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There are 5 costly and common cruise booking mistakes that cruise passengers make when booking their cruise vacation, which can mean they pay more than they should be, end up with an itinerary that is not ideal for them, passenger mix and weather conditions that do not meet their needs. I review and discuss what to watch out for and to help ensure your cruise booking leads to a perfect cruise vacation.
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Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 77 cruises at time of making this video.
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I'm Gary Bembridge this is another on my
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cruising tips of Travis I want to share
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with you the really common and big
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mistakes that people make when booking a
0:08
cruise starting with this one missing
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the best prices that are out there and
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in order to do this the most important
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thing of all is timing timing is
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absolutely key to getting the best price
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first of all when our price is likely to
0:25
be lowest when Cruise Lines launch new
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itineraries they generally price them at
0:31
pretty good prices often the lowest
0:33
you're going to find and that's because
0:35
they want to get people to sign up to
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booking a cruise way in advance because
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they're often launch itineraries one two
0:40
or sometimes even three years ahead of
0:41
time and what they want to do is try and
0:43
get people to book so they know how full
0:45
it is get the money and get the deposits
0:47
in so if you are planning and are
0:50
thinking far ahead booking a cruise with
0:52
art in Ares come on sale you'll often
0:54
get the best price or certainly a loft
0:56
and get but whole bunch of extras added
0:58
on to onboard credits or free drinks or
1:01
gratuities or whatever so when
1:02
artilleries launch is when you're going
1:04
to find some of the sharpest prices the
1:06
second key time when you look for great
1:09
prices is 90 to 60 days before a cruise
1:12
the reason for that is you have to pay
1:15
your final deposit to me as the way
1:16
rules are at the moment 60 to 90 days
1:19
depending on the cruise line before the
1:20
cruise goes at that point in time the
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cruise line then knows how full the ship
1:24
is and they then want to clear the rest
1:26
of the cabins so they will start to
1:28
offer really show up prices promotions
1:30
and discounts to fill the ship the third
1:33
really important time when it comes to
1:34
timing is what's known as wave season
1:36
now this differs a little bit based on
1:38
country but most countries will have the
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wave season just after the Christmas
1:42
period and into the new year the
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beginning of year that's where lots and
1:45
lots of people start to plan their
1:47
vacations the year ahead and this is
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when most cruise lines will launch big
1:51
promotions and they have pretty
1:53
aggressive sales targets to hit in the
1:55
wave season to lock down sales so you'll
1:57
normally find really sharp prices as
1:59
well really really important though is
2:01
there will be ad hoc promotions coming
2:03
along the way whether it's wave or it's
2:05
the 60-day late bookings so sign up for
2:08
email newsletter so there's something I
2:10
strongly recommend any cruise line that
2:11
you're interested in because that's
2:12
normally where they will
2:13
push-out great deal so all through the
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year there may be deals that happen out
2:18
of these three other key periods that I
2:20
was talking about the other critical
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thing when it comes to prices and timing
2:24
is don't assume that you will get the
2:27
best price always from the cruise line
2:29
or from your agent shop around look at
2:31
online sites look at the cruise line
2:33
site talk to your agent and take a look
2:36
at what deals and offers are going
2:37
around now largely speaking you'll find
2:39
prices are often the same across the
2:41
different channels but what gets added
2:43
is often the key difference so you might
2:45
find certain cruise agents will add in
2:47
extra onboard credit or amenities so
2:50
make sure that you're shopping around
2:51
and looking and comparing prices before
2:54
you decide to book critically important
2:56
though when it comes to timing is once
2:58
you've booked particularly we've booked
