“Whether it’s rice and congee for breakfast or different types of seafood for lunch or dinner, they’re sticklers for the authenticity of Chinese cooking,” Goldstein said.
Then there’s the entertainment. Out go the Broadway-style shows beloved in the Caribbean and in come flashy Chinese song-and-dance hits and local celebrities. SkySea invited candidates from the Voice of China reality TV singing contest to perform and staged the Miss World China Final beauty pageant on its ship Golden Era, which can carry 1,814 people.
Royal Caribbean in 2016 invited cross-talk artist Guo Degang to perform on “Ovation of the Seas” during the ship’s inaugural visit to China last year.
“There’s much more of an emphasis on shopping,” Goldstein said, adding that Chinese passengers spend two or three times as much in the on-board stores. “Plus we know that they’re shopping energetically in the ports of call.”
But perhaps the biggest difference in China is that cruises are often a mutigenerational holiday.
“Chinese cruise travelers are very family oriented" said Muskat at SkySea, which counts Royal Caribbean and Chinese online travel service Ctrip.com International Ltd. as major backers. "They like to spend a lot of time with their family whereas in North America you can put the kids in the youth program for seven days and not see them again."
Liu said she barely tried any of the swimming pool, mahjong, shows, casino, bars and gym on her cruise ship, owned by Italy’s Costa Crociere SpA, because her grandson and 84-year-old mother required her constant attention. Costa said it invites local chefs for its China cruises and adds more extensive retail space. The company, which still keeps an Italian flavor to its voyages, said about 85 percent of its passenger accommodation is in family cabins for China cruises.
Tailoring ships to win over Chinese seafarers may provide an advantage to local cruise lines that can adapt quickly to the rapidly changing tastes of Chinese consumers, said Yu Dunde, CEO of Chinese online travel booking service Tuniu Corp.
China has “too many similar offerings,” said Yu. “To win the market, you’ll have to differentiate through activities, you have to give people something that other cruises can’t.”
Companies are trying to diversify, with more ships departing from southern ports like Guangzhou and Xiamen into the warmer waters of the South China Sea for the winter market.