Passenger mix on 5-night Caribbean

[michelethelibrarian]

Hi all,

 

Please forgive me if this question has been asked recently, but I ran a few searches and couldn't locate the answer.

 

I've sailed several different mainstream lines and enjoyed each one, although Carnival was a bit loud for my tastes (3:30am hallway screaming every night). Anyway, a friend of mine is joining us for our upcoming Dec. cruise and she's an absolute newbie. I wanted to let her know what to expect about passenger mix, nightlife, etc. This is my first time on X.

 

I was thinking it'd be a little more "youthful" or "partying" since it's 1) a shorter cruise 2) the Caribbean and 3) dirt cheap ($299 for inside). We're two couples in our mid-30's. I'm hoping this cruise will be fun, but not so wild that we have trouble sleeping! :o

 

Thanks in advance for comments/opinions!

[jerseygirl3]

We're going on the April 2 sailing of the Century and I'm wondering the same thing. I've grown weary of the "riff raff" that we've encountered on Carnival lately, so I hope the 5 nighter on Celebrity doesn't turn out to be the same. Our cruise isn't "dirt cheap" since we're going during Easter break, but it's the first cruise for my nieces and nephew and I want them to have a great experience. I keep telling my brother and SIL (who cruised before on Carnival and weren't all the impressed) that this will be more upscale, so I'm hoping I'm right. A little more partying is fine, but I just hope it's not like our February cruise on the Carnival Liberty. I was so sick of seeing people acting so "white trash." I used to enjoy Carnival, but I don't think it's the cruiseline for us anymore.

[michelethelibrarian]

The noisy neighbors of mine on Carnival appeared to be relatively wealthy college students, so the "white trash" comment sort of raises my hackles, especially since I'm southern and come from poverty myself.

 

I don't really know what "riff raff" means. You might think me and my friends are "riff raff". They have tattoos and speak with southern accents.

 

I've seen sloppy drunk people on every cruise I've been on and don't mind that unless they scream in the hallways or create other disturbances.

[slotaddict]

I shouldn;t be to bad in December, I was on the Zenith for a 5 nighter in January and no problems whatsoever. Spring Break is another matter entirely.

[4 cruisers]

Michele, are you just wondering if we the ship will be full of we 50 year olds (who party with the rest of them:o) ? Hey, none of us like noisy neighbors on any cruise nor do we like a ship where the disco has closed at 11:00! We're going on the Century 5 day that ends on Thanksgiving Day. The good thing about we "older" cruisers is that we bring our older teens to 20 somethings which keep things lively!

 

Certainly when one poster said "white trash" it isn't in reference to where someone "came from!" It's a description of ones' current mis-behavior! As to tatoos, here in southern Cal, those who don't have them are totally in the minority! I am positive no one meant offense!

 

Have fun with the boards here and don't be too serious! When you meet a group of CC's on a cruise, it is usually a great mix of people from all walks of life with different life styles. It's part of the fun of cruising! I'd love to meet you and your friends but hope our age wouldn't put a damper on your fun~;)

[michelethelibrarian]

Michele, are you just wondering if we the ship will be full of we 50 year olds (who party with the rest of them:o) ? Hey, none of us like noisy neighbors on any cruise nor do we like a ship where the disco has closed at 11:00! We're going on the Century 5 day that ends on Thanksgiving Day. The good thing about we "older" cruisers is that we bring our older teens to 20 somethings which keep things lively!

 

Certainly when one poster said "white trash" it isn't in reference to where someone "came from!" It's a description of ones' current mis-behavior! As to tatoos, here in southern Cal, those who don't have them are totally in the minority! I am positive no one meant offense!

 

Have fun with the boards here and don't be too serious! When you meet a group of CC's on a cruise, it is usually a great mix of people from all walks of life with different life styles. It's part of the fun of cruising! I'd love to meet you and your friends but hope our age wouldn't put a damper on your fun~;)

 

I appreciate your comments and feel a bit better because of them. I realize all ages of people "party" and was hoping for a good mix to insure some balance between pretentious and "screamers"- ha ha! Thanks a lot for the info.

 

Someone *must* enjoy the screamers or Carnival wouldn't be doing so well. I just read another review of someone recently on the Victory and they described the exact situation we had, exact same non-response from the front desk, etc. The only difference was this reviewer's neighbors were Hispanic, so it's not just "white trash" who make noise.

 

It's just never a good idea to bring race or class into a discussion about obnoxious behavior, especially in mixed company like a public board. I don't think that makes me too serious or too sensitive or whatever. If you or JerseyGirl didn't realize people take offense at racially-charged words, then it's useful to know, I think. I worked very heard to make it out of the trailer park and feel very lucky to be where I am. Some people simply don't realize how hurtful their words are.