2:59
way in advance is make sure that you
3:03
track what's happening with fairs so
3:05
check in every now and again or with
3:06
your agent to check in with prices and
3:08
if you find that your cabin has reduced
3:10
in price contact the cruise line and ask
3:12
them what they will offer because they
3:14
will normally give you an upgrade or
3:16
that adds some more amenities in if your
3:18
actual cabin price is now being sold to
3:20
you but the cruise lines won't
3:21
proactively come and offer you a better
3:23
price are really important make sure
3:25
that you keep tracking so timing is
3:27
everything but also staying diligent and
3:29
keeping an eye on prices is also
3:31
important the second really big mistake
3:33
and common mistake that people make when
3:35
booking a cruise is not really looking
3:36
at the nuance and the detail of the
3:39
itinerary this is really important for a
3:41
couple of reasons one of the big
3:42
mistakes that people make is they look
3:44
at it Artemis say for example in the
3:46
Mediterranean they see its includes
3:47
Paris Rome and Florence
3:50
however the ports for all those places
3:52
are a very long way away so you're not
3:53
to find that January you might say Paris
3:55
with little brackets from La Habra it
3:58
might say Rome little brackets from
4:00
choo-choo Vecchio or Florence little
4:02
brackets from laverna so you really
4:04
understand what port are you actually go
4:07
into how close is it to the place that
4:08
you really absolutely want to see
4:11
another mistake that a lot of people
4:13
make is they look at that Chinnery and
4:15
they say they're going to all these
4:16
places five or six beautiful islands in
4:18
the Caribbean or wherever but make sure
4:20
you take a look at the detail of the
4:22
itinerary and understand what time you
4:23
arrive and what time you leave you might
4:26
find that some of those ports that you
4:27
you want to spend time in you're only
4:28
spending a morning or an afternoon in so
4:31
a lot of people discover once they get
4:32
right close up to the cruise they're
4:33
actually the place that they want to
4:34
spend time in isn't actually not going
4:36
to happen another critical thing when
4:37
you look at the itinerary is make sure
4:39
you understand what the sea days are so
4:41
one of the things that cruise lines
4:42
sometimes do is they're only lists the
4:44
port day so you take a glance at their
4:46
Tarin you think oh that's great I'm
4:48
going to all these ports but you might
4:49
find there's a lot of sea days
4:50
interspersed between those and if you're
4:52
the sort of person that really doesn't
4:53
like sea days you might find out the
4:55
cruise is not really the one you want
4:57
and you've booked on a cruise it has
4:58
more sea days then you're really
4:59
comfortable with another really
5:01
important thing when you look at the
5:03
itinerary is look at which are tender
5:04
ports and where you're actually docking
5:07
tender ports are those where you
5:08
actually use the boat tenders so the
5:11
ship docks outside the port and you get
5:13
ferry backwards and forwards which does
5:15
reduce quite significantly in many cases
5:18
the amount of time you actually get to
5:19
spend on lad the third big mistake that
5:22
people make when booking a cruise is not
5:24
really think in detail about the
5:26
significance of the time of year and
5:27
whether now of course all of cruisers
5:29
are very seasonal so you can only Cruise
5:31
in certain areas and certain times of
5:33
the year but there are things you still
5:35
need to watch out for one of which is
5:37
related to the weather so you might
5:39
decide that's great I'm gonna go to the
5:40
Caribbean in July because it's the
5:43
middle of summer however that's in the
5:45
hurricane season so make sure that as
5:46
you look at the regions although you can
5:48
Cruise and some of them
5:49
the weather's not great so for example
5:50
in Alaska you get a lot of rain
5:52
particularly as you head into the center
5:54
and towards the end of the season if
5:57
you're going to say to Tahiti and the
5:59
French Polynesian islands you'll find
6:01
the rainy season really runs up to the
6:03
end of May into June time and then it
6:06
gets really good weather after that with
6:08
very little rain so when you're looking
6:09
at booking also take a look in detail
6:12
about what weather you like to have on
6:14
that cruise because the cruise lines
6:16
going there doesn't necessary mean it's
6:17
a great time of the year to go to the
6:19
other thing linked to that is make sure
6:21
that you're understanding the type of
6:24
travel you're going to have on different
6:25
types of cruises so again I'll use the
6:27
Caribbean as an example if you're
6:29
heading in the middle of summer you're
6:30
going to have lots of families if you're
6:32
heading it's spring break time you might
6:33
know lots of partying people if you head
6:35
out say in January February you might
6:37
have an older crowd
6:39
really think about what the school
6:41
holiday is the college holidays the
6:42
university holidays are the big public
6:45
holidays that are taking place at
6:46
