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I went on a cruise where you had to be over-50. This over-50s only cruise taught me three big lessons about cruising that I had not thought about before. Theses three tips are things every cruise passenger should do before they switch or try and new cruise lines, especially if from a cruise line that you really enjoy. If I had done these three things I may have made a very different decision before going on this Saga Cruise.
I paid for this cruise myself. I mention this as people, ask if I don't say it!
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0:00
are you crazy that's what friends said
0:02
to me when they'd heard that i booked
0:04
on the cruise line that i am on right
0:06
now i did it
0:07
anyway because i was intrigued to find
0:09
out if cruising on a line
0:11
where you have to be over 50 is any
0:13
different from the multitude of cruises
0:15
i've done in the last
0:16
few years whereby default the passengers
0:19
were mostly over 50 anyway because
0:21
that's
0:22
basically most of the people who cruise
0:23
and the cruise lines that i normally go
0:25
on so is this any different well
0:27
yes it turned out to be different in
0:30
ways i hadn't expected
0:31
at all but importantly i also discovered
0:34
three
0:35
really simple and very very practical
0:38
things that you should do and i should
0:41
do
0:41
if you're looking at going on a new
0:43
cruise line i should have done this
0:44
before i chose this cruise it would have
0:46
made things so very
0:48
different if you're new here welcome
0:50
aboard i'm gary bembridge and my goal is
0:52
to make it much more fun
0:54
and really much easier to discover plan
0:57
and enjoy unforgettable cruise vacations
0:59
this was unforgettable
1:00
and let's find out why the first thing
1:03
that worried me about going
1:05
on this particular cruise line saga
1:07
which targets the over 50 was
1:09
who are the ships designed for what is
1:12
the look and feel is it going to be
1:13
very old-fashioned very funny-daddy and
1:15
very traditional
1:17
because we've seen other lines that have
1:19
a large percentage of over 50 travelers
1:21
bringing on something much more
1:22
contemporary and modern so even horror
1:24
america with their new ship celebrity
1:26
certainly with their revamps oceania
1:28
with their upgrades
1:29
they are bringing a much more
1:30
contemporary look and feel well i
1:31
shouldn't have been worried because when
1:33
i stepped on board
1:34
i found something very unexpected it
1:36
looked very much
1:37
kind of like a sort of more modern
1:39
contemporary boutique hotel
1:41
so the designer day course certainly
1:43
wasn't old fashioned at all it was very
1:45
contemporary
1:46
with artwork dotted around the place
1:48
which was also pretty contemporary
1:50
modern and you know pretty out there in
1:52
many ways the ships are very new ships
1:55
so spirit of discovery that i'm on came
1:58
into service in 2019 spirit adventure
2:00
the sister ship
2:01
only came to service in 2021 so
2:04
certainly the look and the feeling the
2:05
design of the ship
2:06
was very contemporary so that certainly
2:09
was a big surprise it was not something
2:10
that i had expected
2:12
as i explored the ship i found of course
2:14
you had all the facilities all the
2:15
venues that you'd normally expect to
2:17
find
2:17
on a ship no matter who they're catering
2:19
for so you had lots of bars the south
2:21
cape bar
2:22
the living room the big britannia lounge
2:25
you had of course theaters all that kind
2:28
of stuff that you'd expect but also
2:29
importantly there was lots of fitness
2:32
activity
2:32
centers as well so you had a good sized
2:35
fitness center you get a swimming pool
2:36
which is actually a pretty good sized
2:38
swimming pool you have a massive big spa
2:40
area you have outdoor deck game
2:44
areas you even had a golf simulator
2:47
so lots of activity focus facilities as
2:50
well
2:50
when it came to the cabins again found
2:52
those pretty contemporary and
2:54
modern as well with all the usual things
2:56
you'd expect so usb
2:57
charges interactive television so
2:59
certainly wasn't as old and fuddy-duddy
3:01
as i perhaps thought it would be when i
3:03
was using my stereotypical view of a
3:05
