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Like many of you right now, I faced a huge dilemma. I had a cruise booked on Holland America in the Caribbean. Should I cancel, or should I go with everything that's going on with Omicron? I want to discuss with you what I decided and what happened, along with the three big lessons I learned.
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like many of you right now i faced a
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dilemma i had a cruise booked on holland
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america in the caribbean
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should i cancel should i go with
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everything that's going on with omikrom
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and kovet i want to discuss with you
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what i decided
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what happened and the three big lessons
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that i learned through this whole
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process some i expected but probably
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more interesting and important is what i
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hadn't expected and learned as a result
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because i think you probably won't have
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thought of these or expected them either
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and i do think you should consider all
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of this if you're due to or thinking of
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cruising this year if you're new here
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welcome aboard i'm gary bembridge and
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it's my goal to make it fun and easy to
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discover plan and enjoy unforgettable
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cruise vacations a really big challenge
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i faced was it was less than 30 days
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before my cruise and things were kicking
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off with omicron cruise problems
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cancellations loads of changes and the
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stress was increased because under the
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holland america cancellation policy if i
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cancelled i would suffer a big financial
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penalty because changes in cancellations
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less than 30 days before the cruise
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didn't fall under their what's normally
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pretty generous cruise with confidence
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policy unlike some of the cruise lines
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by the way that take it right up to the
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cruise so i spent time trying to balance
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all the concerns the hassles the risk
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and the growing pressure from friends
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and family who were concerned about me
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cruising during omicron wave and of
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course all this was heightened every day
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by the growing negative press about
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cruising there was news of holland
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america norwegian royal caribbean and
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many other lines cancelling or
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curtailing cruises brazil had closed to
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cruising the cdc had issued advice
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saying don't go cruising taking all that
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into account i decided to go
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and i want to explain why because i
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think this thought process will help you
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and i've been contacted by many people
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asking if they should cancel go and this
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appears to have helped them first of all
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i am vaccinated and i've already
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actually had my second booster so my
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belief is that while i of course could
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still catch it there's a much reduced
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chance of getting particularly ill and
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certainly ending up in hospital and part
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of me said the reason for getting
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vaccinated was to be able to get out
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into the world again and so i should
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embrace that secondly i'm definitely
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absolutely not one of those that believe
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or argue that going on a cruise ship is
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safer than say going to my local
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supermarket and other random comparisons
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that i see people making i don't buy
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into that thinking at all it's like
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comparing apples and pears tomatoes and
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radishes going on a cruise is a very
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different experience and i believe we
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should all look at what a cruise itself
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offers and what that risk looks like and
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importantly understand that it differs
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by line too and this is really really
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key as i'm going to explain there were
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two key things about the risk of
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cruising one is i was on holland america
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they require being fully vaccinated from
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passengers
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you had to prove have a negative test
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before boarding masks that'd be worn at
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all times inside unless eating and
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drinking even when dancing
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when you're sitting in shows they were
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running at significantly less than half
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full capacity to enable distancing and
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the other thing i really really believe
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very strongly there's good lines and
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less good lines to go on right now based
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on how they manage and enforce those
