European civility

[Cruisezilla]

Hello! I've been considering the Fortuna or Concordia for part of our October honeymoon. My 1/2 wife & I have sailed CCL 5x (always homeruns!)& NCL once(mezza-mezza). European etiquette is a concern . I speak sicilian well but concerned . From CC post's it seems that the avg. percentage of americans is roughly 10% . Has anyone had negative experiences i.e line cutting , rudeness , embarkation , disembarkation? etc.

[RD64]

Please remember that Sicilian is a dialect and very different from pure Italian. I speak one of the Northern dialects as well as proper Italian, and the differences are night and day. Also, even within a dialect, there will often be differences from town to town.

 

Also I have found that in Italy itself, the more recent generations to not speak dialect at all, but tend to focus more on Italian.

[Thrifty]

We spent 32 days on a Savona to Singapore cruise with Germans, French, Italians and even four Canadians and had absolutely no problem whatsoever with civility. Because it was such a long cruise, almost all of the pasengers were presumably retired; conceivably on a shorter party cruise, it wouldn't be the same. But we had been warned on this bulletin board about "pushy Italians" and the only one was a staff member. Even the Americans were well behaved, although it doesn't come easily to us. We occasionally wondered whether we had been deferential enough to the even more elderly.

[ItalianGuest]

Hello! I've been considering the Fortuna or Concordia for part of our October honeymoon. My 1/2 wife & I have sailed CCL 5x (always homeruns!)& NCL once(mezza-mezza). European etiquette is a concern . I speak sicilian well but concerned . From CC post's it seems that the avg. percentage of americans is roughly 10% . Has anyone had negative experiences i.e line cutting , rudeness , embarkation , disembarkation? etc.

 

Hi Cruisezilla and welkome on Cruise Critic!

First of all,remember that Sicilian and Italian are two completely different things. I'm Italian but, believe me, I can't understand a word in Sicilian... I can understand more English than Sicilian!!!

Anyhow, don't worry, usulally lot of people on Costa are sutherly and speack Sicilian.

Have a nice cruise,

Italianguest

[Debbierpof]

After reading some of the negative posts, I was concerned. But I've gotta tell you... it was not a problem. If you go to the English-speakers first meeting with the Costa English rep (in our case, Susan), you will get to see a video about the differences between Americans and Europeans. It is very funny and very true. They want to make sure you relax and just enjoy the differences. For example, one of the differences was Americans stand in line for everything. Europeans do not -- so while in Rome... The video probably lasted 15 minutes and was right on (even mentioned that Italians eat their pasta "al dente" while Americans usually eat it soft and sometimes mushy). Again, don't miss the first meeting with Susan and the video. We actually quote it throughout the trip and just enjoyed our differences. But as to anyone being outride rude to us... cannot even think of one instance.

[SANDGROWNUN]

Hi all,

Please remember that we English are Europeans too:) . Like our good friends the Americans we too are renowned for our queing, in fact we invented it lol. I can understand some of the concerns. It is a standard joke with Brit's who travel anywhere that all the sunbeds get taken by some of our German friends putting their towels out at dawn!! Joke, but true.:rolleyes:

Hopefully you will have a wonderful European cruise, and remember, wherever you go, people are people are people. There is good and bad in every nation. Lets leave our preconceptions at home and not turn this into a United Nations fiasco style slanging match! We can all safely leave that to our "leaders" lol.:p

[April2412]

We were on Costa last year in Europe last year and are doing the same cruise this year, so it wasnt that bad, but here is my experience. We mabe had about 20 Americans on the ship. Costa did throw us a get-together type party so we could all meet each other. Our assigned table was with two other American couples, so they tried to put people together that spoke the same language. People on the ship were alright, no one was super nice and friendly, but thats ok. Nobody was rude or mean to us, just for the most part they didnt really talk to us unless we started the conversation. I would not say that we had any problems, but I will say that we have had much more friendly groups as a whole on other ships. We did have a great time and made friends with the other Americans and hung out with them if we were looking to be around others on the ship. The only other thing is that if not enough people sign up for shore excurshions in English, they get canceled, so be careful.

