt as well.....so few people know about cruisecritic and most people don't participate in the roll calls and those who do may not want to reveal certain things about themselves to people on the threads....

 

I took a Carival cruise out of NYC a couple weeks ago and there were a few gay couples on the ship....they did not look nearly as comfortable in their surroundings as those I have encountered on Celebrity. Again, I think is has much more to do with the passengers.......and that was a cruise out of NYC not a cruise out of Mobile, Alabama.....I saw a few cruisers do a double take or pass a sharp look at the couple at the pool..... but I felt uncomfortable by the way I saw some hetrosexual passengers acting......

 

So my advice...from a straight solo female....go on the cruise expecting to have a great time and meet all sorts of people from different countries and different walks of life...gay, straight, couples, singles.......don't hide who you are and if you meet someone great and if not....so be it. You will still have a great time with great people while touring some great places!!!!!

 

 

Have fun on your trip.....and check out the Molecular Bar and the Martini Bar before dinner...there is usually a nice crowd there and it is very conducive to meeting people......

[Mermen]

Hey Barley Jack:

 

My better half and I have sailed only on =X= with the exception of one Princess and one Carnival.

 

For us, X is hands-down the best in terms of gay friendliness and acceptance. We have always been treated fairly and with the best customer service by far.

 

Wish we could talk you into a West Mediterrenean / Adriatic cruise THIS year...we could use the family on board. ;)

 

I think you'll be very pleased with Celebrity though...make sure you enroll in their Captain's Club program. Great perks.

 

Happy Sailing to you.