
Celebrity Mercury
Welcome aboard the M/V Celebrity Mercury! It’s 7:20 a.m. on our second morning at sea, and the ship’s position is someplace between California and Hawaii:
Within minutes of boarding the Mercury in San Diego on December 19, and during our first wander around the 1,800 passenger boat, Kevin (my partner) pointed at two guys and said, “aren’t those the guys we’ve been connecting with through MeetMeOnBoard (MMOB)?”
Voilá, we dashed across the atrium to greet Mike and Joey—a couple from Anaheim, who we had indeed already “met” through MMOB.
Hello handshakes have now been replaced with friendly hugs…even on a mainstream cruise, and we’re enjoying getting to know these new and very interesting friends.
Meanwhile, our group of 9 gay men has started wearing our matching t-shirts (The Rainbow Mounties), and people are noticing us—great ice breakers.
Last night was the first Friends of Dorothy party, and about 30 gay men showed up, all in suits and ties or tuxes—guys from all over the U.S. and as far away as Germany and England. Cool.
I’m telling them about MMOB, and perhaps you’ll meet some of them on a future cruise. This is a great website, and gay cruisers seem to instantly love the idea. Please tell your friends about it and encourage them to sign up.
Now, I’m off for a second cup of coffee…then I’ll go see if I can wake Kevin up.
Key observations thus far:
- Couples who want one bed should clearly state to their cabin attendant that they are a couple. Mike and Joey say their attendant keeps asking them if he should split the beds. Meanwhile, our attendant (Luis from Honduras) clearly knows who we are. The fact is not all cabin attendants immediately “get it.”
- Friends of Dorothy should be asked for immediately after boarding the ship. Call the Cruise Director’s office and ask if they automatically organize a FOD on your ship. If not, request it
- Bringing your own booze, while it’s officially against cruise regulations, a lot of people have successfully smuggled plenty-o-booze on board. We’ll look at how this is done in a future article. After all, who makes a cocktail better than us gays!
Cruise Ships 2:45 pm on January 2, 2009 Permalink |
The most important is to have fun with the right people, and when you are on board of such cruise ship, this is normally expected. I wanted to be there, but unfortunately failed