General Immersion Thread (merged)

[Ms Understood]

Amen to the poster who mentioned smoking. I am the one who has been changed to Asian immersion. I am sure as part of my "Asian Immersion" experience the smoking will be accomodated to the extent that I will be uncomfortable.

[Elizanessie]

Not really wanting to get into this tipping or not tipping discussion but I do have to say this...last summer when the NV sailed from Southampton there was a lot of very very unhappy crew because they werent getting tips from the Brits. Infact a lot of the crew I spoke with said they couldnt wait to get back to the Caribbean and get back to normal with regards to tips.

[Laticfanatic617]

[quote name='cruisePRN']WHO"S GONNA TIP if the passengers are mostly British? I'm not trying to be funny but we know it's not in their culture so it's a legit question.[/quote]


please don't give us anything else to think about!!

i'm only just getting used to the fact that we'll have hot & cold running water! and an inside toilet (bathroom!).....

is it april 1st already????

[heathermk57]

[quote name='fin']I am reminded of the "new" coke caper. I wonder whether the cruise line did ANY polling of interest in this scheme beforehand.[/quote]

The Norwegians on our recent Jewel cruise out of Oslo seemed to think it was a good idea. As 95% of cruisers were Norwegian, the Captain's welcome speech and many of the announcements were in Norwegian which of course we couldn't understand but it made us realise how the rest of the non-English-speaking world must feel!

[kel3120]

[quote name='jzerocsk']Sure but on a cruise, the extent of your "immersion" consists whatever can be found close enough to the pier that you can get there and back before the ship leaves. Pretty much by definition, if you are cruising somewhere, "immersion" is probably not one of your main objectives.

On my last day in Berlin last year I said to my wife "Next trip is a cruise." For me cruising is a break from the physical and mental rigors of travelling abroad and way to basically "check off" the countries in which I'm not really interested in being fully immersed. An "immersion" cruise would basically defeat the whole purpose of taking a cruise. As others said, if you wanted a cruise PLUS immersion, you'd have booked a different cruise.[/quote]

Actually, the reason I enjoy cruising is different than yours. I have only been on 2 Caribbean cruises, but what I like the most is that I get a taste of different places. Cruises allow me to experience a few places in a short amount of time so that I can possibly choose to go back for a longer vacation there in the future.

Even if I had the money go over to Europe or Asia right now, I have never the desire to book a cruise while there. A land vacation is much more appealling, as I have done in Europe in the past. Now with all of the talk about these immersion cruise, I think it would be a neat thing to try.

I just don't understand why everyone is so upset about this. I understand that this is "not what you signed up for," but can being a minority on a ship that is sailing abroad be such a terrible thing that some are willing to lose money in order to cancel? I would think that if I were on one of these ships that I would be able to find food that I enjoyed, have a fun time with the entertainment (I like singing and dancing even if English is not spoken), and function even though others around me are mainly speaking a different language.

[spirite]

[quote name='Elizanessie']a lot of the crew I spoke with said they couldnt wait to get back to the Caribbean and get back to normal with regards to tips.[/quote]


Perhaps they couldn't wait to get back to change their pounds into dollars!

[Cruise Junky]

[quote name='srlafleur']While I agree that a cruise line probably shouldn't change their SOP completely on cruises that are already booked, until I hear otherwise from someone who has actually experienced this "immersion" as a negative, I'm going to assume it's not really going to be that big of a deal. In reality, one thing that's actually disappointed me on cruises is the total lack of connection to the itinerary and ports. It would be really nice to have local/regional dishes available to try at meals, local souvenirs onboard and local artwork, etc. And the shows could be really interesting if they actually did use talent from the region. imagine!
I seriously doubt that the staples like the chicken/salmon/baked potato choices are going away, regardless of how "immersive" they try to be...unless they reverse the menu and make those types of choices the "exotic/gourmet" choices and have "immersive" dishes as the picky-eater fare. :rolleyes: And I'm pretty sure there'll still be a casino, pool, spa...all the usual stuff.
I say, let's not panic, people.[/QUOTE]

But that's very easy for you and I to say, we're not the one's that are within 10 days of final payment being told your cruise is switching to a foreign language and no one is giving you a straight answer. No one can tell you if they are awful or not, they haven't done any, they've just switched what were going to be normal RCI cruises for immersion cruises without a clue as to how to communicate effectively. If I were 10 days away from final payment and had this thrown at me, I'd seriously be considering looking for another cruiseline...permanently.

