Fully Grown Homos Podcast
Fully Grown Homos Podcast
The Lively Life of a Seafaring Adventure Part 1
Imagine stepping onto a floating oasis where laughter echoes down every corridor and new friendships bloom at every corner. Our latest adventure took us on an unforgettable cruise journey, where we navigated through vibrant social scenes and quirky shipboard challenges. From a seamless start in Singapore to settling into our cozy eighth-floor cabin, the cruise was a treasure trove of memorable encounters and hilarious mishaps. You'll meet fascinating characters like Agnes and Cecile, whose passion for karaoke added an unexpected spark to our trip, transforming our holiday into one filled with spontaneous joy and camaraderie.
Have you ever seen a robot bartender struggle to mix a drink? Join us as we recount our amusing misadventures at the ship's high-end mall, where the Bionic Bar serves up more laughs than cocktails. Discover the art of cruising in style, even when faced with technological fumbles and spotty internet connections that turn finding friends on Grindr into a comedic quest. Our rendezvous with the charming auctioneer, Mike, at the ship's art auctions adds another layer to our tale, as his charisma and candid humor leave a lasting impression and remind us of the unexpected delights of travel.
Our journey doesn't stop there. As we reminisce about our first days on board, discover our tried-and-true cruising tips, such as where to find the best breakfast on the ship or how a few magnetic hooks can make a cabin feel like home. Whether it's the lively LGBTQ meetups that turn into unexpected singles nights or the shared stories that weave through our days at sea, each moment is a step deeper into a world of connection and friendship. We invite you to come aboard and share in our stories, as we eagerly look forward to the next chapter of our seafaring adventures.
If you want to send us a question or would like our thoughts on a particular topic you can contact us at Fullygrownhomospodcast@gmail.com or contact us on any of our socials at Fully Grown Homos Podcast.
Welcome to Fully Grown Homos, a podcast about our adventures as fully grown homos navigating today's world full of inquisitive friends, questions about gay life and the unexplored activities of a life lived as fully grown homos.
Speaker 2:We'll discuss the gay 101s, sex sexuality and topics we don't even know yet, as we want your input into what you want to hear. Nothing is off limits, so email us on the Fully Grown Homos podcast at gmailcom or message any of our socials.
Speaker 1:Fully Grown Homos with Dave and Matt On this week's edition. What are we doing, dave?
Speaker 2:Well, firstly, welcome back Matt from our holidays. It firstly, welcome back Matt from our holidays. It's good to be back. It is in some ways. Or is it, let's go back on holidays. Absolutely. I think I need one after this one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are we going to talk about today, Dave? Oh?
Speaker 2:look, mate, we're going to recap on the cruise this time. Okay, now it's going to break it down into different sections and our destinations we went to and what we did on board.
Speaker 1:how much fun we had, the people we met and what our experiences were like on the cruise ship. So we're going to try and I say try and do chronologically all right, but it may not be possible because everyone knows me already by now. Um, if you're new to the podcast, hi and welcome. You'll get to know me real quick. I may dash from one year to a different era, to a different planet. Yeah, I tend to do that a little bit. I tend to get lost up in a story.
Speaker 2:But you come back to reality normally.
Speaker 1:Well, sometimes I find my way back and I end up back in 2024 or maybe even the future, but yeah, so we're going to try and do a little bit of a wrap up of the cruise. We've done our Singapore wrap.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so basically on the board, we actually did a podcast on the cruise ship. We were hoping to do more, but we just didn't have the time Because we were busy boys.
Speaker 1:We were busy boys, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, it was so much fun. So that was broadcast last week, wasn't it? You edited that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I dropped that one, so that was basically our take on Singapore Yep.
Speaker 2:So we've done that part of the holiday already. So now we're going to narrative to the ship itself and where we went to on the 12 days, 11, 13 nights, whatever it was, whatever it was Yep.
Speaker 1:All the adventures of the high seas, the lowies on the high seas.
Speaker 2:Sit back, put your feet up and hopefully you'll be able to laugh, because we certainly had a laugh and a half, didn't we?
Speaker 1:It was and I'm saying this with all respect to everyone I've ever been on holidays before, but it was one of the most fun holidays I've been on, and I guess that was obviously due to yourself and the fact that you just were up for adventure and getting out of your comfort zone, but it was definitely due and we will talk about them in detail at a later stage throughout different podcasts. So the next few that we do, um, but it was the people that we actually met. Yeah, that made the holiday more than anything, made it so fucking special. I was gonna say freaking special, but no, it's fucking special.
Speaker 2:They were the best, we will mention names. We'll mention their real names, but we won't give any more details about them. But we'll just mention them by name because it's important for us to let them know that we are thinking of them, yeah, and how much of an impact they made on us and that we miss them.
Speaker 1:Already. It's been literally a week. Yeah, we've been back and we're so missing them.
Speaker 2:Um, definitely, definitely, we need them yeah, so basically we're going to start off. So boarding the ship was pretty, boarding the ship effortless, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:what a great process. Yeah, really simple. We bought it in singapore um like we'd already pre-done all our lombok um immigration and all that kind of stuff, right, but literally just walked on, showed pieces of paper um showed our passports, walked on um we were booked to get on at 1 30 but everybody was there, wasn't it like 11 30 yeah, and that was getting everybody before us as well, so everyone was on before us everyone there was only one person that we were worried about getting on wasn't there and we were following them on facebook, remember, because they left brisbane.
