Ratio of Americans to Europeans on Carnival?

[Ahchand]

Thinking of booking Carnival Breeze in August, we have never been to Europe but have always wanted to visit. Not knowing really where to go we thought a cruise would be a good way to see a number of places in a short period of time. Curious to the number of Americans on a Carnival ship in Europe. :D

[CCJack]

Cruise is an excellent way to see europe for first time. our recent rccl cruise out of venice had about 10% americans. Mostly italians, spaniards and british. Of course everything on the ship was in english.

[CruiserBruce]

Any American oriented cruise will be oriented towards Americans no matter the percentage on board.

 

I would seek a Med cruise for the route, not for the percentage of Americans on board. Cruising is an awesome way to get introduced to Europe.

[CCJack]

I agree. I would not let the nationality demographics affect your cruise decision. Given a choice, I prefer fewer americans, part of the experience of traveling abroad is meeting friends from elsewhere. Actually I get my fill of americans during everyone of my non vacation days here at my job in america!

[maryann ns]

As others have said, choose according to the ports. It is best to start in one great port and finish in another. By great port I mean cities with lots to see.

 

Some great ports are Barcelona, Civitavecchia (Rome), Venice, Athens and Istanbul.

 

Venice and Istanbul are wonderful to sail in and out from. Rome is great for starting or ending, but not great for a stopover as it takes over an hour to get into the city and back out.

 

Another thing to check is how long you will be in each port. Some lines save money by spending less time in port. Another thing to check is whether you are going to be in a port on a holiday or a day when all the museums are closed. If you have an itinerary you like come back here with more questions about such things.

 

All the above are my opinions, and of course others will disagree.

[baggal]

If you choose an American cruiseline (RCI, Carnival, HAL, NCL to name a few), the primary language spoken by the crew will be English. But many of the American lines also market their cruises internationally, which means you will be sailing with people from all over the world. To me - that's a bonus.

 

Most people outside of the U.S. are fluent in English as well as another language or two. There should be no problem communicating with your fellow passengers as well as the crew.

 

But to answer your initial question: having taken two Med. cruises on RCI - Americans made up the largest single percentage of passengers, but overall Americans were in the minority. I'd say about 30 - 40% American, the rest from all over the world.

[dolittle]

There are not many Carnival ships in europe( I think this is the only one) when we were on a Carnival ship in Europe in 07 it was about 40% U.S. 35%Canada and the rest were Brits . We have done 4 cruises in Europe and Carnival had the most from U.S. The others have all had a lot from Canada. I dont know if is the time of year(late summer or fall) or if it is diffirent in mid summer.

[Ahchand]

Thanks for your replies,they have been very helpful. We love being around different cultures when we go on vacations. Happy sailing:D

[Capricruiser]

For sailings in the Med you can't beat the number and variety of itineraries that the two Italian cruise lines have (MSC and Costa). Italians, Germans and French are the largest demographic groups on board but there are always English speakers as well, maybe around 5-10% of the total. Announcements are made in five languages, including English, while most of the staff speak it also. The wait staff and cabin stewards all speak English.

[chipmaster]

Welcome to CC,

 

Didn't sail Carival, did Princess a sister company, I'd venture 20-30% non US on our ship, YMMV.

 

Great way to do a sample without getting enough time in any place. Picke the ship/line for the ports you get, not the ship and than the line. Europe is all about the ports, pick those first!

 

Thinking of booking Carnival Breeze in August, we have never been to Europe but have always wanted to visit. Not knowing really where to go we thought a cruise would be a good way to see a number of places in a short period of time. Curious to the number of Americans on a Carnival ship in Europe. :D

[CathyCruises]

I'd say the average number of Americans on board in our last three Med cruises was 40-50%. We always sail on Celebrity; not sure if it would be different on any of the other American lines.

[paul929207]

Remember the ratio can vary. If a sailing is not selling out, the cruise line will off specials to the locals, pushing up their percentage on that cruise.

[T. Advisor King]

Thinking of booking Carnival Breeze in August, we have never been to Europe but have always wanted to visit. Not knowing really where to go we thought a cruise would be a good way to see a number of places in a short period of time. Curious to the number of Americans on a Carnival ship in Europe. :D

 

We sailed the Carnival Magic last July. I would generally agree with some of the latter posters who made estimates. I found that about half the passengers spoke English as their first language. I'd say 75-80% of those passengers were American.

 

One thing is for sure, if you sail Carnival, you will get a very American experience. Two summers ago we sailed Louis Cruises through the Greek Isles. It was night-and-day. I loved the Louis cruise for its international feel. The Magic felt exactly like the Conquest sailing out of Galveston. I even had to go to the casino to get American quarters so I could do my laundry.

 

All the announcements are in English. Occasionally they'll do an announcement in another language, but usually it is targetted at a particular passenger or tour group. By contrast, on Louis, they did announcements in at least four languages. I really enjoyed that international aspect.

[CathyCruises]

Yes, on our last Celebrity cruise in November, the one daily announcement at noon was in 4 languages--took forever. But there was an amazing girl who did French, Spanish, and German herself--we saw her being filmed in the library one day, quite the linguist.