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protocols their reliance i will and will
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not cruise through this particular time
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i've been on a number of cruises since
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shut down and i've seen how the
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protocols work both the good
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and the less good for example in the uk
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msc in my view handle things badly post
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shutdown the way they implemented and
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enforced protocols didn't seem as robust
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as i would like them and as a result
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there were many many cases on board
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apparently reported in the press i know
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they dispute how they handled it but the
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reality in my view is the way i saw them
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handle it was not thorough enough to
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inspire my confidence or trust but i'd
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been on viking princess celebrity and
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pennant since shut down and
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i was very comfortable about how tightly
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they handled the protocols i've been on
4:04
another line where i felt less secure
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virgin voyages which had a the protocols
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but a more relaxed approach to enforcing
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them so
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that put me off that but i felt really
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confident that holland america had the
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protocols that i agreed with but i was
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confident they would be well implemented
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and followed and this is really key to
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go
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with them because also i believe the
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passengers who are more mature were more
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likely to comply it's not a big party
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cruise line there's not lots of big
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party mixing activities it's more sedate
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it's calmer people listen to listen to
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music it's not a young party crowd
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resort line
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next i also considered that i was going
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to the caribbean so itinerary is
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important a lot's going to be happening
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outdoors i could choose excursions which
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are going to be very outdoor focused
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beach going and also i knew on holo
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america generally they have smaller size
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groups on excursions and when i was
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there i saw this happening other big
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lines you know big resort ship lines
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they had many more people on the
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excursions than we had for example on
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our catamaran tours which could normally
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hold up to 150 on a catamaran we only
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had about 35 40 people but i can see
5:13
other cruise lines were running them at
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close to full capacity our transfers
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were even to the beach were split across
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several buses so each of the buses were
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around half full next i also had
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insurance to cover me for any covert
5:26
related issues any disruptions
5:28
quarantining medical issues so that was
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also really important i had good
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insurance cover i then went out of my
5:34
way to understand the policy around what
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the quarantining and isolation would be
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on the cruise or if i tested positive at
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the end of the cruise
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and this basically means isolating in
5:46
specific cabins on the ship and you get
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transferred to a line approved and
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funded hotel on return to fort
5:52
lauderdale if the quarantining had not
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been completed so i understood all of
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that another consideration
5:58
was it also seemed to me that many of
6:00
the disruptions to cruises currently
6:02
underway was driven specifically by
6:04
spread within the crew and their ability
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level to provide a full service on board
6:09
crew are more vulnerable they work in
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close proximity they're living in shared
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and close quarters so i decided that i
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had the choice of staying at home where
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in fact in the uk case numbers were
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pretty high and actually many of my
6:21
friends and extended family having
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quoted in the weeks running up to the
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cruise so i could balance that with all
6:26
the risk that i take into account and i
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decided it was okay to go i decided to
6:30
travel take into cut everything going
6:33
through that process but importantly i
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don't have a job where i have to be back
6:37
on a certain day and also have a very
6:39
understanding partner who actually
6:40
wasn't coming on the trip with me
6:41
understood that i may end up being
6:43
delayed coming back if anything happened
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now i've been asked by many people
6:47
during this trip
6:48
what they should do about their
6:49
particular cruises and the balance of
6:51
risk is incredibly personal
6:53
think through all the things i've
6:54
outlined and have been saying and if you
6:57
have even the slightest amount of doubt
6:59
i recommend not going because once you
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get on board things are going to change
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that is inevitable and it will actually
7:06
stress you out the actual experience is
7:09
going to change that was something i
7:10
expected and something i discovered as i
7:13
will explain because it brings more
7:15
issues for you to understand the big
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question as i said off on this trip was
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was it going to be a great experience
