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Cruising to the Caribbean is great. However, there are a number of watch-outs and things I discovered on my various Caribbean cruises that the brochures and websites did not always warn cruise passengers about. I discuss the watch-outs that I think will help travellers make the best choices and be well prepared for a Caribbean cruise.
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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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you're about to discover the seven
0:01
things brochures don't always warn you
0:03
about when you're cruising the Caribbean
0:06
hi I'm Gary Bembridge this is another of
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my tips for Travis I'm just back from a
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Caribbean cruise and wanted to share
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with you seven watch outs things I think
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you need to know if you're planning to
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go on a cruise in the Caribbean starting
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with this one
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first of all especially if you're
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cruising out of Florida Miami Fort
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Lauderdale Port Canaveral you will find
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crazy busy disembarkation ports have
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planned that if you're setting out Miami
0:32
especially which is the busiest
0:33
passenger cruise port in the world
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you could have 15,000 20,000 people
0:37
getting off the ship and the same amount
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getting on the ship when I was there on
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the Friday there was eight ships that
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said it was nine ships the Sunday there
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were seven ships the Monday there was
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six ships so huge amounts of turn about
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really really busy so try and plan and
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be ready for big crowds so especially if
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you're getting your trousers too or from
0:55
the port you might want to try and get
0:57
there really early you'll all get a
0:58
little bit later once the crowds have
1:00
died down and also the same when you're
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disembarking the ship really plan so
1:04
that you're not caught up in the big
1:05
huge amounts of crowd so what I like to
1:07
do for example is I think it off really
1:09
really early or later on in the day
1:11
when it's just a little bit less manic
1:13
the second big watch out is that these
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cruises pretty much all go to the same
1:18
place the Caribbean cruises tend to be
1:20
seven days long you'll find a some a
1:22
little bit shorter and they pretty much
1:24
go to the same itineraries because the
1:26
islands are geared up to cater for
1:28
cruise ships or the facilities so it's
1:30
fairly limited amount of itineraries
1:32
there's three big core Caribbean cruises
1:35
that you're going to be looking at this
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the Eastern Caribbean the Western
1:38
Caribbean and the more southern the
1:39
Caribbean so if you're heading off to
1:41
the Eastern Caribbean you can expect to
1:43
go to place like Bahamas Cayman Islands
1:45
Haiti Dominican Republic the British
1:48
Virgin Islands the US Virgin Islands
1:50
possibly Puerto Rico since Barton if you
1:52
go to the Western Caribbean you could be
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looking at places like Jamaica Cayman
1:58
Islands again but it has got to lots of
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Mexico places like Cozumel Costa Maya
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market Belize it might go to the
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Honduran island of Roatan if you go to
2:07
the Southern Caribbean you're looking at
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places like sand Kitts Antigua possibly
2:12
Dominica said Lucia bar Bay
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Grenada Saint Vincent those kinds of
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places so they all do have pretty much
2:18
the same opportunities so when you start
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to look at a cruise the itineraries are
2:22
going to be pretty much the same and
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they all kind of blend a little bit into
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each other the ports will start to blend
2:27
a little bit into each other as they
2:28
build more and more infrastructure to
2:30
cater for the cruise industry when you
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step off a port some of the
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distinctiveness is kind of gone saying
2:35
that the Caribbean sort of course is a
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fabulous place to go great beaches great
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weather depending the time of the year
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you go and it's a fabulous place to
2:43
cruise but there does all blend into one
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the third big watch out is as you look
2:48
at your itinerary look very carefully
2:49
because increasingly cruise lines are
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owning islands and manufacturing islands
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as destination so you're not actually
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going to an original unique and specific
2:59
Caribbean island which has all of
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history you're going to an island which
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has been created by the cruise line
