General Immersion Thread (merged)

[dramaqueen4lyfe]

[quote name='cruisenfever']So that's what our TA cruise on Splendour from Santos to Lisbon on April 6 was called................an immersion of 1500 Brazilians!!:D[/quote]

[quote name='jbond']Hi Patti, now we know what it was and at least some folks are finding out ahead of time. Do you think all our complaints to RCI might have influenced them to announce ahead of time? I don't think we would have canceled, but it would definitely affect our decision if we were just booking.[/quote]

[quote name='cruisenfever']I think you might have hit on something jb. It sure would have been nice to have known what the "cultural" mix was going to be on our cruise so that we were prepared or could have made a decision on whether to remain on the ship or not.

If it was our complaints that influenced RCI to now inform people...............then we did accomplish something.

Guess everyone learns from mistakes made.[/quote]

[B][COLOR=blue]I have to weigh in here and agree with Patti and Ray. If what we experienced on Splendour was "Immersion" then I'd cut and run now. It's unfortunate that RCCL announced this change after people had booked their cruise. I hope that it has occured before final payment, not like the major itinerary change that we experienced after final payment which was announced to us in the form of cx'd excursions. We did however enjoy the alternative ports very much.[/COLOR][/B]

[CM10184]

I am soooo confused about everything Im reading about these immersion cruises can someone please explain.
Im sailing from Barcelona on 6th Sep 08 for 1 week on Voyager of the seas. What will it be like onboard? language/food etc...
thank you

[EmJakeBubbie]

can someone kindly point me to the approved definition of [I]immersion cruising?[/I] I'm wondering: does this mean the crew will be reflective of the port of embark or debarkation? does this mean one cultural food choice in addition to standard offered fare? or will be the menu be immersion food w/only one standard offer??????
I've just discovered "immersion" today.

The only immersion I desire is to be i[I]mmersed into comfort[/I] whilst cruising:D

thank you.

[gooselover]

If you read the NUMEROUS other threads, from what we are gathering, any ship that leaves a port that is NOT in America and filled with passengers that ARE from that area, the ship will be catering to them...i.e., language, food, entertainment, etc. In other words, let's say that you have a cruise that leaves Asia...your cruise and most of the passengers will be geared towards Asia...food, language, entertainment, culture, etc. etc., because most of the passengers will be Asian.

Do I make sense?

[Elizanessie]

[quote name='heatherb1953']Liz-(Elizanessie) part of the problem on the Navigator was that the bar bill receipts didn't have the 15% tip automatically added which we were used to.. We didn't realise this until we had been on the ship 3 days !!:eek: . It is a bit embarrassing if you are used to just leaving a tip on a table in a restaurant to have to write an amount on a receipt. We never used to carry any money around with us on the ships but now we have started to because of that situation:( . We did show our appreciation to all the other staff who served us :) .[/quote]

Hi Heather :D

I remember hearing how the some of the Brits created an uproar on the NV (early sailings) because they said it wasnt right for the 15% to be added automatically onto bar bills etc. If I remember correctly after a few weeks RCCL increased the drinks prices by 15% and then they didnt need to add the 15% gratuity.

[raffles]

[quote name='cruisePRN']WHO"S GONNA TIP if the passengers are mostly British? I'm not trying to be funny but we know it's not in their culture so it's a legit question.[/quote]

Perhaps the American cruisers who didn't turn up in the dining room on the last night - on two of my cruises - left their tips at the customer services desk ;)

Although my TA recommended that we did not pre pay our tips in case of poor service we always do to save bother and like many other UK cruisers also include cash as well as vouchers in the envelopes.

I did hear that some of the short cruises had been discounted to as little as 250 GBP (unlike the price we paid) so perhaps many people just saw it as a very cheap deal and were not prepared (or could afford) to pay anything else. I have no idea - just guessing as otherwise I can't understand why they didn't cough up. Perhaps my friends and I are the odd "Brits" who leave a tip even if we are only having a coffee or a cup of tea :confused:

[cruisePRN]

[quote=EmJake's Bubbie;14750638]can someone kindly point me to the approved definition of [I]immersion cruising?[/I] I'm wondering: does this mean the crew will be reflective of the port of embark or debarkation? does this mean one cultural food choice in addition to standard offered fare? or will be the menu be immersion food w/only one standard offer??????
I've just discovered "immersion" today.

The only immersion I desire is to be i[I]mmersed into comfort[/I] whilst cruising:D

thank you.[/quote]

There are numerous threads on RCL that explain it in detail.

