Last Cruise Q&A of 2025: Live Sunday 30 November: 9am PT/ Noon ET/ 5pm UK

0:10
Well, hello everybody and welcome to what is the final live of 2025. It's a
0:16
bit scary that the year has gone by so fast. Um, and of course
0:26
there we are. So, you didn't hear any of that. What I was saying is welcome to the final Q&A of 2025.
0:35
And uh it's it's scary how fast time has has gone this year. It's just like swung
0:41
by if that's the right terminology. Uh so the reason that this is the last Q&A
0:46
of the year is I'm heading off on Friday. Uh so that's what five or six
0:51
sleeps away. Uh heading off to Sydney, a couple of days in Sydney, catching up with some friends and bits and pieces. Then we're heading on Oceanania Riviera
0:58
with Mark from Sydney all the way to Papieti and 89 cruise and then heading back from Papietti via Los Angeles back
1:05
home. Literally getting back uh on New Year's Eve. Uh so um of course I'll be
1:10
posting when I'm away um particularly on Instagram. So if you follow me on Instagram, I'm Gary Benbridge on
1:17
Instagram. Also the Facebook page tips for travelers. And if you're a patron or channel member, I will be posting kind
1:23
of uh those kind of on cruise updates. Um for those of you who are interested in Patreon, I've got a link there. If
1:30
you have a look at that, patreon.com/tips travelers, it'll tell you all about that there.
1:35
So, just a reminder, write the word question in um with any questions you've got, ideally in capitals. Actually, I
1:42
don't think there's any questions coming in yet, which is interesting for the final Q&A. Um, and uh I was going to
1:48
show you one other thing. Uh, what was I gonna show you? This week's video is out as well. If you haven't seen that, it's
1:54
uh who deserves a crown. So, it's part of the series around uh the different classes of cruising.
2:01
So, I've done one for the mass resort lines uh which was surprisingly not very popular um in relative terms. Then I did
2:09
one on premium cruising. So, Holland America, Princess, Qunard and so on, which was very popular and then the
2:16
ultra luxury one is out. So, if depending on how that does I the one that's missing so far from the kind of
2:21
the collection as it were is the one on small ship luxury. So, that is um the
2:29
the Viking Oceania Asamara and so on. So, I will probably um I will probably
2:36
uh do that uh because I enjoy doing them and certainly I know they help people even if they're not necessary massively
2:41
watched. So, let's have a look. Um not very many questions coming in. So, it's going to make it very easy. I think the
2:46
questions are probably coming in now. So, H is here which is great. Quite a few people uh talking about um it's got
2:53
a lot of snow. So, Paul 11 inches of snow. Jeff cruising for one also saying
2:59
it's very cold. Um, Mark is here, which is great to see from Iran, California.
3:05
Uh, so you're I guess you're still in California, not uh heading off to the Philippines or wherever, which I think
3:11
you might be doing for Christmas. Not 100% sure. Uh, cruising everyone asking, "No, stop Vegas." No, we're not heading via Vegas this time. We're just going
3:17
via LA and heading. So, we decided we're just going to kind of head home afterwards. Um, because I need to get
3:23
ready for the group cruise. So, a couple of weeks once I'm back, I head off on the group cruise. So, I want to make
3:29
sure that um I'm well on top of all of that before we head off. So, let's get stuck into the question. So, uh your
3:36
title has changed, I guess. So, Christian 2 um I am an explorer Venice
3:42
to Athens in May. Nice. They changed Santorini visit to Milos after my
3:48
payment. Not have his Milos equivalent. I doubt it. So, I have not been to Milos. Um, but as you probably know,
3:55
Santorini and the uh Greek government, well the Greek government and Santorini
4:00
placed restrictions on the amount of ships and the number of people that can call there per day, which meant to that
4:05
quite a few lines had to change uh itineraries after
4:11
um they were kind of went on sale. So I haven't been to Milos, but I would be very surprised if it is because Santa is
4:17
is unique. uh you know it's in the caldera you've got the you know uh you've got the two cities on the top the
4:24
two towns on the top of the caldera so it's very unique obviously and it's very iconic um I don't know Milos if anyone's
4:30
been to Milos uh you know maybe you can leave some some comments um in around that um and explore those should be
4:38
should be great uh to experience boys of here good to see you always here always lots of good questions uh considering a
4:45
Nile river cruise on uni world thoughts not interested in biking or amma neither
4:50
appear to be kin to ultra luxury ocean going. Riverside also looks beautiful. So Riverside I don't think operates on
4:56
the Nile. Um but I guess you're probably talking more generally. Riverside does look amazing. Of course, as you probably
5:02
know, those are the old Crystal ships. I haven't been on it. I've met a couple of people. In fact, someone messaged me quite recently who I met on um when I
5:10
was on the Crystal, I think it was. Uh and um they had a great time on Riverside. I would really like to go.
5:16
They do actually do surprisingly considering they're quite expensive, quite a lot of solo deals. I know there's another question a little bit
5:22
later about river cruising. I'll come back to that. So, Boyoka in terms of um Uni World, Uni World, one of the
5:29
challenges with Junal River Cruise is uh most of the ships actually uh kind of
5:34
operated by uh you know, Egyptians and they tend to lean a little bit into kind
5:41
of slightly kichi slash um overly themed. So, I haven't been on New World,
5:48
but um Helen and Rich uh have been with Visit with us, and that ship was very
5:55
blingy, which all Uni World ships are, and quite themed. So, I would strongly encourage you to take a look at their
6:00
video series they did about Uni Worlds. They did they talked to the ship. They said a different four seasons to I did
6:06
on Amway. They said actually what I think is a nicer four seasons is part of Uni World. Certainly, if I was doing it again, I would actually I I know you not
6:13
interested in Viking. I would probably look at Viking. The ships look very nice. more uh contemporary kind of uh
6:19
ships and they do have some unique docking points which avoid some of the sidebyside docking in some places but I
6:26
would probably I would strongly look at Uni Worlds you know they are as you say a great line have a look at Richard and
6:31
Helen's videos because they are you know that overly blingy kind of decor might
6:37
might put you off I I don't know um but you're right in terms of ultra luxury ocean going no uh certainly and on the
6:44
Nile it's not definitely not on the Nile on rivers generally it's not the same um
6:51
you know you're paying top dollar for kind of a more kind of luxury experience but not ultra luxury uh Stein vault
6:59
matching good to see you here I'm actually looking at similar timies for the long term can you explain why you did opt for Oceanania other over ultra
7:06
luxury lines is it just for video is or is oceania objectively better so I'll
7:11
talk a little bit more about that but one of the reasons we chose it to be honest with you was uh Um, the timing
7:17
worked really well. It covered more of the islands that we wanted to go to.
7:23
Um, and I quite like the that class of ships. So, we're going on Riviera. I
7:28
haven't been on Riviera, but been on Marina, which is its sister ship. I quite like that ship. And also, I did want Mark to try Oceanania again. He had
7:37
only been on once on Insignia and wasn't really keen on the small Rclass ships. Um, so he was quite keen to try it. So
7:43
it all sort of worked out just it covered the volume of islands that we want to. Some of the challenges with
7:48
some of the others I looked at is they tend a little bit more to be kind of repositioning cruises. Uh so they tend
7:56
to be beginning end of season and sometimes one of some of them we looked at. So the timing wasn't right because we wanted to do it before Christmas. Um,
8:03
and also, uh, they didn't cover as many islands because they're trying to get the ship as quick as possible from
8:08
Australia to Pability up to Honolulu and onto, uh, the Alaska season or vice
8:14
versa. Whereas this is more of a slightly more leisurely cruise. There's not that many sea days. So, actually, we
8:21
actually because we we have two of the same days because we cross international date line. So, we have two days of the
8:27
same date, both of which are ports, for example. Um, so it was a mixture of things. Um, it wasn't, this is one of
8:34
the trips because this is more of a trip that we're doing with kind of with Mark was less for the video specifically and
8:39
I need to really think through. I do want to uh it will give me some good new B-roll for that small ship comparison
8:45
thing, but um, and a lot of places I haven't been to. So, um, uh, but that
8:51
area of the world is probably not going to be massively popular from a perspective. So, it's more combination of it's something that Mark really
