Aussie, Aussie, Aussie - Oi, Oi, Oi!

The cruise ship started another cruise from Honolulu to Tahiti, New Zealand, and Sydney yesterday. There were 900 Canadians on board from Vancouver to Hawaii, but now there's 60 of us. The number of Americans has diminished quite a bit as well. The big change for this cruise, however, is the Australian contingent. There are now 1600 paying class aboard.

So this next bit may seem a bit chauvinistic, but I started to list the changes I've noticed on board. I'm writing this on Day One of the actual Hawaii-Sydney leg, so you know that these changes are really obvious to me. If you're an Aussie and you're reading this, don't be offended - I mean to imply that, although we come from basically the same stock, our cultures have diverged.

• There's a giant TV screen by the pool on Deck 11. For the last two weeks, it's been tuned to NFL Football whenever it was on during the day (they sometimes showed movies at night). Now they show Cricket. I have no idea what's going on.
• There is a cold drink dispenser that Laura and I would get Lemonade from for the last 11 days. It's now "lemon-lime flavored water".Maybe it's just coincidence, but maybe it's on purpose.
• The no smoking rules have changed. Now you're only allowed smoking in one very small, outdoor, public place (before, there were  indoor "smoking areas" scattered about the ship). Unfortunately for us, it appears that you are allowed to smoke on your outdoor stateroom balcony - and we have smokers on both sides of us, so outdoor/balcony time is limited. It's amazing that, when you're a non-smoker, you can smell burning cigarettes from a thousand yards.
• Australians don't drink Foster's Beer. They hate the stuff. It's what they ship overseas to all of us. We had a pre-cruise meeting the other day for people continuing on from the Vancouver-Hawaii leg. A couple of the Aussies on board asked "are we gonna get some real beer in when we reach Hawaii?".
• Australians do, however drink. A lot. The bar staff have huge grins on their faces - they probably sold more yesterday afternoon than they did for the entire Vancouver-Hawaii cruise.
• The "hours of operation" for the bars have been expanded/extended. The cruise line knows where their bread is buttered.
• There are lots more kids on board. Every second Australian couple seems to have brought their kids.

These next two points I'm sure are unfair generalizations, but I'll write them down here just because Laura thinks it's rude:

• The Aussies seem much more "in your face", "direct", and "forceful" than North Americans (and especially Canadians). I've watched the wait staff look somewhat surprised by the lack of "please" and "thank you" they now get. Many are now treated like second class people. If you were Canadian, and you were served a steak that was underdone, you'd likely say "oh, that's all right, it's really OK" to the waiter. The Aussies (generalization, I know) would say "this steak is garbage, get me a new one". He might add the word "boy" to the end of that sentence too (I did here this last night).
• Young women in their 20's in Vancouver (Laura says it's purely a Vancouver phenomenon) generally look healthy, body conscious, dress conscious and well put together. On the cruise from Vancouver there were maybe 20 girls of that age aboard, and they all fit this description. There are now about 100 aboard of that age group, and none of them fit that description (shallow, I know). When they get older (30's, 40's) things don't improve.

So that's my initial take on things from my balcony on out first sea day out of Honolulu. As I get to do more thinking and observing, I'll be sure to write some more. I know you can hardly wait.