Italian couple sue over gay cruise

A heterosexual Italian couple have sued their cruise line after they were booked onto a gay cruise rather than the standard cruise holiday they’d been expecting. The couple who haven’t been named, and are married, are claiming that they were not told by the cruise company, or their travel agent, that the cruise they were taking was actually a specialist holiday for same-sex couples. They book through Grimaldi Lines for a three-day trip from Civitavecchia (Rome) to Barcelona.

The couple say they were surprised to see masses of reported as they arrived to board the cruise ship but assumed that there was a celebrity sailing with them who had caused all the media interest.

However, they soon realised they were the sole straight couple on the cruise, which was organised for 1,500 couples. Their embarrassment was compounded when they started to meet people on board whom they’d already known but had not realised were gay. Their claim is based on ‘lost satisfaction’ which means they did not get the quality or nature of holiday they had been expecting – events organised on board were aimed at gay couples and because they were not gay, they were put in the position of constantly having to explain themselves to the rest of the passengers whose expectations were that everybody on board would also be homosexual.

Gay action groups have said the couple’s claim is homophobic which they deny, saying that they had not expected media attention for the cruise, had not been involved in the events and activities they would have expected on a cruise ship and had been placed in an embarrassing position in relation to people they knew socially but had not known were gay. Now they are asking £2,800 in compensation. So far the company has not responded to their court action.