9 Things Cruise Passengers Say They've Had Enough Of

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what are the nine things driving regular
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cruisers completely crazy
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I'm Gary beverage this is another of my
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cruising tips for Travis I've been
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talking recently to regular cruisers and
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ask them what are the things that drive
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them completely crazy and here are the
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nine things that they told me and most
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of those I actually agree with starting
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with this one one of the things that
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really is driving people who cruise
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quite often really crazy is the features
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and facilities and attractions that are
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slowly taking over the ship and
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basically reducing the amount of real
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estate available for people to just do
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what they do on a cruise there were
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three key things that people spoke about
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first of those is the introduction these
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big mega attractions so whether that's
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go kart tracks whether that's
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rollercoasters with this massive big
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water parks laser tags Rock Climbing
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Walls flow riders all these big resort
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type attractions that are taking up a
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lot of space on ships and it means that
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less inner space is available for just
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regular lying around the swimming pools
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and relaxing the second thing that
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people spoke about is the ship within a
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ship concept so for example on Norwegian
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on their bigger ships you have the Haven
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which is a very beautiful area with its
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own swimming pool lounge restaurant bar
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and we're all the suites are you also
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have say for example on MSC Cruises you
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have the Yacht Club
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so we where again you have a lounge and
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all the facilities related to people in
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Suites so these are taking up more and
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more space on the ship which makes less
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of the space available for people who
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perhaps not in that area so the concern
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that is becoming smaller more cramped
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the third one specialty dining so more
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and more special dining venues are
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opening up onboard cruise ships and of
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course that takes away space for other
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more general activities so that was one
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of the things that are driving people
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crazy the sense that a lot of the real
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estate the space on a ship is being
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taken up with these special features and
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leaving much less space for just normal
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cruising and hanging out
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sitting on decks or whatever that is and
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of course as these ships get bigger and
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bigger there's more more people and so
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there's a consumers
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less and less space the second thing
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that is driving people crazy which is
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also sort of linked a little bit to that
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is the huge amount of time and energy
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and options there are for specialized
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ining now the thing that's driving
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people crazy
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is not the fact that there's choice
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available it's more the fact that first
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of all they can cost quality money you
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can be spending 30 40 50 dollars or more
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per person to eat in a specialty dining
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restaurant but secondly there is a
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concern or a feeling that actually
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what's happening is the croutons are
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trying to encourage you to head much
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more towards these special dining venues
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so the overall quality of food the range
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of choices in the main dining room the
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buffet
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they feel is starting to be lowered or
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reduced to encourage people to actually
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go and spend money in the specialty
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dining so they make more one of the
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cruise lines that make more money so
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that's something that this don't drive
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people a little bit crazy the third
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thing that I'm hearing is driving people
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crazy is the fact that all these
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attractions that you know the racetracks
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are talking about the laser tag the
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water parks all these things that are
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being built are all outside so actually
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if there's bad weather poor weather it's
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raining it means that none of these
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facilities can be used because they're
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all in the open air so if it's really
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windy or whatever so people don't have
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to retreat back into the ship and
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there's not lots of stuff to do within
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the ship because they're all outside and
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the open air which is great if you're
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cruising in the Caribbean or
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Mediterranean in the middle of summer
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and it's great weather but actually as
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we all know the weather can be a bit
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unpredictable even on cruising in great
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areas you could have a lot of wind or
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rain or whatever so that these big
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attractions that are being built are
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actually all being built outside now
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quite a few people have spoken about the
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fact that a couple of cruise lines are
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starting to change that so for example
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MSC on some of their really big mega
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ships they are having more and more of
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the attractions actually inside but I
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didn't notice that on some of the ships
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though like I when I was recently on Sky
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Princess I was on Norwegian on call they
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are starting to build a couple more
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their news inside which you could do if
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it's rain or bad weather but still the
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big attractions are outside so for
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example when I was on Norwegian on call
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the racetrack was closed quite often
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because of rain and the laser tag didn't
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operate because it was too windy so fair
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enough a lot of these attractions whilst
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it's great and great weather they are
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increasingly as a ships deploy around
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the world with different times of the
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year not of
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able to use when the weather's not great
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so it is the fourth area that I'm
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hearing drives people crazy and this is
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one that probably it I fall into this
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camp as well is the sense that cruise
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lines are adding on building in more and
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more things you have to pay for so they
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are setting the affairs at pretty low