Speaker 1:I think it was that morning yeah, but that turned out to be a hoax, did it? Yes, oh, yeah they posted that they had just left Brisbane with literally cutting it to the minute.
Speaker 2:Eight hours to get there.
Speaker 1:Cutting it to the minute to get to Singapore, and it turns out it was actually a hoax and it wasn't at all bloody what they'd said it was, so it was just like ah, but anyway the ship was delayed anyway, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:The ship was delayed a little bit by leaving Because there was a medical emergency. Unfortunately, that person was taken off, wasn't they? As soon as they got on, Before they even got onto their bloody ship? Well, they got on.
Speaker 1:They got on and got off. They got on and got off pretty much straight away. So, but yeah, so, boarding the ship, we got to our rooms.
Speaker 2:Our luggage was already there, wasn't it outside?
Speaker 1:Our luggage was there, so we did some unpacking.
Speaker 2:So we were on the eighth floor, weren't we? Yeah, there was 12 floors of. I think there was 12 floors of decks. No, not 12. There was deck three to 12 were decks, it was accommodation, yeah accommodation. So it was a big ship.
Speaker 2:Big ship, four and a half Then you had two decks lower, which is the entertainment side, and then you had in the restaurants, and then you had two decks above, which was all the sort of like pools and theme area, upstairs and the iFly's bumper cars, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, about 4,500 people on board, roughly. So if you want to have a look at the ship itself, go on to Royal Caribbean and check out the Quantum of the Seas. So that's the one we're on.
Speaker 1:Very nice ship. Yeah, look, I guess, upon glancing around the ship a little bit, first, because we sort of got on board they gave out free champagne. Oh yuck, it was filthy stuff, but yeah, but we had it with orange juice, it was fun, it was fun, it was great. Look, they didn't have to, obviously.
Speaker 2:And the very first thing we noticed as well when we were drinking champagne, was this very, very handsome man.
Speaker 1:And he turned out to be the manager of the bars.
Speaker 2:The beverage areas, and his name was Stephen, so your thing, obviously All right.
Speaker 1:Now, if you've listened to previous episodes, you'll know that Stephen is the gayest name on the planet, right, as everyone knows, and we proved this a few times. When we went to the Emerald Room One of our friends we told her about Stephen being the gayest name on the planet, right. And then, sure enough, when Catherine Acorn actually called out to one of the little gay boys and said, oh, what's your name, sweetie? He said Stephen. Well, it was quite amusing, but by our powers of deduction, steven is gay.
Speaker 2:So there's something in the background. I can hear. There's some noise outside. If you can hear like beeping, nothing we can do about it, I think. So I can get somebody's vacuuming or something, if you like that.
Speaker 1:Um, but yeah, um. So yeah, steven, the hot hot he was.
Speaker 2:He was probably about 38, 39, I'd say 40 maximum. Yeah, beard from solid, I would say from uk. So I'm waiting. No, not uk he was, he was foreign. So I think, sorry, he was um, I think sort of like um european. I don't know um background, much spanish it doesn't matter where he's from but where he was going to is my bedroom. And we tried to engage in conversation but we didn't have anything to talk about so we felt a bit creepy so we couldn't do it.
Speaker 1:We definitely tried. Well, we felt creepy, especially after Dave was snapping photos of him. I would never have done such things Really. Oh my God, he was gorgeous. All right, it's not my fault, I was photographing art. He was a walking art form, so, yeah, so that was. We noticed him literally as we walked on board and we thought, hallelujah, right, yeah, this is. I thought he was the captain. Right, yeah, because he was. I thought he was the captain because I don't know what stripes on sleeves and shit mean. Right, I told him he was a senior officer. But, yeah, yeah, well, he was the officer in charge of my loins is what he was. But, yeah, he was hot right.
Speaker 2:So we carried on walking around and we bumped into our very first guest.
Speaker 1:Well, we got to know the little bit of the lay of the yeah that's right Of the, where things were as such. Now, that was of no use to me.
Speaker 2:So for me, going forward, I mean I didn't feel the ship had the opulence of the smaller ships I'd been on. Yeah, it was very grand, very wide, so the promenade was all very wide, it fit lots of people, but it was like quite flat. So I don't know, it wasn't as engaging in terms of the aesthetics that you normally get on one of these cruise ships. It wasn't. Luxe is how I would describe it. But the facilities were great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like on a few of the cruises I've been on and stuff like that, they've been very luxe and very luxurious and you basically look at them and you go, oh that's fancy, that's fancy. This was just quite your basic average high-end mall, more than anything else, but it was functional, wasn't it? It was nice more than anything else, but it was functional, wasn't it it was nice it was functional, it was neat, it was clean, it was pretty.
Speaker 2:There was parts of it where it was dressed up really nicely and stuff like that, like the giant chair with the little hearts on either side, but they seemed to have pockets of all the bars in one area, didn't they? And it was on two levels which are accessible by a small stairway.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, they had multiple restaurants, like they had the Jamie Oliver's restaurant. They had a restaurant called Wonderland, they had the bar thing I'm saying yeah, lots and lots of restaurants yeah, the Bionic Bar, which is like a cocktail making, a robotic cocktail making sort of bar, which wasn't very good at making cocktails, which we watched a few times and it was a big failure. Half the drinks were going over the freaking floor.
