“Get onboard the biggest event of 2022 for Atlantis’ 30th Anniversary! 5500 guys. Superstar performers. Cutting edge productions. Legendary concerts. Mind-blowing parties. And you! All on the world’s largest and most spectacular ship. Sail from Miami on the new Oasis of the Seas with friends from around the world for a superstar-studded festival of endless fun and excitement unlike anything you’ve ever imagined.“
At a time when many cruises have been cancelled because of the recent surge in the Omnicronvariant of the Coronavirus!But that didn’t stop Atlantis Events from holding their 30th LGBT Anniversary cruise. (aka gay party sex boat) And while many cruise lines capping capacity at 50% to 70%. Atlantis and Royal Caribbean who owns the ship decided that wasn’t needed. I mean it’s not like the Gay and LBT community hasn’t been through a pandemic/plague before.
I cannot tell you how disgusted I am at the greed of both Atlantis and RC for packing the ship.There were 712,051 cases of Covid19 reported in the United States yesterday alone. And while the Omincron variant is less severe it is still dangerous to people who have underlying conditions and who are immune deficient. This is not rocket science. But obviously GREED means more than the health and welfare of a community that has already lived through the ravages of one pandemic.
And to make matters worse this cruise literally set sail the day after the expiration of the CDC mandates and as you can see from the pictures above none remained in effect.
Omnicron is 3x’s more communicable than any variant before and this time we cannot protect ourselves with rubbers.
ATLANTIS Events should be ashamed and shunned. And just so they know will be following any cases that develop over the next 2 weeks from the cruise and reporting on them
Lets just hope the next variant isn’t called Homocron.
Greedy fucking bastards.
*Full disclosure: I myself am an avid cruiser and actually cruised in late November. There were only 800 passengers. It was 25% full and there was not one case of coronavirus reported onboard..
If you’re already sick of winter and looking for nice warm destinations to sail to melt your worries away, then there are some things that you should be mindful of, especially if you’re LGBT. Sadly enough, there are still anti-gay vacation spots filled with bigotry that come with steep penalties that you should keep in mind before buying that hot swimsuit. Here is some of the penalties given by some of the more popular vacation spots:
Barbados: (Life sentence)
Antigua and Barbuda: (15 years in prison)
Dominica: (10 years in prison)
Grenada: (Male: illegal and 10 year prison sentence. Female: legal)
Jamaica: (Male: illegal and 10 year sentence to hard labor. Female: legal)
Saint Kitts and Nevis: (Male: illegal and 10 year sentence. Female: legal)
Saint Lucia: (Male: illegal and a fine and/or 10 year sentence. Female: legal)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: (Fine and/or 10 years)
Trinidad and Tobago: (25 years prison sentence)
Sad isn’t it. Especially the hypocrisy and misogyny in some of these places where it’s okay for a a woman to commit a homosexual act but the men receive a steep penalty. And it has these sexist undertones that women are only sexual beings deeply disturbs me.
Now of course there are still tropical cruise destinations that have gay friendly environment allowing you to fully enjoy your vacation. A large travel company, Frommers.com, points out that many Islands in the Caribbean like Puerto Rico and Coasta Rico are welcoming towards LGBT:
“The most gay-friendly Caribbean islands are the U.S. possessions, most notably San Juan, which is hailed as the ’Gay Capital of the Caribbean’ and offers gay guesthouses, nightclubs, bars and dance clubs”
Now Director of Oasis Hotels, Teri Minor, one of the most popular Cancun resorts wants to reassure potential customers of the accepting and welcoming environment:
“To make this the perfect setting, we created a steering committee from industry leaders from various airlines, wholesale operators and travel agencies, It was determined by these well-seasoned travelers that Oasis Sens was already perfect for the LGBT community.”
“All the staff at Oasis Sens have volunteered and want to support this concept and the lifestyle, They have undergone training by Carma Productions and are ready to greet all guests with equality and special attention.”
So always make sure to do the research of any destination you go to for yourself, regardless of their reputation. Find out the rate of reported hate crimes and any barbaric/archaic anti-gay laws they may still have. Make sure to always have valid and up to date self identification. And let people know where you’re going as well as how long you will be there and what they should do if in the event something went wrong and you need help. And know who you need to contact and who the embassy officials are if you need assistance.
RSVP and Holland America Cruise Lines are under scrutiny once again.
This time RSVP hired models from the Bel Ami adult film company and then stranded them in the war-torn anti-gay country of Tunisia, whose law decrees imprisonment of up to three years for being gay right after Arab Spring
Nearly a dozen Slavic Bel Ami porn stars from Hungary and the Czech Republic.were hired by RSVP to “mix and mingle” with passengers on a gay cruise through the Mediterranean. In exchange for providing the “talent”, RSVP told Bel Ami it could film the models frolicking non-sexually around the ship and that the models should keep the fact RSVP hired them quiet “suggesting that the young men should say the cruise was a ‘reward from Bel Ami for their hard work’ if anyone asked.”