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cost to get people on board because you
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get these big mega ships that you need
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to fill them up with thousands of people
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every single week but once you get on
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board your nickeled and dimed i guess
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it's the people in the u.s. like to say
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or you're just essentially constantly
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being squeezed for money so it could be
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courses you've gone different courses or
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cooking classes or various
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demonstrations of things or craft
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classes there's just a whole load of
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things that you be nice to pay for so
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drinks coffees sodas has already
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mentioned things especially dining
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there's just a lot of extra on costs now
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once you get on board you're constantly
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handing over your card and paying for
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more so that is driving people crazy the
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sense that they're constantly being
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squeezed and things that perhaps they
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feel were more including the fares are
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no longer included in your having to pay
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extra I do think that's a massive issue
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we're starting to see some indications
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that some of the cruise lines are
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starting to address that by having more
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all-inclusive face often you can find if
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you're booked in the wave season the big
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sale time at the beginning of the year
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I've often booked cruises with us on
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Celebrity Cruises Norwegian cruises
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Oceania cruise lines like that way
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they're starting to off affairs which
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bundle much more stuff in and of course
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we have more more inclusive type cruise
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lines like virgin voyages and Marella
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which are starting to offer more
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inclusive fares so that may be time to
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dress one of things that are driving
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people crazy without a shadow of a doubt
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one of the hottest topics the things
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that drive cruisers crazy is the whole
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debate around gratuities now the whole
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video about gratuities and it's one of
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the most interacted discussed topics on
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cruise forums on my video all over the
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place the real sense of gratuities is
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because many of them are also added and
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in some cases it's quite hard to take
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them off is it actually it's part of
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your cruise fare so I mean they should
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be more upfront billed the gratuities
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into the cruise fare so once you get
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onboard you don't sin you finally got a
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couple of hundred dollars added on per
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person for the gratuities it's
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definitely one of the big hot topics
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and one things that I agree would be
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great if the whole gratuities thing was
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not there because there's a whole
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tension around if you ought to pay
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gratuities do you feel you still need to
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pay extra if you take it off is that the
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right thing to do and pay people
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directly so it's a huge thing it
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definitely drives people completely
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crazy the whole topic of gratuities and
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the fact that they're also added on most
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cruise lines the other thing that drives
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people crazy which I see huge amounts of
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debate about if you ever raise it you
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get lots and lots of discussion and
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that's around hot tubs hot tubs are very
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popular on cruises I'm gonna big hot
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tubs fan but I know a lot of people are
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there's two things that seem to drive
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regular cruisers crazier than most first
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of all is the sense that the hot tubs
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are not really the right temperature
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that should be hotter and they're a
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little bit too tepid and they worry
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about just how hygienic they are and
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often they're cleaned but the second
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area which gets the most debate and does
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drive cruisers crazy is there is a rule
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around use of hot tubs particularly
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around the kids and hot tubs however
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you'll find on many many cruise lines
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which have kids the kids are in the hot
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tubs using them almost as a bit of a
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playground and the cruise line doesn't
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enforce it parents let their kids go in
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when there are rules alike they're not
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going in if you ever try and tackle the
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issue you'd get lots of aggro and cause
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lots of upsets so hot tubs again but
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like gratuities is one of the things i
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see discussed an enormous amount by
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cruisers regular cruisers and it drives
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them crazy about the sense of really
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trying to clamp down and really be clear
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about the hot tub it's use and enforcing
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the rules now one of the things that I
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found talking to regular cruisers that
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did actually drive him crazy was
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excursions and I hadn't actually really
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expected this but listening and talking
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to people I understand why a couple of
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things around excursions probably three
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key things that drive people crazy first
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of all the cost the feeling that
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gratuities are becoming more and more
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expensive perhaps linked to that point
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about Cruise Lines trying to get more
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money for you the feeling that they're
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not great value so you can spend you
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know $75 $100 or more and actually
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there's a lot of questions around the
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value that you're getting from those
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excursions the other thing linked to
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excursions is the sense that actions a
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lot of time wasted with the whole
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process of excursions when you go an
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excursion you have a whole process and
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it's very
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time consuming so you only have to take
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your ticket to check-in you hang around
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you wait your entry got off the ship you
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get on the bus or whatever and you
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probably waited half an hour an hour
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already before you even go on the
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excursion when you go an excursion again
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it could be very inefficient because
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it's really driven by the slowest person
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or the most the person who keeps the
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timekeeping the worst so you have this
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real sense that actually the excursion
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is going to the pace of the slowest
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person and there's not a lot of time if
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there's something you really like or
