I Don’t Cruise ...

[calliopecruiser]

What I like to hear about when people go on a sea voyage is about the people they met on board, the atmosphere of the ship and the foreign cultures and sights they enjoyed.

"The foreign cultures and sights they enjoyed"??? They're kidding themselves if they think they really experienced any foreign culture from the few hours to days they might stay in one or two select foreign cities from a cruise ship, regardless of the size or luxury status. And that's the folly of your whole proposition -- thinking that a luxury cruise somehow provides a more socially or culturally elevated experience. It's all about the person, not the ship or line they are traveling on.

 

 

Whether or not someone chooses to go on a mainstream, premium, or luxury line doesn't (usually) demonstrate their interests, cultural attentiveness, or status. All it does is demonstrate a choice they made at the time --- and you have no way of knowing why they made that choice. It shows where they chose to spend some disposable income, that's all. Are they sailing NCL instead of Regent because they'll traveling with friends this year who aren't as flush as they are? Are they aboard Seabourne because they spent 10 years saving for a dream cruise like the one they'd read about in a magazine? Are they sailing HAL instead of their usual Regent because of a particular itinerary that's important to them this year? Did frequent Carnival cruisers get an inheritance and decide to spend it on a Paul Gauguin cruise in the South Pacific, to see if it's really like it is in the movies?

[fizzy]

By this logic "flying" should be relegated to Economy Class. First Class on planes could be called "floating."

You may be on to something! How about the "floating" thing be used for the nebulous premium plus and "soaring" could be designating luxury/first class? This amusing thread reminds me of the story, "the emperor's new clothes".

[English Voyager]

Personally, if I want to know about the people and culture of a place, I won't be going there on a cruise. A one or two day stop some place isn't going to tell you much beyond the touristy stuff. As a travel nurse, I will take a contract there and stay for several months - then you really get to know the people, the culture, the interesting things that only locals know, and the beauty that you never see on a whirlwind port excursion.

 

A one or two day stop probably won't even scratch the surface of the tourist highlights.

 

I treat them as a 'taster' with the intention that if a place appeals I will return for a hotel based holiday.

[English Voyager]

You may be on to something! How about the "floating" thing be used for the nebulous premium plus and "soaring" could be designating luxury/first class? This amusing thread reminds me of the story, "the emperor's new clothes".

 

A few days ago I watched on TV a programme about the design, and launch, of Emirates First Class 'Suites'.

 

It appeared to me to be a pod which isolated the occupant(s) from other passengers, and for me would be somewhat depressing.

[Mallefiscent]

How about The Seven Voyages of Sinbad.

 

 

Can you wield a scimitar?

 

Not currently, but it would be a blast to learn. :)

[Travelcat2]

In my opinion, how much you are able to learn about the port you are visiting is up to the individual. If you go to a tourist attraction, walk around the port, do excursions (on luxury ships or mainstream), you see little of the way the people live.

 

There was just a post about Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, Malaysia on the Regent board. Some posters felt that that they could see some of the same things in Singapore - in a beautiful but false copy of the real thing. This is what some people want to see and I would not criticize them for that. We, on the other hand, are returning to Borneo to see more of what we already saw on a week long land vacation (and do not find Singapore that exciting).

 

When cruising, we eat in local restaurants (away from the port - I do research ahead of time), enjoy walking through local markets and stores and visit as many local places as we can in the hours that we are in port (taking local transportation such as tuk tuk's in Bangkok). We have had some wonderful adventures doing this. Obviously it is not the same as spending a week or more in a city but I feel that cruising is giving you a taste of many places. You can choose to return on your own - or not. We did almost 20 years of international traveling - staying in various places from 3 days to a a week. Now we are revisiting many places - seeing things that we see didn't before and enjoying every moment.

 

Again, In my opinion, doing both land and cruising vacations is the ideal scenario.

[wripro]

Is anyone else having as much fun as I am with this absolutely absurd thread? I keep thinking I'll avoid it but then I come back just to read the illogical posts that seem to flow without end....just like champagne on a "non cruise" ship.

[English Voyager]

Is anyone else having as much fun as I am with this absolutely absurd thread? I keep thinking I'll avoid it but then I come back just to read the illogical posts that seem to flow without end....just like champagne on a "non cruise" ship.

