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7 Cruise Customs Are Being Scrapped Now. Which Will You Miss Or Celebrate Going?
Jan 28, 2025
Discover the 7 long-established cruise traditions and practices that are ending. Many cruisers are desperately hoping that cruising will return to how it was, with cruise traditions they have come to expect and love to stay. Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to enjoy everything that we may have loved as cruising returns. But, it is not all bad news! Some of the more annoying cruising traditions are also being swept away.
In this episode of Tips For Travellers, I explore a bunch of long- established cruise traditions that are ending due to the pandemic. Some of which I am celebrating their demise, and think you will too.
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
many cruisers are desperately hoping
0:02
that cruising will return to how it was
0:04
unfortunately
0:05
we're not going to be able to enjoy
0:06
everything that we may have loved
0:08
as cruising returns but it's not all bad
0:12
news
0:12
some of the more annoying cruising
0:14
traditions are also being
0:16
swept away i'm gary bembridge and in
0:19
this episode
0:20
of tips for travellers i explore a bunch
0:23
of long established
0:24
cruise traditions that are ending due to
0:27
the pandemic some of which
0:29
i am celebrating their demise and think
0:31
you will
0:32
too one tradition being swept aside at
0:35
least for a while
0:36
is filling ships to over capacity if
0:39
you've wondered why
0:40
ships can feel so full here is why
0:44
the capacity of cruise ships that you
0:46
see published in things like brochures
0:49
or online
0:50
is based on double occupancy of cabins
0:53
so just
0:53
two people in each cabin however
0:57
many ships have sofa beds or pull-up
0:59
beds
1:00
that can hold additional passengers in
1:02
most of their cabins
1:03
so ships can and do sell in peak times
1:07
way over that published capacity making
1:09
things
1:10
pretty crowded on board for example
1:13
royal caribbean's symphony of the seas
1:15
has an advertised capacity
1:17
of just over 5 500 guests again based on
1:21
double occupancy
1:22
but can take an additional 1 100
1:25
passengers
1:26
on sofa and pull-up beds that's up to 20
1:29
more than that sort of advertised level
1:31
msc grandiosa already selling in europe
1:33
has an advertised double capacity of
1:35
around 4800
1:37
but can sell with 30 more passengers
1:39
that's 1
1:40
500 more people the new protocols say
1:44
ships should sail with up to about 60 of
1:47
double occupancy capacity so ships are
1:49
going to be dramatically
1:51
less busy mse grandiosa has been sailing
1:54
at around only 50
1:55
full so far of course the business model
1:58
for cruising is built
1:59
on selling with full ships and if they
2:02
have to keep sailing with low capacity
2:03
we could see
2:05
fares rise but meantime this is a
2:07
tradition that i'm excited to see
2:09
set aside a tradition for many of us was
2:12
getting to the port as
2:13
early as we could so we could board the
2:15
ship as soon as it was ready
2:18
we would explore have lunch get an early
2:21
to secure dining show
2:22
or spa reservations settle into a cabin
2:26
jump into a pool or hot tubs and get
2:28
that rush from
2:29
kicking off our cruise vacation early
2:32
that tradition has been taken out of our
2:34
control
2:35
due to the more intensive check-in and
2:37
screening process
2:38
we will be allocated to check-in time
2:40
staggered across
2:41
the day now i suspect that higher grade
2:45
cabins
2:46
perhaps high cruise loyalty tier members
2:49
will get
2:49
those prime earlier slots now this
2:52
change
2:53
is to ensure physical distancing by
2:55
guaranteeing there'll be fewer people in
2:57
the terminal
2:58
at all times and of course allowing time
3:00
to perform any covert 19 testing
3:02
this can take up to 70 minutes per
3:05
passenger to get results when peer side
3:07
swap testing is used so fewer people
3:10
and staggered time also more time is
3:13
needed to undergo more intensive
3:15
face-to-face
3:15
screening including discussion of a more
3:17
detailed health questionnaire
3:19
and then finally once that's all done
3:21
for your carry-on bags to be sterilized
3:23
before you board the ship
3:24
so choosing when we get on board is
3:27
unfortunately
3:28
a tradition that's disappearing one to
3:31
definitely mourn
3:32
in my view the next tradition to be
3:34
scrapped is one
3:36
definitely to celebrate this is the one
3:38
requiring
3:39
everyone assembling in person to do the
3:40
safety muster drill
3:42
this tradition is being replaced with a
3:45
three-step process first you watch the
3:48
safety briefing video on your cabin tv
3:50
and it ends with a unique code that you
3:52
call into a dedicated line
3:54
to prove you've seen the whole video and
3:57
then thirdly
3:58
you have around about two hours to go to
4:01
your designated muster station you scan
4:03
your cruise card there and this proves
4:05
that you know where to go
4:06
in the case of an emergency maybe one
4:10
really good tradition changing out of
4:11
the curved protocols is this new muster
4:14
drill approach
4:15
i really like this change in cruising
4:17
traditions
4:18
now one tradition which is being done
4:20
away with which for a while anyway
4:23
is dining with strangers or people
4:24
you've met on the cruise now i suspect
4:26
there will be equal amounts of people
4:28
celebrating
4:29
as mourning this tradition going many of
4:32
the protocols
4:33
require cruisers to dine with their own
4:36
household only
4:37
or travel group that's actually linked
4:39
through their bookings
4:40
the thinking is that drinking and dining
