Nude Cruise Report: Nudist Costume Contest and Rainforest River Tubing

Today we hear about a nudist costume contest followed by river tubing in Dominica. These nudist cruisers sure know how to have a good, wholesome clothes-free time.

For those just joining us, 1,200 nudists (a.k.a. naturists) are aboard a Bare Necessities Nude Cruise for a February 3 to 13 Caribbean tour. Using an onboard wireless Internet connection, nudist traveler Mike has been able to provide a look inside the nude cruise.

Be sure to read Mike's previous nude cruise reports: February 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Report:

Roseau, Dominica, Aboard The M/S Holland America Maasdam (February 9, 2007) -- Nobody knows how to dress up better than a shipload of nudists.

Proof positive of that fact was in spectacular evidence last night aboard our floating city of nudists for the gala "Under The Sea" costume contest / parade, and no one on the ship who saw the hundreds of simply amazing costumes cooked up by the nudists will ever forget the evening.

On a typical cruise, on a theme night, there might be a half-dozen passengers in costume or dressing up in accordance with the announced "theme" for the night: i.e., Country & Western Night, Mardi Gras Night, etc. On our nude cruise, being a bunch of people who haven't forgotten how to have fun without any hang-ups or pretension, we had well over 300 people in costume last night. And the costumes were spectacular.

There was a very strong invertebrate category, with many variations of jellyfish costumes and even some elaborate electrified outfits for an electro-luminescent look. We had sharks, sea sponges, many types of lobsters, wharf rats, some amazing sea anemones, fishermen and their catches, and a good assortment of King Neptune and mermaids / sea maidens. We all assembled on the aft pool deck at 10:00 PM for prelim judging, and it was just amazing to walk around and see so many of our fellow Maasdam passengers in their elaborate costumes, each one more inventive, original and fun than the next.

The photos I am sending for John to post don't begin to do justice to the immense variety and novelty of the great costumes on board last night. Some are simply inexplicable, and no one who wasn't there last night will ever know how amazing they were. The ship's photographers were trying to capture it all on film, and we'll be able to see our photos tonight in the ship's photo gallery. Of course, many onlookers and contestants as well also took their own photos (with the permission of their subjects, of course), and so I am attaching a few to give a small glimpse of the hilarity and imaginativeness of the various creations.


Mermaid on stage with David the emcee


Electro-luminescent jellyfish having fun


A couple in jellyfish costumes


Wearing crazy sea anemone costume

Our favorite was the SCUBA diver and mermaid couple. He was dressed in a full wet-suit, with mask, snorkel, SCUBA BCD vest, and he carried the mermaid over his shoulder...she was his wife, topless of course and with long blonde hair, strewn with seaweed and seashells, and with an impeccable set of mermaid fins covering her from the waist down. So dressed, she couldn't very well walk anywhere, but she did crawl, hop and beg to be carried around the festivities, even "making a break for it" once as they neared the aft pool. Once on stage, she crawled across the stage to our Cruise Director David Martin, the emcee for the contest, and managed to distract him endlessly during the proceedings. The shot I'm sending was taken from onstage and shows her sprawled on the floor making for David's leg gives an idea of the scene. They were fabulous, and neither one ever "broke character" -- he had to be dying of heat inside that wet suit, but it earned them one of the three Honorable Mention awards!

The kind of fun we all had last night is simply indescribable to anyone who hasn't been there themselves. The costume contest is always one of the highlights of the nude cruise, and last night's ranks among the best we've ever seen. It is so amazing to be among so many fun, happy, carefree people who just like to have fun, playing as children do and enjoying just being human. As I say, it's inexplicable, but inimitable and certainly unimaginable to all the textile-compulsive folks out in the rest of the world.


Dominica Layou River Valley
Today we arrived in Dominica, the green rainforest island, which has 10 volcanoes, 365 rivers, dozens of freshwater lakes, and a lush and gorgeous ecosystem of palms, ferns and every other kind of green, living thing. If you didn't know better, you'd say you were on Maui -- except Dominica is even more densely forested and with a more diverse climate. Many people from our ship went river tubing down the island's longest river, the Layou, while others took island bus tours. We did the 12-mile downhill bike ride through the rainforest, stopping for a cool dip in the Layou (with a skinnydip in the adjoining hot spring as well!) before arriving back at the beach. Our 3-hour ride took us down 2,200 feet in elevation through the beautiful and lush Layou rainforest valley. Spectacular.

Shortly Maasdam will push off the pier and head on to St. Thomas, where we will be in port Saturday until late afternoon. Tonight we'll enjoy another great clothes-free night of fun aboard the Maasdam, which seems to be gaining the acclaim of many of our fellow cruisers as the best ship and crew ever chartered by Bare Necessities.

I don't know about you, the reader, but hearing about all of this fun is getting me thinking about my own vacation plans for this year!