Table Of Content
- ANNIVERSARY PARTIES & EVENTS
- Greece, Cyprus & Israel Luxury Cruise
- Finding love, lust, and everything in between
- ALL-STAR ENTERTAINMENT
- From concerts to cruises, Olivia Travel has been creating inclusive LGBTQ+ spaces for nearly 50 years.
- ALL WOMEN, ALL THE TIME
- ‘I stood there with my mouth open. It was a utopia’: 50 years of Olivia, the lesbian cruise company
Olivia cruisers took karaoke extremely seriously, with at least one professional singer in the room and comedians Julie Goldberg and Mimi Gonzalez as the celebrity MC's. Singing cheesy love songs with all the pronouns appropriately changed was just another of the small joys of being in an all gay-girls group. We heard "Redneck Woman" and "Goodbye Earl" at least once each night -- by night three, we groaned every time we heard the opening notes. Maebh and I wowed the crowd, or ourselves at least, with a duet of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" and joined forces with friends for Destiny's Child's "Stronger."
ANNIVERSARY PARTIES & EVENTS
"Being of the age of so many original Olivia women and having taken a 2005 Olivia cruise to the Caribbean, I will never forget the miracle of being on a ship in the company of hundreds of lesbians. Thank you for your existence and service to our community." We will be staying close to home with a voyage in the Caribbean, featuring wonderful beach stops in Turks and Caicos, St. Thomas/St. John, San Juan, Puerto Rico and our own private island Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. While onboard, we will be dazzled by the very best of our entertainers. We will have parties and special events—plus lots of surprises to make this the most extraordinary, historic, and unforgettable journey for everyone onboard! Stay tuned as we have other amazing announcements to come.
Greece, Cyprus & Israel Luxury Cruise
If you’re Gen Y, a millennial, or even at the tail end of Gen X, then you’re most definitely part of Gen-O! Meet up, connect and have fun with all Olivians age 40 and under. The area immediately surrounding the port doesn't offer much more excitement than, say, San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf or Honolulu's Waikiki. We wandered a bit before sitting down to dinner at a charming but completely empty Dutch restaurant called de Suike.
Finding love, lust, and everything in between
As Cris Williamson, a founding member who still performs with Olivia, remembers, at the time “lesbians were losing their jobs, their children, their incomes”. "Love Olivia, best trips ever!!!! It will not disappoint, if you have never been, plan your trip soon, you will love it." At Olivia, we are committed to providing amazing vacation experiences for all guests with disabilities and/or specific needs. We celebrate our elders by creating special events so that you can connect, share stories and forge new friendships.
ALL-STAR ENTERTAINMENT
Making women’s history - Dallas Voice
Making women’s history.
Posted: Fri, 05 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Olivia always charters the entire ship, resort, riverboat or land tour so that you can be free to be authentically you while on vacation. "I love the trips with Olivia. The staff is outstanding. I love the cruises and we’ll as the resorts. I have met so many wonderful people that I consider family." "We love Olivia. I met my wife on an Olivia cruise in 2006. We've done about 16 trips with Olivia and plan to do more in the future. Thank you for providing a fun and safe environment for us to be with family and meet new friends."
The reception to a lesbian cruise company in the 1990s was mixed, to say the least. Initially, the word “lesbian” wasn’t even used in Olivia’s branding. “We had an understanding of how careful we needed to be to protect the women that were part of us,” says Dlugacz. For years, correspondence was delivered in plain brown wrappers. Many women traveling on Olivia’s cruises weren’t out at home. Finding a liner to host hundreds of lesbians was another challenge.
If you only have a day in Curacao, this is a nice, easily accessible place to eat, drink and swim during the day, and party in the evening when the D.J.'s show up. It’s home to some of the Caribbean’s highest viewpoints, spectacularly positioned among verdant tropical foliage. And the island has got the hands-down coolest attraction in the region—an ice museum. Take a stroll along and then past the old city walls and explore the colorful cobblestone streets of old San Juan—a UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Historic Site within the U.S. Taste your way through the city’s extraordinary culinary scene, immerse yourself in its colorful history, or just pull up at a beach and grab a local rum cocktail. Explore one of many excursions like El Yunque National Rainforest.
