British v US tastes

[crowie]

Hi

 

I'm new to this board and also cruising. I have booked onto the Sea Princess next summer in the Med. I have been searching through the threads on this board and have noticed that some of the posters have commented that the CP (see I have been swotting up as I know the abbreviation!) has been set up primarily for British tastes.

 

This leads me to question, what are the differences? Cuisine nowday's seems to be fairly boundary free, as indeed the most popular dish in the UK is Curry! Entertainment again the same, as most the time the only decent shows to watch on TV are US ones (personally my favs are CSI and Without a trace). Language, we all speak the same language albeit with a subtle differences.

 

It seems to me that we are more alike than we care to admit.

 

Perhaps people would like to give examples?

 

Anyway great board with great people posting on it.

 

Regards

 

John

[phillipahain]

I am British and currently on Sapphire Princess

 

Have been on Sun ,Diamond, Royal and Island

 

Theres little difference on any of the ships in entertainment or food

 

Personally I prefer the buffets etc on USA cruise ships to UK lines

 

the entertainment is mixed on Princess and usually inckludes something to suit everyone but you will not get the concerts etc that you will get on P and O and you will not get spotted dick for dessert either

[chrysalis]

We are on the Sea in March for one of its 14 day Caribbean voyages. Lots of folks from the UK aboard, arriving in Fll and Barbados. I would suggest that 60-70% from the UK.

 

Previous years in March we had been in the Caribbean on the Sun,...10 days each time, same size of ship, but mostly folks from North America.

 

Only major difference we saw was breakfast food in the buffet. The Sea had Danish style bacon, fried mushrooms, fried tomatoes, beanns, haddock and a few other favourite breakfast foods from Britain. They still have North American favs, as well.

 

Some of the humour was more to British tastes it seemed.

[Globaliser]

Perhaps people would like to give examples?

Boddingtons on draught, IIRC. :D (Though I have to confess that I don't usually drink the stuff myself.)

[Toto2Kansas]

When we sailed on the Sea Princess last November, we could see some differences between the Sea and other Princess ships. The food is geared more towards the British tastes, which was fantastic. Lots of items we had not seen on other Princess sailings.

From what I have read, the Sea Princess was the first ship to upgrade all of it's bedding for each cabin (keep in mind here that this is what we have read from past passengers lately).

Entertainment, such as the comedy acts, were more the British humor vs. American.

I can't put my finger on some of the other differences, but they were very suttle and were there.

We enjoyed it so much, we have the Sea booked again for 14 days this December.

I have to admit. Sailing with a cruise ship that is usually 75% British is a ton of fun and just a bit different than the normal Caribbean sailings we have taken.

[Esprit]

The average age in holiday time is a little younger and you get far less moaning aboard compared to a ship full of Brits.

 

The choice of food is ten times better and I also like the cosmopolitan feel when you have so many other nationalities aboard.

 

May not be a dressy on formal nights compared to a ship full of Brits but that wont stop me and my family from doing the "full Monty" on those nights.

 

I can't wait to get on board Emerald next year.

 

Peter

[Pam in CA]

Theres little difference on any of the ships in entertainment or food

Actually, you're incorrect when it comes to the OPs question regarding the Sea Princess. There ARE differences on the Sea Princess. Here are some that I noticed on our Mediterranean Medley cruise this past July:

 

* Bacon in the buffet is English bacon, what Americans would consider ham. Some days, they didn't have "American" bacon.

 

* The comedians definitely had a British slant. Our tablemates were from England and they commented that they felt sorry for the Americans (only about 18% of all of the passengers onboard -- most were British) since the humor referred to things that only Brits would know.

 

* There are 220 outlets in the cabins in addition to 110 outlets

 

* All of the cabins have updated linens with duvets instead of blankets, not just the suites and mini-suites. (They were updated by the time of our 7/22 cruise)

 

* Most of the Brits onboard the Sea Princess dressed up every night, not just formal night. (I didn't see anyone in casual clothing on formal nights except a few Americans. Makes you wonder.)

