China

[sfaaa]

I've witnessed this same thing on both Freedom and Liberty of the Seas! They did a countdown before they unveiled the tables full of cheap crap. And these were all Caribbean cruises. :eek:

 

Last day of the cruise's main event. Mostly Made In China cheap crap. You buy now.

[Domino D]

No worries, the Chinese government has devalued their currency and banned major shareholders from selling their stock for 6 months. I'm sure that will do it. (sarcasm)

 

The decision for Royal and other cruise lines will likely come if the economic problems, turn into civil unrest and things become unstable.

[The_Big_M]

Does anyone know when the summer 2016 China cruises will be open for booking? There is still nothing showing for Voyager and Ovation for June thru October.

 

Meant to be this month, but been pushed back a few times, so who knows if it will be again.

[lalenalei]

I've witnessed this same thing on both Freedom and Liberty of the Seas! They did a countdown before they unveiled the tables full of cheap crap. And these were all Caribbean cruises. :eek:

 

ITA with Ashland. I was on the Mariner Japan sailing from Shanghai (and got a ton of criticism for posting a very honest although largely positive review about the ship). The itinerary was great. The fellow passengers were not. I don't think the Caribbean cruisers were hocking loogies, hoarding, and pushing in the elevators and queues. You really have no idea unless you were there. It was awful. I was in the deserted Cartier shop while the 40% off $50 watches blowout sale was going on. I have no words.

 

I get that RCI is in the business to make money. I just wanted to let people know what they are signing up for. Never again. But we did book B2B from Singapore for Christmas and New Year's!

[cruiserinsg]

ITA with Ashland. I was on the Mariner Japan sailing from Shanghai (and got a ton of criticism for posting a very honest although largely positive review about the ship). The itinerary was great. The fellow passengers were not. I don't think the Caribbean cruisers were hocking loogies, hoarding, and pushing in the elevators and queues. You really have no idea unless you were there. It was awful. I was in the deserted Cartier shop while the 40% off $50 watches blowout sale was going on. I have no words.

 

I get that RCI is in the business to make money. I just wanted to let people know what they are signing up for. Never again. But we did book B2B from Singapore for Christmas and New Year's!

 

Looking forward to your review :)

[davenew]

Thats fair enough but as far as I was aware my posts were bang on topic

 

Anyway back on topic

 

Reading the stories of the "manners" of cruisers in this part of the world worries me.

 

It seems the have and have nots are worlds apart and therefore the "Haves" think they are above everybody else and refuse to Que etc etc, we are having a similar issue with Russians in Europe at the moment

 

I thought queuing was a "British Only" sport :D

[davenew]

I've witnessed this same thing on both Freedom and Liberty of the Seas! They did a countdown before they unveiled the tables full of cheap crap. And these were all Caribbean cruises. :eek:

Same thing on Adventure in the Med last year.

The Chinese were buying arm fulls of stuff so they could sell it back home.

China = Capitalism?. Mao would turn in his grave.

[[g]cruiserke]

Mao would turn in his grave.

 

Well, that would be an interesting new tourist attraction, as he's embalmed and still on display :D

 

To add something of more substance to this discussion: I've done two Asia cruises, both on Celebrity Millennium, and the passenger mix on both cruises was overwhelmingly Western (USA, Britain, Australia) with only a very small minority of ethnic Chinese onboard.

 

Not sure if this is because Celebrity promotes and sells their cruises mainly (or only?) to that target market, or because the local market is more focused on shorter cruises. Both ones I did were 14 days.

 

 

I'm booked on another Celebrity Millennium Asia cruise for 2017 and very much looking forward to it: the two we did previously are among the best cruise and holiday experience we've ever had!

[NJcruisenewbie]

I've been to China several times and it isn't a case of the Chinese people having bad manners because of the spitting, pushing, not recognizing personal space, etc. It also isn't a battle between the haves and the have nots. It's that their culture is accepting of these things just like western culture is accepting of things that the Chinese would find greatly offensive.

 

My best advice is to read all you can about the cultural norms of a country before visiting.

 

China is a beautiful country but so far it's the only place where I've witnessed two woman getting into a fist fight over an airplane seat.

[lalenalei]

I've been to China several times and it isn't a case of the Chinese people having bad manners because of the spitting, pushing, not recognizing personal space, etc. It also isn't a battle between the haves and the have nots. It's that their culture is accepting of these things just like western culture is accepting of things that the Chinese would find greatly offensive.