[EmJakeBubbie]

[B]doodlefan [/B]- I couldn't agree more!
Land-holidays are wonderful to immerse into a particular culture.
I can't imagine taking a cruise for the familiar feeling a cruise brings to me, and then to find myself immersed in something of which I am not satisfied. I'm not even willing to risk my travel budget on discovering whether or not I will like it.

WHO thunk'd up this idea?

[heatherb1958]

[quote name='Elizanessie']Hi Heather :D

I remember hearing how the some of the Brits created an uproar on the NV (early sailings) because they said it wasnt right for the 15% to be added automatically onto bar bills etc. If I remember correctly after a few weeks RCCL increased the drinks prices by 15% and then they didnt need to add the 15% gratuity.[/QUOTE]

mmmm, interesting. We were on the 27th April ' 07 sailing , first 7 nighter after the Transatlantic. We were in the nightclub on the last night and gave one of the waiters a tip ( written on the receipt ) . DH checks the seapass account before going to bed and the tip showed as a seperate amount to the drinks price. Not that that has any bearing on the increase in drinks prices I just never knew the tips showed seperately on the seapass, just wanted to share !!:D
I am off to bed :) .

[dramaqueen4lyfe]

[quote name='srlafleur']All true enough, but if the ports are the same, maybe they're just calling it "immersion" because the majority of the passengers are locals.
[COLOR=red][B]Perhaps because they couldn't sell out all the staterooms to Americans?[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=red][B]I don't think cruising half empty would be good for business, either.[/B][/COLOR]
Yes, I'd be concerned to hear of a change, but I doubt there's need for panic as long as the itinerary remains pretty much intact.
Personally, I probably wouldn't have known about it, or paid any attention to it, if I weren't hooked up here at CC. Upon reaching my cruise ship overseas, I would have just gone about my merry way, assuming that what Iwas experiencing was the norm for that itinerary. Perhaps that's just me. I choose the itinerary 1st.[/quote]


[B][COLOR=blue]I would be interested to know the price of the cruise to the American market compared to the price offered to the locals in order to fill the ship.[/COLOR][/B]

[jallison8378]

No immersion cruises, ever. If I want to be immersed in the culture, I take a land-based vacation.

I like to cruise because everything is familiar again once I step back on board.

Offering immersion cruises for those who are interested is fine, but to call up people who have already booked "regular" cruises and tell them that their cruise experience will be wildly different is just wrong.

If I ever get such a call from RC after I have booked & paid, I will not be sailing RC again.

Maybe I am being overly dramatic, but I don't think so. Many people have to put in for vacation time a year in advance and save for much longer to be able to afford it. Changing the vacation so many plan so carefully for so long is just not good customer service. Good for their bottom line, but definitely not a good way to build customer confidence.

[fifty]

[SIZE=3]RCCL if you read this please be aware that - [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]many of us choose to cruise rather than land vacations simply for the respite the ship offers us from unfamiliar cultures when visiting new countries and places. The ship environ remains a CONSTANT and SOLACE in a somewhat uncertain enviroment. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]This is especially true for those of us who are "older" and want to experience new places but appreciate the "security" of coming back to the ship and the familarity of RCCL. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]If my med cruise becomes "immersion", I will cancel!! [/SIZE]

[CM10184]

Reading all these posts does that mean my cruise out of barcelona in sep 08 on vos for 1 week will be all in spanish even the language.

[CM10184]

Reading all these posts does that mean my cruise out of barcelona in sep 08 on vos for 1 week will be all in spanish even the language.

[Jeka]

Uhm, what if the majority of the passengers happen to be from these "unfamilar cultures"? Not sure what ships this is happening on but the Brilliance and the Independence are operated by RCI/UK as opposed to RCI/US. If that's the case, seems the US passengers have chosen to cruise on UK ships. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[CruzinCruzan]

[quote name='srlafleur']All true enough, but if the ports are the same, maybe they're just calling it "immersion" because the majority of the passengers are locals.
Perhaps because they couldn't sell out all the staterooms to Americans?
I don't think cruising half empty would be good for business, either.
Yes, I'd be concerned to hear of a change, but I doubt there's need for panic as long as the itinerary remains pretty much intact.
Personally, I probably wouldn't have known about it, or paid any attention to it, if I weren't hooked up here at CC. Upon reaching my cruise ship overseas, I would have just gone about my merry way, assuming that what Iwas experiencing was the norm for that itinerary. Perhaps that's just me. I choose the itinerary 1st.[/quote]

Immersion was clearly explained to me by the CSR and by the Crown & Anchor Rep as: first language being the immersion language. That includes announcments, flyers etc...also menus are not in English, entertainment is not in English, retail is product that we are not familiar with, people will smoke openly...and, most important to us, excursions will NOT be in English...unless you have a certain quota the excursion that you booked could and will be cancelled at a moment's notice. It must be a total immersion when we are told that there would be English "helpers"! Uh-huh, but how many ? Say there are 200 "Americans" on board, will one or two helpers be sufficient? I think not!

