A chance modeling gig introduced Kat Whitmire to nude cruises in 1997. Now she organizes them.
Whitmire owned a singing-telegram business before becoming a sales associate for Bare Necessities.
She described what her job — organizing cruises where all the guests can be naked — is like.
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This as-told-to essay is from a transcribed conversation with Kat Whitmire, 61, about working as a cruise planner. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m a cruise organizer for Bare Necessities Tour and Travel, a nudist cruise company. I spend all year as part of a team planning our two sailings: a February trip aboard a big cruise ship called our Big Nude Boat, which has 3,000 passengers, and a smaller cruise in summer.
Back in 1997, a friend who was a staff photographer with Bare Necessities was looking for a married couple to join their next cruise and be in some promotional photos.
Both my husband and I are confident in front of an audience. I have a background in theater and was running my singing-telegram company, and my husband was an on-air meteorologist. We’d been skinny-dipping with friends before and so felt comfortable, and the cruise was in Tahiti, which sealed the deal.
I went on the cruises and volunteered for over a decade before becoming a full-time employee
During that first cruise we worked as models to start. We kept returning on the cruises over the next decade as general staff. We’d answer questions and help out with small things, like making sure guests always have a towel between themselves and their seats.
In 2010, the company wanted to hire a sales associate who spoke German — nudism is very big in Germany. My German is good enough, so I threw my hat in the ring.
I’ve been a full-time employee for Bare Necessities based in Austin since 2010.
Now I’m vice president of sales for the two Bare Necessities cruises. I also help with staffing and organizing the cruise activities while we’re sailing.
Whitmire and her husband now work for Bare Necessities. Kat Whitmire
For each cruise I create schedules so our staffers know when they need to man the information booth, perform “dinner duty” to make sure guests comply with the dress code, and join the dance club at night to make sure things go smoothly.
I also help coordinate sign-ups for shore excursions. We typically have about 10 to 15 excursions to choose from at each port. Every day at sea there are new challenges in the mix, from dealing with weather to arriving at the port at a different time than planned, which means we need to make sure the teams behind shore excursions are in the loop.
Not everyone understands what nudism is
To us, being nude is not sexual or anything to be ashamed of.
Nudism is about leaving judgment behind. When you’re not wearing clothes, you can’t immediately tell someone’s economic status or how they vote; you have to talk to them to find out who they are. Our guests form deep friendships that I don’t think form as readily on a textile cruise.
We’re not a swingers’ cruise. This is not lifestyle travel. There are plenty of those travel opportunities out there, but that’s not what we do.
There are rules for nude travel
We do have rules aboard the ship. The biggest one is that if you’re taking a photo and anyone else is in it, you have to ask their permission first.
Men can’t be overly excited. We say that if you start to feel things moving down there, jump in cold water or think about baseball.
Dinner in the formal dining room has a dress code, largely because the waitstaff is carrying trays of hot food. “No nips, no bits, and no butts” is what I always say to remind people of our dinner dress code.
Dinner is the only time guests have to wear real clothes — no mesh, nothing see-through, and nothing made of string.
The captain and the crew aren’t nude. Our first day aboard is always a little bit of a shock for the crew, but after that it’s fun for everyone. We also aren’t nude for any of our port excursions.
Entertainers and staffers on a Bare Necessities cruise wear clothes. Kat Whitmire
We’ve been to some incredible places
I’ve made some incredible memories working for Bare Necessities. One of my most memorable days was when we visited Tanna in Vanuatu, a South Pacific island.
Our ship was the first big cruise vessel to anchor in their bay. As we gathered on the beach meeting the locals, a group of men all wearing only leaves performed some of their island’s traditional dances. It was incredible.
Whitmire said that visiting Tanna, Vanuatu, was memorable. Kat Whitmire
Through the years we’ve been to loads of warm places, including Fiji, Tahiti, and the Med.
But my favorite of the nearly 50 sailings I’ve done was in Alaska. It was a hard sell at the time, because nudists and the cold don’t always mix, but it ended up working well. The ship extended the roof over the pool deck so we could stay warm and enjoy swimming in the buff. In port, we explored a few sulfur hot springs.
Each cruise takes a lot of planning
Putting on a cruise is like putting on a major theater production.
We all work so hard behind the scenes. I work with guest lecturers and the staff of the cruise company. Then we run for a week and we’re done. We immediately start all over again.
Each year the cruise has to be fresh, yet we also have to keep enough of the major successes — for example, during the cruise we just finished we had private islands in the Bahamas all to ourselves.
We’ve repeated some theme nights that have been wildly popular. Nudists, surprisingly, love costumes.
On our Big Nude Boat, we have several theme nights and one massive costume party. My favorite costume ever was a man who dressed as a tequila bottle. He had a cork on his head. His body was the bottle. You just have to imagine what the worm was. I never laughed so hard in my life.
We’ve done mash-ups of themes, like “‘Wizard of Oz’ meets ‘Alice in Wonderland.'” We just finished a cruise where each night at dinner represented a different historical decade — it was a huge hit, so I suspect we may do that again.
The cruises are great for people curious about nudism
Our way of traveling isn’t for everyone. Not everyone understands what nudism is all about, and that’s OK. If you’re curious, this way of travel might be what you’re looking for.
I joke that skinny-dipping is our gateway drug.
On our Big Nude Boat with a little more than 2,100 passengers, about 70% of guests on board are repeat guests. Our boutique small-ship sailings sell out very quickly. That tells me we’re doing something right.
I Work for a Nude Cruise
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