Speaker 1:It was amusing to watch it was amusing to watch Like people were doing it just so that they could say that they've actually had their drink made by a bloody robot, right, but it was funny because like it was always manned by a human as well, who nine out of ten times would basically have to repress all the programming again and stuff like that, or give them another drink or give them another drink.
Speaker 1:Give them another drink because that one's half empty. It was funny to watch, definitely, yeah, so Bionic Bite you could skip that one.
Speaker 2:I think every time it made a proper one and everybody's cheering and clapping because it actually did. It actually did a proper drink.
Speaker 1:Somebody was there, when somebody actually got a proper drink and they went oh, actually it doesn't taste too bad and I'm thinking. Well, it should taste exactly the same as any other drink, but it was quite amusing to watch and quite fun to watch.
Speaker 2:So obviously so we carried on. This is obviously day one still, so we carried on walking around. And it was actually at, by the Bionic Bar, that we met our very first friends.
Speaker 1:And again, for those that know me, I love my karaoke. Right Now there was these two lovely, lovely, absolutely delightful ladies Didn't know them at this stage, right, and they were talking about karaoke rather loudly because, as we found out, they'd had about five of the free champagnes, and that's Agnes and Cecile, right? Yeah, first people we actually got to meet really hitting and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:We met other people but they were so engaging and they were just so friendly and we thought we got to keep in contact with these two people well, they, they said.
Speaker 1:They said they were talking about karaoke. So I jumped straight in and said I'll see you there, right, because that's what I do. I love my karaoke on board a ship. Everyone knows that it's basically going to be 12 nights of karaoke bars, but we'll get on to that a little bit later. And so we engaged in a bit of conversation with those girls and I tell you what they were just the best. We had so much fun and we started what was going to probably be a passing comment and a bit of a chit-chat, like a couple-minute chit-chat. Half an hour later and we're still standing there chatting, and it was just the best. By this stage we'd exchanged business cards, decided that we're going to be lifelong friends and, like plaited each other's hair. No, we didn't do that part yet. No, that came later.
Speaker 1:But they were just delightful. The joy on these ladies, yeah, and they said that they had two other travel companions that were with them as well. Yeah, but they were somewhere else doing something else, so that's something.
Speaker 2:We met them later on, and they were lovely as well, weren't they?
Speaker 1:They were lovely as well, but Agnes and Cecile were just delightful. Yeah, just were just delightful.
Speaker 2:Just absolutely, and we'll talk more about these people in more detail later on yeah, as.
Speaker 1:things go on, but everybody we met had the same impact on us, so it wasn't just those two, no, no, they were just the very first two that we actually sort of met on board and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:If we had to pick anybody, we couldn't pick anybody out of everybody, because they're all happy. All amazing and all different and all fun, yep, yep. Different joy. But we'll mention them all later on as we're going through so after that, matt, what do we do then? We carried on walking around the ship, didn't we?
Speaker 1:yeah, we walked around the ship quite a bit and stuff like that. Um, we, I, I tried to sort out the internet app, right, because I, you are, um, I thought fucking hell, am I about to come or what? So I tried to sort out the internet package because it wasn't working for me properly. Now, when I say it wasn't working for me properly, it's not that the internet wasn't working, it's just that certain apps were. Certain apps weren't working. Like I tried to open grinder when I was on the ship, right, and it wasn't working.
Speaker 1:So I went up to, I tried to go up to the young hot guy right that I found out later was the lead singer in in one of the shows, right, and he sort of I said to no, I did go up to him because I I actually targeted because there was another little gay boy that was there as well, who's a dancer on the show right, and I thought I don't want to go up to him, I want to go up to the hot guy.
Speaker 1:So I held back a little bit and I waited for the lead singer guy Tyler, I think his name was right. I waited for him and I walked up to him and I said, look, I've got the internet package. I said but do you know if it blocks certain apps? And blocks certain apps, and he's gone. No, it shouldn't be blocking anything at all. And I said, well, it won't let me open up my. I can open Grindr, but it doesn't refresh. It's giving me the same people that I had in Singapore, and he's gone. I'm not sure what that is, but obviously it did.
Speaker 1:And he was in the fucking entertainment crew Of course he knew what Grindr was Of course he did, and he's sort of sitting there and the way he's sort of saying it. I'm sitting there and thinking he's probably thinking creepy old man, stop hitting on me. I was hiding behind the post. At this stage, at this stage, dave's run, he's done an absolute runner. Anyway, holla, you were no help, um, with grinder. Anyway, good singer, great singer, great entertainer, um, and all that kind of. We know you're gay really, yeah, probably.
Speaker 1:You're the cutest one there, definitely, Hence why you got the lead.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so but managed to sort Grindr out myself and then so we carried a walk around the ship and we just sort of like, got our bearings, went upstairs and had a look on the top deck, checked the spa out, because we were under the impression of previous cruisers that their spa and the sauna are free and they are normally an area where you can normally hook up on these cruise ships. Yes, and that's past experience for me, so I know it does happen. Yeah, but this one was slightly different. So you had to pay to get into this bar and it was just not worth it and it was so expensive.
Speaker 1:We went to have a look at the thermal suites and all that kind of stuff because, again, like Dave said, in the past, I bought a pass to the thermal suites on a different cruise line where you did have to pay to get into that area. But in that area it was like really, there was lots and lots and lots of sort of heat beds, lots of saunas, lots of steam rooms, there was a spa, there was everything in that area so it was very attractive for every adult to go into. Now, I was in my relationship at those stages so I didn't even think about the hooking up stage back then, right, or using Grindr or using Grindr or anything like that. But this time I was definitely keen for it and there was like six little sunbed type things in there, like they had the hot stone beds. There was a tiny little sauna or a tiny little spa.
