The Big Nude Boat - Day One

So here we are on a cruise with 3000 naked people. It should be a bigger deal. But strangely enough, it just isn't...

So, first of all, we made some awesome friends – Peter, Laura, Heather, Jerry & Marina from San Jose, California. Most of them are hard-core nudists. They belong to “naturist clubs” which are like golf & country clubs except for all of the events are naked. Before a year ago when they banned public nudity in San Francisco, they would walk down the streets naked for an afternoon stroll. They even have a big 10K running race where all the nudists would walk it together – just for a chance to walk naked outside in public together. (I'm not sure, but I don't think Goderich is ready for that yet! )

We got to travel with them to the ship and navigate where to go and all that. So nice to have friends!! It's also nice to have people to ask all the silly questions that we all want answers to. Plus, they're just the funnest people I've ever met!! So awesome!!

So, we all get on the ship – Carnival Freedom (such an appropriate name!!!) - at noon and it was absolutely crazy! Everyone was dressed because we aren't allowed to be naked until the ship is 3 miles out to sea... it's an interesting distance... as if anyone could see anything half a mile out to sea... but regardless, it's actually a really big deal for Carnival cruise lines to even have these nude boats and they want to make them as proper as possible. So, everyone starts out dressed.

But what a party going on!!! I don't know if all cruises are like this, but we headed to the Lido deck (there was food) and the music was absolutely blaring – all seventies and eighties... (I think we're going to hear a lot of Prince and “Mustang Sally” this trip!!)... And people are up dancing in the aisles. They're laughing, they're happy, they're just having a blast! I mean, sure, they're on a cruise, why wouldn't they be happy. I was happy too, but I didn't just start dancing in the aisles... and in the pool ... and in the hottubs... According to our new friends, these nude cruises do tend to be a little more light-hearted and fun and the people are just totally relaxed and easy-going... Hmm...

Then an announcement comes over the loud-speaker that the captain will announce exactly when the "fun" will start... (when everyone's allowed to get naked). So then I start thinking, “What's going to happen when this happens?” Is everyone going to start ripping their clothes off and hooting and hollering? I was having quite a bit of anticipation imagining watching 3000 clothed people suddenly ripping their clothes off... And the more I thought about it, the more I just couldn't picture it at all...

And so, for a couple of hours, I kept imagining different scenarios of how this was all going to go down

But alas, it was all quite anti-climactic. We had to go for our emergency briefing about where to gather for our lifeboats... The ship was late to leave... It started raining... We had to go for dinner (where we have to be dressed)... So, by the time we were done dinner, we all went our separate ways and found hottubs around the ship (because it was bloody cold with the wind and rain...) and by this time, most people on the ship had simply become naked.

There were naked people walking down the hallways, on the ship's deck, in the hottubs, at the customer service counter, in the casino,... everywhere. There are also clothed people who just came from dinner, or for whom it was too cold to be naked. There are people walking around in bathrobes, sarongs, just t-shirts, and every combination of dress/undress, you can imagine.

But it's all pretty chill. Nobody looks at you funny... Not even all of the Carnival cruise employees who are fully dressed. They just say as you walk down the corridor totally naked, “Evening ma'am. Hope you have a good night.”... And life goes on...

Hmmm...  

And so, off we went to a hot-tub at the back of the ship and warmed up with a whole pile of people from all over the world... I sat and chatted with Dino from North Carolina for a while... talked about the weather... how this was our first time on a nude cruise... you know, basic stuff... And it was... really normal. 

In fact, so far, I swear it was even more relaxed BECAUSE we were all naked... No posturing. No pretending. Just totally there... chatting in the hot-tub... Very cool... Really nice :)

Aahhh... So we'll see how many pictures I can come up with from here on in... pictures are totally prohibited for obvious reasons... But we'll see...