0:00
you're about to discover how the more
0:01
money you have the more difficult
0:04
cruising becomes i discovered this when
0:06
i set off on a little experiment i want
0:08
to find out whether cruising in a suite
0:11
like i am now is so much better than
0:14
cruising say in a balcony cabin that i
0:16
normally cruise in what i uncovered as i
0:19
headed down that experiment was a myriad
0:21
of complications and all sorts of
0:23
problems that people with money when
0:24
they go cruising face that i hadn't
0:26
appreciated it also made me think and
0:30
reappraise totally how i should cruise
0:33
and i think you too may find this
0:35
extremely illuminating if you don't know
0:38
me i'm gary bembridge and my goal is to
0:40
make it fun and easy to discover plan
0:42
and enjoy unforgettable cruise vacations
0:45
to do the test i decided to book myself
0:47
on five different cruise lines in five
0:50
different suites and i booked myself on
0:59
one thing i quickly came to realize is
1:01
that to be a suite it has six
1:04
key physical features now how these
1:06
features are executed and delivered
1:08
across suites differs enormously based
1:11
on the ship and the cruise line and
1:14
which type of suite you're selling in
1:16
the six features are as follows you have
1:18
a seating area you have a dining area
1:21
you have a bedroom area a walk-in
1:24
dressing cupboard area
1:26
you have a bathroom and then you have a
1:29
big extended balcony area the simplest
1:32
version of a suite is like the one that
1:34
i'm in here on regal princess where it
1:36
is effectively just one big room so you
1:38
have seating dining area there you have
1:41
the bedroom over there you have a bit of
1:42
a divider here between the two rooms and
1:44
of course you then have an ensuite
1:46
bathroom here on saga spirit of
1:47
discovery this is perhaps a more common
1:50
version of how sweets are done so
1:52
there's a couple of rooms here so in
1:53
this room you have the seating area then
1:56
behind me you have the dining area that
1:58
then leads through over there into the
2:00
bedroom which then flows onto the
2:03
storage cupboard area which then flows
2:05
into the bathroom and the toilet area
2:07
and then out there is the big extended
2:09
balcony that's kind of the middle
2:11
approach to suites the next is the more
2:13
elevated section where you take what
2:16
you've got here and you basically
2:17
expanded to something much bigger and
2:19
grander so for example when i was on
2:20
viking venus in an explorer suite that
2:22
had the same number of separate rooms
2:24
but they were on a much grander and
2:26
bigger scale so having got my head
2:28
around the six key features that a suite
2:30
would have i started to be able to judge
2:32
a suite on how well or differently they
2:35
executed those six things however there
2:37
was a seventh aspect to the sweet
2:39
experience which i came to appreciate
2:41
and came to value much more through my
2:44
sweet experience and that was around the
2:46
actual overall sweet experience the
2:49
perks and the benefits so that again
2:52
split into three very distinct types the
2:55
first type was very much
2:57
as i experienced when i was here on
2:59
sagas bird of discovery where the sweet
3:01
experience is very much just about
3:03
having a great cabin so having the space
3:06
but there's very few additional perks to
3:08
being in a suite so yes you had a thing
3:10
like a butler service although to be
3:12
honest i never really figured out what
3:15
you had things like the minibar which
3:18
was stocked and restocked but you didn't
3:20
have your own dining room you didn't
3:22
have your own deck area you didn't have
3:23
your own swimming pool you didn't have a
3:25
concierge lounge and that was true on a
3:26
couple of suites that i stayed in so it
3:28
was true on viking venus it was
3:30
trumpiano britannia the second sweet
3:33
experience is one that i really liked
3:34
and i think helps justify anyway the
3:37
premium as you move from a balcony into
3:39
a suite and that's kind of an enhanced
3:41
experience so here on regal princess
3:43
they have a few extra perks and benefits
3:46
so you have a special club class
3:48
entrance into their restaurant and even
3:50
you have to book and they have kind of
3:52
an enhanced menu table service kind of
3:55
preparation of food you also have a
3:57
concierge lounge with a really helpful
3:58
concierge who will book restaurants sort
4:01
problems out and that's a very exclusive
4:03
little area we can have drinks and
4:05
snacks all throughout the day
4:07
so that's how it was done on regal
4:09
princess when i moved on to celebrity
4:11
and celebrity silhouette they enhanced
4:15
yes definitely here on celebrities
4:17
silhouette the whole sweet experience
4:19
had really been elevated to a degree
4:21
that i really liked and they have what
4:23
they call the retreat which is their
4:25
overall suite experience so first of all
4:27
you have obviously your suite that
4:29
you've booked which has your butler or
4:31
they call it your personal retreat host
4:34
then secondly you have your own dining
4:36
room which is called the luminaire which
4:37
is really really quite fancy and rather
4:40