Speaker 2:They were very keen to sell, weren't they? They were very keen to sell.
Speaker 1:But they wanted, like I think it was $200 and something this is American dollars as well. Yeah, for a 12-day pass, um, or, yeah, 12-night pass, and you could use it as often as you want. We went about the time anyway. I sat down I thought like there's no way in the world I, in retrospectively, I'm glad I didn't spend that money because, number one, I wouldn't have had the time because we didn't stop from fucking early morning till late night or early morning to early morning. This is no exaggeration.
Speaker 2:We were morning at six at the latest, apart from one day where we forgot to put our clocks forward. Then we ended up getting up at seven instead, yep, but most nights it was between one and two o'clock in the morning. We were actually getting to bed. Yeah, correct, but again, that was our choice and we just maximized the day to the full. Oh, we did, and we did um, and we did everything that we wanted to do, and more and more and more um. So, yeah, so then, obviously, the evening came along.
Speaker 2:So we decided, because on the itinerary there was a bar called it was vintages, vintages right so this was a bar that had various meetings for me, for people to meet up, so we knew that there was an lgbtq meeting at 10 o'clock, so we thought we're going to go there and hopefully we'll meet a few people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I had chatted with some people on Grindr at that stage as well and said that we're going to be there.
Speaker 1:So I thought that's a good way to get to know people and stuff like that. Bear with me. It's a good way to get to know people If you've sort of prearranged a meeting and stuff like that. As if you've sort of prearranged a meeting and stuff like that, you know, as per normal Grindr hookup you should always arrange a meeting and then potentially go and suss them in a public area and that first anyway, right, yeah, so we kind of arranged them, so we knew at least there'd be another couple on board at this LGBTQ meetup.
Speaker 2:We turned up there, didn't we? We turned up and we sat at this long table and there was like four women sitting at one end and we just thought there was lesbians and all these other people. Yeah, and we didn't realize. So I started talking to these women, or both of us did. We both started talking and they were hitting on us big time and I was thinking, well, what's going on?
Speaker 1:I didn't really pick up on that. Initially, all right. And then I'm looking around and I'm thinking, oh, these three ladies are putting the moves on Dave hard right. I've looked at the itinerary and what was on before us, dave, it was a singles night. It's a singles meet up, a single singles cruisers meet up, right, where you can go and meet fellow cruisers that are all single, all right. So we we'd gotten in there probably a little bit before 10 because, again, I'm habitually early for everything. So we'd sort of gotten in at the tail end of the singles night, unbeknownst to us, and Dave was like a fresh piece of meat to these women.
Speaker 2:But in all fairness, I had a great conversation with these girls. They were fun. They'd all met each other on the cruises over the years, so they stayed friends, which we found is a very common thing with all the people we met. They seem to meet people and keep in contact with them and then meet up with them on later cruises, so that would be, hopefully, us going forward as well.
Speaker 1:And look, knowing the calibre of people we actually met, we'll be doing exactly the same, for sure. We'll be doing exactly the same, sure. So, yeah, but this singles meetup, it was funny as fuck because I've then just realized. So you were sitting to the left of me, weren't you?
Speaker 2:yeah, I was sitting to the left, and then other gays and lesbians- started coming in turning up, but obviously I didn't see that because I was engaged in conversation with these other women.
Speaker 1:So I sort of sort of tilted off a little bit and left dave to fend for himself and thought oh well, he's been there before he can do it again.
Speaker 2:Um but unfortunately for me, I didn't get the opportunity to not get rid of them, because that was a bit rude. I mean they were, I was having a good I was having a great conversation. I don't regret having the conversation, it was fun, um. But I sort of picked up that they were hitting on me and I was like I'm just here for so then we started talking about the podcast and stuff like that, and that's where they must have picked up.
Speaker 1:Oh, he's gay. Damn, this is a waste of our time.
Speaker 2:Um, but they still conversed and they end up leaving, naturally because you know, they knew that they'd been there for a while and it was like something else was happening. The gays were taken over, um, but yeah, but then yeah, so you'd always, at that point you'd actually met and started talking to some of the other people we met yeah, I'd met and started talking to a couple of other people and things like that that, um people that had actually walked into that area, um.
Speaker 1:so we met this awesome guy, gary, right now he was on board with his husband, john right of 20, of 22 years. They've been together for 22 plus years, I think it was, but they've been married about four or five, I can't remember. Anyway, I'm not good with details, right, but John Gary was amazing. Now, gary had a brother called John as well. So his husband's John and his brother's John and his brother's wife Kim, right, who we met later on as well, but John, gary's husband and Kim were there.
Speaker 2:John's wife, um, he's getting he's getting very articulate, animated, animated, animated um animated.
Speaker 1:They are early night sleepers. So literally Gary and John the brothers, they were there and we were having chats with them and it was just really good chats and stuff like that. And then Alan and Mike that we'd sort of met earlier but they were there, but they were looking over and I said like come over Because you didn't know who they were in picture, right, didn't really know who they were right, but you'd messaged them and spoken to them, spoken to them, but so then sort of, basically those guys, I think, then came over.
Speaker 1:So then we were talking with them, and then there was a few others because we didn't meet the other guys until later on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we met a few a couple of days later, didn't we? Yeah?