 

My best advice is to read all you can about the cultural norms of a country before visiting.

 

China is a beautiful country but so far it's the only place where I've witnessed two woman getting into a fist fight over an airplane seat.

 

I agree with you, but my land experience was WAY different that the cruise experience. On land I felt plenty of personal space, and never saw people acting without dignity. I think it was having 3000 out of 3400 pax pushing their body parts up against my back in line, touching buffet food with their hands, letting their kids run all over the gym, throwing empty boxes on the ground while they rifle through the sale items, etc. that turned us off. Being on the ship shouldn't necessitate researching cultural norms of a embarkation port. People don't research Florida before getting on a Disney Cruise. But with the Chinese market being targeted, the dynamic really changes. We were not aware that it would be so skewed. We expected more of an international crowd. 95+% of the Chinese were booked by the same travel agency. I do think that in this case, you need to know before you go!

[Ashland]

I've been to China several times and it isn't a case of the Chinese people having bad manners because of the spitting, pushing, not recognizing personal space, etc. It also isn't a battle between the haves and the have nots. It's that their culture is accepting of these things just like western culture is accepting of things that the Chinese would find greatly offensive.

 

My best advice is to read all you can about the cultural norms of a country before visiting.

 

China is a beautiful country but so far it's the only place where I've witnessed two woman getting into a fist fight over an airplane seat.

I've been on a land only trip to China (Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai) and a cruise (8 nights Singapore-Shanghai) and I can tell you there was a huge difference with the Asians. I saw no cultural accepting of bad mannors...the land trip everywhere we went we encountered very friendly and courteous locals...Those onboard couldn't have been any more different. So yes, I was more than a bit shocked by this....so those that travel must have left their manners and common sense at the port.

 

I'm sure many of us have seen this happen on other cruises (not uncommon) but this particular experience was CRAZY !!!

 

JMHO...something to consider when booking an asian cruise so those that do will be prepared.

[Domino D]

I've been on a land only trip to China (Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai) and a cruise (8 nights Singapore-Shanghai) and I can tell you there was a huge difference with the Asians. I saw no cultural accepting of bad mannors...the land trip everywhere we went we encountered very friendly and courteous locals...Those onboard couldn't have been any more different. So yes, I was more than a bit shocked by this....so those that travel must have left their manners and common sense at the port.

 

I'm sure many of us have seen this happen on other cruises (not uncommon) but this particular experience was CRAZY !!!

 

JMHO...something to consider when booking an asian cruise so those that do will be prepared.

 

Wow, that is really interesting Ashland. Anything you can point to as why there was such a stark difference? Age maybe?

[Ashland]

Wow, that is really interesting Ashland. Anything you can point to as why there was such a stark difference? Age maybe?

I have no idea...on our cruise we had a wide range of ages..so I don't think that was it.

 

Maybe being on land in their country they show hospitality to visitor's...they sure did to us.

 

Many places (on land) we seemed like oddities and they wanted to take our picture especially posing us with the elderly (and we're elderly too 66+:eek:;))....but then there were also young adults/ teenager's snapping our pics too (quickly sitting down their highend shopping bags to do so) and believe me when I say "we don't stand out at all" we're low key keep to ourself kind of travelers.

 

So we just didn't get this extreme personality change at all.

[Aquahound]

(and got a ton of criticism for posting a very honest although largely positive review about the ship)

 

You did...because the PC police just can't handle complaints when it comes to calling out a group of people. :rolleyes:

 

I, however, am very grateful for your review. The truth needs to be spoken and if it was Chinese tourists who were rude, then it's those Chinese tourists who need to be called out for it. You saved me from making a very expensive mistake, and I thank you.

[Domino D]

I have no idea...on our cruise we had a wide range of ages..so I don't think that was it.

 

Maybe being on land in their country they show hospitality to visitor's...they sure did to us.

 

Many places (on land) we seemed like oddities and they wanted to take our picture especially posing us with the elderly (and we're elderly too 66+:eek:;))....but then there were also young adults/ teenager's snapping our pics too (quickly sitting down their highend shopping bags to do so) and believe me when I say "we don't stand out at all" we're low key keep to ourself kind of travelers.

 

So we just didn't get this extreme personality change at all.

 

Weird huh. Like, oh were on vacation we don't have to be nice.