Help with husband who isn't into going to Europe.

[Mountaineer0313]

My husband and I are 36 and 41, respectively. Together, we have sailed the Caribbean once (he hated it, ruined the cruise, I'll save the hot weather cruises to do with my mom and sister), and Alaska twice (loved it, our favorite place to go). 

My problem? I want to go to Europe. Looking at sometime in 2024. My husband is not excited to go anywhere that might present a language barrier or "weird food" or could potentially be unsafe. I blame his parents for all of that, but that's an entirely different post for an entirely different message board. I'm thinking of a British Isles cruise for this reason, but there are many other places I'd like to see where English is not the first language. How easy is it to navigate a foreign country, your first time there, when you have almost zero knowledge of the language? I have no problem doing this and would be happy to Google Translate my way across Europe, but dealing with my husband in the process is a different story. My (large) family is also looking at taking a European cruise in 2025, most likely including Italy, Croatia, Greece, etc., so that would make it easier on me because someone else can deal with him. Would the British Isles be a good "first timer" European cruise destination for 2 people who have never been to Europe, one being a 36 year old man who is the equivalent to a 5 year old?

[MeHeartCruising]

29 minutes ago, Mountaineer0313 said:

My husband and I are 36 and 41, respectively. Together, we have sailed the Caribbean once (he hated it, ruined the cruise, I'll save the hot weather cruises to do with my mom and sister), and Alaska twice (loved it, our favorite place to go). 

My problem? I want to go to Europe. Looking at sometime in 2024. My husband is not excited to go anywhere that might present a language barrier or "weird food" or could potentially be unsafe. I blame his parents for all of that, but that's an entirely different post for an entirely different message board. I'm thinking of a British Isles cruise for this reason, but there are many other places I'd like to see where English is not the first language. How easy is it to navigate a foreign country, your first time there, when you have almost zero knowledge of the language? I have no problem doing this and would be happy to Google Translate my way across Europe, but dealing with my husband in the process is a different story. My (large) family is also looking at taking a European cruise in 2025, most likely including Italy, Croatia, Greece, etc., so that would make it easier on me because someone else can deal with him. Would the British Isles be a good "first timer" European cruise destination for 2 people who have never been to Europe, one being a 36 year old man who is the equivalent to a 5 year old?

 

You did make me chuckle.  The first thing that came to me, was to make him watch the 2-part "Everybody Loves Raymond" episodes where Ray does not want to go to Italy, but his wife makes him go.  He ends up glad he went.  It's an hysterical story.

 

A British Isles cruise would indeed lessen the impact of any potential language barrier.  And it's a great cruise too.  So you won't be cheating yourself on going.  

 

However, I have never found a language barrier to be a problem on any European cruise (including the port stops with independent travel).  In the tourist areas, the people almost always speak good English.  Often times better than you or I (especially in the Northern European countries).  They are very familiar with Americans and our knowledge of only one language and deal with it well. 

 

Finally, if he doesn't want to go.  I wouldn't force him if it's going to make your trip miserable.  Leave him behind and go with someone who wants to go.  Or go by yourself.  I travel solo 50% of the time.

Edited May 1, 2023 by MeHeartCruising

[Mountaineer0313]

2 minutes ago, MeHeartCruising said:

 

You did make me chuckle.  The first thing that came to me, was to make him watch the 2-part "Everybody Loves Raymond" episodes where Ray does not want to go to Italy, but his wife makes him go.  He ends up glad he went.  It's an hysterical story.

 

A British Isles cruise would indeed lessen the impact of any potential language barrier.  And it's a great cruise too.  So you won't be cheating yourself on going.  

 

However, I have never found a language barrier to be a problem on any European cruise (including the port stops with independent travel.  In the tourist areas, the people almost always speak good English.  Often times better than you or I (especially in the Northern European countries).  They are very familiar with Americans and our knowledge of only one language and deal with it well. 

 

Finally, if he doesn't want to go.  I wouldn't force him if it's going to make your trip miserable.  Leave him behind and go with someone who wants to go.  Or go by yourself.  I travel solo 50% of the time.

 

 

Great idea! I'll find that episode tonight lol.

 

I'm not worried about language barriers. I assume that in places like popular cruise ports, the vast majority of people know some English, or all of it, since there are so many English speaking people traveling through on cruises. And I've told him this. I've also told him that meat and potatoes are found everywhere and I promise I won't make him eat anything weird (again, I blame his parents for not making him try new things). 

I have thought about traveling alone, but I really do want him to stop being such a turd and just realize that there's a whole great beautiful world out there to enjoy, and we're lucky enough to still be young enough and able to afford to do it. I also do want to do the British Isles, or at least a cruise that starts in Southampton, as I love all things English and have always wanted to explore the areas in and around London. And I do think he'd enjoy driving on the  "wrong" side of the road.

