This Is What It's Like On Board a Nude Cruise

Passengers on the 11-day "Big Nude Boat," set to depart next year from Miami, will have some rules to follow

What’s it really like to spend 11 days on the “Big Nude Boat”?

Passengers on the 11-day, all-nude cruise ship set to depart from Miami to a private island in the Bahamas next year will find out. It’s the latest offering from travel company Bare Necessities, which is collaborating with Norwegian Cruise Lines for the trip.

While it may seem uncomfortable to be on the Norwegian Pearl ship with more than 2,3000 naked people, passengers who’ve been on other nude cruises trips say it’s relatively tame.

"There was no public sex and no erections that I saw," shared Redditor wisecommenter2, who went on a 2,000-person cruise offered by the company. “An erection would be considered poor form in this environment.”

And while everyone is nude, there are specific hygienic rules that must be followed.

“No bare butts on any surface in any public space. Ever. That's not a difficult concept,” they wrote.

“Nudists are as interested in hygiene as much as, if not more than the next guy.”

This was confirmed in a later comment when someone asked, “Does it smell funky with everyone nude or are people usually really clean?”

“No smells. People are clean. One can’t put one’s bare butt on any surface; a towel is required,” wisecommenter2 said.

Related: These Cruise Ships Have the Highest and Lowest Sanitation Scores in 2023

And as Dr. Bruce Hirsch, Attending Physician in Infectious Disease at Northwell Health, tells PEOPLE, following these types of guidelines ensure that there aren’t any increased health risks by being nude on a cruise.

“Being packed into a tight space and being nude, it's basically about the same as being packed into a tight space and being clothed,” he said.

In fact, “the only difference is that if there's some kind of infection on the skin,” which “poses more risk to other individuals if the wound is uncovered.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

“But the benefit of being on a cruise in which everyone is naked is you can see what you're gonna get,” Dr. Hirsch added.

And as for infectious diseases like the highly contagious gastrointestinal illness norovirus, which notoriously spreads quickly on cruise ships, Dr. Hirsh tells PEOPLE that just brushing up against a nude person with the virus isn’t the problem.

“The sweat itself doesn't contain the pathogen,” he said. “If a person is sick, if they're splattering diarrhea all over deck four, that's not a good thing. But that's not the usual circumstance, and if that's the case, you'll see it faster if they're naked than if they're soiling their cruise clothes.”

The way norovirus spreads, Dr. Hirsch explains, is “it gets onto surfaces and then we touch those surfaces and we pick up the norovirus that way. That's not gonna happen differently if the person is naked or if they're clothed.”

There is, however, one inherent health risk to being nude on a cruise, as both Dr. Hirsch and wisecommenter2 pointed out.

Related: The 12 Best Sunscreens from Neutrogena, Supergoop, and More, Tested on the Beach

“Certainly the skin on the genitalia in men is thinner and might be more vulnerable to severe sunburn,” Dr. Hirsch tells PEOPLE. “Avoiding prolonged periods of time in the sun directly in one's genitals, I think would be a reasonable accommodation.”

And as wisecommenter2 said, when it comes to sunscreen, they apply “The same amount you usually need, and then a little more.”

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.