Cruising gay: do you join in the dance?

For your comment below: My question today is this: Have you danced with your partner or a same-sex friend on a mainstream cruise? Will you? Why or why not?

Randall Shirley onboard Azamara Quest

Randall Shirley onboard Azamara Quest, sailout of Venice, Italy. Photo: Denni Danieli-Polloni

Ciao from Sorrento, Italy, where my partner and I just returned from an amazing day ashore. What did we do? Surprisingly, we shopped! A new set of silverware, made in Italy, is going home with us.

Sailing aboard the Azamara Quest* has been a blessing and a curse. The blessing: it is a gorgeous ship with the best service we have ever experienced. They are actually delivering the experience that matches what the glossy brochures promise. The curse: it will be hard to go on the mass-market ships again after this amazing cruise. I guess you could say we’ve been spoiled. The number of repeat Azamara guests we’ve met onboard tells us that this cruise is not a fluke: Azamara has hit a sweet spot.

What is that sweet spot? Essentially, they’re targeting up-market cruise passengers who want something not too big, not too small, and really warm and personal. The ship takes only 694 passengers (double-occupancy). There are almost no children on board (yay!), people tend to dress nicely all the time—not just at dinner. The food is the best I’ve ever had on a ship. And the itinerary is interesting—we’ve visited 3 ports in Croatia and 3 in Italy. The crew seem incredibly happy—something I’ll write more about in a future post.

As a gay couple, we feel incr

Azamara Quest in Montengro

Azamara Quest in Kotor Bay, Montengro. © Randall Shirley

edibly welcome and at home on this ship. If you’ve read my postings for a while, you know I’m a big believer that the only way we can truly be accepted in the world is to be visibly “out.” To be ourselves wherever we go. For me, that means I hold my partner’s hand when I want, kiss him when I want, and dance with him when I want. When we lay by the pool, one of us is quite likely to have a hand on the other’s shoulder or leg. We act just like the straights.

Our “out” experience on this ship has been perfect. Hardly a double-take as we danced the night away together during the big mid-cruise deck party, both fast dance and slow, cheek-to-cheek stuff. We were quite near the stage and definitely under the lights, and several people have since mentioned to us that they saw us dancing and what a good time we obviously were having.

Some of the people who’ve said this are gay—and most of the other gays on board were not on the dance floor (only one other gay couple has participated). But straight people have mentioned that they noticed us, too. And always with a smile on their face.

So my question today is this: Have you danced with your partner or a same-sex friend on a mainstream cruise? Will you? Why or why not?

In order to review this cruise, and as is customary in the travel journalism industry, my partner and I traveled as guests of Azamara Club Cruises (cruise only, no land arrangements or air). See our ethics and disclosure statement here.

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