Cruise Bruise Blog
April 8, 2009
April 8, 2009
Bed Bugs Attack on Costa Mediterranea

A Cruise Bruise visitor shares a story that really bugged her. Jenna Emmons
says her March 20, 2009 cruise aboard Costa Mediterranea left her itching to go home.

"I would like to report an incident with bed bugs on the Costa Mediterranea.  For over a week I was severely bitten.  I visited the doctor twice but was only given shots and some cream.  They refused to believe the bites were coming from something in the cabin. 

Early one morning I managed to catch several bugs burying into the headboard. I was moved into another cabin but never received an apology or assistance.  They even tried to charge me for the medical treatment!"


April 8, 2009
All Passengers Forced Off Voyager World Cruise In Rome

Regent Seven Seas Cruises has ended the world cruise aboard Voyager after the ship suffered propulsion damage when the vessel sailed through fishing lines that got tangled up in the propulsion pod.

The ship stopped in Cochin, India and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates attempting to rectify the problem, but to no avail.

Voyager was suppose to leave Istanbul, arriving in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on May 8th. Instead passengers will be flown home from Rome, Italy .

Regent Seven Seas has also canceled the Voyager May 8th sailing from Fort Lauderdale to Southampton in the United Kingdom via Reykjavik, Iceland.


April 8, 2009
Male Passenger Gets Airlift Off Carnival Splendor

A male passenger left the Carnival Splendor in critical condition via a United States Coast Guard Medevac off Point Loma, California on April 1, 2009.

Splendor was off Point Loma, a San Diego suburb, when the USCG was called to take a 55-year-old male ashore.

A coast guard rescue boat picked up the male and transported him to the USCG dock, where he was transferred by ambulance and taken to UCSD Medical Center in San Diego.


April 8, 2009
It is Hard To Be Out Of The Closet On A Cruise Ship When Alone

I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around being out of the closet on a cruise ship. I mean,  alright, I am out of the closet. I think, correct me if I am wrong, that when you see me, you think to yourself, "oh my, there is a straight woman, in public, out of the closet!".

It is not my intent to act "out". I don't try to act female, or non-male, non-lesbian, but somehow the straightdar of other straights just seeks me out, and I am ignored for being just another random, run of the mill straight.

It left me kind of confused, when I read that a gay man, Randall Shirley, who apparently wrote a travel article published in numerous newspapers including the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and Dallas Morning News, was the only gay on Cruise North's Lyuba Orlova for an Arctic cruise. Shirley says that he had to act "out", because he had no  partner or fellow gays aboard with him so people would know he was gay.

What I am envisioning here is behavior that is neither straight nor gay, just plain offensive slobbering all over another human, something that should be done in private. If I can just look at the behavior of a person in public and know instantly what their sexual orientation is, something is wrong with their social skills.

I mean, never once in my life have I thought, "oh, I better take some "out" straights with me so we can pal around in straight ways, because it is important for people I have never met before and will never see again,  to know I am straight. Why would I care that people knew I was straight? (not that there is anything wrong with it)

Though, if I was not straight, can I not take a vacation, a cruise as it was, and just be human, not needing everyone aboard the cruise to know that I am gay, saving my gayness for the privacy of my cabin? I know that is where I exhibit my blatant straightness.