[Brunswick]

Having just sailed on the Independence from Southampton they have catered for the Brits in some ways i.e. kettle in cabin, english bacon (still prefer the American though) it was like boiled not fried, english sausage, baked beans. there was also the usual American choices, I do like the pancakes with maple syrup which I always make a beeline for. I really don't think that RCI will just cater for the Brits as one poster has said, and their paragraph informing us of this I read to mean that they have just added a few British things. Personally I don't care if I eat British or American fayre as they are quite similar anyway, just couldn't eat grits.

[TTown Traveler]

[COLOR=black]While I do think an 'immersion' cruise could be quite interesting, I would certainly want to know this detail before I booked the cruise. I can't imagine booking a cruise only to find out sometime later that it isn't what I had booked... [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black] [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]If I book a Western Caribbean cruise, and then the cruise line calls and tells me it has been changed to a New England & Canada cruise, I would be pretty upset, even though I would enjoy that itinerary, too, someday![/COLOR]

[srlafleur]

Apparently, we Americans are unable to fill these ships all by ourselves, at this time.
Let's face it, if the ship is sailing from somewhere overseas, and the majority of the passengers are locals, you are pretty much ON an "immersion" cruise.
You wanted to go to Asia?...well, welcome to Asia, folks!
(And what the heck is SO scary about British "immersion"? Seriously?)

[Let'sGo!]

I figured it's still early yet, so I'll have to wait on the reviews.

We just booked a Mexican Riviera cruise, so I'm wondering if everything will be in Spanish and we'll be eating nothing but Mexican food? My doctor will LOVE to hear that!

My sister hates cruising because she feels like she is a captive on the ship during sea days. Now I can tell her sea days are just like being in ports - LOL!:D

[heathermk57]

[quote name='Newtonrose']I'm giggling too... what's a Fanny Pack? :o[/quote]
We'd call it a bum-bag!

[doodlefan]

Darn

I was thinking about the Legend for Asia. I won't book it now. I cruise to these far away places so that I can tour and see the sights but come back to the ship for entertainment and "normal to me" food. If I want to have local cuisine, I will have a lunch off the ship.

I want to know I will like the food on the ship, especially if in a really different culture like Asia. I know people who have been on land vacations and struggled with the food. For me a cruise takes the worry out of it.

I'm not fond of the whole immersion concept at all.

[Elizanessie]

[quote name='spirite']Perhaps they couldn't wait to get back to change their pounds into dollars![/quote]

Kinda hard when they werent getting many tips at all as most of the pax were Brits.

It was actually so bad that one of the main staff from RCCL UK had to go to Southampton to try and sort it all out and calm down very upset crew members.

[JLvacation]

I have been reading the threads on the (immersion) and was just wondering .
It seems that a lot of this is in the Asia and Europe Cruises.
has anyone had one happen out of San Juan ?

[srlafleur]

All true enough, but if the ports are the same, maybe they're just calling it "immersion" because the majority of the passengers are locals.
Perhaps because they couldn't sell out all the staterooms to Americans?
I don't think cruising half empty would be good for business, either.
Yes, I'd be concerned to hear of a change, but I doubt there's need for panic as long as the itinerary remains pretty much intact.
Personally, I probably wouldn't have known about it, or paid any attention to it, if I weren't hooked up here at CC. Upon reaching my cruise ship overseas, I would have just gone about my merry way, assuming that what Iwas experiencing was the norm for that itinerary. Perhaps that's just me. I choose the itinerary 1st.

[suvicki]

[quote name='MtnBikerFallDown']With my family being from the South (foothills of the Appalachians in Tennessee), we've all got the accent and our own little sayings. My favorite is when something is slick my Dad says it is slicker than owl poo. Except, being my Dad, he does not say poo.

With that being said, imagine the mayhem that ensues when we get together with my brother's family. His wife is Australian but lived in London for years. His Father in Law is originally from Egypt, lived in France for about 20 years, Israel for about 10 and the rest of his life in Australia. His Mother in Law's parents lived in Russia until just before she was born, so she speaks Russian as well as Aussie English.

