Cruises are not trashy. I am not particularly interested in going on a cruise, but they are not trashy. Enjoy!

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Anonymous wrote:It is trashy because for the most part it is lazy people who want to experience something new with no effort and no real interest in engaging with the place in any meaningful way. They want to pull up in their ports in an ugly boat, descend on some place, scoop the cream off the top and go back to their boat where they can drink too much and eat too much. They get to feel like they are someone special, all the while willfully ignoring the fact that they are polluting the air and the water of the “paradise” they are visiting and the fact that they are waited on hard working people who have no other option but to leave their families and their homes for months at a time for crap wages because it is their best option - and for those crap wages they get to make some schmo from the US feel like somebody. They get to tolerate drunks, aggressive passengers and unruly children, all with a smile on their face. In short it isn’t the mode of travel that makes it trashy it is the ignorance and indifference multiplied by hundreds that makes it trashy.

What are the meaningful ways classy people engage with the locals on their vacations to the Hamptons or Kiawah?

I think you’re confusing people wanting to go on an adventure vs relax without feeling like cattle. Those are two different trips.

The old money people I know don’t even do “adventure vacations” except maybe in college/early 20’s. They want to be surrounded by people like them and good help and that’s all.

Yes, in fact, some of the most moneyed people are also the most insular.

That's one of the best things about being rich. Most people would be insular if they could afford it.

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Anonymous wrote:Even high end cruises are going to attract a different group than WASPy places with similar cost like Salamander or Nemacolin. Think of a plumber who owns his own shop and makes $200,000 a year, wife wears head to toe Gucci. They will go on a cruise but probably never heard of Chapaqua. The difference is that cruises are mass-marketed, not passed through word of mouth, tradition, niche marketing, etc.

Well, you can’t even spell Chappaqua, so there’s that.

Also, Chappaqua isn't really old money. It was very middle class professional in the 1960s and 1970s, trending towards UMC professional in the 80s, and then shifting right into new money tear-downs. My relative that has lived in Chappaqua since the 1960s cruises, as one sole data point. They are first gen Americans, not old money.
Maybe Greenwich for old money?

Maybe. There is also a contingent of working class people in Greenwich...oooh, scary. I think GHS has something like a quarter of its students on free lunch.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even high end cruises are going to attract a different group than WASPy places with similar cost like Salamander or Nemacolin. Think of a plumber who owns his own shop and makes $200,000 a year, wife wears head to toe Gucci. They will go on a cruise but probably never heard of Chapaqua. The difference is that cruises are mass-marketed, not passed through word of mouth, tradition, niche marketing, etc.

Well, you can’t even spell Chappaqua, so there’s that.

Also, Chappaqua isn't really old money. It was very middle class professional in the 1960s and 1970s, trending towards UMC professional in the 80s, and then shifting right into new money tear-downs. My relative that has lived in Chappaqua since the 1960s cruises, as one sole data point. They are first gen Americans, not old money.
Maybe Greenwich for old money?

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care about “authenticity” but I hate crowds. So big cruises and big resorts lose a lot of their appeal from that.

I also hate crowds, but cruises can be a surprisingly good way to avoid them. There is always a quiet deck no one goes to where you can sit a read a book and look at the sea. (Hint -- walk as far away from the pool and bar as possible -- it will be deserted!). If you aren't going on the cruise-sponsored excursions, it's super easy to just walk off and get a cab someplace or book a private car -- so no need to be on crowded subways, trains, buses, etc. The meals are mostly pre-booked so you walk right into your table -- so no need to crowd around a hostess stand jockeying for a spot on the wait list and then mill around in the patio or bar area waiting to be called for your table, or jostle to find space at a crowded counter service type place. The only time I spend around crowds on a cruise is on embarkation day and when they make you do the safety drill muster -- now that i know that's a thing, I mentally prepare myself for it (and get there early to avoid the crush) and it's fine.
Like many people, I like cruises because it eliminates all the headache of my kids complaining that they are hungry between meals, bored by X and want to do Y, sick of spending time with their sibling, etc. Because it's all optional, they actually end up opting to spend time together! But we also do lots of other types of vacations -- most of which require more planning on my part and more advance negotiation about what people want to do. If it were just me traveling by myself, I probably wouldn't do a cruise unless it was to a specific place that i wasn't comfortable traveling alone or could see best by ship (e.g., the Panama Canal).

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Anonymous wrote:I don't think they are trashy. I do think people really need to consider how the workers are treated before giving a cruise line their money.

Every six months they have the option to renew their contracts.

This is right. They have contracts. Can stop after any of the contracts end. Also there are Americans that do the same job on cruises, are they slaves?

Good prior post about Disney. Pay 5K for a week at a theme park, waiting in multiple hour long lines for rides. Go every year. That is totally classy.

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Anonymous wrote:A travel vlogger couple I watch just went on an Arctic cruise with Ponant. I looked it up out of curiosity. It’s crazy expensive — like starting at $40k! A girl can dream.

Kara and Nate?

They are professional travel influencers. No way they paid for it; they were comped to promote it.

If you watch cruise vlogs, my favorite one is La Lido Loca.

I also follow Chris Wong who works for Royal Caribbean.

Yes, and of course they don’t pay. That’s the price for the rest of us.

Oh wow. I like La Lido and Chris Wong as well. I watched Kara and Nate a few years ago but got jealous after they started getting 1M views for most videos and stopped watching. They probably make 1-5M a year from Youtube now.

