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You're about to discover eight services that I think could change the way you cruise forever! In this, I talk about eight amazing, helpful, innovative and sometimes unusual services that I think could help travellers think about and cruise very differently. Some will help people cruise when they thought they could not.
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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 74 cruises at time of recording .
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0:00
you're about to discover eight services
0:02
that could change the way you cruise
0:04
forever
0:05
hi I'm Gary Barnidge this is another of
0:08
my tips for travelers I want to share
0:10
with you eight amazing services that I
0:13
think could help you think about and
0:15
cruise very differently starting with
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this one
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finding a cruise mate if you're a solo
0:21
traveler you are often hit with a big
0:25
surcharge for double occupancy so
0:28
finding someone to cruise with you is
0:29
the way to go however you might not have
0:32
friends or family that want to go
0:33
cruising so there are a whole bunch of
0:35
really interesting services that help
0:37
you find a cabin mate there's probably
0:40
three big buckets of ways that you can
0:41
do that first of all there are very
0:44
specific cruise agents that will
0:47
actually package singles holidays and
0:49
offer the matching service as part of
0:52
the deal and if they can't find a
0:53
suitable match you will still pay the
0:55
lower price so a good example of that is
0:57
vacations to go they put together solo
1:00
cruises throughout the year in all
1:02
different regions and they do that
1:03
matching service so that's a good one to
1:06
look at if you want someone else to do
1:07
the job for you there's also a whole
1:09
bunch of cruise sites that you can go to
1:12
where they offer matching services so a
1:15
couple of ones that I have come across
1:17
that I know really work for people is
1:18
this cruise mates calm this Cruise
1:21
Transcom silver surfers calm cruise mate
1:25
finder so a whole bunch of sites that
1:28
are cruise related and there's lots of
1:30
forums there where you can find a cabin
1:32
mate another one that's really popular
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and lots of people have found have
1:35
worked for them is using the site
1:36
meetup.com
1:38
on there if you search for solo cruises
1:41
or single cruises you'll find lots of
1:43
groups which often location or cruise
1:45
specific where people are looking to
1:47
meet other people to go cruising with
1:48
the looks really interesting service is
1:51
around luggage transfer services it can
1:53
be a real big hassle taking your bags on
1:56
flights getting them transferring to the
1:58
buses get into the ship carrying on the
2:00
ship and all that hassle of bags you
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know wherever it is around the world
2:05
that you're joining your cruise there
2:07
are a whole bunch of luggage transfer
2:09
opportunities that you have now many of
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the cruise lines partner
2:13
with different companies to do that but
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you can also go to the company's direct
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the main company that Cruise Lines
2:20
partner with is called luggage forward
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calm so Princess Seaborn Regent Seven
2:25
Seas Cunard Holland America Oceania
2:27
Uniworld Viking and windstar at the time
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of recording all use luggage ford.com
2:32
Crystal Cruises uses a different company
2:34
which is called luggage concierge comm
2:37
but if you want to do it yourself there
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are many other sites online so for
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example there's another site which is
2:42
also very popular which is called
2:44
luggage mule doctor at UK out of the UK
2:48
it can be a relatively expensive thing
2:50
to do because they charge between five
2:52
to eight dollars a pound roughly so it
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could cost you two or three hundred
2:56
dollars to send your bag to the ship and
2:58
vice versa but it could take a lot of
3:00
hassle out if you want a less expensive
3:03
way of doing it also understand what
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other options your Cruise Line office so
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for example with Royal Caribbean you
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have an opportunity where you can
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actually check your bags in on the ship
3:13
and they take it to the airport or you
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have Disney for example where if you are
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staying at one of their resort hotels in
3:20
Orlando they will then transfer that bag
3:23
right through to the ship the third
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service that could transform your
3:28
cruising experience a lot of people
3:29
might already know about and that's
3:31
independent shore excursions but there
3:32
are a couple of services which are
3:34
really great because they integrate
3:35
really seamlessly with the cruise
3:36
experience on these sites you basically
3:39
go you input your cruise and then for
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every single port it will give you the
3:43
excursions which they offer you'll
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normally find there are smaller groups
3:46
and they are a cheaper price
3:49
some of the ones to look at our short
3:52
trips calm cruising excursions calm and
3:55
shore excursions group comm they also
3:58
will include guarantees that will get
4:01
you back to the ship on time and if they
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don't it will be their cost and hassle
4:05
to get you to get back to ship but these
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are companies that are have been around
4:10
for a long time and really integrates
4:11
seamlessly with the cruising experience
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and that's something that people are
4:14
using more and more because excursions
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can be a big cost and the advantage of
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some of these services is you can do
4:20
some different excursions often with
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smaller groups and at a lower cost but
