Hi there! The following is one of a multi-part series on 2009 gay cruises. The purpose of each page is to give you useful information about the cruise at a glance. Please feel free to discuss these cruises in the forums! -Ed.
Cruise: Legendary Danube Cruise
When: August 14th to 24th, 2009
Company/Offered Through: RSVP/Coda
Type: All-Gay
Departs: Prague
Visits: Nuremberg, Regensburg, Passau, Linz, Melk, Durnstein, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest
Hi there! The following is one of a multi-part series on 2009 gay cruises. The purpose of each page is to give you useful information about the cruise at a glance. Please feel free to discuss these cruises in the forums! -Ed.
Cruise: Luxury Barging in Provence
When: October 18th to 24th, 2009
Company/Offered Through: Coda
Type: All-Gay
Departs: Avignon
Visits: St. Remy, St. Etiennes-des-Sorts, Viviers, Orange, Chateau de Grignan, Nyons, La Voulte, Tournon, Valence
Hi there! The following is one of a multi-part series on 2009 gay cruises. The purpose of each page is to give you useful information about the cruise at a glance. Please feel free to discuss these cruises in the forums! -Ed.
Cruise: Summer Grand Baltic Cruise
When: July 22nd to August 1st, 2009
Company/Offered Through: Atlantis
Type: All-Gay
Departs: Copenhagen, Denmark
Visits: Germany, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark
Basic Itinerary: 
Hi there! The following is one of a multi-part series on 2009 gay cruises. The purpose of each page is to give you useful information about the cruise at a glance. Please feel free to discuss these cruises in the forums! -Ed.
Cruise: Nile in Style Cruise
When: November 20th to December 1st, 2009
Company/Offered Through: Hanns Ebensten Travel Tour
Type: All-Gay
Departs: Cairo, Egypt
Visits: Giza, The Pyramids, Luxor, Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Aswan, Abu Simbel (Optional), Nag’ el Mamariya, Western Thebes; the Queen’s Temple, Karnak and Luxor Temples: extension begins, Luxor Extension: Dendera and Abydos Temples, Siwa & Alexandria Extension
Basic Itinerary:
What are the key dates of the November 2009 Nile in Style cruise?
Please note that Day 1 of the itinerary, November 20th, 2009, is the arrival day in Cairo. The actual dates are:
November 19th, 2009: North American travelers depart from home.
November 20th to December 1st, 2009: Main Tour, including three nights in Cairo/Giza, one week on the ss Karim, and the night of November30th near Cairo Airport, allowing flights late in the evening of November 30th or in the morning of December 1st.
December 3rd: Luxor Extension ends with the night of December 2nd near Cairo Airport
December 3rd to 10th: Siwa Extension, with the night of December 9th near the Cairo Airport.
Hi there! The following is one of a multi-part series on 2009 gay cruises. The purpose of each page is to give you useful information about the cruise at a glance. Please feel free to discuss these cruises in the forums! -Ed.
Cruise: Canada and New England
When: October 8th to 19th, 2009
Company/Offered Through: Crystal
Type: All-Gay
Departs: Montreal
Visits: Quebec City, Halifax, Saint John, Bar Harbor, Boston, Newport, New York
Hi there! The following is one of a multi-part series on 2009 gay cruises. The purpose of each page is to give you useful information about the cruise at a glance. Please feel free to discuss these cruises in the forums! -Ed.
Cruise: Iberian Peninsula
When: November 1st to 12th, 2009
Company/Offered Through: Crystal Gay Group
Type: All-Gay
Departs: Barcelona
Visits: Malaga, Cadiz, Casablanca, Arrecife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Funchal, Lisbon
If you’re not ready for an all-gay cruise, or there’s something you don’t like about them, the next best thing is gay group cruises. Gay group cruises are basically an organized group of gays on what would be an otherwise straight cruise. They’re treated like any other group, such as a company or other arranged group. It’s like a cruise within a cruise!
