Would you cruise with a nationality specialist line that wasn't your own?

[Velvetwater]

There was a thread not long ago about most diverse lines and it got me thinking about how many country specific lines have people on board not from that country. We are cruising with P&O Oz as Brits and looking forward to it but wonder how many non-Aussies will be with us.

 

Would you sail on a line that catered mainly for a certain country that wasn't your own?

 

Ones I can think of are:

 

AIDA (Germany)

Star cruises (Asia)

P&O UK

Thomson/Marella (UK)

P&O Australia

TUI cruises (Germany)

Costa (to some extent)

 

 

...theres also countless smaller lines/ships that do this too but many to mention.

[Marian Paroo]

Absolutely- the only Israeli cruise line sucks!

[Velvetwater]

Absolutely- the only Israeli cruise line sucks!

 

Didn't know there was one! I knew there was a small Cyprus cruise line near you but thats it. :)

[Marian Paroo]

Didn't know there was one! I knew there was a small Cyprus cruise line near you but thats it. :)

 

 

 

Tell me about this Cyprus line— could be cool! Republic of Cyprus, I hope, not the other half.

[Floridiana]

I have sailed with TUI cruises, Hapag-Lloyd, and Ponant. It helps to speak the language of most other passengers. H-L and Ponant have cruises for international guests. TUI is marketed for German speakers. If you understand nothing, it might not be comfortable.

[Floridiana]

Absolutely- the only Israeli cruise line sucks!

 

Navy?

[Marian Paroo]

Lol!!!! It’s called Mano

[Got2Cruise]

I wouldn’t only because I’m only fluent in English.

[CanadaDeb]

Absolutely!!! I love meeting people from other countries, it's always interesting. :)

[Floridiana]

I wouldn’t only because I’m only fluent in English.

 

How about British English and Australian English? :cool:

[davecttr]

How about British English and Australian English? :cool:

Easier than British English and USA English ;p

[Floridiana]

Let's add Indian English. :D

[klfrodo]

TUI is marketed for German speakers. If you understand nothing, it might not be comfortable.

 

Back in the day, the more the beer flowed, the better my German language skills became. ;p

[sloopsailor]

How about British English and Australian English? :cool:

 

No problem with either of them. However, Scottish English is another matter entirely! ;p

 

One of my favorite comedy skits was Robin Williams explaining how the Scots invented golf, including how difficult it is for some of us to understand their version of English. (Beware, very off-color language)

 

Edited May 6, 2018 by sloopsailor

[Velvetwater]

Tell me about this Cyprus line— could be cool! Republic of Cyprus, I hope, not the other half.

 

Haha yes

 

Celestyl cruises. Only reason I know about them is because of a friend's facebook (who is Greek). :)

[Marian Paroo]

Well, if a Greek guy mentions in it is certainly the republic of Cyprus!

[Barrheadlass]

Yes I would! Have sailed with Hurtigruten twice, would love to try MSC,

And a couple of others.

[jocap]

Tell me about this Cyprus line— could be cool! Republic of Cyprus, I hope, not the other half.

As mentioned, Celestyal is Cypriot, and used to be called Louis Cruises... mainly dock in Piraeus. It's moved more upmarket than when we travelled with them, but we loved every minute- you can visit the smaller Greek islands, sometimes two a day.

There was an English speaking hostess on board, who arranged tours.

[martincath]

Hmmmm - every cruise we've taken has been with a 'US specialist' so my answer is 'yes, absolutely!'

 

None of the staff were properly trained to add 'eh?' to the end of sentences or to put gravy and cheese on the fries, and the selection of Canadian whiskies and beers was almost non-existent... even on the one cruise which actually had a significant majority of Canadians! It's simply outrageous;-)

[Bookish Angel]

Sure, assuming it sailed to a place I wanted to go.

 

I have found that if you learn a few key phrases in other languages and are friendly and respectful to other cultures, people give you credit that you are trying and will glady help fill in the blanks.

[Velvetwater]

Hmmmm - every cruise we've taken has been with a 'US specialist' so my answer is 'yes, absolutely!'

 

None of the staff were properly trained to add 'eh?' to the end of sentences or to put gravy and cheese on the fries, and the selection of Canadian whiskies and beers was almost non-existent... even on the one cruise which actually had a significant majority of Canadians! It's simply outrageous;-)

 

I don't think the major US based lines are US specialist as they seem to having booking offices all over the world and seek cruisers from all over the world (HAL, Princess, Carnival, Disney, Royal, Celebrity, NCL,Cunard etc). In fact it seems Royal have overtaken P&O UK in popularity over here.

 

Carnival probably comes closest on that list as they just concentrate on US and Oz markets and sort of leave Costa to sort out Europe.

 

I am sure there are smaller US based lines that just target Americans but I don't know of their names.

[kctwinmommy]

The first cruise we took was on MSC, in 2002. I don't think they were as big as they are now with cruises. The ship was a much older one, they had bought it from another line I'm pretty sure. It was the last Caribbean cruise of the season, so there were probably like 4-500 passengers that were doing B2B cruises, and sailing on it for the trans-Atlantic back to Italy. I would say easily 50% of the passengers were from various European countries. They would do the announcements in 6 languages every day! The cruise director did them, and it was fascinating to watch her on the Lido deck, when people would come up to talk to her or ask questions, she could switch between these languages so easily, it was neat.

 

Now, I honestly prefer our other cruises because they're a little more laid back. MSC dining was much more formal every night, as was the food. That's just not my thing. But being a smaller ship though, we really got to talk to people and meet many others. We knew many of the crew. It was also a 12 day cruise, so it was long! Oh, and I would say a majority of the crew were European as well. We did enjoy many of the shows for sure! They were definitely more adult-themed! LOL! Not many kids on the cruise to begin with.

 

So I just looked it up, to see it's size, and there were were 1000 passengers and about 500 crew. Also I don't think I realized it, but the ship we were on (the Melody) was attacked by Somali pirates in 2009! The passengers fought back though and they weren't able to board the ship.

[Nebr.cruiser]

Sure, depending....if a cruise line truly was non-English speaking it would make it difficult, but I guess that is what other nationalities go through on American-style cruise lines, although many non-Americans are much more apt to speak several languages than we are.

 

I might be reluctant if most of the other cruisers were from an extremely different culture that would take major adjustment, if there is such a cruise line.

 

Otherwise, I think it would be interesting and not boring!

[zqvol]

Why would you exclude a line just because it wasn't one from your "home" country. My only concern would be language, but truthfully most of the western world speak English, even if it isn't the primary language. .

[Hlitner]

A fascinating question. We have cruised on 14 lines over about 43 years of extensive cruising. All but one have been on lines where English is the predominate language. The one exception was when we went on a 20 passenger yacht cruise where we had 10 Dutch, 8 Germans, 2 Americans (us) and a Greek speaking crew. That was quite an adventure :).

 

Although we would consider cruising on a line that had another predominate language (we have been considering a cruise on the French speaking Ponent) it is not what we would recommend for most travelers. A ship can become a pretty lonely place if few other passengers speak your language and you cannot communicate in their language.

 

Hank