We love to hear from our @queertravelsociety instagram followers and are excited to feature them on our blog. Recently, @2hearts1love and her girlfriend @bfit35 took a cruise to the Caribbean. Here is their story...
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I’ve been traveling since I can remember. My mom is a travel agent so I got the bug at a young age. I’ve had the opportunity to travel both in and out of the country...but in my opinion, cruises offer some of the best vacations.
This past June my girlfriend and I were at the New York City Pride parade when a representative from Jet Blue came up to us and handed us 2 free airline tickets to travel anywhere they fly, round-trip. Having never taken a vacation in the 2 ½ years we’ve been together, we gladly took the freebies and started brainstorming destinations.
We didn’t want to spend too much, but also wanted to have a lot of fun...so, it was a toss up between an all-inclusive resort and a cruise. I have been on 4 cruises in the past, so I knew it would provide the most entertainment while also allowing us to see different places and be very relaxed as well (which we needed desperately!).
Basic cost breakdown for the trip:
Item Cost
Initial cost for 7-day Caribbean cruise………………………………………..…...........$709
Drink package (beer, wine, water, hard liquor - includes tip)….................$400
Daily gratuity charge for crew ($12.95/day)……………………………….…............$90
Excursions (Dunn’s River/tubing $99, Dolphin/Stingray swim $120)......$220
Flight to Ft. Lauderdale, FL (Free tickets from NYC pride - woo hoo!)....FREE
TOTAL: $1,419
Because it was October, cruises were fairly cheap because it is considered hurricane season in the Caribbean (it rained very little). The last ship I was on was Royal Caribbean (11 years ago) and it was a blast. They are known for catering to all sorts of ages but also to a young crowd (early 20’s & 30’s) which we wanted. We found an itinerary for 7 days in the Western Caribbean, which included the following stops (ports of call):
- Labadee, Haiti
- Falmouth, Jamaica
- George Town, Grand Cayman
- Cozumel, Mexico
Considering everything that is included in a cruise, we got more bang for our buck as opposed to going to an all-inclusive or staying in a hotel somewhere and seeing the sights.
Here’s what you get on a cruise:
- Entertainment all day/night
- Free food all day/night (unless you want to eat at the specialty restaurants)
- Different places to see (but you have the option to stay on or get off the boat)
- Great service/great staff
- Meet a ton of people
- Planned excursions that you can choose from (snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, sightseeing, etc.)
- Nightlife (you don’t have to worry about taking a cab anywhere)
- Relaxing poolside
- And so much more!
We decided to not go crazy with excursions at the ports of call so we decided to only do 2. There are so many different types of excursions from the adventurer type to the foodie type. In Jamaica we climbed Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios, and then went tubing down a local river. In Grand Cayman we swam with the dolphins and then with the stingrays. Excursions are a lot of fun but in my opinion doing 2 islands worth wore us out so we’re happy we didn’t do excursions at each of the 4 stops.
We spent most of our downtime hanging out by the pool and watching the activities around the ship. In the evening we’d go to a show and then to the night club. Here is where we met and danced a lot of people from all over the country and ended up exchanging numbers with a few. Being a lesbian couple we got our occasional stares, but for the most part people didn’t care and we mingled with people of all ages. They do have an LGBT meet up in the evenings listed on the daily ship itinerary so we felt welcomed right away. Many of the islands are very religious and not so accepting of the gay community so we decided to keep the PDA at a minimum.
Overall our vacation was really amazing. I could probably sit here for hours writing about how great cruises are. I recommend checking it out for your next trip, we are already planning our next!