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I meet so many people on cruises who tell me they do not gamble. However, whilst they might not gamble in the casino, they gamble with the most important thing of all on the cruise, the cabin. I'm going to tell you why I think most people get cabins wrong and what savvy cruisers do that I think you should really consider doing, too. I'm Gary Bembridge. And here's my tips on finding the perfect cabin, and why I think most advice that people give you is wrong.
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0:00
i meet so many people on cruises who
0:02
tell me they do not gamble however
0:05
whilst they might not gamble in the
0:06
casino they gamble with the most
0:09
important thing of all on the cruise the
0:12
cabin i'm going to tell you why I think
0:14
most people get cabins wrong and what
0:16
savvy cruisers do that I think you
0:18
should really consider doing too welcome
0:20
aboard i'm Gary Benbridge and here's my
0:23
tips on finding the perfect cabin and
0:26
why I think most advice that people give
0:27
you is wrong one of the things that I
0:30
always avoid and I recommend that you
0:32
avoid is looking at booking a guaranteed
0:35
fair so guaranteed fair is basically
0:37
where you book a particular level inside
0:39
an ocean view a balcony a suite and you
0:42
don't get to choose the cabin the cruise
0:44
line will choose you a cabin in reality
0:47
it'll choose you from the worst cabins
0:48
that are left over in that grade because
0:50
people who have booked where they can
0:53
choose their own cabin will have gone in
0:55
and swept up the best cabins the ones
0:57
perhaps with the best location the
0:58
biggest balcony the nicest bathroom
1:02
facilities or whatever so you basically
1:04
left with the dregs so guaranteed fairs
1:06
is very much like gambling you imagine
1:08
you go to slot machine you put your
1:10
money in which is going to be the same
1:11
probably as the people who've chosen the
1:13
cabin themselves you hit the button and
1:15
occasionally you'll hit the jackpot but
1:17
like 99% of the times you're not and
1:20
you're going to get the dud cabin it's
1:21
really important to understand that the
1:23
cruise line allocates the left over
1:25
cabins so I know so many people that go
1:27
with guaranteed fairs and have ended up
1:29
with really really terrible cabins so I
1:32
always go in with fairs where I choose
1:34
my own cabin now it doesn't always cost
1:37
more it might be a small amount so I
1:39
booked a Celebrity Cruise recently on an
1:41
America cruise and to choose my own
1:43
cabin actually costs exactly the same as
1:45
a guaranteed fair so why wouldn't you do
1:47
it even if there's a small premium
1:50
really think about the advantage of
1:52
choosing the best not being allocated to
1:54
the dregs location location location is
1:56
really important when thinking about a
1:58
cabin so a couple of things to consider
2:00
in the front of the ship and at the rear
2:03
of the ship is where you're going to
2:04
have the most movement because a ship
2:06
will basically pivot like that so the
2:07
middle of the ship is really going to be
2:09
the most stable so particularly if
2:10
you're going somewhere that's likely to
2:12
have rough seas which of course you can
2:13
never predict another reason for
2:15
avoiding cabins in the front of the ship
2:16
as well as from a movement is if you're
2:18
on a cruise which has tender ports so
2:20
the ship isn't actually docked like this
2:22
one is here is the anchor so you might
2:26
find very early in the morning the
2:27
anchor is drops waking you up so I've
2:29
been on cruises before when I hadn't
2:30
followed the device i was in cabins
2:32
towards the front there and every
2:33
morning crackador we woken up by the
2:36
noise of the anchor so it's another
2:37
reason for avoiding cabins towards the
2:39
front of the ship there is one other
2:41
consideration if you do go for cabins at
2:44
the back of the ship so many people like
2:45
these aft cabins because you get views
2:48
leaving ports however you can often get
2:50
a lot of vibration from the engines and
2:52
so that's something to bear in mind is
2:54
you may have much more vibration than
2:56
you do in other parts of the ship being
2:58
in the middle of the ship is always the