[MeHeartCruising]

Just now, Mountaineer0313 said:

 

 

Great idea! I'll find that episode tonight lol.

 

I'm not worried about language barriers. I assume that in places like popular cruise ports, the vast majority of people know some English, or all of it, since there are so many English speaking people traveling through on cruises. And I've told him this. I've also told him that meat and potatoes are found everywhere and I promise I won't make him eat anything weird (again, I blame his parents for not making him try new things). 

I have thought about traveling alone, but I really do want him to stop being such a turd and just realize that there's a whole great beautiful world out there to enjoy, and we're lucky enough to still be young enough and able to afford to do it. I also do want to do the British Isles, or at least a cruise that starts in Southampton, as I love all things English and have always wanted to explore the areas in and around London. And I do think he'd enjoy driving on the  "wrong" side of the road.

 

For what it's worth.  I'm a man.  And I am a very picky eater.  I do not like fancy, foody, ethnic, stuff.  I also like very few vegetables.  No seafood, shell food, or fish. And I generally don't like to try many new things.  So when I travel, I tend to eat much like I do at home.  Meat.  Potatoes.  Sandwiches. Dessert.  Pasta.  Cheese.   I ate at a TGIFriday's in Prague.  A Chipotle in both Paris and London.  And McDonalds in many countries.  He can easily survive with no problems. 😀

[Ocean Mouse]

The most useful thing when in a non-english speaking country is to master the phrase "I don't speak (French/Spanish/Catalan/whatever). People in other countries are generally very pleased that that you made an effort and then speak excellent English 

[gumshoe958]

If hubby liked Alaska I’d highly recommend the Norwegian fjords. Several cruise lines sail there from Southampton so you could easily combine it with a stay in the UK. English is spoken excellently everywhere so language won’t be a problem, and he’ll easily find food he likes.

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by gumshoe958

[Mountaineer0313]

13 minutes ago, MeHeartCruising said:

 

 Meat.  Potatoes.  Sandwiches. Dessert.  Pasta.  Cheese.  

 

You just described his diet.

[Mountaineer0313]

8 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

If hubby liked Alaska I’d recommend the Norwegian fjords. Anthem (currently) sails there from Southampton in the summer so you could combine it with a stay in the UK. English is spoken everywhere so that won’t be a problem, and he’ll easily find food he likes.

 

Norwegian Fjords is also on my short list, and I actually was perusing the Anthem one today. We sailed Anthem to New England a few years ago and loved her. Unfortunately, the absolute only months we can go in 2024 is August (and that's pushing it) or September, and there's one in August but it sails from Copenhagen and not Southampton.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Mountaineer0313

[gumshoe958]

12 minutes ago, Mountaineer0313 said:

 

Norwegian Fjords is also on my short list, and I actually was perusing the Anthem one today. We sailed Anthem to New England a few years ago and loved her. Unfortunately, the absolute only months we can go in 2024 is August (and that's pushing it) or September, and there's one in August but it sails from Copenhagen and not Southampton.

You could consider P&O, who have several Norway cruises from Southampton in Sep 24. While part of Carnival, they are a British-based line and the vast majority of passengers will be British so food, entertainment etc will be targeted accordingly. Their prices are usually good and they’re a mass market line akin to Royal or NCL. Check out the Iona itineraries on Sep 7th or 14th.

[Mountaineer0313]

Just now, gumshoe958 said:

You could consider P&O, who have several Norway cruises from Southampton in Sep 24. While part of Carnival, they are a British-based line and the vast majority of passengers will be British so food, entertainment etc will be targeted accordingly. Their prices are usually good and they’re a mass market line akin to Royal or NCL. Check out the Iona itineraries on Sep 7th or 14th.

 

Thank you! I will check them out now. I also found Celebrity is sailing in August 2024 from Southampton, though I would rather go in September.

[gumshoe958]

6 minutes ago, Mountaineer0313 said:

 

Thank you! I will check them out now. I also found Celebrity is sailing in August 2024 from Southampton, though I would rather go in September.

Other options: Cunard’s brand new ship Queen Anne from Southampton on Sep 1st. For a higher end British experience (think ballroom dancing, afternoon tea with a harpist and mandatory dressing for dinner).

 

Or NCL have an interesting one-way 11 night itinerary from Southampton to Reykjavik on Sep 15th on Prima, taking in Norway & Iceland. Easy to fly from Reykjavik back to the UK, or even direct to the US east coast. Or stay on and do a 21 night B2B back to Southampton!

 

Or Princess have a spectacular 14 night Arctic Circle itinerary from Southampton on Caribbean Princess on Sep 24th. 
 