 

The thread that keeps on giving!

[Travelcat2]

Is anyone else having as much fun as I am with this absolutely absurd thread? I keep thinking I'll avoid it but then I come back just to read the illogical posts that seem to flow without end....just like champagne on a "non cruise" ship.

 

At least no one is being snarky which is why I have stayed and posted. I also find it interesting that someone finds the word "cruising" to mean something less that it is. In my opinion, changing a word doesn't change the experience.

[Azulann]

Is anyone else having as much fun as I am with this absolutely absurd thread? I keep thinking I'll avoid it but then I come back just to read the illogical posts that seem to flow without end....just like champagne on a "non cruise" ship.

 

Or Cava on a caravel.

I will be on a modern version of the voyage in 15 days.:cool:

[Travelcat2]

Or Cava on a caravel.

I will be on a modern version of the voyage in 15 days.:cool:

 

A luxury cruise??? If so, which cruise line?

[Azulann]

A luxury cruise??? If so, which cruise line?

 

I will be on the sailing entitled: West Indies to Iberia on the Viking Sea !

It will be a luxury voyage for me in so many ways.

I was smitten by the design of the Viking Ocean ships the minute I opened the brochure about a new cruise line over three years ago. All the al fresco dining, the glass walls throughout much of the common space, the views of sky and water at every turn, the two story explorer lounge ... all veranda staterooms etc.

Once booked , I received a curated bibliography from my TA to prepare for this voyage: two West Indies Islands, six sea day, Madeira, Morocco, Cadiz, Valencia and finally ,a favorite of mine, Barcelona.

Currently, I am reading On Morocco by Edith Wharton written in 1920.

Got my Columbus maps and copy of his own writing on my iPad.

Looking forward to the resident historian on board to speak about the age of exploration starting with the Vikings years before the" Admiral of the Ocean Sea "journeyed back to Spain in 1493 laden with new found treasures and tales of new lands.

15 more days and I am off to San Juan PR...

[Travelcat2]

Azulann, I hope that you like Morocco as much as we do. We have done two week long visits there (Marrakesh and Agadir) as well as stopping by cruise ship and had a great time.

 

Viking Ocean seems to be as close to being luxury as it gets. I hear so many positive things about them. Enjoy your cruise!

[Azulann]

Azulann, I hope that you like Morocco as much as we do. We have done two week long visits there (Marrakesh and Agadir) as well as stopping by cruise ship and had a great time.

 

 

 

Viking Ocean seems to be as close to being luxury as it gets. I hear so many positive things about them. Enjoy your cruise!

 

 

 

Thank you !

I am in final countdown , two weeks from today, I will be in San Juan.

Your trip to Morocco for two weeks sounded very in depth in those two areas.

 

 

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[English Voyager]

Azulann, I hope that you like Morocco as much as we do. We have done two week long visits there (Marrakesh and Agadir) as well as stopping by cruise ship and had a great time

 

No visit to " Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world" city?

 

The King Hassan ii Mosque is amazing.

[Texas Tillie]

No visit to " Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world" city?

 

The King Hassan ii Mosque is amazing.

 

The Hassan II Mosque is interesting but the restroom (coed) where they send the "infidel" women is interesting. ;)

[Toryhere]

A sweeping generalisation with which I disagree.

 

 

Do you really think that tour groups in, for example, St. Petersburg are solely from the luxury cruise lines?

 

Of course there are loads of tour groups all over Europe from mass market cruise ships. The people I was thinking of were the ones who go on those excursions and can’t tell you a thing about them.

Btw I would would have thought that someone who uses “English voyager” as a pseudonym would be highly open to the subtleties of language and the emphasis one is placing on “voyage” rather than cruise as a descriptor.:D

[Toryhere]

Lol. This whole thread is full of sweeping generations.

I was thinking about this thread today. I am up for an epic voyage - the Odyssey, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Christopher Columbus. Sure, some of us might die, but it could also be great fun.