4:43
is a mask-free activity and so even with
4:45
physically distanced tables
4:47
guests will be in close proximity and
4:49
for some time
4:51
if they dine together and so lions
4:54
want to and probably need to minimize
4:56
close
4:57
sustained mingling by scrapping this
5:00
tradition of dining with
5:01
strangers now while for some of us this
5:03
may be
5:04
a good change you may be one of those
5:07
who are dismayed especially
5:09
if you are a solo traveler meeting new
5:12
people
5:13
on a cruise by being allocated a table
5:15
with random strangers
5:17
is a long-established cruise tradition
5:19
and
5:20
many long-lasting strong friendships
5:23
they've been
5:23
forged out of this therefore i'm pretty
5:25
sure it's a tradition that is likely to
5:27
be reinstated
5:29
as soon as it can because that's what
5:30
cruisers want so i want to mourn
5:32
meantime
5:33
some of the early leaks on possible
5:35
protocol changes hinted
5:36
that the popular buffet restaurants
5:39
would disappear
5:40
and be replaced by table service only
5:42
venues
5:43
passengers generally were up in arms and
5:46
the good news
5:47
for those of you who are fans of the
5:49
buffet is that this cruise
5:51
tradition looks to be reinvented not
5:54
replaced self-service will go but the
5:57
buffet will remain
5:58
basically the same but with crew members
6:00
at every station
6:01
you know serving passengers the food
6:04
this was already
6:05
the case pre-covered on some lines
6:07
including silversea
6:09
oceania holland america so it's not a
6:11
completely new thing so while
6:13
some may mourn the inability to load up
6:15
your plate
6:16
i think most of us will celebrate the
6:18
survival of that informal
6:20
buffet dining tradition one tradition
6:23
that i think we will all mourn is the
6:26
ability to do whatever we want to do
6:29
in a port be that going on a line
6:31
excursion
6:32
using an independent tour provider
6:35
self-exploring or even just nipping off
6:37
the ship to do some shopping or hang out
6:40
in a local bar
6:41
or a restaurant or whatever some of my
6:43
most
6:44
memorable ports have been when i've
6:46
wandered off the ship
6:48
and kind of stumbled across something
6:50
totally unexpected
6:52
something totally different but
6:53
certainly for the immediate future
6:55
passengers will only be allowed off the
6:57
ship
6:58
on cruise line excursions and have to
7:00
stay with the group
7:01
at all times this is the approach
7:04
agreed with lines and with ports it
7:07
means the line
7:08
can keep control over you know who
7:10
passengers come in contact with
7:11
and control how that happens by ensuring
7:15
the different protocols followed by tour
7:17
providers they
7:18
sign off on and of course for the ports
7:20
it means that they
7:21
also have visibility and control over
7:24
where and how cruisers
7:26
are kind of interacting with their local
7:28
population the removal of the tradition
7:30
of being free to do whatever you want to
7:33
do in a port
7:34
is definitely something to mourn
7:37
but hopefully again this will change
7:41
however we can celebrate that this
7:43
approach does certainly mean that
7:44
cruisers
7:45
are starting to be welcome again at
7:47
ports and at least as guests we can get
7:49
off and do some exploring
7:51
it's not as liberating it's not as
7:53
flexible as cruising pre-pandemic
7:56
and hopefully that old tradition will be
7:58
able to return
7:59
sooner rather than later cruise lines
8:01
have a tradition
8:02
of charging an enormous amount of money
8:05
if you need to make use of their medical
8:07
facilities
8:08
the cost for seeing the doctor or nurse
8:10
has been high
8:11
as have associated costs for drugs and
8:14
other procedures and things like that
8:16
even relatively minor illnesses could
8:18
leave you with
8:19
a pretty hefty bill medical centers were
8:22
there
8:22
for emergencies now this tradition is
8:25
changing
8:26
and i think it should be a cause for
8:28
celebration
8:29
medical provision and all the facilities
8:32
are being increased they've been changed
8:34
as a result of the pandemic so the lines
8:36
are going to now be encouraging
8:38
passengers
8:39
to access and use the medical team kind
8:41
of encouraging
8:42
guests to contact them with any with
8:45
relatively minor symptoms
8:46
early on and of course to encourage
8:49
passengers to
8:50
contact the team a wider range of
8:52
illnesses
8:53
will now have no charges associated
8:56
with them when passengers do
8:58
particularly around respiratory
8:59
related things and symptoms cover 19
9:03
testing that kind of stuff
9:04
the medical center is kind of shifting
9:06
from tradition of being a profit center
9:08
to play more of a kind of a public
9:10
health role on board focusing on
9:12
monitoring and prevention
9:14
making accessing medical care easier
9:17
having a more proactive public health
9:19
role on board for them to monitor and
9:21
prevent illness on board
9:22
it's a new tradition and i think it's
9:24
definitely a change that we should
9:26
celebrate
9:27
cruise traditions are changing as
9:29
cruising reopens
9:30
and as it finds its way to navigate the
9:32
world we now live in even the changes
9:34
happening
9:35
are likely to evolve they like to adapt
9:37
constantly but as cruisers
9:39
we should not expect cruising to return
9:42
exactly how it was
9:43
but among the changes are some really
9:45
good moves so let's
9:46
celebrate the good ones as much as we
9:49
mourn
9:49
those that are going i have loads more
9:52
tips for travellers episodes that packed
9:54
full of cruising tips and advice
9:56
so why not enjoy another one
9:59
right now
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