P&O Cruises, a 70-year-old Australia cruise line with a long history of inclusion has announced it will be launching its first Pride Cruise. The 3-day “celebratory cruise” for the LGBTQ+ travelers and their allies will “honor pride in self, the diversity of the community, and the endless variety of talented artists, entertainers, and educators in it.”
Sailing from Sydney, in November of 2022, the cruise will offer a wide variety of entertaining and educational offerings curated specifically for a queer audience.
PinkNews reports that on-board entertainment will feature, “plenty of feathers, sequins and flamboyance,” as well as trailblazing sports figures like Simon Dunn, the world’s first out gay bobsledder, and queer Australian rugby player Meg Ward.
One of the performers already booked is America’s Got Talent star and self-described “international superstar, sex symbol, accordionist and Berlin boy-wonder” Hans the German.
Australia’s Queer Screen — the organization behind Sydney’s Mardi Gras Film Festival (in February), and Queer Screen Film Fest, (in September) — will be on board screening its first LGBTQ+ film festival at sea. Passengers will also be able to get married or renew their vows while on the cruise. No Pride would be complete without representatives of LGBTQ+ organizations, and P&O’s cruise will also have activist organizations on board, including the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation, Australia’s longest-running HIV charity.
The company has long supported such organizations that focus on equality, and the cruise line prides itself on being culturally sensitive and inclusive around gender, sexuality, and more
As PinkNews reports the company’s president Sture Myrmell noted, “P&O Cruises has long been a supporter of diversity and inclusivity, championing marriage equality and working with campaigners of inclusivity like Madeline Stuart, the world’s first professional adult supermodel with Down Syndrome.”
