Did you see this? China rising

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/05/27/are-chinese-cruises-the-next-big-thing-in-the-trav.aspx

We took the Costa Victoria from Shanghai in November 2012 on a monthlong B2B. The new, huge cruise terminal was nearly deserted at the time. It was 40 minutes from the center but reachable by rapid transit (which we took to the center twice). I don't think we had many China residents among our passengers, who were overwhelmingly non-Asians from Europe (Italians, French, Germans), AU, NZ, UK, and a handful from the U.S.

I have no idea about the Asian marketing effort Costa may have undertaken. The only thing we know is that our month was dirt-cheap, with the second 14-day leg costing each of us $500 U.S. The first leg, 14 days beginning from Shanghai was full, including some 400 Norwegian auto salesmen. The rest were a smattering of "Europeans" from a variety of countries, including Italy, Germany, France, UK. More Asians from Singapore mostly on the second leg, but still a small minority.

If the goal was to market the cruises on the local market, the Costa Victoria was the wrong kind of a ship. As the attached link reports the newly assigned ships are much snazzier. WOW is essential. As visits to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok attest, middle-class Asians are suckers for expensive prestige brands. And their downtowns are nightly light shows, particularly the Shanghai riverfront. Without bells and whistles -- and relatively few balcony cabins -- the Victoria was not attractive.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/05/27/are-chinese-cruises-the-next-big-thing-in-the-trav.aspx

 

We took the Costa Victoria from Shanghai in November 2012 on a monthlong B2B. The new, huge cruise terminal was nearly deserted at the time. It was 40 minutes from the center but reachable by rapid transit (which we took to the center twice). I don't think we had many China residents among our passengers, who were overwhelmingly non-Asians from Europe (Italians, French, Germans), AU, NZ, UK, and a handful from the U.S.

 

I have no idea about the Asian marketing effort Costa may have undertaken. The only thing we know is that our month was dirt-cheap, with the second 14-day leg costing each of us $500 U.S. The first leg, 14 days beginning from Shanghai was full, including some 400 Norwegian auto salesmen. The rest were a smattering of "Europeans" from a variety of countries, including Italy, Germany, France, UK. More Asians from Singapore mostly on the second leg, but still a small minority.

If the goal was to market the cruises on the local market, the Costa Victoria was the wrong kind of a ship. As the attached link reports the newly assigned ships are much snazzier. WOW is essential. As visits to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok attest, middle-class Asians are suckers for expensive prestige brands. And their downtowns are nightly light shows, particularly the Shanghai riverfront. Without bells and whistles -- and relatively few balcony cabins -- the Victoria was not attractive.

Agree that the Costa Victoria is not attractive but it is an older ship. There was certainly a good number of Chinese on our cruise last New Year. They didn't seem bothered at all about the ship not being glitzy but guess it suits some.

I was on the Victoria in October 2012 for a 7-day Japan cruise from Shanghai (return) and it was packed with Chinese nationals.

I think the OP's experience - most of the pax being 'westerners' (Euopean etc.) - was because the ship was being repositioned after her Shanghai 'season'.