8:56
wanted to do. The timing was right. it was calling a lot of the islands you wanted to go to. Uh so that's that's why
9:01
so it's not necessary that they're better. I I do really like Oceanania. I find pricing also is way more attractive
9:07
of course because there's less inclusions. Also for us with the new Ocean Oan keeps changing their fairs but
9:14
with the current fair they include wine and beer with lunch and dinner. They
9:20
don't include drinks outside but they do include soft drinks and stuff. So, as non drinkers really that works quite
9:27
well. Mark does drink kind of cocktails, but not very many. So, we're going to be buying one or two. And it did also
9:32
include uh gratuitities as well, even though we don't have status. The other big plus, of course, which I'm still
9:39
waiting for, is they do status matching. So, that's going to be quite good. So, the cabin we're going, we get some laundry and bits pieces.
9:46
Marcus heading off to the Philippines. Have a wonderful Christmas. Are you heading off the day after? We did. Um,
9:52
let's have let's have a look. Jeff, received my October 2027 Japan cruise
10:00
quotes from Walter. Great to see that you're working with Walter. He gave me choices including Oceanania, Holland,
10:05
America, Princess, and Silver Sea. Do you recommend Ocean View or Balcony? Okay, so you've got a good spread of of
10:12
there from the premium lines to sort of luxury to ultra luxury uh lines. You've
10:18
got a nice spread there. In reality, uh, Jeff, a lot of it will hinge, uh, you
10:24
know, which of those lines you choose, maybe I'll come back to your question specifically about ocean view or balcony. So, a lot of it hinges
10:30
obviously on your budget and secondly, what you really want to achieve. So, actually having a balcony on a Japan
10:36
cruise doesn't necessarily add a lot because not, you know, you not a lot of, you
10:42
know, sailing scenery. You don't do any scenic sailing as such. Balcony. I love a balcony because um you know I like
10:49
sitting out on the balcony. I love going out when we come into port going out of port but you know obviously with ocean view you can head up onto the the
10:56
balcony or head up onto the deck or whatever. So so it's not for the scenery. It's more if you like a
11:02
balcony. Um and particularly it's you know a lot of those Japan cruises are quite port intensive with not that many
11:08
sea days. So you may find you don't use a balcony a lot. So a lot of it hinges around kind of personal preference.
11:14
Couple of comments on the t on those particular choices. Honda America Princess obviously going to give you
11:20
much more, you know, it's the premium ships. It's going to have more kind of going on uh value-wise better, but as
11:27
you price it up, um with all of these, in fact, all of them don't include
11:32
excursions anymore. Excursions Japan are pretty pricey. So, um, take a look at as
11:39
you're doing your budget, make sure you look at just how costly those are because you're going to want to do a lot of the excursions. Self-exploring is
11:44
easier in Japan than than it was. World span Wi-Fi silver. I know one
11:51
device standard is included. If I want two devices running at the same time, do you know how I can use one free standard
11:56
one primo or must both be premium? Uh so on SilverC the included Wi-Fi uh you are
12:04
obviously limited on what you can do. So you can't uh stream, you can't do video calls, you can't do WhatsApp video
12:10
calling and so on. So um I'm trying to remember now and maybe boys can remember
12:17
this better than I do but um what what I what I found is you know I
12:23
would have because I've got two devices. So I had premium I think with two devices I think if I remember the deal
12:31
because I would I I wouldn't have to always log out but you can do like I was on recently on region silvery is I could
12:38
log in say on my iPad or my computer into the standard Wi-Fi and I could log
12:43
in on my phone on the premium and I could switch them switch those switch those around. Um they don't both have to
12:49
be premium. you can log in. Certainly, that was my experience. Now, Bo, boys of Boka might have
12:56
remember that better because I've never I've always upgraded to to the premium uh premium side. I just want to write
13:03
the word question so I don't miss it because Paul asked a question, but I didn't miss it. What's the best time to cruise? What's the best time to cruise
13:10
with Regent and when do they come the best? If the cruising obviously depends totally, Paul, on where where you're
13:17
going. So obviously, you know, so there's no best time to cruise the region. So it depends which region
13:22
you're in when you're going. In terms of best deals, um the best thing to do with any cruise line is sign up for their
13:29
email newsletters because any deals they will do that. Also follow them on social media.
13:35
So you'll find particularly on Instagram. So if you on Instagram or on Facebook, make sure you interact with
13:41
the you know, follow them. Uh set it so you get notifications, but interact a little bit with cruise content. So any
13:47
of their deals will pop up. So you'll get a lot of deals coming up now with Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Uh also the
13:54
beginning of the year is wave season. So most of the cruise lines will have various stuff then. But often towards
14:01
the end of the quarter they might do various deals. But now is a a pretty good time because all cruise lines
14:06
there's a lot of bookings happening now and the beginning of the year. But follow the email newsletters because things will pop up. Now once you've been
14:13
on region once they also will send you loads of brochers. We get brochers probably it feels like once a week it's
14:19
probably every two weeks which will also talk about deals and so on.
14:24
Patrick is asking the question um around would you say generally you prefer ocean
14:31
cruises to river cruisers? Absolutely I prefer ocean cruises. I do enjoy uh
14:36
river cruises in like I really enjoy the Mikong Nile that we were talking about a little bit earlier. I'm not as big a fan
14:43
of European river cruising as much. Maybe because I know Europe a lot better, but I like ocean cruising
14:48
because there's just more choice. You can actually be a little bit more anonymous if you want to on river cruises, you know, obviously smaller. I
14:55
find I prefer the places they go to, but I do just prefer the degree of choice. I find river cruising a little bit more
15:01
restrictive. It's a little bit more I know people don't like it when I say this, fans of river cruising, but it's a little bit more escorted touring in a
15:09
way. um you are coralled a little bit more just because the nature of of the beast. Uh and I prefer the flexibility
15:15
of ocean cruising uh especially. Um
15:20
Klaus, uh what do you consider the better choice for expedition cruisers, Silver Sea or Seabor? Personally, I
15:26
always gravitate towards Silver Sea. Seabour is great. Uh but Silver Sea, uh
15:31
has been doing true expedition for longer. Uh the problem is they have different types of ships. They have four
15:37
different kind of type of ships. So the experience does differ a little bit based on experience with obviously
15:43
silver being their newest ship and the most advanced but they have very flexible very good expedition team. In
15:50
fact, one of my patrons had been sending me some messages today because they're just back from Antarctica and Ma who was
15:56
the in fact remark uh who was on here earlier I was mentioning earlier he we were on the same Antarctic cruise and
16:02
she was fantastic at going with the flow but someone had messaged me how uh in reality they had uh lots of issues
16:10
initially some weather issues then some mechanical issues and just how proactive they had been to lay on extra things
16:17
exciting extra things and then rejig dig the whole itinerary to get to see as much as possible. Uh the seaborn ships
16:24
are very nice um as well, but I would tend to gravitate personally towards uh
16:29
Silver Sea. Jonathan um asking around 3 days in
16:35
Lisbon pre cruise in late March and recommendations for thing to do in or near Lisbon. So actually Jonathan, I
16:42
actually have a video which I did a long time ago on the channel. So actually if you go to the channel and search little
16:48
searching do Lisbon you'll come up with things to do in Lisbon. Um but uh I've I
16:54
done a lot with on the hop on of of bus because actually takes you to most of the key kind of sites you see takes you
17:00
right up the the hill and I can't remember the guy's name now. Um with lot and um you can also hear all about the
17:06
history around uh kind of revolutionary times and whatnot. There's a very nice river cruise which goes right up past
17:13
that very famous uh statue with the uh famous explorers. Uh there's a very good
17:19
food market. I think it's Timeout food market and stuff like that. So anyone's got better tips. I'm actually in Lisbon
17:24
twice this year precruise. So I probably need to brush up on those. But if anyone's got better tips, uh pop uh
17:30
