Every year, between the months of January and February, the Port Everglades, in the United States, is taken over by a crowd of more than 5 thousand gays, and some lesbians, to board the company's Atlantis cruise. In 2012, for the second year in a row, the cruise was on board the largest ship in the world.
The trip to the Caribbean has a very diverse audience for the veteran in the subject, Atlantis Events, which has been producing sea trips and events in resorts exclusively for this audience for 21 years. With this number of people, ethnic, cultural and regional diversity prevails. On the cabin balconies there are flags from all over the world. Chinese, Israelis, Mexicans, Argentines, Germans, English, Uruguayans, French and mainly North Americans and Canadians on board.
The Brazilian presence is also noticeable not only on the balconies, but also by the Portuguese that is easily heard during parties, corridors and in restaurants. According to data from Royal Caribbean, owner of the ship, in the 2012 edition, 85 guests residing in Brazil were on board, which excludes those who live in other countries from the count.
And the Brazilians really have the ball in Obama's hands. After being applauded as one of the biggest spenders there, the red carpet always rolls out. “Brazilians like to pass the card”, jokes a salesman at the ship's watch store, mixing a little Spanish in the phrase that denotes the race for low prices compared to those practiced in Brazil.
Parties
When it comes to parties, the Atlantis public spares no effort and investment to follow the theme proposed for each party. Generally the themes are the same in all the trips they promote, which makes it easier for frequent passengers.
At the Dog Tag T-Dance party, which takes place over an afternoon, people use leather accessories and camouflage clothing, in addition to the traditional tag around everyone's neck, where the red color indicates who is not available, the yellow color is a “ maybe it can happen”, the sale indicates that the person is in the mood and if the most abusive person puts two green ones it means “in my cabin in 15 minutes”. There are people who put ten!
At the Glitter Party, the set-up and makeup take place freely, as well as at the lights party, which has the best visual effect. Over The Rainbow is where the productions are even more elaborate. There is also the classic White Party and the Revival, which marks the end, with hits from the 80s. Apart from these, there are also parties focused on bears, a very present and always lively community, which is worthy of having a nightly space reserved for them and their admirers.
When it comes to DJs, they embrace the less-is-more trend. For a seven-night cruise, only six were scheduled, but they were big names on the international scene. Abel, Manny Lehman, Brett Henrichsen, Wayne G, Pagano and Guy Smith, also known for their stints on Brazilian tracks, took turns at parties that always had a time to end.
During the parties it is possible to see how this public is well resolved with sexuality. The goal there is to have fun, whether dressed as a man or a woman. At many parties, muscular and bearded men appear in high heels, wigs and makeup, but it's not just one or two, there are many. Dozens. And very well produced. The party is over, the assembly is over and it doesn't hurt his masculinity.
For few
Small events are also held throughout the trip, such as piano performances, comedy shows and singers. The artist who was in charge of singing this time was Indina Menzel, who was most recently seen on the series Glee. Everyone sitting around a piano and the girl singing, it was very moving.
Still from the world of television, actor Alec Mapa, who became known on screen for Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty, also performed on the ship.
For a good laugh, there's Dixie Longate's Tupperware Show, where a crazy seller of household items talks more about other people's lives than she actually promotes the sale of her products. During her shows, she says phrases like “you didn't invent sex, you invented fist fucking”, and “Steve Jobs isn't dead, he's in the cloud”, alluding to the iClound service – for storing data on remote computers – from Apple.
Television
Customization also takes place in the ship's television system. Atlantis' cruise director, Malcolm Neitzey, recorded his presentation daily along with Royal Caribbean's cruise director, Rick, to publicize the day's schedule, comment on parties, events and also joke with each other, it's quite fun.
Diversity
With an extremely diverse audience, ranging from young people in their early 20s to gentlemen in their 60s, the program is designed to meet all demands, which is why, in addition to parties, there are comedy shows, singers, events for lesbians and even for foreign passengers.
They also promote a dinner for singles, with the aim of getting people to meet, interact and perhaps start a relationship. Everyone participates in the dinner with their name and city written on a tag on their clothes, as the dishes are being served, they get to know each other. There are people who take it seriously and really do it!
The 2012 edition of the cruise also featured a very interesting lecture on the future of gay tourism, where the importance of specialized agencies, products focused on this audience and also trips to traditional destinations undertaken by couples or groups of friends were discussed. gays.
As customization is the strong point in this type of tourism, Atlantis also offers clothing for special sales during cruise days. There are t-shirts, caps and tank tops from the company itself and swim trunks from other brands with gay appeal, all being sold by the ship's own stores.
Emergency
The last thing passengers expect to hear is the ship's emergency alarm. On the morning of February 3, 2012, as the ship approached its last stop in Cozumel, Mexico, at around 7:15 am local time, the alarm sounded. The captain then warned that a passenger had fallen from the ship. The bridge was notified by another guest about the accident and as the identity of the victim was not known, it was necessary to gather all 5300 passengers to make a count. There were very tense moments and a funereal atmosphere hung over the ship throughout the day, adding to the cloudy weather.
They verified that the person in question was a 30-year-old British man. The Mexican navy and the ship's team continued searching throughout the day. No information about the discovery of the body has been released so far.
*Article originally published in A Capa magazine #54