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by gumshoe958

[Mountaineer0313]

2 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

Other options: Cunard’s brand new ship Queen Anne from Southampton on Sep 1st. For a higher end British experience (think ballroom dancing, afternoon tea with a harpist and mandatory dressing for dinner).

 

Or NCL have an interesting one-way 11 night itinerary from Southampton to Reykjavik on Sep 15th on Prima, taking in Norway & Iceland. Easy to fly from Reykjavik back to the UK, or even direct to the US east coast.

 

 

 

Yes, one benefit besides the fact that I want to visit the UK, is that Pittsburgh flies direct to Heathrow in about 7 hours. P&O doesn't seem to be able to book online or do mock bookings? Is there a trick I'm missing to navigating their site?

[gumshoe958]

You can certainly book online here in the UK but their site may not allow bookings from the US.

 

I think P&O may use a third party agency for sales in the US - try PO Americas dot com.

[Globaliser]

2 hours ago, Mountaineer0313 said:

How easy is it to navigate a foreign country, your first time there, when you have almost zero knowledge of the language?

 

1 hour ago, MeHeartCruising said:

However, I have never found a language barrier to be a problem on any European cruise (including the port stops with independent travel).  In the tourist areas, the people almost always speak good English.  Often times better than you or I (especially in the Northern European countries).  They are very familiar with Americans and our knowledge of only one language and deal with it well.

 

Even Paris, where historically the natives were famously averse to speaking English, has had to change. Everyone in tourist-facing areas seems to speak at least passable English.

 

This is actually very little to do with American or British visitors. Parisians could easily continue to cope with being unfriendly to us and making us stumble over what little school-era French we could muster. What has happened over the past couple of decades is the huge increase in visitors from other countries around the world, who really couldn't be expected to speak any French, but who have very often acquired a decent amount of what is now Planet Earth's lingua franca: English. That's why even the French now have to speak English to visitors.

 

1 hour ago, Mountaineer0313 said:

1 hour ago, MeHeartCruising said:

Meat.  Potatoes.  Sandwiches. Dessert.  Pasta.  Cheese.

 

You just described his diet.

 

There's plenty of all of that all over Europe, anyway.

 

If you want weird food, try Glasgow. Anyone for deep-fried Mars bars?

[edinburgher]

I was also going to suggest either UK or Norway sailings but others have already done that.

 

I would though, add that, if you both loved Alaska, consider one which takes in both Norway AND Iceland, the latter totally unique and packed with natural wonders which are different from the Norwegian ones. Masses of  info and images  for both Norway and Iceland can be found online, read and you will be tempted.

 

As for his dietary preferences, and bearing in mind that he will be on a cruise ship, how much eating ashore would he be doing?  If he has a good breakfast, something when he comes back onboard mid or late afternoon, and dinner, surely at most he might only be looking for a snack ashore, or a very light lunch to keep him going until back onboard. Burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, pizza and omelettes spring to mind.

Edited May 1, 2023 by edinburgher

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, MeHeartCruising said:

 

For what it's worth.  I'm a man.  And I am a very picky eater.  I do not like fancy, foody, ethnic, stuff.  I also like very few vegetables.  No seafood, shell food, or fish. And I generally don't like to try many new things.  So when I travel, I tend to eat much like I do at home.  Meat.  Potatoes.  Sandwiches. Dessert.  Pasta.  Cheese.   I ate at a TGIFriday's in Prague.  A Chipotle in both Paris and London.  And McDonalds in many countries.  He can easily survive with no problems. 😀

🤣, at the reference to McDonald as it brings back a funny memory. We were in Paris on a land trip and DW cannot drink caffeine. So she ordered a decaf coffee at McDonalds, and was told "only normal".

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Mountaineer0313 said:

 

Norwegian Fjords is also on my short list, and I actually was perusing the Anthem one today. We sailed Anthem to New England a few years ago and loved her. Unfortunately, the absolute only months we can go in 2024 is August (and that's pushing it) or September, and there's one in August but it sails from Copenhagen and not Southampton.

If you are sailing in August and your husband cannot stand hot weather, that rules out much of Europe, including any Mediterranean cruise. Places like Italy and Turkey can be beastly hot in the summer.

 

We actually had temperatures in the high 80s in St. Petersburg, Russia on a Baltic cruise in August of 2007!

[Mountaineer0313]

29 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

If you are sailing in August and your husband cannot stand hot weather, that rules out much of Europe, including any Mediterranean cruise. Places like Italy and Turkey can be beastly hot in the summer.

 

We actually had temperatures in the high 80s in St. Petersburg, Russia on a Baltic cruise in August of 2007!

he doesn’t hate hot weather, per say, but he works out in it for 10+ hours all spring, summer, and fall here. But it’s not the hot weather, he just has no desire to go somewhere and sit on a beach. Which I don’t either, at all. That’s why Alaska is our favorite cruise destination. He could definitely be swayed by Norway and Iceland. 