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where they've got great facilities you
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might have things like water sports you
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might have zip lines you might have
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water parks all sorts of activities
3:12
however they're not original Caribbean
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islands these are created and owned by
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the cruise lines there's a lot of them
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so for example on my last cruise which
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was on Oceania which is part of the
3:22
Norwegian Cruise Line group we went to
3:24
harvest key which was a beautiful place
3:26
but again it's a little bit Disney fied
3:28
if you like because it is manufactured
3:30
but some of the other islands that you
3:33
could come across is you've got castaway
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key which is the Disney Line own one
3:38
you've got Half Moon key which is
3:40
Holland America's you've got Coco key
3:42
which is Royal Caribbean great sort of
3:43
key and as I mentioned harvest key which
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is part of the Norwegian Cruise Line
3:48
you've got lava de which is also Royal
3:50
Caribbean princess key Princess Cruises
3:53
and MSC Cruises which opened in 2019
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ocean key so bear in mind as well that
3:58
INRI you may be going to a manufactured
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cruise line owned island now you can
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pretty much cruise to the Caribbean all
4:06
year round but there are certain times
4:08
that you should consider going based on
4:10
what your key needs are so the best way
4:13
that really is really that December
4:14
through to sort of March April time but
4:17
there's some big watch outs if you want
4:20
to go at that time of the year go early
4:22
in December if you possibly can because
4:24
once you get to mid-december and the
4:25
holiday season you
4:27
is crazy busy and the prices do
4:29
accelerate a lot January February for me
4:32
personally is a great time to go
4:33
the schools are back it's less busy the
4:35
fairs are lower it can be you can find
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slightly more unpredictable weather it
4:40
can be a little more cloudy and you
4:42
might have slightly more you know not
4:45
rough seas as such but you might be a
4:46
little bit more motion just you because
4:48
the nature of the winds and so once you
4:50
get to the sort of March April time and
4:53
it may be really cautious again because
4:55
you'll find you have spring break where
4:58
again it's crazy busy I have been around
5:00
the ports just watching and it can be
5:03
really busy and quite boisterous and of
5:05
course you then get into the whole
5:06
Easter holiday period so really be
5:08
extremely cautious about that personally
5:11
the time of year that I go to the
5:13
Caribbean and I really like into the
5:14
Caribbean is early December or I like to
5:16
go in February those are the times I
5:17
found ahead the nicest weather of all
5:19
well they're going towards the end of
5:21
November well that's a little bit
5:22
unpredictable had some great trips at
5:24
that time so what are the other big
5:26
watch shots in terms of weather and
5:28
times to go to the card forum once you
5:31
get into that May period May through to
5:34
November you are more in the rainy
5:36
season but very critically important you
5:38
are heading into the hurricane season
5:39
which of course brings with it much more
5:41
risk the hurricane season officially
5:43
runs from June to the end of November
5:46
although in reality most of the
5:49
hurricane activity is going to happen is
5:51
really between August and October so be
5:53
extremely cautious if you go there
5:54
because you could have disruptions due
5:56
to hurricanes and of course you may have
5:58
really unpredictable weather July August
6:01
is actually a period of time despite all
6:03
that when a lot of people do go because
6:05
of course it's the key summer holidays
6:06
and it's going to be very busy so again
6:08
my little tip if you possibly can take a
6:10
look at early December and take a look
6:12
at sort of the February early March time
6:15
that's when you're going to actually get
6:16
lots of choice and the prices do tend to
6:19
be a little bit lower and generally
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you're gonna have great great weather
6:22
the fifth big watch other I've got it is
6:24
around crime over the last couple of
6:26
years there seems to be more and more
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reports about issues and crime and risks
6:30
in the Caribbean now of course there are
6:32
many more people going to the Caribbean
6:34
as well but I think one of the dangers
6:36
that people have is they head off on
6:38
vacation and it's very easy to get
6:41
into a sense of on vacation and let your
6:43
guard down now very importantly there
6:45
have been various hiccups and various
6:47
issues in some of the islands in recent
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times as I record this and in fact some
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stops have actually been changed because
6:53
there's been some disturbances with
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elections and politics but generally
6:58
speaking the islands are safe but be
7:02
cautious so one of the things I always
7:03
recommend you do is all of the big
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governments around the world have
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websites where they have the latest
7:09
travel advisory so the UK has won the US
7:11
has won Canada has won Australia so
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actually when you're looking at booking
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take a look at what the actual advice is
7:18
for those ports but again very
7:20
importantly when you're head off into
7:21
ports make sure that you're not showing
7:23
off that you have expensive watches
7:25
jewelry cameras be a little bit cautious
7:28
stick to areas that are really populated
7:30
and busy and a good idea if you're a
7:32
little bit nervous is make sure you go
