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 Posted - 02/12/2003 : 11:31:54 AM
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Naked launch: Clothing-free cruises tout freedom
Sun, Oct. 20, 2002
By Pete Williams
Special to the Mercury News
ABOARD THE CARNIVAL SHIP JUBILEE - It's 5 p.m. on the Lido deck, and no one is wearing pants.
Or shirts. Or shoes. Or anything other than sunscreen, hats and wraparound shades. As the Carnival cruise ship Jubilee barrels through the Gulf of Mexico back to the port of Tampa, most of the 1,490 nudists on board have packed the deck, kicking back in lounge chairs, sipping frozen umbrella beverages or splashing in the pool.
The air smells of salt and suntan lotion. A steady procession of naked people moves toward a soft-serve ice cream machine. Waiters and waitresses, easily identifiable because of their clothing, seem unaffected by the display of flesh as they deliver drinks.
About two dozen soggy nudists stand in line to take yet another plunge down a two-story water slide. Others toss water balloons, sending sunbathers for cover. One floor above on the Verandah deck, another group struggles to keep volleyballs in play and not from going overboard.
"Wil-son!" a young man screams, doing his best Tom Hanks "Cast Away" impersonation as another ball drops into the water. "I'm sorry, Wilson!"
This is not normal adult behavior but, then again, this is no ordinary cruise. Acting silly and rediscovering one's inner child is mandatory. Anyone not having fun runs the risk of being pelted with water balloons, although it's tough to find somebody not behaving like it's the last day of school.
And why not? It's hard not to feel like a kid while walking around naked with an ice cream cone.
Nancy Tiemann surveys the scene from the Lido deck, sporting the proud grin of someone who has thrown the perfect party. She and her husband, Tom, own Bare Necessities Tour & Travel, an Austin company that operates under the slogan "Providing the luxury of deciding what not to wear." Since 1992, Bare Necessities has taken more than 12,000 passengers on nude cruises around the Caribbean, Central America, Europe and Tahiti.
Eager convert
The company began on a whim in 1989 after the Tiemanns, who were not nudists at the time, reluctantly agreed to be part of a 20-passenger, clothing-optional dive trip in Belize when they could not make their regularly scheduled, clothed voyage.
Nancy, then a banker, found nude cruising so relaxing she figured there must be more people wanting to vacation with minimal luggage. It was a tough sell initially, to both cruise ships and passengers. After struggling to fill a 470-passenger ship for their maiden voyage in '92, the Tiemanns figured that would be the end of their side business.
But demand kept increasing. They added trips from Europe and the South Pacific. The boats kept getting bigger, especially for the annual midwinter cruise. More than 1,000 nudists rode the Regal Empress into the new millennium, somewhere between Cozumel and Tampa.
In 2001, Carnival offered up the bigger Jubilee, which sold out quickly. Next year, Bare Necessities will depart from Los Angeles for the first time, taking a nude cruise-record 2,052 passengers on a 10-night cruise aboard Carnival's Ecstasy.
Somewhere along the way, nudity became more commonplace. The U.S. is not yet Europe in that regard, but the American Association for Nude Recreation, which is based in Kissimmee, Fla., boasts 50,000 members and more than 240 affiliated resorts and clubs. Places like Haulover Beach in Miami and Gunnison Beach in northern New Jersey draw thousands of nudists on warm weekend afternoons.
Bare Necessities has a whopping 70 percent repeat customer rate -- unheard of in the cruise industry. Many are members of nudist clubs, although others are first-time nudists.
Many passengers find the nude environment not just more conduciv
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 Posted - 06/11/2003 : 5:21:13 PM
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TravelWeekly - is read by thousands of travel agents. The publication's website issued a story on Thursday that lit up the AANR phone lines.... And some other ones too. (The story included the AANR website and telephone number. However, due to a misunderstanding by the reporter who spoke with YPB&R, the online version of the story said that there would be 7 nude cruises aboard Carnival this year, as opposed to "at least 7 cruises, sailing charters, etc, including Carnival"). The result: Carnival was flooded with calls from interested parties! This is a telling statement of the strong interest in nude recreation among travelers.
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Success of Ecstasy Nude Cruise Indicates Trend
