Traveling with Aussies - Volume 1

Cruise Day 6

This 114-day ' round-the-world cruise started 34 days ago in Auckland, New Zealand. Although we just hopped on for a month-long segment, most of the passengers in for the long haul joined in Sydney, Australia. I suspect many of them caught Ubers to the cruise terminal. 

As a result, this cruise is VERY Australian even though Princess is typically predominantly American. The "Good day, Mate!" accent is everywhere! To the point that apparently Rob and I are the ones with the accent, not the rest of the passengers. The cruise is so heavily Australian, all the prices onboard are in Australian dollars. This works out great for us few Americans. Given the current exchange rate, everything is about 25% cheaper than listed. Score!

There’s a list posted of the nationality composition of this second segment of the cruise (33 days long). A full 67% of the passengers we are sailing with are Aussies (13% are Kiwis, 11% are Americans). I’ve never vacationed with so many Australians before, even when Rob and I took a tour of Oz in the mid-1990s (WE were on vacation; they weren’t).

It’s…loud.

Despite signage, these groups were
neither reading nor quiet. 

It’s early yet, so I plan to write again later, but my first impression of So Many Australians is that they are – generally speaking, as a herd of 1,816 – similar to what American tourists get stereotyped as. Loud, big, extroverted, bordering on annoying. They seem to have little awareness of their impact on others around them, often chatting (loudly) in the middle of stateroom hallways, blocking stairwells, and shouting out to friends across dining rooms.

They also – again, generally speaking – seem to not be terribly pleased when things don’t go their way. They are quick to complain, huff, and ask for accommodation. The Guest Services desk is pretty busy. The Aussies know what they want and they aren’t shy about trying to make it happen. Among the things that have been requested of Lloyd the Cruise Director (as posted on a cruise-specific Facebook page):

• New bath towels, as the current ones are like sandpaper (we hadn't noticed)
• More variety of songs played in the pool area
• Sharper knives in the dining room
• Installation of a shelf next to the communal sink at the buffet for placing cell phones when washing hands

Today I watched a man put a bowl of soup and a full plate of food on a table next to a window in the buffet. While he was getting a beverage, an Aussie woman decided she wanted his table. So she unabashedly picked up his food and moved it to a different table and commandeered the prime window seat as her own. Who does that?!

The man was suitably confused but politely quiet when he returned and moved his food elsewhere.

So, yeah, so far I’m surprised by how “Senior Citizen Frat Party with a Kicky Accent and an Attitude” this cruise feels like at the moment. We’ll see if/how my opinions change over the next few weeks.