European cruise attire

[Kwami]

I love the stereotyping in this thread. Europeans are soft-spoken, polite, sharp dressed folks who will totally steal anything that isn't glued to your body! Americans are loud, trashy, and don't know how to walk!

Ridiculous, all of it.

 

[Chirple]

I've heard about these American stereotypes for years. When we were on our Med cruise in 2014, we wore long shorts, comfortable short-sleeved shirts, and sneakers for our touring days, which consisted of long stretches of walking, sometimes uphill and over uneven pavement in the blazing heat. I'm sure if Europeans were following in our footsteps they would have dressed similarly for comfort.

I worked many years in NYC, and tourists were easy to spot there as well.

ETA: Regarding white sneakers aka marshmallows--I don't know about anyone else, but I find these are a rarity now.

 

[Karin1984]

I love the stereotyping in this thread. Europeans are soft-spoken, polite, sharp dressed folks who will totally steal anything that isn't glued to your body! Americans are loud, trashy, and don't know how to walk!

Ridiculous, all of it.

It is to a certain extend, but the point was, American tourists are usually easy targets for pickpockets because they stand out. This goes for all the big cities in Europe. Pickpockets are everywhere.

I am sure there are plenty of Americans who do not fit the stereotype, travelling to Europe. This message was then not for you.

There are also plenty who have never travelled to another country before. They need some guidance on how to make themselves a bit less of a target.

And if it makes you feel better, spotting a typical British male tourist in Amsterdam: no matter the temperature a British male tourist in their 30-40s will always wear shorts on holiday, overweight, slightly balding, travels with a group of similar men, also loud, and tends to drink at 10 in the morning. They are a jolly bunch, though

 

[mab2012]

It is to a certain extend, but the point was, American tourists are usually easy targets for pickpockets because they stand out. This goes for all the big cities in Europe. Pickpockets are everywhere.

But isn't this true of any tourist-who-looks-like-a-tourist? American or otherwise?

I'm neither American nor European, so I don't really have a dog in this fight. But even so, some of the comments in this thread, however well intended, have struck me as elitist, snobbish, possibly offensive, and certainly stereotypical.

The fact is, most tourists of any nationality tend to stand out merely because they are visiting tourist areas, often are not speaking the local language, don't look like they're in a hurry to get anywhere, may be carrying a camera / backpack or actively taking pictures, perhaps are disoriented or look confused, and yes, may be dressed more casually than locals who are going about their daily business. Much of this in unavoidable, especially on a short stop when absorbing the local culture in any meaningful way is not really practical, and seeing the highlights is probably a priority. And it's just as true of European tourists in the US as it is of American tourists in Europe.

I doubt that pickpockets really discriminate much based on nationality, even if they can identify it.

I actually took OPs original question to mean attire while on the cruise ship, not necessarily while in port. And for what it's worth, on the couple of European DCL cruises I've done, I've never noticed much of a difference. Maybe partly because DCL's clientele are still heavily American, even in Europe.