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I booked myself on a 3-week cruise on a foreign cruise line and started worrying about it. As it came closer, I grew increasingly apprehensive having done a few foreign non-English speaking cruises before. Some of which had not gone so well.
But finally on this trip, I found out when going on a foreign cruise line cruise does and does not make sense. As you will find out.
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0:00
i booked myself on a three-week cruise
0:02
on a foreign cruise line
0:04
but started worrying about it once i'd
0:06
done it as it came closer i grew
0:08
increasingly apprehensive having done a
0:10
few foreign non-english speaking cruises
0:12
before
0:14
some of which had not gone entirely to
0:16
plan but finally on this trip i found
0:19
out when going on a foreign cruise line
0:21
does
0:22
and does not make sense as you'll find
0:24
out if you're new here welcome aboard
0:26
i'm gary bembridge and it's my goal to
0:28
make it easy and much more fun to
0:30
discover plan and enjoy unforgettable
0:33
cruise vacations
0:35
why exactly was i going on a foreign
0:38
cruise line in the first place two key
0:40
reasons first there was a very specific
0:42
itinerary that i really wanted to do i
0:44
wanted to go to antarctica but it had to
0:47
include south georgia falklands and
0:48
south orkney as well as the peninsula
0:51
and secondly i was going as a solo
0:54
traveller the french line pennant
0:56
offered both the perfect itinerary and
0:58
they also offered me a great solo deal
1:01
with just fifteen percent surcharge one
1:04
five percent while english speaking
1:06
lines like silversea either did not
1:08
offer that itinerary or had no solo
1:11
pricing
1:12
so you may be wondering what exactly i
1:14
do mean by a foreign cruise line as it
1:17
could be argued that every single cruise
1:19
you and i have been on is actually
1:21
foreign because most cruise lines are
1:23
incorporated in and the ships are
1:25
registered in foreign countries like
1:26
panama liberia the bahamas and so on
1:29
this in fact in my view doesn't make
1:31
them foreign lines it's just a tax move
1:34
and the lines that do it like royal
1:35
caribbean norwegian cruise line princess
1:37
cruises holland america and so on and so
1:39
on are all english-speaking cruise lines
1:42
with an american on board experience in
1:44
reality
1:45
there are two cruise line types that i
1:48
see as foreign cruise lines for english
1:50
speakers from the us uk canada australia
1:52
new zealand and so on
1:54
first there's the multilingual lines
1:57
like msc cruises they cater for multiple
1:59
languages equally without favoring any
2:02
despite their italian roots everything
2:05
is done everything is offered in six
2:07
languages in equal measure italian
2:09
french german spanish english and
2:11
brazilian portuguese
2:13
then there are lines that cater for one
2:15
main language and one key nationality
2:18
for example aida main chief and hapag
2:21
lloyd are german baselines for
2:23
german-speaking travellers in italy
2:25
there's costa in france pennant and
2:27
crossy europe river and so on on these
2:30
cruise lines most people will be from
2:32
that country and that will be the
2:34
dominant and the very much first
2:37
language on board for example on my
2:40
opponent antarctica cruise there were
2:42
well over 80 percent of the passengers
2:44
from france i've been on crossy europe
2:47
trips river trips where i was the only
2:49
english speaker on one and on another
2:52
there were three english speakers 10
2:54
spanish and the majority were always
2:56
french i've also been on a costa cruise
2:59
where there were fewer than 60 english
3:01
speakers on a roughly 2 000 passenger
3:04
ship
3:05
so how does it work for english speakers
3:07
on these lines this is what i have found
3:10
out on all my experiences first as on my
3:13
recent pawn on trip all critical
3:15
activities like the captain's welcome
3:17
and all his briefings all the safety
3:19
briefings all the public address
3:21
announcements were done in both
3:23
languages secondly i received a daily
3:26
program and other onboard documentation
3:28
like say disembarkation information in
3:30
english menus were bilingual the quality
3:34
of translation to be honest has been
3:36
very varied though
3:37
third based on the numbers on board
3:40
there have either been a choice of a few
3:42
english speaking tours or bilingual only
3:45
excursions on the trips so for example
3:47
on my recent pon on trip i went on all
3:50
the landings all the zodiac tours only
3:52
with other english speakers
3:54
but when i was on crossy europe only
3:56
bilingual tours were offered because