nice and they have its own kitchen
4:42
you then have the retreat lounge which
4:44
is hosted by two concierges who will
4:46
sort out all your kind of arrangements
4:48
and that's open 24 hours so you can have
4:50
that all hours of the day and then you
4:52
have a dedicated retreat deck which here
4:54
on silhouette is on two levels and you
4:57
have a bar you can eat food up there you
4:59
can have snacks you have a hot tub so
5:01
that's a really elevated sweet
5:03
experience and it's one actually of all
5:04
of them that i really really liked
5:06
because you did feel that something was
5:09
very different and elevated so that
5:11
experience the retreat experience is
5:15
suite experience which is
5:17
one that a lot of people really like and
5:19
that's the ship within a ship concept
5:21
where literally all of the suite
5:23
experiences all of the suites are taken
5:25
into a controlled area so on msc cruises
5:28
for example they have the yacht club on
5:30
norwegian cruise lines they have the
5:32
haven so basically behind a kind of a
5:35
past door is you step into a whole world
5:38
which is just for suites so it's a ship
5:40
within a ship and that's an experience
5:42
that i've tried once on msc cruises that
5:44
it is pretty special a lot of the suites
5:46
are actually located in what they see as
5:49
kind of the glitzy showcase locations so
5:51
they tend to be very high up they'll be
5:53
in the front of the ship they'll be the
5:54
back of the ship or they'll even be in
5:56
the case of some overlooking the pool
6:00
however talking to maritime architects
6:03
and designers they argue that many of
6:05
the times suites actually put in the
6:06
wrong place on a ship because they put
6:08
in those locations which could have much
6:10
more movement or could have a lot of
6:12
sound so for example i was once offered
6:14
an upgrade to a sky suite on sky
6:17
princess which i turned down because
6:19
although it's a very glitzy looking
6:20
cabin it's right overlooking the pool
6:23
decks has a great view but then you've
6:24
got the noise of the parties the movies
6:27
under the stars and so on so actually on
6:29
a suite you have to be super careful and
6:32
really cautious about location so one of
6:34
the things i discovered in my sweet
6:35
experiment is that you have to be as
6:38
careful with location as you do with all
6:40
the other grades so don't necessarily
6:42
assume that sweets are actually in the
6:44
best location when it comes to things
6:45
like say vibration or noise so i
6:48
actually chose on pretty much all of my
6:50
cruises mid-ship suites because that in
6:53
my view is the best place to be you have
6:54
the least amount of movement you're also
6:56
kind of equidistant between all of the
6:58
activities on board so that was a really
6:59
interesting one that sweets are given
7:01
what are seen as the prestige locations
7:03
but in my view aren't necessarily the
7:05
best locations so through this rather
7:07
expensive experiment i came to a couple
7:10
of key realizations that i think could
7:12
be really helpful for you and that's
7:14
about what's important when it comes to
7:15
cruising i realize one thing is really
7:17
important i do like to have a decent
7:19
sized cabin but i didn't necessarily get
7:22
completely hung up on the huge amounts
7:24
of space that i had because although i
7:25
do spend a fair bit of time in the cabin
7:28
i don't need all that extra space and
7:31
dining tables and that kind of stuff so
7:33
having a good size cabin was important
7:35
secondly what i realized its location is
7:37
really important i do believe really
7:39
strongly that location is one of the
7:41
most important parts of the whole cruise
7:44
experience so having a cabin in the
7:45
right location is almost better than
7:47
having a suite in a noisy location or a
7:50
location that doesn't really suit you i
7:52
also came to realize though that i like
7:54
the suite experience that has some of
7:55
the other things bundled in so i really
7:57
liked having your own restaurant with
7:58
open seated dining and all the extras
8:01
kind of attention the ability to always
8:03
get a table for one or two or whatever
8:05
you wanted i also really liked those
8:07
that had a very specific deck so if
8:09
you're on particularly busy sailing you
8:11
had a quiet deck that you could go to
8:13
and get away from some kind of the
8:15
and just feel kind of a little bit more
8:17
pampered and special however what i came
8:19
to realize is the most important thing
8:21
of all when it comes to choosing a cabin
8:23
for me was location and secondly being
8:25
able to choose the cabin so not having a
8:28
guaranteed fare was really really
8:30
important to me so coming to that kind
8:31
of realization about the things that are
8:32
important to me hopefully this has also
8:35
helped you decide as you've seen the
8:37
perks and the downsides and the upsides
8:38
of cruising the suite what is important
8:40
to you i'd love to know what you think
8:42
but if you want to know what is the best
8:44
of all of the suites that i stayed in
8:45
why don't you click on this video and
8:47
see what i think is the best suite
8:50
in the world that i've ever cruised in
8:52
so see you over there right now
