They can keep their cruise - I want that jumpsuit.

Guess I'm not really middle class, I have never been on a cruise, and I always wanted to.

I think it does a bit of disservice to middle class people to assume that when we go on vacation, we believe all the people around us are upper class people. No, I am pretty sure we all realize the upper class are at private villas at exclusive resorts where it costs $2,000 a night to stay. Make no mistake, when I am staying at an all-inclusive, I realize the people around me are either
A. Middle class like myself that saved awhile for a trip.
B. Newlyweds/honeymooners whos parents are footing the bill.
C. Retirees.

@invisiblenemies:

are you the clothing designer for a porno or something?

@Saboth: You know, I kind of just find this whole post insulting.

I hear the average cruise ship is a petri dish of germs. I don't go on them because I've seen Shark Week on the Discovery Channel one too many times.

I don't know anything about this author, but my knee-jerk reaction, based on that looking-down-his-nose posturing-filled snippet says he's a poser. Meh.

Of course there is still a class system, the ultra-rich continue to thrive and profit off of everyone else.
Anything else would be a foolish enterprise into the land of picking hairs.

"snarky author"

Is that an insult?

I don't understand why it's a bad thing for middle class people to enjoy cruises because they get pampered like they think rich people do.

This excerpt sort of sounds like, "Oh those idiotic middle class people, always striving to pretend they are rich..."

@Saboth: When I go on vacation, using my last as an example, I know that the upper class are at Le Meridien, not Hotel Jedermann.

@Anathema777: Exactly. Who doesn't like a little pampering? It's just that the middle class doesn't get to enjoy as much of it as the wealthy.

@Anathema777: I agree. I don't really see a purpose to the post other than to flame/demean the middle class

Hang on--that's a book from 1992. (Haven't read it, but I love Fussell's book on World War I.) I don't think that makes it automatically invalid, but has cruise ship marketing really stayed the same for seventeen years? Even the post suggests that it's changed in the last two.

But I didn't know the word "napery." Now I have to use it. (The word--I already know how to use a napkin, I swear.)

@Dansc29625:

To me it's not...

@floraposte: Oops--the book isn't from 1992, it's from 1983. It's a quarter of a century old. How on earth did it happen to come up here?

@floraposte: Coincides with the previous major economic downtown.

@balthisar: There's a useful point. But have cruises really changed in--well--waves like that?

@CoffeeChewer: I don't know. I think the aspirational point has some merit to it. That was driving a lot of people buying their larger-than-necessary houses and wanting travertine and granite and cherry in them, and the whole "house staging" phenomenon.

It's not just about people liking pampering, it's about what says "pampering" to different people, and how those symbols work. But I actually think Ben's point is somewhat contradicted by the quote (or the other way around), since Fussell is arguing that the cruise is selling a certain illusion of exclusivity while the cruise ad is anti-exclusive.

Cruise ships are disease factories! Unless you're planning to throw your spouse overboard in the middle of the night there's really no reason to go on one.

@Anathema777: I have to agree here. Vacations are about escapism and fantasy for many. A cruise or all-inclusive vacation is probably the only time all year where a mom doesn't have to do dishes and clean up after everyone. Do only the rich deserve to be pampered?

That being said, I have been on a cruise before, and the reality is definitely not like the commercials. Passengers are usually depicted alone on a beach or by themselves swimming with the dolphins, when in reality you are lined up with a bunch of other people and the dolphin is paraded past for a quick pat. It is almost impossible to get a deck chair on a cruise unless you get out to the pool at the crack of dawn. The parade of fruity drinks makes it bearable though.

@wildhare:

I'd never been on one so the family went in October 2007. It was a lot of fun for us (kids too) and I'd go again. We compared the cost of a 5 day/4 night cruise to a trip to Dinsneyland (we live in CA) and the cruise was cheaper.

I absolutely love that quote and i just ordered the book cheaply from half.com. It's so true. I never understood why people would go on vacation just to shop at The Gap in another country until he perfectly put it into words.

@wildhare: having been on three cruises that were specifically designed to have alternative entertainment (semi-hasbeen rock music instead of creepy Vegas-rejects)... a cruise has to be about the most boring vacation ever.

@TheWillow: A regular one I mean, mine were awesome.

I'm pretty sure most mainstream cruise lines cater to the "middle class" if you can break it down to something that simple. I've been on two cruises, Alaska and the Med, and both times it was clear the vast majority of the cruisers were families with a kid or two who had saved up a while for a great vacation. That being said, I stayed in a suite both times and there was a sense of snootiness in the suite hallways not present in the rest of the ship. Most passengers I spoke to did not even know there were suites on board. They thought most of the rooms were standard with the only difference being a balcony or a window. It was a nice change to be in a place where every body was there just to have fun. +1 for cruising, especially Alaska! And the author quoted above is just being elitist.

@Anathema777: It's more of a sociological argument than anything else, and as such I dont find it offensive. My social psychology class in college was filled with theories like this, more of which are correct. I think most marketing is concerned with "selling the feeling" and that feeling usually is keeping up with the Joneses. Wanna feel richer? Buy this product!