2:59
best and it has a huge difference in the
3:01
amount of movement so I've been on
3:03
cruises where I've been midship friends
3:05
of mine have had cabins at the front and
3:07
it has been incredible the difference in
3:08
the amount of movement so that's the
3:10
first thing to consider the second thing
3:12
though is you also want to be in the
3:13
middle of the decks why for example if
3:16
you've got a 14 deck ship you want to be
3:18
kind of halfway between so the reason is
3:21
along one level here uh you'll normally
3:23
have like the prominard deck so you'll
3:25
have a lot of the restaurants the shops
3:27
the casino that kind of stuff and then
3:29
further up at the top you'll have the
3:31
leader deck with the pools and so on so
3:34
actually by being in the middle of those
3:36
decks or whatever halfway through is you
3:37
got the least amount to go down to those
3:40
activities and the least amount to go up
3:42
but also being in the middle is you'll
3:43
find generally speaking that ships will
3:45
tend to have like in the front of the
3:46
ship they'll have things like the
3:49
theaters for example and you'll often
3:51
find they'll have like the restaurants
3:53
at the rear of the ship because that's
3:54
often where the kitchens are so again by
3:56
being in the middle you're again
3:57
equidistance from everything so that's
4:00
another tip that I have so you want to
4:01
be in the middle of the ship but also in
4:02
the middle of the ship literally and
4:04
another really critical tip and one that
4:06
I absolutely swear by is you want to be
4:08
surrounded on all sides by cabins so
4:09
cabins above you below you either side
4:11
of you cuz that's going to buffer you
4:13
hopefully from kind of noisy venues what
4:16
you want to try and do is make sure that
4:17
you have cabins opposite you so take a
4:20
look on the deck plan because you can
4:21
often find you might have a laundry room
4:23
which have lots of people coming and
4:24
going you might have a crew door where
4:26
they keep coming and going for example
4:27
I've had that before where all as the
4:29
day and night you've got crew clanging
4:31
and banging coming in and out so you
4:33
really make sure that look on the deck
4:35
plan and you've got cabins opposite you
4:37
now bear in mind though you also need to
4:38
look for noisy venues let's talk about
4:40
some of the things you should look on
4:42
the deck plan and some of the venues
4:44
that you should actually try and avoid
4:46
one venue you want to miss is this one
4:48
here which during the day is nice and
4:50
calm and quiet but at night it actually
4:53
becomes the nightclub so you can have
4:55
booming sounds so for example here on
4:58
the ship I'm on at the moment it starts
5:00
at 10:30 at night and goes until late so
5:03
make sure you're avoiding anything
5:04
that's a nightclub or a live music venue
5:08
that bass really does travel you also
5:10
want to avoid the pool deck so you don't
5:13
want a cabinet underneath the pool deck
5:14
because in the morning you'll often find
5:16
they're scraping all the the chairs
5:18
around uh sitting up also during the day
5:20
people will be scraping the lounges and
5:24
the chairs moving them around also in
5:26
the evenings you might find there's pool
5:28
deck parties you might have a base
5:30
booming underneath i had that once when
5:32
I made that mistake uh with late night
5:34
parties another area to look out for is
5:37
if you have a running or walking track
5:38
like this one here and there's cabins
5:40
underneath i discovered the hard way
5:42
that having a cabin underneath you could
5:44
often be waking up really early in the
5:46
morning the thud thud of people kind of
5:48
running and walking uh which can be
5:50
really really disruptive particularly
5:51
cuz even though they often ask people to
5:53
only start running after 8:00 in the
5:55
morning you'll find people pay no
5:56
attention to that the theater is another
5:58
venue that you want to make sure you
6:00
avoid having a cabin above below or even
6:03
near the entrance or exit to it because
6:06
there'll be rehearsals during the day
6:08
often uh like for example here there's a
6:11
show at 8:00 at night 10:00 at night and
6:14
so it can be really kind of noisy and
6:16
boommy one of the places that you do
