Greed on Cruises

We all have stories of our cruise - but few of us ever tell the really negative side of things – we’d rather come home and tell everyone how wonderful it all was and hopefully make them very envious.



That is one thing about cruise forums (and we all know how much Prow’s Edge despises them) that can sometimes offer some honest opinions.  Not often - but ...



Here are a few comments about greed and over-eating from our own now discontinued forum...

A couple in  England after a Caribbean Cruise started the whole span of comments:

We have seen so much gluttony on cruise ships it is obscene. On a Carnival Cruises forum passengers talk about how many entrees they can order on a cruise and proudly claim to ordering 3 or more lobster entrees on the Captain's dinner night. We saw just that on our Carnival cruise.  And it’s quite disgusting. Pure greed.

That post - edited from the forum about eating healthfully on a cruise - started a whole new topic about greed and gluttony on cruise ships.

Jack and Alice (?) from New York (whoever they may really be) responded by saying:

Don’t think that greed and gluttony is restricted to the budget cruise lines. We were sailing with Regent, and there was a guy on board who would appear for breakfast every day, head for the buffet, and nab the extra large, “display-only” croissant that was perched at the top of the buffet display. For 4 days, the astonished dining room staff replaced the display croissant - then finally gave up. The cream topping to the story is that the guy then made a huge fuss that they were not providing his large croissant each morning. It takes all sorts!

JollyRoger (or so he called himself) said in response:

The breakfast buffet attract the worst in passengers, doesn’t it?. You think the guy who nabbed the display croissant every morning was greedy? Forget it. He runs a poor second to the many passengers who march the length of the buffet table piling the plate with fruit salad, fried eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns with two pancakes perched on top and then pouring syrup over the lot. On ONE plate. No kidding! The travel agent probably didn’t alert them to the fact that they could go back a second time (or a third)?



And if that is not as bad a commentary about fellow travelers can be, another forum entrant called Seabound added:

We’re just sick of watching people pile up their plates at the buffet and then leave a whole wack of food on the plate and get up for more, and do the whole thing all over again. This is not just greed : this is criminal waste.



If you have any stories of your own experiences, we would love to hear all about them.



Updating Cruise Ship Vocabulary

For full details about cruise line vocabulary - even if it is just to refresh your memory – find out more at http://www.prowsedge.com/cruise-advice-tips-vocabulary.html

In the meantime, here is a shorter highlight of some of those sea / shipboard words you might not necessarily encounter on land - starting with one very big NO NO!

NEVER refer to your cruise ship as a "boat".  A cruise ship is NEVER referred to as a boat - it is always a “ship”

Other basics include:

AT THE FRONT OF THE SHIP
bow – word used to refer to anything at the front of the ship
fore / forward – more words used to refer to anything at the front of the ship

AT THE BACK OF THE SHIP
aft – word used to refer to anything at the rear of the ship
stern – another word used to refer to anything at the rear of the ship

AT THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE SHIP
starboard – word used to refer to the right side of the ship

AT THE LEFT SIDE OF THE SHIP
port – word used to refer to the left side of the ship

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SHIP
midships – word used to refer to the middle of the ship


For many more such basics visit:
http://www.prowsedge.com/cruise-advice-tips-vocabulary.html

Food - Part of Your Cruise

If food is an important part of your vacation / cruise, and you won’t be alone in admitting that, it is worth doing some research before you book your cruise.



This is not say that we’re all gourmets and only want the best and exotic things on offer. 



If you’re traveling with your family, and your kids like a burger as much as anything else – it really is not worth paying extra fares on a cruise that specializes in gourmet food.

If you are traveling just with adults, and if food is an important part of your vacation experience, then it is worth really checking out what the various cruise lines you are choosing between are really offering.


Admitting that food is important is nothing to be ashamed of. In a recent poll Prow’s Edge found out that over 70% of those researching their possible cruise options made it clear how important the food is.



The first thing to do is to really, honestly admit what you want, what you need, what you can afford and what would appeal to every one cruising with you.


If your idea of heaven is a selection of 6 different pastas (and whose isn’t!) without even a sliver of truffle in sight at the luncheon buffet, then the food on the contemporary cruise line ships is probably going to fit the bill and be more satisfying than all the gourmet recipes of the ultra-luxury boutique cruise lines.

But if you can really tell the taste difference between a clawed lobster from Maine and a spiny lobster from the Caribbean, however, the fact that one of those contemporary cruise lines offers you as much lobster as you can eat is probably not going to be too enticing and you are probably going to want to spend more money on a premium cruise line or luxury cruise line cruise.

That is not to say that one is better than the other.  Each just caters to different tastes, and many of the contemporary cruise lines offer quality as much as they do quantity.

If your are a gourmet you will probably want to find a cruise line that is smaller, and considerably more expensive than most and which allows a higher budget for cuisine. 



In this case you are entering a world in which celebrity chefs are wooed to create designer menus and tastes and a good old fashioned cheese sandwich is going to be practically unrecognizable.  Great for some, not for others.



The point of all of this is that you really do need to do your research before booking your cruise and find out out exactly what the cruise lines offer and whether that is what you really, honestly want.