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When I started cruising, I made many mistakes and on every cruise I go on I see first-time cruisers still making those very same mistakes I did on their first cruising vacation. This list of the 7 most important things every first-time cruise passenger must know and what to do should help!
ABOUT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: If you want to get cruising right, Tips For Travellers makes it easy to plan and have the incredible cruise experiences you dream of every time. All my Tips For Travellers advice, tips and tricks tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 85 cruises I have done to date.
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0:00
when i started cruising i made loads of
0:03
mistakes and it saddens me that when i
0:05
go cruising today i still meet so many
0:08
first-time cruisers making those same
0:10
mistakes that i did that's why i've
0:13
pulled together these seven things that
0:15
anyone think of going on their first
0:18
cruise needs to know to have a fantastic
0:21
first cruise so welcome aboard i'm gary
0:24
bembridge and it's my goal to make it
0:26
fun and easy to discover plan and enjoy
0:29
unforgettable cruise vacations
0:32
i made the mistake of charging off on my
0:35
very first cruise without thinking
0:38
carefully about the right place to go to
0:40
first now luckily i actually stumbled
0:42
into going on a cruise that was right
0:44
unlike people i met on my next cruise
0:46
which was a crossing on queen elizabeth
0:49
2 where they realized the first day into
0:51
a seven day all-sea day trip that they
0:55
found sea days boring and tedious now
0:57
from my experience and talking to happy
0:59
first-time cruises i recommend all
1:02
first-timers stick to one of the three
1:04
most popular cruising regions the
1:06
caribbean the mediterranean and alaska
1:09
they are popular for a reason not only
1:11
do they call on great places but these
1:13
regions and ports are well proven and
1:16
geared up for cruising and the needs of
1:18
cruise passengers including first-timers
1:20
there'll also be a wide range of
1:21
excursions that the lions and the ports
1:23
have found over time are what cruisers
1:25
want to do and enjoy and because these
1:27
regions are so popular all the cruise
1:30
lines are there which means you will
1:31
have lots of choice which
1:34
as i will explain next is very important
1:37
choosing the right cruise line is
1:40
critical get on the right cruise line
1:42
and you'll love it get on the wrong
1:44
cruise line and you'll hate your first
1:46
cruise now my first cruise was on pino
1:49
cruises a line i found too british and
1:52
was like staying at home for a vacation
1:54
i actually wanted to meet much more
1:56
diverse nationalities and experience
1:59
something much more exotic than
2:01
something i was pretty used to and
2:02
familiar with
2:04
i've been on many many cruises where
2:06
people are miserable as they are on the
2:08
wrong line which are just completely
2:11
wrong for them so for example
2:13
a family that loved to party booked
2:16
themselves on a cunard trip that i was
2:18
on out of sydney
2:19
cunard is very formal it's heavy on
2:21
enrichment talks it's not big on
2:23
partying
2:24
i had met another couple on their first
2:26
cruise who didn't want to be with
2:28
families and kids but they actually
2:30
booked themselves on a royal caribbean
2:32
cruise which is often packed full of
2:34
families
2:35
it can be complicated choosing the right
2:38
cruise line as there are just so many
2:40
cruise lines and each one is very
2:42
carefully designed to cater for someone
2:45
different now broadly speaking there are
2:47
four key categories of cruise lines
2:50
the biggest category certainly in terms
2:53
of passengers carried are the mass
2:55
cruise lines which are very resort-like
2:59
these are cruise lines like carnival raw
3:01
caribbean norwegian cruise line and the
3:04
more recent and fast growing msc cruises
3:08
now these tend to be very large ships
3:11
which are actually getting larger and
3:13
larger expect many ships in this
3:15
category to be mega ships carrying over
3:17
3500 passengers or even more they have a
3:21
huge range of cabins ranging from very
3:23
inexpensive inside cabins they could
3:25
cost you under 100 a night out of season
3:28
through to massive and costly suites
3:30
which could cost you eighty thousand
3:33
dollars for a week
3:34
but importantly these lines have lots of
3:37
facilities and lots of choice you'll
3:39
find many entertainment venues big
3:42
production shows on some ships you'll
3:44
even find go-karts and ice skating rinks
3:47
you'll also find a myriad of different
