It may be snowing in the Rocky Mountains and raining in the Midwest, but folks aboard Atlantis Events’ cruise this week in the Caribbean are enjoying sunny, warm 80 degree weather. And between the dance parties, entertainment, plus stops in Aruba, Haiti, and Curacao, there’s sure to be an influx pics and videos shared online from the gays reveling in their winter vacay.
However, a new social media policy included in the Guest Handbook sent to guests prior to embarking asks the cruisers to bring the temperature down a bit when it comes to sharing the onboard antics online.
“While we want everyone to have fun, there are limits and so we ask that you be respectful of all guests and our cruise partners,” reads the new policy. “Please do not post anything explicitly sexual on social media in a public forum or other online space.”
The handbook also states, “Any guest who posts or publishes an explicit and publicly visible photo or video will be asked to leave the ship with no refund.” The new policy applies not only to public social media accounts, but also “any private media posts (whether or not behind a paywall)” such as Just For Fans or OnlyFans accounts that “identify or could identify either Atlantis, our vendor brands, their properties, or any other guests with or without permission.”
Atlantis Events adds that they “take this seriously and have a team of volunteers monitoring most sites.”
In a statement to Buzzfeed News, Atlantis Events’ founder and CEO Rich Campbell shared that the social media policy was created at the request of cruise ship companies that allow their vessels to host the LGBTQ-themed cruises. “The cruise lines have asked me to include that and that’s not such a strange request,” Campbell explained. “They don’t want their brand featured.”
The language was added to the Guest Handbook “after several sexually explicit public posts were made by our guests with clear identifiers of either Atlantis or our host brands.” Campbell said that, in the past, when such content was shared on the interwebs, Atlantis Events would reach out to the poster asking them to take it down. And in most cases, the guests complied. “And the cruise lines asked us to put that out publicly, so we did,” added Campbell.
For more than three decades, gay-owned Atlantis Events has produced gay-centered vacation events around the world, including over 200 ship charters.
A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean International, whose Harmony of the Seas is hosting this week’s event, told BuzzFeed’s David Mack the two companies “together established this policy to protect the safety and privacy of all guests onboard.”
Buzzfeed spoke with one guest onboard the Harmony of the Seas this week named Chris, who said that while he and his friends noted the new guest guidance, it wasn’t generating much discussion among guests.
“I think it makes some sense though,” said Chris. “These cruises get a reputation as nothing but a sex boat because the videos of performances go viral and because they can be inflammatory and people see them as the norm.”
A veteran of five Atlantis Events cruises, he added, “These cruises are more than that.”
I understand the gay cruise is more than a sex boat. But feel surprised they have implemented this rule to be honest. Looks like a blast tho.