different times of the year because that
6:48
could affect the type of person you're
6:49
onboard so for example I don't have kids
6:51
and I like to travel without kids on
6:53
board so I would always choose to go to
6:55
the Caribbean out of school holiday
6:56
times so perhaps in November or February
6:59
because it's going to be more people
7:00
that are more couples more solos and
7:03
more of an adult crowd for example
7:05
people in their enthusiasm to book a
7:08
cruise and book a particular itinerary
7:10
don't always think through or understand
7:12
the fine print the cancellation the
7:14
refund terms and this is really
7:15
important one of the things we got more
7:18
used to in the whole period of the
7:20
shutdown and restoring of cruising is a
7:22
Cruise Lines introduced much more
7:24
flexible cancellation and change and
7:26
refund policies however as we look
7:29
further ahead
7:30
it's reverting back to the old more
7:32
traditional booking and cancellation
7:34
terms which are pretty rigid so when
7:36
you're booking a cruise take a look at a
7:39
couple of things first of all understand
7:41
what the deposit level is going to be
7:43
some cruise lines have very large
7:45
deposits so for example the time of
7:46
recording you had to deposit 20% with
7:49
say Virgin voyages where some other
7:51
cruise lines were offering really low
7:52
deposits also understand if the deposits
7:55
will be refundable or you can move them
7:57
so that actually means you might want to
7:59
book a cruise but you're not a hundred
8:00
essential but you know that you can get
8:02
the deposit back also carefully
8:04
understand the cancellation terms so a
8:07
lot of cruise lines certainly once
8:08
you've paid the final balance it's very
8:10
very very strict cancellation where you
8:13
can lose between 75% and a hundred
8:15
percent of your fare really really
8:16
easily even doing sometimes on some
8:18
cruise lines simply changing a passenger
8:20
name is counted as a cancellation so
8:22
perhaps you're cruising with somebody
8:24
and they can't come and you want to
8:25
switch it some cruise lines will
8:26
actually take that as a cancellation and
8:28
you will lose that fare for that person
8:30
now you can often normally negotiate
8:32
around that if you're good at
8:34
negotiating on perhaps put your foot
8:36
down but it is a really big challenge
8:38
well so bear in mind that cruise lines
8:41
within the cruise contract can change
8:43
without any compensation the itinerary
8:46
so you might be into the Caribbean it
8:47
might have a certain amount of ports but
8:49
because the ports are said closed or
8:51
there's an
8:52
at the port or it gets too busy they can
8:55
chop and change out ports at will pretty
8:58
much without him to give you
8:59
compensation so really understand as you
9:02
book some of those limitations and some
9:04
of those rules another big mistake that
9:07
people make when booking cruises they
9:09
get really excited about the cruise they
9:11
booked the cruise but they don't think
9:12
through travel insurance travel
9:14
insurance is really really important
9:17
it's important to take our travel
9:18
insurance ideally at the time of making
9:20
a booking and having a travel insurance
9:22
that includes canceled for any reason
9:25
now some of the rules and regulations
9:26
have got much tighter through the whole
9:28
pandemic situation where love the
9:30
insurance companies are taking out some
9:32
of the council for any reason but you
9:34
really want travel insurance when you
9:35
book so that if you do have to pull out
9:38
of a cruise at any stage you have
9:40
insurance to cover you also make sure
9:41
that you understand does it cover if
9:44
there are any pandemic related issues
9:46
crop up many of them are not covered now
9:48
with everything that's happened it's not
9:50
entirely clear how expensive or easy it
9:53
is to get travelers includes cruises so
9:56
for example my partner recently got a
9:58
notification from their insurance
10:00
company which said they no longer by
10:01
default carried cruise as part of their
10:04
policy so you had to contact them and
10:06
pay quite a big premium to get cruise
10:08
cover so really important make sure that
10:10
you can get travel insurance because if
10:12
you're aged or any pre-existing
10:14
conditions before you make a booking
10:16
because you may find that going on a
10:18
cruise is very risky without having
10:20
travel insurance if something does
10:21
happen to you god forbid you break a leg
10:23
or something or you fall ill and you
10:25
have to be evacuated or put in the
10:27
hospital on land the cost can be
10:29
absolutely enormous
10:31
so creasing without travel insurance is
10:32
a really bad idea those are some of
10:34
those common mistakes I see with people
10:36
booking a cruise we've all done it I've
10:38
done many of these which is how I've
10:40
learnt those or I've heard people
10:41
talking about those I have loads more
10:44
videos packed full of tips and advice
10:45
about cruising so why don't you watch
10:47
another one of those right now
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