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What is my secret to having problems or issues on a cruise solved successfully? Going to the Front Desk / Guest Relations does not usually get my cruising problem solved, and I discovered (through a combination of by chance and desperation) THE best and most successful way to get cruise issues solved. Discover how you can use this too
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 77 cruises I have done to date.
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TikTok: @garybembridge
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0:00
i'm going to tell you my secret to
0:02
solving problems on a cruise
0:04
that i'm absolutely sure will work for
0:06
you too
0:07
i like things to be spot on when i
0:09
cruise but i suffer
0:10
from one of the biggest problems in the
0:12
world when it comes to complaining
0:14
and that is i'm british whilst we are
0:17
masters at moaning
0:18
certainly amongst ourselves we hate to
0:20
make a fuss and
0:22
actually physically go and complain so i
0:25
tend to suffer in silence and rely
0:27
on that classic british stiff upper lip
0:30
and
0:30
keep calm and carry on mentality even
0:33
when things aren't right
0:34
until i had a stroke of inspiration and
0:36
found the way that gets cruise
0:37
problems solved i'm gary bembridge and
0:40
let's
0:41
go cruise complaining like most of you i
0:44
normally go to the reception the front
0:45
desk the guest relations desk or
0:47
whatever it happens to be called
0:48
on that particular ship when i have a
0:50
problem you know the drill
0:52
usually long lines touchy and pushy
0:54
passages
0:55
they're all having a go at the staff
0:57
behind the desk and basically the staff
0:59
pretty expertly bat away the complaints
1:01
and the issues and nothing really gets
1:02
resolved
1:03
other than really minor issues like a
1:05
wrong charge on my bill or
1:07
perhaps a faulty cruise card i never had
1:09
any substantial problems solved this way
1:11
like a noisy cabin
1:13
sorry there's nothing we can do is the
1:15
usual outcome
1:16
then i hit a really big problem where i
1:19
decided
1:20
i absolutely had to find a way to get
1:23
this problem solved i was on a costa
1:26
cruises trip i was in an ocean view
1:27
cabin
1:28
and i couldn't go to sleep as when we
1:30
started sailing there was a
1:31
constant metal clanging noise i
1:35
just could not envisage going on like
1:37
that for another
1:39
six nights so in the morning i went
1:41
along to front desk
1:42
and after waiting in that line we're all
1:44
familiar with for ages
1:45
all i got was we'll look into it
1:49
nothing happened as usual so i went and
1:52
i bought earplugs
1:53
to try that night but that didn't help i
1:56
even knocked on the next
1:57
cabin to try and find out if they were
1:59
having the same problem
2:00
the problem i had is they didn't speak
2:02
english and they basically just shrugged
2:03
me off and thought i was a little bit
2:04
crazy i stayed awake really
2:08
really late that night until i was
2:09
absolutely so exhausted and eventually i
2:11
did go to sleep
2:12
the cruise was turning into my
2:15
absolute nightmare before i dozed off it
2:18
was about 2 a.m in the morning i
2:19
realized
2:20
i had to find a new way to get this
2:23
fixed and
2:23
it came to me that i couldn't be the
2:26
only one
2:27
who've suffered from this problem in
2:29
this cabin and i began to wonder
2:31
are there dud or are there problem
2:33
cabins on board cruise ships so the crew
2:35
actually know about and if they know
2:38
about it
2:38
is there something that they can and
2:41
will do for me
2:42
because they know it's an issue so i
2:43
decided using my cabot steward
2:46
for my particular cabin could be the way
2:47
to go finding an ally to
2:49
kind of fight my corner and having
2:51
someone on the inside
2:52
could actually be the trick so in the
2:54
morning i got my cabin steward i got him
2:56
to come and
2:57
listen to the noise we were still
2:58
sailing and was before i went to
3:00
breakfast
3:01
he agreed there was a noise there was an
3:03
issue so i basically made it his problem
3:05
and i asked him can you solve this
3:07
problem for me
3:09
went off to breakfast and there was a
3:10
whole whirlwind of action
3:12
he spoke to his deck supervisor who
3:15
checked out the noise
3:16
as i found out and then she escalated to
3:18
the hotel director
3:21
and by the time i returned from
3:22
breakfast i wasn't that
3:24
long away there was actually a call a
3:26
message from the hotel director
3:28
telling me that they were going to move
3:30
my cabin to a different cabin
3:33
my finding an ally in the crew making
3:35
their problem to solve
3:37
and then letting them use the various
3:39
levers they know will work was just so
3:41
much more effective
3:42
than battling with the front desk in
3:46
fact on this cruise they moved me to a
3:47
really fantastic cabin i was moved from
3:49
an ocean view cabin
3:50
into a beautiful balcony cabin and i
3:52
enjoyed a wonderful
3:53
and importantly restful cruise so of
3:56
course the question
3:57
for me after this experience was was
4:00
this a once all fluke or was this
4:02
something much bigger that i had
4:04
stumbled on
4:06
so i resolved basically that if i ever
4:07
