When Nicole gets ready for a cruise, her packing list goes beyond the typical swimsuits, sundresses and sandals.
Although she plans to spend much of her time topless and poolside, the 50-year-old mother from Indianapolis has already packed more than one suitcase to bursting for her latest trip.
Nicole, who withheld her last name due to privacy concerns, is preparing to set sail on the Wonderland Cruise, a voyage from Miami to the Caribbean onboard one of the world’s largest cruise ships.
“There’s a different theme every night,” Nicole said. “I have a neon yellow and pink bikini for the Glow Party and some shoes that light up. The first night’s theme is Down the Rabbit Hole for Alice in Wonderland, so I have a leather zip-up dress, leather bunny ears and high red and black boots with a heel for that,” she said.
For a steampunk-themed night, Nicole is bringing maroon lingerie with fishnet stockings and a sexy hat with goggles.
“Fetish Night is super easy because I just have some black lingerie that has chains that kind of hang off of it,” she said.
Clearly, Wonderland isn’t your average cruise.
A full takeover by couples-only charter company Bliss Cruise of Royal Caribbean’s nearly 6,000-passenger Wonder of the Seas is being billed as one of the largest “lifestyle” gatherings ever. The seven-night sailing departs on November 9 from PortMiami.
For those inside the subculture, “the lifestyle” is the preferred shorthand for consensual non-monogamy, encompassing everything from swinging to open relationships.
Nicole, who participates in the lifestyle and cruising with her husband of 27 years, says that meeting up with friends from previous Bliss Cruise sailings and making new ones at sea and in port calls like Curaçao and Aruba will be a key part of the week’s fun.
“We always joke with people and say it’s like the high school reunion that you want to go to,” she said.
For some, lifestyle cruises answer a call of the wild and offer the chance to let loose at sea beyond the usual casino tables, ice skating spectacles, waterslides and snorkeling excursions.
It’s a tourism sector that appears to be growing. While cruise industry organization Cruise Lines International Association did not respond to CNN Travel’s questions about this charter-cruise niche, “lifestyle” cruisers have noted more options on larger ships.
“What we’re seeing today is a not just a growth in the number of (lifestyle cruise) brands, but a significant increase in the size of the boats they occupy,” said Mickey Gordon, who hosts the podcast Casual Swinger. Gordon, who also uses a pseudonym for privacy reasons, said that while lifestyle cruises used to be niche events with 800 or so travelers, today’s ships are some of the largest at sea, easily selling out with 5,000 guests or more at a time.
And the reason these cruises are so popular is simple, Gordon said.
“There is simply nowhere on earth you can go that has more ‘people like me’ than a lifestyle cruise. That fact alone sells the trip,” he said.
The Wonderland Cruise, which has been sold out since March 2026, says it will welcome 5,802 registered guests, all 21 and older, onboard Wonder of the Seas.
They hail predominantly from the United States, which accounts for 87% of bookings, followed by Canada and other nations. Bliss Cruise said guests from 47 countries will be aboard.
Passengers on the cruise represent a near-even split between male and female guests. It’s a requirement that each cabin has at least one man and one woman. “Throuples,” in this case three people with at least one man and woman among them, are permitted to share a cabin (foursomes with two women and two men, while rare, are also allowed). Just over half of passengers on the Wonderland Cruise are between the ages of 45 and 59, according to the company.
Cabin rates for bookings made in December 2024 ranged between $1,630 per person for interior cabins and more than $21,000 per person for the Royal Loft Suite.
“We do a full charter of the entire ship. We essentially buy the cruise from the cruise line, and then we market that as a specialized lifestyle cruise charter,” Russell Stephens, the CEO of Bliss Cruise, told CNN Travel.
Despite popular misconceptions about lifestyle events, he said the goal isn’t an uninhibited free-for-all, but rather creating a secure, judgment-free space for open-minded couples.
“I think people can expect a lot of fun, and it’s not what some people would perhaps expect,” said Stephens, who said he is in “the lifestyle.”
“It’s really about providing a sex-positive experience for open-minded people,” he said.
Like many major cruises, Bliss has its own app that registered passengers can access before their vacation to browse the hour-by-hour activities offered each day of the cruise, communicate with other guests who have RSVPed for the same events and create personal pages similar to dating profiles.
Categories like “life Interests” — with options as benign as boating, cars, reading, cooking and parenting — are followed by “sex interests,” including dirty talk, massage and hot wife (“a married or partnered woman who engages in consensual sexual relationships with other people — typically men — with the full knowledge, consent, and often encouragement of her primary partner”), among others that are far more risqué.
The cruise’s app details workshops and seminars, many of which cost an additional fee and are already sold out. These range from relatively tame breathwork courses and speed dating sessions to kink and fetish workshops.
There are multiple daily meet-and-greets at bars and other ship venues, too, for people who fall into categories such as Under 45, Over 45, French, Veterans, Sober & Sexy, Silver & Sexy (seniors) and Hall Pass, which is described in the app as not a pass “to have sex in the hallways,” but rather “permission from your partner to engage in sexual activity without your partner being present.”
