The article is too long to print here, but is well worth a visit to: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7879-2001Jun1.html
The description of the passengers is also wickedly accurate, and generally supportive of my rationale for not desiring a cruise in such an environment!

Check it out for an enlightened view from the other side>

[ 06-03-2001: Message edited by: Cambodge ]

Howlingly funny...and dead on true.

Only one question. What do they do with the all the leftover eggs?

I've seen a Celebrity gala midnight buffet and it shocked me! All that food made me feel rather guilty about world hunger! I could not eat any myself. In fact I could not understand how anyone else could when they had all had eaten a four course meal the very same evening? Maybe that's why I don't weigh 280 pounds?

On what Ship is he now?

Yes, I understand how it can be quite frustrating not being able to do the material he enjoys but if it is such a problem then he should take his jokes elsewhere and not blame nor insult the audience. A cruise ship has such a diverse group of travelers and one must adjust to that environment. If he had a job to perform in front of children or someone who was challenged in some way, he would have to change his material as well...would he dislike them too for this???

Please forgive me, I don't mean to completely put this man down. I do understand how the cruising industry(along w/ it's paxs) has changed so drastically over the last 20 years+ and I do understand what the jobs are like on the ship and what goes on behind the scenes(to some it's wonderful, to others it's hard work...depending on position), but this man has a good job and is fortunate to be doing what he is doing. Perhaps, he is just miserable and disappointed w/ himself because he feels he has only succeeded to being a comedian on a ship and not to national stardom...but to me, his success thus far is worth applauding. He really needs to stop accepting offers to work ships or change his attitude because to me he sounds like such a miserable person...unless the author of that article just depicted him that way.

Please feel free to respond if you think I'm out of line...I've got an open mind and maybe I just misread the article...

[ 06-08-2001: Message edited by: lov'tocruise ]

quote:

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Originally posted by lov'tocruise:

Please feel free to respond if you think I'm out of line...I've got an open mind and maybe I just misread the article...]

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I do not believe you misread the article, but you may have misinterpreted my spin on it.

I found the most amusing elements were the descriptions of the overweight, overfed, zonked out passengers; the excesses of the buffets; and those vicious descriptions of those elements of cruise-ship life which keep me firmly on the Northeast and Atlantic venues vs the sodden Carib, as populated by such.

quote:

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Originally posted by Marcia:
Gee, I will have to tell my husband and our traveling friends, that we are overweight, overfed, zonked out because we like the caribbean (as well as the northeast, northwest and Europe). Talk about putting people down, when you have never met them. We are none of the above. And as for the reporter "accurately" reporting what he saw, he is reporting his "opinion" as most reporters do. That's "his" opinion. If you read two reporters you will swear they are reporting on two different stories.

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Marcia,

I have taken 10 cruises over the course of 32 years. There is a dis-proportionate number of obese people on a cruise ship compared to a random sample of the general population.

quote:

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Originally posted by Marcia:
... And as for the reporter "accurately" reporting what he saw, he is reporting his "opinion" as most reporters do. That's "his" opinion. If you read two reporters you will swear they are reporting on two different stories.

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No, corect, I have never met "them." But I have encountered their clones on other Carib cruises, to the extent that I have "sworn off" such expeditions in the future.

As for reporters, yes, they all write "opinions" - and every time you read a newspaper, unless you were an eyewitness to an event you are reading the "opinions" of a reporter, which has been subject, on major newspapers and wire services, to stringent editorial cross-checking.

Columnists are exceptions. Their "opinions" are upfront and clearly defined - I know, I once wrote a ski column for a major metropolitan newspaper, long ago. And I wrote my opinions on ski lodges, slopes and similar.

But this reporter was on a story - acccurately reported, and, by opinions at this site, verified on an almost daily basis.

There seems to be a disproportionate number of grossly overweight and for some reason , ill mannered passengers cruising the Caribbean and also Bermuda.

I visit the United States regularly. I don't
encounter this type of mixture in good old hometown USA.

The low budget Caribbean cruises may act like a bottom dredge and suck up this segment of the community.

My word we’ve had it all recently, Just what is happening to this forum?

quote:

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Originally posted by Ceefa's Mate:
Snobbery,Intolerance,Racist,Obnoxiousnes,Obesephobic

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We can do better than that..we've also had in the past:

homophobobia
Zenophobobia
Ageism
and a touch of sexism too!

If it's the same Alan King I met on board the Mercury in '97, he's from Scotland. As for those who enjoy sterotyping folks, what are you afraid of? Chill-out and relax; the last time I looked, we all have something about ourselves that doesn't fit the "norm". Prejudice comes in many forms; let's not use this forum to spread it

quote:

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Originally posted by cruznut6:
Malcolm

If it's the same Alan King I met on board the Mercury in '97, he's from Scotland[/b]

That's the guy.

[b]let's not use this forum to spread it

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Well said!

quote:

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Originally posted by cruznut6:
Malcolm

If it's the same Alan King I met on board the Mercury in '97, he's from Scotland.
Regards...Bob

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Excerpt from Entertainment Bios - Yahoo

"Alan King
(Irwin Alan Kniberg) the son of Russian immigrants.
actor, comedian, producer
Born: 12/26/27
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
King, once Irwin Kniberg, grew up in Brooklyn,
King honed his material working in the Catskills and entertaining New Yorkers with his routine focusing on the frustrations of the middle-class American dealing with bloated, inefficient commercial and governmental institutions."

As far as him sounding bitter, I don't think he sounded bitter at all. Who doesn't complain about their job at one time or another? I know I complain about mine every now and then...

What shocked me was the fact that this was the GALAXY from Celebrity Cruises, and the passengers didn't sound like they fit Celebrity's target market AT ALL...

And he gets PAID REAL WELL...

He was reporting; he was on salary; and, based on most reactions posted above my posoting here, he was dead-on accurate!

If he was reviewing a rock concert, or a symphony production, or a political convention, he certainly would have described those in attendance. e.g. "Primarily middle-aged 'soccer moms'"; or "well-fed K-street lawyers in double-breasted suits," or "frenzied teens with balloons and signs," or whatever.

That is what reporters do.

He did not inject any of the prejudices claimed and cited above in his reporting. He called it as he saw it. Neither did I in my posting.

His descriptions, which correlated with my observations of past cruises were obviously accurate. And he described people, with whom I would not care to associate, particularly in critical mass as one finds on a cruise!

No problem there. I share neither their culinary nor satorial choices.

And I would not consider a four-figure investment in a cruise in such company to be a value for money spent, under those circumstances.

Been there, done that.

We need HONEST reporting of what cruising is like, if for no reason than to counter the fawning "infomertials" which the (US) "Travel Channel" provides for Carnival and others.

And given the reviews of various ships and lines, read in this forum, we provide just that - a reality check.

In this case, I called in an article which I thought, and still think, is appropriate to this forum.