 

Thanks again and take care!

[lkb125]

Hi all,

 

Please forgive me if this question has been asked recently, but I ran a few searches and couldn't locate the answer.

 

I've sailed several different mainstream lines and enjoyed each one, although Carnival was a bit loud for my tastes (3:30am hallway screaming every night). Anyway, a friend of mine is joining us for our upcoming Dec. cruise and she's an absolute newbie. I wanted to let her know what to expect about passenger mix, nightlife, etc. This is my first time on X.

 

I was thinking it'd be a little more "youthful" or "partying" since it's 1) a shorter cruise 2) the Caribbean and 3) dirt cheap ($299 for inside). We're two couples in our mid-30's. I'm hoping this cruise will be fun, but not so wild that we have trouble sleeping! :o

 

Thanks in advance for comments/opinions!

I think you will find a younger crowd on a 5 day cruise. Have a great time Lorelle

[newmexicoNita]

Of course you will find a slightly younger crowd on shorter cruises, same as 10 day or longer cruises bring out those 60 plusers. We were on the Zenith 5 day cruise mid Dec last year and it was a total mix of ages; there were some families with young kids, and some seniors but I would guess the mid age range was in the 40-50 group and certainly not party people. It was our granddaughters wedding, she had several of her friends sailing with us,all in their early 20s and they said things were pretty calm after about 11pm. Now for the poster who is cruising early April, that will be a different situation. The good news; most of the college kids will have spring break a couple of weeks before that: the bad; Easter is April 6th and more and more schools are going back to the traditional spring break, just prior to or the week after Easter. We were on a cruise last April (started the day before Easter) there were over 400 kids on the ship.

 

NMnita

[johninwpa]

Took a 5 day on Zenith last March, in the middle of Spring Break. Got nervous when we boarded and the first 50 pax were college age. The cruise was a lot livelier than all our other CElebrity cruises. But everyone was well-behaved. Fun to watch a group from Cornell studying every afternoon for a few hours. College students even complied with the evening dress better than others. In Dec. think you will have a good mix of ages.

[4 cruisers]

We're booked on a cruise that goes the Friday before Easter, through the week after and it is not filling up at all! It's out of San Diego (Mercury). I think Spring breaks are so broken up now, you really don't know what to do to avoid rowdy crowds!

 

Probably a line like Celebrity would have a better mix with just enough younger lively guests to keep things hopping without the other element (who I won't even attempt to describe at this point):rolleyes: even on a shorter cruise such as the Century's.

[jerseygirl3]

The noisy neighbors of mine on Carnival appeared to be relatively wealthy college students, so the "white trash" comment sort of raises my hackles, especially since I'm southern and come from poverty myself.

 

I don't really know what "riff raff" means. You might think me and my friends are "riff raff". They have tattoos and speak with southern accents.

 

I've seen sloppy drunk people on every cruise I've been on and don't mind that unless they scream in the hallways or create other disturbances.

 

Michel, I'm sorry if I offended you or anyone. That wasn't my intention. The term "white trash" doesn't carry any racial significance (in my mind, anyway). I'm trying to figure out how to exactly rephrase my description of the people that were in the majority on our Carnival Liberty cruise. Tattoos don't bother me; I don't have any, but my son does. I don't judge a person by their outward appearance (unless they are dirty, because you can be poor and still be clean), but I do judge people by their behavior. The younger kids on this cruise were somewhat out of control, but their parents were waaaaaaaaaay out of control. Let me put it to you this way so you can get an idea of the kind of crowd that was on this particular sailing. This was a brand new ship, had only been in service a couple of months, and during the week two areas (one by the mid-ship Lido deck and one by the aft pool) had broken windows from the rowdy crowd. Both areas had to be cordoned off with yellow "crime scene" tape. Imagine being on a cruise and having a crowd that had to break out into fights that caused two broken windows on two different occasions. As far as riff raff, again, that pertains to the low life behavior of people. They are people who seem to possess no socially redeeming qualities. My parent's were awaked every evening at 4 a.m. by adults (not teens) yelling and screaming down the hallways. That is just plain inconsiderate, but didn't surprise me coming from this group.

 

I don't mean to sound like a snob, because I grew up very blue collar. But my parents taught us how to behave and we've passed that on to our children.

