One of the perks of living in South Florida has been the easy access to cruise ships and the ability to snap up last-minute deals.

The 31-year-old passenger whose plunge from the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas was caught on cellphone videos had threatened to jump overboard seconds before he ran toward the balcony of his stateroom, investigators said Monday.

I’ve always looked at those pictures from the all-gay cruises and thought, “I wish they had these when I was younger.” The ads are all filled with guys with perfect bodies, perfect abs, perfect pecs, and perfect, unlined faces and, let’s just say I’m not any of those. 

How Bernardo Albaz came to fall off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship early Friday morning? Did the out gay Brazilian jump or did he fall off in an altercation with the ship's crew prompted by homophobic comments?

This week read about Kumi Yokoyama accusing Japan of "lagging behind" on LGBT rights, and Sounds of Australia inducting a gay and lesbian radio station.

A gay cruise returned to Miami after two people required medical emergency attention. The RSVP Vacations Cruise had been out to sea for one day before reversing course and returning to port in Miami to offload two as yet unidentified men.

In my last column I wrote about my first cruise with an LGBT tour group, the Pied Piper Post-Thanksgiving cruise. To my delight, it was not all about pretty boys in skimpy swimsuits (but there were plenty of those available). After a day at sea we reached our first port of call, and from then on, the pattern was; explore a port, board the ship and party while we sailed to the next island. Now let’s focus on the all the fun shipboard and at the Caribbean ports of call.