 

Lord Tennyson probably had a lot those who holiday on the sea in mind when he wrote:

 

Come my friends it is not too late to seek a newer world

Push off and sitting well in order Smite the sounding furrows

For my purpose is to sail to the baths of the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;

It may be we will touch the Happy Isles and see the great Achilles who we knew.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides.

And tho’ we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are:

One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate,

But strong in will, to seek to find, and not to yield

[Toryhere]

"The foreign cultures and sights they enjoyed"??? They're kidding themselves if they think they really experienced any foreign culture from the few hours to days they might stay in one or two select foreign cities from a cruise ship, regardless of the size or luxury status. And that's the folly of your whole proposition -- thinking that a luxury cruise somehow provides a more socially or culturally elevated experience. It's all about the person, not the ship or line they are traveling on.

 

 

Whether or not someone chooses to go on a mainstream, premium, or luxury line doesn't (usually) demonstrate their interests, cultural attentiveness, or status. All it does is demonstrate a choice they made at the time --- and you have no way of knowing why they made that choice. It shows where they chose to spend some disposable income, that's all. Are they sailing NCL instead of Regent because they'll traveling with friends this year who aren't as flush as they are? Are they aboard Seabourne because they spent 10 years saving for a dream cruise like the one they'd read about in a magazine? Are they sailing HAL instead of their usual Regent because of a particular itinerary that's important to them this year? Did frequent Carnival cruisers get an inheritance and decide to spend it on a Paul Gauguin cruise in the South Pacific, to see if it's really like it is in the movies?

 

How interesting that you think that one cannot see any sights and culture in a short visit to a place. I wasn’t on Antigua for 5 minutes when I noticed the large number of small churches for such a small country. That is an element of the culture.

One can’t learn the ins and outs of a country’s culture in a short stay, but one can see some of that culture within a short time.

I have spoken to a lot of people of many different social backgrounds who have sailed on large ships, and the common theme is that they are there for the ship more than the destinations.

But we drift away from the main point which is that travelling on a mass market cruise ship and travelling on a small “luxury” ship are different activities, like walking and hiking are two different activities or glamming and camping are two different activities.

[English Voyager]

Btw I would would have thought that someone who uses “English voyager” as a pseudonym would be highly open to the subtleties of language and the emphasis one is placing on “voyage” rather than cruise as a descriptor.:D

 

There is the urban definition of the words cruise, and cruising.:D

[wripro]

Of course there are loads of tour groups all over Europe from mass market cruise ships. The people I was thinking of were the ones who go on those excursions and can’t tell you a thing about them.

Btw I would would have thought that someone who uses “English voyager” as a pseudonym would be highly open to the subtleties of language and the emphasis one is placing on “voyage” rather than cruise as a descriptor.:D

I hardly think English Voyager is any less subtle than Toryhere.

[Travelcat2]

I hardly think English Voyager is any less subtle than Toryhere.

 

Think we may as well bang our heads against a wall. I was hoping that an understanding could be reached acknowledging that usage of words, slang, etc. are, in some cases, completely different in the U.S. than in the U.K.

 

One example I like to give is "homey" and homely"

 

If you are in a residence in the U.K. and find their home comfortable and warm, you would use the term "homely". In the U.S. homely means unattractive in appearance. In the U.S. our cars do not have "boots" but do have "trunks".

[broberts]

Think we may as well bang our heads against a wall. I was hoping that an understanding could be reached acknowledging that usage of words, slang, etc. are, in some cases, completely different in the U.S. than in the U.K.

 

One example I like to give is "homey" and homely"

 

If you are in a residence in the U.K. and find their home comfortable and warm, you would use the term "homely". In the U.S. homely means unattractive in appearance. In the U.S. our cars do not have "boots" but do have "trunks".

 

Don't know if the term holds the same meaning as it did, but "knock you up" always amused me.

[Travelcat2]

Don't know if the term holds the same meaning as it did, but "knock you up" always amused me.

 

Yep - that is a great one. My DH used that term when he arrived in the U.S. many years ago. I can only imagine the reaction from the person he was speaking to.

[goldenrod]

There are going to be mega ships in the future that are the destination, they will be anchored outside of the 3 mile limit and hold 25,000 passengers or more.

They are going to be the resorts of the future, Las Vegas at sea, Sandals at Sea.

 

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