Speaker 1:we met a few other people and stuff like that that we were chatting with a little bit. But they were the main ones that we met that first night, weren't they?
Speaker 2:They were the main ones that we met that first night and stuff like that, and again we remained sort of like contact with them all the way through the cruise. We met with them every day doing different things. We'd set up a little group chat type thing bear in mind we weren't in each other's faces 24 7, so we would do our own things during the day. Yeah, we might meet up and do a show together, or might meet up and go bingo together or whatever it might be.
Speaker 2:We'd say, we're like or we'd see someone in the restaurants and talk to them there but we all had our own itinerary of what we were doing, so we weren't sort of like stuck to each other. 24 7, no no no, not by any standard at all. So yeah, so, so that was pretty much day once. We left the bar around about midnight there, didn't we?
Speaker 1:yeah about then um, and we'd actually set sail at that point.
Speaker 2:So we're on our first sea leg day, I suppose when we're towards lombok yeah so, um, so we'll carry on for a little bit longer on to day two we'll just go on to day two and then we'll call it a break, because obviously it's going to be a long session otherwise.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so next morning woke up really excited about being on the cruise Because our journey was beginning, our holiday was beginning and stuff like that. So I had lots of arriving around.
Speaker 2:So we got up, had breakfast, didn't? We Got up, had some brekkie went to the Wing Jammer, which is like the buffet or the buffet. Yeah, and again, we just had a look around the ship and see what was going on.
Speaker 1:Oh, hang on, let's go back to the room. So we unpacked. Oh yes, let's go back to the room for a second. So the room was really, really Interior cabin, interior cabin, just a basic one. Right, yeah, we just got the minimum. I don't care, I'm not in the room.
Speaker 2:As you've heard already, it's just a state room, wasn't it? It's just a state room. We're literally never in the room, right, but In terms of size, I thought it was a very big room, great size right Now.
Speaker 1:We had a virtual window, all right. So our virtual window basically was like a big 75, 85-inch TV from floor to ceiling, and it live projected what the actual ship was seeing outside and we had curtains around it, so it looked like a window, so it actually looked like a window.
Speaker 2:Now we'll tell a little story a little bit later, right about how real this window looked okay and yes, so it is projecting real-time images from one of the balconies above, so there's also cameras on the side of the ship and it projects down to the interior cabins, so you're getting the same view as what you would if you had an exterior cabin. Yeah, balcony, sorry, yeah, correct, and it was just amazing because you could look out and you could see the water, you, you could see the ship passing, you could see everything real time. It was so, so good. Yeah, we didn't realise how to remote control until about three quarters of the way through.
Speaker 1:You could have turned the window off instead of just bringing the curtains over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we didn't realise that, but that's all right, it was fun.
Speaker 1:But the room itself. So a couple of things that we packed with us that are definite essentials to pack, and you found this out from the Facebook group.
Speaker 2:So, going back before we went on the ship, we actually joined the Facebook group, which is well worth doing.
Speaker 1:So what I would suggest to anyone that's going on a cruise right hunt on Facebook for the group for that particular cruise now or that particular holiday as such. Now there was about 1,600 members in this Facebook group, so not everyone was in it, but we're talking.
Speaker 2:4,500 people on the ship, Passengers. Weren't we on the ship?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but everyone was contributing some really good tips and hints on the Facebook group.
Speaker 2:And we were talking to these people about two, three weeks before the actual holiday started, weren't we?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so somebody posted in there um take magnetic hooks, because all the walls on the ceilings inside the ship are actually um made of metal so I went down to, took myself down to bunnings and I bought the really good ones.
Speaker 1:you need some really strong ones, really strong ones, all right, um, and we bought one of those little um for clotheslines that you take camping and stuff like that. They're made of elastic and that, and we hooked a couple of hooks onto the ceiling and basically strung that across the ceiling. Now that served as a multipurpose. It served as a washing line, definitely, but we then hung up some decorations in the cabin like pineapples and stuff like that and some leis and stuff Some leis Just to make it colourful and pretty.
Speaker 2:So we.
Speaker 1:We decorated our room a little bit there and had some fun with that and we took some stickers for the door and we took so many stickers for the door and so many things for the door so you'd recognize where you were.
Speaker 2:So some people actually go on these ships and they put things on their door so they know where they are, because some because the ships can be quite initially when you're on board, hang on initially.
Speaker 1:All the way up to day 12, I still couldn't find our fucking cabin, and neither could you sometimes. Well, we had a good idea where it was well, you were saying it's this way and I'd go. No, well, the way I picked it was well, depending how far there was a blue wall no we were towards the front of the ship, weren't we?
Speaker 2:as we found out, um, but there was a green painting on the wall by the, by the stairway. Yeah, and I knew that was where we should be. But sometimes we get up a little bit earlier. So we're midship and we're like where the fuck are we which?
Speaker 1:which direction are we going?
Speaker 2:but once you get the idea where you are, it's pretty easy to find.
Speaker 1:It is as long as you get on the right level, as long as you're on the right level and as long as other people have got stuff on their doors right, as some of them did, and we'll talk about pineapples later yeah, um, upside down pineapples.
Speaker 2:Um, for those in those that know, no, yeah, um, right, but um, but we'll get back to the room anyway, because we're digressing again, as usual because that's normal for us.
Speaker 1:So it's all right um, but we so it was.