3:58
there were just simply not enough
3:59
english speakers so it's hard to predict
4:01
what will happen
4:03
fourth it has an impact on the
4:05
activities on board the lines tend to
4:07
avoid entertainment that relies on
4:09
language and definitely knowledge of the
4:11
country so for example trivia and
4:14
quizzes were usually not run on these
4:16
cruises because they require of course
4:17
language and often local knowledge and
4:19
it becomes too complicated to run them
4:21
entertainment therefore is much more
4:23
music and dance focus i guess an
4:25
international
4:26
language you don't have comedians
4:28
because even magicians for example rely
4:30
on language however when essential and
4:32
unavoidable you'll find
4:34
and so now i found that they were done
4:36
in english for example on panant the
4:38
enrichment talks about antarctica they
4:40
were run separately in french and
4:42
english because these are so key to the
4:44
trip however on hapag lloyd and across
4:46
europe they relied more on song and
4:48
dance and music that everyone could
4:49
enjoy together
4:51
the fifth thing
4:52
is on some foreign cruise lines i've
4:53
been on there's been a specific
4:55
english-speaking host who acts as kind
4:57
of a liaison and help so that was on
5:00
costa for example we had an
5:01
english-speaking host that meet with us
5:03
as a group most days they'd brief us on
5:05
anything that was going on in english
5:06
answer any questions and try and sort
5:08
things out so how does this all work and
5:11
feel on as an english speaker
5:14
on a foreign cruise line i found some
5:16
fellow travelers on these trips
5:18
including my recent one did get a bit
5:20
frustrated at times because they felt
5:21
that english speakers were an
5:23
afterthought and weren't getting the
5:24
whole experience and were actually
5:26
missing out now this is probably
5:29
inevitable and true
5:31
i think in a few areas which you just
5:33
need to expect for example at the
5:35
captain's welcome and farewell party and
5:37
in daily briefings on panant he did
5:39
everything in french and in english as i
5:41
mentioned however
5:43
he might spend five minutes talking
5:44
about something in french and then he
5:46
would maybe spend one or two minutes in
5:48
english in what felt to be a kind of a
5:50
cut down version french would always be
5:52
first because that's the bulk of people
5:54
and you kind of did feel sometimes you
5:56
were perhaps missing out a bit
5:57
particularly when all the french would
5:58
suddenly
5:59
start laughing at some joke that he'd
6:01
given and then when you eventually get
6:02
around to doing in english you kind of
6:04
know a joke's coming and it is never as
6:06
funny when you know something is coming
6:08
the multilingual safety or other
6:10
face-to-face briefings and tours also
6:13
can be a bit trying at times so for
6:14
example across europe on my multilingual
6:17
excursions it felt really long and drawn
6:19
out because the tour guide would have to
6:21
do everything in french
6:22
and then repeat it all in english so it
6:24
kind of slowed things down everything
6:26
basically took twice as long but the
6:28
other important thing to bear in mind
6:31
that english language competency across
6:33
the crew is going to vary and may be
6:35
limited to none in some cases and you
6:37
just need to be ready for that it's
6:39
really important to be patient accepting
6:41
and prepared
6:42
as we of course are much more used to
6:44
being on cruises where everyone is
6:45
competent in english
6:47
for me these kind of things didn't
6:49
bother me because after all i've chosen
6:52
to go on a french an italian or a german
6:54
line so you just need to be ready for
6:55
that but if all of that concerns you one
6:58
thing to consider is that some foreign
7:00
cruise lines designate some specific
7:03
trips or even entire ships as
7:05
international for example hapag lloyd in
7:08
germany have the europa 2 ship
7:09
designated as an international ship and
7:12
all the crew on board will be fully
7:14
bilingual but aren't sailings in fact
7:17
they also tend to be international so
7:19
they do have bilingual crew so on my
7:21
penalty cruise though the cruise
7:23
director in my view seemed to be a
7:24
little bit less comfortable with english
7:26
although she was incredibly fluent in
7:28
english and i said that because i felt
7:30
she was more nervous about engaging with
7:32
english speakers as informally as she
7:34
did say with the french she didn't need
7:36
to worry about it though in my view it
7:37
didn't get in the way of enjoying the
7:39
trip but you need to expect some of
7:40
those variances the filipina crew on the
