I don’t know if you’re aware, but there is a Facebook Page maintained by John Heald, the Brand Ambassador and senior cruise director of Carnival Cruise Lines and a blogger for the cruise line. The page is mainly used to answer questions from cruise line guests.

Carnival, of course, has the reputation of being more affordable than many other cruise lines and that it’s the “party” cruise line. Whether you think this is a good thing or a bad thing, Heald (who’s nearly 60 and has been a cruise director for Carnival since 1990; I think his personal partying days are long over) is something of a big deal among Carnival fans, and he appears to take his position very seriously.

Anyway, last week, Heald answered a question from a woman who was concerned about Carnival’s “family friendliness.”

My two sons and DH will be cruising on the Horizon. We are very excited to spend the Thanksgiving holiday on the ship. Cruise News page said in their broadcast today that there is topless sunbathing allowed now. This is disturbing. John can you tell me if there is a topless deck on the Horizon? I don’t believe this and really don’t want my teenager sons venturing to sneak a peak. Can you tell me the actual truth.

This was his answer:

Thanks so much and the Carnival Horizon, is a magnificent ship and you will have fun for sure.

So then, topless sunbathing is of course something we used to have on our ships 20 plus years ago.

But while topless/nude sunbathing was as normal back then as giving a 12 gauge shotgun to an guest for a dollop of trap shooting despite the fact they had consumed many pina coladas it suddenly became very much a taboo in today’s world. Gone are the days when you could say “ seen one you have seen them both.” or juts not look if you were offended.

Back then all our ships had topless sunbathing decks and for the most part the guests seemed to enjoy it and certainly didn’t feel a sense of shock and horror because we had a place where our female guests could get an all over tan.

Not anymore. It’s very demure these days. When did that change? Why did that change? None of the major cruise lines have a topless deck except our friends on AIDA and their stunning ships.

Actually, they do struggle to keep their clothes on anywhere do the Germans.

If you’d asked me when I was a young cruise director for my opinion on the progress of breast exposure by 2024, I maybe wouldn’t have said women would be sitting in meetings drinking kale shakes and bearing their breasts……..except in German offices obviously.

However, I would certainly have predicted that the topless decks were here to stay. Obviously…..I would have been totally wrong.

There are still nude beaches in some of the ports we go to in the Caribbean. I have never been to any of them for obvious reasons and if I did I would still have a small, thin slice of pizza to cover my embarrassment.

So they used to allow it (one nostalgic responder to Heald’s post called it the “boobie deck”) but no longer do…and, apparently, never will. Fair enough.

But Heald’s reply got me wondering—Carnival obviously takes a strong stance against topless sunbathing now, but what about other cruise lines?

As it turns out, not many cruise lines that sail out of the U.S. allow topless sunbathing (note: some passengers apparently think rules are not made for them; they do it anyway). But a handful do:

Cruise lines originating in the U.S. that allow topless sunbathing

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises

A German brand, Hapag-Lloyd has designated the top pool deck on each of its 5 ships (MS Europa, MS Europa 2, Hanseatic Inspiration, Hanseatic Nature and Hanseatic Spirit) as a place where topless sunbathing is permitted.  A handful of Hapag-Lloyd’s cruises start, end or stop in the U.S., typically Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii and New York.

Virgin Voyages

Virgin Voyages, which only allows people age 18+, is the only cruise line that regularly embarks and disembarks out of the U.S. (typically Miami, although when their newest ship, Brilliant Lady, begins sailing, she’ll float out of several other places, including NYC and Los Angeles). They allow topless sunbathing on Deck 17 in an area called The Perch.

Cruise lines originating outside the U.S. that allow topless sunbathing

Not surprisingly, some cruises sail out of Europe and other ports that do allow topless sunbathing.

AIDA Cruises

AIDA is the German branch of Carnival Corporation (Carnival owns several cruise brands, including Carnival, Princess, Holland America Line, Seabourn, Cunard, AIDA, Costa and P&O [Australia & UK]). Nearly all of its ships have a sun deck dedicated to topless sunbathing. None of its ships enter U.S. waters.

Celestyal Cruises

Celestyle Cruises is a European cruise line that allows topless sunbathing on the outer decks of its ships. Its cruises embark from Athens, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai, and its destinations include the Adriatic Coast, the Arabian Gulf, Croatia, Greece and the Greek Islands, Italy, the Mediterranean, Montenegro and Turkey.

Costa Cruises

Costa Cruises is an Italian cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation that allows topless sunbathing on their top decks by the pool and cabin balconies. None of their ships embark out of the U.S.; rather, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, France, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Guadeloupe, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Martinique, Portugal, Qatar, South Africa, Spain, Turkiyë, the UAE, and Uruguay.

What about nude sunbathing?

There are no cruise lines that typically allow nude sunbathing.

That being said, there are companies, such as Bare Necessities, Bliss Cruise and Nude Cruises, that book sellout/charter nude cruises of commercial cruise ships. Clothing-optional sunbathing is allowed on those cruises (since the cruise is a sellout and the only people there are people who prefer clothing-optional lifestyles anyway).

A friend of mine who went on a charter of a Virgin Voyages cruise with his husband (the ship was a sellout for an LGBTQIA+ travel company) did mention that The Perch was officially a “clothing optional” place during their sailing when they were at sea.

PC: “Stephan”

The cruise director of the company who had done the sellout called it the “D!ck Deck.” 😉

*** As always, thanks to Stephan for the photo

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