Meeting gay guys on cruise ships
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Friends Of Dorothy Meetings On-Board Cruise Ships. What Are They?
If you have been cruising you will probably have seen that Friends of Dorothy meetings are held on most cruise ships most days. They tend to be listed in the daily program as informal and un-hosted get togethers, and other than a room and time there is very little information about who these mysterious friends of Dorothy are, and why they are meeting up.
So just who is Dorothy? And why does she have so many friends on-board that she has to have a extraordinary meeting advertised in the daily program?
A “Friends of Dorothy Meeting” is a dated way of saying that gay travellers are invited to meet with other gay people on that ship. I discover it really strange that in today’s world, cruise lines are still using a term that dates back to a generation when being gay / homosexual was illegal. I also suspect that the generation of cruisers coming through will be as uninformed about what a “Friend of Dorothy” means as my mother was when she saw it in the cruise listings. This means that male lover cruisers of younger generations are unlikely to even be aware they are happening!
Definition of a “friend of Dorothy”?
The Oxford U
11 things I learned on my first gay cruise
You've probably heard of same-sex attracted cruises and wondered how they differ from "traditional" cruises. Are they expose to straight people? Is it all about partying? What about the hook-up element?
I sailed with tour operator Vacaya in February 2023 on a one-week gay cruise departing from Fort Lauderdale and heading to the Caribbean via Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Reflection cruise ship. For context, I'm a white, cisgender, gay man in my mid-30s. I had a lot of questions about what to expect, given this was my second cruise ever and my first one with a queer tour operator.
Here are the top things I'd want someone considering or planning their first homosexual cruise to know.
People are friendly
The first thing that struck me about the sailing was that almost everyone was smiling and eager to interact. As an Australian living in the U.S. for almost a decade, I generally find Americans to be open, talkative and curious. This cruise was enjoy that … on steroids.
I would have found it overwhelming if I weren't an extrovert, but since I'm a social butterfly, I was in heaven.
Tip: Taking the stairs between le
I’ve met many people from the LGBTQ community while at sea and as I know of a great online site that is specifically for LGBTQ cruisers, I mind now would be a great moment to introduce it to you and the brains behind it…
We’re Mark and Dale and we pilot the site MeetMeOnBoard.com, the only online community consecrated to LGBTQ cruise travel enthusiasts. The site is growing and currently has 15,000 members worldwide.
First of all, Yes, we know that the letters LGBTQ are confusing to some, and they do seem to keep changing! All that comes from our striving to be inclusive. But the operative pos in the expression “LGBTQ community” is indeed “community.
Our people have labored extended and hard to gain some of the rights that others enjoy, and that has brought us together. For that reason, our ‘tribe’ always likes to connect with other gay “family members” when we travel.
We began cruising about 30 years ago, when many didn’t feel fully safe being fully “out” onboard. We knew other queer people were on board, but couldn’t always find them! Yes, some cruise lines began having what are now called LGBT cocktail hours, but often they were at inconvenient hours, or we’d
Before my first all-gay cruise, I heard a lot of warnings—myths really, as you’ll see below—all from people who’d never been. Only one was true: gay cruises are generally more expensive than mainstream cruises. But that’s comparing apples and oranges.
Five years later, before leaving for my second gay cruise, friends blurted out all the same myths. After my second all-gay voyage, I can confirm that these are, indeed, myths. If you’re curious-but-nervous about all-gay cruises, read on. Then as one cruise line says: Get Out There.
1. It’s just a floating bathhouse.
Sex sells. That’s why the brochures are loaded with hunky guys. It’s easy to believe all those guys are just wacko with lust.
Perhaps they are. But none of the major all-gay charter companies nor Olivia, (lesbian-focused charters) officially allows sex in public areas of the ships. RSVP Vacations, who pioneered the gay travel industry, is very strict about it.
On one of my RSVP cruises, the ship’s spa area did, effectively, grow a bathhouse—within a limited time after sailing, the lovely girl who staffed the area was replaced by a likely-ga