7:42
other hand they probably interacted with
7:44
me as an english speaker even more than
7:46
they did perhaps with a french guest
7:48
because english for filipino crew is a
7:50
language they're extremely comfortable
7:52
in french was kind of a second language
7:54
third language for them the expedition
7:56
team when you look at their backgrounds
7:58
they've worked more internationally so
8:00
someone worked in the u.s canada uk
8:01
australia and so they were very
8:03
comfortable switching between english
8:05
and french so you just need to expect
8:07
and embrace variety as key on a foreign
8:10
cruise line i did have another really
8:11
big realization
8:13
on
8:14
my pen on trip about cruising on a
8:15
foreign cruise line when it comes to
8:17
meeting people on board many of the
8:19
guests of course are national to the
8:21
lines and they are actually
8:23
less comfortable engaging english and
8:25
some do not speak english at all which
8:27
is why of course they're on their
8:28
national line of of course they're there
8:30
with fellow citizens they're not going
8:32
and choosing to go on an
8:33
english-speaking cruise line so i did
8:34
find on my panant across europe happy
8:36
glory and costa cruises that the
8:38
languages tended to stick together so i
8:41
found i actually met and mixed with much
8:43
fewer people than when going on an
8:45
english-speaking cruise line even in the
8:47
restaurant if i wanted to sleep with
8:49
others i was always put with english
8:51
speakers if you're going on a cruise to
8:52
meet lots of people you need to bear
8:54
that in mind that you may find there's a
8:56
smaller pool of people that you're going
8:58
to be able to do that with so how do you
9:00
deal with and adapt to make sure that
9:03
these things do not get in the way of a
9:06
great cruise experience it seems that
9:09
many english speakers that chose to
9:10
travel on a foreign cruise line have
9:12
already thought about these issues and
9:14
they actually came along with solutions
9:16
and workarounds so this is what i
9:18
observed first my fellow english
9:20
english-speaking travelers were
9:22
definitely seasoned travelers that
9:24
explored many foreign places and often
9:26
they were very comfortable being in a
9:29
minority and having to navigate around
9:31
languages or differences and they were
9:33
just ready to take this in their stride
9:35
they came with no expectations there
9:36
would be anything different but secondly
9:38
and even more importantly they were
9:40
usually traveling with others and so
9:42
they were less reliant on meeting and
9:44
mixing with other people for example on
9:46
my penant cruise line trip there were
9:48
two american couples that always
9:50
traveled together and then there was a
9:52
group of 15 taiwanese from the united
9:54
states that also have been traveling
9:56
together for over 30 years now this is
9:58
really key because when you go on one of
10:00
these lines you have no idea how many
10:03
other english speakers they're going to
10:04
be on board as i found out it could be
10:06
as few as just you just me if going solo
10:09
or perhaps just you and your partner
10:11
so if you're going as a solo traveler
10:13
like i've done on all these trips you
10:14
need to be willing to be a bit of a lone
10:17
ranger on these trips which i'm happy to
10:19
be
10:20
though i did find that the other english
10:22
speakers actually really went out of
10:24
their way to make sure they included me
10:27
on my penalties for example the american
10:28
taiwanese they kind of officially
10:30
co-opted me into their group and i
10:32
appear in probably most if not many of
10:34
their group photos while the american
10:36
couples they were fantastic that chat
10:38
away they'd asked me to join them for
10:39
meals for drinks
10:41
so they kind of
10:42
go other way to include you
10:44
so you need to be comfortable with going
10:46
on board cruise line where you may find
10:48
yourself in a very small group and
10:50
having less chance to kind of interact
10:52
and meet people perhaps than you would
10:54
do going on an english-speaking cruise
10:56
line
10:57
people coming on with an inbuilt social
10:59
interaction group i also found uncosted
11:01
to be honest because there were lots of
11:03
multi-generational and a couple of
11:04
families traveling together
11:06
the third observation about
11:07
english-speaking passengers on those
11:09
lines was of course then some of them
11:11
were coming because they knew the
11:12
language of the host line two varying
11:14
degrees so for example on my one of my
11:17
cross europe river cruises most of the
11:19
non-french travelers were from spain and
11:21
