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There are 5 things that I hear about cruising frequently from regular cruisers, cruise sceptics and people interested in cruising but have never been. I explore these 5 things and lay out what the real situation is - good and bad
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TikTok: @garybembridge
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0:00
people believe that these things are
0:02
absolutely true i keep getting them left
0:05
therefore as comments on my channel i
0:07
was asked about them during an interview
0:09
i did on local radio just last month and
0:11
bizarrely they came up in great detail
0:14
at the dinner party i was at this week
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things that people believe they know
0:20
as
0:21
fundamental truths about cruising but
0:23
are they right i'm going to talk about
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whether there's any truth in these
0:27
things if you're new here welcome aboard
0:30
i'm gary bembridge and it's my goal to
0:32
make it fun and easy to discover plan
0:35
and enjoy unforgettable cruise vacations
0:38
before we get into some of the heavier
0:41
topics let's start with one of the
0:43
obvious ones as i'm in my early 60s and
0:45
i cruise a lot
0:47
i possibly prove the long-held belief
0:49
that people have that cruising is for
0:52
newlyweds and the nearly dead
0:55
however clear which is the cruise line
0:57
association
0:58
their data shows that the average age of
1:00
cruising is falling and the average age
1:03
is actually 47 years old globally it's a
1:07
little bit older in places like the uk
1:09
and this is because families with kids
1:12
are now cruising in greater and greater
1:13
numbers now half the cruisers are
1:15
admittedly over the age of 60 and
1:17
they're still a really big part of it
1:18
but we're seeing a shift down in age and
1:21
we're seeing two major cruise types
1:23
reflecting this
1:25
trend in ages first of all there's the
1:27
mass cruising on resort lines many young
1:29
couples groups of friends and families
1:32
use these it includes lines like
1:34
carnival royal caribbean norwegian
1:36
cruise line msc cruises and i guess also
1:39
disney these offer relaxed cruising they
1:42
have many resort attractions for all
1:45
ages
1:46
it could include water parks ice skating
1:48
video arcades go-karting they have a
1:51
huge choice of dining lots of options
1:53
for everybody from fine dining through
1:55
to hamburgers and fast food their
1:57
excursions include active and family
2:00
options
2:01
most have a wide range of cabins for all
2:03
budgets they've got inexpensive inside
2:05
cabins which appeal to people a budget
2:07
or younger people through to big family
2:10
suites they're not strict on dress codes
2:13
and this category appeals to a much more
2:16
youthful crowd and these seem to be a
2:18
big driver if not the main driver in
2:21
bringing the average age of cruising
2:23
down because they're bringing all those
2:25
people into cruising now the second
2:26
category are the premium and the luxury
2:29
cruise lines now these do tend to cater
2:32
much more for traditional cruising
2:34
demographic like me for example so
2:36
you'll mostly find over 50s 60s 70s
2:40
significantly fewer families and younger
2:42
couples they have no or have much
2:44
smaller kids clubs and programs so they
2:47
also don't talk to those people either
2:49
they have a much more traditional cruise
2:51
program so you're going to see quizzes
2:53
enrichment talks cooking demonstrations
2:56
and so on they're much stricter on their
2:58
dress codes the excursions they tend to
3:01
be more cultural
3:02
more kind of perhaps beach chill out
3:04
excursions now the premium lines which
3:07
are in this kind of group include
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princess honda america celebrity
3:12
cunard oceania viking and so on more
3:15
traditional cruise ships they don't have
3:17
resort features you've also then got
3:19
luxury lines that also cater for this
3:21
group seabourn silversea region 7c
3:24
ritz carlton yacht club and i guess
3:25
european lines like ponont and maybe
3:28
tolicitory habergloid now there are some
3:30
exceptions in this premium category
3:32
emerging like virgin voyages which are
3:34
coming into this category but they're
3:36
trying to have a much more youthful
3:38
approach talk to a slightly younger
3:40
audience which may also help bring the
3:41
age of cruising down but also start to
3:43
shift premium cruising into talking to a
3:46
younger audience
3:47
so being for old people is definitely
3:50
overstated it's not a fact in cruising
3:52
and it's changing fast despite what
3:55
people believe
3:57
it's also not for stuffy on
3:58
unadventurous travelers who just want a
4:00
holiday camp style vacation
4:03
well of course i can choose and you can
4:05
choose to do that i personally don't see
4:07
myself as a stuffy an adventurous
4:10
traveler
4:11
for example i've been on expedition
4:12
cruising to the arctic and antarctica
4:15
i've been on a seven week segment of the
4:16
world cruise calling on really out of
4:19
the way unusual places i've been to
4:21
iceland i've been to french polynesia
