What *Really* Happened On The Gay Cruise... (21)

[00:00:00]Pretty much there was a gay cruise that was on its way to Turkey, except they denied you guys from docking there, right?

[00:00:07]>> Correct. There are currently 2,000 gay men stranded in the middle of the ocean on a cruise ship. This is starting to make international news. Let's discuss.

[00:00:15]>> And then you rerouted to Egypt, and they also denied you there.

[00:00:19]>> Correct.

[00:00:20]>> Just because it was gay.

[00:00:22]>> Just because it was gay.

[00:00:23]>> Wow.

[00:00:24]>> Yeah.

[00:00:25]>> So yeah, just go ahead and tell me about it.

[00:00:28]>> hey guys, [clears throat] I'm just editing right now, but I wanted to let you know that instead of filming a vlog today, I filmed this interview because I think it's a really interesting topic, and we get into some really cool stuff.

[00:00:37]And then at the end of it, I put a few clips from the vlog that I did film. So stay tuned afterwards if you're interested in that, and enjoy the interview. So I'm here with Rett, and Rett just got back from a gay cruise that was actually on the news.

[00:00:52]>> We went on the cruise. Turkey was one of the stops. Everyone was very excited to go to Turkey.

[00:00:56]>> Mhm.

[00:00:57]>> There was some apprehension though. Some people were like, I don't know.

[00:01:00]>> Mhm.

[00:01:00]>> Are they accepting? But the gay cruise has gone there before.

[00:01:03]>> Okay.

[00:01:04]>> Never really had an issue. So maybe the climate has changed there in the recent years, but uh the night before the cruise, [snorts] early in the morning we get a letter.

[00:01:12]This is how they communicated on the cruise, which was kind of cool. They slip a letter under the door.

[00:01:17]>> And So the night before you're landing in Turkey.

[00:01:19]>> before we find out through a letter that we're not going to be allowed entry to the port. And uh but the best part was that they were rerouting us to Egypt. So everyone got really excited about going to see the pyramids. I was like, oh my god, this was a bucket list item. So good alternative, but then behind the scenes everybody's talking and saying, wait a second. Turkey won't let us in.

[00:01:39]We are Egypt's far more conservative.

[00:01:41]What are we going to do? And then a second letter comes under the door, basically telling everybody when you go to Egypt, make sure you dress a certain way, >> [music] >> act a certain way. And then I was like, oh my god, if they're telling us we have to do that, why are we even going here?

[00:01:55]>> Yeah.

[00:01:56]>> So >> going back in the closet just to go there.

[00:01:59]>> Exactly. Nonetheless, we were still excited, but then I think it was maybe we were in Egyptian waters and maybe an hour before docking [music] and another letter and they tell us that we're not going to be accepted in the port of Egypt. So, we have to turn around and head out to Crete. So, we spent a couple more days at sea, which was fine.

[00:02:20]>> Were people freaking out at any point about like not being let in or they were just kind of like Uh like that's sad.

[00:02:26]>> No, I mean I think gays do what gays do and we just partied more. I think that again, it's an older crowd, so I think there's a history there that people have been through things like that before. Obviously not ideal, not acceptable in any way.

[00:02:41]>> Yeah.

[00:02:41]>> But we partied hearty that night and the next day and the days at sea. I mean Atlantis did a awesome job at just entertaining us and kind of making up for that change. They ported us in Crete. Uh you know, it was >> [snorts] >> it was great.

[00:02:58]>> So, what was it like on the cruise? Like I've never been on a gay cruise, so just tell me a little bit about like what it was like on there. Parties everywhere, jockstraps, what?

[00:03:08]>> That's part of it. If you the cruises can be whatever you want them to be. So, there's a [snorts] lot of shows, there's a lot of restaurants you can eat at, excursions to visit the sites, the ports that we go into. And then at night there's the party scene.

[00:03:22]You know, they had theme nights pretty much every night.

[00:03:25]The white parties, they had jockstrap nights, they had the pink nights, which I'm probably not I don't forget what is like pink party or >> On Wednesday probably.

[00:03:38]>> [laughter] >> Forget the days. But it was it was you know, I mean if you can imagine you're out at sea the middle of the night, there's other cruise ships around us and you have incredible light shows, smoke coming from every direction and music blaring and people dancing around and on top of the pool at night till all hours of the morning. It went till 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. It was great.