The gay group on a large ship might be between 1 and 10% of all the passengers. The experience is somewhere in between being on a mainstream cruise and an all-gay cruise, as you might expect. Meetings and activities will be arranged, which will make it easy to find friends and dining buddies, but gay activities will sometimes be in closed quarters, so as not to offend other passengers. There are some special events though, parties, bar events or access to certain areas or lounges that might otherwise not be available. With a smaller group, it’ll be easier to get to know the other members of the group, but you won’t have the diversity and choice you would with an all-gay cruise.
Expect a meet and greet (called a Friends of Dorothy meeting on mainstream cruises), other get-to-one-another activities, parties, theme dinners, bar gatherings and such. You can’t be as openly gay as you would be able to on an all-gay ship, so sunbathing with your partner or public displays of affection might not be all that well-received.
The good thing about gay group cruises is that there are far more options than with gay cruises. They have different ports of call, destinations, timings and are far more numerous in availability. As a result, pricing may also be more competitive than it would be with an all-gay cruise. However, you need to look into whether those destinations and ports of call are of your interest, and if you’re into public affection, if those cities are accepting of that. Kingston, Jamaica, for example, doesn’t receive that sort of thing too well, but Vancouver, British Columbia is one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world.
If you’re a quiet, introverted person, a gay group cruise might suit you more than an all-gay cruise. No crazy butt-slapping or an overdose of banana hammocks, but still presenting the opportunity to meet other gays, it might actually be a more legitimate way to meet people. It’ll allow you to mix with straight couples and others, but how that goes will probably be no different from being back home – some people are open to it, and some aren’t.
Gay group cruises are like a half-step into all-gay cruises. You get to sample a lot of the benefits, but aren’t forced into that atmosphere. On the other hand, all-gay cruises go to destinations that they’ve found to be gay-friendly, and there’s no chance of weird looks from other passengers. The choice is tough, but it can’t hurt to do both – starting with a gay group cruise. As always, the best option is to thoroughly investigate your options, give it a lot of thought, then make your decision and be happy with it!
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Stupid as it might sound, this is a valid question. There are other vacations to take – you could hit New York City and live it up for a few days, fly to Hawaii for a week, get married in Toronto, check out gay bars in Singapore or get it on with a gay friend from across the pond. So why a cruise then?
Number 10 – For The Gay Atmosphere
A gay cruise is full of fun (gay) activities, and there’s always something to do. However, there’s an intrinsic value associated with gay cruises, and it can be attributed to an unspoken understanding and care shared by all the people on the boat. We all understand where we’re coming from, the issues we’ve had to face and the day-to-day struggles we see. With that kind of bond already formed, you know good times are ahead!
Number 9 – To Feel The Acceptance of Straight People
Straight people never have to wonder if people are accepting of their relationship. They can just march right onto any cruise ship, make out, feel each other up, and all people will do is say “get a room!” Have you ever felt what it’d be like to not think what others are thinking? If they’re judging? A gay cruise is full of people like you, and a no-discrimination philosophy abounds. You can relax, lay back, and pretend the whole world’s gay, because, as far as you can see, it is!
Number 8 – To Show Off Your Summer Collection and Get a Tan
We’re gay, and we love to look our best! This is a great way to show off the body you’ve been working hard to get, along with great summer clothes, flip-flops, or however far you wanna take it (just a banana hammock). Plus, you get to work on your tan (or blacken your blackness, if you’re black) and look all exotic when you come back to the real world.
Number 7 – To Eat Nice Food and Not Cook
Why cook when you don’t have to? Sure, you could apply this philosophy at home, but then you’d be limited to MSG-laden takeout or cardboard microwavable “dinners.” No, a better idea is to just get on a boat, and have a team of chefs prepare gourmet food for you, and deliver that food to you anywhere on the boat. Yes, that is a better idea.
Number 6 – To Get Drunk and Do Stupid Things
Worried about that deadline? Recession eating into your profits? Clients not liking your designs? Just say, “I dunno. I was drunk, and I don’t remember a thing!” You can’t say that in your normal life, but you can on a boat!