When we get together it is the biggest mish-mash of accents and languages you have ever heard. My sister-in-law's favorite threat to me (jokingly) is "I hope an emu comes and knocks your chockhouse down." That means that she hopes the huge bird (somewhat ostrich-like) comes and kicks down my outhouse. I love that one.
(BTW, I live in TN, but we do not actually have an outhouse, and yes... I have shoes:D ).

I kept trying to figure out who their friend Lorie was and why she was always getting furniture with them. Turns out a Lorry is a truck. Ooops.:rolleyes:

I know there are tons more words we do not have in common, but I cannot remember them right now. I hope some of you have more, because this has been absolute fun reading!

Immersion cruise critic style!!:cool:[/quote]


I grew up in Australia and the saying I heard was ' I hope your chooks (chickens) turn into emu's (ostrich like bird) and kick your dunny(outside toilet) down!:eek:

[alphakitty]

I can't help but wonder if the Indy Pre-Inaugural was considered an immersion cruise? The ships passengers were mostly Brits. If this was considered an immersion cruise, I didn't notice it. There were some British foods available, i.e., cooked tomatoes and rasher for breakfast, but Sorrento's pizza and JR's were open. Trivia was definitely British biased, but we had fun playing anyway, even though we only got 4 out of 20!

Anyhow....I vote yes, I'd go, especially on the Indy where the differences aren't huge to me...I'd love to go again! :)

[Pat&Liz]

I do think it's a good point... If the idea is to have a 'British-only' crew, then they'll expect to get at least minimal wage, plus extras for night-duty and overtime etc... RCCL will have to cough up for that to get them onto the ship to do the work. Those British staff won't be looking for extra tips at the end of it...

Do you think if someone told RCCL that they'd have to conform to UK employment standards, they'd soon drop the whole 'British-immersion' thing?? lol

[spirite]

[quote name='Elizanessie']Kinda hard when they werent getting many tips at all as most of the pax were Brits.[/quote]

Perhaps they were mainly Scots? :)

(That's a joke, I'm teasing)

[emdia43]

[quote name='Ms Understood']Amen to the poster who mentioned smoking. I am the one who has been changed to Asian immersion. I am sure as part of my "Asian Immersion" experience the smoking will be accomodated to the extent that I will be uncomfortable.[/quote]

It is something I will be checking closely from now on- I never gave it much thought on Caribbean cruises as the smokers are such a small percentage
of cruisers, or at least I haven't been inconvenienced by them. On this cruise there were so many and all of the places they smoked were unavailable to me that I missed a lot of the activities I would normally do.
It was also quite worrisome to see people flicking cigarettes over the rails all the time.

[heatherb1958]

Liz-(Elizanessie) part of the problem on the Navigator was that the bar bill receipts didn't have the 15% tip automatically added which we were used to.. We didn't realise this until we had been on the ship 3 days !!:eek: . It is a bit embarrassing if you are used to just leaving a tip on a table in a restaurant to have to write an amount on a receipt. We never used to carry any money around with us on the ships but now we have started to because of that situation:( . We did show our appreciation to all the other staff who served us :) .

[Elizanessie]

[quote name='alphakitty']I can't help but wonder if the Indy Pre-Inaugural was considered an immersion cruise? The ships passengers were mostly Brits. If this was considered an immersion cruise, I didn't notice it. There were some British foods available, i.e., cooked tomatoes and rasher for breakfast, but Sorrento's pizza and JR's were open. Trivia was definitely British biased, but we had fun playing anyway, even though we only got 4 out of 20!

Anyhow....I vote yes, I'd go, especially on the Indy where the differences aren't huge to me...I'd love to go again! :)[/quote]

Hi Mary :D

Our sailing was mostly Brits because it was for the C&A Dplus members and VIPs,it wasnt anything to do with an Immersion Cruise.

It was strange but really lovely to hear so many american accents on our sailing as it kind of gave us a feeling of being on a "real" cruise if you follow. :D

If you sailed on a "normal" time Med cruise from Southampton you might notice the "differences" more ;)

[marci22]

[URL]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=779066[/URL]

opinion from someone who did one of these on page 2

[Fitnessmaniac]

What is "Immersion" cruise? What does that mean? :confused: Sorry..I saw it posted below and everyone is against it..but..can't figure out what it is without going through a bunch of posts. :(