[styme123]

1 hour ago, Mountaineer0313 said:

he doesn’t hate hot weather, per say, but he works out in it for 10+ hours all spring, summer, and fall here. But it’s not the hot weather, he just has no desire to go somewhere and sit on a beach. Which I don’t either, at all. That’s why Alaska is our favorite cruise destination. He could definitely be swayed by Norway and Iceland. 

Your husband sounds like mine. He would rather sit at home on the couch and watch TV, but I dragged him on the cruises anyway. He started out not wanting to go and we have probably been on 5 so far now. He's getting much more used to them and enjoys them now. We did British Isle on Princess last summer and he had a great time much to his surprise. He's a meat and potatoes guy who doesn't like "weird" food and we always found great pub type food when out on excursions. I think what kind of won him over was seeing so many iconic sights while there. The history was so interesting! It was a 12 day cruise with I think 10 ports. We were off the ship every port getting the most we could out of it. We are also now booked for Norway next summer. 

[Mountaineer0313]

1 minute ago, styme123 said:

Your husband sounds like mine. He would rather sit at home on the couch and watch TV, but I dragged him on the cruises anyway. He started out not wanting to go and we have probably been on 5 so far now. He's getting much more used to them and enjoys them now. We did British Isle on Princess last summer and he had a great time much to his surprise. He's a meat and potatoes guy who doesn't like "weird" food and we always found great pub type food when out on excursions. I think what kind of won him over was seeing so many iconic sights while there. The history was so interesting! It was a 12 day cruise with I think 10 ports. We were off the ship every port getting the most we could out of it. We are also now booked for Norway next summer. 

Yes! The first cruise I made him go on was a Caribbean. Honduras, Belize, Mexico. He hated it. Which made me hate it. It took a few years, but I convinced him to get back on a ship and we did Alaska in 2018. He said, and I quote “I don’t know how much we paid for this, but it was worth every penny”. (It was a lot of pennies, he has no clue). 
Then we did Canada and New England in 2019, which was also fantastic, and Alaska again last year, which may have been even better than the first time if that’s possible. 
And as a bonus, he’s also figured out he actually loves being on a cruise ship. Food everywhere, room service breakfast, a drink around every corner. He gets so excited to fill out his room service card and hang it on the door every night 😂

[styme123]

4 hours ago, Mountaineer0313 said:

Yes! The first cruise I made him go on was a Caribbean. Honduras, Belize, Mexico. He hated it. Which made me hate it. It took a few years, but I convinced him to get back on a ship and we did Alaska in 2018. He said, and I quote “I don’t know how much we paid for this, but it was worth every penny”. (It was a lot of pennies, he has no clue). 
Then we did Canada and New England in 2019, which was also fantastic, and Alaska again last year, which may have been even better than the first time if that’s possible. 
And as a bonus, he’s also figured out he actually loves being on a cruise ship. Food everywhere, room service breakfast, a drink around every corner. He gets so excited to fill out his room service card and hang it on the door every night 😂

We did Alaska for our first one. Take him to the British Isles he'll love it! It's a lot of planning with all the ports but it's worth it!

[wowzz]

10 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

You can certainly book online here in the UK but their site may not allow bookings from the US.

 

I think P&O may use a third party agency for sales in the US - try PO Americas dot com.

You can only book P&O (UK) cruises in the US through one specific,  large, well known TA. 

Unfortunately due to the forum rules I cannot tell you who they are, or even what their initials are.

[Harters]

11 hours ago, Globaliser said:

Everyone in tourist-facing areas seems to speak at least passable English.

I think that this is generally true across most of Europe for people in the tourist industry. Many people will have learned English as a second language whilst they were at school.

 

It's not always the case, of course. I visit Spain annually, staying in a resort area, but know restaurants there which only have a menu in Spanish and the staff don't speak English. Away from tourist areas, in Spain & France (which I know best), it's fairly unlikely that you will come across anyone who will speak English. 

 

But, yes, do think about a British Isles cruise. So many North Americans visit London and never venture out to see to see where most of us live. It's the same as though a Briton had visited the theme park areas of Florida and say they've visited the States.

 

 

[Mountaineer0313]

6 hours ago, styme123 said:

We did Alaska for our first one. Take him to the British Isles he'll love it! It's a lot of planning with all the ports but it's worth it!

You are clearly smarter than me on how to handle husbands 😂 

Alaska should’ve been our first. 

[styme123]

3 minutes ago, Mountaineer0313 said:

You are clearly smarter than me on how to handle husbands 😂 

Alaska should’ve been our first. 

Lol no just a lot of practice after almost 39 years.😂