General Immersion Thread (merged)

[jbond]

...RCCL could not guarantee excursions in English though they said that there would be English "helpers"...

That was a problem on our transatlantic. We had several tours canceled because there was not enough English speaking passengers to participate.

I don't get this aversion some of us have to other peoples cultures.....

I don't have any aversion to other cultures, but having just spent two weeks vacation totally "immersed" on a cruiseship with another culture, I have no wish to do it again. They have their culture, I have mine. I get all the cultural insight I need by visiting the ports and seeing the sights. Like many things in life, you can have too much of a good thing and we certainly OD'd on Brazilian culture.

[Mydnite]

Well, after reading all of those i have pieced together what my buddy in Irchester has been talking about. He said he loves Chip Buddys, so basically that is a French Fry sandwich.?????..Ughhh...I love absolutely love England and have some close friends who live there but a French fry Sandwich!

 

 

That should read chip butty, these are not so much sandwhiches, but a soft round bread roll filled with 'chips' sort of chunky french fries, usually with salt and vinegar, and maybe ketchup. If can be made with slice of bread a bit like a sarnie (sandwhich) but not as good.

 

On the other hand a frech fry sandwich sound horrible!

[LAngle]

We have a large group of cruising friends booked, many already have air for this Feb. cruise, and now we find out the food and entertainment, EVERYTHING will be geared towards the Latin Americqan culture. I'm trying not to freak out, but would love to hear from an American who had experienced this, or is it a brand new concept? I'm not exactly a cruising newbie and I've never heard of it before.

 

I was on the planning committee who picked out the cruise so I'm in deep doo-doo! :rolleyes:

[Schooner Bar Girl]

I really don't see what the big deal is. Why would you be interested in doing an Asian itinerary is you didn't want to learn about the culture, try new food, and see different places. Personally if I was flying to Asia to board a ship than I would expect the majority of passengers to be locals and that the ship would choose to cater to the tastes of the majority of their passengers.

 

I highly doubt that the announcements won't be in English also. Has anyone not sailed on a Caribbean itinerary where there was a huge number of Spanish guests on board and heard the announcements made first in English and then followed by Spanish for these guests. I am sure that is what will happen on the Asian cruises also except that the announcements will be first made in the local language and then followed by English.

 

You obviously chose the Asian sailing because you wanted to visit these places so why not pick up a couple of language books now and learn a few words before you cruise. It only makes sense that RCI would cater to the culture of the majority or their guests.:rolleyes:

[cyukuk]

I begin to think that RCCL have a death wish !! why on earth are they making so many major changes to a proven popular format, "Immersion" follows "My Time" both extremely controversial changes.

 

As a Brit , after sampling other Lines I settled on RCCL many years ago because I liked it's format; I "immerse" myself in it's Americanism and expect to find it on each ship I join.

 

Having said that I do not believe that you have anything to fear from a "British Immersion" but I would be just as angry if my cruise suddenly became Greek or Asian !!!

 

Please do not ruin a long planned vacation by acting hastily, I do not believe a "British Immersion" will prove too painful; and if it is you can always sue RCCL !!!!

[uktraveller]

I've been following this whole "British Immersion" thing on another thread and here is my two penn'arth (that'll confuse the yanks lol)..

 

Personally I'm fine with the food options (well I would be I'm English). That doesn't worry me much at all.

 

Where I am slightly put out is on the need for a "British Immersion" cruise in the first place.

 

British Cruisers who want to cruise from Southampton and experience a "British ship/ambience" can already do so on P&O and Cunard as another poster pointed out.

 

We choose RCCI precisely because they are NOT a british line. I love the idea of meeting and cruising with other nationalities ,especially the yanks. As a (very very general) generalisation I find Europeans and Americans to be (broadly) more friendly than my fellow Brits (especially the English!!)

and that is the main reason we choose RCCI over other lines. The idea of sailing for 2 weeks with 95% fellow Brits doesn't exactly thrill me although before I get flamed by the south coast massive I'm still sure it would be a fantastic cruise (aren't they always).

 

I cannot help thinking though that this will all turn out to be a storm in a tea cup as I don't see how RCCI can change thier spots completely overnight. Hope not anyway..

 

If so next time it might be back to sailing from Barcelona / Venice etc where the passenger make up and ship's entertainment was much more cosmopolitan..

 

Absolutely agree with you 100%.

We also choose RCCL because we don't want a "British" cruise with 95% British cruisers. That's why our Med cruise this summer is Brilliance out of Barcelona rather than Independance out of Southampton. And that decision was made well before all this "immersion" stuff started.

If we want a holiday tailored to the British market, there are plenty of choices out there. Leave our RCCL cruises as they are!

[cruzeluver]

This is getting nuts.

 

Third time in two days that a poster finds out their cruise is now an "immersion" cruise!

 

If you look there are several other threads going about this same issue (different sailings then yours).

 

Good luck!!

[LAngle]

Yes, I've been reading as much as I can of the other threads, I'm looking for people who EXPERIENCED an Immersion sailing to get first hand advice, not guesses and assumptions. I hoping to not have to cancel and rebook all of our group, but it may come to that.:( YIKES. Maybe Princess has a nice southern route for us all.

[dathy]

okay rccl. we love your cruiseline, but why, oh why, are you doing this? if i cancel my cruise, i am losing almost $2500 with airfare and tours already booked. don't you care about your american travelers? what in the world is going on?