3:50
themed restaurants and bars it's very
3:53
very resort-like and are therefore
3:55
popular with families young couples and
3:58
people that love active busy and
4:00
high-energy resort-like vacations so if
4:03
that's something that appeals to you
4:05
these are the cruise lines you should
4:07
gravitate towards
4:09
the next category of cruise lines is
4:11
what is generally known as premium
4:13
cruise lines these tend to be mid-sized
4:16
to large ships ranging from maybe just
4:18
under 2000 to about 3400 passengers
4:22
this category includes lines like
4:24
princess holland america celebrity
4:28
virgin voyages disney cruise line and
4:31
cunard cruise line
4:33
these lines also offer cabins ranging
4:35
from inside to suites they tend to have
4:38
a more classical cruise experience and
4:40
don't usually have all of those big
4:42
resort features
4:44
they still have a wide choice of
4:46
facilities like number of different
4:48
specialty restaurants lots of bars but
4:51
much much fewer than you'll find on the
4:52
big resort ships these lines
4:55
are more sedate than the resort-like
4:57
ships and the entertainment and
4:59
activities will be geared more to things
5:01
like quizzes talks bingo cooking
5:03
displays movies smaller scale production
5:06
shows but we'll still of course have
5:08
pool parties and other kind of events
5:10
like that
5:11
the next category which is very similar
5:14
in cruise experience to those premium
5:16
lines but just on a much smaller scale
5:19
is the small cruise lines category which
5:22
probably a little bit more luxury than
5:25
the premium lines just because of their
5:26
size so these include lines like oceania
5:30
viking azamara saga cruises and windstar
5:34
they carry between 600 and say 1 200
5:37
passengers this is probably my favorite
5:40
category of all to be honest they of
5:42
course have less choice because they're
5:44
smaller
5:45
they have a traditional cruise
5:46
experience
5:47
and many will still offer though inside
5:50
through to sweet kind of cabin choice
5:53
then there is the ultra luxury or the
5:56
six star category as it's sometimes
5:58
known these are mostly all sweet ships
6:02
often with only 600 or fewer guests they
6:05
have a lot of things included in their
6:06
fares they have a very high passenger to
6:09
crew ratio so very very high on the
6:11
service level and this category includes
6:14
lines like seabourn
6:16
silver sea
6:17
region seven seas the new ritz carlton
6:19
yacht
6:20
panant and hapagloid the european lines
6:23
are also in this category rarely so as
6:25
you can see there is a lot of choice but
6:28
how do you choose which of all of those
6:31
is right for you write a list of what's
6:35
important to you on a vacation so for
6:37
example my partner likes big production
6:40
shows a big casino with lots of gaming
6:42
options a big gym with lots of fitness
6:45
classes to do
6:47
you perhaps want a relaxed dress code
6:49
you want to be adult only you want
6:51
ballroom dancing or late night partying
6:53
or so on so basically decide what's
6:55
really important to you and then use
6:57
that
6:58
to find the cruise line that meets that
7:01
list the closest
7:03
if you're doing the caribbean the
7:04
mediterranean or alaska as i suggest
7:07
your chosen line is almost certainly
7:10
going to be cruising in that region
7:12
but you then have an even more key
7:15
decision once you've decided the cruise
7:17
line that you have to make
7:20
people said to me before my first cruise
7:22
don't worry about your cabin you're not
7:24
going to spend a lot of time in there
7:26
you're going to be out
7:28
enjoying the ship
7:31
i wish i had ignored that advice as the
7:34
cabin i had was above the fitness center
7:37
and we were woken up early every single
7:39
morning with a thumping bass noise of
7:42
the classes which then recurred
7:44
throughout the day and even in the early
7:47
evenings we had that thumping noise
7:49
disturbing us
7:50
i learned on that very first cruise that
7:52
if you have a cabin that is noisy
7:55
or in the wrong location it can badly
7:58
affect or even ruin your trip when it
8:00
comes to booking a cruise you'll be
8:02
given two
8:04
options
8:05
cruise lines will offer you a guaranteed
8:08
fare and this means that you choose a
8:10
specific category inside
8:13
ocean view
8:14
balcony or a suite but you don't get to
8:17
choose a specific cabin they will
8:20
allocate one to you
8:22
you have another option
8:24
where you get to choose your specific
8:27
cabin some cruise lines charge a slight
8:29
premium for that others don't
8:32
i always go with choosing
8:34
my own cabin fare and there's a simple
8:37
rule once you do that that you should
