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I look at how I manage to cruise so often, and although mine is an unusual situation, all the tips and tricks I discovered and use that any cruiser can use to cruise more or get more cruise out of their budget
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how do you manage to cruise so often are
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you loaded do you get freebies are you
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paying i get asked this often so it's
0:08
time to tell all as along the way i
0:10
discovered things that will help you
0:12
cruise more too or at worst help you get
0:15
more crews for your buck welcome aboard
0:18
i'm gary bembridge finding out how to
0:20
cruise more often began
0:22
10 years ago for me i had chemotherapy
0:25
for cancer in 2012 i've been in
0:27
remission since then several years by
0:29
the way more than my oncologists
0:31
expected knowing that the clock may be
0:34
ticking down made me want to visit the
0:36
places and try all of the cruise lines
0:40
much faster than planned i drop a list
0:42
of all the places itineraries and cruise
0:45
lines that i wanted to try now as i
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looked at my list i quickly realized i
0:49
needed two precious commodities
0:52
time
0:53
and money this is what i did and what i
0:55
learnt along the way i initially got the
0:58
time i needed by retiring from my
1:00
full-time corporate job on a pension but
1:03
i soon discovered that while having more
1:05
time gave me more opportunities to go
1:07
cruising i needed to make my money go
1:10
much further than it was actually able
1:13
to that's when it hit me being more
1:15
flexible is actually much more important
1:17
flexibility drives down the cost of
1:20
cruising whether you have unlimited time
1:22
or like my partner who's still working
1:24
full-time with 25 or so working days of
1:27
vacation this is what we found out the
1:29
more flexible we're willing to be the
1:31
cheaper and or the more frequently we
1:34
could cruise first of all i became
1:36
flexible on cruise line i stopped being
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tied to one cruise line which at the
1:41
time was cunard and i stopped trying to
1:43
move up their loyalty tears i used to
1:45
value perks like priority embarkation
1:47
especially dining added wi-fi minutes
1:50
free laundry and so on by being flexible
1:53
on lines i now always find a fare that
1:57
more than compensates for those loyalty
1:59
perks that you lose sometimes the fare
2:02
actually includes them or it's still
2:04
cheaper even after paying for those lost
2:07
perks you need to decide how flexible
2:09
you can be on this i tend to limit
2:11
myself as i cruise less on big mega ship
2:14
resort lines you know norwegian royal
2:16
caribbean msc and carnival and i'm also
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happy on smaller ships and i'm less of a
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party animal now on those resort lines i
2:22
mentioned a balcony cabin is usually
2:24
around 100 to 200 per person per night
2:27
while premium lions like celebrity
2:29
holland america princess and virgin can
2:32
be twice that cost per night the smaller
2:34
luxury lines that i like even more
2:36
oceania as amara are double that again
2:39
and of course ultra luxury lines like
2:41
seabourn silversy seven times more than
2:43
the resort lines so you need to decide
2:45
how flexible you want to be on lines
2:47
second flexibility means being willing
2:49
to cruise off season or at the start and
2:52
end of the season it's definitely less
2:54
busy it's significantly cheaper than say
2:57
school vacation and key holiday times
3:00
for example caribbean cruises in
3:02
november to early december january and
3:04
february are so much less than other
3:06
times of the year so if you don't have
3:08
kids you already have this flexibility
3:11
to do that thirdly being flexible on how
3:14
far out i plan a cruise this means i'm
3:17
willing and able to travel when lines
3:19
reduce prices to fill their ships this
3:22
happens usually after 90 to 60 days
3:24
before a cruise when final balances for
3:27
bookings are due and the lines know how
3:29
many cabins they still need to sell
3:30
there are two more areas of flexibility
3:33
that i should probably use more than i
3:35
do and these will have a really big
3:38
impact depending on how flexible on
3:40
these you are i like to choose my cabin
3:42
i'm obsessed with avoiding areas of
3:44
potential noise like under the pool deck
3:47
or above the nightclub and things like
3:50
those with interconnecting doors to the
3:51
next cabin stuff like that if i was more
3:53
flexible on cabin location i could book
3:56
a guaranteed cabin which usually is
4:00
cheaper than choosing your own cabin and
4:02
at guaranty cabin means that the cruise
4:04
line allocates your cabin within
4:05
whatever grade you've booked inside
4:08
ocean view they usually do that three to
4:10
four weeks before the cruise i also like
4:12
to cruise in a balcony cabin now if i
4:14
was much more flexible more often on
4:17
cruising on an inside an ocean view or a
4:19
balcony cabin this again would open even
4:22
more opportunities of course because
4:24
when you're chasing fares and roots it
4:26
gives you many more options and flexible
4:28
things to flex i tend to be most
4:30
flexible on costly trips like booking an
4:33
ocean view to go to antarctica on silver
4:35
sea silver cloud for example or when i
4:37
want to upgrade to go on a luxury small
4:39
ship line like windstar on a
4:41
mediterranean cruise where an ocean view
4:43
cabin costs the same as a balcony on a
4:45
much larger line so you have to flex
4:48
there that brings me to the issue of
4:51
money itself here's what i do to make
4:53
each cruise as inexpensive as it can be
4:57
without compromising that much from
5:00
comments on the channel it's assumed i
5:02
mostly go on free cruises or get really
5:06
heavily discounted fares i do get asked
5:08
by cruise lines and i have been on press
5:11
trips in the past but over the last few
5:13
years i have not i much prefer to cruise
5:17
when
5:18
where and on who i have on my actual
5:20
to-do list that i spoke about earlier
5:22