6:18
want to try and avoid is being uh
6:20
underneath the gym for two reasons one
6:22
of which is you'll often find people
6:24
slamming down weights like my workouts
6:26
today people were doing that they were
6:27
kind of dropping weights but also I made
6:29
the mistake once of uh being above the
6:33
studio where they're the classes and
6:34
early in the morning uh into the evening
6:36
they'd often be booming bass uh from the
6:39
classes this is also another venue that
6:41
you want to make sure you avoid when
6:43
booking a cabin certainly opposite which
6:45
is the lingerette the lingeretses can
6:47
get really busy they can be quite noisy
6:49
not just from the machines but also
6:51
people could gather here they're talking
6:53
so also try to avoid having cabins
6:55
either side uh if you've got an inside
6:57
cabin because the machines can sometimes
6:59
make a lot of noise and they will often
7:01
be going from early in the morning till
7:02
late at night live music venues are also
7:05
one to avoid so for example there's a
7:07
band that plays in this live venue here
7:10
so they will play often late night sets
7:12
there'll be rehearsals during the day so
7:14
you do want to kind of avoid any live
7:16
music venues uh particularly if they've
7:18
got whole big bands because that is
7:20
going to again uh booming music lots of
7:23
bass so another one to avoid depending
7:26
on the layout of the ship it's also
7:27
sometimes a good idea to avoid the lift
7:30
areas because if you've got cabins that
7:33
are right next to the lift often have
7:35
the dinging of the lifts people getting
7:37
off standing here chatting and so on and
7:40
it can be rather disruptive as well so
7:42
try and avoid the lifts when choosing
7:44
your cabin another critical thing to
7:45
look for on the deck plan is
7:47
interconnecting cabins so for example uh
7:51
this cabin here has an interconnecting
7:53
door to the next room now this actually
7:54
where it's located is not too bad cuz
7:56
it's a little bit out of the way but do
7:58
look for interconnecting doors because
8:00
you will find that you may end up with
8:02
someone who watches television loudly is
8:05
argues a lot on talks loudly on the
8:07
phone parties whatever strongly
8:09
recommend you do that unless of course
8:10
you're traveling with somebody also it's
8:12
really important to approach the whole
8:14
concept of upgrades with a lot of
8:17
caution people get very excited when
8:19
they hear about upgrades there's a
8:21
couple of things that you should
8:22
strongly consider first of all when you
8:24
book you actually have to opt out of
8:27
auto upgrade so auto upgrade is when the
8:28
cruise line can just decide to move you
8:30
into a bigger cabin so for example like
8:32
I booked a balcony cabin and they could
8:34
perhaps move you up into a big suite
8:36
like this however I recommend opting out
8:39
particularly if you've chosen your cabin
8:41
because again if you get upgraded you
8:43
normally have no ability to go back to
8:45
the cabin you chose so if you get given
8:47
a cabin that's not ideal then you have
8:50
no recourse so for example I often get
8:52
messages from people that got moved to a
8:54
supposedly better cabin but suddenly
8:56
they found themselves at the front of
8:57
the ship and they're very prone to
8:59
seasickness and they were doing uh
9:01
somewhere transatlantic which was very
9:03
rough and they had a miserable time but
9:04
they couldn't go back the second thing
9:06
the cruise lines do these days is
9:08
they'll start sending you emails in the
9:10
run-up to the cruise offering you the
9:11
chance to bid for an upgrade a couple of
9:13
watch outs first of all make sure that
9:16
if you are considering to move and to a
9:19
better cabin through bidding is check
9:21
what it would actually cost you anyway
9:23
to move so you and choose your own cabin
9:25
i have met many people for examples on a
9:27
recent Celebrity Edge trip people had
9:30
bid to move to one of their lofts and
9:32
they realized once they'd bid and had
9:34
been accepted and charged that they
9:35
could have done it for much less by just
9:36
going to their travel agent and doing it
9:38
anyway second thing to remember is again
9:41
the minute it gets um accepted is you're
9:44