8:39
follow choose a cabin which is
8:40
surrounded by other cabins on all sides
8:43
the left the right above below and also
8:46
opposite you this is going to mean that
8:48
you're less likely to be near a noisy or
8:51
a busy venue or in a high traffic area
8:54
that's likely to cause any kind of
8:56
disturbance
8:57
other than making an error on choosing a
8:59
cabin there is another area that trips
9:02
up many first-time cruises including me
9:05
budgeting
9:06
on my first cruise i was totally shocked
9:10
to find that i spent over half of what
9:13
we paid for the cruise
9:16
once we were on board again
9:18
there were so many extras and so many
9:21
costs we had not thought about or
9:23
budgeted property for when it comes to
9:25
cruising do not focus only on the fare
9:28
that you see advertised focus on the
9:30
concept of door
9:32
to door
9:33
many studies have confirmed by the way
9:35
what i found on that first cruise is
9:37
that cruise passengers will spend
9:38
between
9:39
half and a hundred percent of the fare
9:41
that they've paid once they get on board
9:44
every single cruise line has different
9:46
inclusions and exclusions within their
9:49
fare which makes them more complicated
9:50
and also
9:52
what they do have included an excluded
9:54
keeps changing
9:55
now generally speaking the mass market
9:57
lines have lots of exclusions
10:01
so of course you'll have your meals
10:02
included and the basic entertainment
10:04
included
10:05
but you'll then find there will be lots
10:08
of added items now the key things to
10:10
watch out for and to focus on are
10:12
obviously getting to and from the ship
10:14
but then gratuities
10:16
wi-fi
10:17
drinks
10:18
excursions and speciality dining of
10:21
course you need to think about things
10:22
like the spa or the laundry or the
10:24
casino or or shopping or whatever
10:28
the premium and the small ship lines so
10:30
that's like princess oceania and so on
10:33
they tend to have many extra costs on
10:35
board as well although some of those are
10:37
moving to more all-inclusive fares so
10:39
that's something to look out for if you
10:41
go ultra luxury you're going to find
10:43
that many of those things that i've
10:44
mentioned are already included so when
10:47
looking at your cruise don't just focus
10:49
on the fare and go for the lowest fare
10:51
understand what you're going to have to
10:53
pay
10:54
for
10:55
extra
10:56
i have two other tips though around
10:59
budgeting
11:00
that i think you should think about when
11:01
booking that very first cruise the best
11:04
times to book a cruiser either when
11:06
cruisers first go on sale as this is
11:08
actually when cruise lines tend to have
11:10
fantastic deals and offers because they
11:12
want to sell them early on and the next
11:14
period is within 90 days of a cruise
11:16
departing final balances generally have
11:19
to be paid 90 days before a cruise
11:22
departs so the cruise line at that point
11:24
knows how much capacity they've got left
11:27
and they then work really hard to
11:29
discard and get every single cabin
11:32
filled because cruise lines want to sell
11:34
full because they make all that money
11:36
once we're on board now the other tip
11:38
i've got around budgeting is always
11:40
track your fare because if your fare
11:42
goes down you can go back to the cruise
11:45
line and ask them to reduce that fare
11:48
the cruise lines generally won't come to
11:50
you and tell you that the fare has gone
11:52
down
11:53
i had an email just today as i was
11:55
preparing this from someone on the
11:57
channel who told me that they had got
11:59
800
12:01
off their cruise fare by tracking the
12:03
fare following this advice now they
12:06
attracted on a site called cruise watch
12:08
but there are other sites you can track
12:10
fares pretty easily like on cruise
12:11
critic for example they then called the
12:13
cruise line which was actually norwegian
12:15
cruise line and got eight hundred
12:17
dollars taken off their fare so really
12:19
really key budgeting tip now i mentioned
12:22
excursions is one of the big add-on
12:24
costs so is there any way to cut back
12:26
here
12:27
perhaps
12:28
but with one big watch out which i
12:30
really do need to explain
12:34
on my first cruise as i had lots of
12:36
travel experience i thought i would do
12:38
my own thing in the ports rather than
12:40
book cruise line excursions
12:43
so in our very first port which was
12:44
actually barcelona i headed off and
12:47
started exploring
12:48
but i actually found it all a bit
12:50
stressful because i kept worrying about
12:52
going too far away from the port in case
12:54
i got lost and not having enough time to
12:57