company that might be catering
3:06
for an older passenger there were
3:10
however
3:11
a couple of nods to that slightly older
3:13
demographic which they laid down so for
3:15
example
3:16
if you take a look at the swimming pool
3:17
there was a special kind of
3:19
slow staggered entry system in so you
3:21
get in and out the pool very easily
3:23
20 of the cabins on the ship are solo
3:26
cabins again reflecting that many people
3:28
in the demographic are cruising solo the
3:32
fair included some things which probably
3:34
also
3:34
are very much liked by an older
3:36
demographic
3:37
so it had things like transfers tuned
3:39
from your home included
3:41
insurance was included which include
3:43
even curved cover
3:44
and i guess that may be talking to a
3:45
demographic who is even skewing
3:47
even older that may struggle to get
3:49
insurance for cruising
3:51
the other thing though that did strike
3:52
me is the lack of focus really on
3:54
technology so wi-fi
3:56
is included in the fair the feds are all
3:57
pretty all-inclusive however the wi-fi
3:59
was not that good so for example you
4:01
couldn't really use a lot of social
4:02
media
4:03
so i could use things like twitter i
4:05
couldn't use instagram very well you
4:07
certainly couldn't stream
4:08
youtube and that felt to me like not
4:10
really focusing on the
4:12
demographic i had loads of people coming
4:14
up to you on the cruise who watch the
4:15
channel so our
4:16
youtube watchers they see things on
4:18
facebook they talk to their
4:20
kids and grandkids on facetime but you
4:22
couldn't really do that on the wi-fi
4:23
so that was probably one area that
4:25
hadn't really reflected
4:27
the people like me who are in my early
4:28
60s who are very active on
4:30
wi-fi digital and that wasn't really
4:33
catered for
4:34
as well as it could be so there came
4:37
my first really big aha moment the first
4:40
big
4:41
simple practical tip is make sure before
4:44
you go
4:44
on any new cruise line and any new ship
4:47
you check out in huge amount of detail
4:49
exactly what is on the ship so you check
4:51
out the kind of hardware what the
4:52
facilities are
4:53
but also check out the software and some
4:55
of the reviews on things whether it's
4:56
important to you like say
4:58
wi-fi or it is the fitness center or
5:00
whatever it is
5:01
so spend some time studying the deck
5:02
plans spend some time looking at reviews
5:04
and certainly spend some time looking
5:06
at ship tours that you can find very
5:08
easily on things like youtube
5:10
if i'd followed that simple tip i would
5:12
have realized for example
5:14
that one key facility and thing that i
5:16
like to do on a cruise
5:17
is not on saga and not on the spirit of
5:20
discovery
5:20
and that is that there is no casino when
5:22
i'm on a cruise i do like to have a bit
5:24
of flutter and play the machines or do
5:26
play a bit of blackjack once i was on
5:28
board and i realized that was the case
5:30
that did start to get me worried a
5:31
little bit around does that mean that
5:34
the activities
5:35
and the daily program and the things to
5:37
do on board
5:38
are also not going to really talk to me
5:40
as a cruise
5:41
passenger as i started to look at the
5:44
daily program and look at the plan of
5:46
events i could see there was a pretty
5:48
classic
5:48
cruise experience pretty much as i've
5:50
experienced on celebrity honda america
5:52
princess
5:53
and those kind of cruise lines so pretty
5:55
classical
5:56
dress code for example was in place as
5:58
it is on most of those
5:59
other cruise lines where you have a
6:01
majority of passengers by definition or
6:04
over 50
6:05
so there was a smart casual evening
6:06
where you expected to wear kind of as a
6:08
gentleman a college shirt
6:09
of some kind i tended to wear long
6:11
sleeve shirts sort of smart slacks
6:13
no jeans and then they did have kind of
6:15
a formal gala night
6:16
where a lot of people as i discovered on
6:18
this cruise would go the
6:20
full hog and wear a dinner jacket or a
6:22
tuxedo
6:23
and ladies would wear the most
6:25
remarkable gowns
6:26
but that wasn't that different to my
6:28
experience on other cruise lines so it's
6:30
kind of expected that was going to
6:31
happen
6:32
the daily program had the usual fare of
6:34
quizzes
