Not all events are made equal: temptation Cruise February 2025
Since starting this blog, I’ve been reflecting deeply on our lifestyle experiences. It’s helped us start to narrow down what we (and I) like and don’t like in our experiences. That being said, it’s taken us two years to understand the very basic principle that not every event is made equal.
We’ve taken a really broad approach to the lifestyle. We started unofficially by adding others in our bedroom activities before even realizing what the lifestyle was. We then dipped our toes in at Secrets Hideaway in Florida before heading to lifestyle clubs, lifestyle cruises, hotel takeovers, and out on local dates. Generally, we’re up for just about anything once.
This has been perfect for our journey: our visits were incorporated into other trips that we were already going on so that there was no pressure in any other way. At first, we didn’t go out of our way to get a flight JUST for a lifestyle event. We only went for a night or two in the beginning to get a feel for the environment. We didn’t really invest much money or time until we decided we enjoyed the people, environment, and activities.
The further into the lifestyle we’ve gotten, the more picky we’ve become in the way of events. What do I mean by that?
In the beginning, we did not discriminate by group, event type, or any other features. We wanted a taste of everything and really, we didn’t think that the lifestyle would vary that much from event to event. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
With each event we go to, our tastes get refined. We’ve learned:
Events are a reflection of their hosts, for the better or worse. Their character, energy, soul, and so much more get poured into an event. If hosts are standoffish, it makes me incredibly guarded in situations where you need to be open. If the hosts are down to earth and interact with guests, it makes us feel welcome into the crowd. We find socializing is much easier in these situations because we don’t feel the divide. We’ve been to events where the hosts are in a VIP section doing their own thing and completely ignore everyone else. We’ve also been to events where the hosts are in the middle of the dance floor interacting with all of the guests and really enjoying the event.
The crowd matters. This goes hand in hand with the hosts as they typically determine some characteristics of the crowd, including age and other demographics present. That being said, events typically have a little bit of everything, so you can always make the best of each situation.
The club scene? Not always for us. In our journey right now, connection matters deeply for us. My partner needs the fun, flirty banter to get him comfortable with people. I need some kind of connection or common ground. At the club, it just feels like there’s not typically enough time to really form these connections. At takeovers, on cruises, or in other situations where there’s a few days to mingle and interact in a variety of settings, we feel a lot less pressure to make the move immediately and get to know and enjoy the people we’re with. This is much more our style.
In February, we went on Temptation Cruise, and this event for us really reinforced the idea that not every event is made equal. Not every event is for you.
We will be doing a full review on our podcast, but I wanted to briefly leave our opinions and thoughts as to why Temptation Cruise wasn’t a great fit for us.
First, we want to acknowledge that Temptation is more of a party cruise than a true lifestyle event. We knew this going in— We’re avid fans of 4ourplay (if you haven’t checked them out, you’re missing out!). As a 26-year-old, their approach to the lifestyle as millennials really resonated with me. Anyway, their reviews of Temptation are what made us decide to book. We even booked through them which gave us extra activities.
Temptation highlights:
We met the BEST couple the very first day. They made our entire trip! We spent most of our time with them. They were incredibly fun and sexy: a true demonstration that people are what make or break every event!
Booking through 4ourplay. A true dream. Bella and Jase are some of the most incredible lifestyle advocates. In addition to the fact that their content is incredibly accessible and helpful, in person they are genuine and lovely souls. They come to events prepared and bring a really fun energy. From dildo passing games to speed dating, they do a wonderful job building a community. They attract a wonderful, kind, open, and incredibly sexy group of people. I HIGHLY recommend booking through them! We hope to do so again on a future Bliss sailing :)
The pool parties on Temptation were far superior than Bliss! We loved the games and activities they had on Temptation and wish Bliss incorporated a bit more of this.
The shows were phenomenal. Especially the last night. There was a show by Airotic Soiree, an act described as a mixture of circus-like acts and burlesque. It was beautiful and blew our minds so much that we went to both showings.
Reasons we won’t book Temptation again:
After sailing on Bliss in November and getting a taste for a lifestyle cruise, the party cruise couldn’t compare in our opinion. We had some encounters on the ship where people were almost offended by the idea of the lifestyle (which is totally fine! To each their own). We just prefer an environment where there are far more lifestylers.
In our opinion, Bliss and Temptation aren’t that far off in price and what you get on Bliss is far better. From the accommodations to the food, activities, and length, we just really felt that Bliss was a better fit for us (Bliss was 7 nights and Temptation was 5 nights). The drink package being included in Temptation was a big plus for us, but we’re realizing more and more that we don’t enjoy drinking to excess (or at all) at lifestyle events, eliminating one of the bigger costs of Bliss.
While we recognize each sailing is on a different ship, we hated this ship and the way the staff handled issues. For example, we had a toilet issue on our hall where about half of us didn’t have working toilets. We understand that things happen but the communication was severely lacking.
The biggest reason: we simply want to experience other things. High up on our list are Desire in Mexico, Hedonism in Jamaica, and international events hosted by Cate of Wanderlust Swingers.
We are still grateful to have had this experience. We recognize what a privilege it is to go on any sort of trip at all. This really helped us understand more about what we’re looking for and what we’re not. It also gave us wonderful new friends.
We want to emphasize that this is just our preference and experience. For you, Temptation could be a perfect fit. For us, it just wasn't.