 

Many of the people we've been encountering lately on our Carnival cruises (and let me restate, I used to really enjoy Carnival) have been loud, obnoxious, ill-mannered people. Another example; instead of catching the waiter's eye when they needed something at dinner in the formal dining room, one group at the table next to us would whistle to get her attention. They also kept their baseball caps on throughout dinner. We've got four boys and I never allowed them to keep their baseball caps on during dinner. While you sat around the pool, every other word was the "F" word. These people just had no class, nor did they possess any manners. Rather than holding a door open for the next person, they'd let it slam shut. If I held a door for a person, I rarely heard a "thank you." These are just common manners. Is this exclusive to Carnival per se? I'm not sure, but that cruise seemed to attract the most ignorant people I've ever encountered on any cruise.

 

Now I will say that particular cruise was "dirt cheap." But as my mother always told us, "you get what you pay for." I'm just hoping the shorter, less expensive Celebrity cruise doesn't bring out the "riff raff."

[ECCruise]

JerseyGirl,

Unfortunately, you are going to run the risk of this type of activity on every cruise...including Celebrity. The only times we have ever been awakened by drunks (we have cruised Celebrity 7x, Carnival 5x, NCL 5x, etc.) has been twice...once on Celebrity Zenith and once on Celebrity Horizon. Never on any of the other cruises. On Zenith this spring we saw: Casual nights...LOTS of jeans. Semi formal night....upgraded to Khakis. Formal nights...upgraded to jacket over t-shirts. Not everyone. of course, or even a majority, but enough to be noticable.

 

Its an unfortunate fact of life...times have changed. It has not stopped us from cruising (we have 3 X cruises booked plus others) but we've learned NOT to be surprised!

[michelethelibrarian]

OK, this is purely for edification purposes and I understand no one meant to offend.

From the Online Slang Dictionary: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wrader/slang/

white trash n 1. poor people that do not attempt to hide their lack of money. They live in filth (e.g. rusting cars and old kitchen appliances fill the front yard,) they are poorly educated, they don't care about their appearance (e.g. they are poorly groomed and overweight, wear dirty and tattered clothes,) et cetera. Though "white trash" can live anywhere, they are indigenous to the midwestern and southern United States. ("90% of my school is white trash.") Submitted by Sarah Cahill, Ohio, 15-03-1998.

From the Urban Dictionary: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=white+trash

There are 63 definitions here, most centering on low income level and Caucasian race.

When referring to obnoxious cruise passengers, I really do think we can find a better term than “white trash” since it implies poverty and the vast majority of troubled passengers are middle class at the very least, and often times upper class. It also implies only Caucasian passengers are problems, and that is also incorrect.

I strongly believe this lack of consideration knows no boundaries and most of us will encounter this type of behavior many public places these days. I guess people get more out-of-hand when you throw in a bunch of alcohol and put them in a near-fantasy world of a cruise ship. I echo your concerns and wish the cruise lines would do a better job of policing this kind of behavior. Hallways should be quiet zones all day and night, I think. Busting windows? They should be thrown in a cell until the next port and tossed from the ship!

I also wanted to say that although I experienced an incident on Carnival, it did not ruin my vacation. I actually thought the music entertainment was far better than any other cruise we’ve been on, the food was great, and we enjoyed the excursions very much. But, besides the 3AM screamers in the hall, we also saw a huge family (who appeared well-groomed and prosperous) barge into the middle of a jazz performance in the Ionian Lounge, place their drinks on the grand piano and line up for a group photo! Eek!

On my other cruises I’ve witnessed LOTS of “spoiled rich people” (for lack of a better term) be overly demanding with crew, knock other people out of the way, and simply act as if they were the only ones that mattered. It doesn’t take money to act classy and when we use terms like “white trash” it continues to demonize the poor in ways I’m sure we don’t intend.

Thanks so much for all your comments and for keeping this discussion civil. We’re doing better than most these days!

[4 cruisers]

Michele, you really need to chill here. "Spoiled rich people" isn't exactly very nice either, for that matter.

[newmexicoNita]

Michel, I'm sorry if I offended you or anyone. That wasn't my intention. The term "white trash" doesn't carry any racial significance (in my mind, anyway). I'm trying to figure out how to exactly rephrase my description of the people that were in the majority on our Carnival Liberty cruise. Tattoos don't bother me; I don't have any, but my son does. I don't judge a person by their outward appearance (unless they are dirty, because you can be poor and still be clean), but I do judge people by their behavior. The younger kids on this cruise were somewhat out of control, but their parents were waaaaaaaaaay out of control. Let me put it to you this way so you can get an idea of the kind of crowd that was on this particular sailing. This was a brand new ship, had only been in service a couple of months, and during the week two areas (one by the mid-ship Lido deck and one by the aft pool) had broken windows from the rowdy crowd. Both areas had to be cordoned off with yellow "crime scene" tape. Imagine being on a cruise and having a crowd that had to break out into fights that caused two broken windows on two different occasions. As far as riff raff, again, that pertains to the low life behavior of people. They are people who seem to possess no socially redeeming qualities. My parent's were awaked every evening at 4 a.m. by adults (not teens) yelling and screaming down the hallways. That is just plain inconsiderate, but didn't surprise me coming from this group.

