You know I love cruises. You know I love conventions. You better believe that I was one of the first people signed up when this convention on a cruise was announced! Even more exciting (and possibly appropriate), the Rainbow Readers Cruise 2024 was also my first official appearance in my new romance author guise.

Then 10 months between signing up for this event felt absolutely endless. Luckily, I had the opportunity to pass the time by interviewing some of the other creators who would be on board with me. Check out any of the Rainbow Reader Cruise 2024 author interviews you may have missed out on.

Signing up for this event with fellow Maryland-based queer romance author Rory Maxwell has also led to a pretty amazing friendship! We’ve already survived multiple conventions and vacations together in the past year, with more on the schedule to come!

We flew down to Florida the day before the cruise, and since our flight left absurdly early in the morning, Rory stayed at my house the night before. I took full advantage of her captive audience status to finally make her watch my favorite movie, The Old Guard. Luckily, she enjoyed it! The spouse drove us to the airport where we held our breath as we checked our incredibly heavy, book-filled luggage. Between books, other swag for the book signing, and the multiple theme nights, I brought as much luggage for a 4-night cruise as the spouse and I usually have for an 8- or 10-night cruise!

Luckily, we arrived in hot and humid Florida with all our various suitcases intact. We’d booked a room in the same hotel as many of the other people registered for the event, which meant we started meeting readers and other authors from pretty much the moment we arrived! A cocktail hour in the hotel bar that evening was the perfect chill way to get the party started. In a total small-world moment, I even met a reader who used to work with my mom in the U.S. Air Force Reserves when I lived in Washington State!

Our early flight meant early to bed, because the real fun started the next day!

Monday

You know how I usually forget to take pictures at these events? For once, I actually remembered to snap a few, but even better, I also had Rory (who is much better at the social media game than I am) and Sean (official event photographer) to steal borrow much better pictures from! I’ll mostly let those speak for themselves.

Watch my grin grow bigger and bigger over the course of about 4 hours:

  • Boarding the Celebrity Reflection in Fort Lauderdale
  • A sunshine downpour on the pool deck where I got my requisite departure mango daiquiri
  • The view out my stateroom balcony, already underway at sea when I changed for the opening evening reception. I was about to be in the same room as so many of my favorite authors!

Not only was I in the same room as so many of my favorite authors, along with a bunch of other amazing readers who also love them, but I was somehow considered one of them! What’s funny is that my brain is pretty chill about 99.9% of the “famous” people I meet, so within moments, I was happily chatting with many of them. But then there’s that 0.1% that my brain goes all fuzzy for, which is why it’s important to have an emotional support human at events like this. Rory and I metaphorically held each other’s hands while we met Cara Dee and Jordan L. Hawk!

Rory: We are on vacation, and we are about to meet our favorite author, who inspired our friendship and is basically the reason we are on this ship.
Me: I guess I better have the blue drink, then.

Following the opening reception, we enjoyed the lovely ocean air on deck for a bit, then enjoyed a late dinner in the ship’s main dining room with a few of our new friends…and our favorite author, Cara Dee! Who is absolutely as lovely in person as she appears online, but I definitely had a few “how is this my life?” moments over the course of the evening.

Even though it was late, Rory and I changed for the first theme night of the cruise — rainbows, obviously! (We did not haul these floofy skirts all the way to Florida not to wear them.) Half the fun of cruises for me is trying out new things that I’d never do on land, so I closed out the night having a ball at my first silent disco.

Tuesday

Our first port of call on this voyage was someplace I’d never been before, despite so many Caribbean cruises! Key West, Florida, was exactly as I’d pictured it, and I could have spent way more than a few hours wandering the cute town. However, I’m spoiled by so many of the cruises I take in winter because we practically melted in the humidity. Nevertheless, we accomplished our goals of checking out a few specific shops, eating a delicious shrimp lunch, and the mandatory key lime pie! (That I devoured before thinking to take a picture.)

Back on the ship, we attended a panel on polyamorous romances. Special shoutout to the adorable elderly ladies who very quickly realized that this was NOT the room for the onboard art auction! After, we dressed for the formal night dinner in the main dining room, where Rory and I shared a table with author Ari McKay and spouse, plus readers Conni and Paul! I spent the remainder of the evening playing card games (Unstable Unicorns and Chrononauts) in the conference space and socializing with other authors and readers in the ship’s martini bar.

Wednesday

The next day, we arrived at one of my favorite places in the world: Coco Cay! This private island is basically an extension of the ship. For this visit, I hung out at the new adults-only area and had a blast chatting with people in the shaded pool when I wasn’t relaxing on this amazing lounger. The Celebrity Reflection looks tiny next to the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas, which is one of my favorite classes of ship!

We attended another panel on BDSM romance in the afternoon, then I spent a quiet hour in one of the lounges completing a virtual scavenger hunt for one of my favorite book series. For the evening, Rory and I were honored to be invited to a small dinner in one of the ship’s specialty restaurants with Cara Dee, her editor Lisa, and her production assistant business manager organizer of all things Eliza. At the end of the meal, I also got to sneak over to another table and finally introduce myself to the last author I was excited to meet on this trip, Christopher Rice/C. Travis Rice! We had a lovely chat, and he is so sweet (and tall) in person!

Dinner ran late, but we caught the end of the audiobook narrators’ mad libs show, which was equal parts hysterical and painful in all the best ways. I’ll never view the Muppets in quite the same way again!

Thursday

Our last full day of the cruise was a day “at sea,” which was the perfect time for a book signing! Rory and I were part of the early afternoon author group, and it was so much fun to set up a full table for the first time. (I’m much more used to a pop-up hour at SF/F events.)

As honored as I am to be a professional author in a genre that I adore, I’m only here because I was a fan first! That being said, easily one of the best benefits to being an author for this event was access to the signing room all day, where I was able to snag a few minutes with some of my favorites in between them setting up and greeting their other fans.

From left to right, with Nora Phoenix, Jordan L. Hawk, K.M. Neuhold, and Christopher Rice/C. Travis Rice!

The theme for that evening was ship-wide: 80s Night! I had dinner in the main dining room again, this time with reader Amber, who is now officially an online-turned-real-life friend, and fellow author J.S. Harker. Afterward, Amber and I headed to the conference space for Cards Against Humanity! There may have been some stops at the martini bar before and afterward. We’ll blame that on why my eyes are closed for the announcement that Amber and I were the first runner-up and WINNER of the Cards Against Humanity tournament! I’m not sure what it says about me that I won this particular game with this particular group of authors and readers, but I’ll take it! (And possibly also blame the martinis.)

Alas, all good things must come to an end. This amazing event closed out with a drag show performed by some of the authors and audiobook narrators, which raised money for The Trevor Project.

Then, sadly, it was time to head back for one last night in the floating hotel. We returned to Fort Lauderdale in the morning, and Rory and I flew back to Maryland. I’m pretty sure I spent the next forty-eight hours on my couch recovering. This was the least relaxing cruise I’ve ever been on — and I’m so excited to do it all over again next year! Why don’t you join me?

Final Haul

Note: Book title links below go to my reviews.

  • Con bage + official conference gear!
  • Silver and leather hurricane bracelet from Capricorn Jewelry in Key West, Florida
  • Sapphire Sunset by C. Travis Rice + preorder swag
  • The requisite Cara Dee haul, accompanied by her amazing preorder swag!
  • And then even more swag, because I won the virtual scavenger hunt! Not shown: The amazing salted licorice goodies she also brought me from Sweden, all consumed long before I finally sat down to write this con report.

2 thoughts on “Con Report: Rainbow Readers Cruise 2024”

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