4:23
i've been right around japan you can
4:26
cruise to incredibly out of the way
4:28
places is not all about a holiday camp
4:30
at sea seeking out the sun
4:33
but this does raise one of the biggest
4:35
beliefs that people have about cruising
4:39
the how cruising happens
4:42
4 000 people on the high seas is my idea
4:46
of a nightmare this is the comment that
4:48
people have about cruising and they
4:50
believe that cruising is all about these
4:52
big massive 4 000 5000 passengers i
4:55
don't want to spend my vacation with
4:57
thousands of people
4:58
and i don't have to
5:00
many people associate cruising with
5:02
those big resort ships that are selling
5:04
out of particularly miami fort
5:06
lauderdale for canaveral heading to the
5:08
caribbean and around parts of the
5:09
mediterranean and they therefore think
5:11
because that's very visual that's what
5:13
they see that that is all there is there
5:15
are around 300 cruise ships in operation
5:18
and those ships are a very small
5:20
percentage of that 300. they're broadly
5:23
speaking about five categories that
5:25
ships are placed in based on size and
5:27
although definitely the trend is to more
5:29
and more big ships by many of the lines
5:32
there are still five categories of ships
5:35
you know there are ships that take under
5:37
800 passengers
5:38
seabourn silversy azamara part of the
5:40
oceana fleet you've got these sort of
5:42
more small mid-sized ships that take 800
5:45
to 1500 crystal viking cruises saga
5:49
you've then got ships that perhaps up to
5:51
2500 passengers that cunard some of the
5:54
whole america fleet some of the
5:55
celebrity fleets have
5:57
and then you finally get to those big
6:00
3500 plus mega ships there's a lot of
6:03
choice of size of ship within those 300
6:06
cruise ships you don't have to cruise
6:08
with thousands of people cruising isn't
6:11
just about big massive ships
6:14
before i cruised i thought this thing
6:17
that people say about cruising was true
6:19
as well the belief that normal people
6:22
are going to feel trapped and bored on a
6:25
cruise ship now let's just look at that
6:27
from a logical perspective first
6:30
we are
6:31
actually not on the ship long enough to
6:33
feel trapped or get bored most cruisers
6:36
are port intensive
6:38
and they spend almost all of the day in
6:40
port so usually a ship gets to port
6:42
around eight o'clock in the morning and
6:45
it stays in port until five o'clock or
6:47
six o'clock in the evening so between 6
6:49
p.m and 8 a.m is the only time you're
6:52
actually going to be on the ship
6:54
and in that limited time you've got a
6:57
sail away party you've got to get ready
6:59
for dinner you're going to go to dinner
7:00
have a big multi-course dinner you're
7:02
then going to go to a show or you're
7:04
going to go and watch some other
7:05
entertainment like live music and then
7:07
you're going to sleep so either cram all
7:08
that into that amount of time there's
7:10
just simply not enough time to feel
7:13
trapped or bored in fact you're more
7:15
likely to as i am when i get off a
7:16
cruise be frustrated because you haven't
7:19
had enough time to do everything on the
7:21
ship ships have so much to do they have
7:24
so many venues so much going on that you
7:27
just physically can't do everything that
7:29
you're going to want to do in the
7:30
limited time you're on the ship
7:33
there's also a strong belief and a
7:35
strong concern that cruising is
7:37
dangerous that people fall off the ship
7:39
all the time and there's a lot of crime
7:41
so let's tackle that falling off a ship
7:44
first
7:45
around 20 to 25 people at most do go
7:49
missing off the ship every year that's
7:51
out of around 29 million passengers that
7:54
cruise every year and bear in mind at
7:57
any point in time there's also around
7:58
300 000 crew on those various cruise
8:01
ships as well
8:02
people who go overboard have either
8:04
jumped off the ship
8:06
or done something foolish like standing
8:08
up or jumping around on the railings
8:10
ships have really high railings
8:12
you can't accidentally slip and fall of
8:14
a ship now sadly people who've gone
8:17
overboard have usually done it
8:19
deliberately
8:20
but what about crime one of the reasons
8:23
it is definitely such a contentious
8:25
topic and many feel it's a hidden
8:27
problem is there is no central global
8:30
database of crime that occurs on a ship
8:33
and there's also concerns around
8:34
jurisdiction and what has to be reported
8:37
and basically the belief that crime is
8:39
underreported on ships there's no police
8:42
force as such on a ship you only have
8:44
security there is by the way
8:46
as a little side a prison it's called a
8:48
brig on cruise ships
8:50
now we can get a sense of the amount of
8:52
crime that happens on a cruise ship
8:54
because
8:55
crimes that happen on sailings on ships
8:57
that originate that are starting or
9:00
ending in the united states they have to
9:01
be reported to the fbi under the cruise
9:05
vessel security and safety act of 2020
9:08
and every single quarter an incident
9:10
report appears on the u.s department of
9:13
transport website and it's split by
9:16
crime including things like homicide
9:18
suspicious death missing people assault