looking back on my last 20 cruises for
5:24
example there was only one where my fare
5:26
was covered by the cruise line that was
5:28
a three night virgin voyages trip out of
5:31
the uk the other 19 i booked through my
5:34
travel agent at the same deals the same
5:36
fares available to you if you've been
5:39
booking those as well while over the
5:41
last few years the growing income i get
5:43
from advertising youtube runs on my
5:45
videos means i can book many more
5:47
cruises i still use the same approach
5:50
when i had to rely only on my corporate
5:53
pension to buy cruises this is what i
5:55
think can really help you first i
5:58
obsessively track promotions and special
6:00
sales events i sign up for email
6:02
newsletters for every single line that i
6:05
would consider cruising on this i found
6:08
is where promotions first appear the
6:10
industry-wide wave season often at the
6:12
start of the year is another great time
6:15
to look for cruises because all of the
6:17
lines are running very competitive deals
6:19
i also look in weekend newspapers
6:22
because this is where cruise lines in
6:23
the uk run lots of deals and i also
6:26
check in at the home page of many cruise
6:28
line sites as often as i can to see if
6:30
there's any promotions i found lots of
6:32
24-hour 48 hour sales often pop up there
6:36
now my travel agent also knows to alert
6:38
me of any deals or upgrade promotions
6:40
that the lines are running particularly
6:42
through agents only because lines often
6:44
give agent only offers for them to sell
6:47
i try and book
6:48
every cruise that i can link to a
6:50
promotion of some kind it might be a
6:52
lower fare upgrades you know you pay for
6:55
an ocean view but you get a balcony or
6:57
those that bundle in drinks wi-fi
6:59
gratuities extra onboard credit any kind
7:01
of promotion i met a couple on my viking
7:04
cruise recently who i found use a
7:06
similar approach they don't cruise as
7:08
much as me because they don't have as
7:09
much time but they have some flexibility
7:12
because they're self-employed they have
7:13
a target price
7:15
per night of around 250 per person so
7:18
quite a good budget but they only want
7:20
to cruise on premium and small luxury
7:22
lines which cost more than that so what
7:24
they do is they track promotions exactly
7:26
as i do and they only then cruise when
7:27
they find promotions slipping into their
7:30
target night range my promotion led
7:32
approach means i need to often book at
7:35
shorter notice and does work much much
7:37
better for the popular cruise regions
7:40
like the caribbean and the mediterranean
7:42
and to a lesser degree i found alaska
7:45
all of these have many many lines
7:47
selling there they all run very similar
7:50
itineraries they all run at the same
7:52
time because each of those regions has a
7:54
set season and so are much more likely
7:56
to have promotions but what about the
7:59
more out of the way and exotic places
8:01
that are on my list or those that don't
8:03
have as many lines sailing there i plan
8:06
ahead for those and i've found the best
8:09
pricing i usually get for those are when
8:11
the itineraries are first launched these
8:14
then i found tend to increase in price
8:17
over time the lines want us to commit
8:19
early often a year to now even two years
8:22
or more ahead and they have office to
8:23
encourage that so i found for those
8:24
itineraries it's better to do that so
8:26
for example i booked a japanese cruise
8:29
way in advance because there's only a
8:31
few lines selling the season is very
8:33
short kind of february to april usually
8:35
and demand for that itinerary is very
8:38
high i can already see prices on that
8:40
itinerary is edging up as they start to
8:43
sell more cabins and the ship starts to
8:45
fill up when i book i always ask what
8:48
happens if the price of this cruise
8:50
changes because once i book a cruise i
8:53
price watch as the cruise gets closer
8:55
and particularly before paying final
8:57
balance i check if the fares for my
8:59
cabin grade have gone down and if they
9:01
have i ask for mine to change often do a
9:05
dummy booking on the cruise line site
9:07
for example but i also set up a fair
9:09
tracker for my crews on either
9:11
cruisewatch.com or
9:13
cruisecritic.com as they send email
9:15
alerts when prices change this has
9:18
helped me to cruise more often as i
9:20
often have had fares reduced got added
9:23
onboard credit or upgrades the most
9:25
dramatic one which i have spoken about
9:27
before is an azamara mediterranean
9:30
cruise with a price of the cruise halved
9:33
i got that back it's enough to book a
9:35
completely
9:37
new cruise i do not spend a lot of money
9:39
on board making the total cost of my
9:42
cruises lower than it probably is for
9:44
many people it's easier for me to do
9:46
that because i don't drink alcohol i do
9:48
a lot of self-exploring rather than
9:50
cruise line excursions i use hop-on
9:53
hop-off buses port guides port talks on
9:55
board and guidebooks to plan
9:57
if destinations are far from the port
9:59
like rome and florence i booked the line
10:02
on your own transfer which is much less
10:05
costly i try to avoid the spa because
10:07
the spa is crazy expensive and also
10:10
shopping on board i do always upgrade
10:12
though the wi-fi because keeping in
10:14
touch with home is really important to
10:16
me particularly if i can do things like
10:17
facetime on the wi-fi because i travel
10:19
so a lot and i want to stay in touch
10:21
with home my weakness is the casino so
10:24
every year i allocate a budget of money
10:26
that i use for that though bizarrely
10:28
since cruising resumed that pot is
10:31
actually ahead because luck so far has
10:32
been on my side how long that lasts for
10:34
i don't know so i do build in kind of my
10:36
special little treat i often book future
10:39
cruises on board because there are
10:41
always at a discounts and the booking
10:44
itself still gets credited and managed
10:46
by my travel agent if you found this
10:48
helpful and want to know which lines i
10:50
think are best in each cruise category
10:53
right now that i recommend you try watch
10:56
this video where i start with the most
10:59
popular
11:00
cruise category of all
11:02
see you over there
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