6:35
deck games enrichment cooking
6:38
demonstrations
6:39
the shows were again fairly similar they
6:41
were kind of review type shows
6:43
focusing on different decades song and
6:45
dance type material they had
6:47
guest artists you know comedians guest
6:50
singers from
6:51
famous bands west end that kind of stuff
6:53
so the actual overall program
6:55
was pretty much the same so always clear
6:58
is a cruise line that requires you to be
6:59
50 or over
7:00
has pretty much the same structure the
7:03
same dress code the same
7:04
daily program activities as those more
7:07
traditional cruise lines
7:08
or mainstream cruise lines like princess
7:10
holland america celebrity
7:11
that don't have kind of a specific age
7:13
target but tend to have that
7:15
kind of traveler on board the other
7:18
question i had
7:19
is around dining would i have the
7:21
diversity and the range
7:23
and the choice of innovative food
7:26
options that i would have on those other
7:28
cruise lines or would saga
7:30
actually have a much more conservative
7:32
traditional approach to dining options
7:35
what i found was i should not have
7:37
worried because they had
7:39
quite a wide range of dining said your
7:40
usual your buffet
7:42
and your main dining room with big menus
7:45
as you have on those other cruise lines
7:46
they also had three specially dining
7:49
restaurants
7:50
they had one which was a steakhouse
7:52
called the club with jewels
7:54
they had east west which was kind of an
7:56
asian fusion
7:57
restaurant so pretty innovative then
7:59
they had coast to coast
8:00
which is mostly a seafood restaurant
8:03
again with kind of a wide
8:04
range and very innovative food so i
8:07
shouldn't have worried
8:08
a cruise line targeting people over 50
8:10
saga
8:11
it definitely had a diverse range there
8:14
the other area that i was less sure
8:16
about is excursions because i
8:18
certainly like to do excursions with a
8:20
little bit more on the active site so
8:21
i'll always go for the cycling excursion
8:23
for example
8:23
or if there's white water rafting or
8:26
some kind of hike up a volcano
8:27
or something like that so i like things
8:29
that are much more in that area so
8:31
my concern was would saga have
8:34
excursions which were much more
8:36
sedentary much less out there if you
8:39
like
8:40
and in reality the answer was probably
8:41
skewing a little bit towards that so
8:43
there was
8:44
panoramic excursions for example you
8:46
know kind of much more bus
8:47
driven focused excursions they did
8:50
though have
8:51
some exclusions which were kind of more
8:52
hikes and walks but not
8:54
really out there pushing you kind of
8:56
excursions the excursions i would say
8:58
definitely leaned a little bit more
8:59
on the conservative side than some other
9:02
cruise lines of course
9:03
the advantage you have is in port you
9:05
can go and do your own thing you can do
9:06
independent
9:07
excursions so that probably
9:08
counterbalanced that but certainly
9:10
on the table on the offerings i would
9:12
say the excursions were probably
9:14
a little bit more sedentary a little bit
9:16
more conservative than i
9:18
personally would normally have enjoyed
9:21
and i sometimes get offered on those
9:22
other cruise lines
9:23
there's a really big focus on art on
9:27
history
9:27
on culture and food so i definitely
9:31
think when you got the excursion side
9:33
there was more of a nod to the
9:34
demographic there are other couple
9:35
little touches
9:36
where we saw kind of again a nod to the
9:38
demographic so example when you got off
9:40
the excursion
9:41
one of the saga sort of signatures is
9:43
they offer you a
9:44
werther's original suite which for those
9:46
of you don't know it's a very
9:47
traditional
9:48
suite and a lot of the advertising for
9:50
example talks about grandparents
9:51
sharing it with their grandkids so
9:54
little touches like that probably more
9:55
of a nod to the demographic
9:57
another notch of the demographic was we
9:59
had a couple of ports where you had to
10:00
get on the tenders you know
10:01
we had to get on those little tender
10:03
boats to take you to the shore
10:05
and we had to all go into a step test to
10:07
show that we were
10:08
agile and mobile enough to actually step
10:11