Attack the middle class, eh? I'll take a cheap shot across your bow, Mr. Snootypants:

"His first wife, Betty Fussell, a food writer and biographer, whom he met at Pomona College, has written a memoir, My Kitchen Wars (1999), that discusses their more than 30 years of marriage in highly negative terms, including allegations that Fussell had adulterous affairs with both men and women." - Wikipedia

No matter what class you are, the internet can help air out your dirty laundry.

To be on topic, I think taking a cruise could be nice. I like sitting around, big boats, and moving slowly. How pedestrian!

@Snarkysnake: Heyoooooo!

I'n sure there are plenty of regular people who go on cruises think it is nice treat. But part of me can't help but think it's also a trendy asshole thing to do; like owning a iphone.

Am I the only one here who hates vacations and hates traveling? I don't think I would ever be able to go on a vacation and actually enjoy it because I would be so stressed out throughout the whole thing, so much for relaxing! It would just be worry after worry for me. I went somewhere out of state when I was a kid and that's the last time I have been on vacation! So yeah, needless to say I have never been on a cruise, does that make me poor? Well I don't really care too much either, I am happy how I am.

I can do about 2 hours in a car to get somewhere I want to go but that's about it.

Funny: the first vacation I took with my then-boyfriend-now-husband was a week-long Caribbean cruise! And for our honeymoon we cruised the Hawaiian islands. Cruises are like those open-air bus city tours; they give you the highlights of places, so you can spend a little time and decide if you'd like to go back for more.

Plus the food ain't bad.

@mcjake: You've got to read the book -- it's a GREAT book. And I think everyone walks away from it at least a *little* insulted. I apparently read the wrong magazines for my self-perceived class status, and I wanted to bicker with the book about it. While totally agreeing with all the snarky stuff he said about OTHER classes. Which I think proves his point. :)

Fussel is so underappreciated.

I must be weird. For me it's not a real vacation unless I put at least 300 miles on the car, preferably mostly on two-lane roads. My fiancée and I drove US-101 down the Oregon coast last fall and had an absolute blast.

I think I'd be bored out of my skull on a cruise.

@circusgeek: Fussel is a genius, dude. He a very famous commentator on American society, though he's retired these days. One of his most famous pieces was "Thank God for the Atom Bomb!" which he wrote about his POV as a lowly soldier during WWII when the elite started questioning its use a couple decades later -- he's a very different voice than a lot of the American commentariat. (But in a smart, well-reasoned way, not in an "I'm different because I make up my own facts and then shout about them" way.)

The book "Class" is absolutely BRILLIANT and hugely amusing. He does take a "tone" but he's definitely not a poser. The tone is part of what makes it work.

And like Twain, it's not really looking down his nose at you personally, he pretty much disdains everyone equally, regardless of class.

@Anathema777: You have to read the book. He's snarky about every class like that. And it's frequently not so much snark as a certain painfully direct insight that deflates some of our more absurd American anti-class conceits.

It's so enjoyable I have to pick it up and re-read it every few years, and get mad at it ALL OVER AGAIN for deflating my personal conceits. :D

If you read any of the cruise forums Carnival is the Super 8 Motel of cruises.

@floraposte: It's an extremely famous and influential commentary on the realities of the American class system. It's also extremely funny. It's a classic.

As I said above, it's so good I have to re-read it every few years, and it actually holds up really well against the passage of time. Maybe you need to mentally insert "faux granite" for "formica" countertops or whatever, but more things have stayed the same than changed. A lot of the specific aspirational details have changed, and job prestige has shifted some, but the manners and morals and aspirational themes remain pretty constant.

@TheWillow: There is so much to do on a cruise ship, I have never been bored. But it is also a place where you can choose to do nothing and relax, that's great too. Maybe I'm not one of those that need someone "entertaining me".

@David Brodbeck:
I liked the cruse I went on but I have to agree with you. One of the best trips I had was when I had no work/classes for 4 days and hit the open road. I saw plenty of cool things and experienced a lot of fun activities. Nothing like being one step above a gypsy on the open road for a week to release ones stress.

@Saboth: I have a blast on cruises, never had any fantasies of hobnobbing with the upper class.

Eeeew. Norovirus. Buffets. Trapped on a barge with mobs of other people.

No. Thank. you.

@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): Yes, how could one not love a turn of phrase such as "is to be mixed with on them"? (lol).

@bcmusselman: Or, unless you're planning to throw yourself overboard.

@wildhare: The cruise I went on was pretty fun - if anything, being able to stare out into the vasty nothingness of the Atlantic was breathtaking. And the food was awesome. And the breakfasts that are served to you out on the deck, so you can contemplate the ocean without having to get up much.

Staying at or with our rich friends always works for us.

@Outrun1986: You sound like you need a vacation.

@bcmusselman: Or, if you have a hankering for swarthy gentlemen who can disassemble an AK-47 blindfolded on a pitching deck. Or a fondness for foul-mouthed parrots.

I really don't see the appeal of cruise ships.
It'd be like the equivalent of traveling in a Winabego.

I've traveled a fair amount but I've always been lucky enough to either know friends there, or once-removed friends, or meeting people there. You lose so much being in a tourist cocoon , I think.