 

* When there were lines, the Brits lined up politely instead of crowding around the entrance to the traditional dining room, waiting for the doors to open.

 

* With very few exceptions, the Brits were polite and weren't chair hogs. The Sea Princess has a lovely open aft area on Aloha deck with lots of loungers. A great place to hang out.

[Clutterlady]

Last May we did the repo cruise from San Juan to NYC on the Golden. The Golden was then leaving NYC for Southampton. We had a large contigent of Brits doing b2b on this cruise. The big difference we noticed was at breakfast, lots of beans and fish!! They dressed very formal every night, were extremely polite and loads of fun. The entertainment was also different, seemed to be geared more towards the senior set.

[Verystormy]

I think the longer cruises - 10 nights plus attract a different type of person from UK than a US. The simple reason is that our unfortunate cousins over the water get very limited holiday time from work compared to us. As a result, you are more likely to find a younger group of Brits than US. As in the US, most people dont have the holiday allowance from work to do a 14 night cruise

[Pam in CA]

In general, the 10+ night cruises attract a different type of person, whether it's the U.S. or U.K. However, there were quite a few young people, mostly Brits, on our 14-day cruise this past summer. And, the Sea Princess attracts more Brits.

[luvnorway]

On Sea Princess (in Europe in '05 and '06) some of the nice things about being on a ship with a high % of UK passengers were:

- mint sauce (not just generic, green "mint" jelly) was served with lamb

- real (= hot) horseradish was served with roast beef (not just the usual stuff that tastes like whipped cream with a bit of horseradish in it)

- a hot "pudding" (ie dessert) was included in the Lido lunch buffet every day

- draught beer (as mentioned by Globaliser)

- comedians' acts included more wit and less slapstick type humour

- more passengers walked or took public transit when sightseeing in ports

- like Esprit, we also notice the more cosmopolitan feel due to the passengers not being overwhelmingly from the US - this was nice for us North Americans because it gave you more of a feeling of being in Europe when onboard (not just when in ports)

- also the questions in the trivia quizzes didn't focus as much on US sports, entertainment, geography etc. so the 'playing field' was more level

- conversations weren't as loud, and we heard "please", "thank-you" and "pardon me" much more frequently

 

The main drawback we noticed, which we thought might be due to the larger % of UK passengers, was that people tended to spend more time sitting in Lido - we wondered if it was because they lingered over cups of tea - but also, no doubt, another reason it was often difficult to find seats in the Lido at breakfast and lunch is the poor design of the ship which does not have any other upperdeck lounge with large windows where you can read, chat or just sit and watch the scenery as you sail by.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I didn't notice any major food differences on our Sea Princess cruise last December (at least, not in the dining room, where the standard Princess menus were in place), and I'm sure I overlooked some of the smaller differences pointed out above. But when it came to entertainment, we found large differences. We had many comedians, but we either literally did not understand them (many were Scots), or we didn't get the humor (as in one night when the comedian led the Princess theater crowd in singing old commercial jingles from British TV. We were lost.) The bagpipe playing, though, is the only thing that grated (my husband)...he is not a fan.

 

However, the one comedian we LOVED (an American from California who did a lot of semi-Bush bashing jokes, at least as much as one could get away with on a cruise and had me falling off my seat), appealed to neither the Brits nor a lot of the older Americans. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy a comedic comparison of Bush's Texas bravado style to Tony Blair's more cultured tones? (Apparantly, quite a few...the number of complaints lodged was huge.)

 

But we loved our fellow passengers on that ship, particularly in Anytime dining. My husband took to carrying a map of Great Britain around with him (printed off the internet), and would ask our tablemates to point to where they were from. They loved it, we loved it, and it was a fun ice breaker.

[English Tim]

Hi

 

I'm new to this board and also cruising. I have booked onto the Sea Princess next summer in the Med. I have been searching through the threads on this board and have noticed that some of the posters have commented that the CP (see I have been swotting up as I know the abbreviation!) has been set up primarily for British tastes.

