Can only speak for Thomson

not only British, large contingent of American/ Canadian.......also European when we were sailing with Thomson last march.....

http://www.cruisecritic.uk might help as they list who owns what ....... though the port of departure and route often determine the main nationalities aboard.

As well as the direct brand nationality there are ship locations which effect passenger mix as well as itinerary.

Eg. Island cruises in Brazill is not promoted to UK passengers.(transatlantics are)

Thomsons reach a long way through their international brands.

Princess use charters for some ships so they get many more brits than some of the others which are mostly american.

Round Britain cruise attract fewer Brits.

No sure about the fly cruises in the med once you move away from the core brit budget lines(OV,Island,Thomsons), probably mainly american(who knows next year).

A few of the German brands seem to be exclusively german/german speaking, Aida comes to mind.

On our Navigator of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) from June 30th to July 5th, there were nearly 1,000 Spanish on board, over 1,000 British and about 800 American. Also a fair smattering of German, Scandinavian and Asian. Most announcements were in Spanish as well as English, but rather than being an intrusion, I found it was a reminder that we were doing something far removed from our daily lives and it added to the feeling of being on holiday.

Yes you are right ships deployed in Mediterranean Ports will attract a lot of European and others. I have had a general mix of all the Scandinavian and the Med countries represented. If a Ship is in Barcelona then it stands to reason that they will be many who will sail on her. I have has South Africa's Australian's Japanese South American and if fact all over the world. Cunard has traditionally always had a fair no of German's. Cunard promote their brand there and also some of the T/A sailing will end not in S/Hampton but in Hamburg (I think) My BTB T/A last year went on to Hamburg.
Ships which are based in Brazil tend to be very much party and so it would not suit the British cruisers. Some years ago Splendour of the Seas on its first S/A winter had to go into dry dock in Miami as a lot of the bars etc had been trashed. I was on the first cruise out of Lisbon to the Canaries and the ship was nowhere near ready. They should have cancelled and re-booked as it caused no end of trouble.
After this cruise I made the move to Celebrity cancelling a cruise I had for Radiance of the Seas and went to Summit.
I enjoy the mix of nationalities and would hate to be on a ship with all UK passengers. I would not cruise on a ship that uses Charters to get to the Caribbean. P&O do and some of the Princess ships. I would always chose to do a scheduled flight and direct if I can.

Sue

I can only speak for Thomsons and we've had three cruises with them. The passengers are mainly British, although there are some Europeans on board. Last year there was a significant number of Russian passengers on board and announcements were often made in Russian specifically for them.

Keela1eva2 - bear in mind that these days longhaul charter flights are more comfortable with more legroom than scheduled flights. They will also be direct I imagine.

Sorry still not for me.

Sue

Well, personally I prefer to be comfortable on flights, so would prefer to cruise with a line that used charter flights! Each to their own though. Presume comfort isn't high on your list of priorities! I have had numerous uncomfortable transatlantic scheduled flights and do my best to avoid them. There is also a much higher risk of a scheduled flight being cancelled than a charter one. The charters may go late but they go eventually. The scheduled ones just get cancelled.

OK, let's just agree to disagree.

luci

Never had a scheduled flight cancelled to date and I have flown all over the world. Comfort and amenities are certainly important to me which is why I chose only to fly certain Airlines and would avoid others like the plague. This is really about nationalities on Cruises and the only reason flights came into it was that some Cruise lines use Charters.

Sue

Done one cruise charter with Princess,

Fantastic,

Full special cruise service, good meals and free drinks, better than the scheduled flights these days.
Proper meet on arrival(all passengers are for the cruise) ship will wait if flight is late.

Only problem there is no business or first class and limited No of premium seats.

Back to nationalities,

I think we are going to see much bigger mix as time goes on, American No.s will stagnate as airfares go up growth in the US was lower than the rest of the world anyway.

Europe will continue to grow and and as the weathly in the emerging nations begin to travel more will chose cruising , Allready Indian and Chinese are higher numbers than they were a couple of years a go.

If US ships are to survive in europe they will have to attract Europeans, the market is close to saturation so if growth slows they are going to struggle to fill berths. great for prices untill they redeploy the ships so it will be a grabit while you can just like after 9-11.

I think that on our last Thomson cruise, the Russians outnumbered the Brits !!...and they put away a fair bit more booze too