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Whether reporting the details of age, hometown, sexual orientation and mugshot of the arrested passengers was in the public interest or yellow journalism is debatable.    Outfits like The Advocate, Out.com, Instinct, and Queerty are so full of lurid, trashy stories, nothing they report surprises me.  Click-bait is at the center of their revenue stream.    I don't believe the public needed to know so much personal information about the Miami arrests.  It rubs me the wrong way.  The local media in Miami also reported much of arrest details.  As a gay man, it's easy to feel like they were treated like zoo animals, on display for everyone to see. ------------------ The cruise ship might have been willing to bargain with you regarding the upgrade, if it's money on top of what they already collected from the perps or others that failed to board.  They probably have a proprietary process in place to deal with it.   Remember boys, the Internet is forever.      

All the more reason for threads to have a limited shelf life before being trashed. This is especially true in the present case when talking about a hotel that has clearly transformed itself since the OP was written all those years ago. A number of posters do make decisions based on other members' recommendations. Recommending a hotel after nearly 13 years is a disservice to others, especially those who have joined more recently. 

I did not say Taiwanese are not interested in gay bars and clubs in Taiwan. Far from it! They go to many bars and clubs in Taipei - even one I have been to that is considerably more raunchy than those in Bangkok - although there are not as many of them. What I wrote was when they visit Thailand they prefer massage spas and some saunas to going to bars. That is where they prefer to have a sexual experience. They are in general - and obviously there are exceptions - much less interested in offing guys from the bars. As far as bars in Jomtien are concerned, many Taiwanese have only a basic comprehension of English - as I can attest from the conversations I have had in hot springs and saunas there. A solo Taiwanese sitting with a boy in a host bar whose English is also poor would not be of much interest to the clear majority. But I stand to be corrected on this as I have not been in Jomtien for at least 8 years. I had failed to notice your point about traditional Chinese. That was my error.  I just assumed the vdo had perhaps been made in Singapore due more to its production values. Frankly, though, I still do not believe it is a vdo made in Taiwan for a Taiwan audience. If so, there would be no need for English! As it is uploaded to youtube, the blogger would surely have assumed it would therefore be of interest to gay guys around the region and not specifically to one country. Since it would be banned in China, traditional Chinese is more common in S.E. Asia than simplified Chinese. Having visited Singapore more than 35 times, however, and with Singapore friends, English is technically the first language. It is certainly the language used in most business and political affairs, taught in schools to a high level even though it is sometimes corrupted by many into Singlish. But a large percentage of younger Singaporeans who are now of travel age seek similar Chinese-speaking travel companions for trips to Thailand since for nearly 30% of SIngaporeans, Chinese is still their first language. That is obvious from reading Singapore websites. And like Taiwanese, they find sex less complicated to find in massage spas and saunas and on some apps.   I have also not visited a gay bar in Bangkok in years, but there is another reason I doubt many South East Asians take boys from bars. Unlike quite a number of Japanese visiting Thailand who are happy enough to travel solo, Singaporeans and Taiwanese tend to travel and go to places in groups of two or more. They might still visit a bar, but rarely for the purpose of offing a boy. And with prices for drinks continuing to rise, merely seeing guys prancing in jeans or shorts and sometimes lady boy acts is hardly an attraction. They generally prefer clubbing and discos. As for the vdo, i have done some research. We really should realise that this is not a one off vdo. It is a typical video blog site which requires a membership fee. It contains no less than 250 individual videos which include ones on Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Busan, Taipei, Manila, Singapore, Bangkok and non-gay-related individuals and events like Chinese divers, Singapore musclemen, the Chinese swimming team and the amazing Taipei Lantern Festival two years ago.

I could try to find out--though they probably wouldn't tell me at this point. I got these tix the first day they came available to prior Atlantis guests. The suites weren't available, and I learned later that you must call and ask them specifically for a suite, because some of them are "party-central," and I think they need to warn people of those suites. I usually get Junior Suites on Royal Caribbean, but for this cruise I just got the "extra-sized balcony." 

We didn't upgrade. Too much trouble packing and repacking. I was tempted, though.