 

if you wanted to do immersion cruises, offer them and then let people decide whether or not they're interested. don't go changing this drastically AFTER people have booked.

 

thank you!!!

[uksimonusa]

okay rccl. we love your cruiseline, but why, oh why, are you doing this? if i cancel my cruise, i am losing almost $2500 with airfare and tours already booked. don't you care about your american travelers? what in the world is going on?

 

if you wanted to do immersion cruises, offer them and then let people decide whether or not they're interested. don't go changing this drastically AFTER people have booked.

 

thank you!!!

 

Couldn't agree more

[LonW]

How about more detail!!!:confused:

[Sea and Me]

Yes, I've been reading as much as I can of the other threads, I'm looking for people who EXPERIENCED an Immersion sailing to get first hand advice, not guesses and assumptions. I hoping to not have to cancel and rebook all of our group, but it may come to that.:( YIKES. Maybe Princess has a nice southern route for us all.

 

Princess has some great ports to visit and they also have longer cruises too. I don't think I would like a cruise that caters to one culture (food etc) variety is the spice of life:D Good luck with all of this. It would be different if you knew before hand but just for them to do it not good:(

 

Carol

[skandls]

I can see RCI wanting to save money - with fuel costs going up up up.

 

The 'immersion' menus will allow the company to order supplies that are lower in cost than the food items on the standard RCI menu. This may actually be an improvement in the quality of the meals as the menus can be based on local food stuffs. I was on Celebrity last year for a Baltics cruise. I was very disappointed with the food. Perhaps if some of the food was 'off menu' the quality would have been better.

 

The primary language is OK as long as there are announcements in English as well as the immersion language.

[Mydnite]

I do not think that they care about the UK travellers either, we ALL, that is UK, US and all other travellers, book RCCL for the experience we know we will get. For some people the immerision thing wil not matter as they are bookign for the ports, but for those of us that are choosing a cruise line for the ships themselves as well as the ports (and if we like RCL ships are more likey to be loyal) then they are chaging the experience, and the expectation of the experience.

 

Adding in extra things to match the desntions is understandable, but the impresison of the immersiosn thing is a major change.

[EmJakeBubbie]

I'm lost! what did I miss? what's ...immersion....?

[LonW]

Found out what it is. There is a bunch of threads about it on the board.:eek:

[coxswain]

Pigs feet yummy

 

 

Colcannon - potato's and cabbage yum yum

 

 

 

 

jj.....

[biker1972]

That RCI changed some or all of their Asian cruises to immersion cruises says something about their clients for these cruises. Yes, the OP did sign up for a "regular" cruise and did get informed about the change in time to do something if the "new" cruise was not for them. But consider, perhaps all of the Asian itineraries are being booked by non-Americans at a very high rate. It makes sense for RCI to cater to their clients and if over half are non-english speaking, you know what will happen. The same goes for Princess or any other line. But English will still be the main language on board simply because so many different languages are native to crew.

Last cruise I was on I had to see the doctor (Dominican Republic) had a South African nurse, a Romanian nurse, a room steward from India, a waiter from Romania and and assistant from China. Take cruise, get immersed in the world!:D

[Missus Makkem]

A NY/NJ immersion cruise on the Explorer should have

 

Tony Danza as the Captain

Fran Drescher as the cruise director

Penny Marshall as the social hostess

and......

Rosie as the chief warden of the brig.

 

:D :) :D :) :D

 

Any more ideas.......

 

Well all of that would be new to me as I have never heard of any of them.....but it wouldnt stop me from going;)

[oldandslow]

okay rccl. we love your cruiseline, but why, oh why, are you doing this? if i cancel my cruise, i am losing almost $2500 with airfare and tours already booked. don't you care about your american travelers? what in the world is going on?

 

if you wanted to do immersion cruises, offer them and then let people decide whether or not they're interested. don't go changing this drastically AFTER people have booked.

 

thank you!!!

 

Does anyone have the documentation from RCI outlining what, in their words, an immersion cruise is and what the differences are?

[Gixer]

Terri - I totally agree with your post, we are booked out of Southampton for a 14 night Med cruise which is now British Immersion, I am very proud to be British but if I wanted a British cruise experience I would have booked Ocean Village.

 

Lots of people book their cruises for the onboard experience and see the ship itself as the destination, that is certainly the case for me when we sail on the Indy, I doubt I will even bother to get off the boat in Portugal and Spain, been there done that too many times already, the ship itself is what appealed to me, I wanted, and thought I had booked, the full on RCCL experience. Shame that isnt what we will be getting.

 

If your reading this RCCL we beg you - please dont do this!!! We love your product exactly as it is or we wouldnt have bothered booking with you in the first place!!!!

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Okay, Im totally lost and I dont think it is a typical blonde moment lol

I havent been on CC's threads other than my roll calls for a few weeks and I am LOST as to what an immersion cruise is...

Can someone explain...??

[coxswain]

WHY are they doing it ????

 

 

 

jj....

[coxswain]

If you're watching please answer !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

jj......

[Gixer]

Okay, Im totally lost and I dont think it is a typical blonde moment lol

I havent been on CC's threads other than my roll calls for a few weeks and I am LOST as to what an immersion cruise is...

 

 

Can someone explain...??

 

Do a quick search on ''immersion cruise'' its a new thing and there have been quite a few threads about it over the last couple of days.