Regarding the cruise itself–both times have been the best vacations I’ve ever had. Spending a week in an all-gay environment is one of the most freeing experiences I’ve ever been a part of.

Regarding the arrest- I tend to agree with Timothy that it would have been very hard to see these guys from shore. There was a small protest on shore, and I’m assuming that group was intently looking for something to create a stir. It’s unfortunate that these guys chose this type of behavior (they’ve gone from initially denying it to now admitting they were naked and not commenting on sexual activity). It’s even more unfortunate that these guys seemed to have been treated this way.

In Atlantis’ defence–they had a representative from their company and one from the ship with the men the entire time, and they were in contact with the American Embassy in Barbados.

Regarding the islands–there are a handful of gay positive or gay-neutral Caribbean islands out there, but Atlantis is a company that depends on repeat business, so they are looking to take people to new places. They aren’t going to get a lot of repeat bookings if they go to the same places every year. I’d also like to note that prior to the Lawrence ruling in the US, homosexual activity was illegal in many US states and it is still not safe to be openly gay in many parts of the US. In an ideal world, everyone would be pro-gay, but I don’t think we can blame a company that happens to travel to places that have anti-gay laws on the books. We all still lived in the US prior to 2003.

http://www.queerty.com/atlantis-president-arrested-men-had-balcony-sex-in-full-public-view-of-the-port-and-town-20120322/

And we also know how eager the police and others can be to abuse their authority and do what they can do humiliate gay people.
If they didn’t act THAT way, crying wolf all the time, then it would be easier to believe that this couple might have acted indecently.

I’ll reserve judgement, after all we haven’t heard the other side of this. We’re only going on what the local police have said.

Tell you what folks, I wouldn’t give any money to a tourist company or tourist nation that was so disrespectful to paying guests.

I know that visiting American tourists can be disrespectful to local customs. But in cases like this, I think there might be some exaggeration.
Just wondering.
As someone in my profession MUST. ;0)

I was on the Atlantis Southern Caribbean Cruise last year, which stopped in St Lucia. I was unaware of the fact that being Gay was illegal in St Lucia until after I had purchased by trip. No announcement about the fact that St Lucia is anti-Gay and criminalizes Gay persons was made on board by either Atlantis or RCL as far as I was able to tell.

Please note. Atlantis will be travelling to St Petersburg Russia on its’ Baltic Cruise on July 28 and 29. As you know, St Petersburg has recently passed legislation banning LGBT Russians from basic freedoms of assembly, association, petition, protest, speech, and press. In response, the Russian LGBT community has asked tourists to stay away. Last week, the Canadian foreign ministry issued a public warning about Gay persons travelling to St Petersburg. And still, Atlantis will be dropping off 2000 Gay people onto the streets of St Petersburg. I fear for the safety of the passengers. And I question their decision to dock there in the first place.

Needless to say, I’m done with Atlantis Events/RSVP until they act with some modicum of discretion as to the safety of their passengers, the desires of the host LGBT communities, and the global fight for very basic human rights.