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Imagine a travel day that commences with
the sunrise and sees you flying at
38,000 feet through choppy air, the
plane rolling just enough to remind you
anew of the wonder of flight - Is this
your Icarus moment? - and then, some
hours later, having safely landed in
Costa Rica, you’re in the North Pacific
Ocean, aboard the Star Flyer, a four-masted
clipper ship, which sails through the
night, lulling you to sleep in your
stateroom with the ancient rhythms of
the ocean across which Christopher
Columbus commenced the Spanish influence
over the New World. It’s as if you’ve
ricocheted back in time, leaving behind
the age of aeronautics for the glories
of the maritime.
The Star Clipper line of three clipper
ships (the Star Flyer, the Star Clipper,
and the Royal Clipper) has a devoted
following of nautical enthusiasts -
particularly those cruise queens who
live more for "Moby Dick" than "The Lady
Eve," let’s say - and the staterooms on
these luxury yachts are jewel boxes of
highly-polished teak and brass, with
nautical prints of classic ships hanging
above oil-lamp sconces.
Initially there’s the slightly
disconcerting sensation of being
disconnected - cell phone reception is
spotty, at best, and more often
non-existent, and as for the temptations
of Facebook, Manhunt, and Grindr, the
Internet is eons away from Costa Rica’s
unspoiled eco-pleasures.
The Family That
Plays Together
Instead, there’s the pervasive sense of
family that marks a Concierge Travel
cruise, whereby connectedness takes on
an entirely new meaning. In other words,
the family that plays together stays
together - and this is a family as happy
as 101 Dalmatian pups.
Established in 1997, Concierge Travel is
a Houston-based LGBT travel agency that,
for years, has been the world’s
largest-booking travel agency for RSVP
Vacations - which has often resulted in
cruises marked by a Concierge Travel
family of upwards of 350 people, all
traveling and partying together on the
RSVP Vacations cruises.
In 2009, Concierge began offering its
own charter cruises to remote and
romantic locales (such as the Galapagos
Islands), utilizing smaller ships that
enable access to otherwise unreachable
destinations. Moreover, the smaller
ships, some with a capacity of no more
than 170 passengers, foster that same
sense of an extended family reunion that
mark the Concierge Travel experience
onboard the RSVP Vacations cruises.
Built in 1991, the four-masted Star
Flyer is currently the tallest "tall"
ship in the world, with a mast that
reaches 226 feet. More than 36,000
square feet of sails billow in the wind
- as did the rainbow flag on this
cruise, flying above the Concierge
Travel banner and proudly signaling:
Queens on the High Seas; Buenos Dias,
Costa Rica!
Pura Vida:
Costa Rica’s Unofficial Motto
The Star Flyer’s polyglot crew of more
than seventy sailors is from countries
all around the world - and with a
passenger list of less than 150, the
odds were perfect for bespoke customer
service from comely Spanish and East
European youths. Climb a mast? No
problem. Kayak, snorkel, and scuba dive.
Check, check, and check. See you after
midnight? Well, that was your business.
Or you could simply watch the sunset
from the widow’s net attached to the
bowsprit beyond the fore deck. Imagine a
hammock over the ocean - and as the Star
Flyer clipped along at eight knots, a
school of manta rays in the water
directly beneath you, you felt like the
lovechild of Huckleberry Finn on his
Mississippi raft and Priscilla, Queen of
the Desert, with her diaphanous scarves
whipping in the air.
The Star Flyer splits its year between
Costa Rica and the Mediterranean,
locales particularly noted for
relaxation. The unofficial mantra of
Costa Rica is "Pura Vida," a phrase
meaning "pure life" or "good life,"
which is often used as a local greeting
and which beautifully highlights the
inherent optimism of Costa Ricans. This
is a country, after all, that
permanently abolished its military in
1949, and is, currently, the only
country in the world without an army.
The Welcoming
and Inclusive Community
Perhaps, then, it’s small wonder that
Costa Rica ranks first in the Happy
Planet index and is the only Latin
American country included in the world’s
democracy index. As one measure of the
country’s civility towards its
citizenry, Costa Rica’s health care
system is more highly ranked than the
United States’ - and this with only a
fraction of the States’ GDP. A pioneer
in the eco-tourism movement, with over
25% of its land protected as
conservation area, Costa Rica will
become the first carbon neutral country
by 2021.
Throughout the seven-day Central
American cruise, that "pura vida" spirit
ruled the atmosphere aboard the Star
Flyer. Surely, the easygoing vibe
encountered at the six Costa Rican ports
o’call helped to sustain that bonhomie -
but, without question, the genesis of
the ship’s laidback vibe comes from
Concierge Travel.
Concierge Travel founder and owner, Kim
Gustavsson, conducts leadership
conferences for Fortune 500 companies
and is a proponent of Landmark
Education, which extols the virtues of
integrity and personal responsibility in
becoming who you are meant to be on this
planet. The resultant atmosphere on a
Concierge Travel cruise is one in which
everyone’s idiosyncrasies are
celebrated, providing enough room for
everyone to feel a part of the welcoming
and inclusive community.
Celluloid Glow
In other words, there’s no "attitude" of
the sort that leaves one feeling
excluded - and the parties on deck
become a kind of idyllic desert island
scenario, whereby every subculture
within the LGBT community commingles
with carefree abandon.
The Star Flyer’s passenger list included
the former gay mayor of Tempe, Arizona,
and former head of GLAAD, Neil Guiliano,
as well as legendary Saint deejay,
Robbie Leslie, and Source Events
founder, Craig Smith, and the
incandescent Holly Goheavy, partying
alongside doctors, therapists, drag
queens, opera singers, Canadians,
Brazilians, vegans, fagnets, Swedes,
lesbians, cabaret stars, muscle boys,
bears, scuba divers, kite-makers,
naturalists, hair stylists - as well as
the myriad personae who emerged nightly
from the various trunks of costuming
that these libertines dragged aboard.
On a boat this romantic, nearly every
encounter took on a celluloid glow. At
dinner, the dining room shimmered with
amber light (or purple or red, depending
upon the light gels installed by
Concierge Travel’s own cruise director)
and for a moment, everything was
civilized - at least until Maissie
entered the room, all tarted up as Baby
Jane set loose on an unsuspecting
audience.
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