How did I end up at a Cruise Ship, AA meeting and LGBTQIA meet-up on the same night
Finding love on a cruise has never been so… complicated
I had never been to Alaska and I had never been on a cruise so it seemed to make sense to do both at once. I flew to Vancouver, Canada, spent the night with some friends of friends and boarded a Norwegian Cruise the next morning.
My main intention was simply to see and explore Alaska but I certainly wasn’t opposed to meeting some people my age along the way. I looked over the ship’s schedule upon my arrival on board and noticed a few certain events I could potentially meet people at including the ‘Sailing Solos,’ ‘Chapel,’ and ‘Learning to Dance’ meet-ups.
My first evening, I noticed ‘Sailing Solos’ and ‘Chapel’ were at the same time. As a man of faith, I felt Chapel would be important to attend but I decided to prioritize meeting others. Turns out, I made the right choice because I went to Chapel a couple of nights later and it wasn’t quite what I expected.
I walked into the chapel where a couple of older folks were kneeling down to pray. I sat in one of the chairs and pulled out my Bible as a few others started to trickle in. Within a few minutes, we were all in a circle but no ‘chaplain’ came in. One of the guys in the circle said, “I have the AA book, I can get us started.” My mind started spinning to where I had ended up. I didn’t want to be rude but as someone who rarely has more than one drink at a time, I didn’t really want to take up my evening on a cruise at an AA meeting. I quietly and awkwardly waved goodbye to the group and I walked out while he shared. With dejected faces, everyone in the room looked right at me as I snuck out, completely disappointed in me, as if I decided right then to go back to drinking.
Needless to say, ‘Sailing Solos,’ was not quite what I expected either. Almost everyone there was 20 years older than me. I guess that’s what you get for an Alaskan cruise, hindsight, it makes perfect sense. But the Moroccan gal leading the group was really cute and kind, so I’d still drop by the meet-ups and say hello. She would try to get me to go to dinner with the group but I would find an exit and head to dinner by myself with a book.
The same routine happened every night. The group met in a lounge. I’d say hello and exit to eat. One night, after exiting, I walked out on the deck of the ship to take some pictures when my Moroccan friend came out as well. We started chatting and talking about how she ended up on the ship and where she’d traveled to. We showed each other pictures on our phones from different explorations and then she said, “Follow me.” She grabbed my hand and we started walking.
A lot of things started racing through my mind as I had no idea where we were headed. ‘Was she taking me to her room?’ ‘Were we going to explore a secret place on the ship?’ ‘Were we going to go to dinner, just the two of us?’
And as we walked, she walked into a side room and I let go of her hand and started to head the other way. She was headed to lead the LGBTQIA meet-up. And while I was totally cool with the group, it wasn’t necessarily a place I fit in at either.
She came out of the room and said to me, “Get in here. Come join!.” Did I mention how persuasive she could be? I followed her in and sat down. There were two other guys in there, I shook their hands and we all started chatting.
As we chatted, the room started to fill up. Soon, there were 12 of us, all guys. And the conversation, to say the least, became a bit uncomfortable for me. “You know what it’s like when it’s your first time (with a guy)?” Actually, I don’t. “I saw how cute that boy was on the bus and you know what I wanted to do?” I’d rather not actually.
I became more and more uncomfortable and thought to myself, ‘Can they tell’ As in, ‘Can they tell I play for another team?’ I can hold a conversation with about anyone so small talk about sports and work is no problem but when it transitioned to the cute boy on the bus, I had nothing to offer.
Eventually, the gal leading the group got up to leave and let the meet-up continue with me just sitting there.
Quickly and politely, I excused myself as well to go to the evening’s show. The guy sitting next who had been telling me about the cute boy quickly hopped up, “I’ll join you!”
The three of us walked together, me trailing slightly, contemplating the turns my evening had taken, and we headed to show. As they both walked into the theatre, I slipped out the side, got my book and headed to dinner to read.
Finding love on a cruise had never felt so complicated.
