CruiseShips!

I went on my first Cruise vacation this past summer! No, it wasn't a nude cruise people but it was lots of fun! Great food, interesting destinations,  nice rooms - including a  free upgrade to a balcony! Overall a wonderful vacation - I highly recommend Princess Cruise Lines for a textile vacation! The Golden Princess was a magnificent ship!

I was fully under the impression that there would be no opportunities to go nude other than in my own stateroom.   I was almost correct. I did discovered that on the ship, they had segregated the saunas and steam rooms by sex.   Perhaps I would be permitted to go nude among men?

These facilities were located by the pool in the Lotus Spa area. On most Princess ships, the saunas are inside the  changing room. On the Golden princess, the saunas are accessible directly from the pool area, although mens and womens are in different corners. Another curious aspect was that it was perfectly easy to see the entire pool area from inside the sauna, but the glass was slightly tinted which make it difficult to see into the sauna from outside unless you until you approached the door.

Due to the location of the saunas, I played it safe and asked the spa staff directly about required clothing. The helpful staff seemed surprised by the question but they concluded that going nude would of course be fine.

However it was not so simple.While Spa staff were respectful,  it was clear that cleaning staff and other passengers did not have any expectation of encountering a nude person in the saunas. If other men came into the saunas while I was nude, they were clearly surprised and did not converse with me more than necessary. But this was not problematic for me, or unexpected. I can relax nude in a sauna around clothed men because, although it may not be preferred by some, its perfectly accepted in segregated situations.

The reason though that I was unable to relax was because on many occasions, I saw many female passengers, either accidentally use the male saunas, or go in to find their husbands. I also noticed that female cruise cleaning staff seemed perfectly fine going into both the male change rooms and male saunas.(Although when it was busy this did not occur, only when they thought it was empty did they boldly enter)

It so happened that never during the times I was nude, either in the change room or in the saunas, did a woman come in and see me. I would not have been embarrassed if they had of course, but I was very aware of that possibility and I had no desire to have to explain to another person why I was nude.

This brings me to the moral of the story: Just because certain areas are acceptable to be nude, does not make them areas for naturism. Naturist locales are places where respect is paramount. I find being nude around naturists very relaxing because I know they are of like mind, and they will not question my nudity. The saunas on this cruise ship did not meet any definition of naturism because I knew that most persons who entered would not participate in communal nudity, and would indeed ask themselves why I was nude myself.

My next cruise will not be until 2012. The Diamond Princess has their saunas inside the respective mens and women's changes rooms. I expect that to be more relaxing, but it still won't be naturism.