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Discover the seven things people constantly say to me about cruising and why they do not cruise - and the reasons I think they are wrong. I explore topics including the age of cruisers, being trapped at sea with thousands of people, getting bored, dressing up and dress codes, seasickness, norovirus and if your cabin is important or not.
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Every week Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers Channel posts a video to help you make the most of your precious travel time and money on both land and at sea. First-hand travel inspiration, advice and tips based on the over 20 years I have been travelling every month.
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in this video I'm going to talk about
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seven things that people say about
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cruising that are absolutely and totally
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wrong I'm gonna a job tips for travelers
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in this video I hope to blow apart seven
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myths about cruising first of all
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cruising is for old white people well
0:16
it's really not true the average age of
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cruising is coming down dramatically the
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average age of cruising according to
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clear the cruise line association is
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around about mid-40s however bear in
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mind if you want a cruise in the
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Mediterranean or the Caribbean those are
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the two biggest cruise regions you can
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do it with people who are just like you
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so for example you could cruise with
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someone like Cunard which would
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definitely be older more mature and
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couples however you could also go on
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something like the Royal Caribbean or
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MSC Cruises these cater for families
0:49
they have ships which had lots of resort
0:51
like features and you'll find loads of
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families young families with young kids
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teenagers on board or you could cruise
0:58
with carnival carnival of fun ships and
1:01
their trucks a lot of people in their
1:02
20s and 30s can young families or of
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course if you are very into history you
1:08
could travel on something that boy just
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giant equity there you'll be surrounded
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by people to much more interested in
1:12
history much more interested in culture
1:15
and there'll be lots of talks and they
1:16
will probably be a little bit older so
1:18
the age of cruising is coming down very
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rapidly
1:20
it used to be definitely a much older
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thing but with the advent of cruise
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ships like broad Caribbean Norwegian MSC
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Cruises catering for families and young
1:30
people it is changing now of course
1:32
there are some cruise lines that do
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cater for a slightly older more
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conservative audience so things like
1:36
Holland America Line and Cunard
1:38
Fredersen these are very long
1:40
well-established cruise lines and they
1:42
have always appealed it to an older age
1:43
group appeal to slightly more
1:45
traditional cruising audience the
1:47
demographics of cruising also changing
1:49
very rapidly while at the moment about
1:51
75% of cruises are white and a lot of
1:53
cruises are in the United States as more
1:55
and more countries more nationalities
1:57
more and more cultures more and more
1:59
ethnic groups again to cozy it is
2:00
changing really rapidly so cruising is
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definitely not just for old white people
2:06
you can find a cruise line that matches
2:08
you Metis your age profile and matches
2:10
your interests and
2:12
with them so what is the second thing
2:13
that people say to me that I also think
2:15
is wrong 4,000 strangers on the high
2:18
seas is my idea of a nightmare a lot of
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people talk about how they just hate the
2:22
idea of being with thousands of people
2:24
well first of all there are over 300
2:27
