When you visit the pool deck on a cruise ship, you may see more skin than you expected to.
Male passengers can opt for Speedos that hide nothing and female cruisers can wear thongs, barely-there tops, and pretty much any bathing suit that covers their sensitive bits.
Cruise lines don't enforce any sort of dress code and passengers may not always be fully aware of how much skin they may be showing. Cruise workers are not empowered to enforce any sort of dress code — but there are limits.
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One Carnival Cruise Line passenger wrote to Brand Ambassador John Heald to question just how loose the cruise line's bathing suit policies are.
"My two sons and DH will be cruising on the Horizon. We are very excited to spend the Thanksgiving holiday on the ship," they said.
"--- Cruise News page said in their broadcast today that there is topless sunbathing allowed now. This is disturbing. John can you tell me if there is a topless deck on the Horizon? I don't believe this and really don't want my teenager sons venturing to sneak a [peek]. Can you tell me the actual truth."
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Image source: Carnival Cruise Line.
Carnival outlines policy about topless pool deck
Heald had a lot of fun answering the question and shared a bit of a history lesson.
"Thanks so much and the Carnival Horizon, is a magnificent ship and you will have fun for sure. So then, topless sunbathing is of course something we used to have on our ships 20 plus years ago," Heald wrote.
"But while topless/nude sunbathing was as normal back then as giving a 12 gauge shotgun to an guest for a dollop of trap shooting despite the fact they had consumed many pina coladas it suddenly became very much a taboo in today’s world. Gone are the days when you could say, "seen one, you have seen them both.” or just not look if you were offended."
Carnival had a long history of offering topless sunbathing.
"Back then all our ships had topless sunbathing decks and for the most part the guests seemed to enjoy it and certainly didn’t feel a sense of shock and horror because we had a place where our female guests could get an all over tan," he added.
"Not anymore. It’s very demure these days. When did that change? Why did that change? None of the major cruise lines have a topless deck except our friends on AIDA and their stunning ships," he said.
(Virgin Voyages also offers a topless sunbathing deck. "We have a beautiful sun deck on Deck 17, called The Perch, where you can feel comfortable sunbathing topless at sea," Virgin's website says.)
Carnival wants you to keep your top on
Heald seems genuinely surprised that people have become more conservative when it comes to nudity.
"If you’d asked me when I was a young cruise director for my opinion on the progress of breast exposure by 2024, I maybe wouldn’t have said women would be sitting in meetings drinking kale shakes and [baring] their breasts," he joked.
"However, I would certainly have predicted that the topless decks were here to stay. Obviously, I would have been totally wrong."
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The brand ambassador did note that women (and men) do have places to go uncovered.
"There are still nude beaches in some of the ports we go to in the Caribbean," he wrote. "I have never been to any of them for obvious reasons, and if I did, I would still have a small, thin slice of pizza to cover my embarrassment."
And he made clear that Carnival would not be bringing back topless decks.
"So, to answer this lady's question, no, we will never have topless sunbathing again," he said.
"I may be wrong, but honestly, I think there is more chance of you hearing. 'The following episode of “The View” contains violence, strong language, and scenes of a sexual nature."
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