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As cruise ships get larger and cruising becoming more popular, cruise ports can get very crowded with cruise passengers. There can be between 15,000 and 20,000 passengers arriving at a port one any one day. What can you do to avoid the crowds and have a great time in a cruise port away from the mass of other cruising people there too? Over the many cruises I have done, over 73 at time of making this, I have found 8 great and proven ways to avoid the crowds in a cruise port. Hope these help you have a great time in every port you call on on your 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 60+ cruises.
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discovered the eight best ways to avoid
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crowds in a cruise port
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I'm Gary Bainbridge this is another of
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my tips of charters I'm here on a cruise
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and one of the things I realized is
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there are a couple of ports where I
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wanted to avoid crowds because I knew
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there would be a lot of people
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descending in one place at one time on
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cruise ships so I thought it would be a
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great opportunity to share with you my
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eight tips on how to avoid crowds in
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cruise ports starting with this one
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I always check before I go on a cruise
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how busy each of the ports are going to
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be there's some really really good sites
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that you can do it very easy so for
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example the one I like to use is called
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cruise timetables calm so you can input
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the ports or you can input your
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itinerary and check just how busy each
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of the ports are going to be this is
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fantastic as bear in mind some Caribbean
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ports could have fifteen twenty thousand
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people places in Europe like Santorini
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for example these places can be
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absolutely swamped depending on how many
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ships are there so I always take a look
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at how busy the ports are going to be
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and then plan what I'm gonna do around
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how busy I know the ports are going to
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be so I can avoid the big crowds there
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the other thing to do link to that is if
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you were actually booking more in
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shoulder periods so for example in the
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Mediterranean if you go May June time or
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September October time you're going to
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find that the crowds are much less
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because the land tourists are not going
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to be there to the same degree because
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they're going to be there in the summer
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months July August the same in the
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Caribbean if you go in the August period
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or you even go in the December period
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all those places going to be really busy
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so look at the more shoulder periods
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it's a really good way of avoiding
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crowds check and know how many people
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are going to be there my second tip of
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course is a very obvious one stay on
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board there's an enormous amount of
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things you can do on board a ship in a
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port Cruise Lines will run whole
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activity programs even on port days so
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there'll be loads of things to do there
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will be classes there'll be talks
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they'll be facilities to use there'll be
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loads and loads of things to do so
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you'll be able to keep busy and happy on
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board a good way of avoiding crowds in a
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port is go local seek out and find
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people who live and work locally and ask
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them for tips
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and advice now there's a couple of
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things you can do the simplest thing of
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course is to just get a taxi iced a taxi
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driver to take you to places that the
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locals are going to go and are going to
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be less busy with tourists there are a
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couple of more organized ways you can do
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that you can plan those in advance and
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there's a whole load of sites which are
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manned and arranged by local some of
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which are just local tips some of which
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will provide local guides some of which
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are even free guides an example of some
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of those is spotted by locals calm
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global greeter Network info free walking
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tours by locals comm and tours by locals
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dot-com I find those sites really
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helpful as a resource because these are
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people who live there they've grown up
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there they work there and then know all
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the tricks and tips around how to avoid
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the big crowds many of them provide free
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tours and all you do then is pay
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gratuities you give them a tip for their
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time but definitely go local look for
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locals to help you avoid the crowds
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because bear in mind they're also
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experts at avoiding the crowds in their
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home towns go local another of my
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favorite ways of avoiding crowds imports
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is quite a simple one and that's to get
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as far away from the port as possible
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and to be as active as possible most of
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the people on a cruise ship will come
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off the ship and stay close to the port
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and that's where lots of businesses and
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activity set up because they know that's
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kind of a captive audience so you'll
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find a lot of the activities are really
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focused around that spot however if you
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head off in the opposite direction so
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you find little local streets so for
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example in Venice crazy busy but if you
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actually head off in a different
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direction down the side streets you find
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lots of really interesting things and
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you don't find all the crowds so get as
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far away as possible there's different
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ways you can do that I mean there's a
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lot of places now you can hire bikes or
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ebikes or just simply you know planning
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in advance but get as far away as
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possible also really important the more
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active you are you'll find less crowds
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so for example if you go to kotor
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there's lots of people and it's very
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busy but if you decide to walk up
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the huge big hill behind the city the
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old town almost no one does that because
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it looks really scary and it looks
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really active it's not actually that bad
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at all if you look for more active
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things there will always be less people
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there so go as far away as possible and
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be as active as possible as you can
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that's something that I use an awful lot
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and I find it's a really good way of
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avoiding crowds crowds from cruise ships
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tend to congregate close to the port and
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where it's an easy thing to do another
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great way of avoiding crowds which is
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linked to that is avoid the obvious the
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famous places most ports of call have a
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conic and significant things that people
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want to go and see that's often why the
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cruisers are going there but everyone's
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going to go and see that so that's where
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all the crowds are going to congregate
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so what you should do is look for either
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tours or places yourself to go to that
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are not the obvious ones
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so in Barcelona everyone heads off to
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the Ramblas but very few people actually