cruise ships currently operating around
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the world and only a small percentage of
2:32
those are the big ships there are
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broadly speaking four categories of
2:37
sizes of cruise ships small medium and
2:39
large ships and also increasingly the
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mega ships those are the big ships with
2:43
the thousands of passengers small are up
2:45
to about 950 passengers and they include
2:48
cruise lines like Winstar Seaborn Silver
2:51
Sea region 7c they tend to be the more
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ultra luxury slightly more expensive end
2:55
and that's because the ships are smaller
2:57
and so of course the operating costs are
2:58
higher so the phase also tend to be a
3:00
bit higher a bit more exclusive in terms
3:02
of mid-sized ships or medium sized ships
3:04
there are many cruise ships in this
3:05
category and this is for passengers
3:07
between 950 and about 2,000 passengers
3:10
you'll find a lot of ships like Cunard
3:12
Queen Victoria Queen Elizabeth you'll
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find many of the Horn America ships some
3:17
of the piano ships like Arcadia fall
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into this category a lot of them are
3:21
built with what's known as the Vista
3:23
class structure or the Vista class hull
3:25
so there's a lot of cruise ships that
3:27
operate in this size terms of large
3:29
ships these are between 2,000 and 3,000
3:31
and again you'll find a lot of the big
3:34
popular cruise lines do have ships here
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so some of the Norwegian ships and the
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Royal Caribbean ships and then you have
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the mega ships so these are ships of
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over 3,000 passengers you'll find really
3:44
huge ships in here so some of the MSC
3:46
Cruises ships are in here some of their
3:48
own Caribbean ships and aren't here and
3:50
things like in the Norwegian epic so if
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you're looking for a small ship you'll
3:54
find it so you will not have to be
3:56
crammed onboard with thousands of
3:58
passengers if you don't want to the
4:00
third thing I hear a lot is I don't want
4:03
to go on a cruise because I'm worried
4:05
that I'm going to feel trapped and I'll
4:07
want to escape and I can't because I'm
4:09
at sea but in reality you're not going
4:11
to be trapped because on most cruises
4:13
it's very port intensive so if you take
4:15
a look at a seven-day cruise you're
4:17
likely to be in ports every single day
4:19
so probably from 8 o'clock in the
4:21
morning to about 6 o'clock at night you
4:23
will set sail and then
4:25
six seven eight o'clock in the morning
4:26
is when you're selling now bear in mind
4:27
what happens then you're going to be
4:29
eating you're going to be drinking you
4:32
might be gambling you might be watching
4:34
one of the big production shows you
4:37
might be dancing and then of course
4:38
you're going to spend six or seven or
4:40
eight hours sleeping so actually you're
4:42
not gonna have time to feel trapped
4:43
because you're going to be too busy so
4:45
the time on board when you actually
4:47
can't get off the ship is pretty small
4:49
and you're going to be very very busy
4:50
also the chance of you being bored is
4:52
very low because I don't think I've ever
4:55
met anybody that's come up for cruise
4:56
ship and said there wasn't enough to do
4:58
in fact most people come of cruise ship
5:00
saying I didn't have time to do
5:02
everything that's was there pretty much
5:04
every single Cruise Line will have a
5:05
daily program where activities will
5:07
start first thing in the morning and
5:09
will go to way after most people's
5:11
bedtimes it's very difficult to get
5:13
bored on a cruise ship because there is
5:15
so much to do now the fourth thing that
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I hear a lot from people is I don't
5:20
spend time in my cabin so it's not
5:22
important I disagree because I really
5:25
believe that the cavern you staying is
5:27
incredibly important it is going to be
5:29
the one place that you spend more time
5:31
in than any where else on the cruise so
5:35
you interview a big party animal and
5:36
you're only spending six hours a night
5:38
sleeping or if you're spending up to
5:40
eight or nine or more hours add in time
5:42
to get dressed to get changed to get
5:44
ready with a scart on excursions or for
5:46
your night out you're going to be
5:48
spending between eight to ten hours a
5:50
day in your cabin so it's very important
5:52
that you choose the right cameras so you
5:54
might decide you don't respect a lot of
5:55
money on a cabin so you want to go for
5:57
an inside cabin but do choose your cabin
5:59
very carefully the secret to finding a
6:01
great cabin where there is an inside
6:02
cabin or whether it's a suite is the
6:04
following take a look at the deck plans
6:07
or ask your agent and make sure that
6:09
you're surrounded on every side by
6:12
another cabin so you have cabins above