But the models attracted too much attention, and RSVP allegedly kicked them off the cruise ship Nieuw Amsterdam, stranding them in Tunisia which at the time was in the aftermath of the civil uprising Arab Spring which resulted in many deaths and injuries.
The models were forced to spend the night Tunisia with no contacts or resources until Bel Ami could come to their rescue. If RSVP would have waited one day the cruise would have docked in Italy. A much safer and easier EU country for the models to leave from.
Earlier in the year we posted a story about a gay couple who were arrested aboard an Atlantis Cruise Line that was docked at the Caribbean island of Dominica of for having gay sex. (In Dominica anyone caught perpetrating an act of gross indecency can be punished with imprisonment of up to 5 years, anal sex with a prison sentence of up to 10 years, or internment in a mental asylum.)
And while many in the LGBT community blamed the couple. (Because gay sex is dirty and secret you know and the guys were having it in public so it served them right.)Few came forward besides Back2Stonewall.com to call out the country of Dominica itself for having anti-homosexuality laws punishable by prison. But most importantly we called out Atlantis Cruise Lines for docking in homophobic countries with a floating city of horny gay men because they are “cheap” ports of call to make a few bucks.
Now we have the city of Casablanca in the anti-gay country of Morocco revoking the docking privileges of the MS Nieuw Amsterdam, an all-gay Mediterranean cruise organized by RSVP Vacations and Holland America because she’s full of gays.
While the Moroccan tourist ministry denies that being a gay cruise had anything to do with it many wonder why it was cancelled at the last minute.
Morocco’s Tourism Minister Lahcen Haddad said no official decision had been made to prevent the ship from stopping in Morocco.
“We don’t ban cruise ships here and we never ask our visitors about their sexual preferences,” he told Reuters. Asked if the MS Nieuw Amsterdam could still visit Morocco, he said: “They can if the organisers want to”.
But the REAL question is why would RSVP Vacations and Holland America potentially put the lives of two thousand gay men in danger by docking in Casablanca, where where Islam same-sex sexual activity is illegal and can be punished with anything from 6 months to 3 years imprisonment?
As long as there are laws to persecute gay people in that country the cruise/travel industry should NEVER be offering gay tours to such places. And it is grossly irresponsible for them to do so unless they can 100 percent guarantee the safety of their gay passengers.
It doesn’t matter how beautiful of exotic the destination is, what matters is that these places should be avoided and should never benefit financially or otherwise from the gay community. The gay world yields a lot of big money and that money should never be used to support or help anyone or any place that would put us in harm’s way.
John Robert Hart and his partner retired police officer Dennis Jay Mayer are speaking out about thier ordeal of being pulled from an Atlantas Gay Cruise ship in Dominica after locals complained that the couple was having sex in public on the balcony of their ship cabin. But now able to speak freely Mayer insists they were not having sex and has no doubt they were arrested in Dominica because they were gay:
“The total experience was horrendous,” he said. “They told us that they did not like us, that they did not like gay people.”
The trouble began shortly after the cruise ship Celebrity Summit docked Wednesday morning at Dominica in the eastern Caribbean. Mayer and Hart were in their room when they got a call from a cruise ship official. “We were summoned that the captain wished to speak to us,” Mayer said. “We were caught off guard.”
Three cruise ship officials and six Dominica police officers were waiting for them. After police interviewed both men separately, the assistant captain spoke: “At this time, we are going to eject you from the ship. We have zero tolerance toward your behavior,” Mayer recalled him saying. And Atlantis Cruises then turned the two men over to the Dominica police.
After police took pictures and obtained fingerprints, a high-ranking officer began a nearly four-hour interrogation.
Police then drove them to their headquarters, where they sat on a bench for nearly two hours without legal representation despite repeated requests, Mayer said.
‘You’re being arrested for being gay. We’re arresting you for the crime of buggery,'” Mayer said. and added that other people said that we were engaging in homosexual sex and repeated that several times. I told him “I didn’t know why they would say that. I wasn’t doing that.” Mayer said he was naked in his cabin and nearly naked on the balcony. ”
During the interrogation, the police official threatened to take them to a clinic and have them medically examined for proof of homosexual activity, Mayer said. “He said, you know, we’re looking for specific things, fluids, bruising, things of that nature,” After making the threat, the official left the room, then came back saying they had a right to refuse the test. The “buggery” charges were then dropped and the two men were charged with indecent exposure and put in a five-by-eight-foot cell to await an appearance before a magistrate.
“The treatment was inhumane,” Mayer said. “We were detained for approximately 26 hours, and 19 of those locked in a cement cell, which had no running water, no toilet, no lights. It stunk of feces and urine. It was infested with cockroaches, ants and bugs.”