9:22
theft of over ten thousand dollars and
9:24
sexual assault
9:25
the criminologist dr james fox is very
9:27
well known for publishing a study of all
9:30
this data and he basically says that the
9:32
rates of violent crime on cruise ships
9:34
is about 95 percent lower than you're
9:37
going to find in an average u.s city
9:39
i looked at the data on the department
9:41
of transportation website it shows
9:42
around about 30 to 40 reported crimes
9:45
per quarter on those ships selling out
9:47
of the united states
9:48
i can see though that the biggest crime
9:50
that's reported is actual sexual
9:52
assaults this is around 25 or so a
9:54
quarter and it's really important to
9:57
know that cruise ships have extensive
9:59
cctv and every area except cabins and
10:03
private spaces like public restrooms are
10:05
monitored
10:06
so while the level of crime compared to
10:08
the millions travelling
10:10
is still relatively low
10:12
any crime is a traumatic experience and
10:14
it's a reminder
10:16
to not let our guard down on any
10:18
vacation including a cruise
10:21
cruising is not a crime free zone it's a
10:23
low crime zone but it still has crime
10:26
many people fundamentally believe that
10:28
cruise lines are bad for the ocean
10:30
because they dump waste and sewage into
10:33
the sea
10:34
and in fact that used to be the case
10:36
decades ago
10:38
pretty much always did end up in the
10:40
ocean
10:41
but even the current rules for many may
10:45
seem a little bit shocking
10:47
the maple four convention which came out
10:50
in the 2000s it affects all ships not
10:52
just cruise ships and it specifically
10:55
talks about sewage and it says that wait
10:57
for it
10:58
that when a ship is over 12 miles from
11:00
land and cruising at four knots a ship
11:03
can release untreated sewage into the
11:06
ocean
11:07
between three and 12 miles it can only
11:09
release sewage after it's been through
11:10
an approved treatment process and system
11:13
and within three miles of land or less
11:16
than three miles ships can't release
11:17
anything into the ocean
11:21
so theoretically
11:22
cruise ships can release
11:24
untreated sewerage into the ocean once
11:27
they're 12
11:28
miles from land
11:30
now that's pretty scary because when you
11:32
think about the number of ships and the
11:34
amount of people the amount of surges
11:36
that's created it's a lot the u.s
11:38
environmental protection agency they
11:40
estimate for example in a week-long
11:42
cruise of 3 000 people so say 2 000
11:45
passengers a thousand crew 150 000
11:48
gallons of sewage is created that's
11:50
about
11:51
10
11:52
large backyard swimming pools it's an
11:54
enormous amount of sewage that could be
11:56
going into the ocean now the good news
11:58
is the cruise lines do not follow these
12:00
rules
12:01
clear which is the global cruise line
12:03
association and all the lines they've
12:05
agreed slightly different rules which
12:07
all the cruise lines have to follow and
12:09
they've agreed they will only release
12:11
sewage if it's actually been through
12:13
that complex treatment process
12:15
once they're 12 miles out so on cruise
12:17
ships the sewage which is actually known
12:19
as black water it goes through this
12:21
complicated four stage process which
12:23
involves ultraviolet treatments various
12:25
screens and so on and it gets it down to
12:26
a water which is basically compatible
12:28
with the ocean now i was pretty
12:30
skeptical about that until i saw the
12:32
process myself and what gets released
12:34
into the ocean
12:36
the way i did that i went on backstage
12:38
tool you can pay to do those on the
12:39
various cruise lines and i've actually
12:41
made a video with much more details
12:43
about this whole process if you want to
12:44
find out more about this now the
12:46
maritime rules say that other waste
12:49
cannot be released into the ocean so
12:50
ships now have an environmental office
12:52
on board who oversees all of this and
12:55
manages the activities like the
12:56
recycling process you know glass is sort
12:58
of by color it's ground down metal is
13:01
compacted paper is also done the same
13:04
happens to paper and then these are
13:06
offloaded imported they sold to various
13:08
recycling companies so really kind of
13:10
strict rules
13:11
on what
13:12
ships can and can't do if the lines are
13:14
caught breaking any of these rules the
13:16
fines are huge and unfortunately one or
13:19
two lines have been called out and fined
13:21
now if you're skeptical about that again
13:23
i recommend going on one of those behind
13:25
the scene tours and actually see the
13:27
environment process and practice first
13:29
hand also follow friends of the earth
13:31
because they have a cruise line
13:33
environmental scorecard where they track
13:35
cruise ships on how well they perform on
13:37
waste and pollution
13:39
but before you do that
13:41
why not find out what drives cruise
13:44
passengers
13:46
crazy about other cruise passengers by
13:48
watching this video where i'm going to
13:50
start off talking about what causes more
13:53
fights than any other between cruise
13:55
passengers see you over there
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