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on organized tours so either with the
7:35
Cruise Line or with reputable
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independent providers now some of the
7:39
islands that have had bad publicity over
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the last few years if you are interested
7:43
include the Bahamas
7:45
Santa Lucia Jamaica Honduras Barbados
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and you have found even though it has a
7:51
reputation of being very upmarket and
7:53
civilized Barbados and solution have had
7:55
reports of issues these are places where
7:58
lots of people are going there's again
7:59
lots of people that don't have a huge
8:01
amount of money seeing lots of wealthy
8:02
people coming and of course you always
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gonna have bad eggs along the way so do
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Bera might think cautiously when you hit
8:08
up in the islands and plan accordingly
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my next big watch hut is around the
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whole area of shopping now I mention a
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little bit earlier that when you head
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into the Caribbean ports are becoming
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more and more similar more more
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homogeneous and what you're finding in
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those ports is the same chain lions
8:24
diamonds international tanzanite
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international all sorts of well-known
8:28
chains of food and drink and it is
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really just becoming the same so when
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you get off the port you have these big
8:35
shopping areas and shopping has become a
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big part of the Caribbean experience now
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one of the arguments I've heard when
8:40
I've listened to shopping advisors talk
8:42
on board is the number one activity in
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the Caribbean is actually shopping
8:46
because everybody buys something the
8:48
Barrow mind has become a very slick
8:50
operation so this is why I'm having it
8:52
as a watch out and
8:53
have a whole video about shopping in the
8:55
Caribbean if you want to find out much
8:57
more detail but the critical thing to
8:58
know is if you're on a Caribbean cruise
9:00
you're probably gonna find those
9:01
shopping advisors onboard now these
9:03
people are incentivized to drive you
9:06
towards certain stores and give you
9:09
various inducements and incentives the
9:10
idea is to get you into the store to buy
9:12
those things that's jewelry watches
9:14
clothing whatever it is and of course
9:17
the people in the stores have become
9:18
masters because I've seen thousands of
9:20
people every day and selling you things
9:22
so before you go to the Caribbean think
9:24
very carefully is there things you want
9:26
to buy because obviously it's duty-free
9:27
tax-free so there are some great prices
9:29
on things but make sure you understand
9:31
what the price of those things are at
9:33
home to get online you can get because I
9:35
can get them cheaper online and make
9:37
sure that you're really really clear so
9:38
you don't hit up on an excursion hit off
9:40
on a shopping trip head off into the one
9:43
of these malls and find you're spending
9:45
a lot of money on things that you either
9:47
don't really need or you can get cheaper
9:49
actually back home but shopping is a big
9:52
big focus so be prepared and be ready
9:54
for shopping as one of the things that's
9:56
really kind of thrust upon you another
9:59
big watch hug is one where there's much
10:01
more debate and I thought it was worth
10:02
building into this when we talk about
10:04
watch outs there are two camps of
10:07
thought about what cruising brings to
10:09
the Caribbean there's one which is a
10:11
more negative view and there's a book
10:13
which I read many many years ago which
10:16
is a good way of expressing the negative
10:19
part of the argument for the Caribbean
10:21
and it's by a guy called Ross Klein and
10:24
the book that he wrote is called cruise
10:26
ship blues and he has advocated a very
10:29
long time that the cruise ships are not
10:31
that great for the Caribbean because the
10:33
ships arrive they don't bring onboard
10:35
food because that's all loaded in Miami
10:38
or Fort Lauderdale or whatever the
10:40
alternative relationships all you even
10:41
own some of the excursions and actually
10:44
people don't spend a lot of money on the
10:46
island in the hands of locals because
10:48
they're shopping in the shopping malls
10:49
and so on so one of the things you might
10:51
want to do if you are worried about that
10:53
is look at booking more independent
10:55
excursions perhaps with more local
10:57
providers try and shop in some of the
10:59
markets which are run by local people
11:01
try needing some of the more local
11:03
restaurants the other side of the
11:05
argument of course is the
11:07
cruise line arguments particularly
11:08
through clear which is the cruise line
11:10
Association where they do talk about the
11:12
amount of investment that is brought
11:14
into the islands with many of these
11:15
developments are created there bring
11:17
lots of people to the island and they
11:19
are putting money into the local economy
11:21
with its the taxi drivers the guides to
11:24
take them to the beaches the beach bars
11:25
whatever it is but bear in mind as you
11:27
head into these islands the people on
11:29
the island are incredibly wealthy so are
11:31
there ways that you can actually get
11:33
some of your cruise dollars into the
11:35
hands of the locals the Caribbean is a
11:37
magnificent place to visit I love going
11:39
on a Caribbean cruise but those are some
11:41
of the watch shots and things that I
11:43
didn't really know before I went
11:44
cruising the Caribbean and hope they've
11:46
helped you I have many more videos tips
11:49
and advice on cruising the Caribbean and
11:52
so much more so why don't you watch
11:54
another one of those right now
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