 

 

I always thought CP stood for Caribbean Princess, perhaps someone could clarify this.

 

Welcome to the party, John. We are returning to Sea Princess next summer, having had a wonderful cruise this summer.

 

If there's anything that you would like to know, please ask or email me

[Toto2Kansas]

* When there were lines, the Brits lined up politely instead of crowding around the entrance to the traditional dining room, waiting for the doors to open.

 

* With very few exceptions, the Brits were polite and weren't chair hogs. The Sea Princess has a lovely open aft area on Aloha deck with lots of loungers. A great place to hang out.

__________________

 

Pam, those were a couple of the things that really made the cruise more enjoyable.....................I knew there was more, just couldn't put my finger on what they were.

 

The fact that the British didn't seem to be in a huge hurry like Americans, was one of the best things we found onboard the ship. They also were not rude, as in the chair hogging. But any lines were more pleasent to be in instead of frustrating with those that feel the rules are for 'other passengers' as on some of the Princess cruises we have taken on other ships.

[herb]

We sailed on the Sea Princess this past summer. The majority of the passengers were British. I must say that on this cruise it was the most pleasant group of passengers to date. We did not come across any loud, obnoxious guests at all. It was a pleasure :)

 

The only time I noticed any difference in cuisine was at the buffets where they offered items geared to both British and American tastes. For dinner it was the "typical" dining room food found on most cruises.

[johnmik1]

I always thought CP stood for Caribbean Princess, perhaps someone could clarify this.

 

Welcome to the party, John. We are returning to Sea Princess next summer, having had a wonderful cruise this summer.

 

If there's anything that you would like to know, please ask or email me

CP is Sea Princess,CB is Caribbean. We sailed with the Brits last Jan for 14 nights and liked them so much we are going again on 1/20/07.The Brits seemed much more relaxed and didn't try to impress you with their wealth or how many cruises they have been on.They love to talk about the U.S..I was surprised at how many had never visited the States.

[English Tim]

I've been using these boards for a long time, but I've only just discovered what 'CP' means, so thanks very much.:cool:

[TourneyKit]

My Grand Parents, Aunts & Uncles "got of the boat" from England. I was raised English. Cruising on a ship that was mostly English would be a ball I think. Polite, considerate people by nature. As for the food, our Holidays always include Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding, which is to die for:) I always got a bang out of my Aunts & Uncles with breakfast. They had there little silver egg holders for their soft boiled eggs. Crack the top of the shell off and spoon the egg right out of the shell. So quaint. But I would have to draw the line at having Kippers for Breakfast:)

[Globaliser]

I've been using these boards for a long time, but I've only just discovered what 'CP' means, so thanks very much.:cool:

Yes, it certainly is confusing, particularly when there are a few ships whose names start with "C".

 

There's a link in my signature to the current list of two letter designators, which I will try to update as necessary. Not that it will stop some people calling Caribbean Princess "CP", or Coral Princess, or Crown Princess ...

[PhoneGoddess]

and you will not get spotted dick for dessert either

 

ok, I have to ask......what kind of dessert is this?:confused:

[chrysalis]

ok, I have to ask......what kind of dessert is this?:confused:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick

[Charliesmom]

We, too, have enjoyed sailing with Brits. On our last two cruises, we had Brits on our Trivia teams and we won a lot!

 

I always thought that CP stood for Crown Princess. If CP stands for Sea Princess, what are the initials for the Crown Princess?

 

Roberta

[Globaliser]

I always thought that CP stood for Crown Princess. If CP stands for Sea Princess, what are the initials for the Crown Princess?

As I said in this post, there's an up-to-date list available from the link in my signature.

[TourneyKit]

ok, I have to ask......what kind of dessert is this?:confused:

 

I wasn't going to touch that question:) But I knew someone would have to ask...lol

[English Tim]

What a lovely thread, with everyone being so nice and complimentary about us Brits. Of course we already knew we're nice (only kidding). My experience of cruising Americans has also been excellent. We love to have a multi-national table at dinner, as we learn so much about different customs / cultures.:cool: