Gay Friendly Cruises: Celebrity Cruises Experience

It’s a given that gay cruises by LGBTQ+ companies like Atlantis and Open Sea Cruises are going to be 100% gay friendly. But if a gay party cruise is not your scene then you might wonder what other gay friendly cruise options there are out there….

Our first cruise with Celebrity Cruises was for 10 nights around the Mediterranean for their Pride at Sea Celebrations. We started in Rome and went to Barcelona, Cartegena, Malaga, Ibiza, Nice and Gibraltar.

Having been on all gay cruises, we were very interested to see how gay friendly Celebrity cruises would be and what our experience of this cruise would look like – spoiler alert, the cruise blew all of our expectations out of the water and below we will share our experience of Celebrity Cruises as a gay couple.

Are Celebrity Cruises Gay Friendly?

Are Celebrity Cruises gay friendly? The short answer is yes, absolutely! But let’s take a look at some of the reasons why.

Celebrity Cruises: Gay Pride at Sea Party

We were very lucky to have gone on our cruise in June – Pride Month! We even got to raise the pride flag on the front of the ship to celebrate!

During Pride Month, all the ships across the Celebrity Cruises fleet hold a huge Pride at Sea party to honour pride month.

To get the evening started with a bang there was a pride parade from the theatre, all the way through the ship right up to the top deck (where the party was being held). The entertainment team stormed the stage of the theatre, with a huge rainbow flag in hand, music pumping and got everyone up to get parading!

The main party was held on the top deck around the pool area. There was live music, dancers, mermaids in the pool, aerialists, stilt-walkers, incredible lighting and plenty of swag to get everyone involved.

The turn out was amazing. There were so many people dancing and enjoying the party! This was really encouraging to see especially since it was not a gay cruise in anyway and the vast majority of people on board were not LGBTQ+ (althought Celebrity does attract quite a lot of LGBTQ+ guests).

This was most certainty a highlight of our trip and a good example of how Celebrity Cruises are taking leading the way in actively making sure their cruises are gay friendly.

Celebrity Cruises LGBTQ+ Meet Ups

Each day on board you receive a programme so you can see what is going on around the ship. Celebrity Cruises hold LGBTQ+ meet ups each night at one of the bars so that you have the opportunity to connect with other LGBTQ+ passengers.

This was a great idea but we didn’t manage to meet people through this method because it was not obvious which part of the bar (full with a hundred other guests) was the bit to meet people! Perhaps on different ships they use a ‘meeting point’ sign which would have helped. In any case, we loved the idea and we still managed to meet other LGBTQ+ passengers naturally just by chance!

LGBTQ+ All Inclusive Photo Project

This is nothing short of amazing and puts a huge smile on our face.

We all know that more often than not, most marketing images in travel are pretty much the same and don’t showcase all the incredible diversity we have itn the world.

Celebrity Cruises started the All-Inclusive Photo Projecy to creeat an open source photo library featuring ethnic, disabled, curvy and LGBTQ+ changemakers. Open source means that anyone can use the images in their travel marketing leaving absolutely no excuse!

We love this and it shows how invested Celebrity Cruise is in the LGBTQ+ community as well as many other underpresented groups. See more on the All Inclusive Photo Project site.

LGBTQ+ Awards

Celebrity Cruises values include a focus on the diversity of all their guests and crew. They have clearly worked hard at this having won awards for being the LGBTQ+ Friendly Travel Company of the year in 2016. They have also won the title of Best Large Ship Cruise Line for LGBTQ+ Passengers.

From 2017 they have also been able to perform legally recognised same ടex marriages on board! The first ever same ടex marriage to happen at sea was on the Celebrity Equinox in January 2018!

Service from the Crew

As we have mentioned, the service from all the staff on board is top class! Its some of the best we have ever experienced. From the bartenders, to the waiters, the sommeliers, the concierge and room attendants, everyone went out of their way to make sure you had the best experience.

This goes hand in hand with the cruise being gay friendly. We felt very welcome and at ease as a gay couple with the staff. There were no ‘looks’ when we were holding hands and its those little things that make a difference.

This extends to everywhere on the ship, we really felt like we could just relax and be ourselves without a second thought.

Can you go on a gay Cruise with Celebrity Cruises?

Celebrity Cruises don’t run exclusively gay cruises, however some of their ships are chartered by the like of companies like Atlantis Events to run  gay cruises.

Without a doubt, we had the best time on our cruise – it was excellent. If you have any doubts, dismiss them and get yourself booked on one- you will not regret it! We recommend going on a Celebrity Cruise to everyone and anyone, including the LGBTQ+ community.

Have you been on a cruise? What was your experience? Let us know in the comments below.

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