[SPARKYCRUISER]

We were on the Costa Mediterranea last April in Caribbean and had no problems with the crowd. In fact, my wife and I found the mix of nationalities very refreshing!

[krennen]

We were just on a cruise out of Venice last month. As Americans we were definitely a minority. As for rudeness, the pushiness we encountered was in Italy not on the ship. If fact I met a lovely lady at the craft time who was Italian. We had a great time conversing in French as that was the language that we could both speak a little and understand. For the most part people kept to themselves but in small group situations like a craft time everyone was very nice and cordial.

[Brian Raine]

Debbieproof WHOA WHOA Debbie , "Europeans being pushy", kindly rephrase that statement.The English , for the benefit of US passengers, should not be bracketted with "Europeans". We English (British if you want it that way) are possibly the most polite people on any CRUISE. Having sailed on Costa 4 times I would say that the Italians are the worst offenders bar none, closely followed by the Germans and East Europeans.

[themoon]

Debbieproof WHOA WHOA Debbie , "Europeans being pushy", kindly rephrase that statement.The English , for the benefit of US passengers, should not be bracketted with "Europeans". We English (British if you want it that way) are possibly the most polite people on any CRUISE. Having sailed on Costa 4 times I would say that the Italians are the worst offenders bar none, closely followed by the Germans and East Europeans.

 

So, so true. We do have a clear winner but it's hard to say who comes in second...I would give them a tie.

[Marge106]

IMHO the French should take the 'title'

[judybee]

I would have to disagree with the previous poster. The French are very polite, you must simply understand their culture and learn a little about them and their language before you go to France. If you enter a store, smile, and say "Bon jour, Madame/Monsieur" you will be probably be treated well; if you make no attempt at being pleasant or using their language they will consider this a snub and treat you accordingly. I spent a year in France when I was younger and just spent another week in Provence following my cruise. The French treated us wonderfully. Now some Parisians are another story! ;)

[mountainmare]

But I LOVED Paris. Maybe I just "got it".

Didn't like Rome--going back to give it another shot---oh the sacrifices we make!!!

Really HATE California, now thats a discussion to start!!! And I actually have found New Yorkers to be the pushiest people (and loud).

 

In other words, its a matter of perception, acceptance and education.

[Brian Raine]

Nothing like a good discussion to get the old juices flowing.Any more candidates for bad manners. I am sure there are some English I would shun, but generally we do how to behave in public.Must be the Stiff Upper Lip thing and all that. Cheerio and Toodle Pip

[judybee]

But I LOVED Paris. Maybe I just "got it".

Didn't like Rome--going back to give it another shot---oh the sacrifices we make!!!

Really HATE California, now thats a discussion to start!!! And I actually have found New Yorkers to be the pushiest people (and loud).

 

In other words, its a matter of perception, acceptance and education.

 

Don't get me wrong - I love Paris too :) , I just didn't find some Parisians to be as warm and friendly as the people from the south of France. But maybe that's a "big city" thing as the poster mentioned about New York.

 

We've all had different experiences in life and we base our feeling about people based in large part on those experiences, thus we can expect a wide variety of opinions on this board when it comes to how various nationalities are perceived. The best we can hope for is that people will at least make an attempt to get along and to try to understand one another. Let us try to do what our governments have failed to do. Every single one of us can be an ambassador for our countries; let's hope we can each do a little good in this world.

[mountainmare]

Yep--it is a city thing, and I do love NYC also.

I just wish that we would all realize that we are more alike than picking on the differences.

That being said one of the reasons I picked Costa is that on our Celebrity Med cruise (fabulous time--wonderful vacation, first cruise in Europe) I actually found myself reluctantly returning to the ship and the all-American bubble. Something that doesn't happen when we travel on land.

I believe that the more you travel (even within your own country) the more you become a better citizen of the world.

[delphine30]

I'm French and I agree, we are very polite!! lol . it depends , like others countries, of the people. parisians people, it's a story!!!

the big problem in france : few people speak english fluently. most of the time, they speak only french, sometimes spanish and few words of english.

I don't like stereotyps on the french people (like "baguette" and "berêt noir" or red wine). fortunatelly, when americans people or others come in france, the see what we are really!