50 Years of Empowerment - outsmartmagazine.com
50 Years of Empowerment.
Posted: Wed, 03 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
‘I stood there with my mouth open. It was a utopia’: 50 years of Olivia, the lesbian cruise company
"The resort was great, staff went above & beyond. Olivia group is always helpful & pleasant. We spoke spoke with Judy a few times & she is a wonderful, down to earth woman. We are so happy we took the jump to Olivia vacations." We had three days entirely at sea, one at the beginning of the trip and two at the very end. Three full days at sea on a seven-day trip sounded like a lot ... There were traditional cruise-ship offerings like steel drumming and ballroom dancing, an always-bumping casino and a beautiful spa -- and then some less-conventional activities like erotic writing workshops. In early 2013, Olivia celebrated its 40-year anniversary with two weeklong Caribbean cruises, honoring the company's legacy with performances by some of the record label's original artists.
Verandah Stateroom
In the decades since, Olivia Travel has built up a loyal customer base, particularly among professional women in their 30s and older. “Olivia, as a brand, as a company, is so strongly about the female experience,” says Dlugacz. “So, however you feel you fit into that, you belong.” The company’s trips have included countries where LGBTQ+ people are criminalized or face legal barriers – including Russia, Tanzania, and Kenya – allowing guests to go to places where they might not have gone alone.
The fitness facilities were impressive, with a good range of cardio and weight equipment in a spacious room with panoramic views. I'd be much more inspired to work out at home if my gym was this beautiful. I noticed the gym offered a few group fitness classes throughout the week, too, though we didn't attend any. Were I to do my entire week over, I definitely would have taken advantage of the Greenhouse Spa and Salon -- particularly the hydrotherapy pool, which I always walked past with envy but never justified coughing up the money to actually try. It was essentially a big saltwater Jacuzzi in the center of the spa facility. They also offered a variety of massages, facials, hair and nail treatments.
We charter entire ships, resorts, and excursions so you can feel completely free to be you. We took the day as an opportunity to soak up the sunshine among our fellow travelers, no itinerary needed, and know we were in a for a week of girls-only good times. No matter how many cruises you've been on, there's always something really magical about that first look across the blue sea and sky, and the feeling that you've actually arrived in the middle of nowhere -- except surrounded by lesbians, of course. The beaches there look exactly like you'd expect a Caribbean postcard to look, with water so clear that you can see the scales of the fish swimming around your ankles. If you really feel like indulging, consider renting a cabana or beach villa, though there are plenty of shady spots to sit in the sand for free along with the proletariat.
Then the boat sped off to a reef near the other end of the island. The boat had a section in front that was like a wide, flat lounge chair -- essentially a thick piece of mesh separating us from the water -- where we could relax and sunbathe on the trip. After we anchored, everyone was doled out flippers, masks, snorkels and life vests. I tried to jump in without my life vest and got scolded again. It was a little disappointing to have to wear a life vest the whole time, but we still got a great, up-close look at coral and rainbow-colored tropical fish. "It’s the best way to enjoy a great holiday. Meet different people from around the world. Olivia has an excellent staff who work with lots of love. Those of us who travel alone feel very comfortable and enjoy the fullest. Thanks for existing Olivia travel."
We anchored early in the morning and took tenders to the island in groups of 50 or so, as the island is too small to have an actual port. We were greeted by a couple of sexy blond pirate girls who posed for photos as we approached the "village" of Half Moon Cay -- a small, faux-colonial array of buildings, including souvenir shops, a post office, a wedding chapel and a bar. It was the first of several times that week I would hear Cat Stevens' "Wild World" played on steel drums.
We ate most meals from the Lido Deck buffet, as we found the Manhattan Dining Room to be unremarkable. Nieuw Amsterdam also features three reservations-only restaurants that offer table service dinners for an extra fee, but Maebh and I agreed that you ultimately paid more for the quiet atmosphere and the service than for better-quality food. The Pinnacle Grill, a steak and seafood restaurant, was our favorite of the three. We ordered Caprese salads, which were excellent, followed by mushroom ravioli, which was a little too heavy, but not bad. What made the meal really memorable was the sunset over the ocean right outside our window, enhanced by generous wine flights (for which we paid extra).
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