The world usually has a working knowledge of English...We Americans do not have a working knowledge of Chinese/Mandarin...

I do not think that RCI would be personally calling booked passengers and TAs if this were not a significant change!

What I don't get is that the website still has not made mention of immersion...Any lawyers out there that can address this????

[CruzinCruzan]

[quote name='dramaqueen4lyfe'][B][COLOR=blue]I would be interested to know the price of the cruise to the American market compared to the price offered to the locals in order to fill the ship.[/COLOR][/B][/quote]


What an interesting question!!!!!

[fifty]

Why would they want a cruise that immersed them in their own culture?:confused:

[twoatsea]

Now this is really a significant change for RCI. Not saying it is good or bad, but definitely significant. To me it seems "good" or "bad" would depend on the country, the culture, the people of, the food of, one's desire to be immersed in, & whether English is readily available on board by the staff & announcements. I am keeping in mind there are several places in the USA (I'm American) where I am not partial to the people's mannerisms - as in rudeness. And I'm sure we have all heard the well earned phrase, "the ugly American" - not all obviously, but some.

RE: tours not in English - that is fixable by arranging private, non-ship, tours in English. Those are easily found here, on fodorsdotcom forums, tour books & other travel forums. Would depend on whether the traveler chooses to make such arrangements.

RE: whether it is worth it to some to cancel, depends on the someone! Some folks are not happy with a cruise in an inside cabin. Others don't think the cabin matters at all. We all have our own criteria for cruise enjoyment. Obviously whoever is spending their money on the cruise, they have the priviledge of deciding the satisfaction criteria.

Since we love Italy (do our own land tour each year), our Nov. cruise Venice to Venice should be fine for us, if it gets immersed! However, we do not like the "real" Italian food, we like American Italian food. Wouldn't matter onboard though. Would just help solve the battle of the cruising bulge for us.

RE: Chinense/Japanese immersion cruise - we were just talking about one today. Since our experience has shown the people to be polite & quiet, we probably would not have a problem with that (not like our exposure to Brazilians!). Don't think the passenger to passenger language issue would be a problem for us either. We cruise to have our (DH & I) alone time, with some interaction. I once had a 30 minute cab ride in the front seat with the driver, he no English, me no Spanish, & we communicated quite well. By the end of the ride I knew he was married, had 2 children, had been in Cancun for about 1 year, had saved enough to bring his brother to Cancun to work, & within 2 months his wife & children would be able to arrive - which the news of got both of us very excited like old friends. At the end of the ride he thanked me for making such an effort to communicate with him - in Spanish, but I understood what he meant!

Good luck everyone on their RCCL cruising. Hope we get some immersion trip reports soon.

[kingsgirl]

[quote name='Fitnessmaniac']What is "Immersion" cruise? What does that mean? :confused: Sorry..I saw it posted below and everyone is against it..but..can't figure out what it is without going through a bunch of posts. :([/quote]

Your guess is as good as the next persons in my opinion, until RCI makes a statement.

[cruisenfever]

The only description I can give you all about 450 English speaking pax being embedded amongst 1500+ Portuguese pax.............it was like they were given a 2 week leave from a local prison. This is what we experienced on our recent TA on Splendour and unfortunately we were not forewarned prior to booking or sailing.

[Jeka]

what is so terrifying about the British that you think it would ruin a cruise?

[fifty]

:rolleyes: but seriously, not talking about the british cruise but rather, the med cruise out of Barcelona.

[Rahi]

12 years ago I was on a cruise line-Costa Classica, It was out of Italy.. Italian personal, food, entertainment. We did not like it. I understand why it was ..it did have mainly Italians on it..It was not up to the to par with any cruise I have had since in North America.

[tomsafrica]

C'mon people. As a South African familiar with both cultures what are you all whining about? There is a transatlantic culture now - people watch the same TV programs (or programmmes for the poms...) eat the same food, listen to the same music and speak the same language. Brits probably know more about you than you know about them because they watch Desperate Housewives more than you watch Eastenders - but hey... they aren't that different! You think you invented pizza? You didn't! You think english people eat bangers and mash and yorkshire pudding everyday? They don't! What you should ALL worry about is pricing in Pounds or Euros onboard. Think about it...

And hey. You're all fun people and you can all have fun together remember!;)