Meeting and talks geared toward newbies are also plentiful.
“There are a lot of workshops around just being new to the lifestyle and what that is,” Stephens said. “So we try to cater for people, and we really try to welcome newbies into the lifestyle. It’s sort of like they want to think about it, they’re dipping their toes into it, they’ve kind of had a fantasy or whatever. But maybe they’ve never done anything.
“We don’t want people like deer in the headlights,” when they come onboard, he said.
Bliss Cruise is not the only operator catering to lifestyle voyagers.
Other major players include Desire Cruises, a couples-only option with sailings in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas, Asia and North Africa. LLV Club sells lifestyle cruise itineraries in places like Fiji and Tahiti along with South Korea and Japan. Killing Kittens also offers options on the high seas.
On land, there are hotels aimed at the lifestyle-curious and veterans alike, such as Hedonism II in Jamaica, where the mantra is “Be Wicked for a Week.”
Lifestyle vacations attract a wide cross-section of society, Stephens said. Desire passengers who were interviewed by CNN Travel agreed.
“We’ve met CEOs, we’ve met housewives, we’ve met people in real estate, people who work for the National Security Agency, lots of lawyers and doctors, hotel owners, a math teacher and crazy rich Asians,” said Alice, a physician from the New York City area who has been on two Desire cruises with her husband Bob, a doctor. (The couple spoke under pseudonyms to protect their privacy.)
Alice and Bob are in their early 50s and have been married for 29 years. They first dipped their toes in at a lifestyle resort in the Caribbean in 2019 and are booked on their third Desire cruise, from Lisbon to Morocco, in 2027.
Bob said people unfamiliar with the lifestyle might be surprised at how many different kinds of people go on these cruises and stay at lifestyle resorts — and that adds to the excitement.
He prefers a lifestyle cruise over a resort stay, he said, because everyone boards and disembarks at the same time.
“So, if you meet someone you like on the first night you don’t have to worry about them leaving the next day,” he said.
Some passengers might just like being naked and flirting, while others might be into voyeurism and other kinks, he added.
“There are some people that just like the vibe,” he said.
Before any onboard vibing begins, passengers departing on a Bliss Cruise are required to sign a “guest conduct and behavior policy, consent and release” form with a long list of rules and stipulations.
“Regardless of the potential for a sexually charged atmosphere or a feeling of freedom that no other cruise can provide, there are still rules and regulations which you must follow,” states the form.
It goes on to stress that “no means no” (“‘No’ does not mean try later; I’ll think about it; pursue me harder; or maybe. One ‘no’ is sufficient,” it continues).
Among many other rules, the form also stipulates that sexual activity may occur in private cabins or in designated “play” areas on the ship, but nowhere else on the ship. Nudity or topless nudity are only permitted in special designated areas of the ship. And prostitution and illegal drugs are listed among prohibited activities.
The ship’s lineup of onboard entertainment makes it clear this is no standard Caribbean getaway.
During the cruise, Wonder of the Seas’ 35,000-square-foot Solarium and typically business-oriented Conference Center are being turned into “adult lifestyle playrooms,” outfitted with beds with gauzy curtains (that can be drawn or not), and where nudity and public sex among consenting adults are permitted.
The ship’s Attic venue, a comedy club during routine sailings, is being reimagined as the Dungeon, “built for couples who like a little edge,” according to the website.
The top deck, at the front of the ship, is being turned into an open-air “playroom” complete with a hot tub and bar.
Complimentary condoms and lube are provided in the playrooms, according to Bliss Cruise. It’s at the discretion of guests to practice safe sex.
While public nudity and playrooms operate freely in designated areas on open water, port calls require full compliance with local laws — meaning public spaces revert to standard clothing requirements and only playrooms located inside the ship and with no windows remain open.
However, during the cruise’s stop in Curaçao, a clothing-optional takeover of two neighboring cliffside resorts with outdoor pools is also scheduled, and is already sold out.
Bliss Cruise staff, including Stephens, embarked on a “pre-cruise” aboard Wonder of the Seas before the Wonderland Cruise to speak to crew — in departments from housekeeping to food and beverage — to make sure they have “a good understanding of what we’re doing,” he said.
A Bliss Cruise spokesperson said the company provides “sensitivity training” to the cruise ship’s crew during the pre-cruise. If a crew member feels uncomfortable with the nature of the charter, they can be reassigned or have their duties modified.
Guests are not permitted to “fraternize” with any of the ship’s crew, who are considered “completely out of bounds,” Stephens said.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, which owns the ship Bliss has chartered, declined to comment for this story. Emails to Cruise Lines International Association for comment were unanswered.
“There are very, very strict rules that we have for our guests and that we have to follow,” said Stephens. Anyone who doesn’t comply is kicked off the ship in the next port.
But during the cruise, he said, “essentially, the cruise and the ship become ours.”
Terry Ward is a freelance travel writer and journalist based in Tampa who was once evacuated during a hurricane to a lifestyle resort in Jamaica.