6:14
you you know Kevin's below you you know
6:16
cabins on either side of you and ideally
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cabins opposite you make sure they're
6:20
just around about cabins are in those
6:21
few hours or many hours that you're
6:23
sleeping or relax in your cabin you'll
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have a nice quiet and restful place to
6:28
retreat to so I do believe cabin is very
6:31
important it is the place that you spend
6:32
more time the bit thing that I hear a
6:34
lot is I won't go on a cruise because
6:36
I'm worried about getting seasick
6:38
now someone left a great comment
6:39
recently from their dad who'd been in
6:41
the Navy for 30 years who said the only
6:42
way to not get seasick is to stand under
6:45
a tree either don't go to sea so there's
6:48
always a chance that you get seasick
6:49
however modern ships are designed to
6:52
ensure that you have and their
6:54
passengers have an incredibly happy and
6:57
great cruise and the way they do that is
6:59
the ships are designed to deal with the
7:02
ocean so one of the big innovations is
7:03
modern ships have stabilizers so if the
7:06
sea does move around a lot they can
7:09
deploy stabilizers which go to either
7:10
side of the ship and stop it from
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rolling the secret though is if you are
7:14
concerned about getting seasick make
7:17
sure that you book a cabin in the middle
7:19
of the ship and as low down as possible
7:21
that is where the least movement will
7:23
happen and by booking the right cabin
7:25
taking the over-the-counter medicines
7:27
like Dramamine or stretcher on or
7:29
similar will ensure that you do not get
7:31
seasick they remind the cruise lines
7:33
want people to keep coming back and back
7:36
and back so they're going to make sure
7:37
that they do whatever they can to make
7:39
sure that you have the smoothest ride
7:41
possible the sick thing that concerns
7:43
people the most is about dressing up I
7:45
often get messages saying I want to go
7:47
on a cruise but I really don't want to
7:48
go because I hate the idea of dressing
7:51
up generally speaking if you like
7:53
wearing relatively casual clothes and
7:55
you don't to get dressed up most cruise
7:56
lines will have a smart casual approach
8:00
but make sure that you avoid the more
8:01
traditional cruise lines where they do
8:03
really encourage you and expect you to
8:06
dress up like your Kunal fred olson q
8:08
night for example still has a lot of
8:10
former lights and now very strict
8:12
nowadays most cruise lines have a
8:14
relatively relaxed dress code so most
8:17
cruise lines will allow you to wear much
8:19
more casual clothes on board however
8:21
pretty much every Cruise Line will not
8:24
allow you to wear jeans or shorts into
8:27
the dining room at night although not
8:29
all of them apply that strictly if you
8:32
want to wear shorts to dinner the best
8:34
Cruise Lines to take a look at are
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Norwegian and Disney Norwegian Cruise
8:38
Line has probably the most relaxed and
8:41
open approach to dress codes the next
8:44
thing I hear a lot is the concern of a
8:46
norovirus and getting ill so I recently
8:48
had a comment that cruise ships are
8:51
float
8:52
germ-ridden traps now the big concern
8:55
here is norovirus it gets a lot of
8:56
publicity norovirus is the vomiting and
8:59
diarrhea stomach bug it's not very
9:02
pleasant
9:02
now norovirus it does happen on ships
9:04
but it happens much more on land the
9:07
issue with ships is it has to be
9:09
reported it's documented and gets a lot
9:11
of publicity because it's very clear
9:13
that it's happened in a confined space
9:14
whereas when it tends to happen whether
9:17
it's in hospitals care homes or other
9:18
places where people concentrate it
9:21
doesn't often get as much publicity and
9:23
the critical thing if you don't want to
9:24
get norovirus is just follow the
9:26
guidelines follow the rules and the key
9:28
thing is keep washing your hands with
9:30
soap and water for up to 20 seconds the
9:33
little trick the captain once told me is
9:35
you basically sing happy birthday to
9:37
yourself use the alcohol gel that's
9:39
around the place avoid touching your
9:41
mouth avoid touching lots of public
9:43
spaces that are touched a lot you know
9:45
like handrails but basically if you
9:47
follow the protocols you have a very
9:50
strong chance that you will not get noir
9:51
advice but don't let a fear of norovirus
9:53
stop you going on a cruise it happens on
9:56
cruises it doesn't help as much as
9:58
people think and it's much more common
10:00
to have an on land that's seven myths
10:02
that I constantly hear about cruising
10:04
that are stopping people going cruising
10:06
or things they believe about cruises and
10:08
they really are not true in my view so
10:11
have you found that helpful if you did
10:14
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10:15
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10:17
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10:19
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10:21
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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