had problems on a cruise ship in the
4:09
future i would
4:10
test it out i would try it out and
4:13
here's how it
4:14
actually played out a couple of years
4:16
later i had a similar problem
4:18
with clanking noises these do seem to
4:20
follow me on cruises i discovered when
4:22
i'm in an ocean view cabin
4:23
sort of at the bottom of the ship anyway
4:26
this time it happened on
4:28
an antarctica cruise it was on silver
4:30
sea silver cloud
4:31
from around about four or five o'clock
4:32
in the morning this intermittent
4:34
and consistent clanging happened out of
4:36
the cabin
4:37
and it carried on throughout the day on
4:39
and off until about 6 p.m 7 p.m at night
4:41
so i raised it
4:43
with my kevin butler following what i've
4:44
done before and i asked him to look at
4:46
it and find a solution
4:48
later that day i got a call from the
4:50
hotel director and like on costa i was
4:52
moved
4:53
to another and better cabin and he
4:54
apologized for the noise and the
4:56
inconvenience
4:57
this got me thinking again are there
4:59
known issues on board cruise ships
5:01
that if you do raise those to the crew
5:03
specifically who are working in that
5:05
area they know they're an issue
5:07
and will escalate them quickly and they
5:09
get addressed
5:10
which is unlikely by the front desk who
5:12
won't know that now of course as you've
5:14
gathered i'm very much about having a
5:16
comfortable but
5:17
importantly quiet cabin and about a year
5:19
after that
5:20
silversea cruise i was able to test this
5:23
theory out again this time he was on
5:26
across the europe mekong river cruise
5:27
now during the night and the day
5:29
there was this strong vibration every
5:31
night again underneath my cabin it
5:32
reverberated
5:33
through the bed which kind of woke me up
5:35
during the night i used the same process
5:38
as i had done in those past two cruises
5:40
i spoke to my
5:41
cabin student in the morning who
5:43
immediately said like that oh that's a
5:44
generator
5:45
leave it with him and within less than
5:48
an hour
5:48
the hotel manager called me apologized
5:51
and moved me
5:53
but does this theory that i've got only
5:55
work for cabin issues and i really
5:57
wanted that because it had worked for me
5:58
three times now
6:00
this is what i found out about non-cabin
6:02
issues i tried a very similar approach
6:04
when i was on a cruise line excursion of
6:06
course cruise lines use local
6:08
contractors i was on a
6:09
cycling tour of a piano cruise this time
6:12
the tour guides were terrible they were
6:14
disinterested they rushed us
6:16
they did nothing when a woman fell off a
6:18
bike and we all actually had to help her
6:20
while they just
6:20
rode off ahead they didn't even go the
6:23
full excursion
6:24
time now i know on cruise line
6:26
excursions there's always
6:27
someone from the ship on each of those
6:29
excursions as their kind of ears and
6:31
eyes
6:32
and also importantly they stay in
6:33
contact with the ship if the exclusion
6:35
is running late now normally
6:36
it's someone pretty junior and they
6:38
actually stay anonymous
6:39
on the excursion so many people on
6:41
exclusions have no idea
6:43
that this happens and certainly have no
6:44
idea who that particular person is now
6:46
i'd spotted
6:47
on this cycling excursion that our
6:49
cruise line person was
6:51
one of the dancers so i'd spoken to it
6:53
various times on the tour
6:54
and then at the end and i got it to
6:55
agree there'd been a series of
6:57
issues with the excursion and asked her
6:59
if she would raise it with the excursion
7:01
manager
7:02
now once we're back on the ship in our
7:03
cabin before i even could follow up with
7:05
the excursion manager
7:07
he called me apologized for the issues
7:10
and refunded us for the excursion again
7:13
proving that finding an ally within the
7:15
crew that acknowledges your problem
7:17
and you then ask to solve the problem is
7:19
much much better way
7:20
than dealing with it straight head-on
7:22
with the front desk
7:24
interestingly we also found out from
7:26
talking to others that have been on the
7:27
excursion
7:28
that they're not being contacted nor
7:30
refunded for their excursion so again
7:32
proving the importance of this process
7:35
by being friendly polite respectful to
7:37
the crew that i come into contact with
7:39
all the time when i ask for help they're
7:42
interested
7:43
and increasingly vested in solving it
7:45
because they know that i'm not being
7:47
kind of overly demanding i'm not trying
7:48
to just push my luck and get some sort
7:50
of freebie
7:51
they become vested in my problem and
7:53
importantly
7:54
they know the levers and who to talk to
7:58
behind the scenes to solve my problem
8:01
this
8:01
much smarter way of solving problems on
8:04
any cruise i've got
8:05
has meant that my kind of ingrained
8:07
british reticent to complain is kind of
8:08
kept intact
8:10
but it works for me it's worth trying
8:12
the next time you have a problem on the
8:13
cruise
8:14
don't you think i'd love to hear how you
8:16
get on if you want
8:17
more smart cruise tips that most cruise
8:19
passengers don't know about like this
8:20
one i've created this short playlist
8:22
here
8:23
for you to watch enjoy
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