On November 8, some 2,000 women will head to New Orleans, board the Norwegian Spirit cruise ship and set sail for the Western Caribbean on the largest lesbian cruise ever.
The seven-day cruise is the culmination of months of work and planning by Sweet, the new lesbian travel company founded in January 2008 by Shannon Wentworth and Jen Rainin. It will be a cruise with a difference -- ecofriendly, voluntourism opportunities and packed with activities and events featuring a long list of popular lesbian celebrities.
Sweet is offering vacationers a lot of firsts:
- All-in-one pricing includes accommodations, all you can eat (casual or dressy freestyle dining), entertainment, on-board activities, all port taxes and gratuities.
- Their threesome offer lets guests add a third and fourth passenger for free in select cabins.
- Payments can be spread over 12 months with no interested and no fees
- Offset of the trip’s carbon footprint though Carbonfund.org
Even their cancellation policy is different. “Nobody cancels a fabulous lesbian cruise without a good reason...” says Wentworth, “something bad has happened to make you cancel your trip...” If you cancel inside of 90 days prior to the cruise, they’ll move your paid balance to another vacation, less a $100 per guest processing fee. “If you end up breaking up with somebody and you want to bring a friend, it's free to change a name,” she adds.
Vacationers can choose from eight community service opportunities during the cruise including a beach cleanup, a deep-sea reef restoration, a children’s library project, set up of a school’s computer lab, a pediatric ward cheer-up, dune restoration, wetlands restoration and park re-beautification.
The volunteer projects involve a commitment of three or four hours and are designed to show a measurable difference. “You are going to have fun because you are in a Sweet group and then we are going to party and we are going to recognize your achievements ... but you are not going to have to join the Peace Corps or spend a whole week... you still get to have a vacation. I think more people can handle this kind of voluntourism,” Wentworth explains.
But the Sweet cruise will not be all work and no play. “We are incorporating voluntourism aspects into our Sweet vacations. We are making them really digestible -- short and not overwhelming -- you don't have to commit to a week counting turtle eggs, which is a wonderful thing to do, but you can commit a morning to going out and doing a community project …”
On board the travelers will have plenty to do to keep them busy… or not… it’s up to them. Offerings include:
- Sweet Sweat - a fitness boot camp run by SheWired Fat 2 Fab! celebrity fitness trainer Shawnee Harkins
- Sweet Sparks - 20 minute presentations followed by breakout sessions to spark creative juices. But don’t write these off as boring classroom lectures. Sweet has teamed with Babeland to host sex toy parties, presentations, contests and games. Other sessions will tackle career, health, and lifestyle kind of empowerment.
- Sweet Beats – four DJs will be spinning tunes – DJ Dirty Kurty from San Diego, DJ Kathy V from The Dinah Shore Weekend, animal lover DJ Trina J and Disco Bambina from Paris
- Entertainment and celebrities include: comedians Suzanne Westenhoefer, Erin Foley, Sandra Valls, Chantal Carrere, Kate McKinnon and Gloria Bigelow; musicians Jen Foster, Adrianne, Natalia Zukerman and Edie Carey; actors Cathy DeBuono and Jill Bennett; columnists Lipstick & Dipstick; and the opinionated ladies of Cherry Bomb.
- A chance to win a date with firefighter Dani Campbell, who appeared on reality show “A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila."
The cruise will visit Costa Maya, Belize City, Belize, Roatan, Honduras and Cozumel, Mexico.
For more information visit the Sweet website.
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