Number 5 – For All The Fun and Funky Activities
Gay cruises are the most fun cruises in the world, seriously! They get awesome cruise boats that have all the cool stuff (shops, casinos, live theater, live entertainment, swimming pools, hot tubs, water slides etc.), but they have a ton of superb gay activities too!
Number 4 – To See an Exotic Part of the World
Tired of the flat North American landscape? Want to pretend you’re in Lost? Or maybe, you just wonder how the rest of the world lives? Cruising to a hot, spicy exotic destination is just the ticket. You’ll get to see a unique local culture, sample deliciously different cuisine, and surround yourself in an environment that is very different from your own. This is really great fun!
Number 3 – To Meet Gays, er… Guys
Yes, the fact is, a gay cruise is a great place to meet guys if you’re single. It’s also a great place to meet other gay couples. You’ll make temporary boyfriends, friends, and maybe even something better!
Number 2 – To Get It On
We’ve established that a gay cruise is a great place to meet guys. Duh. Thousands of gay guys, you. Rocket science, I know. But think about this… if you want to get it on, where better? Other people want to get it on. You want to get it on. You’re isolated on a boat, with nowhere to go.
Number 1 – To Get On a Boat With Other Guys, Get Away, and See What Happens
Really, the best reason to go on a gay cruise, is to just get away, and let nature or destiny (whatever you want to believe in) take its course. Once in a while, we all need to just let go completely, let our guard down (us gays more than anyone), and see where life takes us.
Don’t agree? Discuss in our forums
Conjure up all the images you can of what you think an all-gay cruise is like, and just sorta put that on hold for a minute. Yes, all the gay butt-slapping, towel-whipping, wristband-wearing, speedo and banana hammock-donning buff guys with no chest hair and perfectly chiseled faces… put all that aside.
The first thing you will probably feel on an all-gay cruise is comfort. Not just creature comforts, but the comfort of knowing that there are so many other people like you out there. You’ll get to feel a little like straight people feel on a straight cruise! If you’ve ever been to a gay event, it might remind you of that. At the very least, it’ll be a comfortable, totally hassle-free vacation, and you’ll forget all about any discrimination you may have encountered in the past. It’ll be a perfect, almost dreamlike escape from your everyday life.
A gay cruise can be a great way to take a trip as a couple, or if you’re single, to meet people. Some boats cater more to couples, and some more to partygoing singles, but there is always something for everyone. Do your research beforehand (that’s why AllAboutGayTravel.com exists!) and you probably won’t be disappointed.
Gay cruises book the same cruise ships as mainstream lines, so you’ll get the same luxurious rooms, great food, big drinking and gambling, onboard activities… and then a lot more that are gay-oriented. Of course, no one can guarantee a romantic encounter, but given that you’ll be isolated on a luxurious boat around great scenery with other like-minded individuals, there’s more than a chance! Gay cruises are jam-packed with fun events for everyone, and you’ll probably make a few friends while on board.
Every line differs, but overall, there are more parties on gay cruises and they tend to go on a bit later. They also have theme parties and theme nights, and other funky entertainment (gay comedians, drag shows etc.). If you don’t like that, that’s ok. With hundred to thousands of people onboard, you’re likely to find others with the same tastes as you. We’re going to try and talk about some of the things that make each cruise unique in reviews and when discussing upcoming cruises. We’re also going to look at how each travel destination is for the gay traveler.
A lot of people, maybe half to three-quarters, decorate their doors on gay cruises. It’s not necessary of course, but it’s all in the spirit of celebrating. People will decorate with everything from traditional decorations, to wild jungle motifs and even some kinky stuff, though you wouldn’t really want to take this too far. If you want to take part in this, you’ll need to bring your own supplies on board, and make sure nothing’s too permanent.
If you’re the sort of person who doesn’t like the out-there, extroverted, I’m-gay-and-you-know-it type activities, that doesn’t mean gay travel isn’t for you. Just like with straight cruises, there are party boats, there are uber-luxury high-class boats, and there are boats in the middle. As with everything else, know what you’re getting into, make an informed decision, then have no regrets!
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