On Thursday morning, police drove them to the courthouse in the capital of Roseau, passing through an angry crow. “They were chanting and banging on the police vehicle. They were screaming, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, other than in movies. Both my partner and I really feared for our safety “It was very frightening,” Mayer said.
Once in the courtroom, Chief Magistrate Evaline Baptiste ordered the men to pay a nearly $900 fine after they pleaded guilty to indecent exposure. He called the two men “rogues and vagabonds and after the sentencing police then drove the two men to an ATM to get money to pay the fine and after paying drove them to the airport.
This is a very different story than the one released by Atlantic Cruise Lines. Rich Campbell, president of the West Hollywood, Ca.-based Atlantis Events on the company’s Facebook page today, as well. It reads, in part:
“Yesterday morning around 9:30 am two of our guests were seen engaging in a sexual act outdoors on their balcony in full public view of the port and town. Not only did many of the residents witness the act, several of our guests saw this incident as well. The local authorities responded to a complaint by several residents. The two gentlemen were arrested on a misdemeanor charge of public indecency and detained overnight. They appeared in front of the local magistrate this morning, paid a small fine, and were released in full.
Okay now, moralistic crap aside the bottom line is this.
This never would have happened if this was a straight couple. And the two different versions imerging of what happened is deeply disturbing.
Do we accept the word of a homophobic government, which has clearly stated it is offended by homosexuality and Atlantis who wants to make a quick buck; or do we accept the statements of the men accused of the “heinous “crime of public sexuality? The truth somewhere probably lies in the middle. I suspect this was a case of (1) governmental authority foreknowledge of a gay cruise docking; and (2) two gay men unwarned about the homophobic and repressive culture they were visiting, who were expressing themselves in a way a homophobic culture found offensive.
Rich Campball and Atlantis Events bears some of the responsibility here for sending 2000 gay men on an explicitly sexual gay cruise, (and we kid ourselves to think of it as nothing less than a huge circut party on the high seas) to a port of Dominica where homosexuality is a crime punishable by incarceration of up to 10 years in prison because it is a cheap port of call to dock in and then giving the men up so easily. The Atlantis memo from Rich Campbell was a disclaimer…a blow-off of any responsibility on their behalf by shifting the blame for their actions to the unfortunate men who were caught in the cross-hairs of an overzealous police department and out-moded, fractured justice system in a homophobic country.
Two male passengers aboard an Atlantis all gay cruise ship that was docked at the tiny island of Dominica have been areested and charged with public buggery while being aboard ship.
From the Associated Press:
Police Constable John George said police boarded the cruise ship and arrested the two men on suspicion of indecent exposure and “buggery,” a term equivalent to sodomy on the island. He identified the men as John Robert Hart, 41, and Dennis Jay Mayer, 43, but did not provide their hometowns. George said the men were seen having sex on the Celebrity Summit cruise ship by someone on the dock. The two were later charged with indecent exposure and are scheduled to appear before a magistrate Thursday morning. If found guilty, they could be fined $370 each and face up to six months in jail.
Atlantis Events president Rich Campbell who also happens to be on the ship and says his company will “happily return” to Dominica despite incident and that it did not affect “the overall guest experience”
But a passenger currently aboard the ship and a former passenger tell quite a different story.
I’m currently on the ship and most passengers are SHOCKED that Rich (owner of Atlantis Events) would even have the ship stop at this port. There is NOTHING in Dominica. Under educated (no education) people standing on the streets, shops that have little to no lighting, selling junk made in China, old buildings that should have been torn down 100 years ago and open sewers draining down the public streets next to the broken sidewalks. The only thing Rich is concerned about is INCREASING his profits and screwing the gay community. He has the ships stop and these ports because it cost less money to dock at them – increasing his profit. ALL of the entertainment on the ship as been cheap and BAD. Rich charges you double the normal cruise price and provides nothing for it.
If you are considering a RSVP or Atlantis Events cruise – DON’T DO IT.
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The cruise that you went on also stopped in two other countries where being Gay is illegal…Barbados and Grenada. Barbados, in particular, has had a problem with anti-Gay VIOLENCE in the past.
I was on that cruise last year. When we stopped in St Lucia, another country where being Gay is illegal, no warnings were given as to the fact that it is illegal to be gay in St Lucia.
Rich Campbell appears to not care about his passengers safety. He will next be endangering his clients when his Baltic Cruise stops in St Petersburg Russia in July.
This is true. On the 28th and 29th of July the Atlantis Baltic Gay Cruise is set to dock in St Petersburg, Russia where the gay community was just stripped of all rights of speech, assembly, association, petition, protest, and due process. In response, the Gay community has asked tourists to stay away. The Canadian Foreign Ministry has issued a public warning against its’ citizens travelling to Russia in general and to St Petersburg in particular. But still Atlantis is going forward with the trip.