4:26
always check the terms
4:27
conditions and make sure things like
4:28
getting you back to the ship on time is
4:30
covered another service that I came
4:32
across that is fantastic because it
4:34
makes cruising possible for people that
4:36
have accessibility or other issues and
4:39
this is companies that you can hire
4:42
accessibility equipment whether it's as
4:45
simple as wheelchairs or mobility
4:47
scooters right through to equipment that
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help make your cabin accessible friendly
4:52
specific things for your bed or bath or
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whatever and these are great because it
4:57
means people that perhaps couldn't
4:58
cruise before can now make sure that the
5:00
cruising experience is set up for them
5:03
and these are companies they have
5:04
partnered with different cruise lines
5:06
and they set it up on the ship
5:08
themselves because they have arrangement
5:09
with the ship's if you ever looking at
5:12
anything like that the companies that I
5:14
know and if ho people use and are very
5:16
happy with include companies like
5:19
special needs at sea comm mobility at
5:22
sea calm and another company called
5:24
scoot around comm so these are great
5:27
companies with great services even if
5:29
perhaps one day you've injured yourself
5:30
and you're going on a cruise and you
5:32
just need a wheelchair because you've
5:33
broken your leg or something take a look
5:36
because it's going to revolutionize the
5:37
way that you cruise great services link
5:40
to that is another great service which
5:43
is perhaps a little bit more specialized
5:46
and these are people who will provide
5:47
carers with medical background so
5:50
they're normally nurses who will come on
5:52
a cruise with you if you do have any
5:53
medical needs and it avoids you then
5:56
having to use the medical center but
5:59
also a lot of the cruise lines won't let
6:00
you on unless you have someone who cares
6:02
for you so they can make sure that they
6:03
will escort you on excursions that sort
6:06
of check cabin if there's any special
6:08
needs and deal with any medical issues
6:09
you've got one of the companies that
6:11
does that is a company that's called
6:14
medical travel companions comm and these
6:17
are really helpful whether you have a
6:19
medical issue a mental issue or anything
6:22
like that and they will come on the
6:23
cruise with you and they will look after
6:26
you and all your viewer needs so that's
6:28
a great service again because it means
6:30
that people who perhaps couldn't go
6:31
cruising before can now go cruising one
6:34
of the services that isn't going to cost
6:37
you any money is if you're traveling by
6:39
yourself with your lady
6:41
or gentlemen and you love to dance a lot
6:43
of cruise lines have gentleman or lady
6:45
dance hosts these tend to be on cruise
6:48
lines which will have live dance music
6:49
and it means that you always have
6:51
someone to dance with without having
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embarrassment I've tried to find someone
6:54
to dance with now you actually really
6:56
careful if you are interested in that
6:57
particular service who provides it so
7:00
your fine lines like you not have it
7:02
I've been on Sagar cruises have it so to
7:04
really take a look at the cruise lines
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you'll tend to find it tends to be
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cruise lines that have a slightly more
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traditional cruising experience so take
7:12
a look and find out if they do have
7:13
dance hosts that's a service that will
7:15
certainly make you in the evenings have
7:18
a great time and not restrict you in
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what you can do versus people who
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traveling with friends or family another
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service which is really great
7:27
particularly if you're going on a cruise
7:28
for a special occasion is many cruise
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lines have massive big shops which you
7:33
can order online before you go so you
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can order things like room decorations
7:37
or treats in the room whether it's
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champagne chocolate strawberries flowers
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special gifts merchandise all sorts of
7:45
crazy things that you can do things you
7:47
wouldn't even expect now some of them
7:48
also you can then buy and have delivered
7:50
at home but the great thing is if you're
7:53
going on a cruise with a friend or
7:55
family or partner and you've got some
7:56
event coming up an anniversary or
7:58
birthday something like that you can
8:00
order some crazy things for your cabin
8:03
and so when you arrive you can can be
8:05
decorating could be lots of treats there
8:06
so some of the ones to look at for
8:09
example some of the biggest lines that
8:10
have them are the carnival fun shop
8:13
which is at carnival calm slash fun
8:15
shops Royal Caribbean have Royal
8:17
Caribbean Calm / wrong gifts and
8:19
Norwegian side is Norwegian gift shop
8:22
calm when it comes to shopping and
8:25
buying things online for cruising there
8:28
is another service which may not be
8:30
applicable to you unless your crew but
8:32
there is sites out there and companies
8:35
out there that will help relieve the
8:38
pressure of crew when they have limited
8:40
time on board to have to go and do
8:41
chores so for example is a site called
8:43
fall crew only calm and they will do all
8:46
the shopping in certain ports for crude
8:48
they bring it to the ship and so the
8:51
crudest has to come off and fetch it
8:53
from the delivery people there they'll
8:55
do things like an 11:00 you can have
8:57
Amazon orders processed through there
9:00
they have an online site where there's a
9:02
myriad of things from toiletries to
9:04
gifts all sorts of things that crew can
9:06
then order it means that when they do
9:07
have that limited amount of time they
9:09
can actually go and relax and enjoy
9:11
themselves or have an apple whatever and
9:13
let someone else do the shopping there's
9:15
loads of different services growing and
9:17
popping up all around the place as
9:19
cruising becomes more and more popular
9:21
those are eight of them that I've come
9:22
across that I think will change the way
9:24
that people Cruise and the things they
9:26
do on cruising a really big way if you
9:29
have any others I'd love to hear from
9:30
you but I do have many more videos
9:32
packed full of cruising tips advice and
9:35
ideas so why don't you watch another one
9:36
of those right now
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