The first thing you need to know about VACAYA – the world’s first, biggest and most fun LGBTQ+ cruise – is that, should you decide to wear an outfit where your buttocks are exposed and you want to nip to the buffet for a burger and side salad, you’ll need to use one of the towels provided to wrap around your waist. Which seems only fair. We’ve flown to Miami on the incredible low-cost airline Norse Atlantic to pick up our cruise in Fort Lauderdale.
If you’ve never been on a cruise, imagine this: a 13-storey boat/building – in our case, Celebrity Apex – that’s so big you rarely feel any boat-like movement. It pulls into places you may or may not get off at (we did Puerto Rico , grazed Saint Croix and passed on Antigua altogether). The liner feels like a glamorous five-star hotel crossed with a small town , and has a theatre, restaurants, a pool, nightclub, martini bar with grand piano, a casino, cafés, a poolside burger joint, spa, an indoor pool, boutiques and a business centre.
There’s also a huge buffet with Indian and Chinese food, salads, burgers, pizzas, vegan and gluten-free dishes and desserts coming out of your ears. And all of this – the shows, food, seminars on tantric sex or lip fillers, the singer at the piano – is included in the price. Just ask and you shall receive.
But of course, this is a cruise with a difference. The background to VACAYA is that someone from another cruise operation decided your classic ‘gay cruise’ was too raun.
