A big, beautiful cruise sets sail
Zaftig ladies and big handsome fellows put on their plus- size swimsuits and have a ball
For Diane Goyette, vacations are usually no vacation. At five-footfour and a size 24, she has dreaded beaches and cramped airplane seats for as long as she can remember. But next month, she and other big beautiful women ( BBWs) and big handsome men ( BHMs) will leave their worries behind and set sail on the third annual BBW cruise.
This year, the group will board Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas for a seven-night Eastern Caribbean cruise that leaves Miami on Oct. 16. Organizer Barbie Salas, herself a BBW, says the trip offers plussize travellers experiences their slimmer counterparts take for granted.
“ We dance, we party, we have fun,” says Salas, a Florida travel agent who caters to plus-size vacationers. “It’s a very fun group.”
On the Caribbean cruise, Salas has lingerie and fashion shows planned, as well as shore excursions for cruisers, including those with limited mobility.
She says it was the absence of plus-size vacationers on cruises and trips that prompted her to start a travel agency that caters to them. “I’m an avid cruiser and I love going on vacation. I just thought there should be more people like me travelling and there wasn’t, so I took it upon myself to make sure that there would be.”
Salas says she isn’t promoting obesity. “I’m promoting the fact that this is who you are and whether you diet or not you have the right, as everybody else does, to enjoy your vacation.”
Goyette is looking forward to the trip. The single 39-year-old systems analyst has encountered many obstacles because of her weight but anticipates a smooth first-time cruise experience. For example, she’s looking forward to going swimming for the first time. “I know that being in the pool area, I would feel much more comfortable being around people of my size,” says the Ottawa native.
There’s a big market for travellers like Goyette — and Salas isn’t the only one to have spotted it. In 2003, the Freedom Paradise, the first resort catering to plussize travellers, complete with armless furniture and oversized bathrooms, opened in Mexico.
Former Miss America Plus runner-up Jean Clement oozes confidence and is clearly comfortable in her skin. Still, she likes the atmosphere on a BBW cruise. “Even though I accept my body, I love my shape, I love my figure, I love my curves, I’m more comfortable being around other big women because I’m not discriminated against,” says the 42-year-old secretary from Chicago.
Clement — whose says her favourite on-board feature is single men — is going with a group of girl friends, just as she did last year, many of them plussize. “ Travelling is something that everybody should be able to do. And I know in the past when I’ve travelled, when I wasn’t in a BBW group, people would stare. You’re powered in numbers and you’re more comfortable.”
The BBW cruises aren’t just for singles. Max and Amy Maxwell of Coral Springs, Fla., are BBW cruise veterans, having participated in all three cruises. They decided last year to bring along their children, ages 13 and 17, and say the whole family had a great time. The kids are coming this year too. Says Max: “No one’s criticizing, no one’s looking at you different, no one’s talking about you behind your back. It’s all acceptance.” BBW cruise prices for an interior room start at US$630 per person, based on double occupancy. For more details, check out bbwcruise.com or call 239878-9843.