Speaker 2:We could have had an option of having a double bed or, you know, a twin like a queen sort of bed, but they'd had it separated to two singles, which suited us fine. I mean, it didn't bother us, but the layout of the room was already set up. So we thought, okay, we'll just keep as it is, and it worked that well, because I mean a part of the journey, as I'll explain later on I I wasn't 100%.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, it was like, so it was easy for me yeah, um, so, yeah, but, um, but again, that was to be expected on the cruise, but I mean, it didn't stop me from doing anything, did it? No, it definitely. There was only one day, I think, that I was not very well and I had to come back to the room tonight and they just let me sleep for a while, just let you sleep for a while about three hours just let you sleep for a while, about three hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a bit of a nap before and stuff like that, but the room was really really nice. They set up a decent-sized shower.
Speaker 2:In fact, the room, the shower and the whole room was better than the hotel Way, better than the hotel in Singapore yes, definitely, and I think the only thing that we would say differently is take your own shower gel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is, take your own shower gel. Yeah, because I took shampoo and stuff like that. But I didn't take shower gel because I knew that it would be on the ship and I thought why take?
Speaker 2:extra scrub and it was, it was there and it was there, but it just wasn't great.
Speaker 1:It was very watery, it was very watery and very ordinary in that sense. But yeah, but look the ship, our room attendant.
Speaker 2:He was great, he made different towel animals all the time. We discovered on day two that we thought our sink was blocked, didn't we? Because I'd had a shave and I couldn't empty the sink because the plug wouldn't come back up. But little did we know.
Speaker 2:There's a little latch on the back of the actual sink, but we found out when we went to do our washing that you know. Oh, I managed to push this button at the back of the tap, didn't realize what it was, and then suddenly the sink popped up and I was like oh fuck.
Speaker 1:Okay, that was as easy as it was, but yes, that was a bit simple.
Speaker 2:We were going to call guests, so, yes, so have a good look around the uh, the actual bathroom get yourself familiar with the bathroom, because there's plenty of space. We had a good, good, uh, wardrobe space, didn't we? There was enough space for both of us. I mean, we didn't realize there was cupboards above the bed either, did we and they were huge and they were huge.
Speaker 1:So we, we packed everything in, right, and we still had plenty of space. But then we were just like oh, we better find stuff to put in here. Um, just because, and underneath the bed.
Speaker 2:There's plenty of room for your, your, suitcases.
Speaker 1:You know, we had like big suitcases, didn't we?
Speaker 2:yep and then we didn't realise there was extra bedding under the bed as well, until later on. Yep, not that you needed it?
Speaker 1:no, not at all.
Speaker 2:I mean, but in terms of housekeeping, couldn't fold it. No, it was great. It was great, it was clean and you've got to respect the number of staff members that were cleaning there was 248 248 staff to 4,600 guests, plus also the crew as well yeah, that was like crazy.
Speaker 2:Six and six and a half thousand people and there was 400, no 248 people servicing all those people. They didn't stop, but they were just so friendly and so please tip them. Please definitely make sure that they looked after, because cancel your tips when you get on board, yeah all right cancel the gratuities, because they then just get dispersed amongst who knows.
Speaker 1:All right, but take some cash. Aussie dollars are great.
Speaker 1:American dollars are obviously even better for them at the moment, but aussie dollars are fantastic if you, if you're sailing from australia and that right well any current from your current your local, your local area, take some cash and then give them a nice friendly handshake and say and I do it at the beginning and at the end of the cruise, right, and just to say thanks in advance for helping keeping my room up, so they know that they're appreciated. Right, it doesn't have to be millions of dollars, right, but it does make a big difference to them because that way, if you do it at the beginning of the ship, when they have port days and things like that, they can actually get off, they can go and buy some if they're missing, if they're from indonesia and they're missing noodles, because the catered the ship doesn't cater for all cultures and all nationalities, but in their own quarters they'll have a kettle, they'll have the very basic things that you'll actually have in a little room and stuff like additional to their own.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they'll have, um, they'll have proper food.
Speaker 2:They'll have the very basic things that you'll actually have in a little room and stuff like additional to their own.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they'll have um, so they'll have proper food, they'll have the facilities to make um, make up their own little noodles from home, or something like that. So so please tip at the beginning so that way they've got some sewer cash when they get off.
Speaker 2:Right, it does does really help them, um, as well but you're also tipping the people that you want to tip as well so anybody the same with this went the um the waitresses. We had the waitresses we had.
Speaker 1:They were lovely, lovely, because that's another thing.
Speaker 2:We, we, we did make a mistake. We booked our table reservation for the dining experiences, which is part of the package. You don't pay extra for these ones, yeah, and we booked a five o'clock and then we realized after day one or day two that we were never going to make five o'clock because we were eating like lunch about two o'clock in the afternoon because we were so busy yeah that, you know, by the time we did all the shows and stuff we were doing, it was like gone two o'clock before we had anything else to eat after breakfast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so by five o'clock we were never going to be eating any more food. No, so we went down and changed it to half past 7, which was a lot better time for us. Even that sometimes is a little bit early, wasn't it? Yeah, but it suits us better.
Speaker 1:Still did all right now. So room check done like really lovely. Take your magnetic hooks, take stuff like that, take stickers, take stickers, take lots of fun stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look at the itinerary before you go and pack. Well for it. Well, no, the.