most of them spoke french but is that
11:23
the only thing you need to consider is
11:24
language the only thing that you really
11:26
need to consider i don't think so
11:28
there's a couple of other key things i
11:31
realized on this trip that there are two
11:34
other really important considerations
11:36
usually when i step on board a cruise
11:37
ship i just think about stepping into a
11:39
familiar and comfortable space as if
11:42
it's like being in the uk or the us but
11:45
it's on a ship it's very familiar but i
11:47
realized on this trip that when i go on
11:49
a foreign cruise line i should treat it
11:51
as if i'm stepping into a foreign
11:53
country and all that means not just
11:55
language but also culturally food
11:58
entertainment attitudes even dress codes
12:01
surprisingly i actually had this
12:03
revelation after shut down ease in 2021
12:06
when i cruised on two uk lines that only
12:08
take uk travellers pinot cruisers and
12:10
saga crews i was struck
12:12
by how much of a uk bubble i was in
12:15
because that was only those were the
12:16
only nationalities that was all
12:18
culturally what happened
12:19
and so i was much more kind of attuned
12:21
to that when i stepped on board french
12:23
pranant
12:24
and this is particularly evident when it
12:25
comes to food without a shadow of a
12:27
doubt these lines are going to cater for
12:30
their countrymen so obviously on panant
12:31
the food was very french
12:33
including some days can snails and steak
12:35
tartare the menus were probably a bit
12:37
more fussy and more elaborate as you
12:39
would expect from france the same was
12:42
true when i was on crossing europe they
12:43
are very proud of their french cuisine
12:45
and that's what was on the menus this
12:47
however wasn't actually
12:48
[Music]
12:49
to the liking of all the
12:51
english-speaking passengers they felt
12:52
the food was probably a bit fussier bit
12:54
more elaborate and they were missing
12:56
some of the favorites online they were
12:57
more used to cruising with but of course
12:59
we do need to bear in mind these lines
13:01
are going to cater for the bulk of the
13:02
passengers so be ready for that another
13:04
difference is actually around timings
13:07
and the way the program is structured
13:08
costa msc cruisers
13:10
and other lines with a more southern
13:12
european lifestyle tend to do everything
13:14
much later than certainly we're used to
13:16
in the uk or the us or i guess even
13:18
australia for example i was pretty
13:21
mortified when my dining time i got on
13:23
costa was after nine o'clock at night i
13:25
just wasn't used to that and
13:27
because for costa that just seemed
13:29
pretty standard because italians eat
13:31
later on putting on to the earliest i
13:33
could have dinner was 7 30 p.m even in
13:35
the buffet and i'm used to of course on
13:37
the morning speaking lines i go to the
13:38
buffet from around five o'clock 5 30 p.m
13:41
and the main dining room opens early 2.
13:44
i would say my decision on going on a
13:45
foreign cruise line over an
13:47
english-speaking line moving forwards
13:49
will actually
13:50
be itinerary driven more than anything
13:52
else if they have the better itinerary
13:54
and i cannot do that on english-speaking
13:56
line then they would absolutely be my
13:58
choice i did that for antarctica and i'm
14:00
actually now actively looking at
14:02
greenland and the canadian arctic cruise
14:04
and the most interesting and the best
14:05
itinerary is on germans hapag lloyd
14:08
expedition line and so that that is what
14:11
i'm going to book because that's the
14:12
best itinerary when i choose to go on a
14:13
foreign cruise line around the
14:14
mediterranean the caribbean and so on
14:18
probably not unless i was going with a
14:20
group of friends or perhaps my partner
14:22
and friends so i will have built in my
14:25
own social infrastructure and then of
14:27
course if the price is very appealing
14:29
that would swing me as well one of the
14:30
very best things about going on a cruise
14:33
wherever it is is meeting other people
14:35
and of course meeting different
14:36
nationalities
14:37
and while that's one thing that i will
14:40
be guaranteed to get on a foreign cruise
14:41
line as i discussed earlier it could be
14:43
a little bit limiting what do you think
14:45
about that and while you ponder that why
14:48
not find out more about what it's like
14:50
to be on a foreign cruise line by coming
14:52
with me on a typical day in antarctica
14:54
on panant in this video that i
14:57
saw and found that things didn't go plan
15:00
from the moment i woke up see you over
15:02
there
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