Anonymous wrote:Even high end cruises are going to attract a different group than WASPy places with similar cost like Salamander or Nemacolin. Think of a plumber who owns his own shop and makes $200,000 a year, wife wears head to toe Gucci. They will go on a cruise but probably never heard of Chapaqua. The difference is that cruises are mass-marketed, not passed through word of mouth, tradition, niche marketing, etc.

Well, you can’t even spell Chappaqua, so there’s that.

Even high end cruises are going to attract a different group than WASPy places with similar cost like Salamander or Nemacolin. Think of a plumber who owns his own shop and makes $200,000 a year, wife wears head to toe Gucci. They will go on a cruise but probably never heard of Chapaqua. The difference is that cruises are mass-marketed, not passed through word of mouth, tradition, niche marketing, etc.

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Anonymous wrote:It is trashy because for the most part it is lazy people who want to experience something new with no effort and no real interest in engaging with the place in any meaningful way. They want to pull up in their ports in an ugly boat, descend on some place, scoop the cream off the top and go back to their boat where they can drink too much and eat too much. They get to feel like they are someone special, all the while willfully ignoring the fact that they are polluting the air and the water of the “paradise” they are visiting and the fact that they are waited on hard working people who have no other option but to leave their families and their homes for months at a time for crap wages because it is their best option - and for those crap wages they get to make some schmo from the US feel like somebody. They get to tolerate drunks, aggressive passengers and unruly children, all with a smile on their face. In short it isn’t the mode of travel that makes it trashy it is the ignorance and indifference multiplied by hundreds that makes it trashy.

What are the meaningful ways classy people engage with the locals on their vacations to the Hamptons or Kiawah?

I think you’re confusing people wanting to go on an adventure vs relax without feeling like cattle. Those are two different trips.

The old money people I know don’t even do “adventure vacations” except maybe in college/early 20’s. They want to be surrounded by people like them and good help and that’s all.

Yes, in fact, some of the most moneyed people are also the most insular.

Every time I leave my house and mingle with the public, I get where they are coming from.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is trashy because for the most part it is lazy people who want to experience something new with no effort and no real interest in engaging with the place in any meaningful way. They want to pull up in their ports in an ugly boat, descend on some place, scoop the cream off the top and go back to their boat where they can drink too much and eat too much. They get to feel like they are someone special, all the while willfully ignoring the fact that they are polluting the air and the water of the “paradise” they are visiting and the fact that they are waited on hard working people who have no other option but to leave their families and their homes for months at a time for crap wages because it is their best option - and for those crap wages they get to make some schmo from the US feel like somebody. They get to tolerate drunks, aggressive passengers and unruly children, all with a smile on their face. In short it isn’t the mode of travel that makes it trashy it is the ignorance and indifference multiplied by hundreds that makes it trashy.

What are the meaningful ways classy people engage with the locals on their vacations to the Hamptons or Kiawah?

I think you’re confusing people wanting to go on an adventure vs relax without feeling like cattle. Those are two different trips.

The old money people I know don’t even do “adventure vacations” except maybe in college/early 20’s. They want to be surrounded by people like them and good help and that’s all.

Yes, in fact, some of the most moneyed people are also the most insular.

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Anonymous wrote:Just because something is expensive doesn't mean it isn't trashy.

I think if there are more than 20 or 30 people on your boat there is a good chance it is trashy.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. Hoi Polloi are entitled to enjoy themselves. But I wouldn't want them to be doing it near me.

How is 200 people on a Viking river cruise different than 200 people in your hotel?

Because you’re not forced to spend any time with the people in your hotel? I literally never meet anyone in my hotel.

You must be so proud!

No, just an observation. In a hotel, people are mostly just there to sleep; they can drink, dine, and recreate elsewhere. On a cruise, you sleep, drink, dine, and recreate on the boat in large part, with all the other people staying on the boat. So you naturally are thrown together in a way you're not with your fellow hotel customers. I don't really see what there is to get snippy over, it's just fact.

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Anonymous wrote:I wonder how so called educated people still can enjoy a cruise considering the bad impact on the environment and the horrible working conditions on those slave ships. Just disgusting!

Like they enjoy sea world or the zoo or fly by plane or live in a big house or drive gas cars or…..eat meat.

Hypocrisy that’s how. Most everyone. More and more people ….more and more

+1. But no one wants to acknowledge that to themselves.

I just do all the things and enjoy them. Then I’m not a hypocrite at least!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how so called educated people still can enjoy a cruise considering the bad impact on the environment and the horrible working conditions on those slave ships. Just disgusting!

Like they enjoy sea world or the zoo or fly by plane or live in a big house or drive gas cars or…..eat meat.

Hypocrisy that’s how. Most everyone. More and more people ….more and more

+1. But no one wants to acknowledge that to themselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is trashy because for the most part it is lazy people who want to experience something new with no effort and no real interest in engaging with the place in any meaningful way. They want to pull up in their ports in an ugly boat, descend on some place, scoop the cream off the top and go back to their boat where they can drink too much and eat too much. They get to feel like they are someone special, all the while willfully ignoring the fact that they are polluting the air and the water of the “paradise” they are visiting and the fact that they are waited on hard working people who have no other option but to leave their families and their homes for months at a time for crap wages because it is their best option - and for those crap wages they get to make some schmo from the US feel like somebody. They get to tolerate drunks, aggressive passengers and unruly children, all with a smile on their face. In short it isn’t the mode of travel that makes it trashy it is the ignorance and indifference multiplied by hundreds that makes it trashy.

What are the meaningful ways classy people engage with the locals on their vacations to the Hamptons or Kiawah?

I think you’re confusing people wanting to go on an adventure vs relax without feeling like cattle. Those are two different trips.

So are we supposed to judge all relaxing vacations that are not "adventurous"?