pop those in. Um Jeffrey Cruising for one. I've been reading recent reviews on MSE settings
17:37
from Miami and hearing that your club is not as good as expected. Do you think this is a trend of lowering standards
17:42
common? Uh Jeff, in reality, I always find what's interesting is
17:50
generally US cruisers are much more negative generally speaking around MSE
17:56
than say European cruisers. So I haven't seen that your club is not as it used to
18:02
be. I think maybe expectations are higher, but also the I think sometimes I
18:08
I wonder, you know, it's incredibly good value. So price-wise, it's nowhere near the price of say the Haven.
18:15
It's absolutely nowhere near the price of the Haven or Norwegian. Even if you go Royal Caribbean, they don't have the same concept, but similar concept. Yach
18:22
Club is way cheaper. Uh way cheaper. So I think some of this is an expectation thing, but certainly I haven't picked
18:28
that up. I'm not sure that it's gone down, but I will kind of follow that a
18:34
little bit more, but uh they normally pretty consistent. Um
18:39
overall, I think the challenge being of course those they they've got bigger and bigger ships sell Miami and of course
18:46
Yach Club's getting bigger and bigger. So that could be part of the challenge is it probably feel maybe feels a little bit less kind of explicit.
18:55
Uh Jeffrey, we're going to Japan in April. So that's nice. That's sort of around the
19:02
blossom time. Is it worth going to Majima Lake? We do not dock at Herro
19:07
Shima. Um I would if you're in Ahsoka overnight, I
19:14
would probably not I would make sure you get into Kyoto and I would do some of the touring of Isaka uh personally, but
19:22
Kyoto is an absolute must. Uh so you can do that on day one and if they do have a quite nice excursion there's quite nice
19:28
stuff around a saka like a saka castle uh which is very interesting. I would probably focus on that personally a
19:35
little bit more kind of on the historical uh historical side. Um oh
19:41
it's loose saying that Richard also did Non Viking preferred them. So that's interesting to know. I actually had
19:46
picked up that's right they did. I forgot about that. Um
19:52
Steve um planning to book a Nile for October
19:58
2028. Do you have any strategies for when to book? Also is enough to see while moving
20:04
that a French balcony or similar is a must. Um strategies in terms of booking. Um it's pretty much the same I would say
20:12
as anything else as we were talking earlier. So, if you've got a couple of lines that you have on your site, uh,
20:19
sign up for email newsletters, even get kind of the brochers. So, I've noticed, for example, like Viking, since we're
20:25
talking about Viking, they they are sold way out in advance. So, um, you know, if you've got a particular line that you're
20:31
really keen on, uh, it's probably worth locking it in earlier rather than later. But look around now, Black Friday, look
20:38
around beginning of the year. And again, sign up for those email newsletters because that will that that is when they
20:43
kind of any deals will come out. I you know in reality what surprises surprised
20:48
me but surprised a lot of people is you actually don't sell for very much when you're on the N. You actually don't
20:54
cover very much distance at all. And so you're morowed a lot. Um and so you
21:01
don't necessarily need to have a balcony. Also uh ships are docked side by side by side by side by side even
21:07
more so than in Europe. So, if you do have the balcony, there's a strong possibility that you got a ship next to
21:12
you a lot of the time. Um, and you normally docked overnight a lot. Um, so
21:19
I had a sort of French balcony, but I actually found just being up top was was was perfectly fine. Um, so, uh, the big
21:27
watch out is, uh, don't make the mistake I did. Also try and get a cabin mid of
21:32
the ship because the the when you're docked overnight and the ship's side by side side back to back to back and the
21:39
engines are very noisy and very fumy and I had terrible terrible noise problems
21:45
whereas people in the middle didn't. So that's probably more of a thing I would be more midship rather than uh anything
21:51
else if you're going to do one particular uh one you know one one
21:56
particular u thing. Um
22:02
Tim, lots of questions on roof cruising today. We will be taking our first river cruise next fall to celebrate my
22:08
brother's retirement. It's a classic Daniel cruise Budapest to Pashau which is Yeah. Right. very classic on Amadeas.
22:14
Uh any thoughts? Um so I would definitely I don't know whether you're
22:20
doing a pre and post day but certainly um you know get spend some time in Budapest. It's possible that you've got
22:26
an overnight in Budapest. you get a chance to explore that. Um uh and I
22:32
would make sure I'm just think there's anything on top of what I would do because your excursions going to be
22:38
included if Amdus gives you a chance to look at the excursions and choice of
22:43
excursions. Uh take a look at the excursions because one of the dangers on river cruise um is it can become a
22:50
little bit syrup. You can end up realizing you're walking around a town and looking at a cathedral. So what you
22:55
might want to do is have a look at Amdus and I've not been on Amadeus so I don't know but have a look at Amdus and have a
23:01
look at what excursions they're offering both the included or optional ones and try and plan it so that you've got a
23:07
nice mixture and it's not all the same thing every day. Now that itinerary normally means you will obviously
23:14
Budapest, you got a chance to go to Bratislava which I'd strongly encourage you to go to Vienna. Um, so just try and
23:21
look at kind of doing some more interesting things so you're not just walking around a small town looking at cathedrals. Uh, probably I I would say
23:30
um 4193, what destination or ship feature are you most anticipating during
23:36
your trip? So uh in in real let me bring this back up again the actual itinerary.
23:43
So I mean I I I love this, you know, I we've been to Bora Borohani Maria twice
23:50
now and I love that part of the world. So I'm looking forward to going back a lot. Now of course we're not going at
23:57
the optimal time because this is sort of more rainy season now. It's hot but and the rain is a little bit unpredictable.
24:03
So it may not be quite as sunny as when we went in in June previous times. I'm really looking at this I'm really
24:10
looking at this kind of area. um here this Apio Suva Vanu Nakula Luofah um I
24:18
don't know a lot about them I've done a little bit of reading about them but um you know they're so remote not visited that much and I'm just really intrigued
24:25
by those places some of the excursions there but I'm actually looking forward to it I love going to Sydney um a lot so
24:32
I'm even looking forward to that um so so that's from the destination perspective so I think it's probably
24:38
everything is probably what I'm saying uh in terms of the ship experience. Um,
24:44
I'm just looking forward I'm looking forward I'm just hoping that I enjoy it as as much as um as as as I did last
24:51
time and I'm also hoping that Mark enjoys it. Generally speaking, food is pretty good on Oceanania. Uh, and you
24:56
have quite a nice range of stuff. So, I'm quite looking forward to seeing that. Um, again, hopefully that that's
25:01
um that kind of lives up to to to expect expectations. Um,
25:08
let's have let's have a look. Oh, I missed one. on the Wuang life. Sorry. Looking to tour Japan is cursing because
25:16
we've been cruising a better option over land touring or should it be a combination of both? Okay. So, a lot of people I do know uh and have spoken to
25:23
some of the people who are on here sort of decided to lean towards land touring.
25:28
I really liked cruising. I really like the cruising to get an a feeling. Now, what I would encourage you to do though
25:34
if you're doing cruising is getting one which covers as almost as much as possible. So, a lot of the cruisers sort of go down that part of Japan. Um, but
25:41
actually you want to go all the way around to see the many of the more remote places, the much more kind of
25:46
diverse. What I would encourage is some pre-state. So, I I I did both of my
25:52
trips to Japan when I spent four days in the next one. I think last time I spent five or six days, which also gave me a
25:58
chance to go on the Shinxen trains, to do day trips like to Nagoya, to go to the Turto Museum. You can actually do a
26:04
day, you know, head down to Kyoto. uh uh you can head up north, but I would
26:09
definitely spend more time like Tokyo, you can easily spend four or five days there at least. So, make sure you you do
26:15
spend it. I think it gives you a really good feel for it. It gets you to lots of places. Um uh but I would kind of not
26:21
just fly in, do the cruise and fly out and make sure you get one that goes all the way all the way around. Uh if you
26:28
possibly possibly can. Um,
26:34
Pat Patrick Phillip, if you could pick three 10-day cruises on different ships or thought
26:42
30-day cruise, save money, would you prefer the long cruise or do you think you bought? I wouldn't get bored on a long cruise. The longest cruise I've
26:47
done is seven weeks. Um, and I wasn't bored at all, but a lot of it is around
26:54
the destination. So, if I was doing a 30-day cruise, in fact, I've got a 30-day cruise. I've got a 30-day cruise.
26:59
I've got two 30-day cruise, I think, booked next year. Let me just have a look. So, yeah, I've got uh two 30-day
27:05
cruises booked now in 2027. I'm just looking at it here. So, for example, I'm doing a What's that? That's That's a
27:11
30-day cruise. In fact, I'm doing a 30-day cruise uh next year, which is uh
27:17
3/4ers of the way around South America. So, I'm going from Buenoseries all the way around uh doing an off ship
27:24
excursion to Machu Picchu, getting back on the ship, heading through Panama Canal, and I'm really looking forward to that. So, the reason I want like that is
27:31
because it's calling on loads and loads of ports. In 27, I'm doing a 30-day trip which goes from Papietti up to Hawaii,
27:37
does around Hawaii, then ends up in Vancouver. Again, it's around there's lots of, you know, choices around uh the
27:43
ports. Then I'm doing another one in 27 where I go all the way from Vancouver, he does Alaska, and then does a massive
27:50
big dive around Tokyo, uh looks at the north, and then does a whole sweep
27:55
around there. So, a lot of it hinges around where I'm going. So, um, it I
28:00
would happily do three 10-day cruises if I was if if each of the destinations was individual. Uh, if that makes sense. Um,
28:09
hope I answer that. KB in the UK, good to see you here. Yosha trip look superb. Hopefully it does. Do any of the resort
28:14
brands do similar one? So, um, there are slight more limitations uh because some
28:20
of those islands, they don't allow ships over say 1,500 or 1,00 something
28:26
passengers to call. So it's more limiting but there are a couple of lines uh lesser resort brand. So there is when
28:32
um the Royal Caribbean repositioned their ship uh which I think is Anthem which they've got there at the moment
28:38
they reposition that and they head back to Papeti. So I did follow some people who did that last year. They don't call
28:44
on nearly as many islands. It's more sea days to get to Papeti where they can dock but they couldn't go to places like
28:50
Bora Bora for example. So again it's more repositioning. What you can do though is um Holland America for example
28:57
has an itinerary which includes again some of those ports and places. Uh in
29:03
fact Hetsy I think might have done some of that as well. So they will call on more of those places. Uh and Princess I
29:08
think as well have an option as well. Holland America has quite an interesting itinerary which goes out um it's quite a
29:15
long itinerary goes I think goes all the way up to Hawaii. It comes down it does Papieti goes through the islands. Um I
29:23
think it's from San Diego to San Diego if I'm real correctly but Holland America Princess Royal Caribbeition so
29:29
it doesn't do many as many of those many of those islands. Um and as I mentioned
29:36
it is pretty much um uh repositioning. Um
29:43
so yes Bo have answered this. If your budget can stretch it and you can afford it I would go for silver sea but I would
29:49
check the itinerary. So the silver I haven't looked recently at the silver sea it in Japan you want to make sure
29:54
that you're calling on a lot of ports but if you can silver sea is fantastic um you know from a budget perspective
30:02
they will be the highest of all obviously it has more inclusions um the the tours will have smaller groups so
30:08
that's a big plus as well so um if your budget constraint I would go silver sea
30:13
my second choice would probably be Oceanania from from from that from from that uh line Um, let's have a look and
30:25
see. H Boys of Booker, thanks. You answered the the you answered most of the question, I think, which is great.
30:30
Thank you. Appreciate that. On the Wi-Fi, John Keys from the US. So, yeah, I
30:36
probably should have said I didn't say that. Did I said last week about Thanksgiving? I think hopefully I did.
30:42
Anyway, uh from the 70s, been on 20 cruises, mostly Royal, Caribbean, and Celebrity, which is also nice because
30:48
you'll have built up uh status in the program. Want to move up to ultra luxury, regent, crystal, no ship within
30:55
a ship. Should we try luxury cross first? Well, John, one of the things I would suggest you look at, you know,
31:00
being on 20 cruises on Royal and Celebrity, you can actually get a status match on uh Silver Sea, which is more
31:06
obviously ultra luxury. So, you might want to look at Silver Sea because you will get potentially more perks. you
31:12
might get some more discount um uh on the fair for example uh depending on what status you are on those you do have
31:18
to apply for status match on on that. So that's is one thing uh to to have a look at within the family for example. Um and
31:26
you might want to keep it in the family because again if you do Silver Sea Silver is a great line. They have some very interesting ships, great
31:32
itineraries. But the advantage is it's going to give you again again with what you do is going to up your status with
31:39
the other line. So if you decide you want to go back to Celebrity, do the ship within the ship the retreat or whatever or whatever you're going to do,
31:44
you're going to get be building more into your kind of bank of perks as it were. Um, so I I would I would um I
31:54
would give it a I would give it if your budget does it. I would do the leap. The danger of course is once you've gone
31:59
ultra luxury, it's very hard to go back. Um, so I would definitely take a look at
32:04
that. I mean, you're right. I've got that video which I mentioned at the beginning where I compare all the ultra luxury lines. So hopefully if you take a
32:11
look at that, um, that they help you decide between between the ones. But my
32:17
gut feeling is really look at silver seed since you're kind of in the family as it were. If you do want to try if you
32:23
do want if you say okay the budget's a bit much I want to kind of do more of a stepping stone. Uh take a look at like
32:29
an Oceanania you've got Vista Allura Marina Riviera. So that's kind of uh
32:34
it's a 1,200 1,250 for Marina Riviera. Allura and
32:40
Vista are 1,200. The advantage is you know it's a slightly bigger ship. You do have more choice of dining restaurants.
32:45
you know, the entertainment, the daily program be a little bit bigger, so it won't be as much of a shock coming from Royal Caribbean in terms of how fewer
32:52
choices of venues and the daily program is. So, that's a good option. Um, obviously you've got Viking, you've got
32:57
Winstar, and you've got uh as a there, but if you were going to go luxury, I would focus more on Oceanani
33:04
because if you're a raw celebrity person, I think you might find Viking a bit too stayed. Um, but but you know, if
33:11
you're saying I don't want to go Silver Sea because I think it's might it's too big. I might be worried there's not enough going on for me. Uh then do take
33:18
a look at Oceanani I would say is is is the best is the next best uh is the next best uh choice. Um I haven't done Easter
33:26
Island boys. I have not done Easter Island. Um and it's it's a place that I
33:32
would like to go to and you're right. I think I've seen the the Seaborn Expitions
33:37
uh program. Um I haven't done it. Um I would I would like to do it definitely.
33:43
Um so Chris mentioning about they booked the higher cabin in the middle as per
33:48
the recommendation. Oh so um so good because that made a huge difference. I didn't do the Jordan post because I did
33:54
I had done Jordan separately a couple of years before that pre just pre- pandemic where I did quite a deep dive a
34:00
landbased Jordan trip. So I'd been to Petra and was it Wadiwadi and all sorts
34:07
of things. It was about a six day five six day you went to the the Dead Sea and so on. So, which was fantastic, but I
34:14
but I didn't I didn't actually do that. Uh, buddy wheels. Um,
34:21
typically what can Sorry, I just want to go get my water. I left it over there
34:27
and I'm back. So, I just need to get a slug of water before I answer this question.
34:37
Typically, what can a cunard queen's club butler do for you over and above a normal cabin steward? And do they expect
34:44
gratuitities? Let me talk about the gratuitity piece first of all. So unlike
34:50
if you're on Norwegian Haven where they make it explicitly clear that the butlers do not get uh tips from the tip
34:59
pool, uh Kunard Queens Grill butlers are included in the tips pool. So if you prepaid, you know, they they either you
35:06
prepay or they do a daily charge for gratuitities. So theoretically, uh they're covered. I found though
35:12
attitudinally, that's the right word, they kind of expect, uh tips, but you
35:18
don't have to give a tip because you have obviously tipped within the within the um within the pool. So what do they
35:24
actually do? Well, a couple of things to do. Obviously, they will they will come and meet you uh on your boarding day and
35:32
they will talk you through the cabin and they'll do a couple of things. First of all, they will sort out your bar for you because what you get on Kunard in
35:39
Queens, you can choose two bottles of liquor. For some reason, they give you these massive one liter bottles. So, you
35:45
know, gins and lures, you know, Bailey's and Contra and whatever. So, they'll
35:50
come and sort out your mini bar and any kind of soft drink things that you want.
35:55
um they will do that. They'll also bring your canopes every evening and if you do room service, it'll be served by the
36:01
butler. So, one of the advantages of having a butler is uh they will deliver the room service order. So, they can
36:08
also do course by course stuff if you want to eat your dinner there. But what I also quite like about room service is
36:14
unlike if you just place an order, you know, put the thing out your door and put between 7:00 and 7:30, it could come
36:19
anytime. You'll generally find if you've got a butler, they will come at the first thing, the 7:00 and whatever and
36:25
it's someone familiar, you know, come into the cabin. They will also do some pressing for you on the first day. They
36:30
will unpack and pack for you, which I've never ever done. Um, they did I mentioned bring gratuit bring canopes
36:37
every night. Um, if you did want to order something like you want a caviar or something for your cannabis, uh, they
36:43
will do that. Um they will also sort out reservations but there's not really many because you don't have lots of
36:48
especially dining and and stuff uh uh like that. What they don't do which you
36:54
say get on the Haven or other things is they don't meet you uh do side and
36:59
escort you to your cabin. You know what what you find on like Haven is you meet in a sort of area and the butlers escort
37:04
you up or if you're in your club the butlers escort you up. They don't escort you to the theater because there's no reserved seating for example. So, they
37:12
will normally be your kind of point person. Um, so if there's anything you want sorted, if you've got a problem in your cabin, they will normally sort it
37:19
quicker and easier than talking to your talking to your cabin steward. Um, do
37:24
they do anything else? What was interesting, I should probably dig it out, is when we went last time, last
37:31
time I was on Queen's Grill, which is on Queen Anne, they had a little uh thing in the room which told you what the
37:37
butler did. I think they should always do that because it's one thing that people don't really know how to do. We don't really use the butlock. So other
37:42
like friends of ours who travel on kin quite a lot, they get their butler to sort out. They will host a cocktail
37:49
party and stuff like that. Um and they get the butler to sort all that out. We I've never done that. I never really
37:55
done that. Um uh
38:02
KB in the UK. If you have Wi-Fi included, would it be a waste to sign up to Gig Sky? I need to make I would I
38:08
would need it to make calls on C days. So, Kevin Ali, no, you shouldn't. Uh, not if you've got a streaming Wi-Fi. Uh,
38:15
so it in most cases it needs to be streaming Wi-Fi uh for most things. Obviously, Gig Sky is you can only you
38:23
can't do normal phone calls, landline phone calls. You you're going to need to do uh over Wi-Fi calls. So, Giga doesn't
38:31
do cold calls calls. I think I'm right in saying that. Um, so you still really want to um either be doing WhatsApp
38:38
calls or if Whoops. or if you're calling landlines, do what I do, which is I used
38:45
I'm looking it up now, but I used to use Skype, which of course is gone, but I
38:50
found a really good other app, which I'm now not going to find here, called YOLA,
38:56
Y L A. So I now use that to do land call. So in when my mom was alive, I
39:02
used to use Skype to call her because she only did landline course. But Yola is very inexpensive. Um and I use that
39:09
now to do landline calls. I've done that from the ship on ship Wi-Fi. Uh which
39:14
has worked really really good. Um Patrick,
39:20
you got into cruising as a hobby and successfully started your YouTube channel. Does it feel like a hobby? So I
39:26
got into cruising uh not so much as a hobby. Um I got into cruising because I
39:31
want because I went well I got into cruising because I was asked to go and talk on a ship on a marketing conference
39:37
and I it was like so many people like I never want to cruise. Then I went on a ship and was like wow this is really
39:42
good and always from a little from a small age I did want to go on Q2. So I decided right I want to do it and so we
39:48
started doing more and more cruising as vacations. Uh, so we used to do a lot of the short Kunard trips or we did kind of
39:55
transatlantics. We did uh Kunard their crossing and Christmas in the Caribbean
40:01
stuff. YouTube was the hobby. That that's probably what you mean anyway. So cruising started as a vacation. YouTube
40:07
channel was just a hobby because I was kind of interested in it. Um, it's absolutely become a job without a shadow
40:13
of a doubt because I will work on it full-time. Um, you know, like, uh, this
40:18
week, you know, I'm starting I'll start working on stuff I need to do on the channel like at 9:00 and I'll work till
40:25
6:00 or something. Obviously, I have breaks and stuff like that. Uh, today, you know, today I most of the day
40:31
working on the channel, uh, you know, um, sorting out videos, writing scripts, uh, working on thumbnails, etc., etc.
40:38
So, it is a full-time job. I work uh, at least five, six days a week full-time on the channel. partly because when I'm
40:45
away um obviously I'm videoing more more downtime going on excursions so when I'm home I work on it full-time so it's
40:51
absolutely a job uh but it's still like a hobby job if you like uh because I'm doing it because I love doing it um
41:00
Jacob I haven't been on Pride America I would like to go on pride of America because I would like to more Hawaii so I
41:06
did have a look at it I have been partly through Hawaii on Kunard Queen Victoria
41:12
but we only called in to two places. Uh, which is why I've actually booked. I did
41:17
look at Pride of America and I had mixed views about it, but I wanted to do it. But getting from here to Hawaii is such
41:24
a long track. Um, because you have to fly, you have to get fly to LA and then of course if you do a cruise, it's six
41:30
days to Hawaii, a couple days in Hawaii, six days back. So there's a lot of downtime. So I decided I needed to kind
41:36
of um, think of that. So that's why I've actually booked for 27. It's part of a repositioning cruise that I mentioned
41:41
earlier if you were here earlier. So, I'm going from Papieti. It's a couple of sea days and then it's doing I think
41:46
it's seven or eight ports in Hawaii. And what's nice is they're on Silver Sea. It's on their small ship Silver uh
41:54
Whisper. Um but uh I I would I would I
41:59
would I'm really looking forward to doing more of Hawaii. So, in terms of I've only I've only been to Honolulu and
42:05
I've been to Maui. So, so I don't have any better uh tips because I haven't done So, if anyone's got better tips,
42:11
please do pop those in. Came in just back from Viking Antarctica, which was fantastic. Um,
42:18
okay. Ken goes cruising. Yes, I I have um I haven't kept as up on it as I
42:24
should have to be honest. Um, but I have heard this the this stuff about
42:30
industrial action and um shifting to I thought it had died down. I haven't seen
42:35
anything in because I track all the different new stuff. I haven't seen that flaring up again. I thought it was more
42:41
in the season. Um but I so I haven't seen it. Um
42:48
I thought it died down. So I will keep an eye on that. So fingers crossed that you that that that you that you get in.
42:55
Um let's have a look. Uh
43:02
Steinv matchin how's the Amazon interest got an explorer interested in uh Manos Brazil to Suan one way it tiny have some
43:09
precruise expirations at Amazon and packing will be challenging so Steinv matchin they don't really have a dress
43:15
code on explorer sort of as such it's very kind of designed to be kind of kind
43:20
of casual I found um it's interesting because it gets quite a lot of European
43:25
uh travelers on and when I was on we're in the M so people that dress relatively kind of
43:31
smart, trendy, but it wasn't particularly dressy. No, I wouldn't worry about that. Um, and you also you
43:37
have the option of going to, you know, the the buffet, the beautiful buffet, the marketplace, um, emporium, uh, in
43:45
the evenings if you don't really want to dress up at all. Um, but it wasn't particularly dressy. And I I think I
43:50
need to double check, but I'm pretty right in saying that there's no real dress code on it, and it wasn't particularly dressy. And in my
43:56
experience on any of these trips which are doing these kind of trips are less likely to be dressy anyway. You know,
44:02
it's interesting that there's a real shift, you know, like in Oceanania regent, you know, you can wear jeans to dinner now on those, you know, then
44:08
they're sort of luxury, ultra luxury lines. You know, jeans are fine. Uh polo shirts are fine. Uh and um like on the
44:16
we do now, I know people wear dress. We're not taking jackets. In fact, Mark's I think taking one long sleeve shirt even I'm taking more because I