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head right up back up the hill where the
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Olympic Park was or if you're going to
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the Grand Cayman everyone goes to Seven
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Mile Beach and some of the beaches on
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the other parts of the island in
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civitavecchia everyone has up to Rome
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there are other excursions that go to an
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ancient Etruscan City of the Dead
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called set of eteri so when you head to
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a place don't just go to the famous
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places if you want to avoid the crowds
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look for the things that are off the
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beaten track look at the things that are
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lower down the list of things to do even
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though the excursions offered by either
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the cruise line or even independent
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providers look at the tours which are
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going to places you perhaps never heard
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of because it's unlikely that the crowds
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are going to be heading there one thing
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linked to that is I love imports using
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the hop-on hop-off bus I found a really
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inexpensive way of getting around
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hearing some commentary and finding
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unusual places as you head around on the
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hop-on hop-off bus you're gonna find
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that people are getting off at certain
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stops where the famous things are
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actually get off on the stops where no
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one's getting off because then the
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crowds are going to be there but there's
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going to be something interesting to do
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otherwise the bus wouldn't be stopping
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there
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we found some great places some great
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beaches some really interesting sites by
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getting off at the stops that other
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people aren't another really good tip
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and thing that I do to avoid crowds is
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timing the way the cruising works is the
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minute that the ship is cleared in a
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port the tour start going and people are
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in a rush to get off the ship so people
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leave as early as the ship docks they
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all tend to then come back around
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lunchtime to eat on board the ship and
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often then spend the afternoon on board
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the ship so the critical thing to do is
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to go against that flow so for example
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go out exploring in the afternoon or if
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you've got an overnight stay out late or
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actually get up really early in the
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morning even before breakfast head out
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and do your sightseeing really early and
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perhaps have breakfast out the morning
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is going to be really really busy
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wherever you go to lunch time is a great
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time to go to some of the big sites
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you'll find a lot of the cruise
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passengers will head back to the ship to
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have their meals or people don't like to
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then pay for meals out and about so
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lunch time is a really great time to go
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to some of the famous and big size if
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that's where you want to go bear in mind
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as soon as the ship arrives it's going
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to be everybody rushing out on
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excursions afternoons lunch times as
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late as possible so if you have an all
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aboard time seven o'clock eight o'clock
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nine o'clock ten o'clock do your
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sightseeing at the end of the day it's
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also really good of course for
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photography because the lights even
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better so timing is really key to
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avoiding crowds cruise passengers are
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very predictable in the way that they
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see places and sights and go against
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that flow another thing that I like to
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do to avoid crowds is to go on tours
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that have either early access or after
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closing access or to actually book
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tickets which enable you to go early to
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places or will give you a skip the line
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entrance into a place there's a couple
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of ways you can do that so some cruise
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lines will have tours which have early
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opening access so for example in st.
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Petersburg we were able to get into the
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Hermitage Museum an hour before it
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opened so we'd almost finished our tour
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before the big crowds arrived
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and there was a slight premium for that
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you can also often go online to the
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places you want to go and see and book
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Fast Pass entries so what I often do if
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there's specific sites or museums or
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really tall buildings like the Empire
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State Building or whatever that you want
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to go and see I will always buy the fast
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pass weight so you can scoot past
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everybody and go and see the site and
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avoid the the lines and the crowds much
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more efficient there are a couple of
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resources online so for example avoid -
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crowds calm which at the moment is
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really focused on Europe they give you
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lots of tips for all of the key cities
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on how you can actually go and when you
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should go to avoid crowds so look at
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resources like that but cruise lines
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will often offer early access and those
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fast passes or use resources online to
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find ways of going when the crowds
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aren't there
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of course even on some sites like Google
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for example they often will do a how
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busy things are by the hour so look at
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when the crowds are going to be there
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and try and plan to buy tickets for
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entry or to go on tours when it's not
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going to be busy it sounds kind of
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obvious but people don't look I've also
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learned another little trick over the
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years of cruising to avoid crowds and
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that's particularly in really busy ports
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is go on home cooking or crafts type
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tours
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so there's increasingly lots of tours
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where you can go and eat in families
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homes or you'll go to a small artisan
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bakery or cooking class those are really
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small numbers very few people and it's
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really a great way of avoiding crowds
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because you're just gonna have a small
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group of you increasingly Cruise Lines
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are signed to offer those excursions
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you're also able to find a lot of those
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yourself so for example one of the sites
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that I like to look at is a site called
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eat with calm and in lots of places
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around the world you're able to book
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meals home-cooked meals or cooking
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classes with people who live locally so
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it's a great way of avoiding the crowd
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because some of them will only take 4 or
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6 people some of the cooking classes of
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course may be up to 15 people or so but
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you can avoid the big crowds and the
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busy places this law
11:08
Subway's of avoiding crowds in a port
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when you're on a cruise I hope you found
11:12
this bunch of ideas really helpful I
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love it if you watch many more videos I
11:17
have loads of videos of cruising tips
11:19
and advice so why don't you actually go
11:20
and watch another one of those right now
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