Language Spoken Onboard European Cruise

[stoddaj1]

We are considering an Italy/Greece cruise.  Am I correct in assuming that the language spoken on board would be predominantly English?

[BlerkOne]

If a Carnival cruise. and the ship would run on US dollars.

[Aplmac]

Assuming it's Carnival Cruise Line
there should be lots of English spoken..

but I would also expect a few of the European languages as well

particularly with hallway announcements!

[BlerkOne]

5 minutes ago, Aplmac said:

Assuming it's Carnival Cruise Line
there should be lots of English spoken..

but I would also expect a few of the European languages as wel

particularly with hallway announcements!

On MSC you will likely hear every language known to man, but not so much on Carnival. Just depends if there is a large contingent from a particular area.

 

The FunTimes paper will be in English as will the menus. Other languages might be available on request.

 

For some reason, don't be surprised if you hear Russian coming from a few guests, but there won't be announcements in Russian, at least that I've heard.

[sanger727]

Yes, if it’s on a carnival cruise the primary language onboard will be English. But they may do announcements and have things written in other languages as well. But everything will at least be in English.

[Aplmac]

Your cruise review (we're looking fwd. to it!) will be one of those

justifiably griping about waay too many hallway announcements

in five different languages. Oh bliss oh joy!

 

I can barely stand both the English and Spanish announcements

on the Southern Caribbean cruise from P.Rico to Barbados and back -
so I feel for you, because you might also hear Italian.. maybe Portuguese
and possibly Greek as well..?

[cruizergal70]

Foreign languages offend people?

[JeanieTheMom]

We were on the Horizon in Europe in 2018. My husband and I don't remember any announcements in languages other than English. (But then again, we ignore lots of announcements.) It was a lot like being on a Carnival ship anywhere. When the captain spoke, it was supposed to be in English, but we had to listen very carefully. 😄

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, cruizergal70 said:

Foreign languages offend people?

My guess would be longer announcements due to having to go through everything twice or thrice. I experienced it on my cozumel submarine tour. Everything was done in English and Spanish and it made for a longer wait to leave on both the boat and in the sub. I could imagine it getting old after a week of that all day, every day.

[Cafedumonde]

1 hour ago, cruizergal70 said:

Foreign languages offend people?

Lol

[Tampa Bay Irish]

We sailed with Costa twice in the Caribbean, originating from Ft Lauderdale. Great cruises. However every  announcement was repeated in 4 languages. It does get monotonous and annoying very quickly. 

[rufflesmom]

We did a Mediterranean cruise in August 2018 on Royal Caribbean.   Americans were definitely in the minority but everything was done in English.  All announcements, everything printed.  Many European countries teach English as a second language in the schools so many Europeans know English.  All prices were in US dollars on the ship.  In ports you will need euros to spend though.  That was easy enough, there are ATM's all over the place.  We got euros from an ATM in the Barcelona airport before we left the airport.

[40yearcruiser]

We have cruised all over the world and consider encountering other languages part of the experience. We have done only one Mediterranean cruise on Carnival and as I recall all announcements were in English. However, if you cruise on Costa or MSC expect that all announcements  will be in multiple languages. On one ship when the cruise director made announcements each sentence was repeated in six languages before he went on to the next sentence. You really had to listen closely to catch what you could understand! However, on most ships the entire announcement was made in one language before going to the next and only the languages with a large number of guests onboard were included. Enjoy your Greek Island cruise (they are spectacular!) and don't stress about the small stuff!