moved and you have no recourse and
9:46
you're charged straight away thirdly if
9:48
you are traveling solo the price that
9:50
you're bidding is per person so it's
9:52
going to be double that so even if
9:54
you're solo and you bid remember you're
9:56
paying double that price so be extremely
9:59
cautious moving to a better cabin it may
10:01
not be a better cabin again you're
10:02
moving to a better grade in the cruise
10:05
lines perspective it may not be for you
10:07
a lot of people ask me whether they
10:09
should get a cabin on the port or the
10:12
starboard side for those who don't know
10:13
if you're facing the the forwards so and
10:16
you got the bridge at the front on the
10:17
left hand side is the port side easy to
10:19
remember because it's got four letters
10:20
left four letters port the right hand
10:22
side is a starboard side now it really
10:24
doesn't matter because if you are
10:26
sailing at night or at sea days like
10:29
today's a day as you can see there's no
10:32
land there's no scenery at all so it
10:34
doesn't really matter which side you are
10:36
uh there are very few times when it does
10:39
make sense to be port or starboard so
10:41
for example if you're selling into New
10:43
York uh being on the on the left hand
10:46
side the port side may be a good idea
10:49
because you're going to sell past the
10:50
Statue of Liberty and if you're sailing
10:52
out you might want the starboard side
10:53
because the Statue of Liberty on your
10:54
right hand side however in most cases on
10:56
those sort of scenic things you're going
10:58
to want to be out on deck anyway so if
11:00
you go into a scenic sailing like say
11:02
Glacia Bay in and in Alaska the captain
11:05
will move the ship around so both sides
11:07
of the ship get the views but you should
11:09
again be outside getting the views like
11:11
on the deck like I am now to get the
11:13
best views so it's much more important
11:15
to focus on where your cabin is within
11:18
the ship rather than worrying too much
11:19
about port and starboard the ship can
11:21
dock on either side so we were in
11:23
Lanzerati yesterday for example and the
11:26
ship was docked on the starboard side so
11:27
don't think port means you're going to
11:28
be on the port side at all uh really
11:31
don't get hung up about it focus on
11:33
where your cabin is is much more
11:35
important another thing to think about
11:37
when choosing your cabin is what happens
11:40
if you get isolated in your cabin now it
11:42
doesn't happen very often but you could
11:44
perhaps get noravirus which certainly in
11:48
the season can often have many outbreaks
11:50
on ships as it does on land or even if
11:53
you perhaps get COVID for example you
11:55
could be then required to isolate in
11:57
your cabin i discovered this the hard
11:59
way many years ago when I started my
12:01
cruising career I had booked an ocean
12:03
view cabin unfortunately I hadn't
12:05
followed all these tips that I've
12:06
learned so actually the walking and
12:07
running track was above me i actually
12:09
got noravirus and I was made to stay in
12:11
my cabin for a couple of days it was
12:13
very small it was very cramped i didn't
12:15
have any outside space I could go to
12:16
because I had no balcony and I had the
12:18
people thumping above me and so
12:21
I these days now would always prefer to
12:23
choose a balcony cabin partly because I
12:25
like a balcony cabin but also with the
12:28
small chance that I ever get isolated i
12:30
know it's a small chance but something
12:31
to bear in mind could be a factor when
12:33
choosing a cabin if you do have to spend
12:35
a lot of time there one really important
12:37
tip is if you need an accessible cabin
12:40
you've got a wheelchair or accessibility
12:42
needs to get those cabins you need to
12:45
book way in advance you need to be
12:47
planning way in advance of anybody else
12:49
because those cabins there's not many of
12:51
them on the ship and they're always in
12:52
very high demand so make sure that you
12:55
plan way way in advance to get those
12:57
cabins why don't you join me over in
12:59
this video where I'll talk about five
13:01
things that smart cruisers all do and
13:02
one they all argue about see over there
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