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even though i understood the risks and
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would it still match in terms of
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enjoyment by last caribbean cruise which
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was at the end of 2019 on oceania i went
7:30
and expecting itinerary changes
7:32
onboard changes limits import
7:35
and things would change all the time and
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that i had to be flexible and all of
7:40
those things happened and it was i'll
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admit a little bit stressful at the
7:44
beginning of the cruise not knowing what
7:46
was and wasn't going to happen we had
7:48
itinerary changes martinique was changed
7:51
to saint vincent and then it was finally
7:53
changed to grenada for example we had a
7:56
last minute change towards the end of
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the cruise
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when saint thomas wouldn't allow us to
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actually come in presumably because we'd
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hit that magic cutoff point of one
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percent of
8:06
the total population on board having
8:09
covert cases caribbean islands once you
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hit one percent of combined passages and
8:13
crew with covet they will not let you
8:14
into the port really important to
8:16
understand that in most ports we faced
8:18
limits in solution grenade and barbados
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we could only go on cruise line
8:22
excursions or in government approved
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taxis to a shortlist of approved places
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which were mostly beaches we had to wear
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masks in port in most cases except at
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the beach we had our temperature checked
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we couldn't leave the excursion for any
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reason for example now this was fine
8:39
with me because i wanted to enjoy the
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sun the sea and the sand that's why i
8:43
came on the trip it was pretty sad
8:45
though by the way seeing the impact on
8:46
the ports and in some ways i was glad
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i'd gone because i saw shop suffering
8:51
tour guide suffering
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just from the lack of visitors and so at
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least you know my custom could help just
8:56
a small bit on board i also saw changes
8:58
some activities were not running at all
9:00
like pool parties cocktail parties where
9:03
there would be groups of mingling
9:04
passengers for example they weren't
9:07
happening uh some of the training
9:09
sessions on computers weren't happening
9:10
there was only one show time in the
9:12
evening there were some changes to the
9:14
itinerary when for example the bb kings
9:16
band disappeared after a couple of
9:17
nights i don't know but i'm assuming
9:19
they perhaps got covered so they were
9:21
kind of cancelled for a while and so
9:23
they brought in a replacement band there
9:25
were definitely fewer activities and
9:27
some people said to me that it wasn't
9:29
the same buzz and choice of activity
9:31
they would normally have wanted
9:33
so that's something to bear in mind now
9:35
i'm fine with that because i tend to
9:37
occupy myself i don't get do lots of
9:39
activities necessarily but it was
9:41
definitely a lower key atmosphere on
9:44
board hanging over us all the time of
9:46
course was the chance that the entire
9:48
cruise was cancelled we saw mine shift
9:50
uh two at a couple of ports and when
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they got to barbados their cruise was
9:53
cancelled because of the number of cases
9:55
on board amongst the crew which meant
9:56
they were short of staff and they also
9:59
exceeded the number on board to allow
10:01
them to go into ports so you've got to
10:03
go knowing that things are going to chop
10:06
and change did it make a worse
10:08
experience it definitely made it a
10:09
different experience
10:10
the experience in the ports was
10:12
different however i still got to go to
10:13
the beach i got to experience the sea
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the sun the sand
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and that was what i was looking for
10:20
however if you're going to go
10:22
for a more party boat experience you
10:24
want to go self exploring you want to go
10:25
to explore markets then you're going to
10:28
be disappointed but for me i did
10:30
actually find it incredibly relaxing so
10:32
i would recommend if a specific
10:34
destination is key you know you want to
10:36
go to some kits or you want to go to and
10:38
do something in a particular port
10:39
there's a specific excursion you want to
10:41
do then do not go on a cruise right now
10:43
because the chance of it not happening
10:46
is there
10:47
if there are certain activities on board
10:48
that you really want to do or a certain
10:50
show you want to see on board or you
10:51
want to be able to play bridge or do the
10:53
crafts again rethink going because they
10:56
may or may not happen if mixing is
10:59
really important to you meeting new
11:00
people again that might be a little bit
11:02
more subdued if you want an experience
11:05
like you used to have then going now and
11:07
for a while it's not going to be quite
11:10
as you would expect and that's really
11:11
important to understand for me i was
11:13
happy i got what i wanted which was to
11:14
get away to have that sunshine sound i
11:16
keep talking about
11:18
so if that's enough for you then you may
11:21
like me be happy you went but it did
11:23
leave me with a third big challenge and
11:25
a big question and one that i would
11:27
recommend you consider carefully before
11:29
making up your mind finally the really
11:31
big issue was did this cruise feel like
11:34
it was good value for money it cost the
11:36
same as cruising before the pandemic and
11:38
then so-called normal cruising time when
11:41
everything was open
11:42
and
11:43
the only disruption chances maybe
11:45
weather would stop us getting into a
11:47
port so small chance of disruption i got
11:50
what i wanted to get away get some rest
11:52
escape european winter i wasn't looking
11:54
for big high-energy stuff on the ship
11:57
i got great service because we had about
12:00
30 40 capacity i got to know the crew
12:02
much more i got to eat good food i got
12:05
to see beautiful sunsets at sea i got to
12:07
be at sea i got to enjoy a great cabin
12:09
that i'm in now i i felt i got good
12:12
value however i can see why many people
12:15
wouldn't feel they had there was no
12:17
discount offered for what we were
12:19
missing
12:20
that's important to understand if you're
12:22
thinking of a in a lifetime cruise or
12:24
the cruise is your only vacation this
12:25
year stop care and think very carefully
12:29
before you decide to go you're going to
12:31
get many of the great things of cruising
12:32
but it's going to be a different and a
12:35
more uncertain experience and you need
12:37
to be prepared to be flexible and roll
12:39
with the way things play out you need to
12:41
understand you could find yourself
12:43
isolated if you test positive or
12:45
quarantined for close contact and you
12:47
need to be comfortable with that was i
12:49
pleased i came absolutely would i do it
12:52
again absolutely in fact at the time of
12:55
recording this towards the end of the
12:56
cruise i'm actually home for just a week
12:59
and then i'm due to cruise again in the
13:01
caribbean on a panama canal cruise on
13:03
oceania and my plan is to still do that
13:06
trip if this has helped or given you
13:08
something to think about why not watch
13:10
this video we'll discuss in more detail
13:12
what it is like cruising with the
13:14
protocols in much more detail including
13:17
if masks get in the way more than you
13:19
may expect see you over there
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