Speaker 1:Facebook group gave me lots of what was happening. Yeah, so join your Facebook group, definitely as well, and get involved in chats on the Facebook group prior to going, because that way people start to get to know you a little bit and you get to know people a bit, and so people start to get to know you a little bit and they get to know, and you get to know people a bit, and so you know exactly who's going to do what like, what kind of people they are and what kind of people you want to associate with and what kind of people you don't want to associate with. More importantly, and yeah and um, so do that right, but so we did all that.
Speaker 2:So so day two. So go now. So we had breakfast, obviously, and then we knew that we wanted to go to the art show because both matt and I have been on cruises before and the artwork is spectacular on boards. It's run by park west on the royal caribbean and we'd actually spoken to a couple of the the guys that were on board that were doing the actual we had met the auctioneer. At that point, we hadn't. We hadn't met the auctioneer.
Speaker 2:At that point, mike, we hadn't met the auctioneer at that point, because Mike is a South African, and he was just so good at his job. So was Sean, so was Patrick.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, that's 100% why we liked him, yeah, right.
Speaker 2:But Mike knows he is a very handsome young man. Straight straight guy.
Speaker 1:And we guy and we knew that because he was like dating one of the girls on the board.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know, don't tell anyone. Nobody knew that, right, of course, but he was just so fun engaging and we were flirting on him and he he appreciated that and he flirted back with this as well.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, he was great, like he's like. Like I said, he's a ridiculously handsome young man he is. He already knows this and if he doesn't know this, he should should know this. Absolutely Right, but he was great fun, very engaging.
Speaker 2:But Patrick and Sean were as well.
Speaker 1:Patrick and Sean were really good as well, right and even Ash, the guy that was sort of curating the… they had a great team of people working with them, had a fantastic team, but Mike was just next level fun Now he people working. Had a fantastic team, but mike was just next level fun now. He talks very openly and honestly about his adhd and how it basically has served him well in the art form and all that kind of stuff, because he really loves details and he's so knowledgeable isn't he?
Speaker 1:but so much knowledge again for a young guy, um, and I think we worked out he was 32. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, right, and just like, just so much stuff in his brain.
Speaker 2:But his auctions were just so engaging. He got everybody involved, he was having fun and he was saying some things that he shouldn't have said.
Speaker 1:He meant to say dints and scratches right.
Speaker 2:On the very first auction.
Speaker 1:On the first auction. But he said dicks and and then you could see by his face he was mortified that he'd said it. But he was sitting there and he was just like, but then he was drawing more attention to it. If he had just let it slide, nobody would have or we would have noticed, but he wouldn't have done any. But it was just like freaking hysterical, because then he kept trying to get himself out of it and it was just like oh my god, oh my god, oh my god so literally it ended up being a thing for the whole ship where we're set, we're all sitting there, and then he'd just say it was.
Speaker 1:What do you say then? It was like scratches buff blemishes. Oh no, he used some other word and it was just. He said I'm not saying the other one ever again, right, and stuff like that. So it was actually quite fun, um, but the art auctions were definitely entertaining as hell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the seminars were good as well, and we went to every one apart from one, which we slept in for, because we didn't realize the clocks had gone forward and we missed it, didn't? We yeah, yeah um, but again, I mean, we didn't miss a lot because we'd already seen everything we wanted to see but we, we made an effort to go to every single one of the auctions, yeah, um. But not only did the auctions happen, but he also gave seminars on the artists as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was blown away with some of the actual um seminars because the level of detail that mike had actually researched, the level of um enthusiasm he knew his stuff I mean, he, he was just so, um, poignant, he was just so to the point, but he was so enthusiastic about everything he did, yeah, and he got you involved and he really I mean to pronounce some of the names. He said I'd take my hat off to him. Oh yeah, you know what I mean, because some of the you know, he was just rattling off these artist names as if they were like butter in his mouth, you know what I mean, like they were his cousins. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:He knew everything.
Speaker 2:One of them has like about six names, so I can't remember which artist it was, but he had great amazing, wasn't it? Yeah, being a South African as well, he had such a very good voice, didn't he? Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He liked saying yeah, didn't he? Yeah, yeah, and that was quite a turn on, wasn't it yeah? And don't get rid of your mo, Mike, because we love it. Yeah, your mo's hot.
Speaker 1:Keep it. Yeah, you're most hot.
Speaker 2:Keep it. Keep it forever. And again, that's another story. He told us about reason why and that was very, very we'll talk about that later on as well, Because that was very, very good of him.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so we went to the art auction and we've done lots of stuff, so we don't want to go through step by step.
Speaker 1:But we actually saw a couple of other people in there which we actually then became friends with one day to the cruise. We've seen, okay, we've seen this another, okay, all right, let's just preface this and you already know. But dave and matt are pervs, all right. Um, dave and matt are filthy pervs who like looking at hot guys. All right, guess what? We're gay men. That's what we do, right? Um, and we're not objectifying you all, but we can appreciate good-looking men when we want. So we kind of spied this guy from across the room and he was definitely a very good-looking young man as well, aka Troy, if you're listening.
Speaker 2:But we also knew he was married. We knew he was married and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:We didn't know about children or anything like that. We didn't know any details, we just looked and we thought, fuck.
Speaker 2:They looked fun and they were engaging, weren't they? They were having fun as well. They were having fun, which was troy's wife holly was. She was loving it as well, she was, and she's got adhd as well, hasn't she?