44:23
like wearing long sleeve shirts to dinner. Um this is an interesting one. And I hadn't
44:29
really thought about this, but Christopher uh uh Ni House selling
44:34
Princess in February. We have the premier package with premium Wi-Fi. Should we worry about data security while online with the network? So, I
44:41
have never heard of any issues to be honest. I've never worried about it. You
44:47
know, you could if you want to you could I guess use VPNs. They they certainly work on the premium Wi-Fi when I'm there
44:52
because I use VPN when I've been on Princess because I want to stream some local shows to keep it up with. But
44:57
certainly I don't think you need to be worried. I've I've never thought about it to be honest because I've never seen
45:03
anything on that. So, you know, obviously if you're worried about it, I would take kind of more precautions, but
45:08
I've done all sorts of stuff on there and touchwood. It hasn't come back to bite me. And certainly in all the years
45:14
following it, it's never been reported as an issue with people on these on
45:20
there having issues with Starlink Wi-Fi. Um you so no I I think you should be
45:26
relatively uh comfortable uh booked Viking Arctic
45:34
Norway and Iceland for August. Very nice. Have you been on that cruise? Any suggestions? So I I haven't been on the
45:41
Viking Norway to Iceland. I've done Winstar Norway to Iceland. I've actually done Voyage to Antiquity in Norway to
45:47
Iceland. Um and I've done Iceland separately. So um
45:54
and that itinerary is quite a popular com combination. I don't know are you if you're heading out of Edinburgh or where you heading out of for that and you're
46:01
starting in going do Norway and ending in Iceland. The only thing I would s say is you know can be a little bit bumpy
46:08
the sea between sort of Norway and Iceland or the UK to Iceland. So if you worry a little bit about bumpy seas just
46:16
be ready for that whatever precautions you might take for that. Um the the other thing I would say with Viking is
46:22
Viking cruise passengers are very on the ball. So uh depending I release both
46:30
especially dining bookings and excursions bookings based on kind of your your grade of cabin. But what I
46:37
would say uh Kayman is make a note in your diary or whatever you use uh on the
46:44
date and time that bookings open for excursions and open for dining and be
46:50
there when they open if you possibly can. Now, it's quite annoying because sometimes it opens at ridiculous time
46:56
because in the UK it works well for people east coast and Pacific uh time zones but lar. But I've sometimes stayed
47:04
up a little bit if it's not too crazy because Viking people are in there. They're booking the special dining the
47:11
time they're booking the excursions. Uh so you want to make sure that you get those locked in. Um that's the first
47:18
thing or the second thing whatever I said. The third thing um is that also
47:24
you may want to look or may need to look at the added on excursions because uh
47:31
Viking may not do the optimal excursions as included excursions. So for example,
47:37
you want to do things like the Golden Triangle out of Reovic. You want to do Jewels of the North, which those are
47:43
sort of the names of excursions because they they're all day excursions. Uh so they are quite tiring but they take you
47:49
inland to see the keys sites the geysers the big gifos waterfalls the bubbling uh
47:55
sulfur mud pits and so on. You don't want to miss any of those the my mind my land lake and so on. You don't want to
48:01
miss any of those. So take a look at the excursions both included and the adder
48:06
ones and you may find cuz some of the kind of premium excursions you may want to pay for some of the excursions some
48:12
of them uh I don't know if I can do but I did when I was on uh Saga for example
48:18
they did an incredible excursion where you go on these trucks up the glacia there special trucks that drive up glacia really interesting excursions
48:25
that would be that would be the the one of the key one of the key things um that that that I would Okay. Um,
48:35
Sinwell mentioned another question. What would you advise visiting Christmas markets in Dutch, Germany, Belgium or
48:42
Luxembourg? First Asian. Um, as uh Lou said, you know, the Christmas markets on
48:47
the Danube are fantastic. The Christmas markets on the Ryan River cruise are fantastic. I assume you're talking about going on river cruising, but uh you know
48:55
certainly the German Germany is kind of most renowned I guess for um Christmas
49:01
markets. Like in London they'll often do German Christmas markets. They're kind of the I guess they're seen as the a
49:06
team. Uh I've been to quite a few Christmas markets in Belgium both in Brussels and in Bruge they're pretty good but in uh Brussels is really good.
49:13
I haven't been to ones in Luxembourg. Uh the Dutch ones are also pretty good. Uh but certainly you know there's fantastic
49:19
fantastic river cruises there. The Wuang Life asking me are there any cruises
49:26
that you've not done that are on your bucket list? I have loads of cruises u believe it or not. So I don't maybe I
49:33
can bring it up here if it's top of the list. Let's see if I can do that quickly.
49:39
Um, what I do is I have on my phone
49:48
whenever I'm traveling, um, and I go to places and I meet people and discover
49:54
places. I was hoping this was going to come up here. Uh, let's just put it in.
49:59
I I I write a list of of all the um ships places that I want to go. So this
50:07
here I have a list of all the ships that I want to go on, all the destinations that I haven't been that I still want to
50:12
go to and cruise lines that I want to go to. Uh and then lots of trains. So as
50:18
you can see there are loads and loads and loads of places. So in terms of destinations, uh I want to do places
50:24
like I want to go the Ganges, I want to go Mississippi, Hawaii mentioned earlier, I want to do the Great Lakes, I
50:30
want to do the Seuss Canal desperately for that opening. I keep seeing lines advertising that. Um, but I'm not I
50:36
don't want to book a Sus Canal till I know that's happening. Uh, I want to do more Lake Kuriba. The some nice crossy
50:42
Europe trips there. Um, uh, and you know there there's so there's so many more
50:49
place expedition stuff. So there are a lot and and it just keeps growing basically. Mark and Misha Barkaw
50:57
cruises. I like Winstar Cruises. I've got a couple of videos on my channel about Winston Cruises. I have a cruise next year. I have I haven't done their
51:05
um sailing ships yet. So I booked in May to do the sailing ship. It's way overdue. What I like about Windsaw
51:11
cruises, I mean they they're obviously quite small ships about 400 passengers. I remember correctly. Um
51:19
which the old mostly the old Seaborn ships. They're cut and they've now stretched. I've been on three of them
51:24
now. Um they are very laid-back. Uh you know it's very much about the destination. And the people who go on
51:30
there are very focused on the destination. They're about visiting places. You know, the the cabins are pretty nice, the ships are pretty nice,
51:36
the food is pretty nice, the crew pretty good, but it's but some of the you go
51:41
there for a very small ship experience. It's very intimate. Um, you know, it's
51:46
very it's kind of relaxed, laidback. I like Winstar Cruises. They do some great, you know, they're particularly very strong in like French Polynesia. uh
51:55
you know if even in in places like Caribbean and stuff they will try to go to a little bit more unusual ports but
52:02
they're great. I'm really looking forward to doing the the sailing ship uh the sailing ship experience.
52:07
Um let's have a look. Um
52:15
Tom, I'm on Crystal Symphony. I like Crystal Sony Tokyo to Vancouver in June.
52:22
Have you ever done that North Pacific at that time of the year? So question is what to expect weatherwise? So I have
52:30
not done it in June. Um I did it I did in September. So um
52:40
which I did the other way around um because I was doing the end of the season I guess uh heading the the the
52:47
other way. Um, so basically speaking, I mean, the the sort of bearing sea is has
52:54
a reputation for always kind of being a little bit choppy in the middle. So you're going to have a couple of days more than likely will be a little bit
53:00
kind of choppy and incle in inclement. Is that the right word? Um, but I don't
53:05
know specifically in June, but everyone I know whenever I read it, they talk about being a little bit kind of bumpy. The thing that you will find which will
53:12
be uh quite interesting is you're going to have a lot of short days because between Tokyo and Vancouver there's you
53:18
know there's something like a seven or eight hour time difference and you are of course crossing the international
53:24
date line the opposite way to I was doing where we had longer days. So every day we were turning the clocks back for
53:33
eight days in a row pretty much. So we could have had these longer days. So, it was quite nice cuz you'd go to bed and
53:38
