Desire Resort Forums

Hey Sexy Sailors

We'd love to connect with other sexy, like-minded couples before the 2023 cruise. Also, would like to exchange ideas, travel tips and information.

Cheers, K&R

We are booked for both 2023 cruises (and the 2022 Greek cruise)! We did the spring cruise back in 2019 and absolutely loved it!

Hi Guys

We're booked on the Venice -Rome cruise, twice at desire Pearl so far and will be our first cruise of any sort!

Thinking of going to Venice a couple of days earlier and staying in Rome a couple of nights after. Any advice from anyone for picking up the ship and for the night before? Is there normally a meet and greet at a venue/hotel?

Nothing like planning ahead.....we're at Pearl in 5 weeks so will enjoy that first and then concentrate on Venice but any tips or ideas will be very welcome.

J & M

Hi all! We are looking into booking the cruise now for our anniversary trip. For those that have been on a desire Mediterranean cruise before, when the ship is in port is it a free for all or do they have arranged excursions or can you do either? Are they in port all day or is time very limited?

ohmystars wrote:Hi all! We are looking into booking the cruise now for our anniversary trip. For those that have been on a desire Mediterranean cruise before, when the ship is in port is it a free for all or do they have arranged excursions or can you do either? Are they in port all day or is time very limited?

For post port calls, it's a stay of several hours. Depending on the port location, there will either be transport to the town / city or if the port is conveniently placed you can walk on / off. Usually, there is one overnight stay in port, where you can head out for the evening. There will be organised excursions for each port of call - these vary depending on time of stay etc.

Hope that helps

Agree with what WellInever said. The excursions and such that are offered through the cruise line should be announced sometime in July.

Johnwal wrote:Thinking of going to Venice a couple of days earlier and staying in Rome a couple of nights after. Any advice from anyone for picking up the ship and for the night before? Is there normally a meet and greet at a venue/hotel?

We are still thinking about this cruise but one thing for Venice. Most of the cruise ships are not actually in Venice. They are in Trieste (about a 2 hour drive from Venice airport) or from Ravenna (about 3 hours from Venice). If the ship is small enough it will do Venice proper but even the smallest RCL and Norwegian ships are not allowed in Venice anymore. Just an FYI for planning.

Anyone else have any input on this cruise? It seems a bit pricey compared to the cruise lines own trips. Is the Desire atmosphere worth it since it doesn't seem we would be on board all that much, and cant be nude while in port. Any input from anyone who has gone would be very appreciated. Thanks!

tandme wrote:Anyone else have any input on this cruise? It seems a bit pricey compared to the cruise lines own trips. Is the Desire atmosphere worth it since it doesn't seem we would be on board all that much, and cant be nude while in port. Any input from anyone who has gone would be very appreciated. Thanks!

It is certainly more expensive than the cruise lines normal prices but seems to be in line with the markup of other clothing optional cruises. Bliss cruises on celebrity are at about double the price of a non bliss sailing. We decided to go for it since we are living in Europe for a couple years might as well give it a try.

We are going to spend a couple of weeks in Italy before the cruise. We have not made any firm plans yet but are probably going to fly into Rome and take the train to Venice with a couple of stops along the way.

As far as price goes, it is more money than an equivalent vanilla cruise but I think that is the same for just about any lifestyle activity.

J & R

We are on both May 2023 - Venice and August 2023 Greek Desire cruises.

We did the Desire cruise last May (Lisbon - Barcelona) and loved it. We booked both of the 2023 Desire cruises while we were on the Lisbon Desire cruise.

We have done 12 lifestyle cruises (Couples Cruise, LLV, SDC, Desire and a number of Bliss cruises) and we really like the Azamara Lines that Desire uses. They are smaller ships (350 cabins) so more intimate and easier to find people. The Bliss cruises are too large for us and also too intense with that many people. The Desire staff does a great job keeping things going. The Desire cruises includes the drink package which covers most options. We also think the food is better than most of the other cruises we've been on.

There are excursions you can purchase for each port or you are fee to wander at your leisure. While at port, the ship is NOT clothing optional.

There was a pre-sail party for the Lisbon trip which was held at a lifestyle club in Lisbon. I suspect there will be one as well for Venice and Athens.

We also believe that there will be a pre-cruise event of 3 days for Venice through our travel agent but details are not released yet. We've done several of her events and highly recommend them. It is limited to about 25 couples. There will be one for the Greek cruise in August.

We already know several couples from previous cruises that will be on board. Looking forward to another great time.

Glad to hear the experience on Azamara has been good. We really enjoy the smaller cruise ships, larger ones usually have more to do but it always feels like you are just a number to us. Not sure how Azamara is getting around the cruise ship ban in Venice but when I called them they said the plan was still to go out of Venice even though all of 2022 has shifted to Ravenna. We will see what happens.

CoupleofCanucks wrote:We are going to spend a couple of weeks in Italy before the cruise. We have not made any firm plans yet but are probably going to fly into Rome and take the train to Venice with a couple of stops along the way.

As far as price goes, it is more money than an equivalent vanilla cruise but I think that is the same for just about any lifestyle activity.

J & R

If you make it down to Sicily in the weeks before let us know maybe we can try an plan a dinner.

SlothWyntir wrote:

CoupleofCanucks wrote:We are going to spend a couple of weeks in Italy before the cruise. We have not made any firm plans yet but are probably going to fly into Rome and take the train to Venice with a couple of stops along the way.

As far as price goes, it is more money than an equivalent vanilla cruise but I think that is the same for just about any lifestyle activity.

J & R

If you make it down to Sicily in the weeks before let us know maybe we can try an plan a dinner.

We have not really started planning yet but if we do end up near Sicily we will let you know.