Speaker 1:so she was like tripping on these like bidding cards and toys but we'll talk about it a bit more later on, yeah, so we got to know them a little bit later, but at this stage we'd only sort of seen troy and thought, oh, he's a hottie as well. So yeah, so yeah, um, but then so we did the art auction and we did some more stuff around the boat. Then later that night you took part in the karaoke. I took part in the first round of the karaoke comp. Right.
Speaker 2:And we didn't see Cecile or Agnes that night. No, no, we hadn't seen them that night because I think they may have. They missed it, didn't they?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, but yeah. But then it was a bit of a hot mess, because I normally have a bit of a whiskey and a water to warm up my vocal cords a bit and stuff like that and sort of do a bit of a warm-up before I get on stage, even for karaoke, because I think if you're going to put on a show you should sound your best, right. But I went up just to sign up and the guy said, oh, do you mind going first? I went, yeah, no, that's fine, right. And next minute I know he's handed me the microphone and then he started signing up the rest of them. I'm sitting there going. Ah yeah, but I didn't think going first meant go now. So yeah, and the song starts, and so there I am, singing away now.
Speaker 2:Definitely wasn't my best efforts but I thought you did very well.
Speaker 1:It was okay. It wasn't my best To say I sung pretty shit on this cruise ship was an understatement for myself, right, and there were some contributing factors, but we'll go into those a bit later as well, I think you're a bit hard on yourself, but you are right.
Speaker 2:In some regards I've seen what you can do.
Speaker 1:I've sung way better in the past. Let's put it that way from all accounts. But yeah, it was fun, so we got through. I didn't make it through to the finals on that one that night. That was only part one, wasn't it? But look the guy that ended up actually taking the whole thing. He was on that night and he was phenomenal, liam, he was phenomenal Like a young guy with a brilliant voice and stuff like that. Yeah, phenomenal Like a young guy with a brilliant voice and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, liam, the other guy.
Speaker 1:Patrick, Patrick. Yeah, Patrick was awesome. Patrick was very good as well. Patrick was very good.
Speaker 2:Look I mean you three should have gone through, I thought, and so did most of the audience, but the downside was, matt, because they had, like you were first and there was like 10 or 11 people by the time they finished.
Speaker 1:Well, the thing is, most of the people weren't even in the room, and because Liam was the last one on.
Speaker 2:He made the biggest impact anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but most of the people weren't even in the room when I sang, so it was just like half the audience didn't even get to see what I sang.
Speaker 2:But in terms of the area where that was, that was the best area for doing the karaoke, I reckon.
Speaker 1:That was 270. 270 was a big state room, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's great, it's a big room and that's where we did a lot of other but then that's when we met simon and karen and scott scott, yeah, because they came over, yeah and they said great job, you should have gone through right.
Speaker 1:And I went oh, thank you, and stuff like that, and then said oh, we're going to like. They said well, you guys up to now. And so we chatted and we said we were going to.
Speaker 2:Did we sit in the rest of that night?
Speaker 1:I can't remember if we did I don't know, but I think we said we were going to the vintages, yeah, to the gay bar, right, and I don't think Scott was with him with Karen and Simon at that point in time, right? Sorry, there was a little bird on the window.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Sorry, but yeah, Scott wasn't with them at that point in time, so they said, oh, okay, and then next thing you know they're coming to the gay bar with us, which was Vintages, right. So we were all chatting there a bit longer and stuff like that and got to know some other people. So, as the ship went on, the days went on we were picking up more and more friends, but I think by day five.
Speaker 2:We've met everybody, hadn't we that we? Pretty much, pretty much had kept in contact with you know, I mean, but in the interest of time, we're pretty much going to leave it now because obviously we've got so much to talk about, but we don't want to overload you all with you know there's so much to talk about, so we're going to cap it now.
Speaker 1:Given that that this is day two, we're going to have to look at condensing going forward, Because otherwise this is going to be a 14-part series and we don't want that Because it'll get boring for you Potentially, but we'll talk about the highlights more.
Speaker 2:So We'll talk some highlights.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we had look to wrap this one up. We had a phenomenal cruise cruise. Right, we're definitely going to talk a little bit more about some of the activities that we did going forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're a little bit hysterical in times and stuff, but there's also lots of points that we can say were negative as well that we found. But obviously next, the next one, we'll talk about the very first destination we went to, which is lombok. So that's on day four, I think, of the cruise when we got there. But we'll feel you will feel you will.
Speaker 2:We'll fill you in on day three for the next episode and go forward as much as we can and try and condense it down as much as we can. But it's hard because both Matt and I we experience so much and we just want to share everything we did with everybody. So you get an idea and I do realize that it's long-winded, but look, I mean hopefully you can bear with us and we'll try and get it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, enjoy our holiday, but look, I mean, hopefully you can bear with us and we'll try and get it out. Yeah, enjoy our holiday, but look, I want to reiterate, the people that we met were just like, up to this stage of our holiday, they were all frigging sensational. And there's like people that we met and said had little chats with as well.
Speaker 2:But we haven't even talked about the crew members either yet.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so we'll leave it there and we'll catch you next time. So we've been your fully grown homos. And if you want to know any tips on cruising, how do they send us an email or contact?
Speaker 2:our socials. Well, you can contact us at any of our socials, at fullygrownhomospodcast or our emails fullygrownhomospodcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:That's a wrap from us. We've been your Fully Grown Homos and we look forward to opening your mind, your ears and your curiosities. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe, and share our podcast with your curious friends. You can contact us on Fully Grown Homos Podcast at gmailcom or any of our socials. Fully Grown Homos Podcast.