off the ship onto a tender
10:12
that was something that i haven't seen
10:14
on other cruise lines
10:16
so the program itself was pretty
10:17
conservative and fairly traditional and
10:20
that
10:20
brought up for me the second really big
10:23
practical and simple tip
10:26
if you're looking at moving to a new
10:29
cruise line
10:29
and that is to not just read the reviews
10:32
but to actually look at the daily
10:34
program
10:35
so one of the things i've seen around is
10:36
people will often keep the daily program
10:38
they might
10:39
post a blog about it but one of the
10:40
things i realized is what you should do
10:42
is actually ask people who've been on
10:44
that cruise line
10:45
if they've kept the daily program and
10:47
can you look at it if i'd looked at the
10:48
daily program i would have got a really
10:50
good sense about
10:51
what the entertainment was what the
10:53
activities were
10:54
and the nature of those activities that
10:56
for me is a really big
10:58
big tip if i'd followed that particular
11:01
tip and looked at the daily program
11:03
for this cruise line and this ship i
11:06
would have seen on the daily program
11:07
in the britannia lounge every evening
11:10
for quite some hours
11:11
was a live band and ballroom dancing
11:15
there was going to be no
11:16
kind of nightclub no silent disco none
11:19
of that kind of activity and that
11:21
probably
11:21
would have flagged the type of people
11:23
who are going to be on board
11:24
clearly people and a lot of people who
11:27
enjoy ballroom dancing
11:28
which by definition probably means
11:31
skewing a little bit older
11:32
now my background is marketing and one
11:35
of the things i learned in marketing is
11:36
if you put an age on something
11:38
you can pretty much guarantee that
11:40
people you know 15 20 years above that
11:43
are going to buy your product so if you
11:45
say 40 you can expect people like me in
11:47
the early 60s
11:48
to buy it what i found on board is
11:52
in reality most of the passengers i
11:53
would say were probably in the 65 to 75
11:57
year age group so definitely me in my
11:59
early 60s was on the younger side
12:01
and i think really what my experience
12:03
was is that is really
12:04
the heart of the saga traveler that is
12:07
where they cater for the best those are
12:09
the people who are definitely happiest
12:10
on board
12:10
and the daily program and the ship and
12:13
all the activities
12:14
really really satisfy that group
12:16
probably more than anybody else
12:18
that brings me to my next really simple
12:20
and practical tip
12:22
and that's by looking at the ship
12:23
looking at the daily program is figure
12:25
out
12:25
what the real sweet spot for a cruise
12:27
line is now in seoul
12:28
it's very easy because it is very much
12:30
more age driven
12:32
however for every cruise line you can
12:33
pretty much figure that out so while
12:35
they're going
12:35
after the fun-loving party goa
12:39
carnival are they looking for the more
12:42
international loving
12:43
multicultural loving families which
12:45
could be msc
12:48
so try and figure out who the cruise
12:49
line is really zero in on
12:51
who they want to keep most happy and
12:53
decide is that for
12:54
you of course all these cruise lines
12:56
you're going to have fun on anyway
12:58
because of the destinations the food
12:59
the facilities and that kind of stuff
13:01
but if you really want to find the ideal
13:04
cruise line or the cruise line that you
13:05
know is going to work when you're
13:07
jumping to a new cruise line from one
13:08
you're really familiar with
13:09
really focus on who is the sweet spot
13:11
and see if you fit within that and i
13:13
think you can pretty much tell that by
13:14
looking at the ship looking at the
13:15
facilities
13:16
and by looking at the daily program if
13:19
you think saga
13:20
is the sort of cruise line that could be
13:21
right for you because it's in your sweet
13:23
spot
13:24
click on this video here where i break
13:26
down solgar in much more detail
13:28
including one of the things that they do
13:30
particularly well that other cruise
13:32
lines
13:32
don't do well so click on that and i'll
13:34
see you over there
13:35
right now
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