it was an hour, you got an hour back as it were, but it did throw people kind of
53:43
um a little bit because you find people waking up really early. So, breakfast
53:48
which opened at 7 or 8 or whatever, there's always loads of people because people waking up at you're going to be losing an hour. So, you you know, you
53:55
might find that kind of a little bit more tiring, but you've got lots of C days to kind of to to relax into that.
54:02
Um so Kathy West they do have some docks just as about that don't think every dock is is is unique but they do have
54:09
some. So certainly I did see that like in Aswan for example they had I could see they had their their own dock
54:15
definitely. I've been asking what categories Had Lloyd Hed Lloyd really fall they really
54:20
more in the sort of the ultra luxury side. So obviously they're the expedition side but certainly Europa 1 Europa 2 are you know just looking at
54:28
the price are sort of in that ultra luxury category. Um what's interesting hypogloid they used to have inspiration
54:34
and expedition which was the international ship and Europa one Europa 2 which I went on which was the
54:40
international then making all of their ships international. So the idea is that um you know Europa one and the other
54:47
expedition ships were basically German speaking only and they're evolving that
54:52
now and I can't remember where they're doing that from but they announced that quite recently. Um so um the you know so
54:59
they really are in that kind of ultra luxury and they definitely try to attract a more international uh audience
55:05
as such. Um, have you cruised New England, Atlantic
55:11
coast of Atlanta on a premium line and if recommendations solo driver? Yes. So, my group cruise that I did uh on uh was
55:18
on Celebrity uh we did that exact trip where we actually uh went out of Boston
55:26
uh went all the way to Quebec and all the way back to Boston. Um, I'm actually doing it again uh on Celebrity, although
55:34
it's part of a more repositioning, setting up New York, doing some of that uh New England coast, but then hitting
55:41
Greenland and ending up in Iceland. So, definitely uh Celebrity did a pretty good job on it. Not that I'm kind of
55:48
going back on it. Um, but Holland America do some very nice trips, uh, very nice roots as well as do Princess.
55:55
But certainly, I was pretty impressed with the celebrity experience. Um, but Holland America looking at I've have I
56:00
had originally in pandemic had it booked on Holland America and they were using their small even smaller ships then
56:06
which kind of appealed to me and they sold their ships to Fred Olson and I never got quite because with Canada as you know were slower in terms of opening
56:13
for cruise cruising again. So um
56:18
it just got lost and I ended up doing celebrity and very nice uh so uh Jeffrey
56:24
saying they did an okay job. Um oh oh sorry solo that was the point. So in terms of solo um the reason to look at
56:32
the reason to look at celebrity kell is they every now and again do these promotions where second person is 70%
56:39
off or 50% off. So I booked now not for my group cruise you don't know which Jeff is referring to but that cruise I'm
56:45
referring to on celebrity silhouette uh I basically got a solo deal effectively
56:50
of 30% because I bought that deal with second person is 70% off but there was
56:56
no second person so I just got 30%. So it's it's an incredibly good price um uh
57:02
really really good a really good price as well. No, this is interesting. Greg
57:07
making the point. Seems to be a rash of cruise ships having propulsion problems. Do you have any insight of what's going on? No, it's very interesting. I thought
57:13
the same as well. So, those haven't picked it up. There's everything from Queen Mary uh Queen Mary 2's had it. Uh
57:18
there was uh there's lots of ships in the Caribbean at the moment are slowing down, cancelling uh departures and so
57:26
on. I don't know what's going on. I know coming out of the pandemic where I did pick it up where there were a lot of
57:31
issues at that time. the longer was because a lot of ships had been in I
57:37
always get what's called wet or dry layup. So kind of all the engines weren't necessarily all running and
57:42
stuff. They were basically ticking over and so when they got back into full service they had lots of issues. But it does seem very strange. Um I don't know
57:50
what's going on but I have seen a lot of it and there doesn't seem to be any commentary certainly in all the the the cruise u trade stuff that I'm picking
57:58
up. They're not talking about a kind of a common theme around it. Um, so no, but
58:03
it I'm definitely something I'm keeping an eye on as well. It does seem uh it does seem kind of interesting that
58:10
there's so much of it, so much going on. Okay, good question, Jeff. I see it's
58:16
been a while since you posted on Blue Sky. What social platforms are you active on now? Um, I probably did what most people did is uh I thought I better
58:23
try Blue Sky uh when everyone got their knickers in a twist about Twitterx.
58:28
Um, and I posted on Blue Sky and I didn't enjoy Blue Sky at all. Um, uh, I
58:34
didn't like the recommendation. I just didn't enjoy time on Blue Sky. Um, and very bizarre recommendations. I kind of
58:40
went back and found X. Just I Everyone talks about X about all this terrible
58:45
stuff on X. I don't get that. I don't get that in my feed. So, I don't know what I'm doing that that I don't get what other people are doing that they
58:51
get all this terrible stuff in their feed. So, I I I I'm I don't post. I'm more of a a reader on X.
58:58
I guess I don't post a lot on X. I'm most active on Instagram. I'm very active on Instagram when I'm on a trip.
59:06
When I'm on a trip, I will post multiple stories per day. So, and normally what happen I know I post a lot because what
59:13
I do on my I'll show you on my Instagram. So, what I do on Instagram is on your Instagram uh profile
59:20
uh why is it doing it's coming up really slowly for somebody. Okay. So on your Instagram profile, you can have all
59:26
these um you can have all these uh like features bits where you I add all the
59:33
stories to for a trip, but you can only put a hundred of those in there. So every trip I go on, I run out of
59:38
hundred. I put more than 100. So every day I'm going to post three, four, five or more stories covering, you know, the
59:45
ship, the food, the excursions, whatever. Um so when I'm on a trip, I'm
59:51
very active. When I'm not on a trip, I don't really post a lot. Um I I don't So
59:56
So I don't post a lot. And Facebook, my tips for travelers is relatively active as well because it it posts across
1:00:02
there. So Instagram is probably where I'm posting the most and Facebook is where I'm posting quite uh quite quite a
1:00:09
lot. Jeffrey asking plans to go on Margaritavville. I don't have any plans at the moment. I it needs to be
1:00:14
synchronized with when I'm in um like Miami or whatever. So, I'm in Miami a couple of times this year, but um it
1:00:21
doesn't work because I'm going the group cruise, but we end in San Diego and I don't want to go before the group cruise because I'll be organized and then going
1:00:27
back to Miami uh later in the year when I get off, but I've been then for a month on a trip and without Mark and I
1:00:34
feel like I need to get home uh for that and then I'm there later in the year, but I actually added on Virgin Voyages.
1:00:40
Brilliant lady. I had a choice. What do I do? I try Margaritavville, but I think a lot of people have covered that
1:00:46
recently. I really want to travel uh update my Virgin Voyages. So, I decided when I hit get to Miami, I'm going to do
1:00:52
Virgin Voyages. So, I don't have any plans um uh as as such. So, uh but I
1:00:59
cover it actually in upcoming video about they are getting really good uh
1:01:04
really good uh reviews and ratings at the moment. Really interesting. They when they first kind of went a service,
1:01:10
they weren't they got very mixed reviews. Now, just people really like them. And I guess they found their right
1:01:15
audience or or something something like that. Right, we have churned through time.
1:01:21
Uh, thanks so much for joining me. So, thanks so much for the incredible questions. As I mentioned, there will be no live stream until January the 4th or
1:01:29
whatever it is when I'm back from the trip. But bullying on Jeff's question, uh, you know, I I will post it on
1:01:36
Instagram. I'll post to patrons. I'll post kind of on cruise updates, videos, and bits and pieces. But if you want to
1:01:42
keep up to date, Instagram is probably the key pace to do that. I do post sometimes sort of in the YouTube feed,
1:01:48
but it gets lost a lot. So, that would be the key thing. Have a look at that video. By the way, um videos coming out
1:01:54
every week while I'm away. They're all scheduled up and line to go. Uh have a great great Christmas. Um hopefully
1:02:00
you're going cruising. H have a great new year and I will see you next year uh
1:02:05
for live stream. Um, but you can follow and keep up with me uh, of course with the videos and with Instagram or
1:02:11
wherever. Take care. Thanks.