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want to dwell on you can't spend a lot
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of time doing that because it's
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basically go go go move you along so
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there's a real sense that they're not
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good value and actually is a lot of
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waste of time which you could be
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actually out in port if you were by
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yourself or perhaps a little bit more
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organized with an independent tour or
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independent guide you could probably see
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much more in the port so it's not a
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really good use of time going on Cruise
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Line excursions and the third area is
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increasing the concern about range now I
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find the range discussion area depends
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on the cruise line you're on if you go
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on one of those big mega cruise lines
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you'll find there's normally a vast
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range because they have a vast range of
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different types people to the fitness
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levels interests as you go smaller and
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smaller there is less choice because
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simply they have certain numbers to make
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an excursion page so that there is a
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concern around the range of excursions
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and actually the problem is if you go to
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port more than once you'll fight all the
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cruise lines pretty much you're doing
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the same excursion so there's not a huge
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amount of choices so excursion step is
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something that is driving people a lot
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crazy
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that's Cruise Line excursions
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specifically and increasing people are
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talking about self exploring doing there
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anything to get better value spending
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more time and having much more
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flexibility definitely one of the things
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that drove cruises crazy was the holy Sh
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of transfers now as you know you can
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book a transfer with a cruise I might
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take you from the airport - perhaps a
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cruise nominated hotel and then to the
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ship the next day or when you disembark
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they'll offer transfers to the airport
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or hotels and the sense that actually
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these are really bad value and actually
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I've looked at them before and some time
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done them because they're just easy to
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do or you're quite good if you have a
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flight at an earlier time you want to
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give the ship really quickly because if
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you booked one of their transfers they
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will make sure that you get off the ship
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pretty sharp and early so if you perhaps
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in an inside cabin or a low-grade cabin
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and you might have to wait many hours to
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get off the ship booking a cruise line
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transfer can be a really good thing to
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do because you can get off the ship the
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zone early not hang around for hours
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however the senses there are really
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really expensive and when I've compared
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whether it's getting an uber or some
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other kind of transferring and just a
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taxi you can often find it as much much
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cheaper than the Trianon transfer there
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do you seem to be really expensive for
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what they are and on some cruise lines
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you don't have a transfer included from
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the ship into the nearest port if it's
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not docked close by and some please
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lands charge for those and there's a
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sense that actually they're pretty
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expensive to do so definitely Cruise
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Line transfers do drive people a little
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bit crazy and they feel they're really
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bad value although of course as I said I
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sometimes do use them just because
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they're easy they're simple and it's
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handy for getting off the ship kind of
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sharpish and quickly definitely one of
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the things that does drive regular
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cruisers crazy is the focus on shopping
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now there's two aspects to that one of
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which is the port so particular if
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you're cruising in say the Caribbean or
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even in Alaska there's lots of pressure
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they have shopping advisors on board
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they who give talks incentives but bear
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in mind when you get off the ship in
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many of those places it's all the same
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so they have diamond international and
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chains like that they're in every single
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port and definitely there's a
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relationship between the cruise line and
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those shops so they're driving you into
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those things you walk off it's all the
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same stuff that you're buying it was not
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it's not unique to the port so there's
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that concern around the pressure to be
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shopping and actually you're just going
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into shopping malls which are very
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generic the second thing is around
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shopping is shopping onboard and there's
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a couple of aspects of that one are the
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onboard shops which a lot of people feel
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in the experience they discovered are
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not great value now I think the cruise
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lines would dispute that but certainly I
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found generally the stuff I've looked at
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on cruise ships there are pretty
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expensive versus watching by and
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landlord even back at home and of course
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the other shopping aspect which does
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drive people crazy and I personally
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attend another standard is the art
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auction so many cruise lines will have
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art auctions on board
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they'll have art and they do seem
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surprisingly popular some people kill
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out by art but there's a lot of
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discussion around actually just is a
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good value or not good value and just
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the focus on that whole shopping those
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little stations that get put it outside
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the shops cluttering up the walkways
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with the deals the inch of gold
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clearance sales just that real focus and
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pressure on shopping party because of
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the big focus and actually is it really
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good value great
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cruisers clearly love cruising and these
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things that drive them crazy I'm not
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stopping people go increasing but it's
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really interesting to know what is
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driving regular cruisers crazy I have
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loads more tips advice videos about
13:32
cruising all things cruising so why
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don't you watch another one of those
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