The largest cruise ever aimed at the gay and lesbian market kicks off Sunday on Royal Caribbean’s two-month-old Allure of the Seas.The organizer of the voyage, Atlantis Events, Inc., says nearly 5,400 people have signed up for the seven-night Eastern Caribbean sailing, which begins in Fort Lauderdale and includes stops in St. Thomas and St. Maarten.
Atlantis Events chartered the 225,282-ton Allure of the Seas, one of the world’s two largest cruise ships, from Royal Caribbean for the week — the first time the ship has been chartered to an outside company.
Atlantis Events is the world’s largest company specializing in gay and lesbian vacations, and it traditionally offers several cruises a year on chartered ships. The company says demand for the Allure of the Seas sailing has been so strong that it already has chartered the vessel for a second gay cruise to take place in January 2012. The Western Caribbean voyage will go on sale on Feb. 23.
“Our guest response to this first Allure of the Seas sailing was incredible, with the charter selling out in three weeks with no advertising whatsoever,” Atlantis CEO Rich Campbell says. “We knew they would love this cruise, but had no idea just how strong the response would be.”
Atlantis says it has lined up an array of gay and lesbian comedians, singers, cabaret stars and performance artists for Sunday’s sailing.
Like its sister Oasis of the Seas, which has been the talk of the cruise world since it arrived in November 2009, Allure of the Seas is 16 decks high, stretches nearly 1,200 feet long and boasts such never-before-seen-at-sea features as an open-air “central park” with live trees and a family-friendly amusement area called Boardwalk. Other than Oasis, no other cruise ship comes close to it in size (click HERE for our comprehensive photo tour of the vessel).
More information on the Atlantis voyages on the ship is online at the company’s website, atlantisevents.com.
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