Last Cruise Q&A of 2025: Live Sunday 30 November: 9am PT/ Noon ET/ 5pm UK

Gary Bembridge Tips For Travellers

Silversea Silver Muse Cruise Ship Tour and Review : Best Cruise Ship In The World?

Live Cruise Q&A: Sunday 6 October 5pm UK/ Noon ET / 9am PT

Live Cruise Q&A with Port Speaker /Expert: Cruise Ship Karen: Sunday 11 May 5pm UK/ Noon ET / 9am PT

Live Cruise Q&A Back from Explora Journeys. Sunday 20 April 2025 9amPT/ Noon ET/ 5pm UK

LIVE: Cruise Q&A Sunday 30 March 2025: 9am PT / Noon ET / 5pm UK

Airbnb Red Flags - What to Look for in an Apartment Rental

Best Things To Do In Mykonos Greece 2025 4K

Best Things To Do in Santorini Greece 2025 4K

Interview with Michael Shelton - IAAPA COO & Executive VP

Everything YOU NEED TO KNOW Before Visiting Manila 2024

Hong Kong Travel Guide: Everything You Need To Know Visiting Hong Kong

Why Are We Everywhere But Home? The Gen Z Travel Frenzy Explained

10 More European Cities RUINED by Overtourism (and where to go instead)

The View at the Top of Palm Jumeriah Dubai

Koh Tao Ferry and Bus Travel Guide 4K

Up next in 10

Last Cruise Q&A of 2025: Live Sunday 30 November: 9am PT/ Noon ET/ 5pm UK

Gary Bembridge Tips For Travellers