get back to the ship in time for
12:58
departing so i never quite relaxed and
13:00
enjoyed the port and limited what i
13:02
actually ended up doing in barcelona
13:04
which is crazy
13:06
when it comes to excursions for a
13:08
first-time cruise i strongly recommend
13:10
that you stick with as much as possible
13:13
the cruise line excursions certainly for
13:15
that very first cruise that you're doing
13:18
i actually did that for the rest of the
13:20
ports that i did on my first cruise it
13:22
was much more relaxing and i really
13:25
enjoyed all of the ports i did after
13:27
that barcelona one the reason for doing
13:29
cruise line excursions is partly because
13:31
cruise lines have a range always of very
13:34
well proven excursions for each port
13:37
that they've got proven over time but
13:39
much more importantly they guarantee
13:41
that the ship will wait past any
13:43
scheduled departure time if any of their
13:46
excursions are delayed for any reason
13:50
but people who've gone on independent
13:52
tours or perhaps self-explored as we had
13:54
in barcelona they will not wait for you
13:58
if you are late the ship will leave
14:00
without you so as a first time cruiser
14:03
going on a cruise line excursion is a
14:05
great idea because it just gives you
14:07
that sense of reassurance
14:09
now of course as you build up experience
14:12
as you learn how to understand how
14:13
things work then start looking at doing
14:15
your own thing so for your next cruise
14:18
you can then be a little bit more
14:20
adventurous but if you really really
14:22
don't want to go on a cruise line
14:24
excursion
14:25
i recommend using one of the either
14:27
explore on your own transfers into the
14:30
closest town because that counts as an
14:32
excursion it costs very little and they
14:35
will wait for those on your own tours to
14:37
come back or use the hop on hop or fuss
14:40
if one calls into the port now many
14:42
cruise ports have these buses they
14:44
synchronize the timetables with the ship
14:47
schedule and you can normally make sure
14:49
that you know the timing to get back in
14:52
time before the ship departs
14:54
one big watch out for a first-time
14:56
cruiser
14:57
is that we are agreeing lots of things
15:00
that we may not realize the significance
15:03
of when you book a cruise let me explain
15:05
i really realized this when on our first
15:07
cruise one of the ports of core was
15:09
monte carlo it was cancelled on the
15:11
morning
15:12
because the weather made docking or even
15:14
mooring outside and tendering of the
15:16
ship to land just impossible or too
15:18
risky so we just had a sea day there was
15:21
no compensation offered or any other
15:23
gesture was made the cruise contract
15:26
that we agreed to simply by booking a
15:28
cruise line has many many conditions for
15:30
example as i learned we must accept and
15:33
we agree that the line can change the
15:35
itinerary or the portal core basically
15:37
at will
15:38
and we have to accept it without the
15:41
right to compensation or often even the
15:43
ability to cancel a cruise even if a
15:46
port that we really wanted to go to and
15:48
book the trip for is dropped off the
15:50
itinerary
15:52
they also usually have really strict
15:54
cancellation terms which even won't
15:56
allow you to change the name of the
15:57
person you're cruising with so if
15:59
someone drops out and you want to bring
16:00
someone else they count that as a full
16:01
cancellation you need to check that you
16:04
need to take time to understand what
16:06
you're agreeing to
16:07
and look carefully at the terms and
16:09
conditions this
16:11
in my view has become even more
16:13
important because as we saw as cruising
16:16
resumed after the shutdown
16:18
we probably want much more flexibility
16:20
the ability to change or cancel if the
16:22
protocols that the cruise lines are
16:23
putting in place on board change and are
16:26
not to our liking you know sudden or
16:28
constant changes to vaccination rules
16:30
testing masks or whatever and as we move
16:33
forward how that evolves and what the
16:35
protocol is going to be for cruising for
16:37
the here moving forward so we don't
16:39
really know so ask and be clear what
16:42
your options are if you want to change
16:45
or cancel your cruise really understand
16:46
that really really important to find out
16:49
more in-depth tips on each of these
16:51
areas i put together this short playlist
16:53
of five videos starting with how to
16:55
overcome the biggest challenge that
16:57
you'll face when it comes to choosing
16:59
and booking that very first cruise see
17:01
you over there
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