[00:04:01]>> So, we're in P-town right now and you know, P-town is kind of famous for having like some dark room areas and like dick dock and stuff. Was there anywhere on the boat like that?

[00:04:16]>> Yeah, there was like a top of the deck at night which you can not my thing that people would partake at the end of the parties.

[00:04:25]I think they called it instead of the dick dock, it was the dick deck.

[00:04:28]So.

[00:04:29]>> Dick deck.

[00:04:31]I love that. Um so, you were telling me someone almost got arrested.

[00:04:37]>> Oh, yeah. So, after everything we went through >> Yeah.

[00:04:40]>> Um we dock we go to Croatia. Great country, highly recommend visiting, awesome people. Uh also very accepting of us coming into the port. When we get off the ship um someone is dressed in drag as a nun greeting us to come off the ship. Won't say who it was.

[00:04:57]>> Yeah.

[00:04:58]>> Um not a big deal cuz I've been on Atlantis cruise before and you kind of have that kind of campiness which is a lot of fun as you're exiting the ship to go on excursions.

[00:05:07]Um and then the ship's supposed to leave at like 4:00 and then it's 4:30, 5:00 the ship's not leaving. Nobody really thought much of it. We have this kind of departing party at the back of the ship.

[00:05:16]Everybody gets to go out and we have drinks and we watch we sail away. But, this was delayed and then we found out later at one of the events that it's illegal to impersonate a nun in Croatia.

[00:05:28]So, the authorities were contacted and I guess they boarded the ship without us even knowing and they were showing pictures of the nun and they brought it up to the captain and the captain said he didn't know who it was.

[00:05:39]>> How did they get the pic?

[00:05:40]>> I don't know to be honest with you. I mean, everyone was snapping photos cuz it's kind of a fun thing. I have photos of the nun. And um And so >> So they considered just like a costume impersonation?

[00:05:52]>> Yeah. So yeah, totally.

[00:05:54]Um >> Huh.

[00:05:56]>> So anyways, they did allow us to go.

[00:05:58]They captain looked at the pictures said he doesn't know who it was. I think they said something to the effect might have been something someone from off the boat and that was good enough for them and they let us go. And I don't know if I ever mentioned this wasn't the first Atlantis cruise we had that kind of encounter.

[00:06:12]That me and my husband were on a cruise 25 years ago with Atlantis and we went to the island of Dominica.

[00:06:19]Um And I think at the time we went to the island of Dominica, I remember someone telling us there was a cruise director at the time saying that the island of Dominica hasn't evolved much at that point and they said if Christopher Columbus had landed there again, he would recognize the island.

[00:06:33]I'm like, okay. I don't know if that was reassuring or not. But we go to the island, we we exit the um ship and go downtown. And this was like pre-cell phone. I think we only had flip phones at that time, so there wasn't really any way to communicate, but um you know, we picked up immediately as we were downtown, people kept asking us what ship we were on. Some people were carrying machetes.

[00:06:57]And I'm thinking, okay, what is going on here? And I immediately was like to my partner and and others, we need to get like out of here now. There was another cruise ship there and I kept pointing to we're on that ship right there and they're like, okay, okay, and they kind of left us alone.

[00:07:09]Turns out that the local radio station um was again is a very religious island.

[00:07:14]>> Yeah.

[00:07:15]>> And the radio host was actually and announced that the cruise ship was here and really stirring up the local population and getting pretty everybody in a frenzy. So we went immediately to the first cab to try to get back to the ship um and asked him to bring us back to the ship. He had that radio station playing of course. I don't know I didn't understand anything cuz I didn't speak the language.

[00:07:36]>> Yeah.

[00:07:36]>> But it was pretty heated whatever and whatever was being said on the radio, the The in the front seat driving had a coconut in the passenger seat and a machete in his left hand. And as he's driving us back to the ship, he's laughing and hitting the coconut as he's driving us back.

[00:07:52]Um we get back to the ship. We run and there's people hanging off the fences like as we're running onto the ship. And a couple of the other excursions said they were chased. We had like this river lazy river on inner tubes that they were doing on the island somewhere and that I'm pretty sure they had told me they were chased with machetes back to the cruise.

[00:08:11]>> [snorts] >> Wow.

[00:08:12]>> That was before all So, that never made the news.

[00:08:15]>> years ago.

[00:08:15]>> That was like 25 years ago. So, flash forward to now and I mean being turned away wasn't that big of a deal, but you know.