 

I don't mean to sound like a snob, because I grew up very blue collar. But my parents taught us how to behave and we've passed that on to our children.

 

Many of the people we've been encountering lately on our Carnival cruises (and let me restate, I used to really enjoy Carnival) have been loud, obnoxious, ill-mannered people. Another example; instead of catching the waiter's eye when they needed something at dinner in the formal dining room, one group at the table next to us would whistle to get her attention. They also kept their baseball caps on throughout dinner. We've got four boys and I never allowed them to keep their baseball caps on during dinner. While you sat around the pool, every other word was the "F" word. These people just had no class, nor did they possess any manners. Rather than holding a door open for the next person, they'd let it slam shut. If I held a door for a person, I rarely heard a "thank you." These are just common manners. Is this exclusive to Carnival per se? I'm not sure, but that cruise seemed to attract the most ignorant people I've ever encountered on any cruise.

 

Now I will say that particular cruise was "dirt cheap." But as my mother always told us, "you get what you pay for." I'm just hoping the shorter, less expensive Celebrity cruise doesn't bring out the "riff raff."

Michele, I am glad you are teaching your boys manners and how to act. Too many parents just do not do this in todays world; That being said, with the changing times you are going to see less polish and more wild behaviour on all lines. Probably HAL would be the exception; only because they still attract a more subdued crowd. NMNita

[caviargal]

I'm trying to figure out how to exactly rephrase my description of the people that were in the majority on our Carnival Liberty cruise.

Many of the people we've been encountering lately on our Carnival cruises have been loud, obnoxious, ill-mannered people... Is this exclusive to Carnival per se? I'm not sure, but that cruise seemed to attract the most ignorant people I've ever encountered on any cruise.

"

 

What I have encountered on each of my three Carnival cruises is much as you describe.

 

I saw pajamas worn at breakfast in the lido along with fuzzy slippers, barechested men in wet bathing suits dripping water through the lobby, drunks who used my desk (set up for my onboard group) to discard uneaten ice cream cones, cigarette butts, etc, dinner attire of cut offs, tanks and ball caps, pushing and shoving in the elevators., loud and foul language. Have I witnessed this on other cruises? Yes, but it has been a rare occurence.

 

We also had a racial incident onboard where one of the young men in my group was sent to the Medical Center for stitches in his head when he was hurt playing basketball. He told me this was an accident but I was later called to the Pursers Desk and informed that a passenger who observed the incident came forward and filed a statement that the incident was racially motivated and purposeful.

 

All in all, it was an atmosphere that I was very happy to leave and would never subject myself to again.

[michelethelibrarian]

Michele, you really need to chill here. "Spoiled rich people" isn't exactly very nice either, for that matter.

 

I was just commending everyone on the civil discussion and then you tell me to chill. Maybe you need to follow your own advice.

[momofmeg]

JerseyGirl,

Unfortunately, you are going to run the risk of this type of activity on every cruise...including Celebrity. The only times we have ever been awakened by drunks (we have cruised Celebrity 7x, Carnival 5x, NCL 5x, etc.) has been twice...once on Celebrity Zenith and once on Celebrity Horizon. Never on any of the other cruises. On Zenith this spring we saw: Casual nights...LOTS of jeans. Semi formal night....upgraded to Khakis. Formal nights...upgraded to jacket over t-shirts. Not everyone. of course, or even a majority, but enough to be noticable.

 

Its an unfortunate fact of life...times have changed. It has not stopped us from cruising (we have 3 X cruises booked plus others) but we've learned NOT to be surprised!

 

My worst drunk PAX experiences were both 3 day weekend mini cruises. Two on Sovereign of the Seas and one on Carnival Miracle. I also had a negative drunk experience of my 7 day Mariner of the seas cruise.

 

Everyone tells you Carnival is the worst but I only experienced it one cruise out of the 4 times I have cruised Carnival. I also feel it is who happens to book your cruise- so it is a crapshoot- who your fellow PAX will be.

 

We did a 5 day Celebrity Zenith cruise back in Feb. and I loved that it seemed everyone dressed so much nicer then Royal Caribbean or Carnival and I don't mean "designer wear" or expensive clothing but proper clothing. People dressed appropriately for dinner and to suggested code. I don't give a flip whether a person's clothing comes from Walmart or Talbots-I just think they should dress as suggested.

 

That is why I was so surprised by the one post who did a 7 day Zenith Bermuda cruise recently and what they said about flips flops and shorts in the dinningroom even on formal night.