[00:08:23]>> But in 2026 though, it's >> Or you know, I think we're dealing with different cultures. Um Some places have evolved. Some places have a little bit further to go.

[00:08:34]I should mention that we were on the island of Dominica. We got chased back to the ship.

[00:08:38]Um it was almost like revenge in a way and maybe this happens all the time on the island of Dominica, but we're partying on the deck and a rainstorm formed over the island, but not over the ship. And this huge rainbow forms over the island.

[00:08:51]>> No way.

[00:08:52]>> all dancing and I think they were playing it's raining men as this rainbow forms over the island of Dominica.

[00:08:58]Um but that's kind of what I felt. We were up on the dance floor partying and we're sailing away from these countries that just need a little bit more time to kind of come into the >> Yeah.

[00:09:08]>> current world, I guess.

[00:09:09]>> Did you get off anywhere and go to like any gay bars anywhere or no?

[00:09:13]>> What do you mean by get off?

[00:09:15]>> Like when you [snorts] docked.

[00:09:17]>> [laughter] >> No, we actually didn't. Um I think when we were in Mykonos, I've been to Mykonos a few times and there are places Jackie'O's. There was an excursion to go to Jackie'O's at night. We did not do that. I mean, we're on a gay cruise.

[00:09:31]>> bunch of excursions that you can go on >> Yeah. You sign up for them.

[00:09:36]>> When Yeah, whenever you dock.

[00:09:37]>> There were um beaches like Super Paradise, Paradise you can go to. There were excursions to those on Mykonos. Um but one of the comedians made a joke, "Yeah, you can go on one of these excursions and look at people at JackieO's."

[00:09:48]All the same people are on the boat, basically.

[00:09:51]>> Well, yeah, I just kind of wanted to get the tea on like getting turned away because it was in the news and everything. Uh they kind of made it into a big deal, but >> I think when you live in a country like the United States and others that, you know, acceptance has come a long way.

[00:10:05]>> Right.

[00:10:05]>> And you just feel even living in P-town, I remember back in the day you live in P-town and you're out and about holding hands and you have like you'd go to another town or to Boston or something, you'd forget. Oh god, we're not in P-town anymore. We can't hold hands. We can't do this. Can't do that.

[00:10:21]I don't feel that way anywhere pretty much in most of the United States now for the most part, at least where we live.

[00:10:27]>> Mhm.

[00:10:28]>> Um but some of those feelings came back like, "Oh my god, we got to check ourselves here. We got to um kind of it you kind of did feel a little "Oh my god, you know, we're kind of going backwards in time here." It was it was unsettling.

[00:10:41]>> Yeah.

[00:10:42]>> But at the same time, it's something as an older gay and uh that you've dealt with and it was a it to me it was a fleeting thought and it's like, "Okay, we'll show them."

[00:10:51]>> Shout out to Rad for giving us all the tea on this experience. Cool. Um well, that's all I had. Make sure you guys hit the like button. All right, I just finished editing yesterday's vlog all um uh all alone. I went out to Boy Beach.

[00:11:08]It was actually really fun.

[00:11:10]Sometimes I just like talking to random people this summer a lot more and I feel like I'm getting out of my comfort zone, getting out of my shell and just having a great time, you know, because I always would feel like sometimes I'm too shy. I think talking to strangers is weird, but it's really not.

[00:11:31]By the way, here are some comments from yesterday's vlog. If you want to be featured in tomorrow's vlog, comment something down below.

[00:11:40]I just checked the drive. It's a 4-hour drive, so obviously I'm not really going to be able to film during that. But, I think maybe when I get there, um I can film some stuff with my little brother and maybe Calvin. I'm going to see if he wants to hang out.

[00:12:01]It's my last last bag. I actually am traveling with like five bags. It's kind of crazy.

[00:12:09]Oh, there we go.

[00:12:11]So, this is everything I travel with. I got my carry-on and I have a little duffel bag, which you can't see.

[00:12:21]This is my first checked bag, second checked bag, and I also check my skateboard.

[00:12:27]Five bags.

[00:12:29]It's really a lot.

[00:12:32]Oh. Okay.

[00:12:34]I still haven't left P-Town and I just came to Rosie's to get some dinner before I leave.

[00:12:41]>> [music] [music] >> And tomorrow I'm leaving to go meet up with my little brother and then on Wednesday, I'm hanging out with Calvin all day. So, I will see you guys tomorrow.

[00:13:05]Good night.